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Post by JTG Fan on Sept 13, 2013 15:00:22 GMT -5
It was a badly kept secret in 1999 that Shane Douglas wanted to move on from ECW and get in on the lucrative Monday Night Wars money. As he tells it, he had a modest offer to join the WWF before being offered a 6 figure deal from Eric Bischoff and WCW that he couldn't turn down. Putting aside the issue of the higher salary, would The Franchise have been better off swallowing his pride and heading back to the WWF? His biggest heat from his run there were no longer active (HBK) or in the company (Hall & Nash). But then the question becomes how does Douglas fit into the WWF landscape of 1999? Right at that time Triple H as 'The Game' with his "I won't be held down" intensity, long hair, fruity berets, brawling style that the announcers put over as being technically sound, and femme fetal at his side was already out-Franchising the Franchise so a main event spot wouldn't have been likely. Then you go a rung lower and see Jeff Jarrett already occupying the spot of "Solid worker in his early 30s who overcome an embarrassing early 90s gimmick and seems like he should be higher on the card than he is".
So do you think it was a mistake for Douglas to chase the money in WCW (and end up in Viagra on a Pole hell) rather than go with the clearly hot hand (WWF)? Do you think a return to the WWF would have been doomed given Douglas' past and overall reputation, or did he miss out a big opportunity?
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Mozenrath
FANatic
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Post by Mozenrath on Sept 13, 2013 15:05:58 GMT -5
Shane still would have been the kind of guy who f***s up by running his mouth, so it is hard to say. Foley was, and presumably still is, a good friend of his, so he wouldn't have been without anyone who would want him to succeed, but he would need to play well with others to get anywhere.
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
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Post by Reflecto on Sept 13, 2013 15:23:55 GMT -5
If you think it was a mistake Douglas chased the money in WCW, keep in mind: Douglas was the fifth Radical, quit alongside them- and Douglas alone nearly blew the deal for the other four Radicalz going to the WWF. If he went to the WWF, he wouldn't have had a prayer to even get into that rung. Best case scenario if he chose WWF over WCW, he and Al Snow become Foley's little sidekicks in late-1999 and Douglas takes Steve Blackman's 2000-01 role.
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fart
Tommy Wiseau
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Post by fart on Sept 13, 2013 17:32:30 GMT -5
Given his reputation he did the wise thing and made some extra cash. Otherwise he would have wandered around with the oddities in a straightjacket and a Nixon mask for a couple of months before being released.
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Post by molson5 on Sept 13, 2013 18:54:29 GMT -5
Maybe he could have overcome some of the things you mentioned, but definitely not HHH's fruity berets.
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Post by Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! on Sept 13, 2013 19:33:18 GMT -5
he WAS in WWE. remember when he beat Triple H and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 20?
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Post by nickcave on Sept 13, 2013 20:10:14 GMT -5
I think a bigger question would be what if Shane Douglas had lasted longer in the WWF outside of his memorable Royal Rumble appearance in the early 90s? Would he have been on the Bret-Shawn smaller guy push train once the steroid scandal hit?
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Tony Schiavontay
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Post by Tony Schiavontay on Sept 13, 2013 21:51:16 GMT -5
he WAS in WWE. remember when he beat Triple H and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 20? Wasn't that Luther Reigns? |
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The Possum
Unicron
JBL stands for "Just Beat a Lizard".
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Post by The Possum on Sept 13, 2013 22:26:56 GMT -5
he WAS in WWE. remember when he beat Triple H and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 20? Wasn't that Luther Reigns? I'm tired of marks not knowing the history of the business. It was Hardcore Holly, for the thousandth time. |
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Post by thegame415 on Sept 13, 2013 22:34:51 GMT -5
It's a good thing he took the six-figure deal, seeing as he wisely saved so much of it.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2013 22:43:59 GMT -5
Well he had work with THA for years because of Jeff Jarrett
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Post by Joe Neglia on Sept 14, 2013 2:03:28 GMT -5
Shane wouldn't have lasted in 1999 WWF. He was pretty much injured 90% of his WCW stint; McMahon would have cut his losses on him quickly. He didn't have the upside of, say, Eddie Guererro regarding the injuries either.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Sept 14, 2013 10:51:34 GMT -5
Okay, I fight the corner of a lot of ECW talents who tended to flounder on the big stage when they got called up - and I love Shane Douglas. Some of my earliest wrestling memories involve him in WCW.
But he had no hope in 1999 WWF.
- His promos could be pretty awesome but mostly involved talking about people in other companies (something that WWF did sometimes, but rarely and usually only by the main event talents that could get away with it) and a lot of swearing that even by Attitude Era standards was probably over the line.
- He was an NWA style chickenshit/technical heel which, much as Triple H loves that sort of shit, would not have fit into the mould of a WWF heel. Jericho himself has noted in his book that the wrestling style for a heel is very different in WWF/E as compared to WCW. I can't see Shane doing the more cartoonish and choreographed WWF style as opposed to WCW's 'get heat on the leg, you have seven minutes' attitude.
- As other people have said, Shane has a nice tendency to bury himself with people backstage and even if Shawn was not 'around,' it's well documented that he was around a lot to make calls, including in 1999 being one of the people responsible for booking Summerslam's main event.
- Lastly, going back to point two, there was no room on the roster for someone like Shane Douglas in '99 in two ways - first of all, WWF's roster is much smaller than WCW's and yet was still absolutely stacked. Say what you will about the Attitude Era characters but face and heel turns in 1999 rarely failed (despite there being millions of them) because they had just enough depth to work either style for the most part. And those characters were broad, loud and cartoonish - again, things that the intense, serious Franchise was not. Say what you will about Ric Flair, but I can see Douglas main eventing a PPV against him - I can't see Douglas main eventing a PPV with Stone Cold, The Rock, Mankind, Triple H or even Big Show.
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Post by Young Game on Sept 14, 2013 11:40:13 GMT -5
Given his reputation he did the wise thing and made some extra cash. Otherwise he would have wandered around with the oddities in a straightjacket and a Nixon mask for a couple of months before being released. "The Franchise" Shane S. Thompson. Too weird to live, too rare to die. |
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Squirrel Master
Hank Scorpio
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Post by Squirrel Master on Sept 14, 2013 16:17:26 GMT -5
Pretty sure that Shane Douglas was the jabroni who inspired the catchphrase "Know your role, and shut your mouth!"
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percymania
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Post by percymania on Sept 14, 2013 21:47:22 GMT -5
I don't think Douglas had good memories of his first run in WWE, so I don't blame him at all taking WCW's money. I think he got a better push in WCW than he would have gotten in WWE anyway. He was nowhere near the level the top guys in WWE were at the time. In the chaos that was WCW, he had ample opportunity. Russo seemed to like him, so he had that going for him too.
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Post by Super Nintenjoe KBD on Sept 14, 2013 22:25:46 GMT -5
This thread reminds me that the other day I found out something that blew my mine, Shane Dpuglas vs Buddy Rose was the dark match at Summerslam 90. This seems so weird to me partly because SS90 was the first tape I was able to buy as a young lad and I obviously watched it a million time so the notion of another match especially as random as that being on the show amaze me.
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Post by JTG Fan on Sept 14, 2013 22:44:26 GMT -5
In the chaos that was WCW, he had ample opportunity. Russo seemed to like him, so he had that going for him too. Well Russo would have been there if he jumped in mid 99 to the WWF like he did WCW, though not for long. This thread reminds me that the other day I found out something that blew my mine, Shane Dpuglas vs Buddy Rogers was the dark match at Summerslam 90. This seems so weird to me partly because SS90 was the first tape I was able to buy as a young lad and I obviously watched it a million time so the notion of another match especially as random as that being on the show amaze me. Buddy Rose actually, but that is a cool fact that I didn't know. Buddy Rogers would have been cooler though. |
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Post by Super Nintenjoe KBD on Sept 14, 2013 22:49:48 GMT -5
In the chaos that was WCW, he had ample opportunity. Russo seemed to like him, so he had that going for him too. Well Russo would have been there if he jumped in mid 99 to the WWF like he did WCW, though not for long. This thread reminds me that the other day I found out something that blew my mine, Shane Dpuglas vs Buddy Rogers was the dark match at Summerslam 90. This seems so weird to me partly because SS90 was the first tape I was able to buy as a young lad and I obviously watched it a million time so the notion of another match especially as random as that being on the show amaze me. Buddy Rose actually, but that is a cool fact that I didn't know. Buddy Rogers would have been cooler though. Ah, thanks, edited. |
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y4j1981
Dennis Stamp
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Post by y4j1981 on Sept 15, 2013 0:08:19 GMT -5
Wasn't that Luther Reigns? I'm tired of marks not knowing the history of the business. It was Hardcore Holly, for the thousandth time.  |
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