Vince Mcmahon's First Headliner

[efarns]

Hulk Hogan was made in The AWA. Roddy Piper headlined on The West Coast. Andre and Snuka were around New York long before Junior took over.

Who is the first wrestler that Vince Mcmahon's WWF took from a minor player in the business and made him into a major star?

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Well Bret was in Calgary. Does Diesel count?

He’s probably close, depending on how you want to define major star.

[Mozenrath]

It's going to depend on what you consider a minor star, I guess.

Savage was pretty obviously going to take off somewhere, but he was out of Memphis and into the WWF when he was still putting the pieces together, so it could be argued he wasn't a major player yet. Just, someone who was pretty obviously primed to be one sooner or later.

Sid was maybe in a similar spot. He was going to be huge anywhere, but I dunno if he was a major player yet before coming to WWF. I'm sure someone could set me straight on that, though, Sid jumped around a whole hell of a lot, so his timeline is sometimes murky for me.

Yokozuna would definitely be a star he made, if we're talking pre-Diesel or HBK era.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

First thought was Bruno Sammartino but realized you meant Vince Jr..

Maybe the Ultimate Warrior? He wasn't exactly a top draw anywhere else before the WWF.

[GuyOfOwnage]

In the space of a year and a half, The Undertaker went from a going nowhere run in WCW to pinning Hulk Hogan for the World title on PPV. I'd say he's another pretty strong contender for this title.

[TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out]

Savage went from working for his dad's outlaw promotion to main-eventing two straight Wrestlemanias in 3 years.

[Joe Neglia]

Mr. T

[Joe Neglia]

Dec 30, 2018 1:09:01 GMT -5 TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out said:

Savage went from working for his dad's outlaw promotion to main-eventing two straight Wrestlemanias in 3 years.

Ehh....the couple of years he spent in Memphis in-between is what put him on Vince's radar, not what he had done in a dead promotion.

[Crappler El 0 M]

If Savage isn't the answer, then it would be Ultimate Warrior or The Undertaker. Dingo Warrior was starting to get attention with his run with Gary Hart in Texas. It wasn't nothing, but it still is hard to call it a major run. Undertaker had a little bit of national exposure as Mean Mark in WCW, but was never a major star there.

[Joe Neglia]

Let's take a look at all Heavyweight and IC champs from the time Vince purchased the company up to Wrestlemania I and remove them from the equation as they were all well known top stars before Vince. This would include Backlund, Sheik, Pedro, Muraco, Santana and Valentine. Okay, so starting with Wrestlemania I, let's look at the actual headliners of each PPV for a while (and I'll only be listing new entrants into the main-event field as they arrive):

WMI - Hogan, Piper, Orndorff and Mr. T - T is really the only one of this group that can be considered Vince's first headliner, but there's a BIG asterisks next to his name due to his celebrity status.

The Wrestling Classic - JYD, Savage - JYD was arguably bigger in Mid-South than he was in WWF. And as already stated, Savage was a Memphis main eventer for a good while before moving to WWF.

WM2 - Bundy - Already had a run against the Von Erichs (including the big Fritz retirement match). AWA run too.

WM3 - Andre - Of course not

Survivor Series 87 - n/a as I'm only counting the Captains of the teams.

WM4 - DiBiase - Was already a top star worldwide when he came to the WWF

SummerSlam 88 - n/a

Survivor Series 88 - n/a but as Hillbilly Jim was on the main face team, I would like to say that Jim SHOULD have been Vince's first headliner. He'd seen mediocre tag team success in Memphis, but little else. Vince was ready to have him headlining one of the lower circuits of house shows before the injury.

Rumble '89 - Big John Studd - WAY late in Studd's career

WM5 - n/a

SummerSlam 89 - Beefcake, Zeus - Zeus is a Mr. T example (he kinda counts but really really doesn't) and Beefcake is a Hillbilly example, in that Vince really wanted to put a rocket on the guy but it just didn't work out, partly due to injuries (and like Jim, Brutus had only seen mild tag team success on the territory circuit prior).

Survivor Series 89 - Warrior - I can't remember if they considered Andre or Heenan the captain of the other team but it's irrelevant. Warrior is the story here. A popular mid-card act in World Class, this was the first PPV-era WWF show that featured a main headliner that wasn't already a top name in the business before entering WWF.

SummerSlam 90 - Rude - While he was on the Survivor Series 87 team, this is his first outing as a singles main eventer. Prior to the WWF, Rude had some mild main event runs (Memphis and World Class) but slid back into mid-card status just as easily. His run here with Warrior is considered a bust, with many blaming it being repetitious of a feud they had just had for the IC belt not long before, and went right back to the high mid-card. He wouldn't fully emerge as a stable headliner until WCW.

After that, we get the Undertaker, who I agree Vince McMahon made a headliner, followed by Sid, who I disagree Vince made a headliner. After that, I almost said Earthquake, but I think his first match was a match tagging with Baba.

[TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out]

Dec 30, 2018 1:47:43 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Dec 30, 2018 1:09:01 GMT -5 TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out said:

Savage went from working for his dad's outlaw promotion to main-eventing two straight Wrestlemanias in 3 years.

Ehh....the couple of years he spent in Memphis in-between is what put him on Vince's radar, not what he had done in a dead promotion.

If we're going to count Savage's CWA run, then literally anyone who main-evented their local armory wouldn't count. He was never the top act of the promotion, just because he was one of the top 5 most talented wrestlers ever doesn't mean that he would have been who he was without the Vinny MacHine like Hogan was.

[Joe Neglia]

Dec 30, 2018 3:25:54 GMT -5 TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out said:

Dec 30, 2018 1:47:43 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Ehh....the couple of years he spent in Memphis in-between is what put him on Vince's radar, not what he had done in a dead promotion.

If we're going to count Savage's CWA run, then literally anyone who main-evented their local armory wouldn't count. He was never the top act of the promotion, just because he was one of the top 5 most talented wrestlers ever doesn't mean that he would have been who he was without the Vinny MacHine like Hogan was.

Savage's CWA run came with several main events over the span of two years that drew 7-9,000 paid. Worked Lawler - again, at a point in time when working Lawler still meant something - over 40 times alone, and you know most of those were main events. We're not talking your local low-rent indie here. He was the Piper to Lawler's Hogan at the time. Wore every singles title they had, multiple times. It was a different time, and Savage headlining CWA in 83 was just as valid as anyone headlining any of the territories at the time. Was he THE Guy? No, but if we go down that route and go with just THE guys, that's just Hogan, Warrior, Bret, HBK, Austin, Rock, HHH, Cena, Reigns. Those are the only THE Guys WWE's ever had. Even Savage was never THE Guy in WWF. Hogan was ALWAYS there looming from above.

[TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out]

Dec 30, 2018 3:55:57 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Dec 30, 2018 3:25:54 GMT -5 TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out said:

If we're going to count Savage's CWA run, then literally anyone who main-evented their local armory wouldn't count. He was never the top act of the promotion, just because he was one of the top 5 most talented wrestlers ever doesn't mean that he would have been who he was without the Vinny MacHine like Hogan was.

Savage's CWA run came with several main events over the span of two years that drew 7-9,000 paid. Worked Lawler - again, at a point in time when working Lawler still meant something - over 40 times alone, and you know most of those were main events. We're not talking your local low-rent indie here. He was the Piper to Lawler's Hogan at the time. Wore every singles title they had, multiple times. It was a different time, and Savage headlining CWA in 83 was just as valid as anyone headlining any of the territories at the time. Was he THE Guy? No, but if we go down that route and go with just THE guys, that's just Hogan, Warrior, Bret, HBK, Austin, Rock, HHH, Cena, Reigns. Those are the only THE Guys WWE's ever had. Even Savage was never THE Guy in WWF. Hogan was ALWAYS there looming from above.

I'm not saying that Savage was "The Guy" in Memphis, but to say that he was ready for prime time immediately after his CWA run isn't right and disregards the work that Savage and McMahon did to create the "Macho Man" persona at every level. There's a reason that he had a prolonged build in an era where moving up the card in a major promotion was so rare.

Him and Lawler did the business they did because of the legit issues between the CWA/IWA and Lawler, not because Savage was such a great heel at 25 years old.

[Deleted]

It's odd to disqualify candidates who main evented in a small territory. If they don't count, then nobody who had real experience before the eventual process of OVW teaching non-wrestlers from scratch would really count. WWF was the first time Savage was on top in a national company. IMO, he's a valid pick.

[The Thread Barbi]

[Joe Neglia]

Dec 30, 2018 4:04:19 GMT -5 TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out said:

I'm not saying that Savage was "The Guy" in Memphis, but to say that he was ready for prime time immediately after his CWA run isn't right and disregards the work that Savage and McMahon did to create the "Macho Man" persona at every level. There's a reason that he had a prolonged build in an era where moving up the card in a major promotion was so rare.

Him and Lawler did the business they did because of the legit issues between the CWA/IWA and Lawler, not because Savage was such a great heel at 25 years old.

What work that Savage and McMahon did to create the "Macho Man" persona? McMahon got that one pre-cooked. Outside of better quality robes and pulling the trigger on having Liz manage him, Savage showed up exactly the same as he was in Memphis and pretty much stayed that way. McMahon didn't have squat to do with creating that character.

There's a reason he had a prolonged build in an era etc etc??? Moving up in a major promotion was rare? What? We're talking 1985. The dude debuted with every single heel manager vying for his services. He missed Wrestlemania 1 but was wrestling in the main event of the very next PPV, The Wrestling Classic. McMahon and the WWF billed him as - and this is going to sound familiar - "The top free agent in the country" - Savage had LESS build up than most guys from that era, and really? Prolonged builds in that era weren't that rare to begin with.

He and Lawler did almost jack due to the legit issues between CWA and IWA because nobody gave a crap about IWA. It was already dead and gone when Savage went to Memphis and it was so miniscule, many Memphis fans didn't even know it still existed in those final years. They never built it as some clash of promotions and the fans didn't treat it as such.

Savage went INTO WWF as a top star. Don't let re-written history fool you.

[evilone]

Macho Man persona was all Randy Savage and it's natural evolution would have happened no matter where he was at the time. That's all him.
When he did come to WWF he was already above 90% of the roster in like everything he was doing. Just look at the amount of promo time he was given back in '85/'86. Him, Piper and Hogan always had at least one pretaped interview on TV. Episode of Superstars wasn't a proper episode if he didn't cut a promo for it. Randy was someone Vince could count on and not babysit until he grows up to be a superstar. Randy came to WWF a lot more solid as character and wrestler than Hulk when he made the jump to WWF, but that's just my subjective opinion.

Back then Vince didn't have time to make superstars, his business plan consisted of eating worlds and digesting what was on the plate. In my opinion first true superstar he ever made was Warrior with Bret being close second. Both of them grew in WWF from banana green to prime time. Then there were Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect whose gimmicks were set in stone and became inseparable only once they came to WWF.

[efarns]

So, the transition away from territory guys was along about Wrestlemania VI. Then Ric Flair and Sid came in. They certainly had a lot of proven commodities to promote while they built new stars.

[abjordans]

I think it has to be Savage. Piper’s NWA run was seen by a lot more people than Savage in Memphis I feel like

[bmfjules]

Interesting, two of the guys cited as Vince's first real "from scratch" main eventers (meaning they were not main event level wrestlers before WWE, but were after) being Warrior and Rude and both of those guys wind up walking out/getting fired (not sure with Rude) in the middle of their initial big pushes.