Best Feud Participant of All Time

[RVDgurl]

First I need to thank IC25 for including Raven and Sandman in this poll. It's necessary to have ECW represented properly. And of course, my first instinct was to go with Raven. Raven may not have had the main stream exposure that some of the other guys had, but his fueds were legendary as he is probably the greatest ring psychologist ever.
With that being said, the more I pondered over the choices, it just made sense that Ric Flair be my choice. I watched alot of NWA as a kid and I got to see The Nature Boy at his very best while it was happening. He was absolutely amazing in every aspect of the game. He is the best fued participant of all time. The programs he worked while a part of the Horsemen were legendary. His fueds with Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Sting (just to name a few) are unmatched. Flair was one of the greatest promo guys of the 80's and he personified what a heel really was.

 

[Slyfox696]

I could be wrong here, I freely admit it, but when Luger came out of that feud, I felt it was to warm up the heat for Hogan's feud with Sting, which I incidentally agree was one of the 3 best feuds of the 90s. I didn't feel Luger came out of the feud with Hogan with a great deal of heat. He was a draw, yes, but it didn't set anything in motion that I would note. And not nearly the way Hogan's feuds with Sting and Goldberg did for those two. Again, I blame Luger for that.

Luger went into that feud as just another WCW guy. He came out of it blistering hot and a major draw, the banner carrier for WCW until Sting came along. Luger certainly came out of that feud ahead.

Gosh, Sly, I am sorry, I was not aware I have to set everybody's criteria completely equal and announce what that criteria would be prior to starting a thread. Dude, EVERYBODY has differnet criteria, though more than anybody I have ever met online, you seem to think the world has to follow your criteria and yours alone. Anybody who responds is free to debate based on WHATEVER criteria they find important, whether that is drawing power, wrestling skills, athleticism, etc. As a result, I took into account how hard Savage had to work to create heat with his feuds, since so often the WWF Title was NOT involved. That was an important enough factor to me where I'd place Savage over Hogan in terms of feud participation. But again, I place Hogan a close 2nd.

To me, that's just like saying "I know Hogan was in the biggest and best feuds, but because, in my opinion, he didn't have to work as hard at it, i dont want to give him that title". I don't understand that thinking. Obviously, the thread is about the best feud participant, and why one feels that way, but arbitrarily dismissing criteria as it comes along simply because it is damaging to your case kind of derails from the objectivity of an argument, does it not?

 

[IrishCanadian25]

I love SlyFox. And I love RVDGurl. This is getting fun.

While I think Sly and I could go on for DAYS on Hogan vs Savage as the greatest feud participants of all time, it just came to my attention (alarmingly so) that with 157 responses to this poll, NINE of them went to EITHER Hogan or Savage. That is 5.7%! So you're all saying that less than 6% of you feel Hulk Hogan OR Randy Savage are the greatest feud participant of all time!? And Flair only has 9 votes - good enough for the same number as Hulk Hogan AND Savage combined, but still only 5.7% himself!

I defy anyone to read Sly's and my posts, and honest to God make a case that Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin have had better feuds than Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. It may very well be an Old School vs New School mentality, or just the recency of the latter two that give them 55.4% of the vote combined, but my God! I am not saying I'm shocked Michaels or Austin would win this thing, but they are getting 10 votes to every one for Hogan or Savage!

 

[Father:_Polley]

I'm gonna go the other option... VKM. Feudig against vince is possibly the best way to go from hated superstar to being over with the crowd. it's a guaranteed main event on a weekly basis, a pay-per-view match or 2 and a step up to title match level shortly after. feuds are all about exposure, and the chairman of the company is a pretty big way of gettin exposure and a push. or else you could be married to his daughter...whatever you choose.

in my opinion, Raven is probably the best of the lot when it comes to the psychology of the feud, but he lacks the big name draw that you need to come out of a feud with momentum.

and also i'll respond to the hogan/savage debate - I don't like Hogan and to be honest...I've never really seen savage. yes i've seen some of his matches, but not the entire feuds. so yeah, it's probably age that's stopping hogan and savage getting the votes.

 

[Tomko]

I'm gonna go the other option... VKM. Feudig against vince is possibly the best way to go from hated superstar to being over with the crowd. it's a guaranteed main event on a weekly basis, a pay-per-view match or 2 and a step up to title match level shortly after. feuds are all about exposure, and the chairman of the company is a pretty big way of gettin exposure and a push. or else you could be married to his daughter...whatever you choose.

Great option. And so true. When has Vince not been involved in a segment of RAW, except for when he was "dead". Just yesterday he was in a backstage segment with both Jeff and Randy. So, polleywalley has this pick down to a tee.

 

[HBK-aholic]

In my opinion, it is easily Shawn Michaels. He has had so many feuds with different people. This in itself has broadened 2 sets of peoples talents, himself and the other participant.

He hasn't been in one feud where he or anyone else has been made to look like a bad wrestler. Shawn's feuds are all about being entertaining for the fans, and about good experiences for all the wrestlers involved. Every feud he's in is something exciting and new, not the same old things you can expect with some people. He knows how to keep the fans on their toes, and to get them involved with everything.

Recently the feuds Shawn have been in have seen him losing in the end, to further anothers career, he's put over the likes Of Cena and Orton in recent months, and is on the way to doing so with Kennedy, who in my opinion is a great wrestler.

He was also involved with a feud which ended in possibly one of the most infanous matches ever, with Bret Hart. However this ended, and whatever your opinion on the situation, you can't deny Shawn Michaels is brilliant at participating in feuds.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Flair hands down. Reading some of these posts it's clear many of you have little knowledge of wrestling pre 1997. Watching Flair in the 80's, it's clear he's better than anyone else on this list. His promos were electric, aternately hysterically funny (taunting Ricky Morton with a training bra because he only gets the "little girls" or molesting a department store manequin dressed as Jimmy Garviv's valet Precious to show what she could expect on their date), deadly serious (Flair heel turn promos against Dusty Rhodes after breaking his leg and Sting after kicking him out of the Horsemen are priceless) and he was equally convincing as a conniving rulebreaker (taunting Ricky Steamboat that he should give up wrestling and go home to "help the missus with the dishes") or in his elder stateman of wrestling faze circa NWO 1997 (his one company united promo before the Aug 96 Hog Wild PPV is a classic).

In the ring, Flair had no peers, he was anywhere from slightly better to way better than just about everyone. Whether it was bloody cage matches (the old NWA cage matches are what today's Hell In A Cell are based on and were far more intense than anyting in 1980's WWF) or 60 minute classics with Steamboat and Whyndham. Better yet, Flair pulled great matches out of opponents not known for them. Just watch Flair's brutal 45 minute slugfest with Nikita Kollof at the Great American Bash 1985 or better yet catch Starrcade 88 against the often criticized Lex Luger and see what I mean. If Luger looked that good against anybody else in his career as he did that night against Flair he would have been a Hall Of Famer.

Also, unlike Hogan (and for awhile in he 90's Michaels) Flair didn't routinely put down his opponents and make them look bad. Even during his time as champion, Flair's opponents routinely had many high moments in their feuds, victories in non title and tag team matches, were allowed significant offense in heir matches. Flair's rivals almost universally came out looking good after feuding with him even if they didn't beat him for the belt. Barry Whyndham was a consistant top level performer in the NWA after he feuded with Flair even though Flair won most of the matches. Feuds with Flair made Luger and Sting superstars (one would argue Sting had the talent to get there without Flair he simply provided the avenue to greatness where Luger needed Flair much more to get over and stay over with fans). Flair certainly put his ego aside for the good of the company when he put over Hogan in 1994, just as he kept egos in check by constantly making aging Dusty Rhodes look good in the 80's. Flair has also put over Undertaker and Steve Austin in high profile matches and shared multiple wins and losses with Savage and Sting. He didn't always need to trump the competition but he always gave a great show.

Moreover, Flair could wrestle virtually any kind of match. Cage matches, chain matches, bullrope matches, two out of three falls, Texas Death, Last Man Standing, I Quit, not too mention the War Games - Heck, even at 56 yrs old he wrestled Edge in a TLC match, a TLC match good enough it made the DVD release of greatest Ladder matches of all time !!! Imagine if he did that match in 1985, or even 1995, it might have been one of the 5 or 6 best such bouts ever televised.

Further proof, just look at Shawn Michaels and HHH. They are (and for the most of the past 10 yrs have been) carbon copies of Flair, trying to mimick his in ring work, his mic work, the two biggest stars of the past decade are virtual Flair wannabees, so much so they have admitted it publicly.

No doubt Flair wins hands down.