As a wrestling fan, I can believe just about anything. As long as a story makes sense, any wrestler can become a main event guy in my mind. Of course, the wrestling ability has to be there. However, there was that ONE time I just couldn’t wrap my brain around a push.
Enter Billy Kidman. After a run as a flunky member of Raven’s WCW Flock, at 5’11’’, Kidman gained success in the Cruiserweight division of WCW starting in late 1998 and wound up winning the championship on three separate occasions during the title’s existence as part of WCW. By mid-1999, Kidman would win the WCW World Tag Team Championships with Rey Mysterio Jr., and was part of an apparent youth movement in the company.
I was all for a youth movement for the company, as it was much needed by that point. With the ratings slipping and fans losing interest fast, WCW needed to push their talented young wrestlers into the main event scene.
Sadly, Billy Kidman just wasn’t believable in that role. When the New Blood formed in April of 2000, Kidman was projected as one of the leaders. He would enter into a feud with Hulk Hogan, and actually wound up beating Hogan several times on television.
Don’t ever say Hogan never laid on his back for anyone. He allowed Kidman to get wins in an attempt to make him a star.
But the wins did more harm than they did good. I mean, you’ve got Hulk Hogan who feuded with the likes of Andre the Giant, Earthquake, Randy Savage, Warrior, Sting, and Sid Justice, among countless others, but loses to the cruiserweight Billy Kidman.
I’m not discrediting Kidman’s ability. The guy was great in the ring with the likes of Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, Chavo Guerrero Jr., and the other cruiserweight wrestlers. When it came to competing against the likes of Hulk Hogan, it just didn’t work.
Some people may be wondering why Kidman wouldn’t work in the role, but someone like Rey Mysterio Jr. did. That’s a great question. It took Rey four years to become a WWE Heavyweight Champion when he entered the WWE. At first he started as a cruiserweight and worked his way up to being a believable contender. We were expected to buy into Kidman almost overnight. He went from a cruiserweight to challenging Hulkamania. It doesn’t help that Kidman was stuck in a heel role while his offense was hard to boo. I can’t possibly go to an arena and boo someone who hits a move like the shooting star press. Certainly not the greatest heel finisher.
I understand that at the time WCW was completely depleted of stars thanks to the Radicals bailing on the company for the WWE, as well as guys like Raven and Jericho gone from the company, but it was creative moves like this that damaged WCW’s image in its dying days.
At the most, Kidman would have been a fine WCW US Champion, but to even suggest he would have been main eventing pay per views with the likes of Hogan, Goldberg, Nash or Sting at any time is rather laughable.
Did you buy into a main event push for Kidman? Leave your thoughts below.
Thanks for reading.
I never saw Kidman as a threat to Hogan, that push should’ve gone to someone like Mike Awesome,Booker.T or Vampiro.
I was a huge Billy Kidman fan prior to this. If there was ever anyone that would have been happy with this storyline it would have been me, but even I hated it. I loved Kidman and would have loved to see him work his way up to the U.S. Title eventually, but having him feud with Hogan was a mistake. It was laughable. Kidman was not on the same level as Hogan, not even close. He maybe could have been eventually (probably not), but they tried to push him way too fast. I found myself rooting against the guy who at one time had been my favorite WCW wrestler.