Rate Mr Perfect’s face turn in late 1992.

[vinithitmansharma]

What's your opinion on Mr. Perfect returning as a babyface in 1992, to replace The Ultimate Warrior as Randy Savage's Tag Team partner? Good or bad?

[MolotovMocktail]

It was awkward and random, given they had little time to set it up since Warrior had just been fired, but it worked. I was glad to see him back in the ring, and in the back of my mind, kept wondering if it was a setup and he was going to turn on Savage.

[Nickybojelais]

Although it was rushed, the Perfect turn worked pretty well. But i've always wondered why Roddy Piper wasn't brought back to be the replacement for the Warrior.

Piper had feuded with Flair, was a huge name to replace Warrior, wasn't under contract at WCW, had been working with the company a few months earlier and looking at his filmography he didn't appear to be busy filming movies at the time.

[Blade]

It worked pretty well, because Perfect was cool and people wanted to cheer him. The problem was that they didn't really seem to have much idea what to do with him past his feud with Flair, even though kicking Flair out of WWF was in theory a huge feather in Perfect's cap.

[auph10imitated]

Badly written, but it was executed as well as it could, I understand they were backed into a corner with the departures of Warrior & Bulldog, but Mr Perfect, a heel of 4 years, and seemingly very loyal to Flair & Heenan, just accepts Macho's invite, I mean why would Macho even do that when he unproven to be trustworthy.

Have Bret join Macho and pull double duty as the fighting champion, in fact if you have Bret beat Shawn in the middle of the card and have Macho announce Bret as his mystery partner in the main event, it would be over with the fans, plus makes sense since Bret beat Flair and would be facing Razor at the Royal Rumble

[Blade]

Oct 25, 2021 7:13:36 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

Badly written, but it was executed as well as it could, I understand they were backed into a corner with the departures of Warrior & Bulldog, but Mr Perfect, a heel of 4 years, and seemingly very loyal to Flair & Heenan, just accepts Macho's invite, I mean why would Macho even do that when he unproven to be trustworthy.

It was sudden, of course, but it made sense to me: Perfect is arrogant and hates being second to anybody; Macho played to his ego by extending the invitation, showing he considered him a peer. Who's gonna know the psychology of an arrogant heel who hates being second to anybody better than Randy Savage? It also split down the middle a pairing that had given Macho himself considerable trouble.

[jason1980s]

I think he was so good it was only natural for him to get a face turn. Fans would want to cheer him. It came at a good time when a big name was needed to replace Warrior. I really can't see anyone on the roster fitting well other than him in the tag match.

[FHgrad99]

I thought it how they turned him face was well-executed by everybody involved in the turn, Perfect, Savage, Heenan, Flair and Razor all played their roles very well. I felt they did the best they could considering how they had to throw it together on such short notice. The topper with Perfect sealing his face turn by pouring a pitcher of water over Heenan's head was icing on the cake.

[sportatorium]

The episode of Prime Time Wrestling is sheer brilliance. Even Hillbilly Jim had a part in turning him. Heenan & Hennig pull off the slow unraveling perfectly. He probably would have been fine as a babyface long term, but he’s top 2 or 3 all time for me for working as a heel in the ring.

[dangerousdanpotato]

As others have said the turn was executed well and it was pretty shocking and unique. That said, it was strange seeing the Survivor Series match and Mr. Perfect never clicked as face for me, I was never really convinced. The best match he had during his face run was against Bret at KOTR 93 where he essentially worked heel. I feel like they should probably have just turned him heel ASAP; maybe do the Shawn feud and match at WrestleMania IX and have the loss trigger a heel turn.

[The Thread Barbi]

You know that sinking, disappointed feeling when you rented VHS from the video store that said "Terminator 2" on the box, but the actual tape is "Terminator Woman"?

That's how I felt about it at the time.

Looking back, Bret Hart is a good suggestion. However, why not add Undertaker to it instead and keep Perfect heel.

We didn't need another Taker/Kamala match.

[tafkaga]

The turn itself worked well. The crowd was ready for it and Perfect played it well. Unfortunately, past his feud with Flair, it just never went anywhere.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Oct 24, 2021 18:41:42 GMT -5 Nickybojelais said:

Although it was rushed, the Perfect turn worked pretty well. But i've always wondered why Roddy Piper wasn't brought back to be the replacement for the Warrior.

Piper had feuded with Flair, was a huge name to replace Warrior, wasn't under contract at WCW, had been working with the company a few months earlier and looking at his filmography he didn't appear to be busy filming movies at the time.

That actually would've been a really good idea and I'm surprised I've never heard it. Makes sense with the history with Flair and he had the star power where it wouldn't feel like that big of a drop off from Warrior. Would've made a lot more sense the Perfect who was aiding in a group beatdown on Savage like a week before.

I guess maybe they asked Piper and he declined. It seemed like he really didn't want much to do with wrestling in the mid 90's and was more focused on his acting career. After Wrestlemania VIII he didn't have another match until one off against Lawler at King of the Ring 1994 and then didn't pop up again until he resurfaced in WCW at Halloween Havoc 96. Or maybe they didn't have interest in Piper as while it would work in getting them out of a pickle for that night from a long term stand point it wouldn't benefit them at all. Unlike Perfect he wasn't going to be working for them full time at that point so it doesn't make sense to give him that much spotlight. Then you can't use him to put over the heels over either because Piper would likely refuse as he was always difficult about doing jobs.

[auph10imitated]

Oct 25, 2021 19:48:43 GMT -5 Blade said:

Oct 25, 2021 7:13:36 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

Badly written, but it was executed as well as it could, I understand they were backed into a corner with the departures of Warrior & Bulldog, but Mr Perfect, a heel of 4 years, and seemingly very loyal to Flair & Heenan, just accepts Macho's invite, I mean why would Macho even do that when he unproven to be trustworthy.

It was sudden, of course, but it made sense to me: Perfect is arrogant and hates being second to anybody; Macho played to his ego by extending the invitation, showing he considered him a peer. Who's gonna know the psychology of an arrogant heel who hates being second to anybody better than Randy Savage? It also split down the middle a pairing that had given Macho himself considerable trouble.

This would have made sense if they had the time th build tension between Flair and Perfect but they didnt, like I say they was backed into a corner but I feel like Bret made more sense and they could have used more build to Perfect and Flair. Common sense booking was Bret/Macho vs Flair/Ramon, then Bret/Flair at the Royal Rumble, with Razor giving a hot in the Rumble, then having Flair vs Perfect at Mania since Flair was in a contract until the summer. Flair being able to go back to WCW early was a rather gracious move on the part of Vince when he could have built to a great Mania match on Flair's way out.

That was all logical and actually could have happened, but of course we are using hindsight.

I just feel like Wrestlemania 9 was such a “thrown together” feeling about it.

Yoko built out of no where to face Bret
Hogan & Beefcake coming in to face Money Inc felt rushed when Money Inc had been fueding with Nasty Boys
Luger brought in and put In where Flair fit perfectly (excuse the pun)
Tatanka facing Shawn instead of Marty (Marty’s fault)
Even Razor getting a massive push to the title then getting shoved right to the bottom of the card to face Backlund – Savage could have put him over

[jason1980s]

I get having to cover their butts and/or make an example of someone but why couldn't WWF just keep Warrior and Bulldog for the PPV and then let them go?
Was another few days going to hurt WWF's rep with the steroid scandal?

Years later when multiple wrestlers were accused of buying steroids or similar drug they devoted almost a whole Raw to writing those guys out with severe injuries. They could have done the same to Warrior and Bulldog.

I will say I'd rather see a Perfect match than a Warrior match and Bulldog being relegated to lower card status with Mountie wasn't really important.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Oct 28, 2021 11:28:27 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

I get having to cover their butts and/or make an example of someone but why couldn't WWF just keep Warrior and Bulldog for the PPV and then let them go?
Was another few days going to hurt WWF's rep with the steroid scandal?

Years later when multiple wrestlers were accused of buying steroids or similar drug they devoted almost a whole Raw to writing those guys out with severe injuries. They could have done the same to Warrior and Bulldog.

I will say I'd rather see a Perfect match than a Warrior match and Bulldog being relegated to lower card status with Mountie wasn't really important.

Mounite getting announced for a title match was odd as he wasn't any kind of a contender at that point. I guess maybe it was just a red herring and they never really had plans of doing the match and the plan was always for Bulldog to drop it to Shawn before the show before they fired him. However they did have split screen face to face promo with Bulldog and Mountie on Prime Time so I don't know if they would go through the trouble of filming that if they weren't planning on doing the match. Bret going against Shawn was also odd as that feud was over at that point. Shawn had started feuding with Bulldog and Bret was feuding with Papa Shango. So I don't get why they didn't do those two matches instead.

I agree that I don't get why they couldn't have just waited an extra week especially in the case of Bulldog who would be willing to do business. Although in Warrior's case it would've been trickier. Bulldog could've just dropped the title to Shawn on the PPV and then be on his way. However how do you book Warrior in that tag match? Obviously you would like to have him job on his way out but you know he would refuse so then what you do?

[Hit Girl]

Awful

He was a natural heel

[auph10imitated]

I watched the full Prime Time Wrestling face turn last night, probably first time since it actually happened and it was much better done than I recall with the manipulation part of it, I would still have gone with Bret pulling double duty rather than this, but this was a much better turn than I remember, it was well executed. I feel like the pulled the trigger on what was likely to be a slow burn face turn for Perfect following Survivor Series by doing it in one show.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

It was what it was. He probably should have just wrestled under his real name as a face. Mr. Perfect is a heel, doesn’t work well as a face.

[clodhopper]

He never really felt like a full on face to me, it was like you were always waiting for him to start acting heelish again.