The WCW Epic Fail Files

Ric Flair

- Ric Flair was buried (literally) in a storyline. WCW's answer to Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn leaving was to bring Ric Flair back from the "grave."

- WCW made it a policy to humiliate Ric Flair any time they were near his hometown. It is not known why other than they did not feel Flair could headline shows at his age and wanted to try and prove their point by saying that he didn't get good reactions in his hometown, or anywhere else for that matter.

- At Uncensored 2000, the main event was Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan in a strap match. The commentators explained that to win you had to touch all four corners. Hogan won by hitting the leg drop and pinning Flair. A baffled crowd continued to watch as Hogan won for a second time by touching all four corners.

WWE's version
- After WWE bought WCW, the brand was booked to look weak from the start of the invasion storyline. Rather than go after top talent with top talent, WCW's invasion began with the likes of Lance Storm and Hugh Morrus attacking the likes of Bradshaw and Goldust. In the initial weeks, Kurt Angle was the only top star that was attacked by someone from WCW. Was it Goldberg? Scott Steiner? No, it was Shane McMahon.

- The first WCW sanctioned match on RAW was described by Arn Anderson as being "bigger than the moon landing." It was Booker T defending the WCW Title against Buff Bagwell. Scott Hudson advertised the match as "history in the making" as Booker and Bagwell would compete for the "WWF Title." The crowd hated the match and a lot of people actually left. When heels Steve Austin and Kurt Angle ran out, the crowd cheered loudly. The night ended with the focus being on Vince McMahon backstage in his boxers. McMahon immediately canceled the plans for a section of RAW to be dedicated to WCW every week.

- DDP wanted to be part of the angle so badly that he approached Vince McMahon and agreed to allow McMahon to buy his contract out for 50% of its total worth. He was thanked by being put into a ridiculous storyline where he stalked the Undertaker's wife. He was made to look incredibly weak in their matches.

- The first WWF Champion vs WCW Champion match took place in September 2001... Steve Austin and The Rock. The most historically significant wrestling match unimaginable in North America was fought by two WWE guys.

- Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Scott Steiner, and Goldberg were all signed by WWE AFTER the Invasion storyline was over.

Work or shoot?
Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg vs. Scott Steiner was the semi-main event at the 2000 New Blood Rising PPV. At the start of the match, Goldberg did not come out. Later on, he emerged and the match continued. Nash went to hit the Jacknife on Goldberg, who dead weighted him and rolled out of the ring.

Goldberg walked up the ramp where he was met by Vince Russo, who started shouting at him. Goldberg shouted back "**** you!"

The announcers then began to insinuate that Goldberg was being unprofessional and would not allow Nash to powerbomb him for the scripted win.

Tony Schiavone then came out with the following quote:

"If, in fact, the jacknife powerbomb was part of the design, what are they going to do now? Improvise?"

That's right, he was telling everyone that the script called for Goldberg to allow Nash to powerbomb him and beat him. Eventually Nash hit Steiner with the jacknife and pinned him. The announce team then congratulated Steiner for being professional enough to allow Nash to powerbomb him.

The irony of all this was that it was a worked shoot in a storyline where they were openly telling absolutely everyone that the match was fake.

The week before the PPV, Nitro did a 2.5 rating. Fans were so interested in what happened at the PPV that the following Nitro did a... 2.4.

David Arquette

- Actor David Arquette pushed hard to try and get Vince Russo to change his mind on making him (Arquette) WCW champion. Arquette was a lifelong wrestling fan and knew fans would hate the idea but Russo wouldn't budge. Arquette ended up giving all of his WCW earnings to the families of Owen Hart, Brian Pillman and Darren Drozdov.

- Some people to this day still argue that Arquette winning the title brought the company much-needed publicity. However, the following week's Nitro rating was a 2.4, down from the previous week because many fans chose to boycott the show. RAW on the same night, without any celebrities on its show, did a 7.4 rating.

- Slamboree's PPV buyrate was so bad it was never publicized by the company. It was believed to be around 0.14. Ticket sales were fairly good for the show up until May 1st when it was announced that Arquette would defend the title in the main event. Ticket sales came to a screeching halt the same day.

Who booked this crap?

- Booker T and Big T (Ahmed Johnson) feuded over who owned the rights to the letter "T."

- The Warrior appeared in a backstage segment in which he was supposed to be visible in a mirror ONLY to Hollywood Hogan to indicate that Hogan was going crazy. The problem was he was also visible to the announcers and everyone at home. Eric Bischoff, who was by Hogan's side, was the only one that didn't see Warrior in the mirror.

- WCW booked Billy Kidman and Dean Malenko in a "catch-as-catch-can" match in which if anyone left the ring they lost the match. Dean Malenko instinctively rolled out of the ring after a sequence and the bell rang. Malenko was dumbfounded. Kidman went on to wrestle two other matches that night.

It should be noted that each incident mentioned above was booked by a DIFFERENT writing team.

Inside references

- At the beginning of the Millionaires Club vs. New Blood storyline, Eric Bischoff asked Sid to vacate the WCW title in the storyline. He then made a joke about not having a pair of scissors. This was in reference to a real-life fight close to ten years earlier in which Sid attacked Arn Anderson with a pair of scissors. The joke got no response because hardly any of the crowd knew about the incident. Bischoff repeated the joke assuming the fans didn't hear it. They did. They heard it twice and didn't respond either time because nobody understood it.

- Buff Bagwell came out and cut a promo on a Nitro in late 1999 saying that everybody knew he was the writers' "chosen one." This stemmed from comments that Vince Russo had made about Bagwell in public. The problem was that only 5% of the crowd (if that) knew of the comments and so nobody really knew what Bagwell was talking about. Russo believed everyone read wrestling dirtsheets daily. He was clearly wrong.

Tony Schiavone

- Before Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo teamed up on the creative team, WCW aired a taped edition of Nitro that was basically a "best of" show. Announcer Tony Schiavone came out with the quote that the show was "a reminder of how good Nitro USED to be." You read that right, Schiavone outright admitted to the few loyal WCW fans left that Nitro used to be much better than what they were being forced to watch now.

- In one of the funniest commentary cover-ups of all time, Stevie Ray and Lex Luger were having a discussion. Luger asked Stevie Ray if what he was about to say was between the two of them. Stevie Ray replied by saying "yes, and 5,000 viewers." Of course, even in these dying days the company had a lot more than 5,000 viewers. Tony Schiavone tried to cover by saying that Stevie meant "5,000 viewers in each house." Seriously.

- Tony Schiavone announced on Nitro that Mick Foley was going to win the WWF Title on RAW. He sarcastically added "That'll put butts in the seats." The ratings the next day showed that, immediately after he said this, 300,000 homes switched to RAW.

Injuries

- WCW's injury policy was that, if a wrestler was injured for a long period of time, the company was able to cut their earnings in half. The idea was to stop wrestlers from faking injury and collecting money. The irony is that Hulk Hogan was injured several times but had a guaranteed money contract. Meanwhile, many wrestlers came back too early leading to painkiller addictions amongst other problems because they could not afford to have their money slashed in half.

- Goldberg came within half an inch of losing his arm when he punched the window of a limo to break the glass. He was supposed to hit it with a concealed lead pipe but dropped it.

- WCW management ended up firing Davey Boy Smith while he was injured (due to taking a bump on the infamous trapdoor that Warrior used to "teleport" in and out of the ring). They felt Smith was faking his injury. The reality was that there were legitimate concerns he may never walk again.

So much for that

- WCW spent weeks hyping the debut of "The Machine." He wrestled DDP, lost, and was never seen again.

- Despite the amazing amount of mask sales, Eric Bischoff decided Rey Mysterio Jr. would be a bigger draw without his mask. He then proceeded to do nothing with him.

- Vince Russo hyped up a massive event that would change wrestling for Starrcade 1999. It ended up being a rehash of the Montreal Screwjob, this time with Bret taking the win. Nobody cared.

- In 1997, Eric Bischoff told everyone backstage he had it on very good authority that WWE's money troubles were beyond repair and that they were going to be out of business within six months.

Vince Russo

- Vince Russo's first show in charge featured Bret Hart randomly entering the ring during a Juventud Guerrera vs. Evan Karagias match. The match just stopped and Hart cut a promo. Neither were told Hart was running in and nobody backstage understood what the point was.

- Vince Russo's stint as head booker saw the PPV revenue cut in half within three months.

- Vince Russo once claimed his booking of WCW wasn't going to plan because Ted Turner prevented him from using angles calling women wrestlers fat.

- Vince Russo lost his job as head writer when he put forward the idea that Tank Abbott should be WCW champion.

- Vince Russo became WCW champion.

Classic.

Well done!