Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[C.S.]

15 minutes ago, Loss said:

Ric Flair was never going to be Ric Flair working for Vince. He'd get a push and be a guy at the top, but he'd never be Ric Flair. We have proof of that.

Sure, but that doesn't preclude something like Hogan vs. Flair at WM6, with Hogan winning it back at SummerSlam or WrestleMania 7. That alone would prevent the rise of the Warrior and shift so many other future developments.

I'm not saying it's preferable to losing Flair's epic 1989 in WCW - of course not - but it's still fun to think about.

[sek69]

IMO Vince would never put Flair in a WM main event with Hogan in any timeline, guy spent the prior 5 years hammering it to his fanbase that WWF was the only promotion that existed. Putting Flair in a position like that would fly in the face of that, and frankly everything we've ever seen or heard about Vince would dictate he's just that stubborn to never do it just for that reason alone.  Look how quickly the nixed plans for them doing a program after like one match in LA, it just seemed like he was itching for any reason he could find to not do it. He wanted Flair because he was the centerpiece of the only company he couldn't just steamroll, and just wanted him as a trophy like he did everyone else's top guys.

[WingedEagle]

So the WWF Title was vacated following The Main Event on 2/5/1988 with the twin Hebners angle.  The initial bracket for Mania 4 that was released on the following Prime Time and hyped for at least a few weeks would've seen Savage and Dibiase meet in the tourney semifinals.  It wasn't until the 3/8/1988 Prime Time that the bracket was revised and Dibiase was moved to the Andre/Hogan half of the bracket to set his path to the finals with a bye.  

Was there any talk about original plans other than a Savage/Dibiase final that were scrapped and forced a reshuffling or was this simply a lack of attention to details?

[Ricky Jackson]

Flair in 1988 WWF has always been difficult for me to visualize booking wise. The road to Hogan vs Savage was already well underway, or was at least the plan for Mania V, by Summerslam. So what would Flair do right away? Maybe feud with Savage in the spot Bad News had? Feud with Hogan instead of Bossman? Presumably he would've dropped the NWA strap before coming over unlike in 91, so he wouldn't be working a counter-world champ gimmick. Would he have been paired with Heenan? Would he have been associated with Arn and Tully? He just doesn't seem to fit in 1988-89 WWF, at least as someone who would get a run with the belt. But who knows, maybe he would've had a better run than he did years later. He could've still won a Rumble, unless they were dead set on Studd winning in 89. So many questions 

[MoS]

Flair would have been treated like he was purely a gimmick in 1988 WWF. Everyone was a gimmick there at that point: Dibiase was the million dollar man, Hennig was Mr Perfect. Flair would have been Nature Boy, a colourful gimmick, which would have been a huge injustice to him because Ric Flair, for better or for worse, was not a gimmick. It really was him. And I don't think he would have ever been allowed to get over that aspect on WWF TV. When he did jump, Hogan in one of the promos basically said that some people were thinking the match was a big deal but it actually was not. He would have been treated like another colourful villanous character for Hogan to overcome. 

On the plus side, I don't think Vince would have humiliated him the way he did Dusty, but that's because Flair, while not young anymore, was still at his peak. Not a big plus but at least there is that. 

[El-P]

Flair in WWF in 88 ? Jobs to Hogan if he's lucky, then IC champ and feud with Beefcake.

[ohtani's jacket]

The ceiling for Flair in 1988 is Ted's spot. Maybe we get a feud with Savage five years earlier and a bunch of promos with Flair calling Andre big man. 

[TheDuke]

Maybe Flair would replace Andre in the Mega Bucks,

[gordi]

Flair & DiBiase as a team really could have been pretty great. It's not hard to imagine some nice matches with Strike Force and The Islanders. Maybe make a new face team from any two of Steamboat, Duggan, and Roberts for them to feud with? Form a group with the Brainbusters in '89 or maybe turn the Megabucks face for an amazing feud? Then maybe the Megabucks explode and Flair forms a heel group with the Brainbusters and, say, Valentine and/or Perfect? Feud them with a face faction of The Rockers, Ronnie Garvin, and face DiBiase? Follow that up with IC title feuds vs Martel or Santana or Steamboat if he could be convinced to stick around. Another turn one way or the other could set up a Flair vs Perfect feud...

That sounds pretty good to me.

[Loss]

I don't even so much see it as a flaw that Flair would have that type of ceiling in the WWF. It was a different audience. He came from a company where fans liked heels, appreciated the long matches on top, and came for the action more than they came for the stars, even if they had their stars. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

I was a huge NWA fan at the time and it wasn't because the matches were better there. It was the characters like Flair, Dusty, Magnum, Nikita, the R n R, Jimmy Valiant, etc. Oh, and the blood.

[Loss]

Blood happens in matches.

[MoS]

If he had been allowed to cut his usual promos I think he would have broken through. From anecdotal experience, lifetime WWF fans don't remember much of his WWF run but they remember With a tear in my eye. 

[gordi]

On 4/25/2020 at 5:11 PM, Dav'oh said:

 

The thing that I always noticed most about Steve Dr. Death Williams was the size of his trunks - they are humungous. It's like he's wearing a small tent. I recently watched some latter Kobashi matches (for better or worse) for the first time, and noticed he had impressively large trunks, too. Not really a question, but outside of your giant-types, I believe Steve Williams had the biggest trunks in wrestling

 

 

Is this the MOST trunks ever in one tag match?

 

[Dav'oh]

2 hours ago, gordi said:

Is this the MOST trunks ever in one tag match?

Holy grails, Batman! Thanks for that. This might be my new fetish, chasing down XXXXL trunks instead of ***** matches 

[sek69]

So WWE announced they're making a arcade style video game instead of another WWE 2K game. Considering Legends of Wrestlemania was a fun (if largely overlooked) game of the same style, I'm all in for this as long as it's not a complete flaming trash pile like WWE 2K20 game. 

[Migs]

Thinking about Flair in the WWF in '88...

I'm assuming he ends up with Heenan (and thus with Tully and Arn). So my guess would be that he roughly follows the feuds of Heenan's Family.

Survivor Series '88 - Heenan's main guys work against a team led by Duggan and Jake. Either of those guys would have made reasonable first feuds for Flair in the fall - upper tier babyface who weren't Hogan or Savage.

Rumble '89 - Rude works with Warrior - could they have slotted Flair into that slot? Otherwise he goes into the Rumble. (It also occurs to me he probably ends up having a TV match with Harley in this time line.)

Road to Wrestlemania - Maybe they do Flair-Hogan instead of Hogan going around the horn with Bossman again?

Wrestlemania V - I'm guessing Flair works either Warrior or Jake here. I could easily see him in the Rude slot, getting put over but also shown his place in the pecking order as IC Champ.

Summerslam '89 - Maybe a rematch with Warrior; he also could have been in the Savage slot potentially to set up a fall run with Hogan. 

After that, I'd assume he'd work with Piper. I also think it's doubtful this changes the overall arc of the WWF - Vince wanted to give it a try with Warrior and I'd bet Wrestlemania 6 ends up in exactly the same place it did before. 

It also strikes me that unless he ends up getting matches with Savage before his turn, the babyface depth chart just doesn't have the workers for him to have memorable matches (although him working with Warrior could be legendary broomstick matches). Maybe there's some great six mans with him/Tully/Arn against, say, the Rockers/Tito or Demolition/Duggan? But the match trade of Flair's theoretical best '89 in the WWF vs. his actual '89 is a brutal mismatch.

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

So WWE announced they're making a arcade style video game instead of another WWE 2K game. Considering Legends of Wrestlemania was a fun (if largely overlooked) game of the same style, I'm all in for this as long as it's not a complete flaming trash pile like WWE 2K20 game. 

It reminds me more of WWE All-Stars, which I also really liked.

BTW, someone needs to remind Big Swole that she's not a nobody indy rassler anymore. If I'm Tony Khan and I see her simultaneously promoting and trashing the competition's game, I'm chewing her out for being a fucking idiot.

 

[CarpetCrawler]

Joel Deaton suffered a massive stroke and his family started a GoFundMe because they need help with his medical bills and recovery so I figured I'd drop the link in here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/joel-deaton

[Matt D]

What was "North Georgia Wrestling Alliance" and why was Dusty booking it in 1991? 

[joeg]

So I dunno how everybody else has been doing during quarantine, but I've been watching a lot of wrestling. Like hours a day. I've also been at my mother's place like almost every day. Fast forward. I'm at my mother's place and watching some old Ring of Honor on my laptop while procrastinating from doing real work for my job and this conversation happened. 

 Mom "Is that Ring of Honor?"

Me "Yep" 

Mom "What was his name, that nice young man, Robbie Something, he ran those shows you boys went to when you were in middle school. He was such a nice young man and so good to you boys, always giving you those video tapes and t shirts and things."

Me "Yeah, his name was Rob"

Mom "Whatever happened to him, you boys ever hear from him?" 

Me "Not in a long time, he's had some legal trouble."

So yeah my mother vividly remembers Rob Feinstein as the nice young man who would come up to my friends and I when were were about 14 or soand give us free merchandise when she took us to wrestling shows. 

 

[Loss]

That post is an amazing story.

[C.S.]

6 minutes ago, joeg said:

So yeah my mother remembers Rob Feinstein as the nice young man who would come up to my friends and I when were were about 14 or so give us free merchandise when she took us to wrestling shows. 

WOWWW!  Did you have the heart to break it to her about "nice, sweet Robbie"? 

[joeg]

I did not elaborate on legal troubles. 

[Cowboy Hats 4.0]

An incredible story. Thank you.