Saturday, October 17, 2009

WCW One Night Stand: Could It Work?

Speculation from the Camel Clutch Blog

It's an interesting piece, and it's fun to play fantasy booker. Despite the fact that I don't think McMahon's ego would allow him to recognize WCW as anything other than the company he beat, I think it might behoove him to do an event such as this instead of *insert gimmmick match name here* PPV.

I also think EG makes a good point in why Vince Russo didn't succeed in WCW. We all like to compare the WWF and WCW as if they were catering to the exact same audience. While wrestling fans are wrestling fans, there's some truth to this statement:
WCW fans and WWE fans were a totally different breed for many years. WCW fans were more southern and preferred a slower wrestling. In my opinion, this is also one of many reasons that Vince Russo didn’t work in WCW. Russo didn’t understand the WCW culture. How did Kevin Nash go from being a bomb as WWE champion to being a WCW money machine? One of the answers I feel is that WCW fans loved his slow and methodical style which didn’t fly in the WWE
While I would have used the term "traditional", "slowly-built" or even "conservative" instead of the slow-and-methodical he used, I think there was a definite difference between the mindsets towards wrestling that WCW and WWF fans had. It definitely explains why the WWF had so much success with gaudy gimmicks and flamboyant characters in their Rock 'n Wrestling days, while WCW's forebearers, JCP/NWA, was able to push "plain" wrestlers better.

About the only thing I disagree with is the terming of ECW as a mediocre brand - I feel it's the best weekly show in the company right now - but it is an intrguing idea. There are hurdles, big hurdles, to having the names appear. Despite Hogan having his own promotion, you know if the price was right he'd work with Vince again and do a Hogan/Big Show match. Flair would wrestle again, although I'm not so sure it'd be against Sting, but rather against WCW alum Chris Jericho, which would fit right into their storyline leading into WrestleMania 25. Booker T and Scott Steiner are both almost out of their TNA deals and neither one is all that optimistic about resigning.

But after those guys and the WCW alums in the WWE right now, who else would come back? Goldberg and Sting have both been pretty vocal about not wanting to work for Vince McMahon (in Goldberg's case, it's again, with Sting, it's ever). Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Road Warrior Hawk, Brian Pillman and Rick Rude are all dead. Sid, DDP and Road Warrior Animal are decrepit. Lex Luger is a recovering cripple. Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race and Randy Savage very old. Arn Anderson has some health problems. Magnum TA never recovered from the car crash. Steve Austin's and Bret Hart's health problems are well-documented. It would be hard getting a good cross-section of WCW guys with unique enough backgrounds to make a WCW One Night Stand have identity enough that it didn't become just another WWE PPV among 16 on the calendar.

Still, it might be worth a try. With Jericho, Show, Flair, Hogan, Booker, Steiner, Ultimo Dragon, La Parka, Juventud Guerrera, Vader, Ron Simmons (DAMN!), Raven, Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, Dean Malenko, Kanyon, Finlay, William Regal and a host of others putting together a fun card, it might not be as lacking with some of the other seminal names not being there.

It might be a pipe dream, but it's a fun pipe dream to think about. Although reputedly the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD is reputed to have a lot of revisionist history in it, the same people are saying it's not a total slam-job. If Vince McMahon can realize that the past is the past and that there are paying customers out there who want to help him cash in on the WCW name, then maybe we might have a special card in the works in an age where Vince McMahon doesn't really promote a lot of special cards anymore.