I don't think they had planned it like that going in. I think it caught fire and they tried to transition it into a storyline. Even the promo where they started moving in that direction felt more "worked shoot" than the others. Russo more or less copped to setting it up to fail.I maybe wrong but I thought these were just to lay the groundwork for his NWA stable with the Rock n Roll Express and Jeff Jarrett and maybe Southern Justice (Godwins)?. He would talk about how the new world of pro wrestling sucked, and that he was going to usher in a new age. Maynot be right but it was I thought of immediatly and it was in 1998.
These promos were excellent. Cornette didn't even particularly want to do them, but they wanted some trash talk and they got over with people. Vince Russo used them to segue into the "new NWA" idea, which Cornette hated and was an attempt to bury "old school" wrestling.