Could Sean Waltman Ever Have Been WWF Champion?

[Sephiroth]

IMO, no. In either of his WWF runs he would have made a fine world title CONTENDER, but not an actual WHC. As the 123 Kid he was the perfect underdog to go against a heel champion like Razor Ramon or Shawn Michaels, giving the overconfident villain the fight of their life but coming up short, thereby elevating himself and getting further beat in the champion. As X PAC I could easily have seen him as a challenger to The Rock as the Corporate Champion. He was good but just not on that level.

[The Ichi]

Maaaaybe in 95 if Bret was injured. And Diesel. And Shawn. And Taker. Yoko too.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Jul 28, 2022 16:17:30 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Not quite but the fact he never held the IC Title is crazy

I cannot believe you're right about this. Every single other member of DX held it. Chyna had it twice! Billy had it a bunch of times! f***ING ROAD PISS BOY HAD IT

For what it's worth, I think at a certain point in the Attitude Era, almost anybody was over enough that if they won the title the fans would blow up, even if the title run would die after the win (and they could always win it back). Think of the volume of pop the midcarders in those days would get. Taka nearly beat Triple H once and the place was coming unglued. The Smackdown where Tazz gets Hunter in the Tazzmission was electric. You can't tell me that if Crash Holly had somehow won the title, the fans wouldn't have exploded like Santino nearly winning the Rumble. If Scotty 2 Hotty had got it they would have gone banana. Test, Bradshaw. The list of super over lower card babyfaces goes on.

Babyface X Pac in 99 I think would absolutely have been able to do it, but weirdly once he turned on Kane I think he actually killed enough of his heat that it wouldn't have worked.

[Mid-Carder]

I would say no but there have been far worse actual WWF/E champions

[CMWaters]

Jul 30, 2022 14:57:14 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Jul 28, 2022 16:17:30 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Not quite but the fact he never held the IC Title is crazy

I cannot believe you're right about this. Every single other member of DX held it. Chyna had it twice! Billy had it a bunch of times! f***ING ROAD PISS BOY HAD IT

Although in Dogg's case that was just Russo playing around with expectations, as it was pretty much swapping titles between Dogg and Gunn (the other being the pre-24/7 Hardcore Championship) for...reasons. Otherwise I don't think Dogg would have ever gotten it either.

[fw91]

Jul 30, 2022 15:00:37 GMT -5 Mid-Carder said:

I would say no but there have been far worse actual WWF/E champions

This sums it up nicely.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Jul 30, 2022 15:09:40 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

Jul 30, 2022 14:57:14 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

I cannot believe you're right about this. Every single other member of DX held it. Chyna had it twice! Billy had it a bunch of times! f***ING ROAD PISS BOY HAD IT

Although in Dogg's case that was just Russo playing around with expectations, as it was pretty much swapping titles between Dogg and Gunn (the other being the pre-24/7 Hardcore Championship) for...reasons. Otherwise I don't think Dogg would have ever gotten it either.

Nobody seems to know why he did it, but it’s worth noting Billy hated Hardcore matches and never felt comfortable doing them.

So given all we know about WWE, that seems to be why.