Vince McMahon wanted 5-time tag champ to fail on RAW, WWE veteran claims (Exclusive)
Vince Russo recently recalled how Vince McMahon purposely set Buff Bagwell up for failure during his brief WWE run.
Bagwell was one of many wrestlers who joined WWE after McMahon acquired WCW. The five-time WCW World Tag Team Champion main-evented RAW against Booker T on July 2, 2001. However, the match was widely criticized by fans due to its heavy WCW branding.
On Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws show, former WWE Superstar EC3 joked that McMahon wanted to "scorch the Earth" with the remains of WCW. Asked if he agreed with that statement, Russo told Dr. Chris Featherstone that Bagwell had caused problems backstage for then-WWE talent relations executive Jim Ross:
"He [Vince McMahon] set him [Buff Bagwell] up for failure, a hundred percent, bro. I've read enough about the issues that JR was having with Buff Bagwell. He was having issues with Buff. They definitely made an example out of him, set him up for failure, without a shadow of a doubt." [13:03 – 13:25]
Russo worked with Bagwell and Booker T during his time as a WCW writer. The 62-year-old believes Booker was placed in a difficult situation due to Bagwell's apparent issues with the company's higher-ups:
"You know what's sad about that?" Russo continued. "Listen, we all know Buff's checkered past. We all know it, bro. I get it, I worked with him, I understand. But, at the same time, you're doing that to Booker T? Wrong guy to do that to, bro." [13:25 – 13:45]
Watch the video above to hear Russo explain why Vince McMahon launched SmackDown as a weekly show in 1999.
EC3 on Vince McMahon's WWE environment compared to WCW
Buff Bagwell spent a decade in WCW before joining WWE. A week after his RAW match against Booker T, the 53-year-old was handed his release from the company.
Booker T and Buff Bagwell took part in the only WCW match on Raw on this day in 2001. The idea was to test the waters with the fans with regards to running WCW as a separate brand following the purchase of the company 4 months prior. https://t.co/nhr9UgGIOO
EC3 worked for WWE across two spells between 2009-2013 and 2018-2020. He thinks the locker room atmosphere must have been the polar opposite of what Bagwell had grown up with in WCW:
"The etiquette of the locker room backstage, and I would assume WCW had no policing because nobody cared because everybody was disenfranchised with it and just collecting their money and nothing mattered, so they didn't give a hoot nor a holler, but then coming into a WWE with the backstage etiquette, it's not like it's bad, it's just they treat it like a professional," EC3 said. [13:49 – 14:12]
Russo also told a story about a former WWE developmental star who was let go after he failed to shake Triple H's hand backstage.
Do you think Vince McMahon should have given Buff Bagwell more of a chance? Let us know in the comments section below.
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