Smack2k

Yeah, some of that other stuff was strange... But he did mention they were on a "deal memo" so when Bischoff heard Ross say he was bringing them back, he freaked and wanted them to sign full deals, so they asked for more money to do it... Their deal to make as much as the highest guy at all times was a GREAT deal for them....I think anyone would take it for what they got... How they handled it....in the ring and caring about the sport wise?.....that is another story!

OK, If anyone has heard the WWE NWO Legends of Wrestling show, its a great show, with one GLARING issue... Nash is very good in this and honest, but when discussing plans after the finger poke of doom, he mentions plans to have Goldberg run through the NWO before he hurt his arm breaking the windows in the limo.. One BIG issue, the fingerpoke was 1/4/99, the Goldberg incident was 12/23/99....He skips 11 months of WCW (which were HORRIBLE) in between with no explanation of what happened and why what their "plan" was never happened right after the fingerpoke...so it lost a ton of credibility to me after that. Anyone else see this?

Glad to hear the King is still fighting... Needless to say, he will never wrestle again..and good. I just hope he gets back to 100% health, whether still with WWE or not.. He has provided myself and so many other fans with greatness for YEARS!

If you haven't, do yourself a favor and get the 80's Memphis set..I was also one of those who thought Memphis was all carny and hard to watch, but my mind was changed 100%. They have a style all their own, and that style is not my favorite, but damn its fun, makes sense and has some incredible action in it all around. Soo much talent just starting out was there and getting their feet wet in the industry and having great matches. Their tag scene is heavily underrated.. I have several of the 90's years of Memphis, haven't started on those yet.but really looking forward to it!

That makes some sense in terms of value of the library, especially if you had to 67 million for it.. But WWF didn't buy out most of the expensive WCW contracts as they were with Time Warner and not WCW, so Time Warner still had to pay them. That is why so many of the big stars sat home for a while collecting checks for nothing (Nash / Sullivan / others). WWF acquired WCW, their rights, trademarks, video library, and other assets (some contracts I assume), but not the big ones... Seeing how classic sports videos were doing and knowing about tape trading (I know it wasn't a HUGE thing, but with the internet burgeoning, and they type of company Fusient was), Its strange they didn't see that... Plus, why would they continue to make the Bischoff / Fusient group pay 67 million for it, but then allow Vince to swoop in and take it for nothing, unless something else inside was going on? Vince was finally able to buy it once Viacom learned that the TV wasn't going to be on anymore on a competitive channel (WWF tried to buy it in Fall 2000 but Viacomm said no). Again, strange that Kellner and AOL TW would still charge Fusient the same price, yet allow WWF to take it for next to nothing (a few million is what I read a couple places...)

Yeah, without TV the current product was dead....but for the small amount WWF apparently paid, and the type of stuff Fusient had done already, acquiring the library at least seemed to make sense, whether the company was still going to be active or not.

Greg mentioned in his shoot that the WWF offered him to come up (not sure if this was with Brunzell or not) to work there, but he wouldn't leave as the AWA was "family" business.. So the chances were there... He also mentioned being in St. Louis for a few shows but getting a HORRIBLE payoff from Sam Muchnick and never going back.

I really loved this for what it was, a spot for sure, but a ton of fun to watch for while it lasted.. Best ever? not even close...a Ton of fun? Shit yeah! It's GOLD Jerry, GOLD!! But to be fair, I am going to watch it again as its been a LONG time since I saw it last...perhaps my opinion will change... Upon new viewing... This is a MUST NOT...wow...what a difference time makes...I ended up really not liking this and couldn't wait for the final leg drop spots...

I don't know if like Patera as it sounds like when I hear or read Patera talked about, a distinction is made between his early work in WWF / AWA and his later WWF / AWA work post jail...He is definitely not thought of well post jail, but his pre-jail years are usually thought of different Greg, on the other hand, because of what was seen of him in the later 80's automatically applied to his whole career. Almost like people saying "He really held the tag titles back in the day? That MUST have been all his dad's doing as well"

Yeah, I meant bleeding and some of the more hardcore (not ECW Hardcore, but still more "brutal") style as well as getting more risqué, which was really taking over in the late 90's (see WWF 98 - 2001). Things like DDP and Raven's feud...I think with the same freedom WWF had at the time, things like this could have gotten really "ugly" and more "believable" I hope you understand what I am saying, cause I am having a hell of a time explaining it! Also, I am still very curious why a company that bought up all the sports footage and sold it to ESPN wouldn't see cash in the old WCW library, which would have included a bunch of old territories as well.....with the internet getting really big, sales could have been good.

I think a big reason the High Flyers don't get the love they deserve is due to Greg Gagne's later years, when AWA was big on ESPN (86-89) and his singles run. I didn't even think that was bad (check out his match with Jumbo in Japan for the AWA Title, good WRESTLING match). But due to the negativity that is given to him (his physique and look mostly, as that started to matter much more in the later 80's) causes many to lump everything he did, including his tag years earlier, together and just say "He sucks" I think Greg was great in the ring (except his drop kick, which I hated!)....but I enjoy a lot of WRESTLING, building to a peak where things take off later in the match toward an ending. And Greg was good at that. AWA Champion? No. Part of a GREAT early - mid 80's tag team that could go with ANYONE? Yes. Brunzell did fuckin rule too...he is one of the most underrated tag wrestlers EVER. The Bee's were a great team to, just didn't get the chance to truly shine. Best Dropkick in the business, EVER.

Although I agree about it probably getting disappointing...I can see soo much possibility in this... I re-read through Bischoff's book, and basically a couple things came to mind: 1. I have heard from SO many different WCW people that they were hamstrung by Time Warner and then AOL Time Warner's standards and practices that didn't allow them to do some of the stuff they wanted..with that out of the way, Bischoff and Fusient could have done things different 2. Bischoff was going to handle the wrestling side while the Fusient guys (Brian) were going to do the business end. That could have helped as well 3. As I said before, they were slowing down the crash booking in the first few months of 2001..so with that and a reboot, bringing back the big names (Bischoff said he had all the big names ready to go) and building to Steiner / Goldberg at Starrcade 2001 while building up RVD / Corino / etc as well as having Nash / DDP / Sting / Booker T...I don't know, I know I am looking at this with rose colored glasses 11 years later, but it looked SOO good... The one thing Bischoff said that I was confused about was that he had spoken to Fox about taking one of the shows to them, they wanted Nitro, he was offering Thunder, with Nitro I assume staying on TNT. Always wondered why once Kellner from AOL TW took them off TV, Fox or another channel didn't jump at them. Mid 2's for ratings on cable (which is where they were when things were bad at the end) were really good (and still are), and the plan to have the shows TV from the roof of the Hard Rock and PPV's at another Vegas venue seemed to all make sense. They had the 67 million dollar deal ready....why wouldn't another cable channel want that? Oh well, I guess we will never truly know... Another note....if WWE got WCW for soo cheap, why didn't Bischoff and Fusient take one more shot at it for much less money? Just for the tape library..Fusient was the company that bought up tons of old sports footage, created the Classic Sports Channel, and then sold it to ESPN as ESPN Classic. Buying just the library and copyrights alone they could have made bank off of selling the videos. And from what WWE supposedly paid (next to nothing), why not Fusient?

I love the idea of bringing them back and building to Starrcade 2001 with Steiner vs. Goldberg.. Would Steiner have had a year plus WCW Title reign? That would be good to get serious credibility back to the belt as well.. Plus, if Steiner and Goldberg could have another Fall Brawl 2000 type 15-17 minute match (minus the Russo crap mixed in) it could have been great. So much potential if it would have happened. And seeing how pro wrestling has been since then (until Punk and Danielson's arrival in the big time), the competition would have been nice. There is the other side though where no one underneath moves up and Hogan ends up on top again....you know, like TNA!! So maybe the thought of it is way better....

Couple Questions I had been wondering about: 1. What was the original ending of Sin 2001 if Sid doesnt get hurt? Do they all turn on Sid and help Steiner, creating the Magnificent 7 at that show? That would make sense due to what happens the next night, but I was curious if anyone knew for sure.. 2. What was Eric Bischoff's plan if he had bought WCW in March? Was he gonna bring back Nash / Sting / Booker (he was back) / DDP / Goldberg / ?? to take on the Magnificent 7? If done right with good writers and a fresh take on it, could have worked..just curious of the original plan! 3. Was there a plan with the names of the PPV's in 2001 to lead to something? Sin / Revenge / Greed already happened...always wondered where they were going.. They looked to have MAYBE stopped all the crap that had been piling up with bad writing as 2001 began as more matches had less run-ins and the such... 2000 - 2001 WCW is a guilty pleasure of mine... Thanks guys!

I really loved this for what it was, a spot for sure, but a ton of fun to watch for while it lasted.. Best ever? not even close...a Ton of fun? Shit yeah! It's GOLD Jerry, GOLD!! But to be fair, I am going to watch it again as its been a LONG time since I saw it last...perhaps my opinion will change...

For some reason, I swear that match is on one of the shows...I will have to look through mine, but I could swear they do battle on PWUSA....either TV or one of the Star Wars Shows (2-85 / 4-85 / Fall 85)

Sabu / RVD vs. Hayabusa / Jinsei Shinzaki - ECW Tag Titles - Heatwave 1998 My favorite ECW match EVER.... Not sure if this was a given or not...but a MUST IMO.

For real Matt....they spend more time talking about how Bob Backlund is the "real champion"... But from everything I've read and seen from PWUSA, the promotions were all out for themselves and since the AWA seemed to be the only one that stayed with the PWUSA logo the longest (never saw an NWA PWUSA show and only a few Memphis ones) I guess the AWA shoved their stuff to the front as much as they could....