WWE Home Video Revisionist History

[Dre013]

That's what she said

Was that Ted Turner interview they keep showing with him talking about Vince televised back in the day? I don't remember ever seeing Ted actually talk so much about wrestling.

It wasn't televised. It was from a taped conversation done under oath as part of the many lawsuits they lobbed back and forth during that time period.

[cwoy2j]

 

By the time they dumped the Clash, WCW already had a whole bunch of live wrestling on tv every week so the Clash was redundant.

 

Well yeah I get that, but Graham is portraying himself as being the one that decided to replace them with PPV's like he's some great booking mind.

 

 

That dvd is hilarious b/c if you listen to Mike Graham, damn near anything WCW did that was successful was his idea. He did get off a great line though. "Jeff Jarrett broke a thousand guitars but never drew a dime."

[cool arrow]

I'd be willing to bet that in Memphis Jarrett drew every bit as much money as Graham did in Florida.

[Hagan]

Jarrett has had such a weird career. He's one of the few guys that was pushed as an upper-mid carder in both mid-90s WWF and then Attitude Era WWF. Even his first WCW run he was generally pushed well. Now, needless to say, the Russo Jesus-push he got may have been a bit forced. I always think that if he hadn't had jumped to WCW that he would have ended up with a short main event run, especially once Austin got injured at SurSer '99. He was always an effective hell and an above-average worker. 

 

Above all, I don't think anyone would have ever thought that he'd end up being so relevant, especially this late in his career.

[Johnny Sorrow]

The last couple of years of DVD releases have shown a giant step away from the "revisionist" stuff. The Best of Nitro DVDs have DDP hosting and bragging about WCW kicking WWF's ass and talking about how bad RAW was in 1995.

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

Re: JJ

 

I liked JJ in 98 and 99. JJ jumping to WCW was a big move in my mind and was cool to see. WCW fucked up when they decided to put the WHT on him and treat him as WCW's ace. There were SO MANY better candidates at the time. If JJ just remained a dominate U.S. champion and continued to have upper-mid card matches, his WCW run might be remembered more fondly. I think JJ was WCW's last BIG WWF ACQUISITION? I'm sure WCW knew it has zero chance in getting The Rock, Austin, DX, Taker, Kane, Foley, etc. to jump and so it was all in on JJ.

[The Nature Boy]

I would argue that Jeff Jarrett jumping to WCW was one of the biggest mistakes that any talent has ever made. If Jarrett had remained in the WWF, he would've (as was said above) likely gotten a short main event run. If nothing else, he's a solid hand that could have worked with a lot of the talent that came in 2000. Jarrett being in the IC Title mix of 2000 would've made for some interesting matches. A Jarrett/Angle "Real American" alliance would've been a fun idea. 

 

Does he ever become World Champion? Possibly. I could see Jarrett getting a title run during the early brand split. He easily could've retired into a comfortable agent position and would've likely been sent down to help book OVW in the mid 2000s after Cornette's dismissal. By leaving the WWF in the way he did, he screwed himself over and now he's forced to do things like GFW in order to stay relevant. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

I would argue that Jeff Jarrett jumping to WCW was one of the biggest mistakes that any talent has ever made. If Jarrett had remained in the WWF, he would've (as was said above) likely gotten a short main event run. If nothing else, he's a solid hand that could have worked with a lot of the talent that came in 2000. Jarrett being in the IC Title mix of 2000 would've made for some interesting matches. A Jarrett/Angle "Real American" alliance would've been a fun idea.

Does he ever become World Champion? Possibly. I could see Jarrett getting a title run during the early brand split. He easily could've retired into a comfortable agent position and would've likely been sent down to help book OVW in the mid 2000s after Cornette's dismissal. By leaving the WWF in the way he did, he screwed himself over and now he's forced to do things like GFW in order to stay relevant.

It's all based on how much money he made personally.

[Chorros]

The biggest thing that comes to mind is "WCW saw nothing in Steve Austin"; granted, he was misused towards the end of his run, but in the four previous years with the promotion he held the U.S., T.V. and Tag Titles, had feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and Brian Pillman, and was part of The Dangerous Alliance and The Studd Stable while being really fun to watch the whole time. That's as solid as "upper mid-card" gets.

[The Nature Boy]

 

I would argue that Jeff Jarrett jumping to WCW was one of the biggest mistakes that any talent has ever made. If Jarrett had remained in the WWF, he would've (as was said above) likely gotten a short main event run. If nothing else, he's a solid hand that could have worked with a lot of the talent that came in 2000. Jarrett being in the IC Title mix of 2000 would've made for some interesting matches. A Jarrett/Angle "Real American" alliance would've been a fun idea.

Does he ever become World Champion? Possibly. I could see Jarrett getting a title run during the early brand split. He easily could've retired into a comfortable agent position and would've likely been sent down to help book OVW in the mid 2000s after Cornette's dismissal. By leaving the WWF in the way he did, he screwed himself over and now he's forced to do things like GFW in order to stay relevant.

It's all based on how much money he made personally.

 

 

Leaving WWE seems to have harmed his long term potential. He's likely not going to ever get the easy money that is video game royalties and whatever other money WWE throws at guys they have on Legends Deals. He's still a relatively young dude (in terms of retired wrestlers).

[MGFanJay]

The biggest thing that comes to mind is "WCW saw nothing in Steve Austin"; granted, he was misused towards the end of his run, but in the four previous years with the promotion he held the U.S., T.V. and Tag Titles, had feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and Brian Pillman, and was part of The Dangerous Alliance and The Studd Stable while being really fun to watch the whole time. That's as solid as "upper mid-card" gets.

Plus, he got to work with Flair, get one over on him in the interviews they did, and was made to look like a world-beater while U.S. Champion. Austin's WCW maturation was such that if Hogan hadn't come in, you could easily see Austin getting a PPV World Title match with Flair. Starrcade '94 with Flair-Austin, and having Austin as the U.S. Champion at that time, would've been something special.

[The Nature Boy]

 

The biggest thing that comes to mind is "WCW saw nothing in Steve Austin"; granted, he was misused towards the end of his run, but in the four previous years with the promotion he held the U.S., T.V. and Tag Titles, had feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and Brian Pillman, and was part of The Dangerous Alliance and The Studd Stable while being really fun to watch the whole time. That's as solid as "upper mid-card" gets.

Plus, he got to work with Flair, get one over on him in the interviews they did, and was made to look like a world-beater while U.S. Champion. Austin's WCW maturation was such that if Hogan hadn't come in, you could easily see Austin getting a PPV World Title match with Flair. Starrcade '94 with Flair-Austin, and having Austin as the U.S. Champion at that time, would've been something special.

 

 

That version of history seems like a way for WWE to compensate for their own stupidity. They brought in Steve Austin and made him The Ringmaster, a move so stupid that it trumps anything that Bischoff ever did. If they make it look like WCW never pushed him then they get credit for "discovering him" when the lowly Ringmaster cut the Austin 3:16 promo.

[Brian Fowler]

I say it a lot, but if you watch 93 and early 94 wcw, it's blatantly obvious that they were banking the future on Dustin and Austin until Hogan came in.

[The Nature Boy]

I say it a lot, but if you watch 93 and early 94 wcw, it's blatantly obvious that they were banking the future on Dustin and Austin until Hogan came in.

 

That would've been a sweet alternate reality. The business probably never takes off as it did in the late 90s but WCW might still be around if they had cultivated their niche as a Southern promotion and never tried to directly compete with Vince.

[Charlie M.]

In late '93 WCW, Austin was being booked like the #3 heel behind Vader and Rude on TV.  I loved that Vader brought up the tag match from WCW Saturday Night on the podcast.  Great match that rarely gets mentioned. 

 

Austin feeds into the revisionist history because it seems like he doesn't want to come across as bitter against Dusty, Hogan, and the people who screwed him over. 

[greenbat]

Ok, so on the NWO Monday Night Wars episode they do a segment about how the locker room was getting annoyed at always getting buried and they play a clip of Jericho flipping out after a loss which lead to his awesome heel run, implying he was upset about the locker room politics, madness I tell you that they do this.

[muhammedboehm]

A Jeep is not a TANK!

[Tromatagon]

Ok, so on the NWO Monday Night Wars episode they do a segment about how the locker room was getting annoyed at always getting buried and they play a clip of Jericho flipping out after a loss which lead to his awesome heel run, implying he was upset about the locker room politics, madness I tell you that they do this.

Yeah and they dubbed in the nWo music so it sounded like he lost to them.

[bink_winkleman]

Man, no story in the history of wrestling has been more beat to death than the Monday Night Wars shit, and y'all are confirming to me that this garbage on WWE Network is as awful as I thought it'd be. Here's what actually happened:

No one was watching wrestling because it got kind of shitty.

Then the NWO happened, and people started watching wrestling again. Buff Bagwell was a big fucking deal and all the 15-17 year old chicks at my high school wanted to bang him.

Sting was as over as Hogan and half of what made the NWO click.

We all loved the first hour of Luchas, but not nearly as much as the start of the second hour when the Giant and Buff came out and lawn darted them into the crowd.

Then Goldberg was kinda stupid, and Jericho was hilarious.

ECW was had this forbidden but amazing aura about it. You saw that shit and talked about it to your friends like you did when you were a little kid describing the time your older cousin let you listen to his Nasty As They Wanna Be cassette.

Then Sting got fucked too many times, Austin started feuding with Tyson, they had that Konnan rap video, and Sable had huge titties and a booty that was a bit long, but fashionable at the time. Oh and DX got in a tank and Jeff Jarret was fucking terrible his entire career.

I'd tell y'all the rest, but it would take 20 more posts.

[Chorros]

 

I say it a lot, but if you watch 93 and early 94 wcw, it's blatantly obvious that they were banking the future on Dustin and Austin until Hogan came in.

 

That would've been a sweet alternate reality. The business probably never takes off as it did in the late 90s but WCW might still be around if they had cultivated their niche as a Southern promotion and never tried to directly compete with Vince.

 

 I wouldn't go as far as to say the whole Atttitude Era boom would've never happened, but probably everything would've been delayed. WWE with aging talent would've downscaled a little bit, and WCW with young guys would've grown steadily until you got two national promotions of about the same size willing to compete with each other over ratings and live gates.

[Chorros]

In late '93 WCW, Austin was being booked like the #3 heel behind Vader and Rude on TV.  I loved that Vader brought up the tag match from WCW Saturday Night on the podcast.  Great match that rarely gets mentioned. 

 

Austin feeds into the revisionist history because it seems like he doesn't want to come across as bitter against Dusty, Hogan, and the people who screwed him over. 

 

 This. Austin comes off as such a sweet and inteligent guy everytime I listen; he really enjoys wrestling in every possible way and always has a compliment for whoever of his peers is being discussed. I gotta say that attitude it's really refreshing when it comes to the wrestling business.

[BurningBeard]

I say it a lot, but if you watch 93 and early 94 wcw, it's blatantly obvious that they were banking the future on Dustin and Austin until Hogan came in.

 

Yeah it was pretty cool that they'd fueded from rookies to TV title to US title and were gonna be in the heavyweight mix sooner rather than later.

 

As an aside, I didn't mind Austin coming in as Dibiase's protege it was the name/lack of a push/green singlet that turned me off. How would you have brought him, baring in mind WWF was still gimmick central?

 

Also, bink_winkleman's post wins and is pretty much how the Monday Night War went down for me and my friends too. I'd dip in and out of both WWF and WCW but WWF/Austin really didn't get moving til the Mike Tyson thing

[muhammedboehm]

Man, no story in the history of wrestling has been more beat to death than the Monday Night Wars shit, and y'all are confirming to me that this garbage on WWE Network is as awful as I thought it'd be. Here's what actually happened:

No one was watching wrestling because it got kind of shitty.

Then the NWO happened, and people started watching wrestling again. Buff Bagwell was a big fucking deal and all the 15-17 year old chicks at my high school wanted to bang him.

Sting was as over as Hogan and half of what made the NWO click.

We all loved the first hour of Luchas, but not nearly as much as the start of the second hour when the Giant and Buff came out and lawn darted them into the crowd.

Then Goldberg was kinda stupid, and Jericho was hilarious.

ECW was had this forbidden but amazing aura about it. You saw that shit and talked about it to your friends like you did when you were a little kid describing the time your older cousin let you listen to his Nasty As They Wanna Be cassette.

Then Sting got fucked too many times, Austin started feuding with Tyson, they had that Konnan rap video, and Sable had huge titties and a booty that was a bit long, but fashionable at the time. Oh and DX got in a tank and Jeff Jarret was fucking terrible his entire career.

I'd tell y'all the rest, but it would take 20 more posts.[/quote

It WASNT A TANK it was a damn Jeep!

[Ramsey]

Man, no story in the history of wrestling has been more beat to death than the Monday Night Wars shit, and y'all are confirming to me that this garbage on WWE Network is as awful as I thought it'd be. Here's what actually happened:

No one was watching wrestling because it got kind of shitty.

Then the NWO happened, and people started watching wrestling again. Buff Bagwell was a big fucking deal and all the 15-17 year old chicks at my high school wanted to bang him.

Sting was as over as Hogan and half of what made the NWO click.

We all loved the first hour of Luchas, but not nearly as much as the start of the second hour when the Giant and Buff came out and lawn darted them into the crowd.

Then Goldberg was kinda stupid, and Jericho was hilarious.

ECW was had this forbidden but amazing aura about it. You saw that shit and talked about it to your friends like you did when you were a little kid describing the time your older cousin let you listen to his Nasty As They Wanna Be cassette.

Then Sting got fucked too many times, Austin started feuding with Tyson, they had that Konnan rap video, and Sable had huge titties and a booty that was a bit long, but fashionable at the time. Oh and DX got in a tank and Jeff Jarret was fucking terrible his entire career.

I'd tell y'all the rest, but it would take 20 more posts.

Speaking as someone who lived through and watched most of this, I can confirm that this is the truth. The constant re-visiting of the Monday Night Wars sort of feels like the 40th time your dad reminds you that his garage band opened for Bachman-Turner Overdrive once.

[Matt D]

I kind of hope that all the bullshit hoops they're going through to get Sting means that they're going to reweigh things a little bit and give more credence to the early 90s stuff.