Mr. Perfect Underrated?

[LKP]

Do you think Mr perfects career in wwe was a bit underrated? I do i don't think he deserves the recognition he deserves. I just watched Mr.Perfect vs Bret hart from summerslam 1991 and i realized how good he was. I think Ive seen most of Perfects matches but after seeing him vs Bret i think he should be recognized a bit more by the wwe fans.
He was one of the best technical wrestlers in the wwe ever. And i think he should be mentioned more by the wwe. As a role model of even in Jr's commentary cause i think he deserves it.

 

[MikeRaw]

Not really. The man never even won a world title in WWE or WCW. He was a 1time AWA World Champion, and that's the only major title he won. You have to respect him for what he was, which is a great technical wrestler, and a guy who could really, really entertain you. But when it comes to how he's remembered, I think it's about right. He never won a bunch of big world titles, and therefore, he's remembered as one of the best wrestlers in terms of in ring ability of all time, and a solid midcard type guy, who could fill in at times as a main eventer.

 

[Airfixx]

^^^Whilst fair, I think you're understating his brilliance somewhat.... He's possibly the best guy to never wear a big-time world title.

The sad thing is he only really get's remembered for his matches with Bret.

Him & The Genius fueding with Hogan (and Beefcake) is prob my second fave Hogan fued ever (behind 'the explosion of the Megapowers').

 

[Lugar]

The man had it all and had incredable matches with everyone from Ric Flair down to Brutus Beefcake. The only match I would truly like to see at the moment would be a Rick Rude -v- Mr Perfect -v- Ted Dibiase triple threat match

In all honesty tho he was probably about 5 years ahead of his time and if not for his back problems and early death he could have had Main Event matches with Bret Heart, Shawn Michaels, the Rock and Steve Austin and still be going strong. There is not one Pay per view in the last 10 years that would not have benefited from his work. Imagine a Chris Jerico/Perfect fued.

 

[Airfixx]

Imagine a Chris Jerico/Perfect fued.

Oh, please don't plant such seeds in my imagination..... That's the kinda shit we need a CGI fued similator for!!!!

IMO HBK/Perfect was somewhat of a let down ( :thinks back: ....Summerslam 93 iirc?), but yeah.....

"ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!"

 

[Next Big Thing]

^^^Whilst fair, I think you're understating his brilliance somewhat.... He's possibly the best guy to never wear a big-time world title.

I really didn't get the impression that he's understating him. He acknowledged that Mr. Perfect was very good in the ring. Along with that he was quite good on the mic and he played his character very well. But to answer the question that this thread is asking, Mr. Perfect is pretty much remembered just right for what he did. Especially when you consider that the prime of his career was in the late 80's and early 90's, and then look at the list of guys that were also around at that time like Hogan, Warrior, Savage, Andre the Giant, Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Sting and Lex Lugar, you can easily understand why he isn't the most talked about guy from that era. He's basically in the same boat as a guy like Ricky Steamboat. While on one hand you can make the argument that they were both great at what they did and should get much more recognition, but when you stop and think about all the guys that they wrestled with, you realize why they don't get all that much recognition. As for being recognized by the WWE, Mr. Perfect made it into the hall of fame, something that probably won’t ever happen for Randy Savage or the Ultimate Warrior. So I don't think we can complain too much about how they have treated him when you take that into consideration.

 

[LKP]

A world title run i think would have established him more in wwe memory.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

^^^ Vince had planned a run for Perfect as champ, but Mr. Killjoy,Hulk Hogan, refused to do the job, which incidentally was his first refusal in a long history of backstage politicking. How different would Perfect be remembered if he had gotten a pinfall and subsequent title reign over Hogan?

 

[Klide]

umm thats a hard one like wat MikeRaw said he didnt win any world titles meybe because fans at the time wouldent accept it. but i think he was PERFECT mid carder but who now he could of been the same as world champ in my opinion
Perfect to me is like a RVD and EDGE if they werent world champs and vise versa
if perfect was world champ he could be like them

 

[Airfixx]

^^^ Vince had planned a run for Perfect as champ, but Mr. Killjoy,Hulk Hogan, refused to do the job, which incidentally was his first refusal in a long history of backstage politicking. How different would Perfect be remembered if he had gotten a pinfall and subsequent title reign over Hogan?

Wow... I didn't know that.


Assuming you mean late 89, early 1990, I wonder where that would have left Warrior....

Warrior v Perfect @ WM6?

(...Not sure they'd have drawn 60,000+ with that either.)

I really didn't get the impression that he's understating him. He acknowledged that Mr. Perfect was very good in the ring. Along with that he was quite good on the mic and he played his character very well.

...Yeah, but how many guys has that been said about???

Maybe it's just personal opinion, but I believe, like some others, that he was ahead of his time and that he would have made it 'to the moon' in a later era.

I'd have said something like:

Mr. Perfect was AWESOME(*) in the ring. Along with that he was GREAT(**) on the mic and he played his character TO 'PERFECTION'(***).

*The WWF in his day wasn't a place for epic, athletically worked 25min matches.... but no doubt in my mind he had that in his locker (look what he did with Bret @ SSlam91... And that was with a severely injured back!)

**Not saying he didn't benefit from it to whatever degree, but you gotta ask yourself did he really need a mouthpiece (Heenan) at all.... Again, pretty sure he could have carried himself well in a program beyond the typical brag about yourself & insult your opponent promo of the 80's.

***;o]


Edit: Also, I question just how much some of the younger guys posting have actually seen of Perfect's WWF run... I never read anything but stuff about his match with Bret.

 

[Next Big Thing]

^^^ Vince had planned a run for Perfect as champ, but Mr. Killjoy,Hulk Hogan, refused to do the job, which incidentally was his first refusal in a long history of backstage politicking. How different would Perfect be remembered if he had gotten a pinfall and subsequent title reign over Hogan?

I would like to see a source for this. I have never heard about this, and obviously I'm not alone.

...Yeah, but how many guys has that been said about???

Maybe it's just personal opinion, but I believe, like some others, that he was ahead of his time and that he would have made it 'to the moon' in a later era

Maybe had he wrestled a bit more in the mid 90's he could have been in a spot like Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels. However, if you take a look at the 3 biggest stars over the last 10-15 years, in Austin, the Rock and John Cena, they all wrestle a lot more like Hogan than they do Mr. Perfect. So I wouldn't get too carried away when talking about how far he would have gone had he wrestled a few years later.

I'd have said something like:

Mr. Perfect was AWESOME(*) in the ring. Along with that he was GREAT(**) on the mic and he played his character TO 'PERFECTION'(***).

You just put a few caps to seem more enthusiastic about it, but he said basically the same thing.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Mr. Perfect because he was very good in the ring, but it's fairly obvious that some people give more praise to a guy because he works a technical style. I'm not saying you are or aren't one of those people because I don't know your views on wrestling well enough, but I'm just saying in general I notice that some people praise in ring quality based mainly on the style of match a performer works.

*The WWF in his day wasn't a place for epic, athletically worked 25min matches.... but no doubt in my mind he had that in his locker (look what he did with Bret @ SSlam91... And that was with a severely injured back!)

Then he should have changed his style. Some people might read that and say it's crazy, but when you think about it, it's really not. A recent example of someone that was a phenomenal technical wrestler but changed to brawling style to achieve his greatest success ever in the United States was Chris Benoit. If you want to talk about in Mr. Perfect’s day, then take a look at Hulk Hogan. He proved in Japan that he can wrestle a technical match, but that style wouldn't have worked with his character in the U.S. Also if you take a look at the WWE today, you really won't find anybody that works the style of match that Mr. Perfect did. Once again, I’m not trying to put him down, I just personally don’t think he would have had as much success in the 90’s and in this decade as you believe he would have.

 

[Airfixx]

You just put a few caps to seem more enthusiastic about it, but he said basically the same thing.

Lol... I didn't just put it in caps. I CHANGED certain words to show more enthusiasm.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Mr. Perfect because he was very good in the ring, but it's fairly obvious that some people give more praise to a guy because he works a technical style. I'm not saying you are or aren't one of those people because I don't know your views on wrestling well enough, but I'm just saying in general I notice that some people praise in ring quality based mainly on the style of match a performer works.

I understand what you're saying, but the key for me is that, Perfect had the talk & charisma to back it up (see champs list below).

Then he should have changed his style. Some people might read that and say it's crazy, but when you think about it, it's really not. A recent example of someone that was a phenomenal technical wrestler but changed to brawling style to achieve his greatest success ever in the United States was Chris Benoit. If you want to talk about in Mr. Perfect’s day, then take a look at Hulk Hogan. He proved in Japan that he can wrestle a technical match, but that style wouldn't have worked with his character in the U.S. Also if you take a look at the WWE today, you really won't find anybody that works the style of match that Mr. Perfect did. Once again, I’m not trying to put him down, I just personally don’t think he would have had as much success in the 90’s and in this decade as you believe he would have.

...Again, I understand your POV, but Perfect was doing fine until the injuries got the better of him (see my comments elsewhere on the Hogan fued... Great IC champ blah)... My point was really rooted in the fact that things did get more athletic in time... Bret, Jericho, Shawn, Eddie, Angle all became world champ.

I won't go as far as saying he was going to truly carry the company.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

I would like to see a source for this. I have never heard about this, and obviously I'm not alone.

Well it depends how old you are. I've noticed many users are younger than 20 years old. Doesn't keep them from discussing stuff they weren't even alive for, let alone sounding like experts.

This "news" is 20 years old. You will not be able find this "news" anywhere on the net, especially if occurred seven years before the mainstream use of the internet. You wont find much of anything like that, just the stories that have come from that. You can hear about it on many shoot interviews, namely the Bret shoot and Lanny Poffo's hard to obtain shoot. It occurred during a Saturday Night's Main Event back in like 90 but Hogan refused to be pinned, opting to keep his title with a B.S count out win for Perfect.
This article is a Perfect read for Perfect and alludes to it as well.
//http://masshysteriasports.blogspot.com/2008/06/wrestlers-of-yore-mr-perfect.html

And how many times has Hogan refused a job? You'd doubt this?

 

[Next Big Thing]

Well it depends how old you are. I've noticed many users are younger than 20 years old. Doesn't keep them from discussing stuff they weren't even alive for, let alone sounding like experts.

This "news" is 20 years old. You will not be able find this "news" anywhere on the net, especially if occurred seven years before the mainstream use of the internet. You wont find much of anything like that, just the stories that have come from that. You can hear about it on many shoot interviews, namely the Bret shoot and Lanny Poffo's hard to obtain shoot.

I could be 15, 25 or 35, and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference here. I’m merely asking for some kind of source to back up your claim. What I find funny about what you just said is that you prove later on in your post that age is completely irrelevant in this situation, by saying that the Internet wasn’t around back then. People weren’t hearing stories about things like this the way they do today. And even if there was a way for this kind of stuff to get out back then, provided you really are 26, you would have only been 6 or 7 at the time and almost certainly wouldn't have been aware of any of this kind of news. So obviously you heard about this story years after it happened, making age a complete non issue here.

It occurred during a Saturday Night's Main Event back in like 90 but Hogan refused to be pinned, opting to keep his title with a B.S count out win for Perfect.
This article is a Perfect read for Perfect and alludes to it as well.
//http://masshysteriasports.blogspot.com/2008/06/wrestlers-of-yore-mr-perfect.html

This is what you give me as a source? Who the fuck wrote this? If I go and write up a biography on a wrestler and make up crap, will you use it as a reference to back up one of your arguments?

I skimmed through the article and found the section about this incident.

After working his way through the WWF's job squad, Mr. Perfect was ready for the big time. Now, logic would dictate that a fresh, talented new wrestler with an awesome gimmick and fantastic crowd reactions would be given a championship belt over an aging, stale wrestler who missed half his shows filming such movies as "No Holds Barred" and "Suburban Commando." Logic however would be wrong, as the insecure Hogan refused to cede his title to the talented Hennig, citing "creative control." Hennig and Hogan feuded for much of 1989 (including one memorable instance where Hennig and Lanny Poffo smashed Hogan's belt with a hammer), but Hennig never received the belt, and soon ended up suffering his first loss to Hogan lackey Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake at Wrestlemania VI.

Was he aging? I guess a bit. He would have been about 36 or 37 at the time. Was he stale? Absolutely not. This guy brings up that Hennig was getting fantastic crowd reactions, but then goes on to say Hogan was stale? How on earth was Hogan stale when he wrestled in a match that had arguably the hottest crowd for any match in history against the Ultimate Warrior at WM6? Wrestlers that are stale don’t get that kind of reaction. Plain and simple.

Just glancing through the article and I am seeing lines like this.

Yes, that Selleck-esque giant is the same Scott Hall who would later become Razor Ramon and eventually kill WCW

Considering the fact that he has bullshit like this in his article, it’s making it even more difficult to believe anything he’s saying here. I’m going to say that this article is a fail, and you need to get a better source if you want me to believe this story.

For arguments sake though, lets say that this story is true and Hogan refused to drop the belt to Mr. Perfect that night. It’s still ridiculous to blame Hogan for him never being a world champion because of what happened one night. Macho Man and Sgt. Slaughter both became world champions without defeating Hogan for the belt. So if Vince McMahon really wanted Mr. Perfect to get a title reign at some point but Hogan didn’t want to drop the belt to him, there were clearly ways around it, and ways to get the belt around Mr. Perfect’s waist. So let’s use some logic here before we start with the Hogan is the reason he was never a world champion crap. If you really feel the need to blame someone for Mr. Perfect not being a world champion in the WWF, then blame Vince McMahon, not Hulk Hogan.

 

[straight_edge76]

Mr. Perfect is one of if not the greatest in-ring preformers in the history of the WWF. Title reigns and shit like that imo should not mean a damn thing.