What if The Body had stayed???

[Da Truth]

I was just watching some old wrestling tapes I had, and I came across some matches with Jesse "The Body" Ventura. I had forgotten how good he was at that time. No, I'm saying he was a technical dynamo, but he could hold his own in the ring. He had a very good character, plus he was gold on the mic.
I remeber his career ending because of the blood clots on his lungs while he was in the WWF. He was very comparable with Hulk Hogan. How big do you think he would've been during Hulkamania/Rock&Wrestling Era if not for the ailment??? Would he have been the top heel of the time instead of Piper, or would there have been an alliance between the two against Hulkamania? Personally, I think he would've been a mainstay in the WWE for a while, definitely getting the IC title and possibly the WWF title cause his look fit in with what Vince wanted at the time. The title would have changed hands between he and Hogan a couple times. What do you think???

 

[boozinjedi]

I remember watching a documentary on him soon after his gubernatorial win back in 98 I think it was.
It talked about his early wrestling days,one of things mentioned that during the summer/fall of 84,there was a plan in place to have a bunch of matches featuring Jesse vs. Hulk that was gonna be huge!!(but blood clots got in the way)

He definitely would've been the top heel,they could've dragged the rivalry on for quite awhile...Culminating with a HUGE title match...

Imagine if you could,the main event of Wrestlemania 1,
HOGAN..VENTURA....FOR THE TITLE!!!

 

[Grizzly0u812]

what is weird, I thought Hulk Hogan and Jesse the Body where both in another wrestling organization and they were going to have Hogan vs. Jesse and didn't he have a back problem that prevented this from Happening, but then I see them in WWF where he actually was wrestling HillBilly Jim and family, so what thats twice Him and Hogan were going to work together and he had some kind of problem that sidelined him, not slamming Jesse but just wondering cause like I said Hogan was in the what AWA or NWA with Jesse and there was plans for those two to have a feud and Jesse's back gave out or something

 

[GameOver]

Jesse was in the WWF when Hogan was in AWA. he retired shortly after Hogan came to the WWF and became an announcer b4 heading to WCW to continue his announcing.

"Ventura continued to wrestle until September 1984, when blood clots in his lungs ended his in-ring career"

There's your answer. He was done anyway. It woulda been a great match though.

As for Hogan vs Jessie never happened well i wouldn't be suprised, maybe it was Hogan that refused to work it if they did infact both coexist in AWA, i think it's no suprise that onscreen and offscreen Jessie hated Hogan and his position as the face of the company only made things worse.

Jessie and Superstar Billy Graham were both Hoganesque type characters b4 Hogan came along and it's obvious that's what WWF/Hogan fashioned Hogan look/style from. Had Jessie not had to retire who know's we may have gotten Jessie vs Hogan atleast once.

At WrestleMania 4 Jessie announced he may come out of retirement and challenge the winner of the Tournament which was Randy Savage, but that never happened, however he did wrestle a few tag matches with a heel Randy Savage and a 6 man tag match with Orton, Piper and himself in 1985

on a personal note, Jessie was in an era of slow not much happening entertainment so it's hard to judge him as better then Hogan who was onscreen infront of millions of people on a regular basis. From the little i saw Jessie wasn't anything special other then his large then life flamboyance and great on the mic. Now if you were talking about Superstar Billy Graham he was Hogan well b4 Hogan, he had everything going for him but quit due to creative issues which led the way for Backlund to drop the title to Iron Sheik and incomes the new Hulk Hogan.

 

[BBDwrestling]

Well when Jesse was coming over from the AWA, Heenan was supposed to be his manager and they were going to do the program with Hogan. When Ventura had the blood clots and couldn't make the next run, they put the Brain with Big John Studd.

 

[Pedigree1]

I really dont know of jesse venturas in ring career i have maybe at best one or two matches of him!!! I heard though he was supposed to have a feud between him and hogan but his clots ended that!! I think for one that would have been one hell of a program between those two!! Of course Hogan would have won cause hes Hogan after all!!! Would have been nice though if Ventura could have beaten Hogan for the Strap at WM 1

 

[RicoLen]

Holy crap what is with people always using the excuse that "Hogan refused" for everything that never happened? That only happened a handful of times.

Anyways... If Ventura had stayed healthy he would in all likelihood have been champion about the time of Predator's release. It does sound logical doesn't it? "I ain't got time to bleed." That was Ventura's scene steeling line. But think about that for a minute, when was Predator released? June 1987. What was going on in the WWF in 1987? Well Hogan slammed Andre that March to become the world champion. There was no Summerslam yet... but might there have been one had Ventura still been healthy? It's very possible that the inaugural edition of Summerslam would have been a year earlier and main evented by Hogan vs Ventura. It's also possible, maybe even likely that Ventura would have faced the company alongside Hogan, as Ventura is only 2 years older than Hogan.

Talk about a credible heel. The Body seemed kind of a gay gimmick for a guy like Ventura. F**king Ventura was a navy seal in Vietnam. You quite simply do not f**k with those men. At least not when they were in their prime.

I think the 80's would have been vastly different in the WWF had Ventura stayed healthy. Think Rock vs Austin in the 90's, only Hogan vs Ventura in the 80's. Same look, same gimmick, 2 VERY VERY different men. We all know how Hogan turned out during the 80's, but just think about how a die hard heel, and ex-seal would have played that same gimmick. Ventura had everything Hogan had, and more. Compared to Ventura, Hogan has absolutely no crediblity. In this day an age, the IWC would eat Hogan alive like they do John Cena and be brown nosing Ventura like he was CM Punk.

 

[The Prodigal Anti-Lemming]

Had Ventura remained active and not suffered the effects of a life threatening pulmonary embolism, he would have held a WWF tag title with Adonis---looking back, Adonis won the championship with Murdoch around the time Ventura retired---and gone on to do nothing else.

This is because three key factors weighing against him:

1) Political tension between himself and Hogan.

2) The fact that he had already enjoyed a short headlining run against the champion.

3) The fact that Ventura was, above all else, hellbent on establishing a wrestler's union, the attempted development of which was sabotaged by Hogan, after which Ventura was fired by the company.