1992 Cactus Jack
By Scott Keith on 30th June 2021
Reading your recent WCW Saturday Night review, and mentioning Cactus Jack, it seems to me that, outside of some off-and-on interaction with Sting, he was really directionless throughout 1992. He wasn't having a major feud with anybody that year that I can recall (I always wish Mick and Steamboat could have had a proper feud together, that would have been amazing), they wrote his character as not caring for titles at that time (you wrestle Sting on a PPV, only your World champ and biggest draw, and it's NON-TITLE???), he wasn't involved in any major angles… He was just there, clearly held in high regard by the WCW brass but not regarded enough to be given anything substantial to do. If anything screams “BECAUSE WCW,” it's Cactus Jack in 1992; he could have done so much more…
Hindsight being 20/20 and all, how would you have used Cactus in 1992? I always felt he could have been a member of the Dangerous Alliance as their official henchman. Maybe replace Bobby Eaton with Cactus in the DA? Imagine Cactus in that War Games match; he'd already had interacted with the entire babyface team by that point anyway. Or maybe Cactus as TV champ, have him beat Windham for it instead of putting it back on Austin? (There's another missed opportunity feud: Cactus-Windham). I'd like your thoughts.
I'm not entirely confident on what his ceiling could have been at that point. He was good, but wasn't really a great worker outside of his brawling style, and I don't know how well he would have worked as a guy just being a normal midcarder. He really was best as the crazy hired gun, although he got injured in the summer and ended up doing the manager gimmick for a long time as a result.
But yeah, Cactus Jack in WarGames. How come THAT never happened?