It was as sure-fire an angle as the wrestling business has ever seen. For years, the WWF and WCW had waged war against each other, and fans all over the globe put their own "dream cards" together, wondering who had the better roster and who would win in a "supershow" format. In 2001, when Vince was able to purchase WCW, those dreams seemed like they would become reality, as he was able to purchase the contracts of many WCW wrestlers, putting them on the WWF roster. The possibilities were endless, and if done right, Vince could have began printing money. He could have made WCW a separate "brand", giving them their own show, and it would have worked, or he could have just blended the rosters together for a "mega show" every week, and that also would have worked. Without any hyperbole whatsoever, he really could have changed the business forever, and he did... but not in the positive way many had hoped. What fans got instead was Buff Bagwell blowing any chance for WCW to be its own brand from day one, mostly WCW midcarders being signed and brought in to use, WWF wrestlers being added to "Team WCW", and WCW, as a whole, being made to look incredibly stupid. Vince couldn't stand to have his baby look weak against WCW, and even when he had WCW take some advantages, it was because of those WWF "defectors". Vince had himself an embarrassment of riches, and he managed to turn it into a plain old embarrassment. He was acting as though the Monday Night War was still going on, instead of focusing on putting on the best possible product for the fans. For as long as pro wrestling remains around, chances are that this will go down as, quite possibly, the biggest ruined chance of all-time.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
