Armchair Bookers: What if WCW bought out ECW...

[Zack Malibu 0]

More of a "What If" scenario this time around kids. In early 2000, WCW was desperate to get back on top of the wrestling war. WWF/E had what has gone down as one of their best year both drawing wise and booking wise. WCW responded by putting both Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff in power and tried their hand at elevating younger talent by feuding them with the older talent. In typical Russo/WCW fashion, what followed was a mishmash and only served to hurt the WCW product even more so that by the time things picked up again, it was too late and the once powerful company was swallowed by the McMahon Machine.

 

Now, keep in mind that WCW had made a play for ECW World Champion Mike Awesome at a time he was still contractually obligated to ECW. Paul Heyman fought this tooth and nail...but what if he fought for something else? What if Heyman was seeing the writing on the wall, and used this as leverage to get WCW to take care of ECW's debt, picking up their contracts, workers, trademarks and all a year before Vince McMahon did. What if Rob Van Dam, already a name to the ECW diehards and the smart fanbase, made a national name for himself in WCW? What if workers like Super Crazy and Tajiri had a chance to breathe life into the WCW Cruiserweight Division alongside Rey Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, Billy Kidman, and others? What if workers like Raven went along for the ride, preventing his lackluster WWF run?

 

It might not have saved WCW necessarily, but it would have brought life to a rapidly weakening product. So, in your opinion, what would you guys have done? Invasion angle? Incorporate them as WCW stars and make no mention of their past? NWO vs. ECW? Tradition vs. Extreme, as TNA tried to do years ago?

[Toxxic 0]

I think the one thing WCW didn't need at that time was yet more people on the wage bill. Besides, what would have happened? WCW got Awesome in the end and turned him into a midcard comedy act. Raven had already been there once. RVD would have had a similar reaction to his time in WWE - good response from the fans, but he wouldn't have got into the World Title scene, only it would have been Nash, Steiner, Goldberg and Jarrett instead of Trips, Rock, Angle, Taker and Austin keeping him out. The cruiserweight division was already pretty damn good, but it wasn't carrying the shows, and Tajiri and Super Crazy wouldn't have changed that.

 

WCW taking ECW on would have would have resulted in them having a bunch more midcarders, unless they'd brought Heyman in and given him control, when he might have been able to do something for a while at least, if everyone's egos had been reined in. But he wouldn't have been, and they wouldn't have been.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I always thought RVD would be the one guy WCW wouldn't misuse. I'd have seen him be pushed in WCW had they kept going and had that re-start where Sean O'Haire would be the major player.

[Zack Malibu 0]

I think that with all the prior creative instances failing at various points (Russo, the much loathed Sullivan era, etc.) they would have been more than willing to give Heyman a hand in the booking. So we can make that an addendum to the original post. What if they bought ECW and Heyman got put in a position of power?

[Toxxic 0]

You missed the second part of my point, about the egos. Nash and the rest of them wouldn't have taken kindly to new talent muscling in. If Heyman had tried too hard to elevate people they didn't want elevated then odds are they'd have pulled out, disappeared or had 'unfortunate' flare-ups of old knee injuries. Either way, I couldn't have seen a lot of the main eventers jobbing to people like RVD. So you'd either have a bitter backstage politicking war between Heyman and his supporters and, basically, the entire main event scene and their supporters which would have destroyed the company by itself, or you'd have the old guard pulling out and disappearing leaving a big name void at the top of the card. Heyman could fill that void with new players, but not necessarily quickly enough to fix the damage caused by having one of the two major US wrestling companies suddenly headlined by WCW Midcarder vs ECW Main Eventer. I think Sting might have stuck around, and Sting vs RVD or even Sting vs Sean O'Haire might have worked for a while. But there'd be such an enormous gulf in the perception of Sting's place on the card compared to any of his rivals that them losing to him wouldn't help them at all, and him jobbing would be more likely to reduce his standing rather than put them over.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

It would have been a big clusterfuck mess...basically it would have just resulted in Vince buying this new WCW/ECW hybrid instead of just WCW. Maybe the Invasion angle would have started sooner...but probably would have turned out the same. Also, we probably wouldn't have an "ECW brand" today.

[Zack Malibu 0]

You missed the second part of my point, about the egos. Nash and the rest of them wouldn't have taken kindly to new talent muscling in. If Heyman had tried too hard to elevate people they didn't want elevated then odds are they'd have pulled out, disappeared or had 'unfortunate' flare-ups of old knee injuries. Either way, I couldn't have seen a lot of the main eventers jobbing to people like RVD. So you'd either have a bitter backstage politicking war between Heyman and his supporters and, basically, the entire main event scene and their supporters which would have destroyed the company by itself, or you'd have the old guard pulling out and disappearing leaving a big name void at the top of the card. Heyman could fill that void with new players, but not necessarily quickly enough to fix the damage caused by having one of the two major US wrestling companies suddenly headlined by WCW Midcarder vs ECW Main Eventer. I think Sting might have stuck around, and Sting vs RVD or even Sting vs Sean O'Haire might have worked for a while. But there'd be such an enormous gulf in the perception of Sting's place on the card compared to any of his rivals that them losing to him wouldn't help them at all, and him jobbing would be more likely to reduce his standing rather than put them over.

 

Honestly, I'd only see Nash and Hogan bitching over Heyman. DDP maybe, as he always worked hard even when Bischoff wasn't around. Heyman had respect for guys like Flair, loved guys like Mysterio who had gotten their US breaks in ECW, and would have been more than happy to build guys like Vampiro and Booker T. I think we'd have wound up with something similar to Russo's era where Hogan wanted nothing to do with things (unless Heyman could pitch him a foolproof idea). He'd probably push Hall and Nash as a surly, brawling tag team similar to the APA or Dudleys (and somewhat recreate the heat the Dudley Boyz used to be able to get in ECW). Mike Awesome would get pushed hard, almost Vader style. Heyman would probably use Sid to put him over huge. Booker T., Kidman, Vampiro, Shane Douglas and Scott Steiner would have almost surely gotten huge pushes. Guys like Lex Luger and The Harris Twins, or even down the card like Chuck Palumbo and Bill DeMott, maybe not so much. Sting would have been a company man for sure. Something along the lines of Sting and Flair teaming up against RVD and Sabu would be created. Flair vs. Sabu would be pushed as not only a dream match, but with Sabu being "nothing like what Ric Flair has ever faced". Then you'd probably get The Sandman and Dreamer vs. Hall and Nash as a tag title feud. In fact, the tag division would likely remain very strong, with Dreamer/Sandman, Outsiders, Mysterio/Kidman, The Impact Players, Jindrak/O'Haire, Jung Dragons, 3 Count etc. Chavo Guerrero would have gotten a big push as Heyman would want to recreate Eddy. Heyman himself could play an on screen character, cutting the promos for RVD and Sabu. Another scenario could have Heyman attempting to lure Douglas back to his side (ask him to "come home") and Douglas refuses. Then you could have Flair and Douglas do the "wacky tag partner" scenario.

 

It's weird that I can envision most of this stuff happening, but I think it would have worked.

[The Truthiness 0]

Heyman would basically run through every money making program in a span of 6 months, and you wouldn't have to order the ppv, because you'd get all the matches on free TV.

[Zack Malibu 0]

Heyman would basically run through every money making program in a span of 6 months, and you wouldn't have to order the ppv, because you'd get all the matches on free TV.

 

I highly doubt that. He didn't even have Sabu and Taz touch for a year, and that was without any national television, just the syndicated shows. I'm sure he'd be able to pace himself.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

The difference is without TV, they usually ran shows like twice a month (I don't know the exact average but that's my assumption), so you can easily hold off Taz/Sabu. But with 5-6 hours of TV a week, Truthiness would be right. Heyman would have gone through everything quickly.