by Bob Morris

We knew the writing was on the wall as far as the Bill Busch era in WCW was concerned…and lo and behold, the Bisch is back.

Unfortunately, WCW still hasn't solved any of its problems. All that continues in the company is WCW continues to play "musical vice-presidents" while the real problems facing WCW remain in place.

Namely, bookers who don't want to change with times, politicians keep pulling power plays backstage to stay in their comfortable positions, locker room morale is down because the old guard won't work with the young talent, and that young talent is upset because they don't think they have a chance to prove themselves, and most of all, the company remains booked around a certain somebody whose initials are HH.

WCW can't expect to get things to change by simply putting a new person into the executive vice president seat every time things are going wrong. Nor can they assume that Bischoff will do fine this time, because he won't be allowed to do any more deals like spending money on Master P or the KISS Demon.

While Bischoff's spending habits were a problem in WCW, they were a smaller problem compared to three other things:

1. Wrestlers with full creative control in their contracts, vetoing plans set for them because they think it makes them looked bad
2. Angles and storylines where little thought was put into them, and the end results came off sloppy.
3. Constant de-pushing of fresh new talent who got over with the fans, despite the fact that elevating this talent would build WCW for the future.

Since September, when Bischoff was removed from power, little has really changed with the company. Even when Vince Russo was brought in, the same politicians were still working, unhappy with what Russo did, and eventually, those politicians won out, and it went right back to the way things were before Russo came on board…Hogan dictating policy, bookers refusing to change with the times, and young wrestlers disgruntled as a result of all this.

Some people seem to think that a good thing with Bischoff is we got a 10-minute cruiserweight match every now and then. The problem is, it isn't going to be that way this time around for these reasons:

• For starters, nobody wants to watch the current champ, Prince Iaukea in a 10-minute match.
• Crash TV remains in effect at WCW. Russo is NOT a required ingredient for Crash TV, he just came up with the concept. The WCW bookers just took his concept and are using it themselves…opening interview segments, quickie backstage segments, short interviews before matches, and matches averaging two to three minutes in length. Need I also remind people that while Russo is not writing WCW TV, Ed Ferrara still is, and he was as much a part of creating Crash TV as Russo was.
• If the cruiserweights aren't motivated to put on a good match, then the match sucks. You may get yourself excited about hearing that Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera are going to wrestle 10 minutes on the next Nitro, but if both wrestlers are so unhappy with WCW that they decide to phone it in, that kills your excitement.

But that aside, a problem that remains in WCW is that everybody there is more interested in finding a "quick fix" to problems, and when that doesn't work out, they wind up going to "what worked before," and when THAT doesn't work out, they start pointing fingers, and eventually, somebody gets ousted…except for the people who have been the REAL cause behind the problems (there's that guy with the initials HH again).

If WCW really wants to turn things around, they need to take a closer look at the WWF and the rebuilding process that company went through. It didn't happen overnight, for starters, and it was accomplished by taking wrestlers who were either (a) not over or (b) considered to be jokes, and turning them into major players.

Steve Austin started out as the Ringmaster, The Rock was pushed as a monster babyface and rejected by fans, HHH drew no heat whatsoever, Glen Jacobs (Kane) was stuck between bad gimmicks, and Rikishi Phatu was masquerading at the Sultan. Back in late 1996, who would have thought any of these guys were going to be among the top WWF wrestlers three years later. About the only wrestler who was considered to be a big deal at the time was Mick Foley, and that was because of a feud with the Undertaker.

And part of the process of getting those wrestlers over was to mix them in with talent who was already drawing. In Foley's case, it was the Undertaker. In Austin's case, it was Bret Hart. In Jacobs' case, it was also the Undertaker. HHH and Rock weren't mixed in with the higher talent at first, but as Rock caught on with the fans, he was elevated, and HHH eventually found himself working with Austin.

That's part one of the equation which WCW fails to recognize. In order to get the younger talent to the point where they can draw, and thus take a step to rebuilding the company, they need to mix the new talent with the old. That doesn't mean the old talent has to be "jobbed out" to the new…remember, Austin jobbed several times to Bret as part of his elevation process. But at the same time, Bret took several shots from Austin, and it got Austin to the next level.

As for part two, the rebuilding process takes time. WWF's process started a little bit in 1996, but didn't really get the wheels going until 1997. Wrestlemania XIII was considered a bust, but one year later, Wrestlemania XIV was considered a great success. And just a couple weeks later, the rebuilding process had been complete, and the WWF was back on top.

So, in regards to the WWF rebuilding process, it took them about two years to get things turned around. WCW cannot expect to turn things around in just three months' time. And considering the amount of damage that has been done in WCW, it's going to take at least the same amount of time it took the WWF to rebuild, if not more. Patience is the key for the folks at WCW to get the company rebuilt.

And it can't be done just by signing away WWF talent. First of all, most of the WWF talent is happy in the WWF and has really no interest in leaving at this time. Second of all, it's been proven you can't just rebuild by signing away talent from the other company. When the WWF signed away WCW wrestlers, the WWF was already on a hot streak, and their interest in the WCW wrestlers had nothing to do with them being in WCW, and everything to do with the fact the WWF believed they could make the wrestlers into marketable stars. All of them have had an impact on the WWF, but that's because WWF worked to make them MARKETABLE, rather than just promoting them as guys who once worked for WCW.

WCW, on the other hand, has tried signing WWF wrestlers and pushing them simply on those laurels, and it has never worked. The British Bulldog, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Ed Leslie, Honky Tonk Man, Big Bossman, Brian Adams, and a number of others are among the former WWF wrestlers who were signed and pushed on those laurels, and none of it worked at all.

Now, if Bischoff really wants to prove he learned from his past mistakes, he first needs to begin some housecleaning. Demoting guys like Kevin Sullivan and J.J. Dillon isn't going to solve the problem completely…any master politician in WCW needs to be GONE from the company. As long as they remain in some position of power, their influence will continue to plague WCW. Bischoff needs to GET RID OF THESE PEOPLE or his second run will be even worse than his first.

Second, he needs to lay down the law to ALL of the wrestlers in the company, and in particular, the old guard. Everyone (which means EVERYONE) jobs when told to, and nobody (which means NOBODY) gets to veto any plans made. He needs to direct the old guard to work with the younger talent, or the old guard will not be working for WCW anymore. If Hogan refuses to job to a wrestler, or if Flair sits out because he hates a certain program, then get rid of them (and I'm not going to be as sympathetic to Flair against Bischoff as I have been in the past, because it is obvious that his time in wrestling is up, and he needs to either put young talent over or retire).

And Bischoff doesn’t need to "job out" the older talent…just mix up the old and the new talent together, and work to elevate the young talent in the process. The old talent gets a win here, then the new talent comes back in the blowoff match to win. Hey, Steve Austin wasn't hurt a bit by working with HHH, so I don't think it's going to hurt Hogan to work with somebody like Booker T. As far as Flair goes, he put Curt Hennig over cleanly and still gets reactions from the crowd, so it's proof an older wrestler can job cleanly and still be over with the fans. I don't see how Flair can have a problem with putting over somebody like Vampiro or Kidman.

Back on track here…the third thing Bischoff needs to do is work to improve company morale, and make the wrestlers feel they have an opportunity to prove themselves. As long as the wrestlers are disgruntled, they won't put forth any effort, and the shows will continue to suck.

And fourth, they need to stop relying on "what worked before," and try some new things. The old procedures of booking that worked in the 1980's do not work in today's wrestling environment, and the problem is not solved simply by taking 1980's booking and adding T&A and extra violence on the side. It comes from developing characters people care about, giving them identities that people can relate to, and developing feuds between them from there. Faces and heels still exist, but they don't wear a particular color, and the face is not "completely righteous," they just don't look for the easy way out.

Whether or not these things actually happen is not the issue…the point is, if WCW wants to see things turn around, they have to do these things to get that rebuilding process started. Otherwise, they will never turn anything around, and will either continue to spin their wheels in the mud without actually going anywhere, or closing up shop.

Replacing Busch with Bisch while Hogan still runs the show doesn't solve a thing. All you've done is just replaced one guy who is wrapped around Hogan's finger, with another guy who is wrapped around Hogan's finger.

On the other hand, if Bischoff HAS changed, and realized the REAL errors of his ways, the next few weeks in WCW could be interesting. But again, that's ONLY if Bischoff has seen the REAL errors of his ways.