I know this is supposed to be my NHBC column, but for an interesting change, in this edition of FOF, I’m gonna focus on two topics from the ‘real’ world of professional wrestling . Steve Austin’s improvement over the past year and then the InVasion angle, and how I see that going…

Everyone slates Steve Austin. He’s too old. He’s over the hill. He’s crippled. He’s finished. That’s all you ever hear about him. But I see things a little differently. You look over the last year and who, on any organizations roster, has improved more than Steve Austin over that time? I think you’ll be struggling to come up with an answer…

At his less than ‘grand’ return to pay – per – view at Unforgiven 2000 it became pretty clear that Austin’s whole approach had dated since his Survivor Series 99 exit. The WWF achieved so much in his absence over his recovery from neck surgery, and at Unforgiven 2000 and the following weeks TV, it appeared the WWF was going to let him run rough shot all over it. He was running in, left, right and centre. He was no selling left, right and centre. And most importantly – he wouldn’t lie down for anyone.

By the New Year, he was still to lose a match by pinfall but things had changed. Number one, his in ring style had been adapted to cover up his downfalls, after the surgery (ie. Avoiding backdrops), but his matches still held the intensity they always had. Secondly, he proved something to the critical fan. He could wrestle. After years of brawling and short cutting his way to a good match with ringside antics, he put in admirable wrestling matches against Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, and regained any respect he had lost from fans criticizing the fact he returned at all.

To the educated fan, one thing was going to happen and one thing needed to happen, after Austin’s return. With The Rock heading for Hollywood, there was only one man walking out of WrestleMania with the WWF. And after that, he needed to turn heel to keep his act fresh. Both happened at the big show, but the month previous something else happened which hinted at the change in Austin’s attitude. At No Way Out, Austin lost CLEAN to Triple H – the first time he had done so on pay – per – view since the Survivor Series 96 when he went down to Bret Hart. And just for the anoraks reading this (Dave – LOL) Austin is still to get a pinfall win over Triple H on pay – per – view (Buried Alive on 96 doesn’t count because he wasn’t Triple H back then, he was Hunter Hearst Hemlsey).

To be brutally honest Austin hasn’t had a poor PPV bout all year. If you look at things, if Austin and The Rock had have had a real stinker on April 1, who would have took the blame? The Rock? I don’t think so. Austin would have took a shed load of flack and may have even had to re-evaluate his decision of returning to the ring. But that didn’t happen and went on to compete in two commendable main event bouts with The Undertaker at Backlash (the tag match with Triple H and Kane, as well) and Judgment Day.

With numbers falling a little, the following month, Austin worked with younger talent in the Title match at the King of the Ring. Jericho and Benoit had been screaming out for months for a shot at the big time, and with Triple H out of the picture, Heyman put in a good word with the bookers and the match was set. Jericho and Benoit acquitted themselves in at the KOTR but the fact was no one believed that they could topple Austin for the belt. However the fact remained that interactions with Austin on PPV and TV did Jericho and Benoit’s reputations no harm, and in the weeks previous, Austin had also helped enhance the reputations of Lita, The Hardy Boys and Spike Dudley in skits on WWF TV.

In July, Austin was involved in some of the most hilarious sketches I have ever seen on a wrestling programme with Vince McMahon and Kurt Angle. It was a shame for it to all end at InVasion when Austin switched sides, to The Alliance, in a move NO ONE saw coming. In the following weeks, Austin was to lose to Jericho, RVD and Angle (twice, including Unforgiven), all in upset losses and while Undertaker, Kane, and others continued to slaughter The Alliance boys, Austin did his bit by losing some decent matches against the previous mentioned bodies. Also during this time, Austin has completely improved his adaptability in promos and backstage segments. His timing in all genre of segments is now second to none. The way he acts, looks and what he says, is all-believable. He is not, and never has been, reliable on catchphrases like The Rock and although he does use them, he does so to great affect. What? I said he does so with great affect.

365 days on, from when he made Kurt Angle look like a complete jabroni in a backstage corridor, he taps out cleanly to him, in a pay – per – view main event to end his own five month long WWF World Title reign. You have to look back a good few years to find out when someone who did that.

Speaking of jabronis, the night after DDP was revealed the stalker of Sara Undertaker, WCW (and later The Alliance) has looked like a whole stable full of them. From Mike Awesome looking and sounding like a moron in Madison Square Garden when he captured the Hardcore Title to The Undertaker bouncing DDP around like a jobber at the King of the Ring, and then from the piss take that is the ‘Spinarooni’ to the sheer stupidity of Buff Bagwell, WCW has looked completely inept from start to the present day.

The whole point of the InVasion was to get WCW wrestlers over with the WWF crowd, so WCW could then restart as a separate entity, but the way WWF have gone about this has been naïve at best. First off, it’s a common known fact that in history, when ever the name of WCW or any WCW wrestler has been mentioned on WWF TV before the buy out, whoever mentioned it was booed out of the building. There are three types of wrestling fans. The ones who actually watch it for the wrestling (yes they do exist), the ones who simply want to be entertained (by promos, backstage stuff or violence) and the ones who like a bit of both (yep, I’m one of ‘em). If you want to be entertained, you watch the WWF and the idea of anything to do with actual wrestling is foreign to this sort of fan, and so to the mark WWF fan – WCW is the enemy. So the mind boggles as to why the WWF creative staff initially decided to make WCW the face faction when the InVasion began. I can understand the logic of the fans wanting to watch the face faction if they went it alone (the WCW restart) but first those wrestlers would have had to been over, and seems that was the whole point of the InVasion, the logic itself doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

So in one of those masterstrokes that the WWF occasionally comes up with, ECW returned, turned heel and formed The Alliance with the WCW. The echoes of Paul Heyman screaming “Death to Sports Entertainment…Death to the WWF!” are still clear in my head today and the greatest angle in wrestling history was about to start to finally roll…or so I thought.

The fact that the InVasion drew a 1.43 buy rate – that’s 680, 000 buys with a gross of a $8.8 million, says that the public was excited about this too. At the event itself The Alliance competed, and I do mean competed with the WWF. In every match that took place, The Alliance members looked like they could win – it was a fair battle, and was hard to predict who was going to come out on top. The establish them, The Alliance tipped the scale in their favour with the 10 man tag victory, and had apparently ‘taken over’ the WWF. However at SummerSlam it the war was over in my opinion. As Power Slam magazine put it, “They might as well have called it, “SummerSlam: WWF Ain’t Selling Anything”. The Dudleys and Test, and RVD, were the only Alliance members to take a win. Lance Storm lost to Edge. Jericho toppled Ryhno. Undertaker and Kane MASSACRED DDP and Kanyon. And Angle beat Austin by DQ.

By this time, The Alliance were made to look completely inept. And it has continued to just this past week’s Raw, when Kanyon was the only Alliance member to get a win on the entire show. If the WWF wanted to put The Alliance over as a credible threat to itself, why have they made them look like complete jobbers? Now it’s no longer an InVasion. Let’s look at the facts. Test, Rhyno, The Dudleys, Justin Credible, Tazz, Raven and Steve Austin were all on WWFE contracts way before March, so they didn’t invade. They just turned heel and changed stables didn’t they? Or have I missed something here? The only people that have invaded that are actually regulars on WWF TV now are, Lance Storm, Kanyon, DDP (though he’s out injured at the moment), The Hurricane, Booker T and RVD. Hardly monstrous numbers is it?

They signed the utterly useless Kronik and sent half of the WCW’s best tag team, Palumbo & O Haire, to OVW. They originally singed 24 WCW contracted wrestlers and still to be utilized on a meaningful show, are: Chavo Guerrero Jr., Mark Jindrak, Johnny The Bull, Kid Romeo, Elix Skipper, Mike Sanders, Kwee Wee, Yang, Jamie Noble and Lash LeRoux, among others. Most of them have been sent to OVW or HWA. Not to mention Tommy Dreamer, who’s been reduced to jobbing to Scotty 2 Hotty on Metal for the love of sanity.

The WWF creative staff needs to make big changes NOW. Make out that the WWF won the war, the entire Alliance disbands and WCW is taken from TV, apart from a select few (DDP: to save his career, Booker T: cos he’s earning too much money to be doing nothing). Have those two join the WWF and mould into the roster. When January comes around The Alliance should reform. The forgiven ECW wrestlers (who went back to the WWF after The Alliance split) re-join the rejuvenated Alliance. This Alliance should have a new look WCW. This would involve the signing of Kevin Nash and Rey Misterio Jr. (whose Time Warner contracts expire on January 1), Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett, (a hopefully re-heeled) Scott Steiner and offer Ric Flair and Hogan short term, big money deals for strictly out-of-the-ring roles. Then Vince McMahon should take a risk – buy Goldberg out of his Time Warner contract and sign him as well. Add these new faces in with the current WCW roster and THEN and only THEN will the WCW ever be able to compete with the WWF in a war. It is without doubt the WWF’s creative team that have messed this up. The WCW have just done what they’ve been told. Those who haven’t have been fired or dropped to the Sunday Night Heat squad.

It’s McMahon’s way or the high way but for the WWF/WCW war to work – WCW has got to look as though it has a chance of winning it. Back in May I would’ve said with the roster they had then that they didn’t have a chance, but leading up to InVasion they looked credible and able of kicking some WWF ass. It’s only been the booking that has made them look like a bunch of jobbers. The future of wrestling depends on the WWF/WCW war being successful – let’s pray that the WWF creative/booking team don’t screw it up...

If you have any comments on this article or the September 2 Dismember PPV this past Sunday, post them on the OOC board as I'd love to hear what you think about both.

LATER!

Rob Powell