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Post by The Rick Jericho on Aug 15, 2022 18:29:18 GMT -5
Say Bulldog still returns but things are a little different with Owen still alive.
Bulldog returns around the 1999 Royal Rumble. And instead of Owen and Jarrett, we get Owen and Bulldog reuniting in 1999 and winning the Tag Titles.
Secondly, Bulldog still returns in the Summer of 1999. Owen is done feuding with Godfather. Owen and Bulldog reunite and win the tag titles from either the Outlaws, Kane and X-Pac or Undertaker and Big Show.
Would the Owen factor make Bulldog's 1999 WWF return much more better?
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Renslayer
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Post by Renslayer on Aug 15, 2022 18:35:30 GMT -5
Some of bulldog's problems would have been solved if he wasn't wearing those damn blue jeans
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Aug 15, 2022 18:38:12 GMT -5
It'd have helped, I'm sure, but his being super roided out and his pill use would have been an issue regardless.
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Aug 15, 2022 21:27:11 GMT -5
It depends. I wonder if people would have really been stoked to see Owen in another tag team considering Owen was tagging with Jarrett up until his death, and would probably have still been linked to him during Blazer's IC title reign.
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Push R Truth
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Post by Push R Truth on Aug 15, 2022 21:47:07 GMT -5
Bulldog's core problems that lead to his death where well established long before Owen died.
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Post by GodzillaIsMyMonster on Aug 15, 2022 22:04:40 GMT -5
Hmmm. Idk.
Bulldog was still realitivly young during his 99 run, but he seemed out of place.
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tirtefaa
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Post by tirtefaa on Aug 15, 2022 22:15:45 GMT -5
No way.
As much as I liked Davey, he was a total relic by the late 90's. There were so many other better acts and nostalgia wasn't exactly a big thing back then. He was never a great wrestler and his promo ability was definitely left a lot to be desired.
He was a product of his era, and he's a perfect example of someone who if they don't break a glass ceiling, then they eventually flame out hard in midcard purgatory.
Owen maintained relevance by being able to reinvent himself. Davey never was able to achieve as much, so sticking him with Owen would probably only hurt Owen.
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Futureraven: Beelzebruv
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Aug 15, 2022 23:16:51 GMT -5
If he still has the accident with Warrior's trap door, doesn't matter.
That took do much out of him, professionally and personally that last run would always have gone south.
Hell, cynically, Owen is there, he wouldn't get the initial main event he did.
Plus, even without the injury, looking at that locker room... the substances would still be pretty out of hand.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2022 0:12:06 GMT -5
He started going downhill as soon as Luger left, 1995-97 when he was with Owen he was really unmotivated nothing but chinlocks and wristlocks as Owen had to do all the stuff to keep the crowd awake. Vince wanted to push him at this time too as he was one of the few wrestlers HBK enjoyed working with. The heel Heart foundation and European title run gave him a brief second wind but as soon as ONO happened and it was clear there was going to be no rematch and WWF had lost interest in the European market he gave up again.
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Post by nickcave on Aug 16, 2022 0:20:47 GMT -5
Bulldog was never the same after his back injury in WCW, I'm sure Owen being around would have made him happier but he already had a very bad drug problem pre-back injury and they became way worse after
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XIII
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Post by XIII on Aug 16, 2022 7:25:04 GMT -5
Bulldog was on drugs for most of his career so probably not.
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Post by Jaws the Shark on Aug 16, 2022 11:07:29 GMT -5
No. He was booked poorly, but I would struggle to see his non-jeans persona fitting into the WWF in 1999, and no amount of good booking and fitting in was going to change how debilitated he was by his chronic injuries and his habit.
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Post by Hypnosis on Aug 16, 2022 11:11:27 GMT -5
Some of bulldog's problems would have been solved if he wasn't wearing those damn blue jeans When I was playing No Mercy a long time ago, I couldn't tell if Bulldog was wearing socks with his boots, or he just had his pant legs rolled up.
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tafkaga
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Post by tafkaga on Aug 16, 2022 11:20:59 GMT -5
Bulldog was terrible in his '98 WCW run. Didn't even seem like the same guy. Hard to imagine him getting better in '99, Owen or no Owen, jeans or no jeans.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Aug 16, 2022 13:20:56 GMT -5
In late 99 he showed up just in time to get outclassed as a worker by swathes of people and that tag division was about to not need them at all
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hassanchop
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Post by hassanchop on Aug 17, 2022 8:34:23 GMT -5
Possibly in a manager role, like a mentor to the Radicalz, both he and Owen leading the Radicalz.
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thecrusherwi
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Post by thecrusherwi on Aug 17, 2022 9:10:00 GMT -5
I'll say what's probably an unpopular opinion: I think Owen was getting pretty stale towards the end. The Blue Blazer stuff was amusing for unimportant midcard stuff, but he spent most of that last year having ok matches in boring feuds that not many people cared about. The Jarrett/Owen tag team was basically only over because of Debra. At the time, I was just kind of sick of the Hart Family. They had been pushed so hard in the New Generation and now there were new more interesting people around. I don't think putting Owen and Davey back together would've moved the needle at all. You had a sense by 1999 that Owen had done everything he cared to do in wrestling and had he not gotten killed I think he would've been gone within a year anyways. And Bulldog was running on empty by then. He seemed so out of place in the real timeline. I kept wondering why they were wasting The Rock on this old bloated geezer.
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Futureraven: Beelzebruv
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Aug 17, 2022 9:21:59 GMT -5
I'll say what's probably an unpopular opinion: I think Owen was getting pretty stale towards the end. The Blue Blazer stuff was amusing for unimportant midcard stuff, but he spent most of that last year having ok matches in boring feuds that not many people cared about. The Jarrett/Owen tag team was basically only over because of Debra. At the time, I was just kind of sick of the Hart Family. They had been pushed so hard in the New Generation and now there were new more interesting people around. I don't think putting Owen and Davey back together would've moved the needle at all. You had a sense by 1999 that Owen had done everything he cared to do in wrestling and had he not gotten killed I think he would've been gone within a year anyways. And Bulldog was running on empty by then. He seemed so out of place in the real timeline. I kept wondering why they were wasting The Rock on this old bloated geezer. Oh 99 wasn't god for him, but I think he wasn't given anything to really work with after Wrestlemania 14. DX ran roughshod over him, he joined the Nation as "co-leader" when the stable was The Rock show. He had some great matches with X-Pac, he got embroiled in the messy/boring stuff with Severn and Shamrock. The Blue Blazer was the first time in like, a year and a half he'd been given anything decent and he was so comical he'd likely have won the IC belt and turned himself face in the near future. There's also the big influx of talent over the next year, Jericho, Angle, The Radicalz, I think that'd have really lit a fire under him again, matches with any of those guys or throw him together with a partner in the tag division that rose up. Ok he'd be in the veteran good hand role, but he was only 34, he had a few good years left and would suddenly be in an environment that played up to his strengths more.
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Post by Stu on Aug 17, 2022 10:49:52 GMT -5
DAVEY BOY SMITH CHINLOCKS!!!
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Post by Milkman Norm on Aug 17, 2022 10:54:01 GMT -5
Both Bulldog and Bossman had a similar issue. In terms of their actually ages both were still fairly young during their final runs. But both had also been on TV for over a decade. So it was hard to keep them fresh because they both had strong ties to prior eras.
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