I always looked at Earthquake as someone who didn't live up to what was intended for him, but is one of those guys who many would be quite happy to see go into the Hall of Fame.
His earliest run as "The Canadian Earthquake" was built well enough, with several guys having to take him out of the 90 Royal Rumble but he always felt like someone who was there purely to service Hogan once Warrior had the title rather than ever be a true main eventer himself. Summerslam at that time had a familiar booking pattern of Tag Matches and Hogan vs a Monster and Quake fit that bill to move it to singles for 1990.
By then it was pretty clear Warrior was bombing as champion, I actually think Quake vs Warrior would have been a better Summerslam feud and actually helped Warrior get over more. Of course Hogan refusing to work with Rude was the other money in the wrench there. Genuinely, if they'd gone that way then I can see Slaughter never coming back and Quake being what Yoko became for a while, the monster champ. Sure Hogan would have beaten him at WM7 but Warrior a good shot at regaining from him too and coming out looking stronger.
Its hard to say why John Tenta didn't really live up to the potential... his booking left something to be desired at times but he still had, as Brain mentioned a year and a half of "memorable moments", more than many heels got at that time, perhaps they were pinning their hopes on Andre being able to "go" again and thus they didn't want to invest too much in Quake without that payoff. Also at the time Big Bossman was their preferred "big man" so it may be that Quake was considered not as marketable as Bossman was.
The Tugboat turn/team was one of the last proper "turns" that worked other than Shawn and Marty... You didn't see it coming but that it was against the Bushwhackers kind of made it limp... had they booked SS90 differently you could have had that turn prior to Mania 7, with Hogan being the one turned on by his friend Tugboat...
The Disasters were an ok team, never special and never great faces, although they were forced to be at the time. Likewise, Quake's return at WMX didn't work... no one wanted to see him as a good guy...he needed to be the bad ass and once they took that from him the "big baby" analogy came into play.
Sure his WCW gimmicks suffered but he was clearly there for the money by that stage and again, other big men were ahead in the queue... in all he got a pretty good career out of it. Golga wasn't as bad as people remember, the Oddities as a group wasn't brilliant but it was fun and Golga's Cartman fixation was one of the better parts of the group.
If it'd have been me he goes into SS 90 with the injury angle against Warrior instead of Hogan... uses the cage to his advantage and takes the title. If you must have Slaughter and Hogan, the turn happens there in some kind of tag match involving Sheik... then Earthquake becomes a very different proposition for those early 1990s.
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