The Last Days Of The WWF
But back to Bubba Ray Dudley. He'd barely lifted the reclaimed belt above his head when he was laying down and losing it.
Vince McMahon didn't know who the f*ck had hired Raven back in 2000, but two years later he was out there pinning his former ECW colleague. "And new WWE Hardcore Champion, Raven!" announced Garcia. Then, he took a boot in the mush out of nowhere. "And new WWE Hardcore Champion, Justin Credible!" echoed out. In before Credible could even do that creepy half-leaning backwards pose he does, Crash Holly - sporting a WWE t-shirt - nailed a missile dropkick to claim back the belt he'd made famous. "And new WWE Hardcore Champion, Crash Holly!" got quite the pop from an audience pining for the whole product to be as good as it was in 2000.
In the meantime, Bubba Ray was back, and wasn't f*cking happy. He rattled Crash with a bin, but before he could cover, somebody else stepped in. "And new WWE Hardcore Champion, Trish Stratus!", came the call. Creating a cloud in the chaos, Jazz sprayed Dudley with a fire extinguisher, blinding him enough to inadvertently (sort of) powerbomb Stratus through a table. Getting us back to where we started, Richards picked the bones and pinned her.
"And new WWE Hardcore Champion, Steven Richards!" was the last of Garcia's crucial early announcements. Not that anybody really gave a toss about that stupid piece of tin they called a title, of course. But because the company had just said "WWE" six times over the P.A in about sixty seconds before Raw had even gone to its first commercial.
"Get The F Out" was the cheeky tagline, and most likely the thought process of the thousands of fans that were falling away by the week at the prospect of getting more and more of the messaging. But to be generous, it was a necessary evil. WWF was actually gone, and the company made it top priority to let you know.
These were the first days of World Wrestling Entertainment. But what brought about the final days of the World Wrestling Federation? And how?
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