by Bob Morris

(Note: Before I begin, this piece was written prior to Nitro. See my Nitro report for my additional thoughts about what went down at the show.)

Once again, WCW has the fans talking about the promotion again.

But what price will be paid?

Is it a shoot? Is it a work? A bit of both, perhaps? And who was in on it? Everyone believes in one thing or another, but I'm not going to take this column up to explain to yiu my take on it…instead, I want to look at the effects of what happened at Bash at the Beach.

If this is a shoot…then there may be hope for WCW after all.

If it's a work…then WCW, for all practical purposes, is dead.

The majority of those who watched the show believed that what went down at BATB was a work. There's evidence to support both theories about it being a work or a shoot. And among those who believe it was a work, some believe it was done very well. But regardless of where you stand on the "work or shoot" theories, the important effects on WCW will be what happens after the smoke has cleared.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that this is a shoot. It's well known that many of the younger talent in WCW believe Hulk Hogan has held them back, and he has been known for being a master politician behind the scenes at WCW. With Hogan out of the picture, the younger talent now finally sees its opportunity to prove themselves to WCW and show they, too, can be draws like Hogan once was.

The biggest opportunity, by far, is the chance to promote Booker T as the new top guy in WCW. He is one of those talents who caught the eye of fans back in 1998 WCW, along with the likes of Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Eddie Guerrero for having all the potential in the world to be major players in wrestling. Those other three are now in the WWF, while only Booker remains in WCW.

The chance for WCW to take Booker to new heights and build a company around him and other wrestlers may just be what the doctor ordered for WCW. Certainly ratings aren't going to go up overnight, but if the fans who start tuning into Nitro out of curiosity like what they see, they may stay and thus allow WCW to rebuild its fanbase.

The end result could be a much tighter race for supremacy on Monday nights, with both companies striving to inject fresh talent and angles into the programs, and working overtime to find ways to best the other. It could very well make wrestling fun to watch once again, instead of being lopsided, and thus at times, a boring scene.

But given what I have just written, now let's take a look at what will happen if the BATB deal was a work, and Hogan ends up returning again.

Remember how many of the wrestlers are rejoicing over Hogan's departure? Just imagine what would happen if Hogan showed up again, and was in the company's top angle. After all, if the BATB situation was a work, you know WCW would make it the company's top angle.

Locker room morale in WCW has often been at all-time lows before, but then started to rise when the younger talent saw a flicker of hope. But if the Hogan deal turns out to be a work and he returns to the company, there will be no question whatsoever that locker room morale will go straight down the toilet, and this time, it may NEVER be brought back up, period.

I could easily see MASSIVE amounts of wrestlers demanding their releases from WCW because they don't see any hope at all of getting a chance to prove themselves. People like Billy Kidman, Shane Douglas, and Konnan, who have given WCW another chance for one reason or another, are likely to want out of WCW at all cost, should Hogan return and this would all be revealed as a big work. It wouldn't surprise me to see wrestlers even decide they'll just leave the business altogether if they have no other place to go, rather than stay with WCW for the money.

It would only get worse if the various walk-outs on the part of Lex Luger, Elizabeth, and Kimberly, not to mention reported unhappiness from Diamond Dallas Page, Sting, and Sid Vicious also turn out to be a "work" as well. It will immediately send a message to younger talent that they can't trust Eric Bischoff or Vince Russo for anything they say.

Russo and Bischoff cannot afford, under any circumstance, to lose the trust of wrestlers. Regardless of your own personal feelings about the men in charge of WCW, many of the younger wrestlers believe they can trust Russo, and some believe that it is easier to work with Bischoff now that he is supposedly having fewer duties in WCW.

If the Hogan deal is revealed to be a work and he comes back, that will all change. Never again will any WCW wrestler feel they will be able to trust Bischoff or Russo. And without that trust among the wrestlers, there will be no chance of having a team atmosphere backstage. Wrestlers could ask for releases, or stay at home and refuse to work, or half-ass it with everything they are told to do. And none of that will benefit WCW, no matter how well Russo scripts out the storylines.

Furthermore, Russo will immediately become the most-hated man on the Internet today. While it is true plenty of people on the Internet do not care for Russo and his booking, there are those who will acknowledge that he had some good ideas in the past, others who do like his style of booking, and still others who save more of their hatred for Hogan.

But if the Hogan deal is a work, I guarantee you Russo is going to lose just about all the support he has from those who like what he does, because I don’t think any one of those people care for Hogan or want to see him on top again. As for those who don't like Russo, that hatred will be multiplied MANY times over, and those people will NEVER be willing to give Russo another chance at all, or even recognize anything he did that was good for business. He will have lost all trust and respect from fans, and won't have anybody to blame but himself for it.

Russo has already put himself into danger many times before with his "reality-based" angles. Bischoff has also been a fan of such "psuedo-shoots" before. But the problem is, the more times you cry wolf, the less likely people will believe you if something legit happens. Remember how many people doubted the authenticity of Ric Flair's collapse during a Thunder taping? And we mustn't forget that it was turned into an angle, anyway.

It really pains me to have to write about just how dangerous…or better yet, just how LETHAL…to WCW the deal with Hogan would be if it's a work. If it's a work, I can see, when all is said and done, locker room morale being destroyed, tons of wrestlers wanting out, and fans who are fed up, once and for all, with WCW and vow never to watch the shows again.

Russo's reputation will be scarred for life, as will Bischoff's, and most certainly, Hogan's will too. Not one of the three of them would ever be able to gain respect from anyone in the wrestling business, bottom line. And WCW, for all practical purposes, will be finished with no recovery possible.

I sure hope I am wrong about that statement I just made about "no recover possible for WCW" because the last thing the wrestling business needs is a major promotion collapsing. While I applaud the WWF for its recent attempts to elevate new wrestlers into the main event scene, it would be much harder for me to be a wrestling fan with only one promotion on the scene that's available to watch on television on a regular basis. There is no guarantee, at this point, that ECW is going to even be on a cable network after its show disappears from TNN, and even so, ECW is not in the financial position to be a major competitor with the WWF and be able to shake things up as a result.

And WWF taking all the younger wrestlers isn't the solution, because there is only so much room on the WWF roster, and Vince McMahon cannot afford to be overburdened with too many wrestlers, resulting in him either (a) expanding WWF programming to the point where fans declares there IS too much wrestling on, and decided not to watch anymore, or (b) having such a crowded locker room, that certain wrestlers believe there isn't a chance for them to move up, thus possibly affecting locker room morale there, or (c) plenty of talent being released to make room for new stars, and leaving those wrestlers unhappy as a result.

Besides, competition is good for the wrestling business. Had WCW not finally come along with Nitro and a top angle that actually worked and pulled the fans in, chances are the WWF would have had no reason to change with the times. The WWF didn't do it prior to WCW's surge, and the truth is, WWF may have believed it really had no compelling reason to. After all, while WWF had a slump in 1993, that slump was very small compared to how horrid things were in WCW that year.

At any rate, what went down at Bash at the Beach will have a significant impact not just on WCW, but on the wrestling business as well. And for WCW's sake, I hope that impact will not be negative.