[hb2k]

Originally Posted by Noid For some reason, this time around I would be dead-set for Rob Van Dam on SmackDown. Losing The Rock is a big hit, but he could verbally put over a guy before he left? Did he work the first SmackDown of the brand split? If so, I'd have done The Rock & RVD vs. Kevin Nash & Scott Hall. The nWo were about as good as done, but by putting them with talent they hadn't had much to do with (the Rock/nWo stuff was mainly centred on Hogan/Rock), you instantly make them more interesting. I'd want to keep them away from Hogan and Austin as much as I could. RVD would have had that sort of "cool vibe" that Rock could have gotten behind, and I'd have liked to have seen him on the show where I feel he'd have had smaller shoes to fill, because he was just about ready (in terms of how over he was). Depending on Edge on that show is too much of a climb upwards.

This was my gut instinct. Before we recorded the show, I outright told everybody Van Dam on Smackdown is a beautiful fit. We fell in the trap of Vince/IC and Flair/US based off the WWF/WCW lineage, and with the GM switch, it meant RVD was Raw. I don't mind that so much if the result is RVD ends up as Raw's top babyface, but no doubt he feels like a fresher fit on Smackdown. We did have Rock for that first Smackdown, and like you, we figure use that one show to have him endorse the new top SD guy.

Originally Posted by Noid Austin and Hogan on RAW. Dare I say, I'd have put the Undisputed Title on Austin at Backlash. Yes, Austin was getting past it, but a large part of what fatigued him was creative. Austin just hovering sucked and everybody knew it. If you had treated him more carefully, I think you really could have got him through to the next Mania against Brock. That leads me on to Triple H.

I think with Austin walking out for 2 weeks following Mania I'd have been reluctant to put the belt on him in response, he was being a bit erratic. He definitely needed something new.

Originally Posted by Noid I know you guys are against hot-shotting the title, but I think Austin beating Triple H, leading to inevitable Austin/nWo interaction on SmackDown (and RVD interaction to put him further over), you could have built tensions there. Triple H could have turned heel (something I agree should have happened) at Judgment Day, where the nWo officially align with him and fuck over Austin. This leads to a Hell in a Cell match (obviously you don't do Trips vs. Jericho), and Austin beats Triple H, possibly when some enemies of the nWo toss them around ringside. You then move onto Austin vs. Rock for Vengeance. It's not WrestleMania, but the match was big enough to draw and it feels like you could have gotten away with it in this era. Rock wins their third PPV headline against each other, and Rock still carries the title into SummerSlam where he puts over Lesnar. Austin vs. Brock is your Mania main event.

It keeps the belt strong, I just don't know if Austin Vs. HHH is that much fresher than Austin Vs. Taker at this point? I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder, but with the entire product starting to feel dated for the first time, I'm not sure I'd want Austin Vs. HHH, even with the newer backdrop of the nWo, to be the top feud.

Originally Posted by Noid With RVD on SmackDown, I'd have Edge on RAW, where he becomes the first US Champion under Ric Flair. I know you guys swapped Flair and Vince over, but I liked Flair being on RAW -- I found it surprising and I think the roster allocations are more fresh with Vince interacting with the likes of Van Dam, the nWo, etc. and Flair working with Austin and Edge. Flair offers Edge the US Title out the gate, but Edge tells Flair he doesn't want to be handed anything, and he wants to earn it in a tournament. Flair tells Edge he's a "...good kid. A stupid son of a bitch, but a good kid." This very subtle resentment of Edge's hard-working nature leads to Flair eventually putting Edge against The Undertaker -- the man who beat him at WrestleMania. No, the matches wouldn't have been Angle vs. Edge, but they would have felt special and helped Edge get even more over with crowds.

I absolutely love this. You just know they'd balls it up by eventually making it Flair Vs. Edge or something, but you could even frame it in the end as Ric trying to light a fire in Edge to be good enough to beat Taker. Flair could so an AWESOME promo on Edge talking about all the guys he's seen like him in the past that were supposed to take Flair's place, and in the end they never did. As much as Flair despises Taker, he can admit he's a legend. Flair putting Edge in his place and telling him "are you one of them...(the johnny come latelys)...or are you one of us? Beat him to prove it" would be captivating.

Originally Posted by Noid Angle would be SmackDown for me. Not because of the hindsighty SmackDown Six stuff, but because for some really fucking weird reason, I want to see Angle trying to join the nWo. He was so good at walking the line between credible and goofy, he could have been an ace in the nWo's hat when you need to put them over. Angle could have come out wearing a black t-shirt with nWo-style lettering, excepts the letters are his three I's and they're in red, white and blue. He could have offered Nash, Hall & X-Pac milk in the middle of the ring. That sort of goofy stuff that completely clashes with what the nWo is about, but everybody would know he was good enough to be in there. You could have had them work tag matches, and they make Angle do all the work by refusing to tag in. This might have eventually pushed Angle towards being a face, but it also could have led to Angle being inducted, he kicks out Hall or something (provided the act didn't clean up) and Angle becomes SmackDown's top heel.

You know, since they made him a bungling goon with the wig and headgear, this is actually a good alternative, goofy but proves he's awesome. As you heard on the show, I'm all about Angle as the top heel right from the off personally. The shirt idea cracked me up, just envisioning Angle silly fucking smirk.

Originally Posted by Noid To me, this would mean that Jericho would have to be RAW. I felt these guys were both sort of at the same level at this time. Jericho interacting with Austin was done at No Way Out, but it was still relatively fresh. He could have worked with Edge, or either Eddie Guerrero or Chris Benoit when they were ready to return. I wouldn't have put both Eddie and Benoit on the same show though.

Yeah, Angle and Jericho, and similarly Taker and nWo need to be on separate sides. So of course WWE grouped them both together.

And to Heyman's point on Jericho, I agree that by April 2002, they'd really done a number on him. There are few cases in history where the guy losing the World Title at Mania was so fucked the second it was done. The slow burn element of the heel turn didn't work either, you could feel him cooling off week after week. I think he has to treat the upper-mid level for at least a little while to get that stink off him.

Love the discussion though. Got another one of these rebooking shows coming up this week on 1991 (if you're interested), will post the thread later.