Each wrestling company has an era where there programming goes to absolute shit. It's part of the reason promoters have become complacent giving the excuse that the wrestling business is "cyclical", when in reality, it's the absolutely shit booking that is causing the lulls in not only creativity, but also in attendance, ratings, and overall revenue. Say what you will, but every company has an "absolute worst" era, in which they suffer an extraordinary amount of bad television that, typically, defines the "era" of that company. Naturally, many of these eras typically spell out the "end" of the company, and such is the case with what we're looking to in this thread. After writing, and calming down, about how royally Vince Russo fucked over WCW, I started to think of all the ills of his booking. I've said my angry rant, and quite frankly, I have no more angry speeches. Now, simply, I want to hear yours. What was the "Worst of the Worst", coming from Vince Russo's regime in WCW.
Now, the actual regime is marked in two periods; one in which he and Ed Ferrara fucked up WCW, and another in which he and Eric Bischoff fucked up WCW. Quite frankly, there's no way to decide which of these periods were worst, because both eras are pretty fucking horrendous. So with that in mind, Ive combined the absolute worst of the two Russo eras, and put it into one blur of a clusterfuck. Ive put in five of the gimmicks/events of the Russo era, and then Ill add the Other category. But which of these do you think is the worst of the Russo Regime?
David Arquette- In my opinion this last piece of gimmick garbage is a given at No. 1. David Arquette, being all of 160 pounds dripping wet, the WCW Champion? The perfect example of why this company went under. I understand the logic of puting him on the program. The movie Ready to Rumble featured many of WCW's top talent, and it was a great cross promotional opportunity. But why give him the title? In a tag match between Arquette/DDP and Jeff Jarrett/Bischoff the stipulation was whoever got the pin, got the title. Arquette got the pin on Bischoff and won the title that greats like Flair and Sting had worked so hard to keep pristine. Less than a month later he was in the pay-per-view's main event where he turned heel on DDP, giving Double douche the title. The Arquette title reign was viewed as one of the biggest slaps in the face to the industry. Whoever came up with the idea should be fired, oh wait, that's what happened less than a year later. So taking the top spot, the king of Courtney Cox's castle, Dewey from Scream, AKA David Arquette
That 70s Guy, Mike Awesome- Fat chicks need loving too and no one knows that better than Mike Awesome. In mid 2000 Awesome was given a tweak to his persona as he would go to the ring and pick out heavy set women that caught his eye. The Fat Chick Thrilla had been born....
And as quickly as he was born, he was done. He feuded with Big Poppa Pump and Lance Storm for a while until getting yet another makeover. Thus "That 70's Guy" Mike Awesome was born. He would walk to the ring in his Travolta-like attire and even had a date rape 70's van that he would drive into the arenas at one point. Hell, he even had a talk show, the Lava Lamp Lounge, which lasted just as long as the Chevy Chase show. Eventually he would get yet another gimmick for a few more months until Vinny Mac finally put WCW out of its misery. A duoply of dump, the Fat Chick Thrilla/That 70's Guy.
Se7en- What's gayer than Goldust you ask? Well, it is the very short lived gimmick that WCW gave Dustin Rhodes called s7even. Now what exactly was the gimmick? To this day I still don't really know whether he was supposed to be a boogeyman or a fat Pinhead look a like.
Evidently, the suits at Turner thought he was either a child abductor or a pedophile.
WCW aired several vignettes prior to his supposed arrival where he stood outside a little kid's bedroom window. Creepy! Goldust wants to have sex with your kid. WCW scrapped his character very quickly and Rhodes returned to do a shoot on crappy gimmicks. (By this time I think he had his doctorate) Rhodes would go on to feud with several mid-carders before eventually moving back to WWE and developing a stuttering problem after being electrocuted.
Oklahoma- The beginning of the end in WCW came when they hired Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara to come aboard and handle writing duties. Typically, what we got were insane, inept rip offs of their WWE counterparts. But where they really hit below the belt was with their character Oklahoma. Ed Ferrara, who had done a Jim Ross impersonation on WWF television, imitated gold ol' J.R. right down to his bells palsy. This was not as bad a gimmick as it was a distasteful and demeaning gimmick. In the end both Russo and Ferrara were shown the door as ratings dropped. Ferrara has patched things up with Jim Ross since, but still it doesn't give Ferrara the right to do what he did.
The New Blood- This, in truth, was the beginning of the end, though it was trumpeted as the restart of WCW. By restart, I say that it really is the quickening of the pace that WCW would book itself into total oblivion. And lo and behold, thats exactly what Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff did to the company. They started doing so by having the main event wrestlers job out to such pathetic names as Billy Kidman, Buff Bagwell, and Vampiro. Ok, perhaps pathetic isnt the word to describe it; I guess the best word is inexperienced, as the New Blood just didnt have the experience at the top. Rather than building them up, Russo decided to hot shot his guys to the top, in exchange for the credibility that was left on the legitimate stars of the company.
Alas, what, for you, is the Worst of Russos regime?
Now, the actual regime is marked in two periods; one in which he and Ed Ferrara fucked up WCW, and another in which he and Eric Bischoff fucked up WCW. Quite frankly, there's no way to decide which of these periods were worst, because both eras are pretty fucking horrendous. So with that in mind, Ive combined the absolute worst of the two Russo eras, and put it into one blur of a clusterfuck. Ive put in five of the gimmicks/events of the Russo era, and then Ill add the Other category. But which of these do you think is the worst of the Russo Regime?
David Arquette- In my opinion this last piece of gimmick garbage is a given at No. 1. David Arquette, being all of 160 pounds dripping wet, the WCW Champion? The perfect example of why this company went under. I understand the logic of puting him on the program. The movie Ready to Rumble featured many of WCW's top talent, and it was a great cross promotional opportunity. But why give him the title? In a tag match between Arquette/DDP and Jeff Jarrett/Bischoff the stipulation was whoever got the pin, got the title. Arquette got the pin on Bischoff and won the title that greats like Flair and Sting had worked so hard to keep pristine. Less than a month later he was in the pay-per-view's main event where he turned heel on DDP, giving Double douche the title. The Arquette title reign was viewed as one of the biggest slaps in the face to the industry. Whoever came up with the idea should be fired, oh wait, that's what happened less than a year later. So taking the top spot, the king of Courtney Cox's castle, Dewey from Scream, AKA David Arquette
That 70s Guy, Mike Awesome- Fat chicks need loving too and no one knows that better than Mike Awesome. In mid 2000 Awesome was given a tweak to his persona as he would go to the ring and pick out heavy set women that caught his eye. The Fat Chick Thrilla had been born....
And as quickly as he was born, he was done. He feuded with Big Poppa Pump and Lance Storm for a while until getting yet another makeover. Thus "That 70's Guy" Mike Awesome was born. He would walk to the ring in his Travolta-like attire and even had a date rape 70's van that he would drive into the arenas at one point. Hell, he even had a talk show, the Lava Lamp Lounge, which lasted just as long as the Chevy Chase show. Eventually he would get yet another gimmick for a few more months until Vinny Mac finally put WCW out of its misery. A duoply of dump, the Fat Chick Thrilla/That 70's Guy.
Se7en- What's gayer than Goldust you ask? Well, it is the very short lived gimmick that WCW gave Dustin Rhodes called s7even. Now what exactly was the gimmick? To this day I still don't really know whether he was supposed to be a boogeyman or a fat Pinhead look a like.
Evidently, the suits at Turner thought he was either a child abductor or a pedophile.
WCW aired several vignettes prior to his supposed arrival where he stood outside a little kid's bedroom window. Creepy! Goldust wants to have sex with your kid. WCW scrapped his character very quickly and Rhodes returned to do a shoot on crappy gimmicks. (By this time I think he had his doctorate) Rhodes would go on to feud with several mid-carders before eventually moving back to WWE and developing a stuttering problem after being electrocuted.
Oklahoma- The beginning of the end in WCW came when they hired Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara to come aboard and handle writing duties. Typically, what we got were insane, inept rip offs of their WWE counterparts. But where they really hit below the belt was with their character Oklahoma. Ed Ferrara, who had done a Jim Ross impersonation on WWF television, imitated gold ol' J.R. right down to his bells palsy. This was not as bad a gimmick as it was a distasteful and demeaning gimmick. In the end both Russo and Ferrara were shown the door as ratings dropped. Ferrara has patched things up with Jim Ross since, but still it doesn't give Ferrara the right to do what he did.
The New Blood- This, in truth, was the beginning of the end, though it was trumpeted as the restart of WCW. By restart, I say that it really is the quickening of the pace that WCW would book itself into total oblivion. And lo and behold, thats exactly what Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff did to the company. They started doing so by having the main event wrestlers job out to such pathetic names as Billy Kidman, Buff Bagwell, and Vampiro. Ok, perhaps pathetic isnt the word to describe it; I guess the best word is inexperienced, as the New Blood just didnt have the experience at the top. Rather than building them up, Russo decided to hot shot his guys to the top, in exchange for the credibility that was left on the legitimate stars of the company.
Alas, what, for you, is the Worst of Russos regime?
