A World Without: Flair and Hogan
 

Let's pretend both Flair and Hogan retired just before they were to get their first title win.

How different would the 80s-onward be in both the WWF and NWA?
Who would have taken their places?
Would the WWF have folded, or would they have had the first WrestleMania with similar success?
Would the NWA have surpassed the WWF?

Answer these questions or others.

I don't think you can say "oh yea, you can easily replace Hogan or Flair" (I'm sure most of you will say you could easily replace Hogan :roll: ), but think the companies could have achieved at least the success they did with other wrestlers. Vince was very smart back then and knew how to market his product. He would of found somebody else to make as the top star. And that guy wouldn't of had to take on the Hulk Hogan charcter or anything. He could of done something completely different.

With the NWA, you had so many good workers back then. I could easily see a Tully Blanchard being the man in Flair's spot just as an example. But if you were to really sit down and analyze the NWA roster (including all the territories), you'll soon realize you could survive without Flair. The NWA had a quality product all across the cards back then.

I didn't mean it in the literal gimmick sense, I meant Hogan's/Flair's spot at the top. (Just clarifying.)

oh and to answer your question about the NWA surpassing the WWE, I am going to still say no. I say no because Vince was a marketing/advertising/business guy building a wrestling show. Nobody came close to Vince in terms of what he did to compliment his product. He bought a lot of mainstream popularity at the time into his program. Vince wasn't just about wrastling, he was more then that and that's what really skyrocketed his product. He bought in the celebrities, he bought in MTV, he bought in Mr. T, his wrestlers did movies, he had cartoons and all that. He was a genius in that aspect.

So in summary, having one top star less (Hulk Hogan in this example) wasn't going to play that much of a factor in Vince's success in my opinion. I think the WWF would of still been the #1 show in town

I disagree. Without a face of Hogan's stature (and no one was close to Hogan at the time) I think WrestleMania had a very good chance of failing. And remember that WrestleMania was pretty much, for lack of better phrasing, "make it or break it" for the WWF. Had it failed there was a very high chance of the company going bankrupt.

Without someone like Hogan, I don't think they would have been popular enough to even consider the WrestleMania concept.

I'm not saying Hogan is it, but I just don't know who could have taken his place and ran with it.

no, it's a good point. I'll post some more when I get home from work. good question though :y:

Savage and Piper.

I believe Snuka would have been the big star. Like he was supposed to.

Then in the NWA I guess Piper would have been the big star like he should have.

A world without Hogan probably would have been a lot better.

I'm almost positive the majority of us wouldn't even be watching waretling right now if it wasn't for Hogan, as much as a douche that Hogan is.

seriously guys, shut the fuck up. every single thread is like this now. it's getting ridiculous

I try to come on here and talk about wrestling. Triple insists on stalking me from thread to thread.

Shut the fuck up, faggot. Just take his advice and shut up.

As soon as you do.

I don't want to pull a Fabien, but what the F happened to my post??

randy savage and mr perfect could take those places

Exactly it would be easy to put someone it Hogans place and have him do the same exact thing.

There's where my disagreement lies. Like I said, I don't think it's as easy as you would think to just put somebody else in Hogan's spot/gimmick and have it work out the exact same way. However, I think you could take a few wrestlers and certainly make them a top guy to carry the company. And again, the gimmick doesn't have to be of Hogan's

Let's break this down more and actually look at the WWF and NWA rosters around 1986; a time where Hulkamania and The Four Horsemen were taking off. These are courtesy of Solie's Vintage Wrestling. This is without Hogan and Flair included

WWF


Roddy Piper, George "The Animal" Steel, Andre the Giant, Pedro Morales,
"Adorable" Adrian Adonis, Tony Garea, The Magnificent Muraco, The Iron
Shiek, The Junkyard Dog, Tito Santana, Lelanie Kai, Judy
Martin, Moondog Rex, Moondog Spot, Gregg "The Hammer" Valentine, Mike
Rotundo, Nikolia Volkoff, "The Giant" John Studd, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul
Orndorff, Brutus Beefcake, King Kong Bundy, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat,
"Cowboy" Bob Orton, Davey Boy Smith, The Dynamite Kid, Steve Lombardi, Sivi

Afi, Haku, Toma, Hillbilly Jim, B. Brian Blair, "Jump'in" Jim Brunzell,
Barry O, Brett "Hitman" Hart, Jim "The Andvil" Neidhart, Terry Funk, Dory
Funk Jr., Randy "Macho Man" Savage, "Leaping" Lanny Poffo, Corporal
Kirshener, Hercules Hernandez, Jauques Rougeau, Raymond Rougeau,

Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Cousin Luke "Golden Boy" Danny Spivey, Jimmy Jack Funk, Billy Jack Haynes, "The King" Handsome Harley Race, "The Natural Butch Reed, The Honkytonk Man, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Paul Roma, Jim Powers, The Super Machine, The Big Machine.


NWA

"The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, Nelson Royal, "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton,
Ivan Kolkoff, Hawk, Animal, Nikita Koloff, "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson,
Tully Blanchard, Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, "Hands of Stone" Ronnie
Garvin, The Barbarian, Sam Houston, Chris Champion, Sean Royal, Barry
Windham, "Sweet" Stan Lane, "The Total Package" Lex Luger, Ray Candy,
Commando #2, The Warlord, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Manny Fernandez, Kendall
Windham, Kevin Sullivan, Michael "P.S." Hayes, Big Bubba Rogers, Dick
Murdoch, Magnum TA


And we can throw in stars from other territories like the Von Erich's, Jimmy Garvin, Jerry Lawler, Gino Hernandez (although he died in Feb of that year), Steve Williams, Eddie Gilbert, Terry Taylor, Chris Adams, Curt Hennig

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I'll admit, it's tough to look at the rosters now and conclude that any one of those guys could be in Flair's or Hogan's spot and carry th companies like thy did.

However, like I said, I could see Blanchard carrying the NWA as a heel. Maybe even Jimmy Garvin. You could possibly put Savage in Flair's spot even or give Curt Hennig two more years of expereicne and he's a fit. You could bring over Dibiase and put him in that spot.

I think replacing Hulk is a little harder. Again, Savage I could see. Call me crazy, but I could actually see Luger in that spot. He was young and he was a good wrestler at the time. Good body and great charisma like Hulk. I really can't see Piper carrying the company as a babyface during that era.

It's tough to call

Magnum T.A. could have been bigger then Hogan if that accident didn't happen.

How DIFFERENT would WWE be if JOHN CENA DIED BEFORE BEING BORN? Find out here!!! [CLICK HERE FOR EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS!!!]

SPOILER: show

Rick Astley wins!