100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 65 - Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell
WCW Championship - Raw, 2nd July 2001
I hate this match.
That comment may feel redundant on a list like this. In a way, I hate all the matches in this list, but this one feels different. This is the first one (so far) that actively makes me mad to think about.
I’ve touched on wrestling conspiracy theories in the last few reviews. From the ridiculous “Ultimate Warrior died and was replaced by a copycat”, to the far more plausible “Papa Shango missed his cue to make Hulk Hogan look bad” - wrestling conspiracy theories are a fun, mostly unserious, little tidbit to help justify why these matches might be as bad as they are. There’s always been a genuine conspiracy surrounding this match - one that not only has legs, but one I happen to believe. This match was a one-hundred percent sabotage by WWE with the intention of burying WCW, its stars and its brand. When I started this review with the basic comment of “I hate this match”, I meant it because it is the first match where I feel it was intended to be bad. I could conceivably convince myself that most of the other 35 matches to date were not intended to be bad, they just were.
Let’s look at the evidence to support this conspiracy theory:
WWE spent the better part of 6 years telling everyone how shit WCW was.
WWE commentary prior to this match was telling the fans that this will probably suck and the WWE are not responsible for it.
They actively took time to announce the most hated referee in wrestling, Nick Patrick, for the match which served to only piss off the crowd.
The match pitted heel Buff Bagwell against a guy that has been a heel ever since he first appeared on WWE television.
The very first match they decide to use to showcase WCW is with a debuting Buff Bagwell, a guy that was never a good worker, and by 2001 was way past his sell by date as a popular act.
Buff Bagwell was told literally seconds before he got out that he can’t look at the camera. To which he has since said - and I quote - “that’s all I fucking do!”.
Farbeit from me to say the last point is relevant to some mastermind conspiracy by WWE. But it is indicative of how little they thought about this that they told a guy that the way you have portrayed your character for years is wrong mere seconds before he was set to come out the curtain.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Buff was mishandled, or that he could have been an important piece of the Invasion storyline. Quite the opposite in fact, because Buff sucked at this point and should have been nowhere near television. This is the crux of the problem. Why have you chosen this man if not than to totally humiliate him on live TV by putting him in a position he is woefully unprepared for?
The most damning evidence to this theory, however, is that the following week, they were in Atlanta, Georgia. Are you telling me that WWE couldn't have run, say, Booker T vs Lance Storm or DDP in Atlanta? Popular wrestlers already established on WWE TV, capable of putting on a good match in front of a far more receptive crowd. Would this have solved the issues surrounding the storyline? Absolutely not - I’m never going to pretend this match is even in the top 10 reasons why the Invasion storyline failed. But it's putting the wrestlers in the best possible position to succeed.
If this isn’t an intentional sabotage to WCW, which I truly believe it was, then this was gross negligence. The report was at the time WWE were looking to give WCW its own show. Those plans were scrapped quickly after the reception to this match.
Say what you want about nWo Souled Out - it was a terrible show and idea that similarly caused WCW to change their plans for an nWo show. But I never got the impression that they were trying to put on something they knew would suck. Their ideas were just misguided and the execution was poor, which led to a shitty pay-per-view. I find it far more forgivable to have an idea with decent intentions that ends up sucking, than putting out something that you know definitely will suck.
This gets off to a bad start as Shane McMahon - who insists that WCW is not all about McMahons and authority figures - comes out and takes centre stage before he’s removed by William Regal. I love Stacy Keibler, but she is not a ring announcer and doesn’t have the voice for it whatsoever.
The match itself is about as 2001 Buff Bagwell as you can get. In a true tribute to late era WCW, this WCW Championship match is a dull 5 minute affair featuring a past-it wrestler that ends in a DQ. If nothing else, this match encapsulates the state of the WCW main event scene in its later years. The only problem is, instead of that past-it wrestler being a bonafide superstar a la Hulk Hogan or Kevin Nash, it’s Buff Bagwell. Poor guy is absolutely gassed mere seconds into the match and has to sit in a chinlock for almost half the match.
The fans turn on this match almost immediately, with both men getting booed fiercely. Shane gets booed, Stacy gets booed, Double A and Scott Hudson get booed. The fans are out for blood and are not interested for one second. Not that they should be for the reasons mentioned above, of course. Neither man gives the crowd any reason to enjoy it, and it’s clear that Buff was not comfortable at all in this position. What I find particularly noticeable is how early Buff is to bump, like a good half a second before contact with Booker T on almost every move.
After the match, Austin and Angle run in and start attacking Booker T. In a moment that almost validates the entire thing, Buff forgets what stable he’s a part of and starts attacking Booker with Austin and Angle. Hilariously, Angle and Austin just completely ignore him as he’s getting in his shots. Poor Scott Hudson - I liked Hudson well enough on WCW - he’s out here with his one shot at getting a job within WWE. Anyway he tries to justify this mess by saying “don’t tell me Buff Bagwell has jumped ship!?”. The image of WWE, who at this time had Stone Cold, Kurt Angle, the Undertaker, Kane, The Rock and Chris Jericho and one of the most stacked midcards in wrestling history would need to recruit Buff fucking Bagwell to turn the tides of this war is fucking hilarious. Hudson’s trying to make sense of this, but most likely Buff forgot his place in this story and decided that it made most sense to attack Booker.
Bagwell got the entirety of the blame for this debacle. He’d be fired from WWE almost immediately after this. Booker would go on to be the only semi-meaningful WCW original on television through this storyline, with the exception of … Torrie and Stacy? The storyline would go on to become one of the greatest botches in wrestling history, with an unimaginable amount of money pissed down the drain for so many reasons that this match barely registers as a blip on the radar. But the fact that this match even exists is an abomination and everyone involved in putting it together should feel bad.
Up Next - Triple H at Wrestlemania. Yes, I realise how little that narrows it down.
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