By Aaron Marco

This weeks Retro Rant was originally written on 01/12/2000

Every week, I ask myself the same question.

Is this the one?

Every week I watch Nitro, hoping that this will be the Nitro in which they do something that will make me legitimately interested in WCW again.

And every week, I'm disappointed.

Now some of you will ask yourselves, "How can he say that after what I saw on Nitro?" The short answer to that is "Practice." The long answer will take some time to go into. We obviously have the time, since we're both here, so let's get to it, shall we?

It's not so much that I hate WCW. I don't. I used to really like their shows. I practically lived on WCW Saturday Night. I remember going to a friend's grandparents house, and pleading with them for control over the satellite dish, so we could watch WCW pay-per-views. I loved the Horsemen, Road Warriors, The Russians, Steamboat/Flair, The Freebirds, The Midnight Express. I am still amazed at some of the things I have seen many of the luchadores do on WCW television.

I was as suprised when Hall and Nash jumped ship, and were soon joined by Hogan (and later everybody else, but that's another story). I marked out big time for Bischoff being powerbombed by Nash, and later when he joined up with the NWO, I was intrigued and interested in everything that was going on in WCW. I liked this new insider-type booking style. It was chaos, and as a wrestling-turned-sports-entertainment fan, I loved every minute of it.

But this is not the same WCW.

Granted, times change, leadership changes, and the rosters almost constantly change these days. But what I'm seeing is just not up to par with not only what the WWF has to offer, but even more sadly, with what WCW has to offer themselves.

I appreciate the attempt at exciting the fans by re-introducing (and in some cases introducing) some of the top names of the past, but I think Russo or somebody is kind of missing the mark. Not by much, but enough.

For example, the idea to bring out George "the Animal" Steele was a good one. In the sense that it kept me interested enough not to change the channel. That may be the whole goal anyway, but nonetheless. I enjoyed seeing him in the ring again, and even had a smile on my smarky little face when he began eating the turnbuckle pad, just like days of old. But when Russo (dba Funk and Co.) brought out Tito Santana, I did two things. The first was come very close to changing the channel just on general principle. The second was to notice the pattern that was staring me in the face the whole time. And I should have seen it earlier, since I've seen it many times in the past with WCW.

These were all old WWF stars.

I know Funk made no bones about it in his introductions, but it was all a bit too blatant for me. Now most people think that I'm going to go off about how they steal everything from the WWF. I won't, not because that's too easy to write about. Believe me, I could write a whole column about that. But there's a bigger issue under the surface here. One that for the life of me, I can't see why Russo is missing. He's sitting on a gold mine, and doesn't even know it.

For all his shortcomings as a booker, what does Vince Russo seem to be able to do both effortlessly and without apparent guilt? Steal ideas and gimmicks. Let's be honest here, that's what he's been doing. A little tweak here, and a prod there, and we hardly even recognize some of the rip off WWF characters, right? The argument can, and has, been made that some of the gimmicks that he's lifting are his own. So he gets away with it. But he's running out of ammo, and I've got the bomb. And I'll drop it here and now, and McMahon better run for cover if Russo ever gets wind of this one...

Russo could steal from WCW itself.

Think about it. He's already hit on the fact that crowds pop for legends. Hogan. Piper. Flair. And he's recently figured out that the fans dig people they haven't seen in awhile, like Tito, and Orndorff. Think of all the people in the WCW's very own past that he could use today. Big names from the old NWA days, that I'm sure would be more than willing to get in the ring for whatever they paid the old WWF stars to come out for. And some classic matches in NWA/WCW history could be relived and revived with an new twist. The possibilities are endless. Endless, I tell you. None of the old fans would mind, since they get to see some of the guys they grew up watching go at it again. And the new fans wouldn't realize he's still stealing, since none of these guys came over directly from the WWF.

While you can't put the same older wrestlers out in the ring every Monday night, due to their physical condition, and due to the fact that it's a 2 hour show now. We stil have the younger guys to develop. But with Goldberg, Sting and Flair out for whatever reasons, how better to get the newer guys over than to get them in the ring, and get a rub from some of the guys from WCW's glorious past. The fans win, the wrestlers win, and Russo wins.

You may have noticed, I haven't included some suggestions on some "dream matches" to see in the future between some of these legends and the new blood in WCW. That's not because I don't want to offend anybody, I assure you. I have my reasons for reserving my comments. And maybe the day will come when I get the chance to share a few matches ideas with some of you lucky readers. But we'll just have to wait and see. I can't just give it all away for free, now can I?

WCW Management? I'm listening...

Thanks for reading,

Marco