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Wrestlers who were too soon or too late


rzombie1988

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Who are wrestlers who you think came too soon or too late?

 

My picks are:

 

The Patriot - Couldn't think of a more perfect 70's or 80's babyface. No one really figured him out in the 90's minus the GWF and he was clearly past his time by '97. He'd probably be a heel now with the way the political spectrum is. Not sure how WCW managed to misuse him. Him and Sting would have been a cool team.

 

Superstar Graham - Kind of perfect for his time, but he would have been even bigger if he was in his prime in the 80's.

 

Mike Awesome - Can't believe none of the other Japanese companies didn't try to grab him in the 90's from FMW. Would have been perfect as a second Vader. He's a big muscled up dude who works strong style and flies. Would be amazing in this era and would have been pretty good in the 80's.

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Billy Joe Travis would probably be much more well known if he'd have come around about 10 years earlier.

 

Butch Reed had a great run in Mid-South but would have probably had an incredible WWE run if he'd have debuted around 2000 or so and hit his peak in the mid-2000s when WWE was giving chances to any big muscled up guy they could find.

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Good thread! Interesting idea.

 

Came too early:

Chris Colt: An en vogue guy at the moment, who seems ideal to have flourished more in ECW, late 90s WWF, or 2000s indies. His physique may have been an issue in any era, but adding prime Colt into the Corino/Tajiri equation or brawls with Foley could be interesting.

Ryuma Go: Phenomenal late 70s junior who should have been a phenomenal 90s junior. Whatever kept him from excelling in his time, he who went from looking like Fujinami’s equal to spaceman wingnut working indies in costume. In fact, Fujinami is a costume sounds a bit like Liger.

Steve Grey: This could be said of several elite WOS guys – and in a sense it’s an odd hypothetical given that they paved the way for subsequent styles – but Grey might have been Bret Hart or Danielson in another era.

Naoki Sano: If born 10 years later, he’s a Japanese version of Low Ki who’s in the mix with Joe, Styles, Danielson, and company.

 

Came too late:

Dean Ambrose: First guy who came to mind. Feels like he could have been more in the 80s, where he could have bled and cut more interesting promos to get around his ring work. As of now he sometimes feels like Piper in a moment for WWE that renounces everything that worked for Piper.

Ryback: Always something of a throwback, he seems like an obvious opponent for mid-80s Lawler, late 80s Hogan, or early 90s Sting.

Cesaro: Could have been the top star in a territory (feels like a Canada guy for various reasons).

Dustin Rhodes: Could have been a 70s/early 80s NWA champion or something in that ballpark were he his dad’s age.

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PG-13 and Tracy Smothers were a little too late. Maybe not PG-13 because of their size, since I'm not sure they would have gotten opportunity at all in the 80s, but they just had so few teams to work with in the 90s. Nick Dinsmore was too late as well: solid worker and a strong promo, but more in a way that aligned with the previous generation.

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Not sure if I agree on the Dean Malenko mention earlier. He was the grounded gatekeeper of the Cruiserweight division in WCW, was involved in its (arguably) best feud vs. Jericho, and his influence could be felt hard during the early 00's Indy boom.

 

Love Corino being here, and agree he could go either way (earlier or later).

 

I'll add CM Punk here, just because I think 1996-1998 ECW would be the single best product for him.

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I was thinking that Malenko was a product of perfect timing. He was in a place that valued cruiserweight wrestling in the best era of cruiserweight wrestling. He was legitimately over with the WCW fans, and WCW consistently let him wrestle 10+ minute matches on television. There just aren't many eras in wrestling where he would have been allowed to do that at his size and with his relative lack of charisma.

 

I think Rick Martel was either a generation too late or two too early. Top regional babyface Rick Martel came around right at the time when the role of top regional babyface was diminished. He would be the perfect ROH and/or NXT guy that the internet/indy crowd would love and get behind until he got his shot at the big time.

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Possibly a weird one, but I've been thinking possibly Lanny Poffo is one who came about too early. Been watching his mid 80s stuff and he tries a lot of high flying type stuff that most guys don't in that time. Not saying he would have been huge, but probably could have been more than a jobber if he had come around 5-10 years later.

 

EDIT: Oh shit, somebody said Lanny at the same time I did. Must be something to it then.

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I always thought Reckless Youth was a guy who came around just a little too early. If he had come around 5-10 years later, he would have been one of the top guys of early ROH and other, similar indies, and likely would have had a much better run with WWE and NXT today. Instead, he went to MCW at a time where the WWF had little interest in utilizing a guy as small as he was (he has said that the only gimmick that was pitched to him while under contract was a manager role for Low Down that eventually wound up going to Tiger Ali Singh) and he never made it. If he came along later, he at least goes to NXT or 205 Live, and his smaller size isn't quite the detriment it was in 2000.

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Bryan Danielson would have put on universally acclaimed classic on pace and par with anyone in history if he wrestled late 70s to late 80s/early 90s.

 

He would have been super small in the 80s, I can't think of anyone his size who got any sort of real push. Even Dundee was really barrel chested

 

Eh, true, but its all hypothetical anyway. I thought that if we are playing "what if" to raise points about strengths and weaknesses I wouldn't worry too much about the size issue. The point was obviously that his style would have fit in that era and he could (perhaps not WOULD) have thrived. Tack 3-4 inches and 30 pounds on him he could have cranked out classic matches, particularly as NWA traveling champ, in any number of territories, or in All Japan.

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Dean Malenko. Got pegged as the emotionless boring guy in the WCW Cruiserweight era next to all the lucha guys and strong personalities like Eddy and Jericho. Imagine if his prime was right now as either the workhorse of 205 Live or an opponent to the UK guys.

 

Given the limited future the 205 Live guys probably have, I'd think Dean's career worked out pretty well. Arguably, he was helped by having guys like Rey and Eddy as opponents.

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I'm not saying Dean's career didn't work out, but he wasn't as appreciated at the time by most as much as he probably would be now. If anything I'm saying he'd likely have even more impact now than he did then since his style wouldn't be seen as having a hard cap like it did in WCW,

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I'm not saying Dean's career didn't work out, but he wasn't as appreciated at the time by most as much as he probably would be now. If anything I'm saying he'd likely have even more impact now than he did then since his style wouldn't be seen as having a hard cap like it did in WCW,

He probably gets more notoriety based on being who he was when he was. Now you have guys like Tracy Williams, Timothy Thatcher, TJP, Drew Gulak, ect. who are better technician guys.

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