List wrestlers that shoud've made it

[edisraw]

By made it I mean have significantly better careers then they did.

Val Venis- I honestly believe if he wasn't slapped with the porn star gimmick and had something with a little more variant on it he could've went further and at least contend for a spot in the main event scene.

Bastion Booger AKA Mike Shaw- If he was picked up in his prime before the whole bastion booger incident i.e. in the 80's he could've easily been an earthquake or a king kong bundy.

Roadkill- Probably the most underrated big men ever, he still has time i assume but considering his best style is high impact slams and suplexs and splashes etc etc and that doesn't fit WWE's nitche, not to mention his boy type i doubt he'll flirt with anything past the lower midcard if he is ever picked up again.


Plenty more post your own and i'll post more of mine later.

[The Tank]

Kaos.............okay, I can barely type that with a straight face.

Seriously? Kanyon. Total f***in' package. I don't understand how he never got to main event.

[edisraw]

Sept 14, 2008 20:25:14 GMT -5 The Tank said:

Kaos.............okay, I can barely type that with a straight face.

Seriously? Kanyon. Total f***in' package. I don't understand how he never got to main event.

Yea thats a good one and considering he as so close to being at the top of the WCW ladder he just neer quite made it, russo went the DDP route instead.

[Professor Chaos]

Brian Pillman. Had he stayed alive and healthy I think he'd have been a huge star in the attitude era.

[Joe Neglia]

Crowbar/Devon Storm. The guy was just big enough he could work with heavyweights in a credible manner and small enough to work with cruisers the same, and if he had to could work hardcore. He should have been huge, and I still think he would have if he wasn't fired from WCW a few weeks before McMahon bought them out. If he was one of the ones that came with the buyout, I think he'd still be going strong today.

[Mayonnaise]

Sean O'Haire is the one that always come to my mind. He had the look and skills to make it but, it just didn't happen.

[Jake, The Jake, Jake]

Raven. Top of the f***ing company in ECW. Goes to WCW and gets fairly close to the main event, only to be told that he couldn't draw and didn't deserve to be there. Back in ECW during its dying days. Then gets a piss poor run in the WWE before heading to TNA to be in the Upper card when no one knew about the company.

Should've had title runs in both of the big two during his time there.

[Ultimo Chocula]

I will never understand why nothing ever happened with Stevie Richards. The guy could put over any gimmick, not just oblivious doofball, and he could work with anyone not named Chris Masters.

An un-Mountie Jacques Rougeau would've made a great heel champ.

[Zombie Pig]

Tully Blanchard and Marty Jannetty.

[WWE Trademarked My Name]

Sept 14, 2008 22:02:50 GMT -5 Ultimo Chocula said:

I will never understand why nothing ever happened with Stevie Richards. The guy could put over any gimmick, not just oblivious doofball, and he could work with anyone not named Chris Masters.

An un-Mountie Jacques Rougeau would've made a great heel champ.

Tomko says hello:

I never understood why Bam Bam Bigelow or Matt Morgan never made it in the WWE. I feel as though Elijah Burke will be added to this list in the future.

[tmc1982]

Kerry Von Erich should've most definitely, had a much better career had it not been for the drugs. Kerry had a great physique and look (I heard that Kevin Sullivan compared Kerry's appearance to that of Cochise, the great Indian warrior), was a second generation wrestler, and a natural charisma and energy (he wasn't necessarily the best mic worker in the world, but he still was able to connect with the fans). He could've been like a Ricky Steamboat kind of athletic, main event babyface.

When Kerry won the NWA World Title from Ric Flair, that could've or should've been the dawning of a new era. Flair was sort of passing the torch just like Harley Race did for him. Instead, it came off as a token two week title run (since the change occurred at the memorial event in Texas Stadium for David, Kerry's brother) due to the NWA not trusting Kerry's reliability.

And then of course, he gets into that motorcycle wreck, which lead to his foot getting amputated. He was never considered to be the same effective wrestler from then on.

Even when he went over to the WWF as the Texas Tornado, he was fairly over. When he won the Intercontinental Belt from Curt Hennig, that may have been sort of an indicitor that if he stayed on the straight and narrow, Kerry over time, could be in running to take over for the Hogans, Savages, and Warriors of the world as the top guys in the WWF (a la "The New Generation").

[Ultimo Chocula]

Sept 14, 2008 22:58:32 GMT -5 WWE Trademarked My Name said:

Sept 14, 2008 22:02:50 GMT -5 Ultimo Chocula said:

I will never understand why nothing ever happened with Stevie Richards. The guy could put over any gimmick, not just oblivious doofball, and he could work with anyone not named Chris Masters.

An un-Mountie Jacques Rougeau would've made a great heel champ.

Tomko says hello:

I never understood why Bam Bam Bigelow or Matt Morgan never made it in the WWE. I feel as though Elijah Burke will be added to this list in the future.

I stand corrected. Tomko sucks the life out of everything.

[bob]

Pillman, Tomko, Owen, Sean O'Haire, Stevie, Jannetty, and Kanyon

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

Sept 14, 2008 23:07:43 GMT -5 Ultimo Chocula said:

Sept 14, 2008 22:58:32 GMT -5 WWE Trademarked My Name said:

Tomko says hello:

I never understood why Bam Bam Bigelow or Matt Morgan never made it in the WWE. I feel as though Elijah Burke will be added to this list in the future.

I stand corrected. Tomko sucks the life out of everything.

I suppose I'll have to agree with you based on Tomkos 04 work.

[The OP]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say John Heidenreich.

Sure, he was given a shot at the big time, but being paired with Animal in the new LOD killed his WWE career. I can see why it seemed like a good oppurtunity on paper, but he was actually getting over with his poems and his "friends", and then he became Animal's generic big guy partner.

I think he was pushed a little too soon, he was too green for his spot, but I think he had a lot of potential and I'd love to see him get another shot with one of the bigger companies.

[Aceorton]

Savio Vega. Great worker, lots of charisma. He was developing into a pretty big deal in '96 when he was feuding with Goldust and Austin, and then it just sort of went away. He got folded into the Nation, and he never rose beyond the "guy in a stable" level after that.

Also, Paul Diamond. Go back and watch the HBK vs. Max Moon match on one of the first Raws. It's outstanding. I'm surprised he didn't end up getting over in ECW somehow and then making the transition back to the WWF or WCW as a bigger star, much like Al Snow.

[Cyno]

Didn't Heidenreich request his release because of Hurricane Katrina affecting his family? I don't think his career would've really gone places had that not happened, but I'm pretty sure WWE didn't release him because he wasn't really going anywhere.

["Nature Boy" Ric Moranis]

Sept 14, 2008 23:00:02 GMT -5 tmc1982 said:

When Kerry won the NWA World Title from Ric Flair, that could've or should've been the dawning of a new era. Flair was sort of passing the torch just like Harley Race did for him. Instead, it came off as a token two week title run (since the change occurred at the memorial event in Texas Stadium for David, Kerry's brother) due to the NWA not trusting Kerry's reliability.

No. Flair wasn't "passing the torch" in his NWA title reign to Kerry Von Erich. KVE wound up taking David Von Erich's "turn" as NWA World Champ to help satisfy the live "house" at the WCCW "Parade of Champions" show in front of 30,000 at Texas Stadium. NWA gave Kerry the belt as a courtesy, since it was a pretty special scenario (a memorial show, for his recently deceased brother, in front of 30,000 people in a football stadium.)

David Von Erich would've been NWA champ if he hadn't died...because he was a better worker than Ted DiBiase & Barry Windham (DVE had less charisma than DiBiase, on par with Windham & DiBiase as a worker, and better in many ways). DVE was maybe a traveling NWA champ (to Mid-Atlantic, WTBS, Florida, Missouri, Mid-South) during the mid-to-late 1980s...but that NWA belt was Flair's for the 1980s, just like it was Race's for the years before that.

At the time, the only thing that Kerry Von Erich missed out on was the 1983 urban legend that Vince K. McMahon, Jr. had a few different ideas for the "NEW WWF World Champ" that would lead the WWF into its 1980s National Expansion into MTV, cartoons, and buying up every local promoter's TV time...

Those candidates were Jimmy Snuka (Vince's first choice, but he was insane, so he messed that up), AWA's Hulk Hogan, the NWA/JCP's Ric Flair as the "modern day Gorgeous George" heel champ, and Kerry Von Erich (because he was ripped, a wrestling magazine superstar, and could be re-packaged into a future WWF action-figure looking-like superhero to sell toys to kids, which was part of Vince's plan.)

Hogan was the only logical choice for that role, as Kerry Von Erich would've been made by Vince into "Sampson Von Winner' or something stupid as a babyface WWF world champ, and when compared to Hulk Hogan, Kerry was a worse worker (although KVE was far more athletic), and KVE's interviews were abysmal...some of the worst you'll ever see.

[x]

Sept 14, 2008 20:27:17 GMT -5 Professor Chaos said:

Brian Pillman. Had he stayed alive and healthy I think he'd have been a huge star in the attitude era.

Depends on when you think the Attitude Era starts. He'd have been in WCW in December 97. Then he'd have been lost in the shuffle.

[The OP]

Sept 15, 2008 1:14:53 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Didn't Heidenreich request his release because of Hurricane Katrina affecting his family? I don't think his career would've really gone places had that not happened, but I'm pretty sure WWE didn't release him because he wasn't really going anywhere.

I think that was the story at the time. He did a shoot interview sometime after that though where he talked about other problems, including backstage issues with Animal and Bob Holly.