Perfect timing to put the belt on a guy

[Boxer 0]

What are your moments where it was just the RIGHT time to put a belt on a wrestler? That he was either hot, over with the crowd, or making them some money, yet the promotion didn't go with it, had no faith in them, didn't listen to the fans, or in their terms, deemed them not "ready" or don't work that "main event style".

 

I don't know if this would be THE moment where a company blew it with on superstar, but the one that stands out the most for me was 2001. ROB VAN DAM. Boy, the most over guy during the whole invasion period, crowds kept on getting louder and louder each week. Forget the aborted 2002 run where he should've gotten the title, I think No Mercy 2001 was the perfect time, if ever to make him the WWF Champion.

 

Other ones that stand out for me.

 

Chris Jericho 2000. That Raw in April was PERFECT for Jericho to win. Unfortunately HHH was still feuding with Rock so there really was no sense in making Jericho a transitional champion. Maybe they should've just broken off the HHH-Rock feud into a HHH-Jericho feud post Wrestlemania 2000.

 

Goldberg, Summerslam 2003. The crowd was getting louder and louder for him each and every opponent he put away. But then HHH, injured and all, had to retain via sledgehammer in one of the most selfish and STUPID endings to a match ever. He takes one sweet chin music, does nothing, and pins Goldberg, who destroyed everyone else and rightfully should've gotten the title.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Though it is a good thing that they wound up not doing it, what with his suspension just weeks before the big show, I am still surprised that WWE was not pushing Jeff Hardy towards a WWE Championship victory at WrestleMania this year. Like I said, it's a good thing that they weren't, so I supposed that they really didn't lose out.

[Black Lushus 0]

Rey Mysterio should have won the title BEFORE Eddie Guerrero died in 05 sometime shortly after Summerslam.

[Boxer 0]

Would the fans buy Mysterio as World Heavyweight Champion even before Eddie died?

 

You had Batista as champion on Smackdown, and before that JBL, Eddie, then Lesnar. Safe to say the big strong guys dominated that show. I don't know how many fans, especially the ones that watched the Lesnar and Batista title runs, buy Mysterio in the heavyweight mold.

 

As for the topic itself, I just thought of two more guys.

 

Vader and Ahmed Johnson. I think both would've been great WWF World Champions, because they were both getting heat in different ways. If only Shawn jobbed it to Vader, I seriously wonder how different 1997 would look, with a Vader vs. Ahmed feud starting the year off.

 

One more as well, Tazz in 2001. Man, after getting shitted and crapped on by Austin, I was hoping that Tazz choked the shit out of Austin and we get ourselves an Austin vs. Tazz feud. Now, I'm not saying that Tazz should've won the belt in 2001, he was sort of damaged goods by then, but at least having him feud with the champion and going from there could make the fans buy him as a world title contender.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Rey Mysterio should have won the title BEFORE Eddie Guerrero died in 05 sometime shortly after Summerslam.

 

There was talk of giving Rey a "Mick Foley" lifetime achievement reign before Eddy passed away. The timing of his championship victory was just very unfortunate.

[Burning Pirate Ship Sex 0]

Hogan, AWA '83

[Papacita 0]

I'm a little iffy on RVD in 01, but I definitely disagree with Jericho at that time. Jericho was over and probably would've been accepted had he won, but for somebody that had been programmed with Chyna in the midcard for the previous 5 months, just hotshotting the title on him like that was too big a risk. He definitely should have gotten the belt before the end of 2000, though, but not on that Raw.

 

Definitely agree with Vader in the summer/fall of 96.

 

I think Al Snow should've won the ECW Title at Wrestlepalooza 98, although I realize why they couldn't go there.

 

Though he was never really in the title picture, I think Tazz really should've gotten the I-C Title around SummerSlam 2000 instead of going into that feud with Lawler and JR.

 

 

[Boxer 0]

Yeah, this Vader thing bugs me to this day. We have a MONSTER heel coming in. Destroys Monsoon and appears to be definately headed towards a WWF title win. The thing that pisses me off is that Vince blows money away by making Vader LOSE his first match, I believe it was his debut match at the Rumble in 96. He gets elminated clean, no shananigans, nothing. And to Michaels of all people. They shouldn't have crossed pathes that soon. Then at Mania he goes into that 6 man tag match. If ANYTHING, they should've made him have a high prominent match against some singles star.

 

Ahmed perhaps, to start a feud that would pick up later in the year.

 

Warrior? Yeah, job his ass out to Vader. Why? It would give more heat for Vader, and let's be honest, Vince loves the hosses, a Vader vs. Ultimate Warrior feud would be something out of his dreams.

 

Razor Ramon? Yeah, do the match one month earlier and make the burial and last match of Hall going out on a bigger stage. Diesel did the job and looked damn good, making his finisher look weak as Taker kicked out of it twice. Two Razor's Edges don't put away Vader, Vader then Vader Bombs Ramon two times to officially kill the Ramon character and send him packing all the way to WCW.

 

I mean, just give Vader a win streak beating mid-carders and upper level starts until he gets to Shawn and kills him dead. Hell, if I had my way, put him over Bret, and Taker CLEAN too. I miss the days of a dominate heel monster, and Vader was definately one of them back then. Ugh, this Vader run in 96-97 definately still bugs me even now.

[Diamonddust 0]

As much as I liked Vader and all, and regardless what the WWE did with him during his initial run, his credibility and mystique was forever damaged by the feud with Hogan. When Hogan no-sold basically every freaking move Vader had, including a power bomb that could break a back, nothing was going to get him back to the point of being an unstoppable monster.

[BUTT 0]

Jobbing Warrior to Vader in his first match back would have been dumb.

 

Razor wasn't at Wrestlemania because they had suspended him for failing a test for weed (conveniently this decision was made after he announced he was going to WCW). I have to assume they were trying to screw with him by not giving him a Wrestlemania payday.

[Boxer 0]

As much as I liked Vader and all, and regardless what the WWE did with him during his initial run, his credibility and mystique was forever damaged by the feud with Hogan. When Hogan no-sold basically every freaking move Vader had, including a power bomb that could break a back, nothing was going to get him back to the point of being an unstoppable monster.

 

Maybe I was one of the exceptions, up in Canada, we didn't really get WCW until 96-97. So I saw nothing of this and knew of the Vader that feuded with Jack and Ron Simmons and Sting. Maybe that was what most of the WWF audience at that time was like too. I'm pretty sure a bunch of them ignored WCW until the stars came into the company and then followed them.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Edit: Oh yeah.

[bob_barron 0]

They did put the belt on Sting. It was just in screwy fashion and he was stripped a few days later.

 

And no, Jericho shouldn't have gotten the belt in April, since the feud was all about Rock unseating Triple H and finally getting the belt back.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Hogan, AWA '83

 

We have a winner! It turned the WWF from the #3 promotion to the kings of the wrestling world and ended up killing the AWA in the long run.

 

A couple of others come to mind as being major screwups in retrospect. One is a match we have been talking about quite a bit in other threads, but Lex Luger should have won the title at Summerslam 1993. He was never able to recover after that, and was buried after failing to win the title yet again at Wrestlemania X. The other occurred 10 years later at the same show as the audience was practically dying for Goldberg to take the title from HHH in the Elimination Chamber and it failed to happen. Goldberg won the title a month later, but his momentum was stopped dead after the defeat at Summerslam so nothing of value came from it.

[JHawk 0]

I disagree with RVD for the sole reason I would have waited a month and done it at Survivor Series.

 

No Mercy's main event should have ended with RVD hitting Angle with the Five Star Frog Splash and, while RVD was selling the ribs on impact as usual, Austin sneaking in to pin Angle and escape with the belt. That leads to RVD vs. Austin at Survivor Series, with RVD taking the gold.

 

Hell, even if the decision would have been made to have Austin keep the belt, I still feel the above finish leading to Survivor Series would have been better for RVD's career (and the WWF's health) than RVD jobbing clean in the three way did.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah stuff like Hogan in 1983 and Luger in 1993 at SummerSlam are obvious picks but allow me to take a look at that RVD notion.

 

I didn't think Van Dam was going to win at No Mercy 2001. It just wasn't quite time for it. In fact going in I assumed Austin would simply end up pinning Angle to blow off that feud and then it would spin off nicely into Austin vs. RVD for the title and control of The Alliance. Or maybe RVD is thrown out of the Alliance or maybe just decides to join the WWF side, who knows.

 

That said, it was probably still a bit soon to put the belt on RVD. With HHH coming back his big run would have just meant he would be the Jericho job boy role for WM. It WAS in fact a good idea to give RVD the IC title for a while and make fans want to see him win the world title all the more. The ideal time to do this would have been at SummerSlam 2002. That Lesnar crap should have never happened, since that ironically enough did give Brock too much, too soon.

 

Consider: RVD would have been in the top mix during the Invasion, but never quite got the gold. He would have had a decent IC title run. He would have somehow triumped (in my fantasy booking) over Lesnar in the KOTR finals. So now you can either put him in the main event of SS against either Taker (who RVD had come oh so close to beating on Raw in 2002) or the dream match with The Rock on PPV. And right there is where they should have put it on RVD. It pays off his 2001-02 push, and they could have put the IC title on Lesnar at the July PPV with a screwy win over Van Dam, with the idea of setting up a bigger rematch later for the world title.

[Guest Smues]

Kane in 02, specifically at No Mercy. Yeah I'm a Kane mark, but there was no reason not to put him over there.

 

I don't know if Booker T at WM19 was perfect timing, but he still should have won that match.

 

And as for Jericho in 2000 on that Raw, it would have been a great moment, but really as has been mention it was all about Rock at that point. But, Rock SHOULD have gone over at WM. HHH walking out as the champ was just total bullshit that still angers me to this day. They should have done the Backlash match at WM, and IMO the Iron Man the next month with the Rock winning and fued over, but if they absolutely had to job the belt back to HHH that should have been backlash, with it settled the next month. No reason for Rock not to win the belt at WM16.

 

 

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Definitely, RVD at Unforgiven 2002.

[Boxer 0]

More:

 

Booker T and Goldust, Tag Titles. These guys were over. All those promos from the nWo until the end. People ate it up. I still don't know why they waited all the way until Armaggedon to do the title change. By then it meant nothing.

 

Kurt Angle, Summerslam 2001. Man, that was one hot match with a stupid ending. Doing it one month later is similar to what happened to Goldberg, they became deflated.

 

Tazz, early 2000. When Angle won both the IC and Euro titles, I think it was natural for Tazz to step in and at least take one of the titles since he did defeat Angle in his debut. He would've made on fine IC champion.

 

Sid, late 91 early 92. After watching the youtube thread with the Sid vs. El Diablo match, shit, he was OVER. Add that on top of the Royal Rumble elimination of Hogan and we have a good candidate for a title. Heck, just seeing Sid vs. Taker circa 91 was something.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Hogan, AWA '83

 

Surprised it took 6 posts for this to get mentioned... this thread seemed tailor made for that point.

[blue2 0]

I think Eddie should have went over JBL in 04 and kept his belt

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

I think Eddie should have went over JBL in 04 and kept his belt

 

Eddie disagrees with you.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The Goldberg one at Summerslam stands out as the single dumbest thing we got out of Triple H's 2002-3 ego trip. It killed the crowd dead.

[blue2 0]

I think Eddie should have went over JBL in 04 and kept his belt

 

Eddie disagrees with you.

 

Yeah it was his idea, and because of it, JBL is pretty credible.

 

[Richard 0]

Road Warriors at Starrcade '87.

Steiners at Road Wild '97.

[Diamonddust 0]

Here's one to consider:

 

Lex Luger at GAB '88:

 

Was he ready to take the belt, or was the NWA/Flair justified in not putting it on him?

[Papacita 0]

How about Booker at WM19? He was arguably the #1 face (or at least a near second) on the Raw roster at the time and playing the race card like they did put them in a position where he more or less had to go over...and he gets killed by the Pedigree.

 

As fondly as WMXX was looked upon, Benoit could've EASILY been Champion after Rumble 03.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Here's one to consider:

 

Lex Luger at GAB '88:

 

Was he ready to take the belt, or was the NWA/Flair justified in not putting it on him?

 

Good question. I think the bullshit blood finish really made it look like Luger should have won the title.

[Betty Houle 0]

Luger definitely shouldn't have won the belt at GAB '88. It was too early and the bs finish just made him look like an even more credible challenger and they drew really well with that feud over the months that followed. Luger probably should have won at Starrcade '88 however (even though they would have screwed up his title reign).

[cabbageboy 0]

Bear in mind that GAB 88 was the first PPV a lot of people got from the NWA since stuff like Starrcade and Bunkhouse Stampede were not widely seen outside of the Crockett area. And they give people THAT finish to the main event? I feel somewhat the same about the first Clash, since I hadn't seen much of the NWA and as a kid assumed Sting was going to win the title on that show.

 

Why not just put the belt on Luger at GAB 88 and then if he tanked with the title they could have gone back to Flair at Starrcade?