WWE's biggest mistake? Best WWE conspiracy?

[stavros241000]

The title is sort of open ended, so i'll do some explaining here. I recently read on article on the notorious/infamous Bleacher Report about the 10 most misused superstars in WWE history, and it was actually pretty good for something on Bleacher Report. The list included guys like Raven, Harley Race, Shelton Benjamin, and the writer's personal #1 choice, Vader. I personally hate Vader and i'm not going to get in to that. Personally, I think the most misused WWE wrestler was Shelton Benjamin, who is the greatest in-ring competitor in wrestling today (i.m.o). I didn't even think he was bad on the mic, I think he was about average. I can picture the WHC around his waist, and it looks like it was destined to be there. Anyway, tell me your picks and why so you don't get annoying spam mails.

The second part of the article is due to a personal interest in conspiracies. I don't believe in pretty much any conspiracies (exception being princess Diana) but I am always intrigued by them. The most popular are the Macho Man sleeping with 14-year-old Stephanie McMahon and Lex Luger being scheduled to win the WWF belt but losing because of a fight with VKM. My favorite one was that there was a different Kane, because I actually believed it when I was younger BUT I don't see that being the case anymore, lol. So answer both these questions, gimme rep brothers!!!

 

[CasualNinja]

I do think Shelton was underrated. I think Kofi is definitely the most misused. He has main event potential in my opinion. He is great in the ring, and is actually pretty good on the mic. That is the thing guys like Benjamin and Morrison lacked. Kofi was thrown together into 2 tag teams which worked out. Air Boom had potential, and he carried Truth. Kofi has always been given the mid card push, but they just never went all the way with him.

As it comes to conspiracies, I don't really know many. I'm interested to hear what other people think on this aspect though.

 

[starkmoto]

It's gotta be Mr. Perfect for me, I mean how much better do you have to be to get to the main event than this guy? He was as good as any heel champion ever on the mic, and had the in ring ability to go with it.

Best conspiracy is Hogan/Macho Man/ Elizabeth love triangle, and just the Hogan/Macho relationship all together. I read in a shoot interview with Hogan a long time ago that Macho pulled a gun on him saying that Hogan was holding him back in the locker room, awesome!

 

[Darevko4H]

It's gotta be Mr. Perfect for me, I mean how much better do you have to be to get to the main event than this guy? He was as good as any heel champion ever on the mic, and had the in ring ability to go with it.

Perfect was supposed to get a huge push and feud with Hogan, but if you remember he hurt his back and wound up commentating and managing for a while. I believe Bret talked about it in his book, I think that was one of the things that opened the door for them to start looking at Bret as a main eventer. Anyway, point is that they didn't drop the ball on Perfect, it was just bad luck for him to get injured.

As far as dropping the ball, Im gonna go out in left field and say Dr. Death. There was this huge build for him coming in to debut after he was over like a monster in Japan, then they have him debut in Brawl For it All and Bart Gunn turns out his lights. Bye Bye push. There are probably much better examples of misused talent, but that one sticks out and rarely gets mentioned.

Many of the best wrestling conspiracies revolve around Bam Bam Bigelow. Ill just say he allegedly did some crazy shit in Puerto Rico, it's on you guys to find the details!

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

WWE's biggest mistake=violating the court agreement with the World Wildlife Fund which led to the name change from WWF to WWE, plain and simple. Period. Vince could have still been calling the company WWF to this very day if he had followed the mandates that he was supposed to, but what can you do?

WWE's biggest conspiracy=whether or not Andre The Giant really used to shit in Japanese bathtubs or if the bathtubs weren't big enough he'd spread newspaper on his hotel bed and go that way, I read this from Hulk Hogan's first autobiography from 2002. That was about the only entertaining/amusing thing from that book.

 

[thebowtiekiller]

i think a huge mistake was muhammed hassan they took him off tv after the bombings in london but if wwe had some balls they could of had the most controversial hated bad guy in wrestling history its a real shame in my opinion and for the conspiracie im gonna have to go with the undertaker/kane thing its not a conspiracie as such but as a kid i thought there was somthing wierd going on there the undertaker had changed his appearance so much since when i first watched him i wondered if it was the same guy sometimes. Then we have kane who is supposed to be the undertakers bro and he did it perfectly even down to his mannerisms. At the time i thought there was a bit of jiggery pokerey going on there to say the least lol

 

[Bone For Tuna]

First of all I don't really understand what is so great about Shelton Benjamin. Sure he's a good wrestler and hits some nice spots once in a while, but nothing really stands out about him to me. He doesn't really have any character besides a dude who just wrestles. Team Angle was kind of cool when they debuted but what I remember most about Shelton is him getting blasted in the face back a few years ago on Raw by HBK. Nothing about Shelton Benjamin ever screamed this guy is championship material.

When I first read this thread though one big disappointment that came to my head was the whole higher power thing from back in the day with it turning out to be Vince. That, and when it turned out Rikishi ran over Austin. Oh, and Invasion, can't forget about Invasion.

 

[Wald]

Most mis-used wrestler is a tough one but I'd go with Raven. It's clear that Vince doesn't rate Scott Levy much so there is a reason for why they never went with him and gave him a decent push, but personally I thought the Raven character was one of the most intriguing of the 1990s.

As with most of the talented WCW roster, it was always a shame that the nWo placed a glass ceiling above anyone not involved in their angles, as Raven and his Flock had money potential beyond the US Title and the mid-card scene I felt.

When he came to the WWF it was obvious the fans were still into him

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I would have loved to have seen him as one of the main figureheads of the ECW invasion and then the Alliance. I mean, when I think of the original ECW, Raven is one of, if not the first, wrestler that pops into my head, so it would have made storyline sense. Couple that with him being good in the ring and great on the mic and he could have been a real asset to the WWF going forward.

For conspiracy theories, most I don't believe or care about to be honest. For the record I think the Macho Man with Stephanie thing is total nonsense. I read an interview with Hogan where he said the only reason he thought Savage didn't go back to the WWE at some stage was because of money. Savage believed, rightly in my eyes, that he was worth a certain figure, Vince didn't think he was and that is the only reason for them not doing business together. It rings true as well, Vince thought Savage was finished as a performer in 1993 even, so I would have no trouble believing he wouldn't pay out big money for him 10 years later.

 

[TheHorndogSays]

When I first read the subject, I thought of their mistakes in general. I've always felt WWF/E's biggest mistake was Wrestlemania 9 where Yokozuna beat Bret only to lose seconds later to Hogan. Yoko could have been a HUGE star in the company (pun intended) but was honestly never the same after the loss to Hogan. How can you be that gigantic and still lose to Hogan in less than 2 minutes? Wrestlemania 9 should have ended with Yoko beating Bret then if you wanted to tease a Yoko/Hulk feud have Hulk come out to tend to Bret but don't have them fight for the title. A simple small scuffle would have sufficed. Have Yoko cheat to hit Hulk with the Banzai drop. How big do you think Yoko would have been had WM9 ended with him standing tall holding the belt over a fallen Bret and Hogan? Save that for KOTR where Hulk then loses the same way he did. In that regard I believe Yoko was also their biggest misuse of talent for the above reasons. Even though he was a 2 time WWF champion, he could have been a much bigger draw than be became and not relegated to tag teams.

 

[Jerichoholic8894]

First off i'll say, I heard Tatanka was supposed to win the title against Shawn Michaels, but Michaels pushed and pushed and finally got things his way and kept the title. I find it hard not to believe that. (I'm a big conspiracy guy, I don't believe them all, but I love researching and finding my own opinion to them)

But anyway, I have to agree with you, Benjamin should have had no problem winning gold. I remember him having a few grand matches with Triple H. He had it all IMO.

Another guy IMO is MVP, I felt he was very good at cutting promo's and he was good enough in the ring to feud for the B show world title.

 

[shitsngiggles]

I do think Shelton was underrated. I think Kofi is definitely the most misused. He has main event potential in my opinion. He is great in the ring, and is actually pretty good on the mic. That is the thing guys like Benjamin and Morrison lacked. Kofi was thrown together into 2 tag teams which worked out. Air Boom had potential, and he carried Truth. Kofi has always been given the mid card push, but they just never went all the way with him.

As it comes to conspiracies, I don't really know many. I'm interested to hear what other people think on this aspect though.

I don't really agree with Shelton, he's out of WWE and out of TNA, he can't have been that good, he even had a reasonable push in TNA I thought.

But Kofi is a huge let down on being mis-used. That time he went mad on Orton and seemed to unleash himself was huge! Then it just fizzled out! Huge let down he was doing excellent.

He is definately good on the mic, just a good talker I think, no stupid shouting or trying to get a rise out of the crowd, he just seems natural.

I think he has a rare edge over a lot of the WWE roster because he is fairly big (not huge) but also has that athletic ability and tons of agility to go with it. Crowd loves him aswell.

i think a huge mistake was muhammed hassan they took him off tv after the bombings in london but if wwe had some balls they could of had the most controversial hated bad guy in wrestling history its a real shame in my opinion and for the conspiracie im gonna have to go with the undertaker/kane thing its not a conspiracie as such but as a kid i thought there was somthing wierd going on there the undertaker had changed his appearance so much since when i first watched him i wondered if it was the same guy sometimes. Then we have kane who is supposed to be the undertakers bro and he did it perfectly even down to his mannerisms. At the time i thought there was a bit of jiggery pokerey going on there to say the least lol

I loved this conspiracy! I always thought Kane was Undertaker's alter-ego at one point. They were both the same height, looked the same figure, shape, hair etc.

Whatever the case, Undertaker and Kane are 2 of my all time favourites. Wish they could find a way to create another dead man and big red machine.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

When Shelton Benjamin himself admitted to not having everything WWE required to make it to the top, it kind of makes whatever a secondary source says irrelevant. Hes a phenomenal athlete and could do some amazing things, still can as I watch him in Ring of Honor where hes came on a lot, especially as an aggressive heel which is a character ROH seems good at getting out of people (Jay Lethal's current "Killer Instinct" persona is awesome) but he couldn't speak, he couldn't promote himself, fantastic talent bland personality.

As for Raven, when he was originally in WWE they had big plans for him, he screwed himself over in that respect by leaving. In his second run, it's a good thing they didn't push him because much like how Shelton self-admittedly hadn't the total package WWE were looking for, Raven self-admittedly was on drugs throughout his entire WWE run. Watch any shoot interview with him where he runs through it, he can recall bits and pieces but never the entire thing. Vader has an argument, as does Harley Race (he was late in his career when WWE brought him in and even then still had some success) but Shelton and Raven realized their issues so again, secondary opinion is irrelevant.

 

[Wolf Pac]

For biggest mistake, I'll go with Diamond Dallas Page.

He was mis-used right from the start. Long before he took up that stupid motivational speaker gimmick, his character, his image, and everything we loved about DDP in WCW was pretty much dead from the moment he debuted with the stalker angle. I've always thought the stalker storyline could've fit right up Raven's alley but not DDP's, that storyline completely ruined him. I've never understood why he was picked to be the stalker anyway because he had a much hotter wife than Taker did, why would DDP want Sara when he's got a hot piece of ass like Kimberly? I understand that with WCW being the enemy in the Invasion storyline, he had to come in as a heel, but there are a million other better ways to come in as a heel & get Taker's attention. Plus we never got to see a proper one-on-one match between Taker & DDP, so what was the point?

I'm not saying the WWF should've given him a World Title, although it could've easily happened because DDP was so fuckin talented and him as World Champion would've been enjoyable to watch, him as champ though would've been pointless because he ended up retiring after WM X8 because of nagging back injuries, but in the time they had him, he could've been put to better use. The WWE could've given us two dream matches in DDP vs. The Rock (Peoples Champion vs. Peoples Champion) and DDP vs. Stone Cold (Stone Cold Stunner vs. Diamond Cutter), and DDP could've had a run with the IC Title and worked some good mid-card feuds with the likes of Edge, RVD (another Peoples Champion), William Regal etc. Mid-card feuds were what DDP was best at. It's such a shame Vince has long had an issue with allowing guys from other promotions to keep the gimmick that always worked for them. That was the case with DDP, and it ultimately cost him.

As for best WWE conspiracy? I'll go with some of the stories surrounding the Montreal Screwjob.

Stories like Vader warning Bret beforehand about the possibility of the screwjob happening but Bret assuring him that Earl wouldn't screw him, how wrong was he. The story of Taker kicking down Vince's door and having words with him is funny. Everybody threatening to boycott RAW the next night until Bret convinced them not to jeopardize their jobs over him. I remember watching RAW the night after Survivor Series 97, the vibe on that show was pretty scary cause you didn't know what the hell was gonna happen and because it felt empty without Bret. Gerald Brisco planning out the entire screwjob is one that gets my head shaking in disappointment, if true. Probably the conspiracy that intrigues me the most though is whether Pat Patterson was in on the screwjob or not. If he was, that would be a huge blow to Bret cause those two were so close with each other.

The Macho Man-Steph conspiracy has always been one of my favourites, but I don't believe it tbh. Why wouldn't have Vince gotten Savage arrested if it were true?

Another favourite of mine is The Undertaker threatening to knock out Shawn Michaels if he screwed Austin in their match at Wrestlemania X4, which I could believe. Shawn was always known to pull strings and screw people over, but thankfully Taker was there to straighten him out and make him do the job otherwise we would never have gotten one of the greatest moments in Wrestlemania history.

 

[xavyer]

I said this before on another thread, the WWE made the mistake of dropping the ball with Sean O'Haire, he could have been a huge superstar, he had athleticism, he had great mic skills, i remember his promos about not telling you something that you don't already know, how he tricked Kendrick to streak, and the way he had Dawn Marie taking her top off on smackdown, he was like an evil genius, but they made him feud with Mr. America ( Hulk Hogan ) and Zack Gowan, and that killed his momentum, because he had to slow down a lot for Hogan ( Mr. America ) they should have had him feud with RVD, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, or someone who could have challenge him to do his best, as for conspiracies, i'm not familiar with those, but i like the one that someone mentioned about the Undertaker taking out Shawn Michales if Austin would have lost to him at wrestlemania 14........

 

[HBKperfect23]

The conspiracy I heard about most from casual wrestling fans was there was 3 Ultimate Warriors. Even heard that one of them was Kerry Von Erich.
My favorite was, Ric Flair was supposed to enter the 1992 Royal Rumble at #30 and win the WWF title without touching anyone. I guess it would have been a Luger/Bret like elimination with the last two guys, as Flair entered the ring.

 

[Darevko4H]

I cant find anything on any bam bam bigelow conspiracies or anything in puerto rico. enlighten me!

Alright alright you twisted my arm, I guess Bam Bam's exploits aren't as well known as I thought. Again, let me stress that this ALLEGEDLY happened, but I heard it from a close source that was working PR with him at the time.

Apparently Bam Bam had a penchant for PR hookers, and one night he had his usual prostitute brought to his room. However, this wasn't your usual run of the mill Puerto Rican hooker. When Bam Bam reached downstairs, he found the hooker was packing a little more than he bargained for. Needless to say, he was furious that the hooker deceived him, and proceeded to tear out the sink from his bathroom and beat him/her/it to DEATH. As the story goes, Bam Bam had to be smuggled off the island that same night before the authorities found out.

Is it true? Who knows, but it's one hell of a story from the shady annals of wrestling history. There are other great Bam Bam stories Ive heard over the years, but that one truly takes the cake!

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Alright alright you twisted my arm, I guess Bam Bam's exploits aren't as well known as I thought. Again, let me stress that this ALLEGEDLY happened, but I heard it from a close source that was working PR with him at the time.

Apparently Bam Bam had a penchant for PR hookers, and one night he had his usual prostitute brought to his room. However, this wasn't your usual run of the mill Puerto Rican hooker. When Bam Bam reached downstairs, he found the hooker was packing a little more than he bargained for. Needless to say, he was furious that the hooker deceived him, and proceeded to tear out the sink from his bathroom and beat him/her/it to DEATH. As the story goes, Bam Bam had to be smuggled off the island that same night before the authorities found out.

Is it true? Who knows, but it's one hell of a story from the shady annals of wrestling history. There are other great Bam Bam stories Ive heard over the years, but that one truly takes the cake!

Think I'm gonna have to call bullshit here.

I've had an interest in the shady behind the scenes stories for a while now... ever since I read that old sleaze thread on DVDR. Yet, I've never heard this, or any other Bam Bam stories, so I googled it to see what you were talking about. Amazingly enough, the first hit in google... was this thread. The only other ones referring to Bam Bam and Puerto Rico, were a couple of other message board threads that happened to contain both "Bam Bam Bigalow" and "Puerto Rico" somewhere in the thread. Then I thought... considering his timeline over the years, I don't know if he would have worked Puerto Rico more than a few times. Likely not enough to even have his own 'usual' hooker.

Kinda curious. Who's your 'source' and what's the timeline here?

 

[starkmoto]

Right, I forgot about the injury to Perfect, now that I've thought about it further, the Invasion angle takes the cake, and the handling of DDP, making him a heel was weird, we couldn't have even one WCW guy have credit?

 

[harrythem]

My fave wrestling conspiracy is that Jimmy Snuka killed his girlfriend in the early 80s but when the police arrived (and Vince McMahon senior was there too) Jimmy played the native savage and somehow wasn't arrested. I've seen enough of evidence of this in enough places to believe there's a reasonable amount of truth to it, I've just summed it up in a really basic fashion.

 

[HBsam31]

One of WWE's biggest mistakes in my book was how they handled the invasion angle. I remember being so excited as a fan that the rosters were finally coming together, and all of the dream matches we could have seen. Only problem was most of the biggest stars didn't come over, and Vince used the angle to make WWE look vastly superior. Probably the biggest disappointment in an angle everywhere.
As far as conspiracy goes, and I don't know how widely spread this was, although someone else mentioned it, was that there were two or three Ultimate Warriors. I remember my cousin telling me the original one was dead, and after he dies his hair that he was a different guy playing the role. I remember not even believing it as a young kid, but that is the one I remember most.