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Post by moonpies88 on Apr 7, 2021 13:02:42 GMT -5
Let's say in 97 RVD leaves ECW and goes to either WCW or WWF
Who do you think he has more success with?
I can't see him going anywhere in WCW due to NWO storyline
Likely would have been in crusierweights and feuding with Guerrero
WWF I could see him getting a IC title run but it wouldnt have been the same RVD. More toned down I feel like, which we saw when he eventually joined
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Post by HisRoyalGreeness on Apr 7, 2021 15:52:56 GMT -5
I was going to say he would've had a sweet NWO singlet but even that wouldn't have stood out because you already had NWO guys rocking airbrush.
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Post by Viking Hall on Apr 7, 2021 15:57:54 GMT -5
Can't see him with the Cruiserweights tbh, he's a much bigger guy than the Cruisers were, even if he could fly just as well. Could see him in and among the U.S. Title scene though.
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chazraps
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Post by chazraps on Apr 7, 2021 18:31:17 GMT -5
WWF had more upward mobility and he could have been presented as an instant main eventer.
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XIII
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Post by XIII on Apr 7, 2021 18:50:16 GMT -5
Probably would have been huge in the WWF.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Apr 7, 2021 18:52:23 GMT -5
Honestly if he goes to WCW.... I predict. "That doesn't work for me brother."
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Post by Cyno on Apr 7, 2021 19:14:19 GMT -5
RVD in the Attitude Era would've been a guaranteed main eventer. Fans would've eaten him up and he could've gotten in on the ground floor as hardcore wrestling was getting popular in WWF. I think he would've been a dead man walking in WCW at that time.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Apr 7, 2021 20:46:28 GMT -5
WWF, probably some matches with RVD and X-Pac kicking the shit out of each other until someone gets a broken jaw.
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El Pollo Guerrera
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Apr 7, 2021 22:41:05 GMT -5
1997 WCW had Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, Jericho, Raven and the Flock, and a strong lucha contingent. Rob Van Dam would have fit into that group like a glove.
1997 WWF had the Smoking Guns, the Godwins, the Headbangers... their attempt at a cruiserweight division... several wrestler from AAA... I don't see RVD 'meshing' too well with this.
EDIT: my point is that RVD probably wouldn't to be shot into the top tier of either promotion from the first day he'd arrive, he'd have to start lower in the card and catch some interest from the crowd. He'd have a better chance of shining against the WCW undercard than the dross that filled out the WWF undercard.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Apr 8, 2021 9:19:47 GMT -5
WCW.
If you go to WWF in 1997 and work as stiff as RVD does and you're not Ken Shamrock or in the Bone Street Krew, then you're getting the shit kicked out of you by the acolytes and sent back to the indies with a hospital bill.
If you go to WCW in 1997 and work as stiff as RVD does, everybody just refuses to work with you and the no-neck WCW management allows this, so you end up on having utterly meaningless matches against guys so desperate for TV time they'll wrestle anyone. Unless you get booked to put over someone like Nash without hitting a single move, so it doesn't matter that you're stiff.
So WCW, because he'd keep his job and not get used rather than get sacked.
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Post by Feyrhausen on Apr 8, 2021 11:26:08 GMT -5
In WCW he would have gotten a chance to get over with great midcard matches. But then he would have hit the glass ceiling and gone nowhere. Unless he lasted until Russo came in. Then he would gotten a shot but the stories would have been garbage.
In WWF he would have been held back in the midcard so as not to show up the main event. No real shot at main event due to stiffness and weak mic work. End up as a hardcore wrestler.
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Post by Aceorton on Apr 8, 2021 11:53:29 GMT -5
The WWF in 1997 probably would have stripped away most of what made him RVD. I suspect it would have been Dean Douglas, Flash Funk or Bodydonna Skip all over again: a talented guy slapped with a semi-cartoony gimmick (karate man seems most likely). He'd be badmouthed incessantly by Michaels and Triple H behind the scenes to make sure he didn't climb up the card and threaten their status. And you could probably throw in a nice healthy dose of Lawler shitting on his ECW roots. He'd 100 percent be feuding with Rockabilly and Los Boriquas.
That said, by mid-1998 or '99, when the Attitude Era had fully exploded (and Michaels was gone), it's possible somebody might have realized that RVD was money and elevated him. An RVD-Godfather pairing seems almost academic. But I still don't see him getting booked at the level of Austin, Taker, Kane, Rock, DX, Mankind or even Shamrock.
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Post by DSR on Apr 8, 2021 14:01:57 GMT -5
The WWF in 1997 probably would have stripped away most of what made him RVD. I suspect it would have been Dean Douglas, Flash Funk or Bodydonna Skip all over again: a talented guy slapped with a semi-cartoony gimmick (karate man seems most likely). He'd be badmouthed incessantly by Michaels and Triple H behind the scenes to make sure he didn't climb up the card and threaten their status. And you could probably throw in a nice healthy dose of Lawler shitting on his ECW roots. He'd 100 percent be feuding with Rockabilly and Los Boriquas. That said, by mid-1998 or '99, when the Attitude Era had fully exploded (and Michaels was gone), it's possible somebody might have realized that RVD was money and elevated him. An RVD-Godfather pairing seems almost academic. But I still don't see him getting booked at the level of Austin, Taker, Kane, Rock, DX, Mankind or even Shamrock. Ironic, given Lawler's anti-ECW storyline at the time led to him giving something of a blessing to RVD and Rob being dubbed "Mr. Monday Night" for a time. |
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Post by corndog on Apr 8, 2021 19:13:15 GMT -5
I definitely agree '98 would have been a better year for him to come in to WWF than '97. Michaels would have felt threatened and probably tried to bury him, while '97 was the first year of the Attitude Era, there were still a few cheesy gimmicks in the lower/mid-card. I still think he would have probably kept his RVD character with less pot references or at least not so blatantly obvious. But outside of working with Owen Hart and a few others, I don't see his style getting to shine in WWF. Also as mentioned, we did see WWF around this time bury wrestlers that were stars in ECW. Although a few also got to get over as well. Austin, Foley and Pillman all came to WWF from ECW, even though they also worked for WCW before.
WCW he would have done well in the mid-card, unless he pissed some people off. He had much better people to work with obviously, but I don't see him sniffing the main event. So I think his ceiling would be higher in WWF, I could see him main eventing WWF a year or two after he arrives, on the other hand I could see him getting scrubbed out and having a stupid gimmick that doesn't work. Where WCW would at least give him a chance and probably start him in the mid-card, but he wouldn't be able to get out of it.
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fw91
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Post by fw91 on Apr 8, 2021 19:31:26 GMT -5
WWF had more upward mobility and he could have been presented as an instant main eventer. Agreed |
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auph10imitated
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Post by auph10imitated on Apr 9, 2021 10:00:20 GMT -5
WCW was obviously winning at that point and arguably hotter, but he would have been lost in the shuffle. Problem also was in 1997 he wasn't considered a main eventers he wasn't really as proven, but seeing as he did show up in WWF I feel like he had a better chance of succeeding there, going into 1998 I feel he could have been as hot as Austin, Rock, DX, Kane, Mankind, Undertaker etc and fit quite easily into that group of stars, starting out as a cool heel before going babyface just like Rock, DX and co.
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Post by johnnyk9 on Apr 9, 2021 14:43:08 GMT -5
His run in WWE was decent
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Post by Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! on Apr 9, 2021 15:07:55 GMT -5
I don't think anybody benefited from being the big fish in the small pond better than RVD. Sticking around ECW till the end let him build up his name and star power and when it finally came time for him to actually go to WWF a lot of the things/people that would have been obstacles in the late 90s were gone.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Apr 9, 2021 17:50:36 GMT -5
I said what would have happened in WCW... in WWF I could absolutely see Rob "potatoing" the wrong person and getting punished for it. Cause I remember even when he was around later that was one of his issues (not his biggest obviously) that he was flat out kicking people for real.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Apr 9, 2021 18:18:22 GMT -5
So I don't think he would have been booked at a top level in either promotion. If I had to choose where he could has a cup of coffee & produced some quality midcard matches I'd say WCW because the midcard was loaded with talent. Plus by & large they were left alone. Of course it wouldn't go anywhere & by sometime in 98 he would have ended up back in ECW.
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