RIP, Chief Jay Strongbow

It would have been pretty interesting, and that would have been in 1986. They would have piggy-backed off of Rocky/Drago.

 

I don't visit the pro wrestling thread as I have not really watched since the thearly 2000s but I wanted to throw out a couple things that were brought up here.

To this day a buddy of mine and I still reference classice Iron Sheik, Nilolai Volkoff tag team promos. Absolute classics for intentional and unintentional comedy, NIKOLAI, Take off that shirt!

Re Montreal screwjob...my best friend was in the locker room as was a WWF talent at the time. He says that it was definitely a shoot although a few people think Shawn knew it was going to happen. Brett was blindsided.

I have to disagree on the comment about the whole locker room being close to a revolt. This is revisionist history at best or the wrestlers working it at best. There was never anything close to a revolt. These guys knew that even with a healthy WCW at the time that there were only so many employment options. More than a few wrestlers were not sad to see Brett and his holier than thou atitude go.

 

Right, Baron. Speaking of Nikita, remember his best-of-seven series with Magnum TA for the USt title? In one of the matches, Magnum piledrived Ivan on the arena floor. Ivan sold the hell out of it.

 

I've heard about it, and I think I've seen one or two of the matches, but never the whole thing.

 

If Magnum TA hadn't had his car accident, he would have won the world title from Flair and started another long feud that might have ended with Nikita winning the title. Who knows, but we also wouldn't have had Nikita's face turn to save Dusty, which was a pretty big mark out moment for me at 10 or 11.

 

As per Dave Meltzer less than 2 weeks after the Screwjob:

"According to two WWF wrestlers roughly 95% of the wrestlers in the company were planning on boycotting the Raw taping that night over what happened. But as the day went on the talk simmered down, Hart told those who asked him that since they had children and mortgages that they shouldn't risk breaching their contract and should go. However Owen Hart, Smith, Neidhart and Mick Foley were so upset that they all flew home, missing the tapings both this night and also in Cornwall Ont. the next night. Many were saying they could no longer work for someone who would do something like that. While rumors abound about Hart, Smith and Foley all quitting at press time it appeared none of the three truly knew their future but that hey all had a bitter taste in their mouth for the company. They weren't the only ones.

Most of the wrestlers were there and with none of the Hart family around McMahon gave his side of the story. He portrayed it as if Hart had agreed to drop the title in Montreal but when he got to the building he said he was a Canadian hero and an ICON and refused to drop the title and said hart said he would give the belt to McMahon Raw the next night and refused to ever drop it. Reports were that by this time few if anyone in the dressing room believed a word of it."

http://web.archive.org/web/20060406153712/http://www.brethart.com/facts.asp

 

It's one of those "what-if" things that could have really changed wrestling history.

Magnum and Flair could have had a helluva program, and Magnum would have eventually won and become Crockett's answer to Hogan. This could have given the NWA a huge boost (a young, charismatic star) beyond 1986, and could have helped them in their challenge to WWF.

Instead, Magnum's career ends, Flair is stuck without any credible opponents (Dusty was too old, Windham wasn't very charismatic, and Ronnie Garvin was, well, Ronnie Garvin) for two years until Sting developed. Crockett still goes through with the attempt to expand, it failed miserably, and Turner buys the company. And then that leads to WCW vs. WWF, which of course, books have been written about.

 

I like Magnum T.A. Hell, my babysitter lived across the street from his grandmother, and he owns a radio tower a couple of miles down the road from where my mom lives. Definitely my favorite wrestler of my childhood. That said, I don't think he would have quite been the equivalent of Hogan. He had decent in-ring charisma but was only an OK interview. He was definitely the most popular guy wrestling for Crockett, and he would have gotten the title from Flair at some point. But unless the NWA was willing to throw the brakes on decades of booking philosophy (long-term technically-sound heel champions with faces as transition holders), he would have lost the belt at some point a few months in, either to Flair or possibly Blanchard. Nikita as a heel wouldn't have fit their thinking, and face Nikita never got it.

They tried to find some new matchups for Flair even in 86 when the turned the Great American Bash into a summer tour. He wrestled both Road Warriors and both Rock and Roll Express members along with TA, Dusty and a heel Nikita. Interesting to note that they were pretty high on Ricky Morton as a breakout singles star and he had a few matches with Flair, here and elsewhere. But he elected to stay with the Express. Now he and Robert Gibson don't get along anymore.

 

Morton is another guy who should have been absolutely huge. He would have been Michaels before Michaels.

Instead, he stayed with Gibson (except a brief forgettable heel turn around 1991), and he never got as huge as he was in '86. Heck, he was voted by Pro Wrestling Illustrated's fans as one of the most popular wrestlers in '86.

 

Mick Foley touched on this in his first book. He was intent on leaving the company for about 24 hours and skipped Raw, but after thinking about it realized he had a family to take care of and couldn't afford to do it. He also had a part in there about Kane (I believe, or it might have been Vader), his roommate that night, that he understood Foley's point-of-view but couldn't just take off when he'd finally gotten a good spot in the company.

To Iron_chet: Michaels admitted long ago he was in on the Montreal Screwjob and in his book explained how the whole plan came about.

 

I punched out of wrestling the week Paul Orndorff turned heel. Probably also the week I "got smart."

 

@ Baron,

Meltzer, while being a purveyor of great inside info, especially with his newsletter in pre-internet days, was also used by the guys to send messages and spin stories.

I would bet that the 95% number was given by one of the Harts or someone very sympathetic to them.