That infamous Buff Bagwell Booker T match on RAW.

B.A._Baracus

Randomly decided to watch it on YouTube.
For those that may have forgot, this match was the first "WCW Match" in WWF/WWE and it main evented RAW July 2nd 2001. Several months after WWE bought WCW.

It went down in history as being one of the worst matches of all time. Buff Bagwell took the blame and was fired shortly after (his only match in WWE). People also blame this match for hindering any success a WCW promotion may have had under the WWE umbrella.

... But the thing is the match isn't that bad. I've seen a whole lot worse. Of course I've seen a whole lot better too. But I never got the hate for this.
Bagwell is the heel so is naturally leading the match. Sure, in the heat he is just hitting the usual cliche spots and a lot of rest holds (not good considering the spot they've been given) and a special mention has to be given to booker t for giving it a lot. He is on fire and crisp.
But here's no blown spots. Both men's bumping and feeding are absolutely fine.
Sure bagwell does seem a little out of gas near the end. But... It's not the worst match of all time.

What's people's thoughts on this?
Total stink fest or someone had to take the heat, as it was a pro-wwf crowd, and sadly bagwell was the guy?

jface187

I was watching it at the time. It made no sense from the start. WCW was supposed to be invading, so they give Buff and Booker the main event slot on raw, they change the ring, announcers and commentery team to make it more WCW. Why would the WWE from a storyline point of view allow this to happen?

The fans that came to the show were there to see WWE stars, not Buff bleeding Bagwell who well past his sell-by date by then. Of course, this was a sign of things to come, with the lack of star power for WCW and the few WCW guys the WWE had, was made to look like chumps.

B.A._Baracus

It's interesting about Bagwell. Like let's honest, Bagwell was an average worker - that's not an insult he's made more money and seen more places than me. He had a good gimmick and a great body.

However he probably wasn't the best guy to put in such a match. Booker can go. But as you say above, WWF didn't have many WCW stars. No DDP, Nash, Hall, Hogan, Sting, Goldberg, Steiner etc.

As for Bagwell being past it? The funny thing was that he was only 31. While booker was 36.

jface187

More so what I was saying about Buff, it just seems time had passed him by and he was still doing the same gimmick. It was a midcard comedy act that never went anywhere.

Itssoeasy

Ah yes from Tacoma, Washington if I remember correctly. I’ve rewatched it since it happened and as you BA the match itself wasn’t bad, but the whole vibe was off. It was arn Anderson and I think mark madden on commentary but it was never going to get over with a WWF crowd and audience.

Agent Coulson

I wonder how long Buff had on his WCW contract.

If he sat it out he would have been better off.

WWE giving him a new WWE contract then sacking him I'm sure he lost out on a shed load of money.

Itssoeasy

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I wonder how long Buff had on his WCW contract.

If he sat it out he would have been better off.

WWE giving him a new WWE contract then sacking him I'm sure he lost out on a shed load of money.

His contract ended when WCW went out of business. March 25th, 2001 was the end date of his contract.

He was probably happy to get a contract. Didn’t his mother ring JR to tell them buff wouldn’t be at TV ? Or is that a myth.

Edit: https://sites.google.com/site/chrisharrington/wcw_contracts#TOC-Buff-Bagwell

The link above has all WCW talent contracts from 1996 -2000. It’s a great resource which has wwe stuff not just WCW.

MynamesColm

I haven't watched that match recently, but I do remember watching it at the time. The match itself wasn't terrible, but the atmosphere and energy seemed to have been sucked out of the arena. There was basically a hostile crowd, I can't imagine anybody from WCW (bar the really big names like Hogan, Flair, etc) would've gotten any kind of good reaction.

If anything now it reminds me of Brock v Goldberg at wrestlemania XX, where the crowd hamstrung the match from the start.