Was Hypno ever a top-tier threat?

gen 3 UU

Was always in Alakazam's shadow, so no.

Was a good alakazam counter in the old days

>>31724655
Pretty sure every Psychic Pokémon was top-tier in Gen 1.

>>31724853
In Gen 1, Hypno was one of only two fully evolved Psychic-types in UU, along with the absolutely horrid thing that was Mr. Mime.
Exeggutor, Alakazam, Starmie, Jynx and Slowbro were all OU, and let's not speak about Mew and Mewtwo.
However, Hypno was not nearly as bad as Mr. Mime.