World Championship Wrestling 1999: Going Hollywood

[Hashasheen]

Nothing new, Bp. We all lose drive sooner or later. You did give us a good run though, so there's that. Still, would appreciate seeing where you wer eplanning to go.

[Bigpapa42]

Nothing new, Bp. We all lose drive sooner or later. You did give us a good run though, so there's that. Still, would appreciate seeing where you wer eplanning to go.

 

Thanks Hash. That is the intent. Done some work on a wrap-up post but slow-going. Will get it up eventually.

[Bigpapa42]

I typically find these “where things were going” wrap-up posts quite cathartic. In some cases, they make me reconsider (to some degree, at least) ending the project. Not so much in this case. It’s a bit light on detail, but if anyone has specific areas they want more information on, please feel free to ask.

 

Now I usually try to have some overriding themes to each of these projects and that was the case here. Not surprisingly, Chris Jericho was central to both.

 

The name I chose for this project was done very intentionally and it was not because Jericho stole the “Hollywood” nickname Hogan used (that idea came later). Rather, World Championship Wrestling was literally going to go Hollywood. At the start of 2000, the company was going to decide to relocate to Hollywood. Similar to my previous WCW project, where I had them relocate to Chicago, I realized that the ties to Atlanta are not that strong and they are really no longer a “southern” wrestling company.

 

This would tie in with the early-2000 release of Ready to Rumble, a best-forgotten WCW moment that would have unfolded differently here. I was still toying with options like having it become a smash hit, or delayed by the studio for a re-edit, after which is becomes a better film than it really was, etc. Plenty of options. But the intent was to make WCW even more Hollywood as time went on – things like integrating script writings and Hollywood-level special effects, doing reality TV shows, celebrity appearances on a frequent basis, etc… I was still toying with how far to go on things but there were tons of options. This would create a different take on WCW that would make this project decisively different from WCW in my previous projects.

 

The second theme was that of the glass ceiling. One of the main reasons that running WCW prior to 2001 never really interested me very much was that they had such a large, settled main event scene, with the top guys having a lot of power and keeping a lot of other guys beneath the “glass ceiling”. The idea of the sale of WCW removing the entire main event scene is what sold me on the project. It was heavy-handed, I admit, but without doing that, I would not have tackled the promotion at this point in time. Once those stars were removed, it created a vacuum. And creating a true vacuum is why I wanted all of the main eventers to remain away from the company for a period of time. But the reality is that once that vacuum is filled, a new glass ceiling is created. Chris Jericho was very much a victim of that limitation in real WCW, which is part of why I decided to make him the top star in my new WCW. But in becoming that, he blocks other guys like Benoit, Guerrero, etc, who in turn block other potential breakout stars. The idea of that glass ceiling was exactly why I had Jericho retain the belt at Starrcade, despite the timing being “right” for Benoit to win it. With some former top guys returning, like Sting, Flair, DDP, and eventually Hart, the “new stars” will be blocked even further.

 

Jericho is a fun character. He is easy to come up with angle and story ideas for. I was also running with the idea that no one is sure whether he has creative control in his contract, he has enormous pull with ze Russian owner, or the management just really loves the guy.

 

WHT

 

Without getting detailed, Jericho was going to feud with Diamond Dallas Page for a bit and go over, then feud with Benoit again. Sometime in the spring, he would finally lose the world title. The idea was that despite Jericho being entertaining, fans would feel like his reign went on a bit too long and Benoit got the belt too late.

 

My original intent was to have the belt go from Benoit to DDP to Eddie. It would get passed around a bit through 2000, with the intent that it would establish the new top stars as on-level with some of the veteran stars who had returned. I was starting to reconsider that and thinking of maybe having a lengthy Benoit reign through much of 2000, revolving around the Four Horsemen.

 

ECW

 

The “war” with ECW was originally intended to just a fun side storyline that would have no real effect. Then Jim gave me a couple of ideas and it evolved into something a lot more serious. Without giving anything notable away (since I might use the idea in the future), the war between WCW and ECW was going to have some actual consequences and would be driven forward by a third party – the WWF. The war between the WWF and WCW would be over but that doesn’t mean Vince is above stirring the pot a little. And that would be what he would do here.

 

Vince Russo

 

I initially decided to have Vinnie Ru come in a fun whipping boy for readers. I then decided to go somewhere with it. In early 2000, after Russo complained endlessly to Dillon, WCW would create the hardcore division and title, putting Russo in charge of booking that. And he would actually do pretty well. Not to the point he was going to be handed the book for the whole company, but he would make it fun and interesting… though likely not overly logical.