Brian Adams nonsensical WCW debut

[tafkaga]

Monday Nitro.  Bret Hart is cutting a promo on Hogan, when Crush ("omg it's Brian Adams!") shows up and offers him a hand of friendship.  Adams then holds onto Bret's hand and the nWo jumps in the ring to attack Bret.  Brian Adams is nWo-because!  It turns into an nWo mauling, until Flair hits the ring and helps Bret fight them off.  

On the next Nitro, Adams comes out and calls out Bret Hart.  Bret comes out and has a scuffle with Adams, gets beat up some, but then manages to put him in the Sharpshooter.  Enter Hennig and Rude, who help Crush beat up Bret until Flair comes out and saves him again.  Flair tells Bret he's "best there is, was, ever will be", which Bret kind of ignores and then challenges Hennig for Uncensored. 

wtf recap

Bret and Hogan are calling each other out.  Crush is picking a fight with Bret and sets him up twice to get beat up by the nWo.  Somehow, this turns into Bret just forgetting those guys and challenging Hennig.  Meanwhile, two weeks in a row he's got stalker Flair saving his ass, then showering him with admiration, which Bret just no-sells.  

Meanwhile, I'm thinking Crush's debut would have been so much more effective had they played into his history with Macho.  Hogan and Savage were feuding over control of the nWo at this time, so why have Hogan bring him in as a hired gun to get rid of Macho?  Instead, they (kinda) put him immediately into program with Bret, then have him pass the baton to Hennig, when it would have made more sense to just use Hennig in that role to begin with.

so wtf

[BlackoutCreature]

It was another case of WCW not really wanting the worker as much as they just wanted to sign somebody to hurt the WWF, so they really don't know what to do with him, or care all that much.

[Lizuka #BLM]

I feel like pretty much every single thing WCW ever did can be answered with, "Because it was WCW."

[The Dark Order Inferno]

They should have had him come in as someone who had Bret's back, just laid it out the way it happened, and have the betrayal come later, but WCW being WCW... there we go.

[Mozenrath]

His run up until Kronik sucked.

Kronik was also kinda meh, but they at least sort of found a decent use for him and Clarke.

[BlackoutCreature]

Mar 5, 2023 16:22:40 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

They should have had him come in as someone who had Bret's back, just laid it out the way it happened, and have the betrayal come later, but WCW being WCW... there we go.

I don't know, they already kinda did that same angle with Curt Hennig and Ric Flair. Plus I'm not really seeing much chemistry in a Bret Hart/Crush alliance, and Adams eventually turning on Bret would've been so obvious from the jump that I can't imagine there being much drama or heat from it. I actually think the OP's idea of bringing Adams in as a straight-up hired gun mercenary, whether to take out Bret, Savage or whoever, probably would've worked best.

[LiamMcDuggle]

To make it more confusing, Bret was apparently in on this as a way of fooling WCW.

[XIII]

WCW “writing” was constantly bad. That’s all I have.

[tafkaga]

Mar 5, 2023 16:20:58 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I feel like pretty much every single thing WCW ever did can be answered with, "Because it was WCW."

It's true, so why do I love it and miss it so much?

[fw91]

He should have debuted with the first real six string that he bought at the five and dime.

[Mozenrath]

Mar 5, 2023 16:28:01 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

Mar 5, 2023 16:22:40 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

They should have had him come in as someone who had Bret's back, just laid it out the way it happened, and have the betrayal come later, but WCW being WCW... there we go.

I don't know, they already kinda did that same angle with Curt Hennig and Ric Flair. Plus I'm not really seeing much chemistry in a Bret Hart/Crush alliance, and Adams eventually turning on Bret would've been so obvious from the jump that I can't imagine there being much drama or heat from it. I actually think the OP's idea of bringing Adams in as a straight-up hired gun mercenary, whether to take out Bret, Savage or whoever, probably would've worked best.

It would have probably been a decent move. He'd eventually get such a role with Kronik, but mostly just due to WCW going "Let's copy he APA, but make it about weed instead of beer money".

[CMWaters]

Really, the only reason he came to WCW was because he was protesting the Montreal incident (hence why Rude left as well) and he probably thought ECW wasn't worth it.

[tafkaga]

Mar 6, 2023 9:46:44 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

Really, the only reason he came to WCW was because he was protesting the Montreal incident (hence why Rude left as well) and he probably thought ECW wasn't worth it.

I thought it was because Kane chokeslammed him right out of the WWF.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Mar 5, 2023 16:23:28 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

His run up until Kronik sucked.

Kronik was also kinda meh, but they at least sort of found a decent use for him and Clarke.

Best use of both guys and they still weren't that good

[hassanchop]

Imagine if they got the other Brian in DOA Brian Lee debut in WCW, would they make him do a fake Undertaker like he did and pretend he and Bret go way back?

[CMWaters]

Mar 6, 2023 11:07:18 GMT -5 hassanchop said:

Imagine if they got the other Brian in DOA Brian Lee debut in WCW, would they make him do a fake Undertaker like he did and pretend he and Bret go way back?

I'm now picturing Brian Lee doing the Seven gimmick long before Dustin comes to WCW for some reason.

[chazraps]

Mar 5, 2023 18:12:44 GMT -5 fw91 said:

He should have debuted with the first real six string that he bought at the five and dime.

WCW had a no-blood rule at the time, so he wouldn't have been able to play it.

[fw91]

Mar 6, 2023 19:26:44 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Mar 5, 2023 18:12:44 GMT -5 fw91 said:

He should have debuted with the first real six string that he bought at the five and dime.

WCW had a no-blood rule at the time, so he wouldn't have been able to play it.

Should have known he wouldn’t go far.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Adams had just left the WWF in protest to the Montreal Screwjob so him being involved with Bret makes sense. However I don't think they acknowledged it when he debuted. IIRC Bret was skeptical even before it was revealed it was a setup and Adams was part of the NWO.

I agree that having him as Bret's ally initially and having him turn later would've been a better way of doing it. Would've played off real life and at the same time also got at least a little of usefulness of Adams in that at least maybe a program with him and Hart would maybe come off as at least somewhat important after the buildup. A lot of the reason for the hasty pivot to Hennig is probably because they didn't have enough confidence in Adams to be in a upper card feud like that. However I guess they also had Bulldog and Neidhart as well so I guess maybe they felt it would be too many hanger-ons for Bret.

Either way seems like the no brainer match would be a tag match Bret and Flair against Hennig and Adams. I get thinking Adams would be in over his head in a singles program with Bret however in a tag scenario like that I think the selling poing of Bret and Flair teaming together combined with both of their star power would've been enough to make it a credible semi main event on a PPV.

[Psicofreak667]

As a mark who hadn't watched pre-Attitude Era WWF on a regular basis and was completely ignorant of the backstage ordeals, I assumed Brian Adams had joined the nWo because "he was friends with some of them from WWF or something." Also this was during that period where the nWo had an endless supply of Diabolus ex Machina and if there was a chance that literally any wrestler could ruin everything for the faces and join the nWo, there was pretty much a 100% chance of said wrestler ruining everything for the faces and joining the nWo.

And it made sense to me, in that the nWo always won if Sting wasn't involved so this was just how they won this time.