The idea at the time was that WWF would continue to operate WCW as a separate entity. It would be Shane McMahons WCW (later expanded into a unit with Stephanie McMahons ECW in a quickly changing and eventually failing storyline) against Vince McMahons WWF.
The idea was that Vince McMahon would be caught with his pants down, with WCWs Torrie Wilson, and Linda McMahon would catch him. This angle actually did air, but all the follow-up was abruptly dropped and never referred to again.
The on-camera storyline of Vince and Lindas divorce would lead to Linda getting control of Monday night on USA in the dividing of the family assets. She would side with a babyface Shane, and WCW would continue as a separate group on the USA Network.
The WWF brand would use Thursday nights on UPN for Smackdown, as its flagship.
That showed how serious the company was, at first. You have to understand the situation in 2001 at the time. When Vince McMahon laid out his plans to me, his key point was that WCW would need help at first. WWF was established and on fire. In his mind, WCW would have to get the primary time slot to be perceived as an even match-up as opposed to a secondary brand. However, when it later came to actual practice, in booking, WCWs stars were clearly positioned as not being on the same level of WWFs stars. The argument was made that WCW didnt have the stars who could compete, but its pro wrestling and you make the best of what you have. In addition, the obvious way to set up the big change, WCW getting the Monday USA time slot, would be to set up a major match for the slot that WCW wins. Instead, no such match giving them that credibility was to take place. Instead, WCW was supposed to get Monday based on breaking up of assets in a storyline divorce of Vince and Linda McMahon.
The feeling was the WWF brand was at an all-time peak, and in those days, the viewership on Thursdays for Smackdown was often ahead of that of Raw. Other company executives noted that there could be no failure with WCW. Vince and the company had a highly publicized failure in the XFL, and simply could not afford a failed relaunch of WCW, because that would be a failure in their own field.
In addition, Vince felt that by running the same stars every Monday and Thursday, that he was in danger of burning out the talent to the public. This would move back to where the stars would only be seen once a week on television. He continued that thought after the dropping of the WCW angle, with the brand extension and separate rosters for Raw and Smackdown. Eventually his thoughts were different and the same talent appeared for the most part on both shows.
Touring schedules with those marching orders had already been put together with arenas booked for Shane McMahons WCW, including Monday TV tapings. But it was on the first night of the beginning of the angle, in Tacoma, when the WWF fan base were so completely negative on everything WCW, including a test run match of Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell with Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson as announcers, that Vince changed his mind on everything.
I can recall that Monday night watching just how badly the crowd reacted, talking to a high ranking WWF executive about how, knowing Vince, that reaction being so negative was probably going to make him drop the idea.
I was told it was impossible, because everything had been laid out, with schedules, rosters, etc.
The next morning, Vince made the call his inner circle said he wouldnt. He ordered everything changed. WCW would not continue as a separate company, but would just be used as an invading heel group in a feud with WWF. Not too many weeks later, with the Stephanie McMahon buying ECW storyline, it was The Alliance of WCW and ECW against WWF. The storyline was one of pro wrestlings all-time disappointments. Few remember that the first PPV, called Invasion, did 775,000 buys, at the time the third biggest of all-time behind only the 2000 and 2001 WrestleManias. But ratings were falling weekly.
Behind the scenes, Kevin Dunn had convinced Vince McMahon that they had spent decades building up the WWF brand, and thus the idea of treating outsiders equal would undermine all they had created.
Even before the Tacoma disaster, Dunn was in McMahons ear about how the WCW guys coming in shouldnt be beating the WWF guys in the ring because it would send the message that WWF wasnt always the best, which may be why the idea of winning Monday night in the ring was not planned.
While WCW did get some wins, from the start, when WCW needed the early wins for credibility, not only didnt that happen but some of the early matches were outright squashes.
By November, the storyline was dropped. To this day, WWE and pro wrestling in general in this country has never reached that level of real mainstream interest and popularity, whether it came to ratings, attendance or consistent PPV numbers, as the boom period that ended at that time.
