Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

Reigns that really hurt or devalued a title


Recommended Posts

What I think he means is that the Champion wasn't presented as being the top guy in the company... Yoko was. Angle in 2000? Not really.

 

Excusing Backlund's 3-day reign in '94 and Vince getting the belt in '99... it's probably Angle. Maybe Show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 95
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

What I think he means is that the Champion wasn't presented as being the top guy in the company... Yoko was. Angle in 2000? Not really.

 

Excusing Backlund's 3-day reign in '94 and Vince getting the belt in '99... it's probably Angle. Maybe Show.

Was Iron Sheik booked as the top guy in the company? I know it was only 4 weeks, but if Backlund and Show are getting mentions here then you have to mention Sheik too.

 

I also don't think that Mankind was ever presented as the top guy in the company.

 

However, all of these answers are wrong.

 

Why? Because the actual answer is Ric Flair in 92. He was consistently booked as a BS champ who couldn't beat Undertaker or Hogan or Savage or Warrior. Flair was a proper chicken-shit style heel champ in WWF. And I don't think it would be accurate to say he was booked as top guy when Hogan was still around and Savage in one of the best years of his career.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flair was still the top heel during that time, and was put over really strong in how he won the title at the Rumble.

 

Angle was doing midcard comedy while holding the belt, which felt really weird. Remember the Eric Angle stuff, and the Raw where the Angles were in Christmas hats? (Something like that ...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flair was different for the WWF at the time. But he was still treated as a top guy and a big deal.

 

Angle was up and down. Taker and Austin made him look like shit but the Rock made him look like a threat. I think Angle has some fault as he didn't totally seem to get that he needed to change how he acted.

 

Jericho was really bad. He couldn't even get convincing wins over Maven at the time. He had one great promo against the Rock before the Rumble and that was a lone bright spot in his reign.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Backlund was treated like the top guy on the WWF Mania that aired the day of the MSG show where he lost the title. They acted like he was going to be champion for awhile and that he was negotiating with Ted Dibiase to be his manager.

Wow, I remember when they used to act as if those weekend shows mattered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flair was still the top heel during that time, and was put over really strong in how he won the title at the Rumble.

 

Angle was doing midcard comedy while holding the belt, which felt really weird. Remember the Eric Angle stuff, and the Raw where the Angles were in Christmas hats? (Something like that ...)

 

plus when they finally put together Angle and Stephanie as "business partners" they seemed to lose all the chemistry they had the past several months. I think they thought putting him with her would give him a main event rub but it just didn't pan out

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flair was still the top heel during that time, and was put over really strong in how he won the title at the Rumble.

 

Angle was doing midcard comedy while holding the belt, which felt really weird. Remember the Eric Angle stuff, and the Raw where the Angles were in Christmas hats? (Something like that ...)

Yeah, stuff like that was what I meant by Angle's first title reign. I actually place Backlund's short reign in the same realm as all the heel transitional champs of the past (Koloff, Stasiak, Sheik) and wouldn't count him in what I was trying to describe above. Flair's run could qualify, but I remember him still being treated by the WWF as a big deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flair was still the top heel during that time, and was put over really strong in how he won the title at the Rumble.

Sid was the top heel:

 

* caused Hogan to lose the Rumble rather than Flair to "win" the Rumble

 

* got the main event at Mania against Hogan rather than Flair

 

* Hogan & Piper vs Sid & Flair = Hogan Leg Drops Flair 1-2-3

 

* Flair promptly dropped the title to Savage to *start* their feud

 

* Warrior got the SummerSlam spot opposite Savage in a no-heel double main event

 

One gets the feeling that if Sid hadn't had issues pissing in a bottle that it would have been Savage-Sid at SummerSlam.

 

Flair was "a" top heel... one of the top 2. But he wasn't put over strong. Even with strong angles against Hogan, Piper and Savage, there never was strong payoff in any one of them to make him look strong.

 

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flair was still the top heel during that time, and was put over really strong in how he won the title at the Rumble.

Sid was the top heel:

 

* caused Hogan to lose the Rumble rather than Flair to "win" the Rumble

 

* got the main event at Mania against Hogan rather than Flair

 

* Hogan & Piper vs Sid & Flair = Hogan Leg Drops Flair 1-2-3

 

* Flair promptly dropped the title to Savage to *start* their feud

 

* Warrior got the SummerSlam spot opposite Savage in a no-heel double main event

 

One gets the feeling that if Sid hadn't had issues pissing in a bottle that it would have been Savage-Sid at SummerSlam.

 

Flair was "a" top heel... one of the top 2. But he wasn't put over strong. Even with strong angles against Hogan, Piper and Savage, there never was strong payoff in any one of them to make him look strong.

 

John

 

I'll concede most of that point, except that Flair lasting the full hour was equally or more important than Sid eliminating Hogan. Flair lasting as long as he did in that match was putting him over strong in itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Backlund was treated like the top guy on the WWF Mania that aired the day of the MSG show where he lost the title. They acted like he was going to be champion for awhile and that he was negotiating with Ted Dibiase to be his manager.

Wow, I remember when they used to act as if those weekend shows mattered.

 

Yeah the next morning on Action Zone they announced Diesel had won the WWF title as breaking news.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll concede most of that point, except that Flair lasting the full hour was equally or more important than Sid eliminating Hogan. Flair lasting as long as he did in that match was putting him over strong in itself.

It put him over to us hardcores.

 

For WWF Fans, TV pushed the Hogan-Sid finish. How important was it to the WWF? The doctored the audio to support their Mania main event plans.

 

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll concede most of that point, except that Flair lasting the full hour was equally or more important than Sid eliminating Hogan. Flair lasting as long as he did in that match was putting him over strong in itself.

It put him over to us hardcores.

 

For WWF Fans, TV pushed the Hogan-Sid finish. How important was it to the WWF? The doctored the audio to support their Mania main event plans.

 

John

 

As someone who was a 10 year old kid in 1992, albeit one who was pretty contrary, I feel like at the time, they put over the sheer miracle of what Flair did in a big way, and a lot of that was Heenan and the post match interview.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...