Yes, WCW has had it's first match on the WWFE banner, and what a damn disappointment it was. From the announcement of Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson as the announce team, to the very end of the match, WCW could have been represented so much better. First off, I'm not and never was a big fan of anyone on WCW's announce team other than Bobby Heenan. Scott Hudson is tolerable, although he did slip up a few times, including calling the match in question a match for the WWF title. However, Arn Anderson sucked. He spoke way too softly and made several asinine statements through the course of the segment. Arn is a legend and a great wrestler, but keep him away from the announce table. Of course, part of my bitterness comes from the hope of Jerry Lawler being one half of that announce team, which did not happen, but the fact remains that the announce team was horrible.
One thing I did enjoy was drooling over Stacy Kiebler, but hey, hot women are everywhere, and she was not a good choice for ring announcer. I personally think they should have popped for Mr. "Let's Get Ready to Rumble", but hey, not my choice. Then you move on to the match itself, Booker T defending the WCW title against Buff Bagwell. If they're going to showcase WCW talent against each other on RIW, then Booker T is a fine choice, but Buff Bagwell? Uggh. Bagwell is terrible. He's damn sure not main event caliber, not for a WWF show at least. MAYBE for a Turner WCW show. It seemed to me that the whole match was worked awkwardly, and there wasn't even a clean ending. My god, if you're going to make Booker T fight Buff Bagwell for his big chance on WWFE programming, at least give the man a clean win. I was actually marking out for Austin and Angle booting the WCW guys out of the building, but I think it should have happened AFTER Booker T got the clean win.
The production itself was decent, I could have done without the pink haze they put over the crowd, although the half blackened arena did remind me of WCW as it was before WWFE bought it. It was bizarre to hear Booker T's music playing over a WWF show, as it's music that I grew up with as far as WCW is concerned. He's had that music for years and years.
All in all, the whole segment reminded me way too much of the old WCW, and had nothing new to it as far as quality. Basically the only entertaining thing that happened during the whole segment occurred after the WWF guys, Angle and Austin, came to the rescue.
The fact that the fans were chanting for Goldberg and chanting boring and "this match sucks" should tell the WWF something. The fact that I have yet to read a favorable review of the segment tells me something. It tells me that if the WWF turns RAW into a WCW show, it will quite possibly be a fatal mistake, if not, at least a huge one.
Duh, um, if the old WCW went belly up, why does it make sense to put up one of their old main events as the main event on a WWF show and bill that as "the best WCW has to offer"? The WWF vs. WCW will be a success because that is new and exciting, but WCW on it's own doesn't stand a real good chance as it stands right now. There are already reports of fights breaking out among the WCW guys and reports of a couple of the WCW stars pissing off WWF management.
Same old dog shit, but a brand new paper bag. Let's see how long before this one gets set on fire and WWFE steps in it.
Until next time...
