10 Things We Learned From Bruce Prichard's The Radicalz Podcast
4. The WWF Didn't Feel The Need To Push The Radicalz Onto TV Immediately
The Radicalz pretty much signed on the dotted line for the WWF a few days after meeting with Vince McMahon and other officials like Bruce Prichard and Jim Ross. Nonetheless, the quartet didn't make their on-screen debuts until the January 31, 2000 episode of Raw Is War. There was a reason for that, and it wasn't anything malicious.
Prichard says that it was all down to timing and where the WWF stood as a company at that point. Had WCW been on top of the ratings battle, there's a chance Benoit, Saturn, Guerrero and Malenko would have been pushed out onto TV quickly. There was no rush, simply because management wanted to find the right spot for The Radicalz.
In addition to that, the WWF had fairly concrete plans for episodes of Raw right before the group's debut. The 2000 Royal Rumble pay-per-view took place on January 23, and it seems Vince McMahon wanted to wait until after that event to bring in his new talent.
Had The Radicalz been part of the Rumble, for example, they might not have felt as special going forward.