10 Screw Ups That Led To Huge WWE Moments
8. Buff Bagwell Changes Everything
The Screw Up: Watch Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell back on the WWE Network now and you'll realise that neither man's performance was actually that bad. It wasn't top-tier stuff, no, but it was hardly the car crash revisionist history has painted it as.
Still, owing to the tepid crowd reaction, Vince McMahon thought otherwise, and his word is law. The 2 July 2001 match ended up being Bagwell's last in the promotion.
The Moment: The knock-on effect of this first ever WCW main event on WWF programming was that McMahon cooled his interest in running his old competition as a standalone entity. How could they be trusted to survive if that was how audiences received them? That was Vince's thinking back in '01.
Suddenly, all plans to go with WCW as a separate brand were scrapped. Instead, McMahon motored along with a desperately lacklustre 'Invasion' and totally killed off the WCW idea come Survivor Series. It shouldn't be forgotten that the inter-promotional battle came down to two WWF stars (Steve Austin and The Rock) either.