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Post by Tenshigure on Mar 6, 2024 11:09:19 GMT -5
Really, the only thing stopping me from calling him the 'greatest ever' is due to no fault of his own: a lack of a serious long-term rivalry. Yes, his matches are high quality for sure, but even now leading into the gauntlet match to determine who is going to face him at WrestleMania, there's very few (if any) credible opponents of his that has stayed on his ass long enough for me to believe he's losing it. There's certainly those who had the threat to do such a thing (big ones being Drew and Sheamus), but even those guys moved on quicker than I feel they honestly should have, if not in the very least be a lingering threat in the background that could very easily pull the trigger to finish him off.
Again, easily a Top 5 champion, but we'll see if they give him a proper story to finally lose the title before we can say if the reign itself will be a proper legacy.
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chrom
Backup Wench
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Post by chrom on Mar 6, 2024 11:47:59 GMT -5
In Kayfabe, he's the greatest, longest reign and most defenses.
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clc
Don Corleone
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Post by clc on Mar 6, 2024 12:02:24 GMT -5
We'll have to see what happens with Gunther. Right now he feels like he's the best; but in 20 years, will I remember the guy that was a really good wrestler, or the guy that dressed like Elvis Presley? My long term bet is on the Honky Tonk Man.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Mar 6, 2024 12:14:44 GMT -5
We'll have to see what happens with Gunther. Right now he feels like he's the best; but in 20 years, will I remember the guy that was a really good wrestler, or the guy that dressed like Elvis Presley? My long term bet is on the Honky Tonk Man. I mean, we remember Ricky Steamboat as one of the great IC champions, and he was good wrestler guy. He also had a blip of a reign, but the win was such a big deal, it's remembered.
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Post by Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000 on Mar 6, 2024 12:33:56 GMT -5
He's my favorite of all time, even if I felt he should've lost it a little while ago.
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clc
Don Corleone
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Post by clc on Mar 6, 2024 12:34:16 GMT -5
We'll have to see what happens with Gunther. Right now he feels like he's the best; but in 20 years, will I remember the guy that was a really good wrestler, or the guy that dressed like Elvis Presley? My long term bet is on the Honky Tonk Man. I mean, we remember Ricky Steamboat as one of the great IC champions, and he was good wrestler guy. He also had a blip of a reign, but the win was such a big deal, it's remembered. That's a damn solid point!
Last year's 3 way at Wrestlemania was sort of the Savage/Steamboat show stealer of that show too.
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Post by papagiorgio on Mar 6, 2024 13:48:15 GMT -5
No one beats the Honky Tonk Man. He main evented house shows. He was the longest reigning champ for ages. He's cool, he's cocky, he's bad.
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Post by welshpenguin on Mar 6, 2024 15:50:22 GMT -5
One of the best for sure. Top 3 at least. Mr Perfect & Shawn Michaels are the best for me personally.
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Post by crowley1986 on Mar 6, 2024 16:30:52 GMT -5
Outside of Miz, I feel like the bar is pretty low from the past 20 years. Felt the Rock's 98 run was the last good run before Gunther's.....lot of Talents holding that belt who shouldnt have e.g Godfather, Chyna, Ezekiel etc
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on Mar 6, 2024 16:35:26 GMT -5
Don Muraco is still #1 to me. Could Gunther surpass that, perhaps. Muraco is really the reason the title has lasted and not been another belt that fell by the wayside, he made that title mean something and the classics he had with it still hold up.
Gunther has really done for that belt today the closest that anyone has done for Muraco since then.
Gunther's reign is absolutely without question top 5, extremely likely top 3, and definitely an arguable top 2. But I still wouldn't put him past Muraco just yet.
EDIT:
I'd probably right now go:
Muraco Bret Gunther
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Post by Aceorton on Mar 6, 2024 18:45:10 GMT -5
I greatly respect Gunther and his abilities, but he suffers from being of an era I just don't care about as much.
I'd put Honky, Savage, Perfect and Rock higher than him for sure, and possibly HBK and Razor as well.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Mar 6, 2024 20:52:27 GMT -5
Definitely top 10,
the quality of his matches alone combined with actually defending the title frequently and winning outright. Put him above most of the modern era.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Mar 6, 2024 21:06:59 GMT -5
Outside of Miz, I feel like the bar is pretty low from the past 20 years. Felt the Rock's 98 run was the last good run before Gunther's.....lot of Talents holding that belt who shouldnt have e.g Godfather, Chyna, Ezekiel etc F*** Benoit, but he was a good champion. Defended it often within a short span, big feud with Kurt Angle and Jericho, which transitioned to just Jericho, ton of banger matches. Sort of the ideal couple-of-months reign.
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Push R Truth
Patti Mayonnaise
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Post by Push R Truth on Mar 6, 2024 22:24:44 GMT -5
Better than most, not quite Honk-a-Meter Santino
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Mar 6, 2024 22:41:41 GMT -5
In terms of match quality, second to none. I wish given the length of his reign that he had a few more signature storylines as well though. Like Orton's run wasn't as great in a lot of ways but it had a memorable Foley feud that really elevated everyone.
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Post by floundertime on Mar 6, 2024 23:05:35 GMT -5
It still is Honky for me. Long run and during that whole time he had great heat. People would pay just to see Honky get his ass beat. Fans on this board would pay to see Gunther, but is Gunther, right now, drawing in the average fan in if he's the main event of the show. Not at this point.
Chicken shit heels can draw great heat and people want to see them get beat up. Dom right now is that person. And this type of heel is my favorite
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on Mar 6, 2024 23:16:41 GMT -5
It still is Honky for me. Long run and during that whole time he had great heat. People would pay just to see Honky get his ass beat. Fans on this board would pay to see Gunther, but is Gunther, right now, drawing in the average fan in if he's the main event of the show. Not at this point.I don't think this is the case. People, paying fans in the arena, loudly give a shit about Gunther's matches, promos and angles. I don't really see how Honky, comparatively speaking, was more over or had more heat.
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Post by government mule on Mar 7, 2024 3:37:45 GMT -5
It's the greatest IC run ever in my opinion, but it's only slightly marginalised by the fact that HHH has such a boner for long 80's NWA title reigns (including his own), that we've currently got Reigns, Ripley, Rollins and hell even Iyo Sky/Logan Paul doing the same f***ing thing as GUNTHER at the moment. It would feel more impactful if everyone else wasn't having the same sort of run.
That aside, GUNTHER is the next must see special attraction now Brock is done. Whoever finally topples him will gather a lot of momentum themselves.
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Post by Andee9001 on Mar 7, 2024 4:40:24 GMT -5
Honestly the only thing that sucks about his reign is the physical title he's holding.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Mar 7, 2024 6:25:45 GMT -5
It's the greatest IC run ever in my opinion, but it's only slightly marginalised by the fact that HHH has such a boner for long 80's NWA title reigns (including his own), that we've currently got Reigns, Ripley, Rollins and hell even Iyo Sky/Logan Paul doing the same f***ing thing as GUNTHER at the moment. It would feel more impactful if everyone else wasn't having the same sort of run. That aside, GUNTHER is the next must see special attraction now Brock is done. Whoever finally topples him will gather a lot of momentum themselves. Like all these runs were started when Vince was still in control I believe. But yeah, every title being on a historic length is ridiculous. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a few short or medium runs... not everything has to be epic and record breaking... though at least with Gunther's it actually broke a record.
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