Disappointing 'Surprises' in Wrestling History

The Headbangers being The Disciples of Truth in ROH.

Hornswoggle being Vince's son.

Hornswoggle being the mystery RAW GM.

Swoggle being Rockstar Spud's surprise tag team partner in Tag Team Apoloito.

Hornswoggle winning The Cruiserweight Championship.

Any of the Aces & 8s reveals.

I was very excited. JYD was hugely over. Here's the thing, back then, you didn't need to be "the guy" to be universally loved. You didn't need to be on the level of Hogan to get huge pops from the audience.

You just needed to connect with them. And JYD did that as well as anybody.

Definitely the first one. I was very young, so I wasn't looking at it from a "storyline" perspective.

Here was one of the biggest stars from Mid-South coming in to take on the Horsemen. His match against Flair had everyone believing he could take the title from The Nature Boy (and not just because Flair was so good as a heel).

But it was a very hot territory that produced a lot of WWF's biggest stars. Don't disparage just because it wasn't nationwide. They did some very good business for their time.

One thing is you're looking back at it from a modern day smart-mark (not an insult by the way) perspective. Back then, we didn't really know terms like jobber, mid-carder, or even main eventers. Sure we knew there were guys who were at the top, but for those of us who believed, anything was possible. The connection with the audience is what mattered, not the place on the card. Look at Jeff Hardy taking on The Undertaker. Jeff had not been a main event guy and was half Taker's size. But the audiences believed in him. JYD made audiences believe in him.

Besides, JYD may not have been WWF's ultimate top guy, but he had still made a career of feuding with top main event heels throughout his time in the territories, even winning some of those feuds. So it was perfectly conceivable he'd defeat Flair.



Ahh, but that's because you weren't there (again, not an insult). Wrestling fans at the time usually viewed the NWA as the more competitive true wrestling company. Even as a kid, I saw WWE as being cartoony (though I couldn't quite put my finger on why), and the NWA seemed to have better, even more brutal wrestlers. They were not the second banana. They were just a different flavor of banana.



Because we'd seen what he was truly capable of outside of the WWF. It's why Steamboat rose to be a world champion despite barely holding the Intercontinental title in the WWF. It's why some fans who only know Vader from his WWF days can't understand why he was so dominant in WCW and Japan.

This really is one of those cases of You Had to Be There (an argument I hate to make as it sounds dismissive of the other person). It was just a different mindset and a different time.

After all, even Lou Thesz was challenged by guys that, in hindsight, literally had no chance against him. But fans believed in the drama.

And one last thing we're overlooking: don't underestimate Flair's ability to be hated. A hero can only be as great as his villain. And Flair was a great villain. As with all things in wrestling, it was a combination of various factors that made JYD's appearance such a huge surprise.

That's another great point, frogs. NWA was mostly considered a southern league.

You could almost compare JYD to Jake the Snake: a beloved babyface who feuded with a lot top heels but never held any titles, yet fans still believed he could (and wanted him to) defeat Andre the Giant.

JYD was as you put it wildly over in the Mid-south territory. He was the Hulk Hogan of Mid south selling hot wherever he worked. His run lasted for years.  The WWF  was still mostly running on the east coast, Crockett's territory really wasn't all that much bigger than Mid-south by that time.   So he really was one of the biggest stars in the business in one of the biggest territories in the business.  But the time period you speak of I think was after Ted Turner bought out Crockett.  They were bringing in anybody and everybody that was ever a star at that point.  JYD was already past his prime since like 1986.  But I think his run there didn't last all that long if I remember correctly?  That's not really the guy you want to challenge Flair, but I think at the time I didn't find it to be all that big of a stretch that he'd be in that spot.  Looking back, maybe it was. 

He did get a nice push in the wwf though.  I saw him beat Greg Valentine in a non title match at a house show so he was a believable threat for the belt.  Ofcourse he wasn't going to get a wwf title shot, but the fans were into him there too.  He was losing a step and getting out of shape at that point also.  And going through some other personal problems and addictions. 

He never held a title in the wwf, but I don't think it was necessary.  I think Chico Santana was the more reliable guy that they wanted in that spot and had the better matches.    He did go around the horn beating Valentine so the people believed he was IC material and a threat to the belt. 

Koko had tremendous runs in the Memphis territory.  Wow he was great and had amazing matches.  Google him teaming with Bobby eaton when you get a chance as a heel.   I loved that team.  Once he went to the wwf and got the bird, he got out of shape and didn't do half the stuff he used to.  All he had to do was flap his arms like a bird.  Also had a good tag team run in the PYT express.  But I think he was too small to be viewed as a viable challenger to a major title and wouldn't be believable.  But I can  understand why you wouldn't view him as a threat because he kind of wasn't in the time leading up to the point where he came in to the NWA.