Bubba as World Champion

[Hiroshi Hase]

icarus said:

nsr said:

We all say this now, but when this match took place, everyone was marking out that Trips may actually drop the title.

everyone said the same when HHH was up against shelton.

i really think it was hope more than opintion.

But Trips wasn't champion when Shelton fought him on those two occasions. And by the time HHH got the belt back, Shelton was pretty much concentrating on the I-C title.

[Jam]

I was at this show. Houston, M'Fn, Texas!

[Gillberg: 0-175]

Wow, does anyone know their "newz" history? So much of this didn't happen. I never remember anyone saying Bubba had a shot. They built him up but it was much like how they build Bradshaw up at the time. You didn't believe how they got up there. I mean this was when like the times Austin would tag with BRADSHAW of all people to combat the nWo. You never knew how a guy like that got shoved up the top of the card.

When Bubba was a viable contender it was in times where Spike Dudley made it to the uppermidcard. RAW was so underwhelmed with top talent, but I really did like it that way. It did make it seem fresh because you never saw a Bubba Ray vs HHH program coming. You'd never think that Rodney Mack would be fueding with Goldberg. They were bad times, yet they were tolerable. Unlike what they have now.

[Janitor From Mars]

machinegun said:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5KFeikfDpY

Could you imagine this fatty as world champion?

Not cool....Not cool at all (Even the thought)

At least he didn't weight so much back then and wasn't as obnoxious as he is now.

[Hiroshi Hase]

doinksdoodoo said:

Wow, does anyone know their "newz" history? So much of this didn't happen. I never remember anyone saying Bubba had a shot. They built him up but it was much like how they build Bradshaw up at the time. You didn't believe how they got up there. I mean this was when like the times Austin would tag with BRADSHAW of all people to combat the nWo. You never knew how a guy like that got shoved up the top of the card.

When Bubba was a viable contender it was in times where Spike Dudley made it to the uppermidcard. RAW was so underwhelmed with top talent, but I really did like it that way. It did make it seem fresh because you never saw a Bubba Ray vs HHH program coming. You'd never think that Rodney Mack would be fueding with Goldberg. They were bad times, yet they were tolerable. Unlike what they have now.

I think it was mainly because of the brand split, that's probably why Austin was teaming with Bradshaw, as Rock/Hogan were on Smackdown and Kane was out with an injury I think. Also, the nWo was feuding with Bradshaw as well when they broke their APA office.

As for Bubba Ray, it was a good match, but I honestly didn't think he had a chance of getting the World Title. Especially when Flair turned heel the week earlier and they were starting to dominate as the top heels of the brand.

[YouStayClassy]

squareequation said:

I was totally rooting for big Bubba because I was tired of HHH being the spotlight on the show and having 20 min monologues.

Word.

[Deleted]

I liked it; Bubba calling him out was unexpected but, on some level, pretty realistic: Bubba's a big guy who has bullied others for years, he just started out as a single's competitor after years of tag team success, so he goes after the baddest guy around. It made sense; it didn't matter if Bubba won or not, just the fact that someone called Triple H out was cool.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

If they had kept building Bubba up after this instead of putting him back with D-Von he could have been a legit contender in a Foley or Rhodes sorta way. He was getting over as a single star pretty good at this time

[The Ichi]

I would have taken almost anyone beating HHH for the Title at that point, but Bubba...no.

[Se7en: Horse That Wrote Poems]

I never thought of Bubba in a Dusty or Foley sort of way.
But looking back, this wasn't the worst thing they could have given us.

[-Lithium-]

nsr said:

We all say this now, but when this match took place, everyone was marking out that Trips may actually drop the title.

That happened in pretty much every "Triple H vs Underdog" match ever...

[Aceorton]

I liked Bubba's singles push strictly because of that dance move he did.

[Max]

I remember the IWC calling him a fat short wearing road dogg wannabe.

[Reverend BTY]

kingsofwrestling said:

See the ting is at this time Bubba was a legit upper midcarder and I remember people saying he would be the next Mic Foley in the terms he could do spots and was gold on the mic and honestly yeah I could see Bubba at that time going for the World Title, I mean it wasn't unfeasible. Also I think at this time HHH had really bad competition at this time and the good competition he did had was severly buried afterwards ie-Booker, Kane, and RVD

I mean really I feel he would have made a great champ but they just dropped the ball with him and reunited the Dudleys which lead to nothing important except Kidman and London winning the titles from them which shocked me which I think lead to the whole Kidman against high risk maneuver storyline.

Agreed. They totally dropped the ball with the Bubba singles run. Did I ever believe he would be a world champ, hell no. But that doesn't mean he wasn't good at what he was doing.

[Metalheadbanger Man]

He was pretty over in 2002, much more so than poor D'Von in that reverend gimmick. That was one of my favourite years in wrestling, despite Katie Vick, because the first WWE draft ever actually made things interesting again.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

Trips was roided beyond belief back then.

[Kevin Hamilton]

No, no I couldn't, and I disagree, I was pullin for HHH, but then I'm an H fan.

[Ass Dan]

There should be a Rewritting the Book: What if....Bubba Ray Dudley won the World Heavyweight Championship?