There are storylines that aren't well remembered, but there are storylines that just can't be forgotten. There are quite a few that stick out in my mind. Some are good. Some are fucking lame.
Before I go on, the initials might confuse some people, so I'll give you the meanings of them.
WWE = World Wrestling Entertainment
WWF = World Wrestling Federation
WCW = World Championship Wrestling
ECW = Eastern Championship Wrestling, then later, Extreme Championship Wrestling
XPW = Xtreme Pro Wrestling
UPW = Ultimate Pro Wrestling
NWA = National Wrestling Alliance
TNA = Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
ROH = Ring Of Honor
In WCW's dying days, when Vince Russo was still in charge, David Flair had a relationship with Ms Hancock (Stacy Keibler) when Vince revealed that the two were actually siblings. Oh, and Stacy was pregnant as well (a bogus pregnancy). It was gonna be revealed that Vince was the father of Stacy's baby, but Vince McMahon closed the deal on WCW before that part came.
A good thing, too. WCW had the worst booking ever.
Course, when WCW went down, a lot of wrestlers went to WWF, except for the guys at the top. Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Ric Flair were still collecting checks from Time Warner, and were still locked in that deal. Diamond Dallas Page took a contract buyout to be in the invasion storyline, but the storyline itself was booked badly. WWF's top guys, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kurt Angle, joined the Alliance, made up of WCW and ECW guys. The Invasion pay-per-view had "interpromotional" matches, but the main event, which was supposed to be WWF vs WCW, instead became WWF vs WCW, ECW, and WWF, coz the only WCW guys on the opposing team were Booker T and DDP. The Dudley Boyz and Rhino rounded out the team, who were in ECW, but on the WWF afterwards, only to rejoin their former team. The whole angle culminated at Survivor Series, where Shane and Stephanie McMahon, who ran the WCW/ECW Alliance put it all on the line against Vince's WWF, and, of course, the WWF won. Most of the Alliance guys would resurface, however.
But, the most fucked up thing was, on Raw Is War, after Survivor Series, Ric Flair appeared and revealed that he was now the co-owner of the WWF, which caused Vince to bring in Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash, the nWo, in order to destroy his own promotion. I thought Vince was crazy. Course, Hogan would become a good guy after Wrestlemania.
I read that it was planned when Vince bought WCW, that the storyline was that Vince and Linda were getting divorced, and would split the company, coz Shane was the storyline owner of WCW. Raw would become WCW Nitro, and WWF Smackdown would still be on. Sadly, the Tacoma show, which had the first WCW match on it, Buff Bagwell challenging Booker T for the WCW title, would be the end of that idea.
Here's another strange fact: I went to that show.
So, the invasion did not go as planned. The "divorce" didn't happen, and Shane and Stephanie eventually got back into he good graces of their parents...in storyline. In reality, their dysfunctional exterior is all an act.
The brand extension finally did happen after Wrestlemania, with Vince McMahon running Smackdown, and Ric Flair running Raw, but the two would battle it out (it was inevitable) in a winner-take-all match, and Vince got the win, with the help of Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar.
Then, with Vince back in total control of his company, he appointed two General Managers for both, Raw and Smackdown. He brought in Eric Bischoff, who ran WCW in it's day, and Stephanie McMahon, who was on the outs with Vince, on TV.
It was right around this time that the "Federation" became "Entertainment", when the other WWF, the World Wildlife Fund, took WWF to court over the initials. I have to wonder if it's coz the pandas started hitting each other with chairs? Either way, THAT wasn't a storyline. But it still boggles me as to why, when they show old footage, that they blur out the scribble WWF logo, but they can keep the chrome WWF logo. That makes no fucking sense to me.
There are a few other storylines I wanna get to.
One that I saw, when I first started watching wrestling, was when Al Snow and Big Bossman had their feud. Bossman kidnapped Al Snow's dog, Pepper, and demanded a match for the Hardcore Championship. Al agreed, Bossman won, but did not return Pepper. A few weeks later, Big Bossman invited Al Snow to his hotel room to discuss some matters and Bossman served up a casserole which he explained to be "100% pure Pepper." Yep. Bossman cut up Al Snow's dog and put him in a casserole. Led to a match at a pay-per-view. I guess Al lost, coz Bossman still had the title.
ECW had some great storylines and great booking. There are quite a few that remember the Three-Way-Dance, which put Shane Douglas, Sabu, and Terry Funk in the ring, fighting for the NWA Championship. This was when ECW was still a part of the NWA. All three wrestled to a one-hour time limit. No one cared who one. It was a huge success, coz the fans enjoyed that match.
In a later match, Shane Douglas won a tournament to crown a new NWA Champion. Paul Heyman and Shane Douglas divised a screw-job against the NWA, mainly coz Dennis Carluzo was talking shit about Shane Douglas on Mike Tenay's radio show. So, Shane Douglas, took the NWA Title, did this speech about the history of the title, from Harley Race, to Ricky Steamboat, to Ric Flair, and Dusty Rhodes, and ended with, "they can all kiss my ass!", and threw the belt down. He then took the ECW belt and called himself the ECW Champion. Dennis got pissed, asked Todd Gordon what the fuck was going on, course, Todd didn't know. It was all Heyman and Douglas. After that, ECW was no longer a part of the NWA. Todd Gordon announced on the show that Eastern Championship Wrestling was folded, in it's place was Extreme Championship Wrestling.
ECW, after that, had the more realistic storylines. One was Raven and Tommy Dreamer. In the storyline, Raven and Tommy Dreamer had history. Dreamer was the popular jock, and Raven was the troubled outcast that Dreamer always picked on. Raven came back with a girl, Beulah, that liked Tommy in their youth, but wasn't good enough for Tommy. But when Beulah appeared, she was a hottie. Thing about their feud was Dreamer could never defeated Raven. Each time he got close, he'd somehow fuck up. The only time Dreamer beat Raven is when Raven was leaving for WCW.
Tommy got Beulah, and it led to wrestling's first lesbian storyline. Beulah was cheating on Tommy with Kimona Wanalaya. Shane Douglas asked Tommy what he was gonna do now, and Tommy said, "I'll take'em both! I'm hardcore!"
We also saw a feud between Sandman and Raven. Raven got in the minds of Sandman's ex-wife and his son, Tyler. Tyler dressed like Raven, and did his pose, causing Sandman, the tough drunk menace to society to break down and cry on TV. The feud led to Raven and his group, consisting of Stevie Richards, Blue Meanie, and Nova, crucifying Sandman. When it happened, the whole arena was silent. Backstage, Shane Douglas, Francine, and Tazz were raising all sorts of hell. Kurt Angle was in attendance that same day, and told Paul Heyman that what happened deeply offended him, and he'd never work for him.
Years later, Kurt Angle would appear, briefly, in the new ECW. That has always baffled me, since a year earlier, Kurt Angle helped lead an anti-ECW coalition along with Eric Bischoff when WWE hosted the first ECW One Night Stand. Then, he joins ECW the following year. A few months later, Angle signed with TNA. Such is the wrestling world. Nothing is forever.
When I think of more I could share with you, I'll post them.
