SmashTV
Dennis Stamp
Big Money, Big Prizes, I Love It!
The Excellence of Allocation
Posts: 4,517
|
Post by SmashTV on Jun 4, 2020 12:39:32 GMT -5
I remember as a kid when Mean Gene was on the podium and announced "new WWF champion Bret Hart" to the stage, my brother and I were shocked. Same here; I happened to have some friends with me and we all sat there dumbfounded. It was out of the blue and I’d have imagined Warrior or Savage walking out, but Bret? It was a pleasant surprise, of course!
|
|
|
Post by Milkman Norm on Jun 4, 2020 15:14:28 GMT -5
Especially because Bret wasn't a guy we saw working with Flair on TV. If anything his character direction heading into the fall seemed to be "guy who's happy that he isn't fighting his brother in law anymore" or "guy who will use wrestling holds to defeat voodoo." A title reign was nowhere in the cards.
|
|
|
Post by mauled on Jun 5, 2020 1:27:06 GMT -5
I remember as a kid when Mean Gene was on the podium and announced "new WWF champion Bret Hart" to the stage, my brother and I were shocked. Same here; I happened to have some friends with me and we all sat there dumbfounded. It was out of the blue and I’d have imagined Warrior or Savage walking out, but Bret? It was a pleasant surprise, of course! Speaking of Savage,just imagine how much a bigger Main Event WM9 would've been with Bret v Savage as the Main Event instead of Yoko.
|
|
|
Post by mauled on Jun 5, 2020 1:35:02 GMT -5
Didn't believe this post until I looked it up and watched it. I'll be damned. That's a strong trivia question i'd never got the answer too The answer is no. This Tito match happened in October 91 but Taker had already jobbed to Warrior earlier that year. youtu.be/0Tsn5KsO36oyoutu.be/YZP5r8tXswc
|
|
|
Post by Mister Pigwell on Jun 5, 2020 1:46:31 GMT -5
That's a strong trivia question i'd never got the answer too The answer is no. This Tito match happened in October 91 but Taker had already jobbed to Warrior earlier that year. youtu.be/0Tsn5KsO36oyoutu.be/YZP5r8tXswcBut Taker's loss to Warrior wasn't a pinfall. The statement was specifically about a pin.
|
|
|
Post by mauled on Jun 5, 2020 3:25:54 GMT -5
But Taker's loss to Warrior wasn't a pinfall. The statement was specifically about a pin. Fair point. I found the Warrior/Taker Rampage match which Warrior wins but that's by DQ. I don't know if Taker got Pinned in there House show run ? www.dailymotion.com/video/x4gfenCrazy to think he's jobbing to Tito yet only a month later he's almost killing Hulk and winning the belt at Survivor Series;)
|
|
petef3
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,783
|
Post by petef3 on Jun 5, 2020 10:26:02 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure every Warrior-'Taker house show match either ended in UT being put in a bodybag or disqualified for using the urn.
|
|
Magnus the Magnificent
King Koopa
didn't want one.
I could write a book about what you don't know!
Posts: 12,632
|
Post by Magnus the Magnificent on Jun 5, 2020 10:40:47 GMT -5
Tito cheated to win! Was it televised on official WWF TV, or a local station? I'm trying to find out if it's official canon that Tito pinned 'Taker, or if it's a case of didn't-happen-on-TV-so-it-never-happened, unless-we-mention-it-happened, then-it-actually-happened.
|
|
|
Post by jason1980s on Jun 5, 2020 11:12:20 GMT -5
With Undertaker coming up on a bigger run with the company, even though the title reign was short, I wonder if they gave him the Tito pinfall loss to keep him in place. Like with Rick Rude and Jerry Allen, they could always put the loss on TV to keep his ego in check if it got out of hand (though it did not). A guy coming up the card like Undertaker could have his run killed with a televised loss to Tito, IMO. I also think he got the win for the foreign country pop.
|
|
|
Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jun 5, 2020 11:25:09 GMT -5
But Taker's loss to Warrior wasn't a pinfall. The statement was specifically about a pin. Fair point. I found the Warrior/Taker Rampage match which Warrior wins but that's by DQ. I don't know if Taker got Pinned in there House show run ? www.dailymotion.com/video/x4gfenCrazy to think he's jobbing to Tito yet only a month later he's almost killing Hulk and winning the belt at Survivor Series;) Well, fact that he pinned Taker so early in his run is still impressive
|
|
|
Post by corndog on Jun 6, 2020 10:20:36 GMT -5
I think as well as Bret HBK was considered, he had a UK taping (well for VHS) title shot against Savage just after WM8 and looked very strong, also Tatanka wasn't given a 2 yr unbeaten streak for fun surely. It's been a while since I read Bret's book, he had the shortlist in there. I don't think HBK was on it, because it was very early for him, he had only been a singles wrestler for a little over a year. I know Tito was on there, which kind of surprised me, I think Martel, Hennig, and Tatanka might have been on there too.
|
|
|
Post by jason1980s on Jun 6, 2020 11:38:05 GMT -5
Perfect would have been an amazing choice with the right buildup, like Diesel and Shawn's falling out in 1994. So much was changing in 1992 that it seemed WWF had to change gears so quickly, almost on the fly but certain things needed more buildup. I don't see Perfect keeping the belt very long though. He just wasn't as reliable as he had been during his first wrestling run. I can also see WWF quickly doing a Lex run to take the belt off Perfect and that probably would have hurt business even worse though it might not lead to a Hogan WrestleMania win.
|
|
|
Post by dirtyoldman on Jun 6, 2020 12:57:19 GMT -5
When you see the names listed, Bret (and Taker to an extent) are the only ones really that can be seen as main event champions. Was Crush ever mentioned come to think of it? He would have been a little green but had that look.
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,767
|
Post by nisidhe on Jun 7, 2020 10:23:48 GMT -5
I'm not sure it would have taken much to get Tito back to main-event status. He was perennially over as a babyface (much like Steamboat, who might also have been on that list), and would have helped opened up the Latin American market to WWE at the time. I'd say it would have taken about six months of a)winning every match, b) commentary selling him as a winner and potential champion (remember, Gorilla and Heenan were still there); and c) promos of other wrestlers selling him as a winner and potential champion.
Bret as WWF champion came kind of out of nowhere, but he was quickly accepted and he was still continuously and consistently sold as champion. Tito would no doubt have gotten the same treatment, and a sudden win over Flair would not have been as shocking to WWE fans who'd followed Tito throughout the 80s. Tito's big problem for WWE, though, was the same as they had with Bret: neither were billed as Americans and, while fans really didn't care about that by 1992, it was an issue for Vince that he couldn't sell the American Dream or American hegemony with his world champion. Tito as champion by October of 1992 would have almost certainly lost the title by 1993 (quite possibly at the Rumble against Yokozuna), lost to Yoko throughout house shows following, and would have been down the card as Yoko defended, and lost, against a returning Hogan at Wrestlemania IX. Would Tito have won KOTR that year? I don't know. Assuming Hogan lost the title at KOTR, Luger would have had an easier time with the booking in the runup to Summerslam, and would have probably beaten Yokozuna then and held the title.
All speculation, but while Tito would have been a more credible champion when he won, he might not have been booked with the same resilience or had the same reach as Bret.
|
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,967
|
Post by Mozenrath on Jun 10, 2020 4:40:08 GMT -5
Perfect would have been an amazing choice with the right buildup, like Diesel and Shawn's falling out in 1994. So much was changing in 1992 that it seemed WWF had to change gears so quickly, almost on the fly but certain things needed more buildup. I don't see Perfect keeping the belt very long though. He just wasn't as reliable as he had been during his first wrestling run. I can also see WWF quickly doing a Lex run to take the belt off Perfect and that probably would have hurt business even worse though it might not lead to a Hogan WrestleMania win. There's no tactful way to ask this, but did he already have a coke problem by then? Because, if so, then he'd have the workrate, sure, but that'd still be a major strike against him as a candidate for this.
|
|