I'll start off with Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer. People say that the Tommy Rich/Buzz Sawyer feud that went on for two years really killed any chance for Rich to be a major player in the big three.  I believe that Rich was being nudged out of NWA title consideration during the infancy of Ric Flair's first title run.  Sure, Tommy pinned him in a non-title match and left the Omni with the belt.  But soon after, Rich wasn't getting the chances, focusing instead on Roddy Piper, The Superstar, Sawyer, etc.  The battles between Rich and Sawyer began for the National title, then when the title was out of the picture, the actual feud took shape.  It was a very entertaining feud that I wish we had more of today, but long feuds did get an individual stale in the big picture in the territories.  The feud killed Tommy's run at the time, not to say that if he persisted, made appearances in various territories, and kept his image fresh, he would've stayed near the top.     

In my opinion it was Sawyer who was affected by this, he made a much, much better heel.  I guess Ole decided that since Sawyer had so much heat on him, he would shock the world and turn him into the top face.  Sawyer would've never been NWA champ, but had he kept his "Mad Dog" attitude, even as a face, he would've been in the mainstream a lot more, and could've been a main player anywhere he wanted.