08-01-2020, 10:17 PM | #41 |
TPWW's HHH Mark Since '04
Posts: 29,886
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DDP should have ended the streak at Starrcade. He came close at Halloween Havoc. He wins the WW3 battle royal, and goes on to Starrcade to finally win the world title. They waited til Spring Stampede 99 and it was too little too late.
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08-01-2020, 10:19 PM | #42 |
I am the cheese
Posts: 50,964
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not a draw. its as plain as the sun is bright. British liked him. Canadians liked him. india oddly liked him. no other markets responded to bret. thats an issue if youre an american company. as vinces gate shrank turners gate grew. this isnt a coincidence.
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08-01-2020, 10:40 PM | #43 |
Best Poster
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08-01-2020, 11:58 PM | #44 | ||
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Quote:
Anyway, that's not very realistic, but the idea of Goldberg winning the WCW World Title at Starrcade '98 and Austin getting his big win against Bret Hart with JR on the call kind of gives me this weird parallel universe stiffy. Quote:
To be fair, WCW growing a gate and Bret Hart not sustaining one don't need to be causally linked to one another. WCW can be independently hot without Bret letting the team down. |
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08-02-2020, 02:19 AM | #45 | |
RoBOT Reigns
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Quote:
Bret was the champ when they launched Raw. I'm not saying Bret was a mega draw, and I'm not talking about his WCW run. But it is factually incorrect to say he wasn't a draw at all. WCW did not turn a profit until 1995, some 3 years after Bret first won the WWE title. That would be like blaming Austin for the business going down in 2004. |
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08-02-2020, 10:29 AM | #46 |
boop/bop/beep
Posts: 38,423
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Business didn't start going downhill when Bret was champion. The bloom was long off the rose, and Hogan left WWF in the lurch, big time. There was pretty much no one, other than Bret (until Shawn), who could have possibly taken the mantle, as proven by Diesel tanking as champ in 1995. Shawn didn't do so well, either.
It's absolutely fucking idiotic to say "don't push Bret," given there was nobody else. What? You going to give Mabel the belt? All you could really do at that time was hold fort. You could argue Taker, but they did a lot to damage his character in those years. It took until Austin for things to turn around. A guy that Bret helped make. Not to say there's no Austin without Bret--but Steve himself credits Bret for his development and finding himself as a character. Then, when Bret turned up in WCW, he was hot. They actively chose not to do anything with him. Should he have been the flagship of the show? Probably not. But they could have used him as a more integral facet, as opposed to just another guy. For a guy who shits on "stats" all the time, Destor is more than happy to use them as confirmation bias. |
08-02-2020, 10:32 AM | #47 |
boop/bop/beep
Posts: 38,423
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I'd concede that Nash could have drawn as champ if they let him be more of an anti-hero. I'll accept that argument. That's pure speculation though.
But he seemed to be a significant part of WCW's downfall in 98, as much as he helped them take over in 96 and 97. |