25 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Ruthless Aggression PPV
19. 2003 Felt Like Latter Day WCW
This could surprise some people.
It's weird that the WCW Invasion angle ended in November 2001 but the company embraced a latter day WCW style afterwards. Ric Flair joined immediately after that "Winner Takes All" Survivor Series result, then the nWo came in a few months later. That was all pre-Ruthless Aggression though, to be fair.
By mid-2002, Hulk Hogan was on top of cards as Vince barked about RA on TV. Scott Steiner signed in late-’02, and Goldberg arrived in April 2003. It was WCW overload. Adding to that, Kevin Nash working Triple H at Bad Blood felt very 2000 WCW-ish, and so did Goldberg’s World Title fun generally throughout the rest of the year.
Things would shift away from this by 2004, but ’03 definitely had Atlanta atmosphere. No, really. Go back and watch some of it - Bad Blood '03 was like a WCW pay-per-view from 1999-2001. Steiner was in the opener vs. Test, Booker T wrestled Christian for the IC belt, Goldberg worked Chris Jericho in a grudge match, Ric Flair was against Shawn Michaels, Eric Bischoff was involved in shenanigans with Steve Austin, and then 'Big Sexy' was in the main.
That's tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick for WCW involvement throughout the night. At one stage, it felt likely that cameras would swing to the back so Commissioner Ernest 'The Cat' Miller could work some comedy spots with the Natural Born Thrillers.
WWE didn't go that far, but they were pushing some of WCW's main stars to the moon in '03.