mrassbillygunn
Main Eventer
WF 10+ Year Member
Joined on: Jul 23, 2011 19:35:48 GMT -5
Posts: 4,257
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Post by mrassbillygunn on Aug 15, 2022 15:22:18 GMT -5
Yea I made a thread about this ages ago when I first started going back watching WCW from that era and I loved the wrestling. The roster and quality was great. I agree about Rude, he was great during this time, looked the part, a real proper world champion. I was watching One Night Stand from 97 last night and seen him coming ringside as the insurance policy for Shawn and it must have ate him up inside not being able to wrestle because he still looked in good shape and was still only 37 or so. Eric Bischoff goes into detail about Rick’s injury on his podcast. Eric doesn’t doubt the severity of Rick injury at all, but based on Rick basically begging Eric to pay back Loyds of London for him, doesn’t think it was career ending like Rick originally claimed or was told. When the injury first occurred, he aparently took the payout from Loyds of London right away which effectively ended his career unless he paid them back. This was also before the nWo wrestling boom. Fast forward a few years and the wrestling world was as hot as ever. According to Eric, Rick wanted back in the ring bad, but he couldn’t pay back Loyds of London. Eric said Rick asked both himself and Vince to pay it off for him, but both declaimed. In Eric’s case, he couldn’t justify to higher ups paying off this large sum of money for Rick, and then signing him to a large contract as well (seems fishy to me considering the other people WCW were paying at the time but this is Eric’s story). So Rick sadly had to step into a “non-competitor” role to work around this. I have no doubt it killed Rick to not be able to perform during the hottest period in wrestling history. They guy was only 35 when he retired and nobody knew how much the industry would grow in just a few short years. Yea I listened to that podcast about Rick and it seems credible. But when you see Virgil and others than had no business collecting a cheque in WCW at the time, i still say Eric could have lobbied more for Rick in getting Turner to pay that policy back to Lloyds. Also, if the doctors at the time of his injury said he couldnt wrestle again then I dont blame him for taking the money from the policy but sometimes they do unexpectedly recover from injuries that are deemed career ending, so who knows? |
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Post by Codyverse: Tag Team Champion on Aug 15, 2022 17:43:49 GMT -5
Early 90’s WCW hits me in feels I can’t really put into words. It’s almost like I can see thousands of images even with my eyes open. Definitely a soft spot for me
I was such a Sting fan(still am). I liked WCW more than WWF until probably 98ish but it’s pretty much the summary of my childhood. All I did was watch tapes and play with toys
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ClassicFan2
Main Eventer
Joined on: Oct 22, 2010 15:25:00 GMT -5
Posts: 3,252
Member is Online
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Post by ClassicFan2 on Aug 15, 2022 18:01:41 GMT -5
yeah it was like $350,000 or something. eric was throwin out way more for leser wrestlers.
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Post by finnbalor1 on Aug 15, 2022 18:04:10 GMT -5
Early 90's WCW is why I'm a wrestling fan today. Nothing will ever top Surfer Sting for me,he just had everything to me as a kid(still does as almost a 40 year old lol)
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johnnyhanson21
Superstar
Joined on: Oct 10, 2019 17:01:41 GMT -5
Posts: 995
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Post by johnnyhanson21 on Aug 16, 2022 18:20:20 GMT -5
yeah it was like $350,000 or something. eric was throwin out way more for leser wrestlers.
That's sad if that was all it would cost to pay back his policy.After that they'll probably could have signed him on a deal close to that.So bring him back for less then $1M even in '98 would have been well worth it,more so for the WWF.Just think if Rude cameback in early '98 could have feud with HBK before his semi retirement and worked with a white hot Stone Cold after WM 14 plus helped to get the younger guys over like Triple H,Rock..ect
Rick Rude as Vince's corporate champion would have been so over and gotten so much heat.
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Post by CM Tusk on Aug 18, 2022 1:07:55 GMT -5
Hogan really ruined WCW in my opinion.
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Post by cordless2016 on Aug 18, 2022 19:57:17 GMT -5
Hogan really ruined WCW in my opinion. I’m a Hogan fan, but he turned mid-90s WCW into “80s WWF,” but only really brought the bad stuff from that period with him. The main event of Starrcade 1994 is all you need to know about how the early-Hogan WCW years went. |
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Post by k5 on Aug 18, 2022 23:04:21 GMT -5
I’d rather of Vince paid out the insurance claim for Rude and we get Rude vs Austin some point in 98.
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