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The argument that "fans didn't like wcw" as reason for it's burial during invasion

2K views 14 replies 14 participants last post by  NotGuilty 
#1 ·
holds no water for me.

Did you see the initial pops for Booker T and DDP when they both first appeared on WWF television.
 
#2 ·
We did a show on the Invasion storyline some time back, and people got into stars and star power, popped huge for surprise appearance, and did dig it. The issue was that the WCW audience left almost immediately after WCW died, and the WWF audience didn't want to see WCW Vs. WCW on a WWF show. Booker/Bagwell was an obvious disaster, and Booker Vs. DDP on Smackdown later that week saw 2,000 fans leave the building when they went on last.

The problem of course being that WCW was planned to be it's own brand/company at first, and when Vince saw the brand on its own was toxic and was only good for an angle (which isn't what he originally had in mind), things changed, and you can see he felt he needed to get more WWF on the WCW side to strengthen it, since he clearly didn't get the concept of an invading outsider force, and really never has.
 
#10 ·
To be fair with the Booker T vs Bagwell main event was one of the worst things they could do to kick off the angle. It didn't help that they ended the match with both guy's just getting a massive beat down either lol. Of all of the superstars in WCW, that was the best the WWE could muster? Vince should've opened up his pockets here and got Goldberg, Steiner, Sting, and others out the gate.

It's almost impossible to find an equivalent but I'll try to come up with a wacky example. Let's say TNA somehow inheritted $5 billion dollars, and from there, they bought the WWE. On their first TNA/WWE broadcast the main event is Fandango vs Cesaro. That's the kind of nonsense that the WWE provided us with.

If the angle was even done in a mediocre fashion the fans would've loved it, but we saw Shane O'mac ended up being "the owner" lol, team WCW abruptly turned heel one day on the show for literally no reason, team WCW being headlined by Stone Cold, and then guy's like Angle working with WCW as well lol. Not to mention the few WCW main eventers they had routinely got buried. DDP in particular was proven to be marketable and could make money, but instead they just had Undertaker squash him over and over.
 
#3 ·
Honestly didn't know this was a popular argument as fans watched either both or had watched WCW at it's prime and had their whistle whetted by the potential.

Never really heard anyone say not liking WCW was the reason they didn't dig the invasion, I mean after all they didn't book it.
 
#4 ·
For a storyline that big in magnitude and importance, WWE sure was careless and impatient with it. I think The InVasion could lasted until WM 20. Do it in stages, with more former WCW guys being introduced as they get signed throughout the years.
 
#6 ·
As usual, when an idea fails, WWE will claim fans didn't like the persons involved, because obviously, their writing can do no wrong.
 
#7 ·
Vince was even asking fans in Cleveland on their opinion and what he heard were tremendous pops for Bagwell, Booker, Steiner, Sting and Hogan while (WWF!) fans were chanting Goldberg even before Vince mentioned him. Goldberg's pop blew anything on their own show away that night.

Or how about the day after KotR, Madison Square Garden, WWF's home game and what did fans chant?! "GOLDBERG" and "WE WANT HOGAN".

But what did Vince do after all these signs that the fans were desperate for Hogan and Goldberg?! He gave them Bagwell vs Booker, both working in a WWF ring for the very first time, and only because it didn't work one time, he scrapped any plans, if there ever were such plans, and blamed it on anybody except himself.

What's even more stupid is that one week after the Tacoma disaster, Raw was in Atlanta, WCW's home field, the perfect place for the first "Nitro" Segment on Raw. Mindboggling
 
#11 ·
haha it's so funny that you mention this because I was there live. My buddies and I in particular marked the fuck out once he said Big Poppa Pump. And this guy gets it, Bagwell in no shape or form was a main eventer in WCW, while he was an upper midcard guy, nobody was really on the look out for him and he never came close at all to winning the gold. Booker T was cool no doubt, but when WCW had Sting, Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Hogan, Nash.... it's amazing how they could think this match would actually generate any fan interest.
 
#8 ·
WWF fans were taught WCW sucked, and them being portrayed as the underdogs initially is what killed anything before it started.

Plus the fact that they didn't get anyone with name value other than DDP, who should've been a face, and should've been spared from the Invasion because he couldn't bump like a heel.

Also could've held the Raw Nitros anywhere, still wouldn't negate the fact that the WCW fans were not going to jump aboard because they didn't like WWF programming, so they left and moved on.
 
#9 ·
Well since I started watching again WWE in January 2002, I missed this. But my opinion is.

If they couldn't bring Goldberg, Sting, and Ric Flair as part of that storylines, they shouldn't have done it.
You know, for respect to the fans of the defeated company. :hbk2
 
#12 ·
It was the way they booked the invasion and we can be brutally honest that there were many flaws, WCW being completely buried was because Vince didn't want his company to lose on their home turf.
 
#13 ·
I think the fact it was an invasion storyline was the heart of the problem. Of course WWE fans were going to turn on WCW guys in an us-vs-them setting. It would have worked out better for everyone if they'd just slowly introduced WCW guys into the WWE roster (avoiding WCW vs WCW matches if people really didn't want to see them), and having some dream WCW vs WWE matches between the top guys rather than massively convoluted matches like the inaugural brawl. Plus WCW losing the Survivor Series match and then the entire roster continuing in WWE made no sense anyway.
 
#14 ·
I doubt even WCW fans would've cared much about Booker vs Bagwell. I don't think Bagwell ever even main-evented Nitro.

Ultimately Vince was just too cheap to make the Invasion work. The "WCW" roster consisted of mainly WCW mid-carders, and the ones that were popular got jobbed out/turned into rapists like DDP.
 
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