Mid Card Guys That Were Never Elevated

[Damian Rey]

Is there any reason why guys like Rude, Perfect, Owen, and other mid carders with success were never pushed into the main event or given atleast a test run?

With Perfect and Owen it seemed like it would be a natural progression. Especially Owen. After beating Bret cleanly at Mania 10, and Bret regaining the title later on in the night, you would think that the time to push Owen to the top of the card and give him a run would be then. Also think they may have missed out again after Montreal, though I understand since Austin was on the cusp.

With Perfect, it just seemed natural. Always booked well, had good to great matches, a long title reign with the Intercontinental belt, etc. Not to mention, his matches with Bret at both SummerSlam and KOTR were good, and a fued with them exchanging the WWF title seemed like a plan.

Anybody?

[Loose Cannon]

Perfect, Rude and Owen were given main event runs though lol

Owen with Bret during the summer of 94

Perfect with Hogan in 89/90

Rude with Warrior in 90

[thedamndest]

Looking back with smark goggles.

[thedamndest]

I'm thinking by your question you mean by "a run" not just a main event run but a title run. Keep in mind that back then you're talking about just four PPV's a year, one show a week. So for a guy to get the title match during that period is a big deal. But at the same time it's still a very face-dominated title scene in that era.

[Gertner]

Rude was a main event player in WCW.

I had heard that they planned on having Hennig win the belt off Hogan but the feud didn't go over well in house shows so they nixed it.

As LC said, Owen had a main event run with Bret and to a lessor extent Austin. His chance at winning the belt ended with the rise of Austin and the Rock.

[Jakob Synn]

While those guys were given chances they were never really given the chance to establish anything of a longer period of time. Had they, then possibly you could of seen any of them win a championship belt.

I'm not up to date with the HoF, but can I ask anyone if any of these guys, Henning, Rude or Owen are in the Hof? Because with Ted Dibiase being inducted this year and the WWE having troubles with getting main eventers for the HoF it makes me wonder if they'll induct these guys within the next couple of years.

[Loose Cannon]

like 95% of the roster back then, especially in the babyface champion era, weren't given lenghty runs. You had your babyface champions and they usually carried the belt for a while. Yoko was really the first heel champion since before the Hogan era to have a pretty lenghty run. He won the belt at King of the Ring and held it to Mania

The initial question asked why those guys were never pushed into the main event or given a test run? Well they were.

[Emperor Smeat]

Would Ted Dibiase count since he never had a title match besides paying Andre the Giant to beat Hogan and loosing to Macho Man in the finals of the vacated belt tournament ?

Also never won the Intercontinental belt but did have a few tag team reigns.

[St. Jimmy]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCW_International_World_Heavyweight_Championship?wasRedirected=true

[Gertner]

Hennig is in the HOF. Hart and Rude are not.

[Xero]

Owen will never be in.

[Damian Rey]

Sorry about the confusion. I should have phrased the question better. I was asking in terms of actually getting a title run as opposed to getting merely a program against a top guy.