At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

[King_B_Mack]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

WCW never were close to putting WWF out of business. They were clearly beating them in the ratings, but not putting them out of business.

The problem was, even during the middle of WCW's run, their booking and management team just was full of incompetence. They never would have overtaken WWF for good, especially when Russo went to WCW.

Kind sir you are wrong. Vince McMahon himself has talked about how the WWF was in financial peril. You are underestimating the financial hole the WWF was in at the time. Bret Hart was they're second biggest star, biggest whenever they went to Canada and Vince was practically begging him to go to WCW because he couldn't pay him. Late '94, '95 and '96 were the worst years in the history of the company as they were suffering both in the ratings and at the gates. For Summerslam '94 they did 23,000 at the venue. By Survivor Series of that year, they were down to 10,000. Throughout the Monday Night Wars which started in Sept. '95, the WWF was hovering around the 12,000 mark in attendance consistently in addition to getting their heads kicked in every week in the ratings.

WCW's booking wasn't incompetent per se. The problem was that WCW allowed too many guys creative control of their characters in order to lure them from the WWF and guys didn't give a **** how stories turned out as long as they came out looking better than everybody else. Hogan and Nash being the two main culprits. Even with that though, they came close to putting the WWF out of business and to say they were never close is factually wrong.

[Control-X]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

To flip it up a little bit...at their "peak", what heel was the most hated?

Ric Flair? Andre the Giant? "Hollywood" Hogan? Ted DiBiase?

I'd like to include Mr. McMahon, Triple H, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Kurt Angle right up there.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

I'd like to include Mr. McMahon, Triple H, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Kurt Angle right up there.

I'd nominate Bret Hart as well. When he re-formed the Hart Foundation in '97 and turned into a whiney bitch in his feud with Austin he was absolutely hated. Ted Dibiase has a case as well. I'd probably go with Vince or Flair though. Just thought those guys needed to be mentioned.

[DJ]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

OK, so we are looking at each wrestler's PEAK, right?

If that's the case, Austin wins. Go back and listen to the pops he got every time he came through the curtain. Look at the PPV buy rates during that time; B-level shows were doing numbers that the Royal Rumble can't reach today. Those saying SCSA wasn't a household name just isn't true; he was all over the media and I know plenty of non-wrestling fans that know who SCSA is.

Saying Hogan wins because without him ... well, that is true about his role in WWE history, but we shouldn't factor that into the discussion. We are supposed to treat each era as its own entity and compare.

Was Hogan a huge draw and popular? Without question. I grew up a Hogan fan and I certainly recall how big he was. He was a household name and helped change the business, but when it comes down to it for me, Austin got better crowd reactions, sold more merchandise, increased PPV buys, house show attendance. Smackdown wouldn't exist as a show had Austin not been as hot as he was.

I'm surprised so many people are throwing that 93,000 figure around when it's been proven by multiple sources, including people that worked at the Silverdome, that the number was inaccurate, and closer to 78,000.

The biggest event WWE has hosted is still SummerSlam 92.

[F0rl3fclov3r]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

I'm just glad no one has picked john cena...

[OSUFan_88]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

Just voted for John Cena.

[Santino]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

Just voted for John Cena.

[JohnDoe8865]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

As far as hottest heel, man I hate to vote for the same guy but it's awfully hard to beat the heat that Hollywood Hogan had from when he turned at Bash at the Beach 96 until the night Goldberg beat him in Atlanta in 1998.

[55]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

As far as hottest heel, man I hate to vote for the same guy but it's awfully hard to beat the heat that Hollywood Hogan had from when he turned at Bash at the Beach 96 until the night Goldberg beat him in Atlanta in 1998.

Yep. A clean sweep for the Hulkster.

[DJ]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

As far as hottest heel, man I hate to vote for the same guy but it's awfully hard to beat the heat that Hollywood Hogan had from when he turned at Bash at the Beach 96 until the night Goldberg beat him in Atlanta in 1998.

Yeah, although I think we'd have to include Vince McMahon in the heel discussion, even if he did only wrestle a couple of times from late-1997 to mid-1999.

[JazzMan]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

How do you have Sting, Goldberg, and HHH on here and not 'Taker?

[goh]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

Cena headlined 8. Does that make him better automatically?

No,no he didn't. He doesn't have 8 total let alone 8 straight.

20 - HHH vs. HBK
21 - HHH vs. Batista
22 - HHH vs. Cena
23 - Cena vs. HBK
24 - Edge vs. Undertaker
25 - HHH vs. Orton
26 - Undertaker vs. HBK
27 - Miz vs. Cena
28 - Rock vs. Cena

He's headlined 4 total. Not 8 straight. Though to the original comment I don't think Hogan counts for 8 straight either. WM IV was all about the tournament. He was in it but a 5 minute double DQ in the second round doesn't quite count as headlining.

Far as heel I would guess Freddie Blassie. They stabbed the man 21 times,threw acid on him and smashed his car then set it on fire. (All seperate incidents.) Plus apparently he was the one that made Regis Philbin noted enough to get his later show.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

No,no he didn't. He doesn't have 8 total let alone 8 straight.

20 - HHH vs. HBK
21 - HHH vs. Batista
22 - HHH vs. Cena
23 - Cena vs. HBK
24 - Edge vs. Undertaker
25 - HHH vs. Orton
26 - Undertaker vs. HBK
27 - Miz vs. Cena
28 - Rock vs. Cena

He's headlined 4 total. Not 8 straight. Though to the original comment I don't think Hogan counts for 8 straight either. WM IV was all about the tournament. He was in it but a 5 minute double DQ in the second round doesn't quite count as headlining.

Far as heel I would guess Freddie Blassie. They stabbed the man 21 times,threw acid on him and smashed his car then set it on fire. (All seperate incidents.) Plus apparently he was the one that made Regis Philbin noted enough to get his later show.

Number one, I never said he headlined 8 straight, so don't know why that was mentioned. Two, Undertaker/Edge was not the headliner of Wrestlemania 24. It closed the show, yes, but that wasn't the match being pushed hard for the show. Cena/Orton/HHH was. You are right about it not being eight though. I actually forgot that the Batista/Triple H program was much hotter than JBL/Cena going into it. Healining and main eventing are not exactly the same thing. Especially with WWE's introduction of two and three main events.

[beauforsure]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

i really dont think this is even close to be honest. Hogan simply made wrestling what it is.

[CanuckJ]

Re: At Their Peak, Who Was Hottest/Most Popular?

i really dont think this is even close to be honest. Hogan simply made wrestling what it is.

Very true but Austin is right up their. Hogan definitely paved the way but Austin had a phenomenal amount of success