Tank Abbott: WCW Champion

[Y 2 Jake]

When Tank Abbott was in WCW there were very serious talks about having him as world champion. I'm not sure who he was supposed to beat. But Russo pushed very hard for if from what I've read. Why exactly, I have no idea. People might bash David Arquette as champion. But I'm sure it got them publicity, and if it wasn't for that title reign WCW would be even more of a distant memory. If anything I think it was one of the better things to happen to that company towards the end. Anyway, what sort of effect would this have had on WCW? I doubt it would have had any effect at all. The promotion was dead, it wouldn't have meant a thing. While people go on about Arquette as champion. They never talk about Russo's title reign, which was just as bad. I'm sure an Abbott title reign would have gone the same way as most of Bookers, Steiners, Jarretts & DDP's at that time. Nowhere.

 

[Mr. TM]

I look back at the end of WCW, and think about all those who could have been champion to end the show. You mention Tank Abbott as one of them. I try to remember Tank, and just remember him as a chubby person who was punching people for the win. He never looked impressive, and im sure most people would agree with that. But if Tank were to have recieved the Big Gold Belt, I wonder what the UFC/WCW relationship could be. UFC at the time was in the basement, but imagine if there was a chnace that those two companies could have joined together, and UFCs rise in this millenium could have saved the WCW.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

Tank Abbott would have done nothing to help WCW. He also wouldnt have hurt it. WCW was in a downward spiral. If they put the belt on him nobody would have cared. He started out as a badass, then went to 3 counts groupie. Pretty lame if you ask me. If he was given the title while he was still a badass it might have been entertaining. But it would neither have hurt nor helped WCW, they were already dead.

 

[jmt225]

Haha... I actually never heard this rumor. But I'm glad they didn't do it. At least Arquette donated every cent he got as champion to the families of deceased wrestlers, so at least SOMETHING good came from it. Tank as champ would've been far worse. Dude had nothing to offer to the business. Hell, if you ask me, he had nothing to offer to MMA. The guy just sucks and was a disgrace to both sports.

With all that said, Ken Shamrock would've been an AWESOME WWF Champion. Fuck, if he were to come back today, you wouldn’t hear any bitching from me if either WWE or TNA wanted to push him to the moon. He actually has talent, intensity and a presence about him. Tank had none of that. The only thing I really remember from his WCW run was him dancing with 3 Count. He literally did nothing else worth noting.

 

[Shocky]

The original plan for Tank Abbott was for him to take out Bill Golberg for the title, if memory serves me correctly anyway. My opinion, thank god this didn't happen. Tank Abbott was terrible. He was a sad excuse and a pathetic attempt at capturing what the WWF had with Ken Shamrock, yet the WWF never went out of its way to make Shamrock a legit threat to the WWF Championship. Tank Abbott was worse then Dan the Beast Severn when it came to a run with a big company.

 

[Afro-Ameri-Spawn]

To be honest, it was not that bad of an idea. You see, when people hear about this rumor they just think of Tank Abbott wearing the WCW title, without being what many of us think of as a wrestlers. But many closed minded individuals fail to see the true context of the gesture. It's not that Russo was wanting to put the title on some reality star, or some actor, or some MMA fighter who was supposed to be a badass, it's that he was trying to shake things up a bit and erase the line between wrestling and reality even more. It was pure genius. For all we know, this could have worked out to shake up wrestling enough once again and jolted more mileage into the Monday Night Wars.

I mean without such thinkers as Russo, there would never have been the "Monday Night Wars". There would never have been a DX. There would never have been a Stone Cold. There would never have been an NWO. Hell, there would never have been an attitude era. Do you even know what that means in the overall scope of wrestling? It means that we would continue to see such classically cartoonish characters as Adam Bomb, The Juicer, and Fantismo(also known as Spellbinder). God no, I will pay anything for that kind of wrestling to never see the light of day again! I mean, it's good for nostalgia, but as an every week thing, it's torturous.

All in all, Tank Abbott as champion would not have worked due to the classic wrestling mind of older fans. It would have been killed bu the theory that the world champ has to be a good wrestler and that if that's not the case, then the title just looks less important. Hence why people still have yet to get over the David Arquette world title angle. I mean it's not like David actually performed some kind of devestating move that took the champ out before he made the pin, thusly making the champion look weak. No, the pin was acccidental and made to look like a goof, which was the context as it was never meant to be taken seriously. But alas people had a heart attack. Of course, I do have to wonder one thing. Why is it that the same people who think that Tank Abbott and David Arquette as champ would just be a black spot on the title forever and ever are the same people who never question Vince McMahon's title reign? Hmm. Food for thought I think.