Who should have stayed, instead of going to WCW

[flyonthewall2983]

I see this in two perspectives. People Vince should have kept, against who should have stayed. The first one is probably less arguable, but if there’s anybody who embodies both of these statements it’s Bret Hart.

But I’m thinking more along the lines of who should have been kept during the lean years of the early-middle 90’s when it was revolving doors in Stamford in the middle of the heat being brought on by Washington. 

I personally think that even more than Hogan, they needed Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund during that time. Their replacements but one had a clear disconnect to the wrestling business. The exception to this was Jerry Lawler, who was only ever made better by someone firmly in the first camp maybe to this day, Jim Ross. 

[JRH]

I get the feeling that Gene and Bobby were let go since they wanted a "younger" look for their announcers, and those two did look kind of "old".

[C.S.]

Davey Boy Smith is the obvious answer since the Warrior trapdoor debacle ultimately got him hooked on the painkillers that cost him his life.

The reverse of this question: Terry Taylor never should have left the NWA/WCW, and Owen Hart jumping to WCW when Bret, Bulldog, and Anvil did would have saved his life.

[sek69]

42 minutes ago, JRH said:

I get the feeling that Gene and Bobby were let go since they wanted a "younger" look for their announcers, and those two did look kind of "old".

Yes, Vince always had a thing about the announcers looking too old. Its why he never wanted to go back to doing commentary other than that one-off he did with Jesse . He never seemed to care that the younger folks who he put in their place were a detriment to the business because they had little to no knowledge of wrestling. 

27 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The reverse of this question: Terry Taylor never should have left the NWA/WCW, and Owen Hart jumping to WCW when Bret, Bulldog, and Anvil did would have saved his life.

Going to the WWF pretty much ended Terry Taylor's in ring career but it got him a behind the scenes job that continues to this day so it ended up working out for him eventually. 

[DMJ]

Not a WWE guy, but a recent thread on Reddit made me wonder what could've happened to Perry Saturn had he left WCW sometime in 99' and returned to ECW.

He was very much a guy that, back then, the "smart"/nascent "internet" fans enjoyed. Cool moves. Cool look. Him having matches that resulted in wearing a dress hurt his credibility and the "aura" he had as a silent killer in Raven's Flock. 

I feel like his career would've gone differently had he returned to ECW at some point in 99' or instead of being one of the Radicals (January 2000). It would've been very on-brand for ECW to have him make a return on one of their PPVs, tear apart a dress (to signify that the "old" Perry Saturn was back) and then get in the face of Taz or RVD or Sabu or whoever. There may have been "You Sold Out" chants, sure, but you can either play into that and have him as a heel or you can do something like have him save Tommy Dreamer to get him over as a returning hero who got sick of WCW's bullshit. I trust that Heyman, at the time, would've made it work in some way. 

Saturn vs. RVD, Saturn vs. Sabu, Saturn vs. Taz, Saturn vs. Tajiri, Saturn vs. New Jack, Saturn vs. Lance Storm, Saturn vs. Candido, Saturn vs. Mike Awesome...it's not like you have to think too hard to envision what he'd bring to the table in that landscape. And if he stays in ECW through 2000, I don't see how he's not booked to be ECW World Champion. 

I still don't think Vince ever "got" Saturn or saw him as worthy of a push, but coming in as his own man, having been ECW World Champion, might've led to at least an initial push similar to what Taz received as compared to Saturn sorta just instantly delegated to the lower card as the "lesser" of the Radicals. In the end, his career kinda went the way his career was likely to go, but I do think if Heyman had been guiding the Saturn character post-WCW, as opposed to Vince, he could've achieved more and not ended up doing comedy stuff with a mop. 

[JRH]

Mike Awesome definitely should have stayed in ECW. Sure, they still would have gone under, but without the baggage of the comedic WCW gimmicks he had, he could have at least have had a better reputation as a power guy who also had surprising agility, as he was, he was damaged goods and never went anywhere in the WWF. Going back even farther, even though he was successful in WCW, Hacksaw Duggan would have been better in more of an ambassador role for WWF, only wrestling occasionally, being a hype man for shows (the guy could capture an audience pretty well), doing commentary, working backstage, etc. Maybe Lex Luger's superpatriot gimmick would have worked better if he had some loose alliance with Duggan, maybe even doing some pass the torch thing.