ITT: Guys who in their time never made it to the main event in major companies, that would now be pushed to the moon if they were wrestling today
>>21366065Mike Awesome in 2026 would be a Don Callis Family member in AEW who tears his pec after debuting and gets sidelined for 16 months
>>21366065He was apparently so dumb that he made Sandman look like a Rhodes Scholar
maybe triple bitch would still try to politic him though
>>21366117kek i can unfortunately see it happening probably does the job for one of tony's flippy midgets in between injury layoffs.>>21366126really? well he was tarded enough to leave japan to be scammed by the big shyster himselfso that's not a surprise.
He was grunge in ECW and WCW and in WWE he started moving to the nu-metal look in WWE. What’s the 2026 version of that?
He had a dimes look and the fact that he, or maybe Malenko, was the jannetty of the Radicalz shows how stacked the talent was back then.
>>21366157with the fracturing of modern society and the death of the monoculture, counterculture no longer exists.i guess he could be one of those gay country rappers with the face tats.
>>21366192God damn you’re right. How depressing.
To have a legitimate badass shooter as world champ would be cool with all the faggots infecting wrasslin.
All of them? Modern wrestlers are dog shit at the fundamentals. If someone showed up and matches that weren’t just poorly executed move exhibitions it would be revelatory.
>>21366251no matter how bad modern wrestling is, guys like justin credible or mikey whipwreck or stevie ray or hardcore holly aren't gonna be main eventers
>>21366141>probably does the job for one of tony's flippy midgets in between injury layoffsWell Mike Awesome's whole gimmick relied on him wrestling midgets who could bump hard, so he'd eventually end up doing the job to one too, even if he got a dominant push
>>21366262Stevie Ray would be canceled for calling people fruit booties. But he’d have better promos and matches than any modern wrestler.
>>21366065wasn't he a main eventer when noah was pretty hot?
You know it's all a work, right? Nobody actually competes to be champion or in the main event. Not everyone can be "the guy" in the main event. There needs to be a low and mid card. To get paid six figures to fuck around before the main event is not necessarily a bad gig.
His gimmick would need to be completely different but he was a good mix of the look, promo and wrestling ability.
>>21366306>Nobody actually competes to be champion or in the main event.Well they do, in the same way that actors compete to be in the starring role.>There needs to be a low and mid card.You seem confused about the point of this thread, which is not to denigrate the existence of a midcard, but rather that wrestling in the past was superior in talent, so that guys like Test, who during his WWF run, was amongst all time greats such as Austin or Rock and seemed unspectacular by comparison and would now stand out in the modern day as a bonafide main eventer.
>>21366300He got a title shot. But I think he only did like 3 tours and it was mostly six man tag matches.
>>21366311was going to say venus. you'd probably just have him be more of a sleazy, slimy douchebag if he was a heel, rather than anything overtly sexual.
>>21366285maybe the promos, but stevie ray wrestle was like watching an arthritic tortroise in the ring.
>>21366128>testBig Cass isn't main eventing either nowadays
>>21366338Yeah. But he never took 90 seconds to clearly help his opponent balance on the top rope or ring apron and then do an obviously cooperative dive together. He never intentionally threw a punch half a foot over someone’s head and expected them to sell it.
>>21366366>He never intentionally threw a punch half a foot over someone’s head and expected them to sell it.I dunno, you might wanna rewatch some of those matches he had teaming with Ahmed.
Tatanka had the look but was relegated to being a comedy jobber back in the days.
>>21366374I don’t go out of my way to watch bad wrestling junior. You’re also talking about the end of his career.
>>21366358Big Cass is just a tall goof, Test was a Chad who bagged K2 and Stacy.
>>21366313They genuinely do not compete. It's 100% a work. They sign a contract knowing what their expectations are by the management. Sometimes they get over and then when it's contract time they can renegotiate. But they weren't shoot competing for the number 1 spot. Nobody was shoot competing with The Rock, John Cena, Austin, or Undertaker. Everyone knew those guys were permanent on top.
>>21366311>>21366322Val Venis walked so that Joey Ryan could be a sex pest who made his fetish his gimmick.
>>21366379I don't recall him being comedy, maybe in that 2000s run but he had an undefeated streak albeit when WWF only did jobber B-shows until the PPV.
>>21366411Just because they sign that contract, do you think that they always want to stay in that spot and don't want to work hard to change management's expectations? Like, do you think when John Cena first got signed Vince or Steph's expectation was that John would end up being a top guy like he was? Do you think Vince expected the Ringmaster to be Stone Cold or Rocky Maivia to be the Rock?
>>21366451But, John Cena on Smackdown wasn't competing Kurt Angle or Eddie Guerrero for that spot. Ringmaster and Rocky Mavia weren't competing with Shawn Michaels or Diesel. If anything, they were wanting to do business and not compete. That's the key difference>do you think that they always want to stay in that spotSome people genuinely do. Some guys who were good on the low card absolutely sucked in the upper or high cardYou aren't just having matches on a card. There's typically a formula>Start of the show: get the crowd hyped up cheeringJim Duggan is the best ever in this role. He made millions without ever taking a bump. >After the crowd is hyped up, show them you're stunt actionCruiserweights and flippy shit fills this niche. David and Goliath matches work good here.>Comedy angle before the big breakSantino Morella or Otis for example>Intermission match/bathroom break/concession stands Women's matches and really long tag matches work good here.>Pre-Main event action as they come back to their seatsEdge, RVD, Test, Kane. Ziggler. Maybe a hardcore match or special rules match like submission etc>Main eventRock, Austin, Cena, etc
>>21366505By your definition, we wouldn't have Kane at all - Glenn would still be Fake Diesel or Isaac Yankem or not in WWE at all.
>>21366551Because he got a new gimmick from the boss. Now he made millions not even being the main event. Just a "big guy attraction" He doesn't cry himself to sleep overnight thinking about never main eventing Wrestlemania, trust me.
>>21366311>Toxic male gimmick.
>>21366587Unironically, wrestling might be the perfect medium to teach you midwits the difference between toxic and positive masculinity. Shame everyone is too much a pussy to be a real heel anymore.
>>21366157Racist streamer.
