18. Booker T VS Buff Bagwell Introduces Raw To WCW
Date: July 2nd, 2001 When Vince McMahon purchased WCW, the wrestling world was curious as to what would happen with his new "toy". Would he keep WCW running like normal, as a separate brand entirely? Would he bring in selected WCW workers to compete for the WWF and just fold WCW? Would we get some "dream matches" in a one-off "invasion" storyline of some sort? Nobody really knew the answer. Three months after the purchase, we began to get an answer. On an episode of Raw, WCW was given the final half-hour of the show, with their own wrestlers having a match, coming to the ring with their own graphics, and having the match called by their own announcers. Wrestling fans were getting to watch a full-fledged WCW match on WWF programming, which is more than anyone ever expected to witness. Booker T took on Buff Bagwell, and with two of the more recognizable WCW workers, what could possibly go wrong? Well, the match was, to put it nicely, a train wreck. Both men had apparently taken the last three months off, with ring rust taking control, and with Bagwell becoming gassed almost right away. The crowd took a swift dump all over the match, giving loud "this match sucks" and "boring" chants throughout. It was a historic moment that could have changed the course of wrestling history. McMahon reportedly hated the entire match, for good reason, and who knows if that altered the storylines he had in mind for WCW, or if it changed his mind about having WCW around at all.