Jim Duggan

I was going to make a thread about Duggan and talk about how he might have had the steepest drop off in quality of all the guys who went to WWF, and then I remembered Butch Reed and Koko Ware. But peak Jim Duggan was awesome and one of the best babyface brawlers of the 80s. It would be hard to call someone other than Ted Dibiase the best regular opponent of Duggan's career, but I've always liked the November 85 match against Buzz Sawyer the most. Duggan was also really as a hot tag. Pretty limited offensively. Its not like he was doing a bunch of great matwork or high end suplexes. But he was such a big dude with GREAT punches that he didn't know a huge moveset. At his peak he's almost like a grimier Hogan where you don't want him to work a 30 minute title match, you want him punching and bleeding for 13 minutes. Top tier stuff is amazing.

Jim Duggan vs Ted Dibiase (7/29/83 – Mid-South)
Jim Duggan & Rock n Roll Express vs Midnight Express & Ernie Ladd (6/8/84 – Mid-South)
Jim Duggan & Rock n Roll Express vs Midnight Express & Ernie Ladd (7/2/84 – Mid-South)
Jim Duggan & Terry Gordy vs Ted Dibiase & Dr Death (Texas Tornado Match 1/21/85 – Mid South)
Jim Duggan vs Ted Dibiase (3/8/85 – Mid-South)
Jim Duggan vs Ted Dibiase (All The Gimmicks Match 3/22/85 – Mid-South)
Jim Duggan vs Buzz Sawyer (11/11/85 – Mid-South)
Jim Duggan vs Buzz Sawyer (Dog Collar Match 12/27/85 – Mid-South)
Jim Duggan vs Terry Gordy (8/3/86 – Mid-South)

One just additional "what-if" I've always thought about since learning about how great Duggan was, "what if it was Duggan that went to AJPW in the early 80s instead of Gordy/Dibiase?" Basically plug Duggan in as Hansen's longterm tag partner. I love the idea of Duggan in there trading blows with the Funks, Jumbo/Tenryu, Choshu & Yatsu.

Anyway. Really amazing revelation to find out how great he was for about 3 or 4 years.