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Post by XaviersSS2015hair on May 5, 2024 23:32:25 GMT -5
Tanga Loa in WWE (the first time) and TNA was the drizzling shits but his NJPW run was good Crazy to think how The Rising stable in TNA went nowhere and accomplished nothing. At a point when the wheels were completely coming off of TNA as a company. Now Drew, Eli and Tanga are all top guys in the biggest company in wrestling at a time where the company is experiencing a massive resurgence. Side note, think WWE will acknowledge that Tanga Loa previously worked there portraying a Mexican? 🤔
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Post by A Platypus Rave on May 6, 2024 1:05:42 GMT -5
Tanga Loa in WWE (the first time) and TNA was the drizzling shits but his NJPW run was good Crazy to think how The Rising stable in TNA went nowhere and accomplished nothing. At a point when the wheels were completely coming off of TNA as a company. Now Drew, Eli and Tanga are all top guys in the biggest company in wrestling at a time where the company is experiencing a massive resurgence. Side note, think WWE will acknowledge that Tanga Loa previously worked there portraying a Mexican? 🤔 they mentioned he was "BACK" at Backlash... they likely won't mention he was Camacho though.
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Post by David-Arquette was in WCW 2000 on May 6, 2024 6:58:04 GMT -5
So many examples are guys who were big in one promotion and then mid card or lower once they got to WWE. Are there any examples of the opposite? Big in WWE, but lesser elsewhere? I’d assume once you make it in WWE you instantly have credibility everywhere else. Trying to come up with one and none are coming to mind What you are describing is why a lot of guys who went to WWF/WWE were less when they arrived. A perception grew throughout the 80s into the 90s that the WWF was the big leagues and when you look at the set-up..it truly was. The WWF at its peak at Wrestlemania III has Hulk Hogan, who was just short of being AWA Champion but rode that momentum to the WWF Championship; Andre The Giant, who had been a major attraction and a WWWF guy since the territory days, Iron Sheik a former WWF Champion; Jake Roberts, who had been an up and coming star in Stampede and in Georgia; Ricky Steamboat, a future NWA Champion; Randy Savage, who went on to being WWF and WCW Champion; Bret Hart, a future WWF Champion and a major player in Stampede along with Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldogs; Roddy Piper who had been a star in Mid-Atlantic and Portland; The Rougeaus were royalty in the Montreal Territory; Harley Race, a former NWA Champion and star throughout the country; Junkyard Dog, who was the main babyface in Mid-South; King Kong Bundy who was a heavy in World Class, and a whole lot of others who came in along the way. The territories meanwhile became lesser because top guys in territories all being in the WWF created a new perception of what a true Main Eventer is and whose a Midcarder because they lacked that depth of star power Nationally. It wasn't til Ric Flair in 1992 that a former World Champion won the WWF Title and even in Ric's promo he talks about how the WWF Championship is the true World Championship and only one that means something. That puts that belt on a higher pedastal than say the NWA, AWA, WCW, ECW, TNA and even AEW Championship today. You could argue that while guys may have been World Champion elsewhere they didn't face the competition thats in the WWF that most years had a stronger Main Event scene than most promotions. Vince capitalized on that and after Flair there wasn't another company's former World Champion as WWF Champion until The Big Show in 1999; CM Punk in 2011, Daniel Bryan in 2013, and then AJ Styles in 2016, before Cody won it at Mania. That alone showed how much more difficult in kayfabe it was to be WWF Champion that only 6 former World Champions elsewhere held the belt the last 40 years between AWA, NWA, WCW, ECW, ROH, TNA, and AEW. Lex Luger was shown to be in the hunt for it and was damn near close to being the 2nd former World Champion to do it; Sting at an old age gave Seth Rollins a run for his money before he got injured; Vader was in the hunt for it for the first year and a half he was there but just fell short to Taker, Shawn, and Bret; Ron Simmons got a shot at Taker at King of the Ring 1997 and may have won had he not gotten distracted by the Nation; Goldberg won the Universal and World but never the true WWF/WWE Championship; DDP I can't see having a WWF Title reign at that stage of his career but he could have been done better. All in all though it creates a perception that the WWF is a tougher league to make it in whereas the rest weren't as tolling, something the WWF pushed heavily in the 80s and 90s. Not just from an in ring perspective, or the WWF Title being on a pedestal. The WWF was a much more global brand. By 1992 they had a strong reach all across the US, into Canada, the UK. The only place where WCW/NWA maybe surpassed them was Japan. Combined you have the cultivation of some of the best wrestling talent, past, present and future, a much broader and recognised market platform, and from that, the perception that WWF Title is THE belt.
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Post by ianriccaboni on May 6, 2024 11:43:37 GMT -5
Big Bossman in WWF was definitely the best Ray Traylor, especially compared to Guardian Angel, etc.
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Post by James Fabiano on May 6, 2024 13:25:06 GMT -5
Big Bossman in WWF was definitely the best Ray Traylor, especially compared to Guardian Angel, etc. Bossman did last longer and is an iconic character, but I'd put the original incarnation of Big Bubba Rogers on par with him as far as Traylor characters go.
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Post by rainandlava on May 6, 2024 13:37:04 GMT -5
Does Damien Sandow count? I mean, he was a beloved comedy act in WWE and in TNA/Impact...he pretty much made himself look like an utter tool.
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Post by OGBoardPoster2005 on May 8, 2024 11:26:40 GMT -5
What you are describing is why a lot of guys who went to WWF/WWE were less when they arrived. A perception grew throughout the 80s into the 90s that the WWF was the big leagues and when you look at the set-up..it truly was. The WWF at its peak at Wrestlemania III has Hulk Hogan, who was just short of being AWA Champion but rode that momentum to the WWF Championship; Andre The Giant, who had been a major attraction and a WWWF guy since the territory days, Iron Sheik a former WWF Champion; Jake Roberts, who had been an up and coming star in Stampede and in Georgia; Ricky Steamboat, a future NWA Champion; Randy Savage, who went on to being WWF and WCW Champion; Bret Hart, a future WWF Champion and a major player in Stampede along with Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldogs; Roddy Piper who had been a star in Mid-Atlantic and Portland; The Rougeaus were royalty in the Montreal Territory; Harley Race, a former NWA Champion and star throughout the country; Junkyard Dog, who was the main babyface in Mid-South; King Kong Bundy who was a heavy in World Class, and a whole lot of others who came in along the way. The territories meanwhile became lesser because top guys in territories all being in the WWF created a new perception of what a true Main Eventer is and whose a Midcarder because they lacked that depth of star power Nationally. It wasn't til Ric Flair in 1992 that a former World Champion won the WWF Title and even in Ric's promo he talks about how the WWF Championship is the true World Championship and only one that means something. That puts that belt on a higher pedastal than say the NWA, AWA, WCW, ECW, TNA and even AEW Championship today. You could argue that while guys may have been World Champion elsewhere they didn't face the competition thats in the WWF that most years had a stronger Main Event scene than most promotions. Vince capitalized on that and after Flair there wasn't another company's former World Champion as WWF Champion until The Big Show in 1999; CM Punk in 2011, Daniel Bryan in 2013, and then AJ Styles in 2016, before Cody won it at Mania. That alone showed how much more difficult in kayfabe it was to be WWF Champion that only 6 former World Champions elsewhere held the belt the last 40 years between AWA, NWA, WCW, ECW, ROH, TNA, and AEW. Lex Luger was shown to be in the hunt for it and was damn near close to being the 2nd former World Champion to do it; Sting at an old age gave Seth Rollins a run for his money before he got injured; Vader was in the hunt for it for the first year and a half he was there but just fell short to Taker, Shawn, and Bret; Ron Simmons got a shot at Taker at King of the Ring 1997 and may have won had he not gotten distracted by the Nation; Goldberg won the Universal and World but never the true WWF/WWE Championship; DDP I can't see having a WWF Title reign at that stage of his career but he could have been done better. All in all though it creates a perception that the WWF is a tougher league to make it in whereas the rest weren't as tolling, something the WWF pushed heavily in the 80s and 90s. Not just from an in ring perspective, or the WWF Title being on a pedestal. The WWF was a much more global brand. By 1992 they had a strong reach all across the US, into Canada, the UK. The only place where WCW/NWA maybe surpassed them was Japan. Combined you have the cultivation of some of the best wrestling talent, past, present and future, a much broader and recognised market platform, and from that, the perception that WWF Title is THE belt. Yep, prior to the WWF Expansion of 1984, the NWA and AWA belts were looked at as the two most prestigious, unless you were from another territory that didn't recognize it. The WWF National exposure into the mainstream with NBC, USA and MTV along with a strong international presence turned what was eseentially the #3 world title of the 3 at the time into the number 1 within a few years. It became mainstream wrestling, like the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL did their respective sports. If you also look at who the champions would feud with. Hulk Hogan fought Iron Sheik, Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, Terry Funk, Andre The Giant, Ted DiBiase, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Sgt. Slaughter, and Undertaker in his original run. Flair had Dusty Rhodes, Kerry Von Erich, Ronnie Garvin, Sting, Lex Luger, Terry Funk, and Tatsumi Fujinami. No slight to the names on Flair's list but Hogan always had stronger competition. Kerry and Garvin weren't seen in the same light as a Piper or Savage. The rest were good names but the audience leaned more towards the super babyface Hulk Hogan and his adventures over the villain Ric Flair and his.
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