Did WWE Purposefully Bury Former WCW Stars?

The initial plan when Vince bought WCW was to relaunch Nitro as its own brand, with Shane McMahon as its on-screen owner. Following the disastrous Booker T versus Buff Bagwell main event from the July 2nd Raw, however, those plans were scrapped. While the action wasn't great to begin with, WWF fans - who had been trained to resent WCW over the course of the previous five years or so - turned on it completely, with many noticeably walking out while the match was in progress.

Plan B was the 'Invasion' angle, wherein WCW talent would 'invade' WWF programming, resulting in inter-promotional dream matches. It was something wrestling fans had long wanted to see and, if handled correctly, it could have been a huge money-spinner for the company. That was a big 'if', of course, and many wondered whether Vince would be able to resist burying the WCW guys. For the Invasion to work effectively, they needed to be built up, not knocked down, and it remained to be seen wether Vinny Mac could let bygones be bygones and put business ahead of his personal feelings.

There was a reason for this worry, as Vince had a history. During the so-called Monday Night War, Vince had gotten his claws out and took shots at WCW talent on-air. One need only look at 'Billionaire Ted's Wrasslin' War Room' and the 'Huckster' and 'Nacho Man' parody skits that lampooned top WCW stars and former WWF guys Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage as evidence of that.

Vince and his writing team had no qualms about making fun of both stars' advancing age, Savage's bald spot, his divorce from Liz and so on. So biting and cruel were they that industry figures (including Randy's brother Lanny Poffo) have cited this as one of the main reasons why Savage never reconciled with Vince in the years before his death in May 2011. They were total burial jobs, designed to do nothing more than hurt the competition.

Then there were WCW guys who came over to work for WWE, like the vastly underrated Barry Windham (who was given a series of ridiculous gimmicks and shunted down the card), The Public Enemy (who were jobbed out and beaten up for real by The Acolytes during a match on Sunday Night Heat before being unceremoniously released) and the legendary Dusty Rhodes (who was put in a polka dot singlet and made an opening match guy). Each guy had been in some way mistreated and those closes to the situations felt it was because of their connection to the NWA/WCW.

Of course there had been other former WCW talents that had made the jump and were treated very well. The likes of Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were all signed to big-money deals in 99/2000 and each were given the opportunity to become bigger stars in Vince's company. They weren't burried and were actually, on the whole, treated a lot better than they had been in WCW.

Ditto The Big Show - it was his lack of dedication that cost him, not a lack of effort on the WWF machine's part. And what about Rey Mysterio? His bank account would say he wasn't buried and actually had a long and fruitful run in the land of the giants.

So how would those gearing up for the Invasion fare in McMahonland? Would they be put in polka dots or would they be champions?

Click 'Next' for part 3...