How did Paul Roma end up in the Horsemen???

[CultofPersonality]

Paul Roma from what I remember was nothing more than a lower midcard performer when he was in the World Wrestling Federation and although I didn't watch every week I can't remember him doing anything of any significance in WCW either so how did he end up being made a member of the four Horsemen? 

How was he introduced into the stable? Was It during a specific storyline? & was he involved in any decent angles or matches during his time in WCW and the Horsemen? 

Baffles me that such a random, lower end of the card guy was in the stable so if anyone can explain it I'll be extremely grateful. 

[Shark]

That was one of those times where WCW forced Flair and Arn to induct Roma. They show the segment on the Horsemen DVD and Flair takes like 2 minutes to finally introduce Roma, like he felt if he waited, something would happen to stop it.

[Honeybear Lyder]

In his book Flair mentions that he suspected that Dusty Rhodes, who was a booker and not very fond on Flair at that time, brought Roma in and stuck him in the Horsemen to screw with him.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

They had been hyping the return of the original Four Horsemen. Things with Blanchard fell through, and they continued to hype the return of the original group right up to the introduction of the segment.

This left Flair to have to go out there and basically say, "Windham's being a problem, and Tully's not here."

He then had to try to sell Paul Roma as a big deal.

[The Thread Barbi]

Because he's sexy?

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

I'd kinda throw Roma in with Jinder Mahal.

In that, while unlikely, their big pushes COULD have worked, if it wasn't them specifically because they had a huge reputation as a loser.

Roma was a good looking guy, not too bad in the ring. Charisma was a problem but there's a possibility he could have worked.

Except it was Paul Roma, the guy who was getting his ass kicked on national TV for years.

[The Sam]

What if he had come in with the Power & Glory t shirt/sunglasses combo look? Would WCW still be in business today?

[BrodietheSlayer]

Mar 29, 2018 10:44:16 GMT -5 Futureraven: Beelzebruv said:

I'd kinda throw Roma in with Jinder Mahal.

In that, while unlikely, their big pushes COULD have worked, if it wasn't them specifically because they had a huge reputation as a loser.

Roma was a good looking guy, not too bad in the ring. Charisma was a problem but there's a possibility he could have worked.

Except it was Paul Roma, the guy who was getting his ass kicked on national TV for years.

Y'know, I think had they (The Horsemen) been heels. It might have worked, as Roma would have functioned better as the "cocky young heel" getting the bump by being in an Elite group of heels.


But they were faces....yeah, only an All Star Team would have worked there.

[Joe Neglia]

On paper and from an outsider's perspective, Roma wasn't that bad a choice. To the best of my knowledge, he was the first WWF "in-house" production, having had his first match in a WWF ring and working nowhere else since. Sorta the Bluechipper That Time Forgot. And his stock showed promise of gains. He went from a directionless JTTS to a mildly-successful tag team to a much more successful (but not THAT successful) tag team. Definitely had talent.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

He would have been fine if they'd built him up as a rising star to remove the taint of his jobber spell from peoples minds first, but going straight into the horsemen killed him quicker than you can say Erik Watts.

[SmashTV]

There was some decent talent in the heel division in Rude, Pillman and Austin, but Rude was always better on his own, Pillman and Austin were already teaming as The Hollywood Blondes so I don't know who else could have been chosen. Turn Dustin Rhodes heel, maybe?

That said, I don't think anyone expected Roma to be the new Horseman. Hell, I don't think anyone expected a WCW semi push for Paul Roma full stop.

[Deleted]

I don't think Dusty was trying to sabotage Flair, they probably just thought he had a lot of exposure with WWF and would be a good fit

[Slingshot Suplay]

Roma was a good choice, but he was miscast as a face when he played a much better douche heel. He showed a lot of flash as a heel with power and glory, and was obnoxious enough to get heat if they would have had the horsemen as heels.

It also didn't help that they falsely advertised the original horsemen reunion and then include Roma.

It also didn't help that there were only 3 horsemen during that run.

If they would have scouted him on TV and selected him instead of just saying "here is your new horseman " he might have been better received.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Mar 30, 2018 9:03:19 GMT -5 Slingshot Suplay said:

Roma was a good choice, but he was miscast as a face when he played a much better douche heel. He showed a lot of flash as a heel with power and glory, and was obnoxious enough to get heat if they would have had the horsemen as heels.

It also didn't help that they falsely advertised the original horsemen reunion and then include Roma.

It also didn't help that there were only 3 horsemen during that run.

If they would have scouted him on TV and selected him instead of just saying "here is your new horseman " he might have been better received.

Or even had some kind of actual role for him in the group, besides "the other one".

He's a natural heel, make him gradually try to get the Horsemen to go back to their rule breaking roots. He takes cheap shots, interferes etc. while Arn and Ric say that's not they way they do things now.

Then down the line, you can either have him kicked out of the group, grabbing a partner and coming for revenge or set up the Horsemen setting up someone, probably Sting, and turning heel to beat them down like the old days.

[MolotovMocktail]

Mar 30, 2018 9:03:19 GMT -5 Slingshot Suplay said:

Roma was a good choice, but he was miscast as a face when he played a much better douche heel. He showed a lot of flash as a heel with power and glory, and was obnoxious enough to get heat if they would have had the horsemen as heels.

It also didn't help that they falsely advertised the original horsemen reunion and then include Roma.

It also didn't help that there were only 3 horsemen during that run.

If they would have scouted him on TV and selected him instead of just saying "here is your new horseman " he might have been better received.

An even bigger problem than Roma at this time was Ole. He only showed up for that one appearance and left again. And assuming he actually stayed, and put his issues with Flair aside, he was way past his prime and couldn't go in the ring, and there was nothing else he could bring except a nostalgia pop.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Cornette blames Jim Herd effectively trying to f*** with Flair. That Herd did the most bizarre thing ever that wasn't done before or since, he upheld another company's drug suspension so Blanchard didn't returned to the company. That left a spot open.

Then a short time later we got the worst horseman ever.

The best diss of all time was in the Horsemen DVD, and Triple H was a fan at the time and he said that they were building up the moment to unveil the newest horseman and when Roman appeared, Trips went "That's the job guy from wwe?".

[Squirrel Master]

Actually Paul Roma was a solid hand in the ring and worked well with the Horsemen. It's just that he couldn't shake off the WWF Jobber stink... he should have been Flair's protege, with vignettes to introduce him properly as Ric Flair is seen teaching him the ways.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Roma is a perfect example of why hotshotting rarely pays off in wrestling. Debuting him as a Horseman would be like reforming The Shield with Zack Ryder instead of Ambrose.

If they'd spent 6-12 months building Roma up, letting him get some momentum, it could have worked.