The Barber’s Window of Opportunity
By Scott Keith on 18 October 2022
Let's say Beefcake doesn't get into the parasailing accident and beats Perfect for the IC title at SummerSlam '90. What then? Does he drop it back to Perfect at Royal Rumble or Mania? Turn heel in preparation to drop it to Bret?
As a bonus question, which then-WWF wrestler would get the themed interview segment on the syndicated shows from '91 to '92? Do they bring back “Piper's Pit”? Or give it to someone like Tugboat (“The Harbor”) Savage (“The Macho Manor”) or The Mountie (um…someplace where Mounties hang out)?
Thanks!
My suspicion is that Beefer would have been at best a short-term or transitional champion, because either way Bret was getting that thing by 1991. So yeah, I think he drops it back to Perfect by Royal Rumble, if not sooner. I can't really see that version of the character going heel, though. That's just not the way they did business at that point. He would have been fine floating around the midcard and giving the rub to newer babyfaces as a tag team partner for a long time to come, though. You can run “Hot new main event face and Brutus Beefcake v. Heel team” as a house show main event with zero effort needed to heat them up.
As for the interview segment, I think the Mountie has to be the answer, but I can't think of a really great pun at the moment. The Police Station? The Interrogation Room? I'll have to workshop it.