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Post by warriorlynx on Sept 28, 2018 8:44:58 GMT -5
I've never understood this, I've always felt that Rick Martel - especially as the heel Model - should've been a great fit as an Intercontinental Champion. I mean this is the guy who had the AWA World title for 595 days, that should've meant something. Instead Vince threw him as a regular tag team guy when he joined the WWF. Eventually he held the Tag titles three times till his heel turn. Heck we never even got the big PPV match between him and Tito Santana, and his career highlight thereafter would be the RAW Battle Royal in '93 for the IC title, in which he was a "co-winner". Martel's career was pretty much done. Do you agree that he should've had an IC title run?
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ryan93
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Nov 10, 2012 23:53:23 GMT -5
Posts: 355
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Post by ryan93 on Sept 28, 2018 9:40:03 GMT -5
The Santana and Martel feud did have a blowoff match at Main Event IV where Martel won. They also met in the King of the Ring where Santana won. Survivor Series 89 was when the feud really ended but they had several more encounters. I could argue he didn't need the title and his feud with Jake was the biggest thing in his career and his peak. Then in 91 he was rarely seen as he made tours of Japan with the awful SWS working relationship. Then he came back with the Shawn Michaels feud which was decent because both were heels and couldn't throw punches in their high profile match. Then he had the Tatanka feud over feathers which was underrated only because Martel couldn't pick up the much needed heel victory to spark the feud due to the Undefeated streak of Tatanka. He was used sporadically after that with his big chance at gold came when he almost won the battle royal and lost to Ramon. Looking at the IC Title situation he had no real opportunity after WrestleMania 5. Rude won the belt and then Warrior so you know Martel had no chance at winning it then. Perfect won the vacated belt which is sadly Martel's best time since he could have won it in a tournament beating Santana to restart their feud. After that you had the Perfect/Tornado trade back then Hart won it so you know there wasn't a good opportunity there for Martel unless he takes The Mountie's spot for a 1 day title reign. It was Shawn Michaels time to shine after the Hart/Bulldog match. The battle royal was really his last shot as he was too old at that time to get a serious look at a possible title run as he was already in year 2 of having great matches but it was to put guys over. It was really just a few missed opportunities. I see getting the Jake storyline was just as good or better than winning the belt. He was more relevant working at a main event level. You could do this for a ton of guys because you can always find that one spot where this was his chance to win this belt and that happened in the 1990 IC tournament but he went to a DDQ with Piper giving Perfect the BYE to the finals. If I was in charge I would have wanted to switch that with Perfect going to a DDQ with Piper as Heenan and Piper were feuding on Primetime quite a bit and Piper vs. Perfect is a main level feud. Martel could have done the job for Tornado after a short Santana feud. Then having Perfect beat Tornado for the gold staying the same.
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Post by Gorilla on Sept 28, 2018 10:42:15 GMT -5
They needed a European title back then. They would have been perfect for Martel.
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Post by hbkjason on Sept 29, 2018 2:40:00 GMT -5
I really liked Rick Martel and think he would have been a great IC champion. However, I do not see a time when it would have made sense for him to be the champion over anyone else who was at the time. I really liked the way the WWe booked the IC title from 90 all the way up to 95.
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Post by JokerFC on Oct 3, 2018 5:34:15 GMT -5
I really liked Rick Martel and think he would have been a great IC champion. However, I do not see a time when it would have made sense for him to be the champion over anyone else who was at the time. I really liked the way the WWe booked the IC title from 90 all the way up to 95. This is very true......I think he was perfect for it too....but not at the expense of Perfect, Hart, Bulldog, Razor or HBK. Or Beefcake if he hadn't been injured....Beefcake was crazy over. They could have had a good feud for it though.... Maybe instead of Kerry but Martel was a heel so he was never gonna be the guy to relieve Hennig. IMO his only shot was if ya give it to him instead of Mountie/Piper? Ya don't get that belter of a match at WM8 then? tricky.....but yes he was definitely deserving. |
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Post by The Brain on Oct 3, 2018 15:16:00 GMT -5
Martel definitely deserved a title run. I would've had him beat Razor on that Raw in late 93 with him holding it until the Rumble where Razor would beat em for it.
Such an underrated talent. Always was a big fan.
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Post by Liv Is Life on Oct 3, 2018 17:50:43 GMT -5
I enjoyed his random wcw run as well..
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wormnation
Superstar
Joined on: Sept 8, 2018 9:15:31 GMT -5
Posts: 856 
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Post by wormnation on Oct 3, 2018 20:16:41 GMT -5
I always liked him but who would you rather give him a title run over between '89-91 when he was at his most popular?
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Post by MKSavage on Oct 29, 2018 19:33:41 GMT -5
I don't think Vince threw him in the tag teams, he came to the WWF as a tag team. Martel and Zenk wrestled together in Canada, Hawaii, and Japan before going to the WWF. They were supposed to win the tag titles from the Hart's until Zenk quit because he felt he was being treated unfairly. Since the WWF invested so much money into the Can-am connection and didn't want to just kill it, they replaced Zenk with Tito and repackaged them Strike Force (though they still resembled the Can-Am Connection). Then he and Tito held the tag titles for a while. I also heard that by 1990, Martel had somewhat retired. He would mainly wrestle in the fall and early spring then disappear during the late spring and summer (with the exception of 1992). With all that being said, I think Martel would have been a great IC champion. A lot of the top IC champs at that time were heel champions (Macho, Honky, Perfect, and Shawn).
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Post by JokerFC on Nov 1, 2018 5:52:46 GMT -5
I don't think Vince threw him in the tag teams, he came to the WWF as a tag team. Martel and Zenk wrestled together in Canada, Hawaii, and Japan before going to the WWF. They were supposed to win the tag titles from the Hart's until Zenk quit because he felt he was being treated unfairly. Since the WWF invested so much money into the Can-am connection and didn't want to just kill it, they replaced Zenk with Tito and repackaged them Strike Force (though they still resembled the Can-Am Connection). Then he and Tito held the tag titles for a while. I also heard that by 1990, Martel had somewhat retired. He would mainly wrestle in the fall and early spring then disappear during the late spring and summer (with the exception of 1992). With all that being said, I think Martel would have been a great IC champion. A lot of the top IC champs at that time were heel champions (Macho, Honky, Perfect, and Shawn). Great point....historically? you top drawer IC champs were heels. Valentine Savage Honky Perfect HBK Owen Snob HHH The Rock in 98 Corporate Shamrock William Regal Legend Killer Orton those are the heel IC champs that will always stick out. |
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Post by MKSavage on Nov 1, 2018 8:44:33 GMT -5
I don't think Vince threw him in the tag teams, he came to the WWF as a tag team. Martel and Zenk wrestled together in Canada, Hawaii, and Japan before going to the WWF. They were supposed to win the tag titles from the Hart's until Zenk quit because he felt he was being treated unfairly. Since the WWF invested so much money into the Can-am connection and didn't want to just kill it, they replaced Zenk with Tito and repackaged them Strike Force (though they still resembled the Can-Am Connection). Then he and Tito held the tag titles for a while. I also heard that by 1990, Martel had somewhat retired. He would mainly wrestle in the fall and early spring then disappear during the late spring and summer (with the exception of 1992). With all that being said, I think Martel would have been a great IC champion. A lot of the top IC champs at that time were heel champions (Macho, Honky, Perfect, and Shawn). Great point....historically? you top drawer IC champs were heels. Valentine Savage Honky Perfect HBK Owen Snob HHH The Rock in 98 Corporate Shamrock William Regal Legend Killer Orton those are the heel IC champs that will always stick out. Yep. I think, for Martel, it was just bad timing. When he finally became a singles competitor with the WWF in 1989, you had Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude battling over the belt. And, it looked like the WWF was using the IC title to make Warrior look strong to get him ready for the World Title, so I can't see them taking the belt off of Warrior to give to Martel for a long run. Then in 1990, when Warrior won the World Title, Mr. Perfect had really ascended by then and seemed like a better choice than Martel to be a long term IC Champion. And by 1990, he was working a reduced schedule (he took time off from the WWF after WM 6 and didn't return until September 1990 when he started his feud with Jake. His feud with Jake ended at WM7 when he took time off again and didn't return until Royal Rumble 1992. He worked regularly throughout 1992 then left again after Royal Rumble 1993. He didn't come back until fall of 1993 where he worked until WM10 of 1994 then "officially" retired). By 1991/92, the WWF was starting to push some of its younger stars in the IC title picture (Bret, Davey, Shawn, Razor). So at that point, I don't think he had a shot of winning the title even though he worked with Bret and Razor while they were IC Champions. By 1991, he seemed to be an enhancement talent helping to get over younger starts; Bret, Shawn, Tatanka, Razor, etc. Either way, he was a great talent. I recently re-watched the Summer Slam match he had with Shawn Michaels, they both did a great job getting the crowd involved in a Heel vs. Heel match (not easy to do). Great work by both performers. |
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TheEvilDoink1987
Main Eventer
Joined on: Feb 22, 2010 21:37:52 GMT -5
Posts: 2,629
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Post by TheEvilDoink1987 on Nov 1, 2018 13:39:32 GMT -5
Martel definitely deserved a title run. I would've had him beat Razor on that Raw in late 93 with him holding it until the Rumble where Razor would beat em for it. Such an underrated talent. Always was a big fan. Martel had been gone from the WWF for most of 1993 so when he suddenly just showed up in that Battle Royal and ended up getting a title match against Razor it kind of came out of nowhere. Razor winning that first Intercontinental title is one of my earliest and favorite Raw memories so I really wouldn't change it any other way. After he lost that match, he was back to being a regular and even had a good showing at the Survivor Series that year. He competed in the 1994 Royal Rumble and was even supposed to be in that cancelled 10-man tag match at Wrestlemania X. |
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Post by The Brain on Nov 1, 2018 15:01:38 GMT -5
Martel definitely deserved a title run. I would've had him beat Razor on that Raw in late 93 with him holding it until the Rumble where Razor would beat em for it. Such an underrated talent. Always was a big fan. Martel had been gone from the WWF for most of 1993 so when he suddenly just showed up in that Battle Royal and ended up getting a title match against Razor it kind of came out of nowhere. Razor winning that first Intercontinental title is one of my earliest and favorite Raw memories so I really wouldn't change it any other way.
After he lost that match, he was back to being a regular and even had a good showing at the Survivor Series that year. He competed in the 1994 Royal Rumble and was even supposed to be in that cancelled 10-man tag match at Wrestlemania X. Looking back though, that's really the only time I could see Martel getting a run with the belt.They made the right choice with picking Razor since he was way over at the time but man Martel as IC Champ for just a few months would've been great. |
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Post by mikey1974 on Nov 3, 2018 19:44:39 GMT -5
Only time I can see it happening is around late 1991. Maybe have Bret defend against Martel at This Tuesday in Texas, and Martel wins the Belt. then the rematch is announced for Royal rumble 1992, but they do the angle where Bret is "sick" and unable to wrestle, so they throw Piper in his place. Piper beats Martel for the Title, then they have the rematch at that Saturday night's main Event in February, where Piper retains. Then onto WrestleMania 8 with Piper defending against Bret and Martel taking on Tatanka like it played out.
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Post by The Brain on Nov 6, 2018 15:26:16 GMT -5
Only time I can see it happening is around late 1991. Maybe have Bret defend against Martel at This Tuesday in Texas, and Martel wins the Belt. then the rematch is announced for Royal rumble 1992, but they do the angle where Bret is "sick" and unable to wrestle, so they throw Piper in his place. Piper beats Martel for the Title, then they have the rematch at that Saturday night's main Event in February, where Piper retains. Then onto WrestleMania 8 with Piper defending against Bret and Martel taking on Tatanka like it played out. I don't recall seeing Martel much in 91 after his loss to the Warrior on Superstars from the Spring of that year. |
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