By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

In the PWTorch Newsletter published ten years ago (the full back issue was just published in PDF format for VIP members), my back page "End Notes" editorial pleaded with the WWF get this "WCW" experiment over with quickly. I pointed out how incorporating WCW into the WWF brand was already being badly botched with the only approach I believed could save it.

This was a precursor to the frustration we'd have not just with WWF trying to promote WCW as a separate brand, but not really, with the same frustration we'd experience with the attempt to promote separate brands instead (Raw vs. Smackdown). It's hard to imagine Vince McMahon ever embracing the WCW name brand that represented the enemy, the threat, and the laughable incompetency that made them an inferior competitor business-wise most of their existence. Heck, he clearly favors Raw as his first-born over Smackdown, so WCW would have probably gotten worse treatment.

Feel free to comment below (web-visotrs) on your memories of the badly botched, or perhaps inevitably doomed, WWF attempt to promote the dead WCW brand. Or email me: kellerwade@gmail.com.

Wade Keller's End Notes
PWTorch Newsletter #659
Cover Dated: June 30, 2001
Title: "Get This Over With Quick!"

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The WWF's use of the WCW brand name and wrestlers so far isn't doing a lot for me. WCW's role is only slightly above XPW's role when it interrupted ECW. WCW at this point doesn't seem to exist for any reason other than Shane McMahon trying to prove himself to his father. Yeah, the storyline says that Vince won't let WCW get its own timeslot, so now WCW is going to fight for it. It's an okay approach, I guess, but it begs several questions.

For instance, what do the other WWF wrestlers think of Shane McMahon and WCW wrestlers interfering in their promotion? The Acolytes aren't happy and they've rallied the undercard wrestlers. It's become a turf war, but there's no clear babyface or heel. When Booker T attacked Vince McMahon, even Vince McMahon's enemies came to his defense.

WCW is mostly being portrayed as a babyface organization, except Dallas Page has shown up and messed with Undertaker. So is Shane McMahon behind Page's actions? He hasn't addressed them yet. Page's angle with Taker is falling flat in part because it doesn't seem to fit in the big picture. Is Page on the same side as Booker T and Shane? If not, why aren't Booker and Shane speaking out against him?

I can't wait until the Invasion PPV has taken place and this WCW vs. WWF battle ends because then the real war will begin. The real war, the interesting war, and the war that will eventually bring WWFE the most money and intrigue the fans the most is the war to outdraw the other in the ratings. Nothing can recapture the genuine competitive spirit of the original Monday Night Wars, the bitter battles between Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon head-to-head on Mondays.

When Vince McMahon bought WCW, he bought the rights to recreate his own variation of the Monday Night War. One of the reasons the Monday Night War was so fascinating was because the two promotions didn't interact directly with each other. There was a distance between them. Each tried to one-up the other. It doesn't sound as if Vince McMahon is building into the WWF-WCW structure a competitive mechanism where one set of writers compete with another set of writers to see who can draw the best ratings. That's a shame. However, even if the competition between the two shows is simulated, by running two separate promotions McMahon will be creating the perception of choice. Wrestling fans right now don't have a choice, and they don't like it. For the past few years wrestling fans were WWF fans by choice or WCW fans by choice. Now that the choice is gone, many aren't watching wrestling at all.

When WCW begins operating as an independent promotion, it needs to build around internal storylines. WCW should ignore the WWF for months. It should be considered taboo to acknowledge that another promotion exists. Same goes for the WWF acknowledging WCW. There are several reasons for that. For one, if WCW is going to draw money at house shows and on PPV, it has to draw customers based on the matches WCW can offer - WCW babyfaces vs. WCW heels. If the war with the WWF seems to be predominant, all other feuds will seem about as important as a Jakked match between Billy Gunn and K-Kwik. Within the WCW world, nothing should be portrayed as more important than the next World Title defense or the next cage match to settle a feud.

WCW needs to operate separately from the WWF for a long time, and then allow fans on their own to fantasize about dream matches. Then, when the time is right, when both promotions are on equal ground (equally strong or equally weak), then run an interpromotional angle. Then it will seem like at least a simulation of a genuine interpromotional dream PPV. If it's done well, there will be a huge potential buyrate. Fans will finally get what they thought they'd never see - the top stars of two separate promotions stopping everything they are doing in order to feud with each other for one night. The current hasty WCW-WWF battles cheapen that eventual dream event.

Then, when that one night is over, it should be back to business for another year before the next interpromotional PPV. That is, if business is strong enough that they can afford to keep the promotions separate. If one promotion is so weak it can't survive, then it will be time to simulate what has happened before - the strong promotion absorbing the weaker (e.g. Jim Crockett Promotions absorbing Bill Watts's UWF).

I also can't wait for this first mini-WCW-WWF feud to end because at this point it makes no sense. For two hours MSG fans were reminded of the WWF's rich tradition in their arena. For two hours Vince acted like an ass. At the end of the show, WCW's top star attacked Vince McMahon. Fans were confused. Many booed. They were supposed to cheer, I think. But then a bunch of WWF babyfaces and heels ran out to save Vince. Or did they run out to defend the WWF's honor? Who knows? At this point it's a poorly conceived mess.

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