Billy gunn What if?

[quink987]

it 1999 Billy Gunn got the biggest push of his career winning the KOTR and double main eventing Summerslam with the rock, but did WWE drop the ball by not pushing him even more after summerslam or was they right to stop pushing him when they did?

for I would of loved to see him pushed as the second biggest heel because his in ring work was good he was gud on the mic but for some reason back then the fans didnt take him seriously was it cause he was called Mr Ass maybe, or maybe their was enough rising stars so Billy was in the wrong place at the wrong time who knows but overall I think he could of been a great main event talent but when he was in his prime HHH, Austin, Rock, Mankind, Taker, Kane was runing the show

 

[TheLogan27]

I personally would have loved to see Billy Gunn pushed further. I'll even go on to say he would have been a great WWE Champion. I think the WWE just dropped the ball. He was a great wrestler. Fantastic on the mic. I do kind of think that he did get looked at as a joke but let recall just a little while back a man named Mark Henry who was the father of MAE YOUNG's offspring, which by the way was a hand, all while the nick name of that man was SEXUAL CHOCOLATE. Now he is billed as the World's Strongest Man. Mark is not even a good wrestler yet he was a dominant World's Heavyweight Champion. WWE dropped the ball big time with him. He could have even pull a Christian and won the championship once or twice and went back down to the mid card

 

[mrpops]

Billy gunn is one of the few living men who deserves a world title run. He has a good gimmick, hes always been solid on the mic, can still wrestle decent enough and has the look. Hes better than 95% of the current roster.

Even if its only a month long reign, he deserves it. They got tons of footage/history with him. WWE can easily make a video showing how popular he used to be and how hes never won the big one. Billy gunn can talk about how he never got his chance because he was apart the biggest era ever and it was pretty much impossible to beat guys like stone cold, rock, shawn, HHH and taker who dominated back then.

 

[theBec2101]

I don’t know what happened. I thought he was great. He was a legit tough guy, he could wrestle and he had pretty good mic skills. He might have been another victim of getting lost in the shuffle. I mean that time there were a lot of people climbing that ladder. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the WWE again.

 

[HBsam31]

I seem to remember his feud with The Rock being labeled a fail. I am not sure why, but Billy Gunn was portrayed as a bit of a joke in that feud. I am not sure what went wrong, but I enjoyed his KOTR win, and the feud with The Rock. At that time I thought he would eventually get a run with the title, but he was never pushed again after that. I myself would have loved to see what he could have done at the top, but it was never meant to be I guess.

 

[dudekindjack]

seems as tho i remember stone cold saying in a interview he would like to be the one to put billy gunn over. i think the who ran over austin at the survivor series 1999 ppv was suppose to be for gunn, but somehow it was changed to rikishi.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I seem to remember him sucking a whole lot. Push after push after push and he couldn't get over. Road Dogg did all the heavy lifting for that duo. I figure WWE knew they made a mistake pairing him up with The Rock so Gunn never sniffed the main event again. Good decision, Vince.

 

[MVP#1]

Billy gunn was an amazing talent. I remember back in the days, he would get huge pops, whether was a part of the New Age Outlaws, Mr. Ass, The One Billy Gunn or paired with Chick. He was great in the ring, however one of his flaws was he was boring to me at least on the mic. He just seemed like he was reading a script rather than it coming from him.

 

[Unknown]

yea i would have loved to see gunn be pushed.... down a fricken cliff.. the guy had nothing interesting about him. and he wasnt that good in the ring or on the mic... HES OVERRATED. im glad they didnt give him a push, because instead of seeing Stone Cold and The Rock.... we would be seeing BILLY GUNN.. i mean come on people... Billy Gunn sucks !!!

 

[xavyer]

Plain and simple, i think it was the wrong time for him, there were so many main event caliber stars at that time, but if he would have been wrestling in today's WWE he definitly would be up ther with Cena and CM Punk........

 

[midgensa]

Pretty good thread here.

I remember being pretty satisfied with the elevation of Billy Gunn, but the name Mr. Ass and his absolutely horrendous entrance theme definitely derailed him. I didn't get it at the time, and in retrospect I am really shocked nobody switched it up.

I remember them trying to elevate Val Venis at one point and thinking it just was not going to work and they should try it with Billy Gunn. The Gunn elevation was solid. His feud with The Rock was short lived, but could have been pretty good if done right.

He clearly was underutilized and could have done a lot more in his WWE run. He was good in the ring, great on the stick, had the look, but for some reason the E just couldn't get him to the upper level.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Plain and simple, i think it was the wrong time for him, there were so many main event caliber stars at that time, but if he would have been wrestling in today's WWE he definitly would be up ther with Cena and CM Punk........

Gunn couldn't get or stay over if his life depended on it. They give him gimmick after gimmick and push after push and he had nothing. He was just a tag team wrestler and an average midcarder at best. He would have been the guy that Cena and Punk squashed.

 

[SinCityBlitz]

I seem to remember him sucking a whole lot. Push after push after push and he couldn't get over. Road Dogg did all the heavy lifting for that duo. I figure WWE knew they made a mistake pairing him up with The Rock so Gunn never sniffed the main event again. Good decision, Vince.

This. They tried pushing Gunn on three different occasions but he failed to get himself over any of the times. The guy sounded generic on the mic and had no personality. He wasn't good enough to help carry a match at all. He was great in tag teams but put him alone and he was bad.

In the WWE today he would be a mid carder at best.

 

[deslok]

ya, that was back then that he was bad. Compared to today's roster, I say give him a title run. I think that'd be great!

 

[DarkLordFett]

You must remember a different Billy Gunn than I do. In-ring, yeah he was always a solid performer. Not one of the best, but very solid and dependable. But his mic skills were always sub-par to me. Always seemed nervous or jittery. That's way Road Dogg got most of the mic work during their NAO/DX run. Hell, Chuck got more mic time than he did. There are only a few guys on the mic that I can really remember that I felt were worse than Gunn.

Really, title pushes are all up to the whims of VKM.

 

[Doctor Awesome]

He was definitely underutilized during the Attitude Era of WWE. There are several factors that got in the way, some already pointed out.

One problem he faced is that he sold really well, for all different types of performers. He has admitted to enjoying getting others over and selling super hard for them. He was/is a great athlete and probably did too much for others.

Also, it was very hard to stay afloat in the shuffle of the SCSA/Rocky/HHH era. These were three dominant champions (W/1 World Title) that didn't share the spotlight well w/others. The Rock could have easily helped in getting Billy over during the summer of '99 but they buried him every opportunity they got...on the mic, in segments, in the ring. BG can hold his own in the ring w/anyone and was good on the mic but comapred to Rock/SCSA, nobody could hold a candle to them at the time, so use that uncanny ability and help sell BG as a legit contender. He could have morphed into "the 1" BG naturally by having awesome matches w/top contenders.

I'm not sure how great of a champion he could be as a face, but as a heel he's exactly the kind of guy that people loved to see lose...hence a great heel champion!

I definitely expected more but the top tier was well spoken for and with his personal issues may not have always helped his own cause, but none the less is one of the more underappreciated talents of such a pivotal period in the industry.

After seeing RAW 1000, I was way pumped for him more than anyone else. 14 years with the company and never getting his due, he lived up to the occasion and was very entertaining. I hope this leads to a Legends run for him and maybe a short fued to help get a few guys to the next level.

 

[Ljt]

Very overrated. The New Age Outlaws only had that many title reigns due to a lack in the tag team division. Hence why the outlaws last title reign ushered in the era of the Dudleyz, Hardys, E&C etc

 

[InsomniaMusic]

Billy Gun was great in the ring but he was NOT great on the mic. That's why he was GREAT in tag team wrestling.