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Post by cartern923 on Dec 26, 2011 20:29:48 GMT -5
I just picked up the new Stone Cold DVD, and of course, everyone attacked WCW for their use of Steve Austin. I didn't get into wrestling until 1998, so most of what I know of WCW comes from various DVDs, which usually paint WCW in a negative light. For those of you who were watching then, did you see WCW's use of Steve Austin as an egregious waste of talent? Did you think that Steve Austin was destined to become a main event talent? Or, is this opinion just a bit of revisionist history with the benefit of hindsight?
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lovingway
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Post by lovingway on Dec 26, 2011 20:34:58 GMT -5
He was used fairly well until Hogan got there. But then again I think his last year or so he was injured so it would be hard to gauge what would have happen. Most people would say he would end up leaving regardless due to being depushed.
Yes it is revisionist theory but probably one of the more believable ones
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TheDieselTrain
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Post by TheDieselTrain on Dec 26, 2011 20:49:53 GMT -5
I was watching then but pretty much only remember his tv title feud with The Rapmaster PN News which (iirc) ended at a clash of the champions.
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lovingway
El Dandy
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Post by lovingway on Dec 26, 2011 20:51:54 GMT -5
I was watching then but pretty much only remember his tv title feud with The Rapmaster PN News which (iirc) ended at a clash of the champions. Somebody remembers a PN News feud? |
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Post by Slingshot Suplay on Dec 26, 2011 21:05:53 GMT -5
I was watching then but pretty much only remember his tv title feud with The Rapmaster PN News which (iirc) ended at a clash of the champions. Somebody remembers a PN News feud? "I'm PN News, here to let you know I'm here to bum rush this show! I'm from the streets, not doin' crime Because I crush sucker wrestlers all the time! My name is News and I'm on the attack! Check me out later Cause I'll be back! YO BABY YO BABY YO!!!!! I SAID YO BABY YO BABY YO!!!" |
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Post by repomanfan on Dec 26, 2011 21:35:57 GMT -5
He was used well up to a certain point, but it's obvious someone(Dusty, Flair, Hogan or whoever) didn't want him to succeed. Why else would they they put him in a tag team with Pillman and once the tag team started to get hot and "over", break it up for no good reason.
Was he main event material; that's a tough question to answer, but one thing that is certain, the guy was talented. He could talk, he had confidence, and he could wrestle some fantastic singles and tag team matches, and he proved that he could get "over".
It seems to me, that somebody in WCW didn't like Austin.
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El Dandy
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Post by El Dandy on Dec 26, 2011 21:46:41 GMT -5
Him jobbing to Jim Duggan in a matter of seconds pretty much summed up what WCW thought of Steve Austin.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2011 22:12:52 GMT -5
Up until 93, he was used great. He held the tv title for two years (just about), the first year he was like a ric flair clone, with the robes, woman manager, hair, colorful tights and music. He was in the dangerous alliance, which put him in a prime position on the heel side, and feuded with ricky steamboat. It's from mid-93 on that he went the other way, and when hulk came in, there was no chance. Sting, vader, flair, austin, steamboat, etc were all pushed aside for the "friend of hogan" brigade.
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Post by molson5 on Dec 26, 2011 22:58:48 GMT -5
I was just watching an old Steve Austin WCW match where the announcers compared him to a young Ric Flair, and they were talking about how they were all impressed that he was "already" U.S. champion. He did get a little lost in the shuffle at the very end, but it would have been interesting to see what would happened if he lasted a year or two more until the NWO.
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Post by BlackoutCreature on Dec 26, 2011 23:09:09 GMT -5
Yeah, what everybody else said. They obviously had big plans for him and they were giving him a nice little push for an up and coming main eventer. Then Hogan showed up and he got pushed aside and forgotten about.
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Post by repomanfan on Dec 26, 2011 23:19:18 GMT -5
Yeah, what everybody else said. They obviously had big plans for him and they were giving him a nice little push for an up and coming main eventer. Then Hogan showed up and he got pushed aside and forgotten about. I wouldn't say it was all Hogan's fault. Why did they put him in a tag team to begin with(not because they wanted to push him). And why did they tear the team apart when it was getting over? hmmmmm(again all before Hogan's arrival). Somebody never wanted Austin to succeed. |
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Post by HMARK Center on Dec 26, 2011 23:48:46 GMT -5
Up until 93, he was used great. He held the tv title for two years (just about), the first year he was like a ric flair clone, with the robes, woman manager, hair, colorful tights and music. He was in the dangerous alliance, which put him in a prime position on the heel side, and feuded with ricky steamboat. It's from mid-93 on that he went the other way, and when hulk came in, there was no chance. Sting, vader, flair, austin, steamboat, etc were all pushed aside for the "friend of hogan" brigade. I'd say he was still looking good into 1994. I just watched his work at both Spring Stampede and Slamboree of that year, and he's put over pretty great, even getting a highlight match against Great Muta. He spent a huge chunk of that year as US Champion. It really did seem to all fall apart upon Hogan's arrival. One could argue he wasn't pushed quite as far as he could've been up to that point, but it's hard to say he wasn't used well when the guy was given multiple long title runs with multiple belts (very long TV Title run, solid Tag title reign, and strong US title holder until the Duggan debacle) over a relatively short period of time, while being booked strongly all the while. |
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Post by BlackoutCreature on Dec 27, 2011 0:37:06 GMT -5
Yeah, what everybody else said. They obviously had big plans for him and they were giving him a nice little push for an up and coming main eventer. Then Hogan showed up and he got pushed aside and forgotten about. I wouldn't say it was all Hogan's fault. Why did they put him in a tag team to begin with(not because they wanted to push him). And why did they tear the team apart when it was getting over? hmmmmm(again all before Hogan's arrival). Somebody never wanted Austin to succeed. I don't think those were a situation of somebody actively trying to bury Austin as much as WCW in general just feeling like they had bigger fish to fry. They saw Austin's potential, knew he was a great worker, saw he was already over with the crowd, but also saw that he was still fairly new to the business. They had time to build him up and had other people they needed to deal with in the mean time. By the time 1994 came around he was the US Champ, in the middle of a feud with Ricky Steamboat and there was definitely a heavy focus on him. He most likely would've moved onto either Flair, Vader or Sting after that, possibly even getting a World Title reign out of the deal. Hogan shows up and everybody that WCW was concentrating on before then got shoved into the background. |
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Post by rapidfire187 on Dec 27, 2011 0:44:27 GMT -5
I don't think it's revisionist history in this case. People were saying this even back when WCW was still around. People would always bring up how WCW screwed up by not seeing the potential in people like Austin, Foley, Jericho, etc and then they'd end up being major stars in WWE. Yea, Austin had a good run there at first, but for some reason they crapped all over him towards the end. He could've been a great heel for Hogan to work with.
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saintpat
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Post by saintpat on Dec 27, 2011 0:55:50 GMT -5
I think he was used well up to a point, then kind of fell to the background as others have noted. As others have sort of stated, I think a lot of upper-midcarders faded when Hogan arrived as everything was built around him.
If you ask me, one of the things that hurt him most was the arrival of Randy Savage, who blocked the spotlight for a lot of guys who were on the rise. Savage and others from Hulk's inner circle ate up those spots occupied by the Austins of WCW. And I can't say that it was a horrible move -- what are you going to do when your choice is to push a proven commodity like Savage or a potential commodity like Austin?
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Post by thegame415 on Dec 27, 2011 2:44:50 GMT -5
I was just watching an old Steve Austin WCW match where the announcers compared him to a young Ric Flair, and they were talking about how they were all impressed that he was "already" U.S. champion. He did get a little lost in the shuffle at the very end, but it would have been interesting to see what would happened if he lasted a year or two more until the NWO. Especially in the case of the WWF. |
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Paco
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Post by Paco on Dec 27, 2011 4:34:16 GMT -5
Yeah, he was pushed just fine until 1994 where old WWF names (Beefcake, Honky, etc.) pushed almost everyone down the card.
Rumor has it (heel) Austin vs. (face) Flair in a World Title feud was in the plans before WCW was able to get Hogan and changed the entire direction of the company. Austin went from threat to afterthought almost overnight.
I have no problem with the way pre-Hogan WCW used Austin...on the contrary, he almost always had a title around his waist from '91 till '94 (TV, World Tag & finally U.S.).
However, Stone Cold would have never been born there. It's all for the best.
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