The Big Wiggle

Like I said, I'm a Russo supporter (at least in theory, as I qualify that designation by knowing that a lot of his ideas are absolute turds when he doesn't have a guy above him filtering him out), because whether he's good or bad, he always tries to produce intriguing television. That's something that late-period Bischoff, Nash, Sullivan, and others failed to do for the company. We can debate the merits of his work up and down, and I'm right with you that there wasn't a lot to like by Fall Brawl 2000, but the man always put his all into each Nitro and Thunder, and for that I've got take my hat off to him. I'm a WCW fan who was envious of the Attitude era, so I'm a bit different in that I don't care so much about the wrestling aspect of it. When the WWF received the infusion of the WCW castoffs, they suddenly had the benefit of being able to put on great matches along with the entertaining Attitude style of booking (which remained somewhat close to Russo and Ferrera's style until Stephanie took over in late 2000). Meanwhile, with this best of both worlds in the WWF, we had neither under Kevin Sullivan. I've thought a lot about his mistakes (as it was a more entertaining way to spend my time than actually paying attention to those shows), and he should have made the best out of the Radicals leaving, sending a message that their fears were unfounded and that the proper guys were going to get pushed. Throwing the belt on Sid was the absolute wrong choice to make. While you can argue that no other young guy was ready for the belt, I'd argue that they could have gone with either Jarrett or Booker that January (as both men would hold the title later that year anyway). Sid? Well, Sid was actually over in January, but that was due to him being booked as the dim-wittingly goofy but tough-as-hell brawler that he was molded as during the Powers That Be era. Sullivan tried to recast him as the straight babyface, and, when that failed, turned him heel to feed him to Hogan. None of these choices were the right ones to make, especially when Hogan was brought back as the red and yellow superhero, aborting the purported character change that put him on the shelf in October (and was finally used in April when the New Blood storyline began). I'll say it again: The only minor success story of Sullivan was Vampiro finally getting over, which Russo fumbled when he turned him heel and started that Carnival of Darkness crap. Hell, Vampiro as World Champ would have been some seriously ballsy booking and may have been exactly what WCW needed at the time, but Sullivan wouldn't even dare put the Hardcore Title on him during this time.

Oh, I don't know. The nWo was as big a brand name as WCW, and the first month of the black and silver went back to what made the group great in the first place (but this time with Bret Hart as the leader). Granted, Sullivan can't be blamed for Bret getting kicked in the head and the various other calamities that reduced the stable to Jeff Jarrett, but he DID bring the Harris Boys into it, and for that reason alone he deserves all the scorn he can receive. I do think that the first week of Sullivan was the best (or rather, least offensive) of this wretched period, because everything was in such disarray that they had no booking plan. This was the booking team that you didn't want to have a plan, because all of their ideas were absolute horseshit. Feuds over the letter T, The Demon vs. The Wall, Big Al, and Hogan being brought as the company's number one star. Blegh. When I initially watched the Nitro after Souled Out, I really felt bad for Arn Anderson, what with him having to deliver his "Chris Benoit never won the world title" monologue. WCW never recognized the reign, and it wasn't until the buyout that it was included in the "official" title history. Of course, it may be removed again at this point. Regardless, the title situation remained a bloody mess for well over a week. If I remember correctly, the belt was stripped from Bret at Souled Out. Benoit beat Sid for the belt, but that decision was thrown out the next night and the belt remained vacant until the following week's Nitro, where Sid won it. Then on Thunder, Nash awarded himself the belt and Sid had to beat him for it all over again. Yeah, Russo didn't add any luster to the belt after that, but it was such an inept start to Sullivan's booking reign that it's even more frustrating when you realize Hogan was initially going to win the title at Spring Stampede. At least Russo was able to stave off Hogan's ego until July, and then drove him out with the "bald headed son of a bitch" shoot immediately afterwards.

The Sullivan-era merely highlights why I was actually a Russo supporter. You may not get much wrestling, but the ridiculous, over-the-top nature of the show was fun. WCW was always fun under Vince Russo. Sullivan was like watching paint dry, without the ability to get high from the fumes. This era really hurt as a WCW fan when you compare it with what was happening in the WWF. We lost Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, and Saturn, four of our biggest future prospects, so that Kevin Sullivan could book his old-school wrasslin' show in the year 2000. Ergo, all of the younger guys in the company who had been there for a few years, sans Vampiro, seemed to lose motivation. Hogan and Flair were both brought back in their same stagnant roles. The once promising nWo 2000 completely fell apart, making the company's new storyline dead in the water one month out of the gate. Why Bill Busch gave the role to Sullivan at the expense of the Radicals is still one of the biggest head scratchers in WCW's history, but it's been said that Sullivan and J.J. Dillon had been in Busch's ear from the moment that Bischoff got fired, and were responsible for undermining initial Russo and Ferrera's run so that they could make a power grab when the opportunity arose. As someone who almost gave up on WCW during the "summer of suck" but stayed with it, I actually did call it quits in early March of 2000. That's how bad it was, especially contrasted to the ultra-hot WWF still riding high on the Attitude era and now infused with some of WCW's most talented performers. When people try to point towards Arquette or any other post-Sullivan moment as the moment WCW died, I always point back towards these three months as when WCW passed the point of no return. Fans weren't going to come back after this, especially with WCW changing directions every quarter-of-a-year. Bischoff, Russo, and even Vince McMahon couldn't salvage the WCW name after Kevin Sullivan infused it with Yappapi straps, the Dog, jobber squashes, and all of the crap I must have blocked out.

And at least Russo finally made Thunder matter. While agreeing that Sullivan's reign was the worse for WCW in its entirety, Thunder was at its absolute nadir in the summer of 1999. Bischoff had lost interest in everything by that point and head booker Nash didn't give a shit about a show he wasn't going to bother to appear on. You would get really random matches and team-ups based on which workers would show up. In fact, that's how the whole Jersey Triad thing with DDP/Kanyon/Bigelow started. One of them didn't attend to defend the tag titles, so they just stuck another in his place.

The aborted Million Dollar Giveaway in WCW was one of the reasons Bischoff was ousted as president in September '99 and was widely panned by the Internet as a horrible idea. I'm calling it: Vince will bring in KISS by August.