Enter Vince Russo: WCW Fights For Every Breath

[MWRedskins]

As far as Russo's nonsense in WCW goes I think one of the biggest ones was turning Goldberg Heel at The Great American Bash 2000 (horrible Show by the way). Why in god's name he thought turning their biggest star into a hated Heel was a good idea I will never understand.

The New Blood had potential but it was a mess from the get go.

agree about Goldberg, turning him heel was a bad move....i think that was on Russo, but i also wont be shocked if Bischoff did that too...i wish i knew who came up with that one. As for the New Blood angle, i felt that it was too big a group...i think Russo should've had his heels and Bischoff should've had his guys and it should've been just 5 guys and let those guys feud....while the other guys did their thing. Kidman shouldnt have been in the New Blood, he should've been a midcarder doing his own thing and getting fans on his side chasing the US title.

Another reason WCW died was because AOL bought Time Warner, and didn't want wrestling content (the "Attitude Era" in WWE had put wrestling in a negative light in the mainstream).

to me that is THE reason WCW died, AOL/Time Warner. they didnt want the show and they sold it to WWE instead of a guy who would've attempted to do something with it.

I feel Vince Russo would be quite good writing for reality TV.
For wrestling though, he was awful. I agree with his point that the match is not as important as the segment of television.
If WCW was still generating revenue when AOL bought Time Warner they would have kept it on or at least sold it for a high price. Losing millions and millions of dollars will make people want to get rid of your product in a hurry.

i agree with Russo...i dont think he's a bad writer, just bad at booking wrestling matches. as a story teller, he's not bad there because he's got insane ideas that can work, but booking matches he's bad at because there's too much things going on during the match. As for AOL/Time Warner, they could've sold it to Bischoff or another promoter, but they wanted it off of them as fast as they could because they didnt like or get wrestling. plus it wasnt getting them money, BUT according to some wrestlers, WCW Nitro was their number one rated show.

Maybe a heel Goldberg would have been interesting. It would have set up new opponents, and put a new, fresh twist on the character.

the problem with Goldberg's heel turn was 1) he was their top face...2) it then left their top faces being Nash and Hogan (yeah i figured you wont like that). i would say Steiner, but he turned heel a month later!!! Goldberg turning heel to me confuses me because i could see Eric being behind this (see Hogan and Bash at the Beach).

 

[d_henderson1810]

agree about Goldberg, turning him heel was a bad move....i think that was on Russo, but i also wont be shocked if Bischoff did that too...i wish i knew who came up with that one. As for the New Blood angle, i felt that it was too big a group...i think Russo should've had his heels and Bischoff should've had his guys and it should've been just 5 guys and let those guys feud....while the other guys did their thing. Kidman shouldnt have been in the New Blood, he should've been a midcarder doing his own thing and getting fans on his side chasing the US title.


to me that is THE reason WCW died, AOL/Time Warner. they didnt want the show and they sold it to WWE instead of a guy who would've attempted to do something with it.


i agree with Russo...i dont think he's a bad writer, just bad at booking wrestling matches. as a story teller, he's not bad there because he's got insane ideas that can work, but booking matches he's bad at because there's too much things going on during the match. As for AOL/Time Warner, they could've sold it to Bischoff or another promoter, but they wanted it off of them as fast as they could because they didnt like or get wrestling. plus it wasnt getting them money, BUT according to some wrestlers, WCW Nitro was their number one rated show.


the problem with Goldberg's heel turn was 1) he was their top face...2) it then left their top faces being Nash and Hogan (yeah i figured you wont like that). i would say Steiner, but he turned heel a month later!!! Goldberg turning heel to me confuses me because i could see Eric being behind this (see Hogan and Bash at the Beach).

I think Sting was still around then, and a top face. I would have liked to have seen a face Sting v heel Goldberg feud. That could get some buys.

I remember them having Goldberg v Sting one time on PPV, but that happened with no build, and came about because Ric Flair thought of the match while in the mental institution, according to the storyline.

 

[MWRedskins]

I think Sting was still around then, and a top face. I would have liked to have seen a face Sting v heel Goldberg feud. That could get some buys.

I remember them having Goldberg v Sting one time on PPV, but that happened with no build, and came about because Ric Flair thought of the match while in the mental institution, according to the storyline.

Goldberg vs. Sting happened at Halloween Havoc and while it was ok, Sting is only one guy. i think Goldberg was a much better face and the heels should've been guys the fans can actually hate. the fans loved Goldberg too much for them to turn him at the time....again, i dont know if turning Goldberg was completely on Russo (because this smells like a Bischoff idea too, see Hogan and Bash at the Beach 96), but to me, they should've left him face and had him feud with other heels...but i understood why they did it, just dont agree with it.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I remember giving up on WCW around the Russo era. I tuned in and there were 150 stories going on at once, even overlapping each other. Russo had Elizabeth in a dog collar and was leading her around like his slave on a chain. Hogan was doing some strange Stone Cold Clone who drove a muscle car and acted tough...not sure how long he was doing that or it was just one episode. Every match had 12 interruptions due to the crazy amount of over story telling going on. This is around the time when Russo really threw his name in the garbage with an unwatchable program.

 

[LBGetBack]

If you're interested in Nitro, I would start with the shows that took place a couple of weeks before Bash at the Beach 96. Watch those to the end of the year and pretty much anything in 97 was good. Honestly, a lot of 98 was also good, but they definitely started to slip in 98.

As for Raw, I'd start with the Raw after Badd Blood 97 when Kane first came in. From that point all the way through 01, Raw was must see TV. That's my opinion anyway.

Agreed on WCW. For WWF, I'd start in spring '97 right after Wrestlemania. Bret Hart's heel turn, forming the Hart Foundation stable were phenomenal. Shawn Michaels character also underwent a major transformation in late summer and formed DX. I think those angles are worth watching.

 

[V/CV/]

That was not Bischoff's first bad idea that would not have worked and did not have any bearing whatsoever on WCW finishing.Time Warner pulled the plug and that is all there is to it.
As much as I don't care for kiss or stupid demon and gimmicks or harsh Evil subject storylines that were coming into WCW I much rather watch everything else then what's going on in the WWE today.
WCW was still interesting in that time and Bischoff would have learned from his mistakes as he always did and always carried out good responses to them.
Case & point the NWO to not continuing having Hogan face.
Genius.
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Everybody wants WCW back, people just don't like to admit it because they don't want to defend something that failed(in opinion).