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Buster Douglas

From the Feb 90 SNME... I realize Buster Douglas pissed in the punch bowl of WWE's plans by knocking out Mike Tyson, and his appearance was largely uninspiring. But let's say Tyson won as expected. Would his appearance have gone the same way, or were there any different or long term plans for him?

​There were tons of crazy rumors at the time, but the Observer notes in the week where Tyson pulled out that WWF was talking to tons of different celebrities and boxers as the replacement ref (George Foreman, a couple of football players, etc) and the finish would always be Savage getting knocked out by the boxer and pinned by Hogan.  The context was basically that Tyson was doing the same thing and the goal was never getting Tyson over, but getting Hogan v. Warrior over.  ​

Comments

  1. Wasn't Tyson vs. Hogan a rumor back then, too?

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  2. Okada & Tanahashi went to a 30 minute draw in the G1 last year, that shit was amazing. There was a tag match from Kōrakuen Hall around this time last year that was amazing. I'm pretty sure Team Dream Futures and Burning went 20 or 30 to a draw earlier this January.. I'm probably forgetting another one..

    But the most bad ass, old school draw of the year was actually about 3 weeks ago, between two fucks I'd never even heard of, and they go broadway and it's friggin' flawless. I literally had never heard of either of these guys and their work blew me away here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2byqng_tatsuhiko-yoshino-c-vs-daisuke-guts-world_sport

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  3. Yup. The prominent online rumor was switching WM6 to Tyson v. Hogan and having Savage win the title from Hogan to set up Savage v. Warrior instead.

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  4. Also was a story in PWI at the time.

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  5. Yeah, I kind of wish I had kept all my PWI Weekly issues because there was some nutty stuff in there. It was a bizarre mix of kayfabe and stuff that was obviously culled from the Observer.

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  6. Part of the rumor was McMahon and Don King were in negotiations for a Tyson/Hogan match.

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  7. And if the babyface loses, it's not the end of the world because he took the champ to the limit.

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  8. Maybe, the 2K series was better, but there's lots of nostalgic love for 2K5.



    Madden/2K is a good comparison, actually. Like most business competition, and life in general, it comes down to who originally had the most money and power.

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  9. does PWI weekly have an online archive?

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  10. It would have been funny just to hear Don King have to say "Only in Canada"...

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  11. You could even see this with Rusev... someone lasts 10 minutes in the ring with him and the announcers treat it as a big deal, and the guy gets a PPV match as a reward. Instead of beating the champ in a non-title match, this could be used as a plot device.


    Of course, this being WWE, it would get used 247 times in the first month and we'd be complaining about it in the same way we (rightfully) complain about distraction finishes.

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  12. I just remember being unsure if I should be excited for Douglas or not. I'd heard the other kids talk about what a killer Tyson was, but I'd never seen him. I was stoked that I finally would. Then this guy who no one had ever talked about killed the killer and I wasn't sure if I should be excited to see this even bigger monster, or be disappointed because he was a nobody.

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  13. Sexy Flexy Biff KensingtonDecember 27, 2014 at 10:38 AM

    Man, how drastically different would history be if WrestleMania VI had featured a co-main event of Hogan/Tyson and Savage/Warrior? By that same token, we would've been robbed of one of the great all-time commentary jobs by Jesse Ventura during the intergender tag match, so I'm kind of glad that things worked out the way that they did.

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  14. Another rumor from 1990:
    Hogan would drop the belt to Curt Henning on SNME only to regain it at WrestleMania VI.

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  15. Sexy Flexy Biff KensingtonDecember 27, 2014 at 10:41 AM

    Build up two guys as world-beaters. Program them to wrestle to a draw in the first encounter, build the shit out of a rematch (no disqualification, no time limit to a finish). It ain't rocket science, no matter how badly the monkeys in Stamford try to make it seem.

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  16. I always though Douglas showed a lot of poise out there. It's a shame that he was Buster Douglas. Just a mess of a man. Extremely sensitive. He was just never going to do anything, but he did his best in his WWF pay day. I can respect the effort.

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  17. I still have them. Il see if I can find them

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  18. I thought that one was far fetched, but it was out there. Lots of cool rumors floating around back then. Another one was the Bushwhackers were going to win the tag team title from Andre and Haku at WM VI

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  19. The Love-Matic Grampa!December 27, 2014 at 10:45 AM

    Still don't know why they just didn't use Tyson anyhow. Ex-champ or not, he's still Mike F'n Tyson and therefore still a draw. Who could possibly care about Buster Douglas regardless of whatever shiny new belt he was holding? Seriously, the guy was a black hole of charisma and the flukiest fluke ever.

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  20. THREADJACK

    27 years ago today, Big Van Vader makes his debut by squashing Antonio Inoki in less than 5 minutes. This was during a time when Inoki never jobbed. Inoki was more of a Superman during that period than John Cena. Vader squashing Inoki is the very definition of a rocket push




    Also, Hulk Hogan made his WWF return on this day in 1983.

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  21. "You mean to tell me Rhodesbonly weighs 200 pounds?"

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  22. I don't know that Tyson had the gravitas back then that he does today. Now he's pretty much some kind of cultural icon but back then, once he got knocked out he wasn't as huge. He didn't have his mystique.

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  23. That was probably the major stumbling block to it happening. The fans were dying to see it. Even the legit sports press wanted to cover it because it'd have been the ultimate circus show. But I'm not sure McMahon & King could ever have worked out a deal. And what would the fight be? A shoot? A worked match? No way Tyson was laying down on the biggest PPV in history just a year removed from the peak of his career. Would McMahon have let Hogan take a dive, or even risk him looking bad against a man half his size? King & Tyson by that point were used to dollar figures far above Vince's reach. Just figuring the cut for the two promoters and fighters would have taken forever to work out. Would we have even gotten a finish, or would there have been a double DQ, double countout, or a time limit draw: setting up an inevitable rematch?

    What's funny is that just a few years later everyone involved were in a place where a match could have been worked out. But in 1990, count me as one of the people who never believed it could ever happen.

    It would have been awesome, though.

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  24. Wacky stuff. The thought of the Bushwhackers licking the titles on the way to the ring is just awful. If it led to a heel turn where they just didn't want to deal with anyone and started pissing backstage because they were the champs that could have been a lot of fun.

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  25. Www.wrestlingscans.com has some, obviously not complete.

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  26. Im just glad we didnt get Hogan vs Zeus.

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  27. Are you serious? Today the Heavyweight Champion of the world is just some guy known to most as Hayden Planetarium's boyfriend.


    Back then Mike Tyson as the Heavyweight Champion of the world was a living god roaming the earth. He may be known to non boxing fans today but mostly as a punchline not the genuine baddest man on the planet.

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  28. It was a combination of Tyson pulling out and Vince saving like $750,000 by using James Douglas.

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  29. It was Tyson that pulled out. He'd been having personal problems for months before the loss.

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  30. During his prime, Tyson was arguably the greatest heavyweight champion ever. He unified the world title and he KILLED dudes. People now a days have no idea how huge Tyson was.

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  31. Maybe do a tag match so you dont risk exposing the business too much and someone else takes the fall.

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  32. You build the match as if it's going to be Hogan vs Tydon then throw some heels into the mix. Hogan and Tyson become friends through mutual respect. They work a tag match that ends with Tyson punching someone. Pose down in the ring. Unfortunately that isn't the kind of guy Tyson was so the whole thing would have just been silly.

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  33. I have a very hard time imagining them with the belts.

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  34. Sexy Flexy Biff KensingtonDecember 27, 2014 at 11:02 AM

    "Because I know damn well that Sapphire weighs 2 and a half!"

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  35. I don't think I've seen any other athlete was as intimidating as a prime Mike Tyson. I'm also from Brooklyn so as a kid it was awesome seeing one of our own on top. His lost was incredibly shocking and people just saw it as Mike not being focused due to personal issues.

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  36. Rumor was King wanted over a million dollars to make the match happen plus a large chunk of the PPV money.

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  37. Reading the PWI 1988 Awards Issue.


    This'll be fun.

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  38. Everybody saw it for what it was. He was out partying in Tokyo before the fight. He didn't train as hard as he usually did. He was looking past Douglas.

    People forget Tyson/Evander Holyfield was on deck for late '90/early '91.

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  39. I think there was also a Tyson vs Savage rumor

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  40. Jesse was great. I actually thought he was funnier than Heenan. Both were great though.

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  41. Speaking of celebs in general, I would have been very excited if they'd had Doug Llewelyn as a backstage interviewer at a WM.

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  42. Agreed about Jesse being funnier. Too bad Vince wasn't able to Jesse to comeback in 1991.

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  43. The Rockers and the Harts were also rumored for that spot.

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  44. He couldn't handle the spotlight.

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  45. No no Tyson was huge back then. Used to drive boxing analysts crazy because they'd try to pick apart an upcoming bout, come up with all these scenarios as to what could or should happen, and Tyson would go in there and quickly punch the other guy's brain to mush. Plus you had Don King there, who always seemed about 5 minutes away from a federal indictment, battling for Tyson's soul against the manager & trainers that brought Mike up from the streets. (King won.) There was Tyson's marriage to actress Robin Givens, who came across as the biggest gold digger in history, who cleaned him out in their divorce. And amidst that whirlwind of chaos there was Tyson himself: a quiet man who could destroy anyone put in his path.

    It was a sad case of a star athlete being exploited by others who wanted to ride his train of success, and believe me: EVERYONE knew that train was going to derail, and everyone watched waiting for it to happen.

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  46. Yep. It's fun to go back and read the old rumors. Another rumor was the Harts would join the Heenan family after WM VI.

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  47. Yeah that's a lot fun. The year end issues were always my favorites.

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  48. The Love-Matic Grampa!December 27, 2014 at 11:17 AM

    Was it Tyson, or was it King acting on Tyson's behalf? Because I could see King doing that and then shoehorning Douglas into the role to try and boost his profile.

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  49. Only if Tyson's original trainer would have lived a few years longer.

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  50. The Love-Matic Grampa!December 27, 2014 at 11:18 AM

    Did the WWF ever tour New Zealand? I could the Bushwhackers getting a "one day special" if that was the case.

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  51. giz a daily update thread, go on wills ya

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  52. Something great about Iron Mike:

    Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! That game was fucking AWESOME!!!!!

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  53. The Love-Matic Grampa!December 27, 2014 at 11:21 AM

    A tag match with those two teaming up would have been FAR more likely. Tyson in a singles match at the biggest show of the year would have been too risky.

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  54. I have no idea, but if they did, maybe they do a Dusty Finish?

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  55. My greatest gaming shame was losing to Glass Joe as a kid. Only happened once and it was the first time i played but it still haunts me.

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  56. The Love-Matic Grampa!December 27, 2014 at 11:23 AM

    Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Or pull a Flair and announce the win for the arena crowd but never acknowledge it outside of the country.

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  57. I've never heard of anybody losing to Glass Joe! With Tyson's resurgence in popularity, Nintendo needs to make Mike Tyson's Punch-Out II.

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  58. At least. Tyson was making double digit millions for fights on HBO & Showtime around than. If it was a straight-up WWF promoted card on PPV McMahon would have had to fork almost all the money over to King. If King co-promoted then Vince would still get very little. The economics between boxing & wrestling were so different back then.

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  59. You mean Super punch out? Or the one on the wii?

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  60. Barry Horriblewitz

    --Mr. Perfect

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  61. No he could not. He just wasn't that kind of guy.

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  62. Drederick Tatum's punch out anyone? The underdog Southern Dandy starts off against the hobo fighting for a sandwich, progressing all the way to the big time!

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  63. How does that even work?

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  64. you must have been the only person in the world that didn't order tyson/mcneeley

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  65. He wants another licensed Nike Tyson based boxing game.

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  66. I liked jesse the wrestler. Jesse the conspiracy theorist leaves a lot to be desired.

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  67. It's worth noting that Vince and Don King were on-and-off working on a Hogan vs. Tyson fight. Here's two good articles on it:

    http://articles.dailypress.com/1990-06-26/sports/9006250407_1_boxing-history-vince-mcmahon-hulk-hogan
    http://stholeary.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-buster-douglas-changed-history-of.html

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  68. I mean one with Mike in it

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  69. Yeah, Tyson was a giant on PPV too -- crushing PPV records left and right in his heyday. I'm sure Vince wanted a part of that as well.

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  70. Yeah, that was the one where Joe flipped out backstage because Jeremy Borash announced that there were 30 seconds remaining, making it obvious that it was going to end in a draw.

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  71. It's my favorite.


    Even the WCW Top 10 (which admittedly wasn't used to it's full potential all the time) gave a legit feeling to the organization. Little stuff like that goes a LONG way to giving the product a sports-like quality that unfortunately Vince McMahon has spent his whole life trying to get away from.

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  72. Yup, just like the WCW Cruiserweights gave a different flavor to the program, it'd be nice to have a TV title 'circuit' where the matches were done at a noticeably faster pace and with lots of near falls to distinguish it from the heavyweight guys. You couldn't go to the well too often with the draws, but that would be one facet of it to really get the tension of the short time over.

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  73. I still think that one Jackie Gayda mixed tag is the "worst match involving divas ever" champ, but this is definitely the #1 contender.

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  74. aboslutely. In fact look at GAB 91. Now here's a show that is universally panned, although not as bad as some make it out to be (and the crowd isn't nearly as negative as legend has it either, watch it on the network), yet Ross sells that Luger/Windham main event big time. It made it seem epic even though we all knew it was thrown together for a belt that was currenty on its way to WWF.

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