Raine
Main Eventer
Joined on: Aug 8, 2006 12:11:52 GMT -5
Posts: 1,505
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Post by Raine on Aug 10, 2010 12:00:15 GMT -5
Good Lord I remember that time. These were guys that were just entering or leaving their rookie year in WCW and all of a sudden WCW started pushing them and trying to make them out to be main eventers! Sound familiar?  |
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Post by carly1988 on Aug 10, 2010 16:55:01 GMT -5
Good Lord I remember that time. These were guys that were just entering or leaving their rookie year in WCW and all of a sudden WCW started pushing them and trying to make them out to be main eventers! Sound familiar? One reason I see Nexus fizzling out eventually. Barrett and Angel will be around for a while but the rest will be back on the indy scene by this time next year |
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Post by marino13 on Aug 11, 2010 20:01:33 GMT -5
I don't think Benoit even considered that a title reign. They gave him the belt to make him happy, but by that point it was way too late.
WMXX was special because I had been a huge fan since his first wCw run. So it was great to see him FINALLY reach the top (for real that time)
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Post by Beck on Aug 12, 2010 13:48:35 GMT -5
I've always wondered about this aswell.
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Infinite
Main Eventer
Joined on: Aug 27, 2009 13:49:36 GMT -5
Posts: 2,608
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Post by Infinite on Aug 15, 2010 12:49:59 GMT -5
Sound familiar? One reason I see Nexus fizzling out eventually. Barrett and Angel will be around for a while but the rest will be back on the indy scene by this time next year I'm not convinced some of them could make it big even in the indys tbh.  and through a combination of benoit vacating it, the lack of prestige for the title and the fact that he was pretty much given it to try and keep him at wcw, it isnt really recognised as a big world title reign |
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Post by Patrick Bateman on Aug 15, 2010 14:42:28 GMT -5
Benoit gave the title back to Sid because he fears scissors.
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Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai
Main Eventer
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Joined on: Jul 25, 2005 17:12:49 GMT -5
Posts: 3,209
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Post by Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai on Aug 15, 2010 15:20:55 GMT -5
My memory is fading on this stuff, but I believe the other key detail is that the booker that scripted Benoit to win the WCW world title was Kevin Sullivan, and he had been recently given head booker duties by WCW (one of several booking stints for Sullivan).
Like seven WCW wrestlers (the Radicals, plus Mysterio, Shane Douglas, and I think one other guy I'm forgetting) vocally opposed Sullivan getting booking duties and made it known they would all leave if Sullivan were the booker. Benoit getting the WCW world title was basically a hot-shot angle Sullivan booked out of desperation to A) try and show those wrestlers he was going to treat them well, and B) try to avoid the mutiny of all of them leaving WCW.
Benoit worked the match as it was booked (winning the title), but didn't trust Sullivan and ultimately stood by his word to the other guys, vacating the belt and joining Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in jumping to the WWF.
WCW successfully talked Mysterio into not leaving with them, if memory serves. And Shane Douglas claims the other four promised to try and bring him to the WWF with them and then left him behind (as if the WWF needed another reason to not hire Shane Douglas).
So yeah, Chris Benoit himself didn't like acknowledging his WCW title as anything other than a lame attempt by Sullivan to use politics to avoid a mutiny on the WCW roster. So when he won the WWF title at WM XX, it actually did seem like his first true world title, even though it wasn't.
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Raine
Main Eventer
Joined on: Aug 8, 2006 12:11:52 GMT -5
Posts: 1,505
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Post by Raine on Aug 15, 2010 16:40:59 GMT -5
The other guy you refer to that tried leaving was Billy Kidman.
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Post by Chicago on Aug 16, 2010 18:11:54 GMT -5
I knew that Benoit had been a main eventer in WCW toward the end and had been their champion before leaving, but none of that mattered to me at the time of WrestleMania XX.
I just wanted HHH's reign to come to an end and, since I figured HBK didn't have much of a shot in that feud, I was pulling for Benoit to win the big one. Well, sort of "the big one", but the World Heavyweight title meant much more to WWE in 2004 than it did to WCW in the early 2000s. Also, it was more about the anticipation of the match's finish and watching HHH tap out, specifically, as we all knew that Benoit's Rumble win meant great things were going to come his way sooner or later.
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Post by slappy on Aug 16, 2010 22:58:10 GMT -5
But he ended up having a terrible title run.
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Post by Chicago on Aug 16, 2010 23:01:17 GMT -5
The same could be said for Mysterio, but that is irrelevant if you're asking why people reacted a certain way right after he won the belt. No one could have predicted a lackluster run.
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Post by slappy on Aug 17, 2010 2:38:38 GMT -5
The same could be said for Mysterio, but that is irrelevant if you're asking why people reacted a certain way right after he won the belt. No one could have predicted a lackluster run. Well I was never a fan, which Jimmy will attest too, so I probably said he'd have an awful run. |
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Post by carly1988 on Aug 17, 2010 10:48:02 GMT -5
The same could be said for Mysterio, but that is irrelevant if you're asking why people reacted a certain way right after he won the belt. No one could have predicted a lackluster run. I just never could take Mysterio serious as a World Champ. Never will be able to either. |
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Post by HugoOne on Aug 17, 2010 11:51:51 GMT -5
Benoit basically said that the title and that part of his career (the last 2 years of WCW) were a complete joke. They had taken guys that had busted their asses for years and years and made complete jokes out of them. Guys like Benoit, Malenko, Jericho, Guerrero were by far the best pound for pound athletes in WCW but were constantly being held down and pushed to the bottom by the "powers that be". Benoit himself said he didnt even recognize himself as a WCW champion as they just put the title on him thinking it would convince him (and the others) to stay. This. They threw it at him as an incentive to stay instead of thinking he "deserved" it. Not to mention the WCW Championship was vacant before the match, and he defeated Sycho Sid for the belt, who was hardly a respectable athlete to dethrone for the belt. Wrestlemania XX was a huge culmination, with a fantastic storyline preceding it. Yes, technically he won the WCW Heavyweight Championship, but it didn't really mean anything or have any emotion behind it. Winning the World Heavyweight Championship was the culmination of years and years of hard work paying off, and the pinnacle of his career. |
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