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Post by The Rick Jericho on Apr 2, 2022 16:56:25 GMT -5
Did anyone enjoy this run? Yes, at least he did win the world title. But he traded it 4 different times probably within what 6 months?
So him being champion was fresh, but was the hot-potatoing of the title hurting his cause?
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Mochi Lone Wolf
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Post by Mochi Lone Wolf on Apr 2, 2022 16:58:57 GMT -5
Absolutely it hurt his cause. It also didn't help that he was booked as a joke each time he held the belt.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Apr 2, 2022 17:01:15 GMT -5
WWE honestly booked him MUCH better as a singles act. Part of it was that he was used too dryly by WCW for a guy who is naturally pretty funny, but beyond that, Russo seemed to routinely book him in situations that made him look like he had no business in the main event. I'd argue Jeff Jarrett probably got booked more competently, and he wasn't done a ton of favors as a main eventer, either.
I often wonder if the people who think of Scott Steiner as WCW champion so fondly do so because he was a great champion, or just because he was the only one who didn't have a dogshit reign past a certain point, and that he'd otherwise be seen as a decent, but not spectacular, champion.
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Post by GodzillaIsMyMonster on Apr 2, 2022 17:17:11 GMT -5
I remember during Books reign, they had him clean as a f***ing sheet, pin Goldberg with the Book End.
Good idea, right? But it was a random ass Nitro.
That should have been a PPV main event. And it would have cemented Book. I don't think Goldberg had been beaten cleanly before then.
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Post by Jindrak Mark on Apr 2, 2022 18:06:31 GMT -5
It didn't help that it came completely out of nowhere. He lost a midcard match on the undercard then an hour later he gets a world title shot because reasons. And just weeks earlier he was doing the dumb GI Bro gimmick. He wasn't being built up for a main event push at all.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Apr 2, 2022 18:15:48 GMT -5
It didn't help that it came completely out of nowhere. He lost a midcard match on the undercard then an hour later he gets a world title shot because reasons. And just weeks earlier he was doing the dumb GI Bro gimmick. He wasn't being built up for a main event push at all. It's the kind of thing where, Booker T as a main eventer? Good idea. But they really put zero effort into building it correctly. It's the kind of thing that led to the perception that he was being pushed to leech off of Rock's popularity (somewhat unfair, but probably not entirely unfounded with things like the Book-End). |
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Post by nihilismizhawt on Apr 2, 2022 18:26:58 GMT -5
Im going to go on record and say "did WCW do this thing good in 2000?", the answer by default is no.
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Post by Cry Me a Wiggle on Apr 2, 2022 18:57:10 GMT -5
In retrospect he was booked poorly and too often caught up in the Russo-riffic nonsense of the era. But as a WCW fan coming off the misery porn of 1999 and early 2000, I was just too happy to see him in the main event and treated seriously. Yeah, there are about a dozen things I'd do differently, but at least it wasn't Hogan pretending it was still 1988.
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Post by Alice Syndrome on Apr 2, 2022 23:14:28 GMT -5
Literally the only good thing about the hotshot thing was making 5 time look goof on paper.
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Post by karl100589 on Apr 2, 2022 23:24:42 GMT -5
Im going to go on record and say "did WCW do this thing good in 2000?", the answer by default is no. Norman Smiley as a comedy hardcore champion was pretty fun. |
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Apr 2, 2022 23:25:56 GMT -5
It didn't help that it came completely out of nowhere. He lost a midcard match on the undercard then an hour later he gets a world title shot because reasons. And just weeks earlier he was doing the dumb GI Bro gimmick. He wasn't being built up for a main event push at all. It's the kind of thing where, Booker T as a main eventer? Good idea. But they really put zero effort into building it correctly. It's the kind of thing that led to the perception that he was being pushed to leech off of Rock's popularity (somewhat unfair, but probably not entirely unfounded with things like the Book-End). His big catch phrase "Don't hate the playa, hate the game" being interpreted as a shot towards Triple H didn't help matters, regardless of whether it was intentional or not. Something else that doesn't get talked about enough is that, in the effort to make the Booker T title match and subsequent win all that more of a surprise, Booker was wrestling Positively Kanyon in the midcard of Bash at the Beach 2000. You would think, in order to make Booker look as credible as possible going into the match, that Booker would beat the brakes off of Kanyon en route to winning the title, right? LOL NOPE. They actually had Kanyon win the match, which should have made him the deserving midcard guy who gets the opportunity at the WCW World title, but Russo never needed things like internal logic in his storylines. |
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Post by nihilismizhawt on Apr 2, 2022 23:57:51 GMT -5
Im going to go on record and say "did WCW do this thing good in 2000?", the answer by default is no. Norman Smiley as a comedy hardcore champion was pretty fun. I was a fan of many wrestlers, but the booking hurts my feelings to this day. Norman was already killing it with the wiggle in 1998, so it was Norman getting bad booking over, and not the other way around. |
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tafkaga
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Post by tafkaga on Apr 3, 2022 10:21:34 GMT -5
Loved Booker T as a main eventer. Didn't love WCW booking Booker T as a main eventer.
And that catch phrase was ugh.... why didn't thy just stick with "Can you dig that, sucka?" instead of making him sound like Rock Jr.
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Post by glorious83 on Apr 3, 2022 12:23:41 GMT -5
He was overrated as the five time champ in WCW. Became champ because of the Hogan/Russo issues and that never felt right to me. If he had done it another way then fine. I just truly never bought him as a main event guy in a company that was in its dying days.
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Fade
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Post by Fade on Apr 3, 2022 13:55:35 GMT -5
I remember thinking it absolutely felt right when it happened. As if, it should have probably occurred before then. He came off like a main eventer but it also felt like he was biting off The Rock hard. It’s like they were trying to make him The Rock-lite.
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Post by The Rick Jericho on Apr 3, 2022 17:30:41 GMT -5
I remember thinking it absolutely felt right when it happened. As if, it should have probably occurred before then. He came off like a main eventer but it also felt like he was biting off The Rock hard. It’s like they were trying to make him The Rock-lite. Upon re-watching this, he is definitely a dollar tree version of The Rock. |
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Apr 3, 2022 17:35:53 GMT -5
I remember during Books reign, they had him clean as a f***ing sheet, pin Goldberg with the Book End. Good idea, right? But it was a random ass Nitro. That should have been a PPV main event. And it would have cemented Book. I don't think Goldberg had been beaten cleanly before then. Goldberg also beat him earlier in the night when his brother threw in the towel after Booker got caught in a submission. It was so poorly executed you would think someone actively was trying to sabotage his run. And that was really the whole story of Booker's run as champion. He'd face guys like Goldberg and Sting and Lance Storm (who was being built up as a big deal) on random Nitros with no build. |
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Post by thegame415 on Apr 3, 2022 17:38:11 GMT -5
Booker T as WCW champion with the personality he showed in WWE might've actually worked.
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Post by GodzillaIsMyMonster on Apr 3, 2022 17:43:50 GMT -5
I remember during Books reign, they had him clean as a f***ing sheet, pin Goldberg with the Book End. Good idea, right? But it was a random ass Nitro. That should have been a PPV main event. And it would have cemented Book. I don't think Goldberg had been beaten cleanly before then. Goldberg also beat him earlier in the night when his brother threw in the towel after Booker got caught in a submission. It was so poorly executed you would think someone actively was trying to sabotage his run. And that was really the whole story of Booker's run as champion. He'd face guys like Goldberg and Sting and Lance Storm (who was being built up as a big deal) on random Nitros with no build. Yeah. They could have saved the Lance match for the Canadian ppv they did a bit later. Keep Lance undefeated, have Book beat him. Simple booking. |
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Post by David-Arquette was in WCW 2000 on Apr 4, 2022 0:50:26 GMT -5
I wasn't watching properly around this time, aside from episodes of Worldwide on Channel 5 from time to time. I mostly caught up on this era a couple years later through VHS.
What I think is a shame is WCW had all the right people in the Title picture during this time, besides Russo of course. DDP, Jarrett, Booker and later Steiner were all deserving of the main event spots, but the angles involving the belt and the damn hot shitting really hurt all of these reigns. Not to mention the belt itself.
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