Who should have come along at a different time or place?

[cheapshot]

Umaga would of been so great in 80s WWF.

[DR Ackermann]

Henry as UWF champ sounds a lot more plausible. Big hoss feud with Dr. Death.

[DR Ackermann]

Imagine after UWF folds, Henry transitioning to Japan just as he's entering his prime

[Grimmas]

Imagine after UWF folds, Henry transitioning to Japan just as he's entering his prime

Imagine Henry in Dr. Death's role in AJPW!!!!

 

How awesome would Kawada-Henry, Misawa-Henry and Kobashi-Henry be?

[rzombie1988]

 

Imagine after UWF folds, Henry transitioning to Japan just as he's entering his prime

Imagine Henry in Dr. Death's role in AJPW!!!!

 

How awesome would Kawada-Henry, Misawa-Henry and Kobashi-Henry be?

 

Not half as awesome as Dr. Death's run?

[BillThompson]

I don't know man, I'm inclined to agree with Grimmas' fantasy booking. I loved Dr. Death during that run, and at other points in his career, but Mark Henry in that time and place wrestling at his very best would be on another level from what Dr. Death was able to do and would bring a far different dynamic that I personally would fine more interesting.

[Downend2005]

I think Rusev would have made a great opponent for Hulk Hogan in 80's WWF.

 

Also Cesaro would have been awesome as a member of the Dangerous Alliance in 1992 WCW... Imagine a team of Cesaro and Arn Anderson for example, or teaming with Rude, and opponents like Sting, Steamboat, Pillman, the Steiners, Windham, Dustin...

[PhilTLL]

 

I don't know if they should, but I would be curious to see what a Benoit/Eddy would have done had they debuted in the late 90's along with Punk, DB and Joe.

Bit of chicken and the egg here, as Benoit and Eddy among others played such a big role in culturing the "young workrate fan" generation that those later three made it big on (and were members of).

[Mr. Lacelle]

Konnan should have come around back in the 60s. Not a lot of footage from the 60s exists.

[Bierschwale]

Chris Masters in Crockett seems too easy, but... yeah. Also, because Cesaro was brought up, a Cesaro/Masters babyface hoss team is my current "why isn't this happening at this very moment" idea. If we put them in early WCW, I'm definitely thinking of them and Barry/Dustin having the most nuanced version of the Luger/Sting-Steiners match ever.

[JerryvonKramer]

Also Cesaro would have been awesome as a member of the Dangerous Alliance in 1992 WCW... Imagine a team of Cesaro and Arn Anderson for example, or teaming with Rude, and opponents like Sting, Steamboat, Pillman, the Steiners, Windham, Dustin...

I don't like this at all.

[Al]

Henry in the '80s could've ended up in the King Kong Bundy role at Wrestlemania 2.

[tofu_chipmunk]

It would have been interesting to see what Ted Petty in his prime could have done in the 21st century Indy environment as opposed to the 1980s-early 1990s one he was in.

[Johnny Sorrow]

 

Also Cesaro would have been awesome as a member of the Dangerous Alliance in 1992 WCW... Imagine a team of Cesaro and Arn Anderson for example, or teaming with Rude, and opponents like Sting, Steamboat, Pillman, the Steiners, Windham, Dustin...

I don't like this at all.

 

Cesaro would have fit in perfectly with the DA.

[clintthecrippler]

Imagine after UWF folds, Henry transitioning to Japan just as he's entering his prime

 

Dammit, now I'm picturing Mark Henry as the guy who gets the nod from Inoki to be Big Van Vader.

 

Not that what we didn't end up with wasn't awesome, but picturing Mark Henry in the Vader gimmick against Fujinami and Muta in NJPW, and then Sting, Dustin, and Cactus Jack in WCW still could have been fun.

[topropepodcast]

I kind of feel like Dustin Rhodes was really about 5 years too late, and the Goldust persona was about 5 years too early, if that makes any sense at all.

[JaymeFuture]

Some excellent suggestions in this thread - the podcast on this subject is now up, as we take your suggestions and discuss wrestlers throughout history that may have done better in a different time or place. Featuring speculative discussion on Superstar Billy Graham, Randy Savage, Brian Pillman, Raven, JYD, Jerry Lawler, Bobby Lashley, CM Punk, Goldberg, Cesaro, Jack Swagger, DDP and many many more. This show was a lot of fun, check it out and as always, let me know what you think.

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/fz2keq/SCGRadio23-WrestlersInTheWrongTimeAndPlace.mp3

[Indikator]

 

here's something a bit outside the box: most black wrestlers prior to the 80s. they tended to be pigeonholed into stereotypical gimmicks (even more so than since), and i can't help but be a bit suspicious of the fact that almost all of them got stuck with the "bad worker" label. we definitely have video evidence of that for some of these guys, but somehow i have a hard time believing that every single black wrestler who ever drew money in the territories was basically konnan.

This. Jack Claybourne, Luther Lindsay, Samara Seelie, Bearcat Wright, Bobo Brazil.

 

 

Was anyone of those guys other than Bobo percieved as a bad wrestler? Maybe Yohe can be the judge on Bearcat.

 

After receiving the new Vance Nevada update I went through +1500 results pages from the 1950s and managed to find quite a number of "new" Tunney shows (Hamilton, London) and it was really interesting to see how Tunney pushed them. As there isn't much pre-1950 available it's possible that Claybourne preceded him but I think that Bobo in 1951 totally blew up there. A short while later you had Lindsay and Claybourne being quite successful as a tag team. And a couple of years later Bearcat was pushed as well. And it does make sense as Waldo Von Erich once remarked that he had to turn heel as Whipper Billy Watson was the white face and likely tried to keep it that way. So he teamed a lot with those guys and Prince Maiava & Suni War Cloud (I found a show that might incline that Ilio DiPaolo was a successful draw there!). Whipper might have been lucky that strongman Doug Hepburn didn't really adapt to wrestling... or not if you consider that he had a stake in the promotion.

 

In similar fashion it was neat to see how the nazi gimmick blew up and how they made everyone a nazi. Has a single match of the Fritz von Erich & Karl von Schober(g) team survived on tape?

[W2BTD]

Red Bastien came about four decades too soon.

 

Dean Ambrose would have been a huge territory guy, but it's not like he's having any trouble doing well now.

 

The Fantastics worked a modern indie tag pace in the 80's.

 

Chris Kanyon was about ten years early. Indie crowds would have eaten his style up, and from there maybe his career & his life end up much better.

 

I've always thought Dolph Zigger would have been a workhorse type in JCP, either as a good looking babyface or big bumping heel, or both. I think he would have been a massive star.

[funkdoc]

Chris Kanyon was about ten years early. Indie crowds would have eaten his style up, and from there maybe his career & his life end up much better.

 

ooh, i like this one! having a career in the indies would be a pretty big step down from WCW on the surface, but being more accepted for who he is would have to outweigh that in the long run i imagine.

 

also, for everyone, good call on mid-south re: mark henry. silly of me to forget about cowboy bill in that discussion!