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Post by sungod2020 on Dec 22, 2020 17:25:31 GMT -5
After hearing about his Royal Rumble win and it was suppose to lead to bigger things for him, I decided to make a thread on what may have happened if he was healthy enough to compete.
As some of you may know, the Hall of Famer returned to the World Wrestling Federation after being in the wrestling wilderness for over two years. An elated Bobby Heenan appeared on the set to welcome Studd back to the Heenan family. However, with Heenan now also managing his old adversary André the Giant, Studd rejected the offer and ran Heenan off the Brother Love set, thus turning face.
The near 7 footer started out with a wave of momentum in his first month by winning the first ever 30 man Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Ted Dibiase. Studd went on to sorta feud with several members of the Heenan family, including reignited his legendary rivalry with Andre The Giant(this time with the face/heel roles reversed). He ended up being the referee in his(Andre's) match against Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Studd and André had several words with each other both before and during the match and eventually disqualified his nemesis after the giant attacked him from behind.
However, the feud never got off the ground and Studd eventually left the company shortly thereafter. It was said due to poor payoffs from the company, but from what I heard, his body didn't hold up as he gained 40 pounds from his last run which slowed him down in his matches.
So lets say money and health problems weren't an issue, how would the WWF book him if he was able to continue? Perhaps a blow off to the Andre feud at that years Summerslam? A Hogan buddy? Thoughts?
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Crappler El 0 M
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Post by Crappler El 0 M on Dec 22, 2020 17:28:08 GMT -5
If it works out, they probably eventually turn him heel and maybe have him put over Ultimate Warrior and Hogan. As a babyface, maybe he does a program with Savage where they do non-finishes/countouts on the house shows. They may not have had any concrete plans past having him win the Rumble and feud with Andre on the house shows. It may have been start him off with that, see how it goes, and go from there.
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The Heenan Family
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Post by The Heenan Family on Dec 22, 2020 17:56:47 GMT -5
A blow off with Andre at Summerslam seems most likely. If it couldn't be a one on one match then Andre could tag with Haku and have Studd tag with King Duggan.
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Post by lildude8218 on Dec 22, 2020 20:34:07 GMT -5
It would've been him and Demolition against Andre and the Twin Towers at Summerslam that year. After that I could see them keeping him around but without any feud still winning squashes on TV and maybe doing draws with another midcard heel on the houses (Bad News Brown maybe?) Then you have him square off with Earthquake in the Rumble with Earthquake eliminating Studd then they do the house show loop. Earthquake beats Studd either at Wrestlemania 6 or on the Saturday Night's Main Event to get him ready for Hogan.
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Post by mrpeacock on Dec 22, 2020 21:02:36 GMT -5
He was working Akeem on the house show loop. Rumor I remember hearing was that he couldn’t bodyslam Akeem and Vince was very upset about it to the point of saying he’d be out of either a job or a push (one or the other I can’t fully recall) if he wasn’t able to do one that night.
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BlackoutCreature
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Post by BlackoutCreature on Dec 24, 2020 12:58:11 GMT -5
He was working Akeem on the house show loop. Rumor I remember hearing was that he couldn’t bodyslam Akeem and Vince was very upset about it to the point of saying he’d be out of either a job or a push (one or the other I can’t fully recall) if he wasn’t able to do one that night. According to History of WWE, that happened on 3/10/89 at a large house show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Studd was told if he couldn't bodyslam Akeem he was fired. |
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Post by jason1980s on Dec 24, 2020 14:29:27 GMT -5
Poor John, that sucks for an ultimatum. Akeem was so obese at the time it's not like you could do a bodyslam that even looked good.
John should have just retired to movies or tv commercials but IIRC it was him trying to make a comeback in 1993 that led to his cancer diagnosis.
From all accounts he was a great guy and easy to deal with.
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Post by koreycaskets on Dec 24, 2020 19:03:25 GMT -5
I know it's a year off but a healthy John Stuff face vs Undertaker could have been fun.
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Zen411
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Post by Zen411 on Dec 28, 2020 14:23:27 GMT -5
A match against Dibiase at Mania would have been nice. They had good chemistry in the Rumble. Could have been a nice moment where Andre costs him the match and then a brief reunion/handshake between Dibiase and Andre. Leads to a house show run between Andre and Studd. Jake vs Andre at Mania was fine by itself.
I would have loved a one off team with Hogan against twin towers at a Saturday nights main event. He would have been a better fit in the six man match with demolition and twin towers and Andre. Could have let hacksaw defend the crown against Haku or someone else.
If studd did well as a face I think he would have eventually been a gatekeeper against up and coming hosses like Quake, and warlord and barbarian. If face run didnt work he could easily go back to heel and be the same role against heel faces like tugboat, etc. I dont think his personality was big enough to last as a big star in that era but he had the size to exist as a legit big guy challenger.
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Post by willywonka666 on Dec 30, 2020 9:12:46 GMT -5
I do like the idea of him feuding with Andre-it would have been a better loss for Andre than being squashed by the Warrior in a few seconds. Perhaps Heenan could have slapped Andre after that loss leading to his face turn and retirement.
I also like the idea of pairing Studd with Hogan to keep the momentum going. It's hard to tell where Studd would be the longer he stayed.
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Post by Aceorton on Dec 30, 2020 11:03:42 GMT -5
I do like the idea of him feuding with Andre-it would have been a better loss for Andre than being squashed by the Warrior in a few seconds. Perhaps Heenan could have slapped Andre after that loss leading to his face turn and retirement. By most accounts, it seems like Studd was the last person on the planet Andre was willing to lose to because he was hung up on the "one true giant" thing. Andre always comes off as mega-childish in these stories, considering Studd was widely seen as a nice guy. |
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Post by Ben Wyatt on Dec 30, 2020 12:11:47 GMT -5
Dancing babyface
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Post by sungod2020 on Dec 30, 2020 14:37:34 GMT -5
I actually re-watched that Rumble last night and it was a good reminder that the WWF didn’t have their stuff together, even back then in the simpler time period of squashes on TV and 4 PPVs. Studd as the choice to win the thing was just dumb. The fans didn’t care about the guy, plain and simple. Even if the stars aligned and he was kept happy during the planned run.... it wouldn’t have made the people care about him. They really just didn’t care about him any more than they cared about Hercules, for example. He was just a big dude. Not as big as Andre. Nobody else was Andre. So he was just a guy who wasn’t as big as Andre. It can’t be stated enough that— since Andre The Giant existed— a bunch of other big guys who are not as awe inspiring and impressive as Andre, aren’t going to get over anywhere close to like Andre. They’re all just second or third rate big guys in comparison. The way that Rumble match was booked ended up being a very good illustration of who was over and who wasn’t. They made the mistake of loading up the middle of the Rumble with the big names, and the last 1/4 or so of it fell flat. Once the fans saw Hogan was gone, Savage was gone, Andre was gone, hell even Jake The Snake was gone (they were all seen as bigger stars than Studd), it took all of the air out of the crowd, as it came down to just guys like Studd, DiBiase, Hercules, Akeem, etc. at the end. They didn’t care if any of those guys won it. (Actually, correction: They cared about wanting DiBiase to NOT win, because DiBiase was over as a heel. But they didn’t care which babyface would be the one to beat him. Oh, it was Studd? Ok, cool.) Are you sure the fans didn't care about BJS? I thought he was a big star in his previous run. Did times change or was the crowd not feeling his face turn? |
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Post by Milkman Norm on Dec 30, 2020 15:34:15 GMT -5
I actually re-watched that Rumble last night and it was a good reminder that the WWF didn’t have their stuff together, even back then in the simpler time period of squashes on TV and 4 PPVs. Studd as the choice to win the thing was just dumb. The fans didn’t care about the guy, plain and simple. Even if the stars aligned and he was kept happy during the planned run.... it wouldn’t have made the people care about him. They really just didn’t care about him any more than they cared about Hercules, for example. He was just a big dude. Not as big as Andre. Nobody else was Andre. So he was just a guy who wasn’t as big as Andre. It can’t be stated enough that— since Andre The Giant existed— a bunch of other big guys who are not as awe inspiring and impressive as Andre, aren’t going to get over anywhere close to like Andre. They’re all just second or third rate big guys in comparison. The way that Rumble match was booked ended up being a very good illustration of who was over and who wasn’t. They made the mistake of loading up the middle of the Rumble with the big names, and the last 1/4 or so of it fell flat. Once the fans saw Hogan was gone, Savage was gone, Andre was gone, hell even Jake The Snake was gone (they were all seen as bigger stars than Studd), it took all of the air out of the crowd, as it came down to just guys like Studd, DiBiase, Hercules, Akeem, etc. at the end. They didn’t care if any of those guys won it. (Actually, correction: They cared about wanting DiBiase to NOT win, because DiBiase was over as a heel. But they didn’t care which babyface would be the one to beat him. Oh, it was Studd? Ok, cool.) Are you sure the fans didn't care about BJS? I thought he was a big star in his previous run. Did times change or was the crowd not feeling his face turn? Andre's heel turn meant that all of the Andre vs Heenan Family stuff from 84-86 was wiped from kayfabe. So BJS returns & he's a face because? Heenan got the real giant? Why should've fans cared? |
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Post by johnnyk9 on Dec 30, 2020 19:57:06 GMT -5
After his revived feud with Andre I think a feud with Bad News Brown would’ve been cool
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Post by jason1980s on Dec 30, 2020 21:04:41 GMT -5
He had been gone for two full years and a few months. Back then it was out of site/out of mind so fans hadn't given him any thought those last 2+ years. Plus, everything else that everyone has said. The return was a feel good moment and not sure who else could have won since most storylines made it so others wouldn't win. The best thing about that Studd run was that it gave us the music that would eventually be turned into Hacksaw's music and that Hooooo followed but that upbeat music was totally awesome.
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