Again, the BHC win is about as legit as Kurt Angle's IWGP reign and when you look at the histories of the Crabtree's European reigns... well, you know he won the belt twice but that's about it. DiBiase won many titles in his career and they're far better documented, plus he wasn't pushed continuosly as their top star. Andre won the WWF Title he only appeared sporadically in these tag matches, plus he was never pushed continuously as their top star.
So what are you saying here? Big Daddy was more of a star than Andre the Giant? His title reign is completely legitimate, and if you want to start talking about illegitimate reigns, again you better do so in threads about Flair and Harley Race. When Andre was past it, he basically only tagged with Haku, that's it. Big Daddy did the same thing.
Throw in that Crabtree had a fifteen year sabbatical and the personas either side of the break have no relation to each other either physically, intellectually or even memorably (nobody in Britain would have any idea who the Blond Adonis was) and that he was pushed as the top star continuously as the top star.
The only reason people are pushed continuously as the top star in a successful company is because they are the best. These tournaments look at a wrestler's entire career to weigh up their whole CV, and Crabtree's is the best.
Also, it was made abundantly clear that Crabtree had been around for years and they often used his real name:
And pointed out he was blond:
Note how much less of a fat bastard he looks in that picture.
True, but again this is tempered by the fact that he was the star of a program in a Primetime spot with no competition.
You keep saying this, but there was always sport on BBC on - often rugby - and he out drew this. I'll say this, if it wasn't a draw, why did ITV retain it when they got rid of all other World of Sport programming? Still, it was doing 6 million viewers on Saturday lunchtime - not prime time - which is still more than double what TNA has ever drawn.
Tell me this, if he and the show weren't popular in their own right, why is the programming still being shown on Sky now? If it wasn't popular in it's own right, why are people writing plays about it?
http://www.thepublic.com/events/big-daddy-vs-giant-haystacks
Why did nothing else on World of Sport draw this kind of audience?
Once competition raised it's head, Daddy's career went bust. I was just started in Secondary (High) School when the WWF started alternating with Big Daddy's show and the derision that was felt for him compared to Hogan et al was immeasurable (in fact there was a rumor going that British Wrestling was fake but the WWF was real
).
I can't help but think you've misremembered this or are inflating the opinion of you and your friends to represent the entire nation. WWF programming featured in the slot 6 times in the two and a half years between World of Sport stopping and wrestling moving out on it's own, as it were, and December 1988 when it was sacked off completely. WWE never had a consistent broadcast in this country until Sky was launched in 1989. And like I said, if your career going bust means having twice the audience that TNA had in it's highest rated segment of it's highest rated show, I'd take bankruptcy happily.
"Helped"? C'mon Tasty, there's a reason why the Miz was getting comparisons to Big Daddy Bundy this year for his fall from grace from headlining the previous year. Are you really telling me that it wouldn't have done as well (probably better) if it had been some other monster heel on the roster?
Look, we're not arguing the merits of King Kong Bundy, but the fact remains that a wrestler who was once very popular has taken his lead from Big Daddy.
Which needs taken with a pinch of salt considering there was already a record at that time of 124 inches held by Robert Earl Hughes, substantially exceeding Crabtree's 64".
Whatever, the fact of the matter is few people have had his physique so few could wrestle like him.
You're timing is slightly off there, Crabtree retired from wrestling in '93. His company was forced to share TV time with All Star Wrestling (featuring many former guys from his promotion tired of the Crabtrees) and the WWF in '85 and booted completely in '88.
But the company went out of business in 1995. When it was taken off the air, it was still popular, just not as popular as it had been in 1980. When Big Daddy drew 18 million viewers. AJ Styles struggles to draw a tenth of that, in a much bigger market.
Where is this stat from? While they had some events in the Wembley Arena at their peak, they where more famous for touring bingo halls and holiday camps.
Television audience. But you're right to say Big Daddy sold out Wembley Arena, which TNA failed to do. They also used to tour provincial theatres, almost all of which are bigger than the Impact Zone.
And all of their abilities eclipsed Big Daddy's whose conditioning was so poor his solo matches only ever lasted a matter of minutes.
This is just bollocks. The Ultimate Warrior's matches were short, as indeed were most of those wrestlers. It's as if the best people don't take long to win.
And they all have a far more devastating arsenal than Big Daddy that they demonstrated in any victories over far longer periods than he can go.
The Warrior's finisher is the same as Big Daddy's. Hulk Hogan's finisher is a leg drop. The Rock's finisher is an elbow drop. Need I say more about devastating arsenal? I can't believe you're trying to use the fact that Big Daddy was so good that beat people quickly as a reason that he would lose!
AJ is three inches shorter than Crabtree with a good physique, he'd be treated as the underdog but he'd hardly be causing any suspension of disbelief at overcoming him.
Except nobody ever did over come him, did they? People aren't booked as the underdog against faces anyway, it defeats the point. AJ would go down, like everyone else did, and probably quickly.
I am only responding to you, as you are evidently the only pro-Styles person arguing from any point of knowledge, however I do think that's perhaps part of the problem. Being 38, you're old enough to remember Big Daddy the fat tag team wrestler, but probably too young to remember the feuds that endeared him to the nation at their height - Nagasaki and Haystacks predominantly. I'm not saying this as an attack at all, but I guess you think of that fat man first, in the same way that I think of Ric Flair as being an embarrassing has been.
