Analyze This: Posthumous/Post-retirement Overrating of a wrestler's legacy
Owen Hart who was considered boring back then during A.E is now easily considered one of the best wrestlers who never made it to the world title scene and argued in favor of being better than his brother Bret Hart in the ring.
Magnum T.A was a similar case where but for his accident, it is said that he could have become one of the greatest wrestlers of all times for all we know.
There are many other wrestlers who are considered in similar vein.
Who can you think of when it comes to case of the wrestler being overrated post retirement or death and why do you think such overrating happens?
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Re: Analyze This: Posthumous/Post-retirement Overrating of a wrestler's legacy
If it is a premature death, people tend to stipulate what could have happened. Eddie Guerrero is great and one of my favourites, but I feel like he is overrated a lot of the time, due to his untimely death.
I don't think this is just in wrestling though, look at music, Jimi Hendrix, what could've been, movies, James Dean, what could've been. Just a natural instinct to stipulate and overrate.
Don't get me wrong, Owen Hart is great, he was in the greatest wrestlemania opener of all time at Wrestlemania X and did some good work as 'The King of Harts' and tag teaming with Yoko. But he was fading away when he returned to his Blue Blazer gimmick and was lost in the shuffle during the start of the Attitude Era.
Re: Analyze This: Posthumous/Post-retirement Overrating of a wrestler's legacy
Like the poster above me said, a some of it is people hypothesising. If xyz was still around, he would have...
But I think it's not an issue because eventually the dust settles where it should. After time passes and you take the sentimentality out of everything, you're left with their bodies of work, and they will always end up speaking for themselves.
Re: Analyze This: Posthumous/Post-retirement Overrating of a wrestler's legacy
I agree some of this goes on for sure, but for every guy like Hart or Rude who become more legendary after death their are 20 guys whose legacies dissapear becuase time erases our memories. This is only natural and happens in every aspect of our culture. Movie stars, sports stars, musicians, they all pass away forgotten every day. They may have had epic careers during their prime.
So while there are a minority who gain esteem. The far and away correct answer is no.
Last edited by Greenlawler : 12-03-2012 at 05:35 PM.
Re: Analyze This: Posthumous/Post-retirement Overrating of a wrestler's legacy
I don't think they're overrated, I just think that they're not bashed as much because they died. So the only things we really hear about those stars after they die, is the positive things about them.
Macho Man is probably most recent example. Before he died, all people cared to talk about regarding him, is how he should be in the WWE HOF, and Steph McMahon. Then after he dies, the HOF stuff is still mentioned, but then everyone else just talks about his legacy and that's it(which I like hearing more than some stupid rumors people are in love with talking about)
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Re: Analyze This: Posthumous/Post-retirement Overrating of a wrestler's legacy
I don't think many people consider Owen better than Bret. He was a better athlete than Bret but not nearly the wrestler.
Sometimes you don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. Mr. Perfect and Rick Rude were awesome characters and wrestlers. Nothing the least but overrated about either of them.
Owen was a good athlete and had some charisma but WWE wouldn't put the belt on him when they had the chances in 94 and late 97 / early 98 after the screw job fallout. That could have been huge for his career and he probably could have handled it but they didn't do it for whatever reason and his mid-card act got stale.
Re: Analyze This: Posthumous/Post-retirement Overrating of a wrestler's legacy
Yes I think a fair bit of overrating goes on of old wrestlers who have passed on or have retired.
However we hear so much about this because an entire industry has been created out of the 'behind the scenes' of wrestling. This makes a big difference too that people can make money out of talking so much about wrestlers from the past and how good they were.
A bigger thing I think is people overrating past eras such as the Golden Era. Don't get me wrong there was alot of tremendous stars with your Hogans, Machos, Pipers etc etc, but there was also a lot of crap matches, angles, bad booking etc too which people just gloss over.
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