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Re-Booking Thread - Year 2001


IANdrewDiceClay

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What was the reason for not bringing in Scott Steiner? was he injured or was it his backstage reputation at the time. I can't imagine he was on a huge contract compared to the likes of Nash, Goldberg and Hogan but he had been headlining WCW in it's last few months.

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He had no feeling in his foot the night of the final Nitro. He developed drop foot syndrome, and it more or less finished him off as a top level wrestler. He was completely knackered for about 18 months after that last Nitro. I could be wrong, but I'm sure he'd failed medicals in late 2001/early 2002. He even started working WWA events just to prove he was fit enough to perform. He wasnt under contract in February 2002, because he was working for WWA and according to Jerry Jarrett's book, Jeff contacted him to work with NWA TNA. For a good year and a half Steiner seemed to be as big a dream signing as Goldberg. "Just wait until Steiner debuts!!!" was the cries from fans at the time. I thought he was going to dominate, considering his size and look. He seemed perfect for WWE. But obviously not. He was rusty, broken down and looked out of place on a roster with Brock, Angle, Benoit, Guerrero and the fast paced roster they had at the time.

 

As far as his contract goes, I have no idea. But, Rick Steiner was on $500,000 a year, so fuck knows what his better, bigger and more valuable brother was on. He must have been in the top earners. Scott was one of Bischoffs boys. Scott Norton was raking in half a million, so he'd have sorted Scott out no bother.

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I'd have gone about it the same way, only I'd have changed the stalker to Kanyon. It'd have made more sense that it be a lower down WCW guy wanting to be made famous. Undertaker could still slap him about the way he slapped out DDP, but it doesn't devalue a name WCW guy in the process. In fact, after it - Kanyon could fall into a feud with Edge or someone just off of the association of The Undertaker.

 

Otherwise, The InVasion would have stayed the same, with the exception that I'd have a major name interfere at the end of the main-event and win it for WCW. I'm not sure who was available at that time, but lets say Nash (HYPOTHETICALLY!!). So it all goes mental - all 10 men brawling, Vince & Shane go at it, Trish & Steph go at it, even the referees start brawling. In the madness, Nash runs in, Jack-Knifes Austin and does a runner, allowing Booker T to crawl in and get the victory.

 

Next night on RAW, Shane announces that following last night's win, the board of directors from the network is willing to give WCW another chance, and thus is dropping one hour off RAW and replacing it with Nitro starting tonight. Cue lots of hijinx where WWF guys invade a WCW main-event to kick them out so RAW can start and vice-versa, finishing in a tag match for complete control of RAW - Triple H & Rock vs. Booker T & Shane. Triple H turns, and Steph is revealed as the owner of ECW, and shall run Monday Nitro (SmackDown was getting the better ratings at this point, I believe).

 

All the while, Austin is feuding with Nash (who cost him the WWF title to Angle), and Angle is defending the WWF Title against Jericho (who won KOTR). ECW will also invade Heat and take over the show by force.

 

 

Everything will be peachy and carry on as little brands, until a WCW guy wins the Rumble (an all WWF guy event). I want to say Goldberg, but I don't know how his contract was so it could just as easy be any guy the WCW brand could have built up over the past few months. He will continue attacking on WWF television with ECW & WCW guys supporting him yet Vince will do nothing. Commissioner Regal will urge him to allow an attack, but he remains quiet. He come out and say that this christmas was the most pleasant he's ever had, as Shane & Steph was no-where to be seen and he's grown accepting on the lack of contact and won't rise to the challenge.

 

Then Flair will come out as co-owner and will urge an attack, leading to a Flair vs. Vince stand-off, but he won't. Eventually, it's only when Linda comes out to urge Shane & Steph to stop, and Steph slaps her, that Vince goes crazy and allows the troops to attack causing all out warfare and setting off the invasion for Wrestlemania X8. Hopefully, as Flair, nWo, Goldberg, Stenier, Bischoff, etc. etc. would be coming into the company soon after, they could easily be integrated into the storyline. And in retaliation, guys returning for injury like Benoit, Rikishi, etc. H can fight for WWF, add the new guys coming in like Lesnar, and you can easily stretch it out until Wrestlemania XIX, or even Invasion 3 (or IIInvasion, YES)

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He had no feeling in his foot the night of the final Nitro. He developed drop foot syndrome, and it more or less finished him off as a top level wrestler. He was completely knackered for about 18 months after that last Nitro. I could be wrong, but I'm sure he'd failed medicals in late 2001/early 2002. He even started working WWA events just to prove he was fit enough to perform. He wasnt under contract in February 2002, because he was working for WWA and according to Jerry Jarrett's book, Jeff contacted him to work with NWA TNA. For a good year and a half Steiner seemed to be as big a dream signing as Goldberg. "Just wait until Steiner debuts!!!" was the cries from fans at the time. I thought he was going to dominate, considering his size and look. He seemed perfect for WWE. But obviously not. He was rusty, broken down and looked out of place on a roster with Brock, Angle, Benoit, Guerrero and the fast paced roster they had at the time.

 

As far as his contract goes, I have no idea. But, Rick Steiner was on $500,000 a year, so fuck knows what his better, bigger and more valuable brother was on. He must have been in the top earners. Scott was one of Bischoffs boys. Scott Norton was raking in half a million, so he'd have sorted Scott out no bother.

 

I believe Scotty was on a $750,000 - $800,000 deal. I imagine with whatever extra's he picked up along the way he bumped the $1 Million mark.

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I'd have gone about it the same way, only I'd have changed the stalker to Kanyon. It'd have made more sense that it be a lower down WCW guy wanting to be made famous. Undertaker could still slap him about the way he slapped out DDP, but it doesn't devalue a name WCW guy in the process. In fact, after it - Kanyon could fall into a feud with Edge or someone just off of the association of The Undertaker.

Sara would've been more Kanyon's cup of tea as well.

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I remember reading about the drop-foot syndrome in PS at the time. I couldn't wait for Steiner to debut, and when he arrived he didn't dissapoint - the original angles he took part in and the stuff with HHH were superb, I still piss myself when they're doing that arm-wrestle test of strength and HHH is trying his bollocks off and he looks at Steiner who has a cigar on. But then he stepped into the ring and completely destroyed his aura. His debut was still class though.

 

Just thinking about what has been written earlier, about having WCW go over the WWF and rebooting Nitro. It would have been an impossible task at the time, as the majority of the WWF audience shat all over WCW. How would you encourage a fanbase to watch a show that you've been slagging off for the best part of the last decade? And one that now was stripped of its most recongnisable performers due to their contracts. It would have taken something pretty monumental to pull that off.

 

Maybe the answer was to hold off on starting the Invasion until Survivor Series. That way, Flair could have been involved, and the NWO a couple of months in. Over the summer you would have juggled Austin/Jericho/Benoit/Taker/RVD in various combinations, sprinkled with a couple of the mid card WCW guys. Sure business may dip slightly, but it would be boosted in November and through to the Rumble, and then you have something big go down at Wrestlemania, maybe throw a ton of cash at Goldberg (I know, I know) and have him interfere in a Rock/Hogan main event. This then leads to Austin and Goldberg somewhere down the line after Goldberg goes over a Hollywood bound Rock at Summerslam.

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Not to mention that others could have got better in developmental or house shows. Some could have been on TV and turned and the shit that needed clearing would have been gone. Small developments could have kept the sotry buzzing and the Invasion could of and in my opinion should of started at Survivor Series not The Summer. HHH and Benoit would have been back & the shitness that was the first few months of the brand extension would have been gone! You could of at a push had the story go on from SS01 to WM 19 with once the WWE have one goldberg appears if you couldnt get him sooner

 

What the fuck?

 

Wow that really was bad grammar, even for me. I should have changed it and would have if I had noticed. Thanks for spending your valuable time pointing out my mistakes.

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I liked the brand bidding war they had when Steiner came in, they did the same with MVP when he debuted except with Steiner saying if Stephanie shagged him he'd sign the dotted line for Smackdown.

It damaged his legacy a bit in later months with WWE though. I remember him falling off the mat during his Badd Blood match with Test and he fought for the honour of Stacey Keibler which was bad for his character cause the Big Bad Booty Daddy we knew would've just shagged her and kicked the fuck outta Test if he complained about it. That being said his entrance with the siren was still class and he maintained his "NOT YET!!" pushup spot. Steiner's still the man.

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Not to mention that others could have got better in developmental or house shows. Some could have been on TV and turned and the shit that needed clearing would have been gone. Small developments could have kept the sotry buzzing and the Invasion could of and in my opinion should of started at Survivor Series not The Summer. HHH and Benoit would have been back & the shitness that was the first few months of the brand extension would have been gone! You could of at a push had the story go on from SS01 to WM 19 with once the WWE have one goldberg appears if you couldnt get him sooner

 

What the fuck?

 

Wow that really was bad grammar, even for me. I should have changed it and would have if I had noticed. Thanks for spending your valuable time pointing out my mistakes.

 

I pointed out the non-mistakes as well. I was fascinated by how you'd alternate it! I've never known anyone who only does "would of" half the time, usually people either do it right or wrong. Never both.

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Surprised some were content with the way it played out.

 

Things that I would change

The Mcmahons. Stephanie owns ECW, Shane owns WCW, Vince owns WWF. This clouded the issue from day 1 was this a fight between rival companies or Mcmahons. Were loyal ECW and WCW fans supposed to be attracted towards cheering for Shane and Steph respectively.

 

Having people like Raven and Meng as WWF faithful

 

No Bischoff(could of had his challenge match from Slamboree at Invasion)

 

DDP as the stalker and squashing.

 

Booker T as World and US champ.

 

Not having a seperate show just a segment were they changed the ring aprons.

Arn Anderson on commentary on the first WCW segment.

 

The missing names Ric Flair, Sting, Steiner, Goldberg, Hogan, Outsiders these names were WCW

 

Austin turning to WCW.

 

I'm sure there's more

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2001 seemed ok until after Wrestlemania. Austin's heel turn was classic but the departure of the Rock meant he had no one to feud with other than the Undertaker, which had been done to death. Also Austin's heel character became too camp.

 

As for the Invasion. My idea would be WCW beats WWE to gain control of Smackdown. Smackdown is renamed Nitro and WCW history carries on as before, with the obvious benefit of being able to have cross promotional matches.

 

If they didn't go with the above idea then another thing I would change is that Kurt Angle should have became the first undisputed champion, not Jericho.

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I know people moan about it being about ego when Shane and Steph were involved but to be fair, from a storyline point of view it was a decent way to explain why WCW and ECW wrestlers could turn up anytime they wanted

 

Anyway, we got Stacy shaking her arse at Rhyno out of the Invasion so it wasn't that bad

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I think the Austin turn was perfect, and it made sense in how Austin was so desperate to be the WWF Champion again he'd even allign with 'the devil himself', the problem like has been said, was that after not turning Triple H, he had no one to feud with.

 

The crowd were begging for a Triple H face turn and I think had he attacked Austin on the next RAW, the fans really would have got behind him. Austin turning into a pussy was pathetic as well, im fine with him turning heel, but to suddenly completely change his character was very odd. Just being aligned with Vince would have been enough.

 

The turn also suffered because of the Invasion, it booked them into a corner and he eventually turned on Vince and the WWF, just 3 months after aligning with Vince!

 

Wasnt the orignal plan for Austin to turn at WrestleMania 16 in 2000 had he not been injured? That would have made more sense, but then again, had he turned then we probably wouldnt have seen Triple H get as big and as much focus as he did. Had he turned in 2000, he'd have had full time Rock to feud with, returning Undertaker, a massively over Kane, even Jericho was more over than he was in 2001.

 

Real shame, im a big fan of the actual turn itself at WrestleMania 17, it's just unfortunate that circumstances, and WWE's own failings, that it didnt work out. It wasnt impossible for it to work, I do think fans were ready to boo Austin had he had a strong babyface to go up against, which Undertaker and Kane werent really at the time.

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I think the Austin turn was perfect, and it made sense in how Austin was so desperate to be the WWF Champion again he'd even allign with 'the devil himself', the problem like has been said, was that after not turning Triple H, he had no one to feud with.

 

The crowd were begging for a Triple H face turn and I think had he attacked Austin on the next RAW, the fans really would have got behind him. Austin turning into a pussy was pathetic as well, im fine with him turning heel, but to suddenly completely change his character was very odd. Just being aligned with Vince would have been enough.

 

The turn also suffered because of the Invasion, it booked them into a corner and he eventually turned on Vince and the WWF, just 3 months after aligning with Vince!

 

Wasnt the orignal plan for Austin to turn at WrestleMania 16 in 2000 had he not been injured? That would have made more sense, but then again, had he turned then we probably wouldnt have seen Triple H get as big and as much focus as he did. Had he turned in 2000, he'd have had full time Rock to feud with, returning Undertaker, a massively over Kane, even Jericho was more over than he was in 2001.

 

Real shame, im a big fan of the actual turn itself at WrestleMania 17, it's just unfortunate that circumstances, and WWE's own failings, that it didnt work out. It wasnt impossible for it to work, I do think fans were ready to boo Austin had he had a strong babyface to go up against, which Undertaker and Kane werent really at the time.

 

Common sense points. Austin has always said he would never have turned heel had he realised what would have happened post WM (Rock leaving,Triple H injured etc). It was right to turn him heel because Rock had became top face in 2000 and there was no turning back but the Rock's constant time off meant that there wasn't really a strong face during that period. Rock was still the top face, he just wasn't on TV all that much. I wish they had kept him heel until WM 2002 and had him go up against a face Triple H.

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