Greatest wrestler never to hold a world title

[Guest Sassquatch]

You both just answered your own question.

 

EVERYTHING Shawn say's has to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Besides, Meltzer and Keller both talked about the Owen/Shawn issue and how it never materialized thanks to Shawn's jobberitus.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I remember thinking when Owen was still there (and everyone else was gone) and he was the "sole surviving Hart" they should have put the belt on him.

 

THAT NIGHT.

 

On Raw.

 

When he showed up and was still there...he should have demanded a shot at the title...and won it.

 

The timing was perfect.

 

As usual...The WWF blew it.

[Guest Tony149]

Yeah, they had the feud set up, but ike bps21 said, the WWF blew it on that one.

[Guest CanadianChris]

How on earth have we gotten 32 posts into this thread with no mention of Roddy Piper?

 

He and Arn Anderson would be the two names I'd add to this list.

[Guest SSVideo]

Ted Dibiase (His stuff is classic, have alot of his mid south footage and he is great.)

 

http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling3/ssv

[Guest Tony149]

I agree on Piper. He was great back in the day. He could of been an awesome World Champion.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

How great would this angle have been:

 

Owen is the only Hart member left in the WWF.

 

He comes back...confronts Micheals and DEMANDS a title shot.

 

If I'm not mistaken...the Raw after Montreal was in Canada, too.

 

So he comes out the night after Montreal and demans a shot THAT night.  

 

He then wins the title...TO A HUGE CANADIAN POP!

 

Grabs the microphone and says:  I'd like to dedicate this title to my Brother Bret...............Who wasn't good enough to beat Shawn Micheals last night...but I beat him tonight...WOOO!  I am the greatest thing to ever come out of the Hart family!  WOOO!  

 

Instant heel.  Great Angle.

 

I know Owen wasn't on the Raw right after Montreal...but since he stayed with the WWF...I would have LOVED to have seen this.

[Guest Tony149]

Shawn throws a fit and threatens to walk out if Vince asks him to do that the night after Survivor Series.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Hey...I'm not saying it's realistic...I'm saying that I would mark out like a little bitch.

[Guest Tony149]

I know. I was just saying that's what HBK would probably do given his track record.

[Guest theWCWRaider]

Ah "hell" I can't believe I forgot Roddy Piper!

He would have been a great heel world champion, they should have gone Backlyn to Piper, to Hogan after a long drawn out Hogan Piper feud, because it was drawing for them.

 

Piper is the man, when it comes to cutting heel promos.

Nothing he did in WCW, or even in the WWF after oh, 1987 even comes close to what he was doing as a heel. Not that I've seen anyway.

 

BTW, I think they should have put the title on Owen, when he showed back up on Raw. That was his best chance to get the belt IMO.

[Guest FakeRazor]

So many wrestlers to include on a list like this.

 

Ted DiBiase:  Probably the best heel of the 80's but never got a hand on the WWF title.  He's a no brainer... why the hell didn't he get a title run?

 

Scott Hall:  I think he would have been WCW champ if he didn't let his personal problems get in his way.

 

Curt Hennig:  Ok, he was AWA champ, but I'm talkin the big 3 here.  Consistanly one of the best workers in whichever company he's in.  Super-charismatic, and is always over.

 

Dean Malenko:  One of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time, also one of the most underutilized wrestlers ever.

 

Arn Anderson:  Also a tremendous worker, with awesome mic skills.

 

Owen Hart:  IMO, he's just as good as Bret, but I think he's more charasmatic.  I thought he would get a title reign after he beat Bret at Wrestlemania X.  If he were still alive, I think he'd be on the upper-midcard.

[Guest Tony149]

DiBiase didn't get the WWF Title even though he was supposed to, since Honky Tonk Man refused to job to Randy Savage and threaten to take the I-C Title to the NWA/WCW. Vince let HTM keep the belt and gave Savage the WWF Title at WM 4. Vince gave Ted the Million Dollar Belt for not giving him the WWF Title.

[Guest bob_barron]

i'd say Piper and Ted Dibase.

[Guest CanadianChris]

Curt Hennig:  Ok, he was AWA champ, but I'm talkin the big 3 here.

The AWA was way bigger than ECW back in the day.  If the ECW title deserved to be called a world title, then the AWA title certainly does.

[Guest Sassquatch]

I was just thinking about this topic again today and another guy I would vore for that deserved to hold a world heavyweight title was...

 

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.

 

Valentine was one of the most consistently hated wrestlers from the mid 70's to the mid 80's.  Valentine was so good at being a heel that many of the arenas he wrestled in would almost riot after he won or trashed the crowd.

 

He was one of the best heels in wrestling.  EVER!

 

And it is sad that one of the, if not THE most hated man in wrestling never won the WWF or NWA title.  Valentine should have won the title several times in his career.  He did beat Bob Backlund for the title in 1980, but that was reversed as a ref screw up.  It was like the Jericho/HHH match where Jericho pinned HHH for the title but the win was later reversed.

 

And I'm sorry but Valentine should have been the man to end Ric Flair's first title reign.  Not Harley Race.  Valentine and Flair had a lot of history together.  They were the Mid-Atlantic tag champs, had some classic fights against the Andersons, and had one of the bloddiest feuds in Mid-Atlantic in the late 70's.

 

It would have been perfect.  And we would have probably seen a better match at the first Starcade instead of the one we got.  Valentine and Flair in a cage would have been awesome.

 

Greg Valentine was one of the most despised wrestler's in history.

 

And yet he has nothing to really show for it except some secondary titles.

 

Kind've sounds familiar doesn't it?

[Guest AM The Kid]

My choices:

 

1. Owen Hart

2. Ted Dibiase

3. Mr. Perfect

4. Roddy Piper

5. Rick Rude

[Guest reverse knife edge]

Can't believe it took 47 posts to get to ... Barry Windham. Great offense, great selling, good look, solid on the stick, etc. etc. etc. He looked awesome during his '88 run with the U.S. title.

Ted DiBiase and Billy Robinson also would've been great champs in their respective eras.

[Guest Tony149]

Wow! I can't belive Barry took so long to mentioned, too. I forgot about him. Oddly enough, Barry could of been World Champ in '91. During the whole Herd/Rhodes/Flair power struggle, former WCW V.P. Jim Herd toss the idea to Flair about dropping the Title to Barry at a TV taping. Barry would get the title only to lose it to Lex Luger at the Great American Bash '91. Flair vetoed the idea, would quit/get fired a few weeks later and head off to the WWF.

[Guest dreamer420]

5) Scott Hall

4) Rick Rude

3) Ricky Steamboat

2)Ted DiBiase

1)Owen Hart

[Guest TheDames7]

Wasn't Owen supposed to work with Shawn at the Royal Rumble '98 for the WWF Title? I read that he was but HBK didn't want to work with Owen because of what happened with Bret at Survivor Series. So they went with HBK vs. Undertaker at Rumble. They set it up at the D-X In Your House PPV is Dec. '97, as Owen returned and attacked Shawn after he beat Shamrock.

Ya think HBK feels stupid about that decision now?  What would have been worse....Owen shooting on him or what really happened to him in that match.  

 

Oh well.....Hindsight is 20/20.

 

Dames

[Guest Tony149]

That's a good question. Shawn probably doesn't get hurt if he wrestles Owen instead of The Undertaker.

[Guest fouronthefloor77]

1.Arn Anderson

 2.Dynamite Kid

 3.Barry Windham

 4.Ted DiBiase

 5.Rick Rude

 6.Owen Hart

 7.Bruiser Brody

 8.Brad Armstrong

 9.Steve Williams

 10.Eddie Gilbert

I'd give an honorable mention to the Scott Steiner of 90-95.What kind of dumbass refuses the world title?Ric Flair refused to job the belt to Lex Luger for three years,And then when he finally decides he wants to lose the belt to someone that person refuses.Do steroids cause brain damage?

[Guest Tony149]

I belive back then Scott just wanted to wrestle tag team matches. I would of taken the title. It said A LOT about what Flair thought of Scott, that he was willing to job to him.

[Guest Marius714]

I'd like to add Roddy Piper to the mix. In my opinion he should have had the WWF strap in the 80's when he was on fire. If not then he should have taken the WCW belt from Hogan in their I.C.O.N. match. He had the fans going wherever he wanted with those promos he cut.

 

My picks follow in no particular order:

 

1) Roddy Piper

2) Ted Dibiase

3) Billy Robinson

4) Austin Idol

5) Rick Rude

[Guest Juvydriver]

My first thought was Barry Windham.  He was the man, back in the day.  I must say that I never saw AA as a world title type of guy either.

 

My list:

 

5.  Jimmy Snuka

4.  Roddy Piper

3.  Ted DiBiase

2.  Rick Rude

1.  Barry Windham

[Guest Drury37]

I have to say Rowdy Piper!!!

Thanks.

[Guest Sassquatch]

I am SHOCKED that nobody has mentioned...

 

Magnum T.A.

 

The NWA maybe could have stayed alive if this man would have been gievn the belt.  His story is probably the saddest amongst all of the wrestlers that have been mentioned.

 

Even Owen.

 

Magnum would have been the MONSTER draw that the NWA could have used but they never got the chance to test it.

 

Johnny Valentine, Ted DiBiase and Magnum tie as my vote for who should have won a world title but never did.

 

Everyone else gets snuffed.

[Guest DynamiteKid2K2]

I heartedly agree with Ted DiBiase and Rick Rude being mentioned so much.  I think, seriously though, that Owen Hart would've been a World Champion and sure as hell should've been if he had a bit more flair for the business.  Watch the Owen Hart documentary that pops on on A & E once in a blue moon and see what I mean.

Other than that...

 

1. Dynamite Kid (Disregarding the Jr. Heavyweight Title, which is kinda like a World Title by proxy)

2. Andre the Giant (Again, barring the '88 Hogan Fiasco, the big guy did more for the sport when it was down than anyone else, and was the biggest draw to boot.  Call me crazy, but I believe, despite the general overall feeling, that Andre deserved atleast one run)

3. Terry Taylor (Branded with the Red Rooster gimmick that killed his career, Taylor was THE MAN before the WWF run that killed his career out of the starting gate)

4. Chris Benoit (Yeah, he's still competing *well, soon to resume, anyways* but with the clusterfrick that is the WWF Main Event scene these days, time's running out on Benoit)

5. Dean Malenko (He didn't accomplish hardly anything other than sporodic success in ECW & WCW in the United States, but the man should've been recognized as a World Champion in Japan)

[Guest Some Guy]

Barry Windham was NWA champ in early 93 beating Muta a Superbrawl and losing to Flair at Beach Blast.

 

Bad News Brown comes to mind as a guy who should have beaten Savage or Hogan.