Randleman's biggest win was against Staph, and anyone who saw the pictures knows thats true.
ranier wolfcastle - he actually had a bandwagon after crocop. many thought he was gonna win the whole tournry. i didnt.
It's essentially correct that Randleman "actually had a bandwagon after crocop" - although it's quite a stretch to say "many thought he was gonna win the whole tournry." Not when Fedor and Nog were still in it.
In fact, going into the second round of the GP, Fedor and Nog were still the overwhelming two favorites - but Randleman was now the real dark horse and perceived to be the third seed.
At that point, the betting odds had Fedor and Nog as the prohibitive favorites to win the whole thing, and then there was a steep drop-off to Randleman - but then there was another steep drop-off from Randleman to the rest of the field, even including Herring who was still a top-10 HW at the time. (While Sergei was still considered green and largely unproven as he had just beaten his first-ever A-level name in Ninja - who, although Sergei's performance over him was still impressive, was ultimately a bloated-up HW.)
In fact, Randleman facing Fedor was actually the matchup that most fans wanted to see at that point, as it easily won the Pride fan voting results for the next round (which makes sense, since the other established top HW's left at that point were Nog and Herring - and Fedor had already dominantly battered both of them).
So coming off his biggest win ever over Cro Cop, Randleman's stock was at a real high going into the Fedor fight (however briefly that high lasted).
Juijitsuboxer - When he beat Maurice he was the new DOMINANT MONSTER WRESTLER, etc.
Juijitsuboxer - How many of you guys actually saw Randleman fight Maurice for the Title live?
Randleman was SCARY back then... SCARY
Randleman beat Pete Williams for the vacant title, not Mo. And Randleman was never considered really "SCARY" or a truly "DOMINANT MONSTER WRESTLER" even at his titleholding peak. He was an extremely athletic, explosive, and effective top-level wrestler who was known more for controlling his opponents to wins - than for really being "DOMINANT MONSTER" and "SCARY."
Actually, even if Randleman had gotten the decision over Bas, it still would have been chalked up as yet another characteristically controlling, largely LnP win for him (where after initially laying down a beating and busting up Bas' nose, Randleman just controlled from on top for most of the rest of the fight). Again, not so much "SCARY" as it was controlling.