So after re-reading the What If? Magnum T.A. thread...

[Executioner]

and watching Starrcade 86 on youtube. Could Nikita Koloff been a viable World Champion? He had some good matches in his career and could make you believe he was a legit threat to the World Champion, but would he have been a person to put at the top of the company at the time?

[dhellova guy]

I always thought Nikita would have made a good, short run (6 to 8 months, an eternity now days) champ. Have him beat down every American challenger in his path until he met up with "americas last hope", that being whomever they wanted to put the belt on at that time. A cheap rip off of Hogan - Iron Sheik? Maybe. But could have drawn hugh in the south, especially if someone like Magnum was going up against Koloff.

[Loose Cannon]

as a heel, definately yes. The Russians were really over back then. Problem was he ran into Ric Flair. Flair was always around and was drawing money in the 80's, so they really had no reason to put the belt on another heel.

Great character though.

[Gertner]

Koloff kinda fell into the trap that many faces did in the WWF in the 80's. When you're a face and your top face is Hulk Hogan who was immensely over, you're kinda stuck.

lol and Executioner, you mean Ronnie Garvin wasn't good enough?

[Wolfpack423]

Magnum TA was awesome and is one of my all time favorites. it sucks what happened to him, but I agree they could have done a feud with Magnum and Nikita,though I didn't really like Nikita it would have been great for Magnum. I always thought that Magnum, Tully Blanchard and Sting were better than Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Harley Race, especially Race. I feel like I am the only one that never liked Race, obviously I wasn't around during his heyday, but I have watched older matches of his and just wasn't impressed.

On a sidenote, does anybody think magnum will get into the hall of fame this year since they want to do a WCW hall of fame type deal this year.

[bigslimjj]

Hell yes. Nikita was waaaay over back then against Flair. The fans also loved seeing him team with Dusty. It was like Russia and America together united. In the 80's that didn't happen a lot.:D Then they could turn him heel again after Rocky 4 came out.

[Executioner]

I could have seen Koloff taking the title off of Dusty after he beat Flair in Greensboro during the GAB 86 tour. A quick rematch with Rhodes could have set up a match with Flair at Starrcade with Flair as challenger. Rhodes could have done something to try and get Nikita to have Dusty at ringside to keep the Horsemen from interfering and Nikita refuse since he still doesn't trust Americans. Then at Starrcade, Nikita drops the title back to Flair and then joins Rhodes after realizing he was right.

So after Starrcade we still end with the same result, Koloff over as a face with Dusty, Flair walks out of Starrcade champion, except now Nikita has a short title reign under his belt to boost his credibility.

And Gertner, no I never bought Ronnie Garvin as a World Champion. Nikita, Windham, and alot of other people at the time could have been better people to walk into Starrcade as champion. Besides Garvin hit the cage ONCE and got pinned off of it. It was a horrible finish to a World title match during that time.