The Crystal Ball 9.20.06 The New Monday Night Wars Vol. 1 Ch. 1
Posted by Steve Sullivan on 09.20.2006
Let's relive the glory days and rebuild the WCW roster and put it head to head against today's WWE product! This is just the beginning...
Welcome one and welcome all back to the 411 Crystal Ball. Now that I've peaked your interest and caught you off guard, let me explain what's going to happen here. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to take a break from OVW for awhile. Basically, it's become really tough for me to write and scout OVW when I can't even see the show anymore. I'm just as much in the dark as you are anymore. I will however keep you updated with everything that's going on in OVW with some brief comments, but right now, I'm out of ideas. I think this will be a lot of fun anyway. So welcome to the NEW Monday Night Wars!
It's been a few years now since WCW closed it's doors for good and many of the stranded talent found their new home in the WWE and TNA. Many feel that wrestling has never been the same since the WWE basically placed a monopoly on sports entertainment and they are probably right. Since the WCW closed, WWE's ratings and storylines have both gone bland and stale. The wrestlers that WWE creative pushes, are rejected (John Cena) and the guys that the WWE tries to hide, the WWE fans call for (Shelton Benjamin).
What if World Championship Wrestling had never flunked? What if the Monday Night Wars were still going on? Would the WWE still have the massive roster they do now? Would TNA still exist? Who would be on WCW's roster? Over the next few weeks, let's take a trip and look at the What If's. Let's re-live the Monday Night Wars, the glory days of professional wrestling and long for the fresh storylines and stiff competition that made wrestling so popular in the 1990's.
As any smart wrestling fan knows, WCW owned the WWE in the mid 1990's. The nWo storyline was the hottest group and storyline to ever hit professional wrestling. People who had never watched wrestling became wrestling fans and the WWE was facing the fate that the WCW would eventually meet.
In this column, the WWE will be given the same characteristic as the WWE had in the mid 90's, using up and coming, unestablished stars and using storylines and gimmicks to push the characters on the crowd. The WCW, signed well known veterans and used gimmicks and factions to get their talent over.
Several wrestlers came over from WCW after Vince bought the company out. Had the WCW not folded, it's hard to believe these talents would have ever jumped over to the WWE. So first, let's take a look at a few of the guys who were with WCW when it folded that are on the WWE roster now.
Booker T
Booker was a career long WCW man and had won several WCW title's during his stay in WCW. He and Steve Ray with Harlem Heat won the WCW Tag Team Titles several times and he won the United States Championship on several occassion. But of course, more importantly, he was a former WCW World Champion, having held the title 4 times under WCW booking.
I really don't think Booker would have made the jump to the WWE...ever. It seemed for years after the WWE put a complete end to the WCW brand that Booker T was going to be nothing more than a tag team specialist during his entire WWE career. A few years after the fold, Booker won the United States championship again a few times, fighting with former WCW rival Chris Benoit on several occassions until he finally won the King of The Ring tournament to capture the World Heavyweight Title, making him a 6 Time World Champion. It took the WWE 5 years to put the strap back across his waist and in contract negotions, had the WWE told him that to get him to step away from WCW, Booker would have told them where to dig.
Team- WCW
Ric Flair
It's hard to say what Flair would have done because the man should've been done wrestling long before the Monday Night Wars ever began! Flair has done it all in the WWE and WCW, long before the war ever started and ever ended. Since coming back to the WWE, he's been involved in several roles, including a stint as GM, a member of Evolution and getting Randy Orton and Batista over, his first Intercontinental Title reign and has been in ladder matches as he pushes 60 years old.
You gotta think, if WCW was still around, Flair would have never put himself in a place to win mid card glory and put his fragile body at risk in crazy ladder matches. Flair would be chasing his 20th World Title Reign at this point and would have never even considered coming back to the WWE.
Team- WCW
Shane "Gregory" Helms
Helms was the last Cruiserweight champion of the WCW. Now let me ask you something, if you were told that if you come to the WWE and you gotta pretend to be a green superhero, would you come? I don't think so. Maybe at some point Helms would have got upset and left for a career in the WWE, but given that he had to do the Hurricane gimmick for years, Helms would not even think about jumping over to a goofy, no success gimmick.
Team- WCW
Rey Mysterio
Mysterio is a company man. Until WCW folded, Mysterio was going nowhere. He jumped when he had to. To this day, Mysterio has only been a Smackdown star during his entire WWE career. I don't think Mysterio would have ever left WCW if he didn't have to. He would have stayed there and made the Cruiserweight division for WCW phenomanal. And then, when he hit the age he was at now, he would be used to either help get new Crusier talent over or maybe a short run at the United States title. I do remember Mysterio getting World Title shots against The Big Show, but I don't think he ever would have won one in WCW. So maybe Rey should be thankful of that. But in the end, Mysterio probably would have had a very exciting career in WCW, and he would have stayed there despite not seeing as much success as he could have had he come to the WWE.
Team- WCW
Chavo Guerrero
When Eddie Guerrero jumped ships with the Radicallz before the sellout, Chavo's career was going straight down the tubes. He really became uninteresting without his uncle Eddie in the mix. Even though he had been relgated to riding a stick pony and getting treated like a step child by Eddie. I think Chavo eventually tries to get back on the road with his family and works with some of the smaller guys to dominate the Cruiserweight division. Then everyone would be fantasy booking Chavo vs. Rey in a steel cage. If only dreams came true...Oh wait...
Team- WWE
And if you can believe it, that's the only five left that was wrestling in WCW that are on the WWE roster right now, which just goes to show that WCW really was a sinking ship full of guys who were ready to hit retirement. So to keep with consistency, let's take a look at guys who at least one point had an extended career in WCW that are currently on a WWE roster.
Chris Benoit
Benoit made the best move of his career when he made his way over to the WWE with Saturn, Malenko, and Guerrero. In fact, that may have been the defining moment of the WCW's downfall. Benoit was completely underused in WCW. He was openly upset about it and has saw a huge improvement in success since coming to the WWE. Since then, he has held the World Heavyweight Title and the United States title several times. He's headlined Wrestlemania and become well respected among wrestlers and fans across the world. Staying in WCW would have ruined his career and there is no way in HELL that Benoit would come back.
Team- WWE
Finlay
I will admit that I was very shocked to see Finley come to the WWE but since he has, he's been nothing but impressive for a man his age. With that said, he's an old veteran, the perfect formula for a WCW superstar! I know that Finlay is up there in his age but had the WCW gone on for longer, we probably would have saw him still wrestling there, helping get what few fresh and young guys WCW brought up from the Power Plant over and experienced in the ring. Finlay could really go anyway because no matter where he goes, he's pretty much going to be stuck in mid card hell due to his age. In WCW however, your age may just very well get you a big push, while a fresher WWE was taking over the ratings war with fresher, new talent.
Team- WCW
Rey Mysterio
Mysterio is a company man. Until WCW folded, Mysterio was going nowhere. He jumped when he had to. To this day, Mysterio has only been a Smackdown star during his entire WWE career. I don't think Mysterio would have ever left WCW if he didn't have to. He would have stayed there and made the Cruiserweight division for WCW phenomanal. And then, when he hit the age he was at now, he would be used to either help get new Crusier talent over or maybe a short run at the United States title. I do remember Mysterio getting World Title shots against The Big Show, but I don't think he ever would have won one in WCW. So maybe Rey should be thankful of that. But in the end, Mysterio probably would have had a very exciting career in WCW, and he would have stayed there despite not seeing as much success as he could have had he come to the WWE.
Team- WCW
Big Show
This is another toss up because who knows. The Big Show was a big part of the nWo, no pun intended. He won the WCW World Title a few times, as he did in the WWE and now ECW. And while Show was really important and really popular in WCW, he would have been offered a great deal of money to jump ships to the WWE for good. The WWE loves its big young guys and they don't get much bigger than the Show. As big as a character Show could have been on WCW, his career would be larger than life in the WWE taking on a WCW head to head. In fact, I'd go as far to say that The Big Show probably would have been one of the top talents of the WWE today ala The Rock and Stone Cold were during the real Monday Night Wars.
Team- WWE
Chavo Guerrero
When Eddie Guerrero jumped ships with the Radicallz before the sellout, Chavo's career was going straight down the tubes. He really became uninteresting without his uncle Eddie in the mix. Even though he had been relgated to riding a stick pony and getting treated like a step child by Eddie. I think Chavo eventually tries to get back on the road with his family and works with some of the smaller guys to dominate the Cruiserweight division. Then everyone would be fantasy booking Chavo vs. Rey in a steel cage. If only dreams came true...Oh wait...
Team- WWE
And I think that's all. My WCW memory is a bit rusty, so if I missed someone, let me know. Let's take a look at our rosters now as we try to relive the glory days of wrestling and build competing rosters to form a new Monday Night War!
WWE
Chris Benoit
The Big Show
Chavo Guerrero
WCW
Booker T
Ric Flair
Shane Helms
Finlay
Rey Mysterio
This is just step one in the building progress for this column. What I intend to do over the next few weeks is build these rosters up. Next week, we'll take a look at the talent from Raw, then Smackdown, then TNA, then ECW. We'll piece the roster together and once the roster is filled out, build a fantasy card that would resemble a new Monday Night War with the WWE taking on WCW and YOU the fans will vote which show is better in the ratings. It will be fun, so hang with it and help out if you can!
With that being said, I guess I could drop some OVW news on you, since that's what you like and all.
-Greg Gagne was released as head booker of OVW.
I kind of knew this was coming, though I really don't think he had a fair chance. The guy is very old school and I will admit, the storylines were starting to get bland and a lot of job matches were starting to take place. It was no surprise who won each match. During the Heyman era of OVW, Heyman booked every match with a purpose. There is no purpose in a job match for a guy who has already been over or won titles. It makes no sense. And I think this is where Gagne's ideas were going wrong. With OVW not having a pay-per-view, job matches and run ins all the time lead to nothing. So here's hoping that Al Snow and Tommy Dreamer can bring back the excitement in OVW.
Gagne did make one unexpected move during his reign as head booker, and that was drop the title from C.M. Punk to Chet The Jett, when everyone thought that he was going to drop it to Seth Skyfire. I'll give him credit for that, but apparently, that wasn't enough to land job security.
-Serena Won The OVW Women's Title
Apparently, the OVW Women's Title is actually a real title now, which is good! With Trish leaving and the women's division up for grabs now, the WWE is going to need a lot of good, wrestling savvy women and the WWE is full of them right now. Serena and the ODB have been some of the most entertaining storylines to date and the fact that Serena took what everyone thought was a fake title away from her, is a good swerve. It's good to see that the WWE is taking Women's Wrestling so seriously that even their developmental women have a chance at gold now.
-Jacob Duncan not killed off after all!
Well apparently Jacob Duncan pulled a Kane and came back from the dead and without a mask even. I guess the WWE decided to let him keep the name and drop the gimmick. He's still basically Titus or Tryton or whatever you want to call him, he's just mean as hell now! It was said that he was getting a good look on Smackdown, but no word on how that went.
-Paul Birchall returns to OVW.
He's not a pirate anymore but just a bloody Brit again. He's still way over with the OVW crowds and he's still very dominant and exciting in the ring. I really hope he gets a better opportunity in the WWE soon because this guy is very talented.
And that's really all that's going on in OVW right now.
STEVE-MAIL
Let's get right to it because I'm sick dammit!
Do you think That the Great Khali would make better big guy for TNA than Kevin Nash? Who should Samoa joe have his first loss against and, finally, would a CM Punk/Chris Benoit match be any good?
The Great Khali would be bad anywhere. I don't think the man should be wrestling period. Kevin Nash is a good big guy for TNA because he has name recognition and star power. People are going to order a pay per view with Nash's name on it over Khali's because wrestling fans long for the days of Nash and Hall's movement and changes in professional wrestling. Khali is awful in the ring and the WWE pretty much admitted to that when they let the Last Man Standing Match between he and The Undertaker go for free on Smackdown, just so they could edit out all of Khali's mistakes.
Samoa Joe should get his first loss similar to how Goldberg got his first loss in WCW. I think he should be wearing the NWA Heavyweight Title and I think there should be a LOT of interference from a BIG name or a big heel/face turn to cause Joe to lose the match and the title. That would lead to some hot storylines for TNA and keep it's viewership up.
And Benoit vs. Punk would be an excellent TECHNICAL wrestling match. If you don't like actual wrestling wrestling, but rather high flying stunt wrestling, then you'd hate it. But Benoit vs. Punk in an I Quit Match would be out of this world. Punk would need some time to get up with the fans who don't know him from his ROH days, but once he becomes a big name among today's wrestling fans, I don't see why we won't see Benoit and Punk in the ring together.
Next up is Manu!
Steve,
I had a question about OVW and figured you'd be the right person to ask, since you do the tv reports, and have been since November 2005.
Any idea when paul heyman was in charge of OVW? I want to pick up some OVW dvds, and I remember reading the results weekly of when he was in charge, and I remember the shows being good, so I figured I might as well pick those up if I can find them.
Thanks in advance!
Manu
Paul Heyman was in charge of OVW during a big chunk of 2005 all the way until ECW was relaunced this past June. His shows he booked weren't the best in the beginning but toward the end, each match and each show had meaning and OVW was the hottest thing on the internet. I unfortunatley , no longer get OVW where I live and have had to quit doing the TV Reports because of the CW Network change. Damn you CW!
If you want to find his shows, the only thing you can really do is hope you can find something on ebay. The WWE bought out the OVW library and they no longer sell out their weekly television shows on the internet. And before anyone asks me, no, I do not have copies of the shows saved and no I won't mail them to you. Do you know how much money that'd cost me??
I'm tired now. I'm also medicated. I'm working more hours than I should and once again, I feel sloppy about this column, but let me know what you think! Agree or disagree about my selections for the WWE roster and the WCW roster? Let me know! If you can convince me, then I'll switch them over! Back next week with a look at Raw's roster and any OVW tidbits I may have for you. Until then my friends...
