Overrated/Underrated - Top 3

I think the better question is how the heck did anyone in creative think giving Backlund the title was good anyway?

it all comes back to this.......from 93-97 Vince chafed at the notion of Bret being his top guy.nobody has ever came out and said it but goddamnit the evidence is all there

1)Bret taken out of title picture to feud with Jerry Lawler
2)Bret taken out of title picture to let Diesel be top face
3)Bret beats Diesel at SSeries 95.....but HBK and Diesel are on the poster
4)Bret given caretaker reign to drop it to HBK.

#4 is the most offensive IMO.from the time Bret beat Diesel at SSeries 95 he had eff all to do......

Undertaker had him beaten at RR96 in a match that only served to set up Taker vs Diesel.........then Bret beats Diesel in a cage match that he looked like he was gonna lose because Undertaker interferes and costs Nash the match.......gain furthering their feud.

hard to picture the train of thought here........hell IYH 6 was built around HBK vs Owen with HBKs shot being on the line-NOT the title defence.

Most of the booking during that time period was brutal. It either made little sense, or Vince catered to the wishes of his top talent. Bret had some god awful feuds with Lawler, Jean Pierre Lafette and Isaac Yankem. Made no sense to have your top babyface in curtain jerkers.

Backlund defo had potential as a manager/onscreen personality but as you so rightly say,him wrestling in 94 was obscene.

Thanks Mikey1974 for getting us back on topic.

Haha!

I absolutely freaking LOVED the Backlund reign. 10 years after he was never pinned or surrendered he got what was "his" back. Showing the world that it was Old school that truly did still rule and not only that he got it back the exact same way he lost it. I thought the build up to it was awesome.

I think the only purpose for Backlunds 90's title win was to be a transition for the title going from Bret to Diesel. I think they wanted to put the belt on Diesel but didn't want him to wrestle Bret since he had just turned face and Bret was already feuding with Backlund anyway. Thats my guess

I might do an Overrrated list later, but for now its easier for me to think of my Underrated List.

Underrated
1. Goldust- Not only did the Goldust character break barriers and, in my opinion, was really the tip of the "Attitude" iceberg, he was a solid wrestler as well, especially in his initial run. He had good matches with HBK, Razor, Triple H, even Marc Mero. His character always had you glued to the screen, and he was a solid IC champion for half of 1996.

2. Marty Jannetty- If Jannetty had been able to keep his personal demons in check, I think he could have had great success in the WWF as a singles. I dont think he would have reached the levels of Shawn Michaels, but we could have seen the Rockers feud done right, which I think would have done wonders for him, and possibly even have been a stalwart in the IC title picture in the early 90s. The matches he did have with HBK were very good. He was always over with the crowd every time he came back to the company, and was a solid wrestler. Plus, up until late in their run, he really carried the Rockers team in the ring.

3. Doink- the "evil clown" Matt Bourne portrayed was awesome. Go watch the Best of Raw DVDs and tell me you dont want to watch every segment hes involved in. I thought the character could have been much more. His face run sucked, but as a heel I thought he was highly entertaining and a good wrestler to boot. He was really one of the workhorses in his time and had good matches with Mr. Perfect, the aforementioned Jannety, even his matches with Crush werent awful. Very underrated character in my book.

Overrated:
Lacey Von Erich.
John Cena.
Tyler Black.

Underrated:
Jimmy Jacobs.
Rhino.
Rob Van Dam.