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Post by lildude8218 on Jun 9, 2024 0:21:54 GMT -5
Let's say Hogan and Andre don't get a Bye into the second round. Who do they face? What two guys would fit into that slot of the 15th and 16th contender for the World title?
Immediately I looked at the lineup for the Battle Royal and said, "Oh, it's gotta be JYD and Harley Race," but I started to look at some other options.
Hercules could have fit in that opening round vs Hogan match perfectly but then we lose his match with Warrior, who definitely needed to be shined here and should NOT have been in the tournament because any kind of loss would just hurt him. Same goes for Bad News Brown, he HAS to win that battle royal.
Ron Bass is one guy who never had any kind of conflict with Hogan during the WWF. It would have been a fresh matchup, we'd seen Hogan/Hercules and Hogan/Harley on SNME already. They were familiar with each other from their early days in the 70s.
Ken Patera had worked with Andre in the early 80s as a heel so he knew what was needed. Also on the tail end of his career so a loss wasn't going to make a difference. Similar to the JYD idea.
The only other one I could think of was Koko B. Ware. Bulldogs in a handicap match against The Islanders and Heenan could have still been interesting. Having such a small guy try to "survive" against Andre could have been an interesting dynamic for a quick PPV match.
Sam Houston, Danny Davis, Sika, Hillbilly Jim, and George Steele were probably not believable enough to be considered contenders for the title at this point. Neither would be a singles participant pulled from any of the tag teams.
What do you think?
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Post by RUSH4AEWchamp on Jun 9, 2024 0:37:49 GMT -5
Snuka came out during a match and posed for some reason, so I would just feed him to Andre for a 30 second squash - Andre could barely move. For Hogan, I scrap the IC title match (Brutus vs Honkey) and feed him Honkey.
I think you're genuinely right about the rest of the roster being too thin, so better to go with guys already there in bigger roles. Plus, the show was close to over 4 hours long, if you're going to add two matches, you'd have to lose one match anyways
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jun 9, 2024 1:46:30 GMT -5
If you're going by kayfabe then Warrior would definitely be one of the last two spots as he was undefeated while being around about five months at that point. I get why he wasn't in as they didn't want him to lose.
Bad News was still really new and hadn't beat any one of note at that point.
JYD had really fallen down the card but probably was the next most credible solo face if Warrior isn't in so I guess he would've had to get the nod to job to Andre. Hercules would be needed to put Warrior over in the non tournament match. Therefore it comes down to Race or Bass to get fed to Hogan. Since they just did Race against Hogan on SNME earlier in the month, I guess Bass would make most the sense.
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Cranjis McBasketball
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Jun 9, 2024 10:17:51 GMT -5
Snuka came out during a match and posed for some reason, so I would just feed him to Andre for a 30 second squash - Andre could barely move. For Hogan, I scrap the IC title match (Brutus vs Honkey) and feed him Honkey That was Mania 5. |
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Post by wildojinx on Jun 9, 2024 16:13:48 GMT -5
I could see Hogan vs one of the Bolsheviks, he had wrestled Volkoff several times before and would have a match against Zukhov right before he left in the summer.
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Cranjis McBasketball
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Jun 9, 2024 18:24:29 GMT -5
I’d put Hogan v. Virgil. Gives a thread back to DiBiase and Hogan.
Andre isn’t doing more than a single match a night, squash or not, so he just gets a buy by virtue of being the last recognized champion.
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Post by jason1980s on Jun 9, 2024 20:34:07 GMT -5
I've thought about IV a lot. I can't think of any other way it works other than the tournament and battle royal. If they do a regular style show they have a lot of guys but it doesn't make sense. There's so few feuds or star power when you look at it as a regular show. I get trying to change it all these years later. The tournament certainly wasn't amazing but not much else you can do. You'd probably have 20 matches with 15 being jobbers on one side.
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repomark
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Post by repomark on Jun 10, 2024 8:51:05 GMT -5
Round 1
Hogan v Butch Reed
Andre v Bam Bam
Dibiase v Duggan
Steamboat v Bret Hart
Rick Rude v JYD
Jake Roberts v Bravo
Muraco v One Man Gang
Macho Man v Greg Valentine
Round 2
Macho Man v One Man Gang
Dibiase v Jake Roberts
Steamboat v Rick Rude
Hogan v Andre
Round 3
Macho Man v Steamboat
Dibiase bye
Round 4
Macho Man v Dibiase
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jun 10, 2024 10:48:53 GMT -5
Round 1 Hogan v Butch Reed Andre v Bam Bam Dibiase v Duggan Steamboat v Bret Hart Rick Rude v JYD Jake Roberts v Bravo Muraco v One Man Gang Macho Man v Greg Valentine Round 2 Macho Man v One Man Gang Dibiase v Jake Roberts Steamboat v Rick Rude Hogan v Andre Round 3 Macho Man v Steamboat Dibiase bye Round 4 Macho Man v Dibiase That looks pretty good. Only thing I would change is I would have Savage against Steamboat in the second round and against Gang in the semi finals. Gang in that spot did make sense as Dibiase getting the easy way to the finals with Savage having to get through this giant monster heel to get to there did make sense with that story and is more effective then Savage having a scientific babyface match against Steamboat. |
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Post by johnnyk9 on Jun 11, 2024 17:15:57 GMT -5
I liked that they had a first round by
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Cranjis McBasketball
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Knew what the hell that thing was supposed to be
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Jun 11, 2024 18:27:17 GMT -5
Round 1 Hogan v Butch Reed Andre v Bam Bam Dibiase v Duggan Steamboat v Bret Hart Rick Rude v JYD Jake Roberts v Bravo Muraco v One Man Gang Macho Man v Greg Valentine Round 2 Macho Man v One Man Gang Dibiase v Jake Roberts Steamboat v Rick Rude Hogan v Andre Round 3 Macho Man v Steamboat Dibiase bye Round 4 Macho Man v Dibiase That looks pretty good. Only thing I would change is I would have Savage against Steamboat in the second round and against Gang in the semi finals. Gang in that spot did make sense as Dibiase getting the easy way to the finals with Savage having to get through this giant monster heel to get to there did make sense with that story and is more effective then Savage having a scientific babyface match against Steamboat. The world is an infinitely better place they didn’t do Savage v. Steamboat at Mania 4. People whine about this show enough without complaining how Savage and Steamboat only got 8 minutes and it’s so much worse than their classic a year before. |
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Post by Celexa Bliss 54 on Jun 11, 2024 18:33:07 GMT -5
Were King Kong Bundy and Paul Orndorff still around? Because those two would make the most sense.
EDIT: A quick check says that Orndorff finished up in January and Bundy in February. Just have them stick around until after Mania and use them. Maybe switch Bundy with another heel so you're not doing a Bundy/Hogan rematch.
That said, I'd have personally kept it the way it was, as it made sense for Hogan and Andre to get byes.
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Post by lildude8218 on Jun 13, 2024 16:54:23 GMT -5
Were King Kong Bundy and Paul Orndorff still around? Because those two would make the most sense. EDIT: A quick check says that Orndorff finished up in January and Bundy in February. Just have them stick around until after Mania and use them. Maybe switch Bundy with another heel so you're not doing a Bundy/Hogan rematch. That said, I'd have personally kept it the way it was, as it made sense for Hogan and Andre to get byes. Bundy's last televised appearance in the company was supposed to be the SNME rematch with Hogan. He only did that MSG match in February as a favor because Gang was injured and it wasn't far for him to travel to the Garden from Jersey. If you watch the match you'll see that he didn't even bother to shave his head for the match. |
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