I don’t think it peaked at that point yet if only because they still had plenty of big stories still left in the tank to cover and the quality of the show definitely improved with season 2. Benoit, Owen, and such wouldn’t come until the next season, plus you had Jericho narrating which is a good addition, and somewhere in that is probably where it peaked. Considering the topics left to cover and what’s come so far I would say this season is the downside. I don’t know that there’s too much left to cover for another season after this anyway, especially with WWE talent not appearing on the show.
Eddy Guerrero maybe, Chyna, Mr. Perfect’s
Final Days, WWE & Saudi Arabia, Signature Pharmacy scandal, maybe an Ian Rotten one (although on second thought after Nick Gage maybe not
) and after that it’s not too much else.
theres plenty of stuff for them to cover.
PLENTY.
theyre just getting lazy, this warrior ep couldve been one of their signature episodes, but they didnt put any effort into it whatsoever, aside from hitting up his ex-wife.
Warrior coming into Attitude Era, he was a colorful character with promos based on the old school rant and rave. There is no way you can run a serious program with him, which is why he ended up working with Golddust, Lawler, etc. Golddust being an edgy character didn't mean those types of gimmicks were what they wanted in the main event and to hold titles. He would have been bushed like he was eventually, alas Macho Man.
Even into the late 90s, Warrior tried to revamp his gimmick to be a little more "new millennium", and even with the atrocious WCW booking/storyline, a "can't miss no matter what" fell short.
It's kind of the same thing as Hulk Hogan, he was for the kids, for a specific era, once that era was changing and people werent messing with him as much, he had to change it up.
I'ma make a spinoff thread about what booking ideas people would think of for him with Shawn Michaels, Austin in long term feuds for the world titles, because that shyt woulda been terrible in the late 90s and totally made a mockery of the new movement.
the real issue with hogan was that half of the WCW audience wasnt feeling him PERIOD. they were 50/50 on him from jumpstreet. theyre not gonna tell yall all that in these lil documentaries because it would make WWF loyalists look at things differently and they dont want any types of ideas formulating in their brains.
back to the warrior, why do yall act like the attitude era was ECW?? im sorry but the attitude era was far more goofy than revolutionary. dont get caught up in the hype & nostalgia.
and what makes yall think the warrior wouldve still been cutting '80s promos?? especially seeing his history with a hot mic. he would have no problem evolving, and even if he did still cut ol school promos, he would fit in just like the undertaker/kane/paul bearer stuff which took up more TV time than everybody outside of austin/vince, and they were apart of the austin/vince stuff too.:laughL
breh I was a big WWF fan at the time, prime age and exactly the mark they were targeting with the Warrior comeback
I’m telling you there was something off about his return and he wasn’t THAT over
why do you think they had to give away his comic book for free with WWF magazine? it was a HUGE flop. so was his wrestling school they were promoting, so was his destrucity line as a whole. Did you ever see fans in the arena rocking it? it just wasn’t popping. I guarantee WWF/ Warrior/ whoever funded it lost tons of money on it
I won’t argue about the plans to push UW into the main event/ title picture but I think that says more about WWFs lack of star power as a whole around that time - and there’s no telling as to whether or not those plans would have changed, title runs are never set in stone
you are crazy to think UW and Stone cold would have co-existed. He would have buried stone cold politically backstage, it would have changed the trajectory of the attitude era and WWF as a whole and not in a positive way. Taker was humble backstage and put guys over, Warrior was not
agreed hitman/ HBK was overrated but you are exaggerating about the arena being half full. It was WM, not a house show, who leaves before the main event? Maybe a decent amount of people left mid way through since it was a long ass match but I’m calling duck tales on the arena being half full
Warriors run in 96 was just not that good by any stretch nor was it primed to be a success. Even if he stayed longer it would have ended poorly
youre ignoring alot of what i said and moving goal-posts.
- thats cool but i was at the peak of middle school wrestling fandom in '96 and i was already well-past the mark phase. i was a smark at this point.
- i never said he was as over as he was in the late 80s/early '90s. i said he was the most over wrestler that the WWF had at the time. the bar being lower is neither here nor there. i also noted that his return is what kept a heap of WWF fans on board before completely siding with WCW. when he left, the gap increased by a wide margin. you ignored this tho.
- the comic book was free upon arrival. youre listing a bunch of extra-curricular stuff that means nothing. what other wrestler had a successful comic book?? i'll wait.
i never even heard of destrucity, and why are you bringing up his wrestling school. none of this stuff matters at all. its like youre nit-picking and looking for something to critique.
- the bottom line is, if his return was such a flop, they wouldnt have even entertained the idea of putting the belt on him, especially with the baggage that he brings. the idea that he was a flop doesnt even make sense. not to mention, they were trying to bring him back again a little over a year later. i mean come on man. this stuff alone should just jump off the page at you.
- the stone cold argument doesnt make any sense regarding your point. first you said, the austin era wouldve ended the warrior. but now youre saying that it wouldve never even happened if the warrior was around. which one is it??? also, with all the dirt thrown around concerning the warrior, ive never heard of the warrior holding other talent down, or even refusing to work with other wrestlers. so why are we even arguing about this??
- im not exaggerrating. im not even the first person on here to mention people filing out of the arena after the warrior match. you can see it for yourself. half-full may have been an overstatement, but a large fraction of the crowd was gone by main event time. the warrior sold that show, and the main event was weak on top of that. hell, i myself ended up watching the back-end of the ppv by myself that night
the warrior's '96 run was indeed a success because his return brought more interest back to the WWF for a good 6 months, kept alot of fans from jumping ship, as well as bringing back prior fans who lost interest & tuned out during the new generation era. again, i was a smark. i saw the bigger picture in real-time. and again, if he was such a flop, why were they trying to bring him back a year later??
at the letter Vince wrote him. I wish they touched on the wcw run but there’s YouTube for that.
at Jake being ready to snuff him at the HOF though, dude was still mad as hell a decade later 
Cornette, Bischoff, Jake and JR completely shyttin on Warrior from beginning to end with 0 fukks given. It was actually more ruthless than the Destruction DVD because that one was structured more as a comedy and this is just a pure railing on Warrior other than the commentary by his ex wife.
