On this day in Pro Wrestling history in 2001, the long awaited “debut” of the new WCW on Raw took place (Raw is WCW).
The final half hour of WWF Raw was given to WCW and was headlined by Buff Bagwell and Booker T.
Bagwell, who had his 1st match in months the day before on a house show, blew up quickly, & was using long restholds in a match that should have been non-stop action to put over the quality of the WCW performers. The match was embarrassing, & chants of “Boring” & “This Match Sucks” were clearly heard throughout.
A WWF source said Vince McMahon “absolutely hated” the whole WCW segment. That same night, Billy Kidman defeated Shane Helms for the WCW Cruiserweight Title. This was the 1st time a WCW title would change hands on a WWF show.
Jim Ross had the following to say about the match: “That match stands out for all the wrong reasons. It was abnormally bad and seemingly ill-timed.”
Booker T said the following: “I knew that Buff wasn’t prepared for that stage. But I still had a job to do and that was to represent WCW. That night was a test to see if WCW guys were better than WWF guys. It was WCW versus WWF. That’s what that night was really all about, first and foremost.”
You can watch the full match below:
