>>14418277That time is interesting. Rough summary:
You have to go back to Austin wanting to turn heel. (Which he had the right idea, but he forgot that he was off TV for a whole year and people didn't really want to boo him just yet) then, WCW AND ECW go under at the same time, so you have the biggest storyline in the history of wrestling coming together.
Vince fucks it up and is too cheap to pay people. But, during 2001, three people get fucking over, while HHH is injured, Jericho, Angle and RVD. Jericho begins getting cheers over Rock... so they turn him for some reason. WWE turns their American flag bearing Olympic hero heel like a month after a terrorist attack even though he was giga-over, then, RVD who is like the only alliance guy they didn't fuck up gets mega over and they do nothing with him.
Around this time HHH comes back and he's getting a buzz. Say what you want, but even the Two-Man Power Trip was supposed to end with HHH turning face and they test ran a face turn for him around fall of 2000 and it worked, but it basically killed the guys who were already being positioned well.
From there HHH comes back, giga pop, but he's not the HHH from 2000. Nah. He's fucking enormous, watched late 70s-mid 80s Flair and wants to make people sit through that shit. Then, they put him in a terrible angle with Stephanie and Jericho that just doesn't work, because of course it's HHH so rather than just have him get cucked by Jericho ((and working off Jericho and Steph's chemistry with each other) he makes an awkward divorce angle.
Vince still wants to run WCW vs WWF in some way shape or form as well, so he's off-and-on with the WCW vs WWF stuff. A lot of Time Warner contracts are coming up at this time as well and he manages to knab the entire NWO.
Of course, Vince has no idea how to use them and immediately makes them damn-near murder the Rock, but it doesn't matter Hogan gets over as a face because he hasn't been there in eight years. (Cont...)
