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CanadianGuitarist

Most undeserving champions

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To be fair, Booker was using the Urinagi (spelled differently everytime I see it, and this is the one I like best) spinebuster before The Rock was even wrestling. Ditto DDP. Ditto Bryan "Wrath" Clarke.

 

See, I don't think Booker was undeserving of being WCW World champ. I think he deserved a lengthy reign, but it was just how Russo handled him that sucked. I liked the build to the final Nitro where Booker won the US title from Rick Steiner and then pinned Scott later on to win the World title. Booker dropped the belt to Steiner, and then regained it a few months later after Steiner obliterated the other four main event faces (Goldberg, Sid, DDP, and Nash) that were still active. Plus, Nash jobbed CLEAN to Booker...so that really has to say something. I mean, Booker pulled an enjoyable match out of Shawn Stasiak. SHAWN. FUCKING. STASIAK. That speaks wonders, fellas, about why he deserved the main event push.

 

But yeah, I'm still going with Mike Awesome. At least Masato Tanaka was in ECW often enough to be considered a true FMW/ECW crossover star. That, and Tanaka had some solid matches with people other than Awesome (Balls Mahoney and Justin Credible, to name two), whereas Awesome's only notable work in ECW is against Tanaka.

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01.jpg

19 An Ultimately Dumb Idea

 

Before the WCW brain trust brought in the Warrior, they once tried to create a spin-off of the nutcase himself during 1995 for Hulk Hogan to feud and go over...Seriously, I'm not kidding. Known as the Renegade, Hogan chose some unknown employee named Richard Williams and donned him with ridiculous makeup and costume after hints of Ultimate Warrior making a possible WCW debut. And boy, did that ever go well with the crowd? The fans didn't buy Renegade for a minute so was he depushed or removed off the roster? No, they booked the Renegade to win the TV title from Arn Anderson at the Great American Bash 1995 and push him to a main event feud with Ric Flair. If you don't understand WCW logic like this, no one does. Thankfully, the Renegade experiment ended and Williams would not be seen again before committing suicide via shooting himself in 1999. But the damage was done to the fan base as Hogan's ego and friends started to take control while the talented stars got depushed into obscurity. This was the perfect evidence of how this was happening.

http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com

On a sidenote, wasn't there a long-standing rumor (confirmed?) that WCW execs requested the belt be put on Booker because of the the racism lawsuit filed be Sonny Onoo?

Hardwork Bobby Walker lawsuit?

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Basically it was part of Russo trying to make WCW into an almost exact copy of WWF at the time. Booker T was his Rock, complete with rip-off finisher and outfits.

 

For some reason, I enjoyed WCW at the time. The midcard was solid with the Jung Dragons-3 count fued, Positively Kanyon, Crowbar and of course, Canadian champion Lance Storm. They were doing such a good job getting Storm over leading up to New Blood Rising, the Nitro in Kelowna(I think) was one of my favorite episodes ever, and Storm was holding three titles at once. Then they fucked it up by booking him as the biggest pussy/chump/chickenshit ever at NBR, and jobbed him out to Hugh G. Rection not too long after. Storm vs Goldberg with Bret using Storm to gain revenge on Goldberg for ending his career would of been money.

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I remember reading a shoot interview with Arn Anderson where he said if he had to do his career all over again, he would have done everything the same except two things: He never would have acted afraid of Robocop, and he never would have agreed to job the TV title to the Renegade.

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Guest hasbeen

Not counting the celebrities, women winning male titles, etc, every wrestlier deserves a belt at one time or another.

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It's funny that people mention Booker beating Steiner on the last Nitro, considering Booker was largely jobbed out before that point. Seriously, after he lost to Steiner at Mayhem 2000 Booker was out of the main events for the rest of WCW's run. He got the belt on the final Nitro because he was going to the WWF.

 

Anyway, I don't think anyone is arguing that Booker was an undeserving champion but rather a badly booked champ.

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Guest hasbeen

...every wrestlier deserves a belt at one time or another.

Why?

 

By that logic, every wrestler in WWE or TNA should get a title at some point.

 

 

I didn't say every wrestler deserves the WWE title. And yes, I'm including independent titles.

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It's funny that people mention Booker beating Steiner on the last Nitro, considering Booker was largely jobbed out before that point. Seriously, after he lost to Steiner at Mayhem 2000 Booker was out of the main events for the rest of WCW's run. He got the belt on the final Nitro because he was going to the WWF.

 

Anyway, I don't think anyone is arguing that Booker was an undeserving champion but rather a badly booked champ.

He had an injury and didn't return until a month before WCW closed down.

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Anyway, I don't think anyone is arguing that Booker was an undeserving champion but rather a badly booked champ.

 

Thank you. Those are the words I was looking for.

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...every wrestlier deserves a belt at one time or another.

Why?

 

By that logic, every wrestler in WWE or TNA should get a title at some point.

 

 

I didn't say every wrestler deserves the WWE title. And yes, I'm including independent titles.

You haven't said why every wrestler deserves a title at some point. A wrestler should, ideally, 'deserve' a title for one reason; because it would be good for business. And not every wrestler is going to fit that criteria.

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Guest hasbeen

Even in an independent league it would be good for business since it would gauge what the fans think of such a wrestler. Building up each wrestler to where it's realistic is part of that, not just giving random wrestler x the belt just because it's his turn.

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Fidel Sierra
Who?

 

I have to say Orlando Jordan is the worse title reign in modern history - he was never over.

 

Also Russo's booking of the IC title around 99 when Roaddog, Goldust (he was not over at the time) and Godfather all held the title - non of them deserved it.

 

As for the World title I have to say Randy Oron - they pushed him too quickly when he wasn't any where near over at a World title level and because if this he will need A LOT of work to ever establish himslef as a main eventer ever again in the WWE. He was just fine as the Intercontinental Champion and maybe even pushing him as the longest ever reigning champion, surpassing The Honky Tonk Man's.

 

Undeserved pushes -

 

Mark Henry - he should be no where near the Main Event - he will always be a mid carder and I have a horrible feeling we will be adding his name in a few months time to this list as an undeserved champion.

 

Hardcore Holly - Why? Oh Why? He was not over at all for a World Title programme.

 

Zeus!!!!! Thank God Vince changed his mind and didn't draw out the feud until WM6.

 

Chris Masters initial God Push.

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Fidel Sierra
Who?

Hardcore Holly - Why? Oh Why? He was not over at all for a World Title programme.

 

Holly IS very over, just listen to the pops he gets. You just hate him because of his personality and that he's boring in the ring but don't say he wasn't over enough because he got and still gets main event pops.

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I wouldn't say Holly gets main event level pops, but he's still a fairly popular veteran. I never had much of a problem with Holly's feud with Lesnar since it was to be: 1. Filler until Brock jobbed to Eddie and 2. A logical feud due to Lesnar breaking his neck.

 

Orlando Jordan is by far the worst champion of any kind, possibly ever. I'm talking worse than David Flair with the US title, which was at least meant to be a joke (and hell, David at least could do a fun psycho, though that was later). He couldn't wrestle, couldn't talk, had zero heat, no charisma. They literally put the US belt on him just to get it off Cena so Cena could win the WWE title, then forgot he even HAD a belt.

 

The only thing that might make Orlando not fit the undeserved push aspect is that I dunno if he was exactly pushed. Even as US champ he still mostly worked Velocity and did nothing of note.

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How about One Man Gang with the WCW U.S. title in late 95/early 96? It really came out of nowhere. I mean Gang was a competent big man, but he was at least six or seven years past his prime and wasn't really built up to be a contender for the #2 title in WCW. He appeared shortly before and disappeared shortly after IIRC.

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Champion: Bob Backland's (sp?) run when he beat Bret and jobbed to Diesal in a few seconds, the next night or week. Jeff Jarrett's WCW run.

 

Pushes: MABEL!!!

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How about One Man Gang with the WCW U.S. title in late 95/early 96? It really came out of nowhere. I mean Gang was a competent big man, but he was at least six or seven years past his prime and wasn't really built up to be a contender for the #2 title in WCW. He appeared shortly before and disappeared shortly after IIRC.

 

Wasn't there some type of screwjob that happened over the US title when OMG won it in a dark match at Starrcade 1995? I thought I remembered reading that Kensuke Sasaki who was the champion refused to job the belt and so they told him the match would be non-title. They had the match, OMG won with a splash, and then the referee gave Gang the belt and people considered it a title change. Any truth to this? If so it might explain the "out of nowhere" element of the OMG winning.

 

Also, after Sting lost the belt to Sasaki the whole US title division was stuck for the better part of a year until Eddie Guerrero won the US title tournament at Starrcade the next year. I mean you had Konnan get the belt b/c he brought the cruiserweights into WCW, then Flair beat Konnan after a lengthy reign, then some weird stuff happened with the NWO over the title I think that involved Jeff Jarrett and the Giant (?!?), and then a tournament was declared.

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As far as Intercontinental Champions go:

 

You could make a case that Honky Tonk Man was "undeserving." His reign was successful but at the time he won the belt he hadn't done anything to that point, and the idea seemed to be more about getting the belt off Steamboat than getting it on to Honky.

 

Even though he was a veteran, Kerry Von Erich's title win came out of left field. None of the WWF fans knew who the hell he was, and a week after his debut he's beating Perfect for the title.

 

I wouldn't argue that Davey Boy was undeserving, but you could make the case that he really lucked into getting the title because Summerslam was in England and he was related to Bret so there was a built-in storyline. He hadn't exactly been setting the world on fire as a singles competitor before that they knew he was always over huge in Europe so there would be heat. The plan all along was to put the belt on Michaels. They just used Davey for the one big Summerslam match and was never going to be anything other than a transitional champion.

 

History has proven the Rock very deserving, but at the time he won it, let's just say he was less than electrifying.

 

Then there's the Russo years and beyond:

 

Road Dogg

Godfather

Chyna

Billy Gunn

Test

Albert

 

Why Kane was ever involved with the IC Title was always a mystery to me.

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Even though he was a veteran, Kerry Von Erich's title win came out of left field. None of the WWF fans knew who the hell he was, and a week after his debut he's beating Perfect for the title.

 

That's kind of a misconception. He had debuted almost two months earlier but they pushed him as someone coming out of nowhere to defeat Mr. Perfect. This way it kept Perfect strong since it came across like he didn't have time to prepare for him.

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Guest hasbeen

World Class was on national cable for years and was big in the Northeast too. Even if the WWF tried to bill him as an unknown, I really doubt there were many fans who didn't know who he was.

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Holly IS very over, just listen to the pops he gets. You just hate him because of his personality and that he's boring in the ring but don't say he wasn't over enough because he got and still gets main event pops.

 

I actually have no issue with Holly as a mid card performer, was a big fan when Russo actually donned him with the Hardcore gimmick, the feud with Al Snow and the Big Shot gimmick and Holly Cousins was all good stuff. Him being a dick in real life doesn't even come into it for me.

 

Storyline wise yes it made sense as Lesner put him out of action however I just had a hard time excepting him in a main event programme with Lesnar for the World Title. at a big show like the Royal Rumble -although again to be fair it was on the undercard that year.

 

Plus I wouldn't say he is very over, sure he gets some reaction but not to warrant a run in a World Title Programme. Plus those cheers could have been piped in on the taped Smackdown show.

 

It also really annoys me that Honky Tonk Man is the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion. :(

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It's funny that people mention Booker beating Steiner on the last Nitro, considering Booker was largely jobbed out before that point. Seriously, after he lost to Steiner at Mayhem 2000 Booker was out of the main events for the rest of WCW's run. He got the belt on the final Nitro because he was going to the WWF.

 

Anyway, I don't think anyone is arguing that Booker was an undeserving champion but rather a badly booked champ.

 

I've always wondered...who booked the final Nitro, WCW or WWF? Or was it a kind of joint effort?

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Guest DRH 502
Wasn't there some type of screwjob that happened over the US title when OMG won it in a dark match at Starrcade 1995? I thought I remembered reading that Kensuke Sasaki who was the champion refused to job the belt and so they told him the match would be non-title. They had the match, OMG won with a splash, and then the referee gave Gang the belt and people considered it a title change. Any truth to this? If so it might explain the "out of nowhere" element of the OMG winning.

 

Well?? Can anyone elaborate on this i'm very curious...

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most undeserving champion?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I DON'T KNOOOOOOW!

Lex Luger beating Hollywood Hulk Hogan on Nitro comes to mind.

 

Personally, I marked out like crazy when it happened, just 'cause it was nice to see the nWo get beat by the babyfaces for a change. Let's face it, Luger wasn't exactly a scrub at that point, either (at least in the way he was booked).

 

Also, to add to the comments about Kerry Von Erich in WWF...I had never seen his other stuff, because my family didn't have cable when he first came to WWF. However, I think they did a good job pushing him as a "young" baby face up & comer type. I also marked out when he beat Mr. Perfect, since Hennig portrayed such a dislikable heel.

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