Buff Bagwell was a featured talent for WCW across many years, from his more humble beginnings as a tag team specialist babyface to his better remembered run as heel in the New World Order. When WWE acquired WCW, there was no shortage of pundits suggesting Bagwell would be a shoo-in to succeed in the WWE system. After all, he had a fantastic look and an outsized personality—two factors all but guaranteed to at least give someone a sustained mid-card run under Vince McMahon’s management.

Related: Buff Bagwell's WCW Neck Injury And Return, ExplainedHowever, Bagwell never realized that potential. He was handpicked to work the first ever WCW-branded match on WWE Raw opposite Booker T, and the bout was horribly received, ultimately spelling the end of Bagwell’s WWE career.

Buff Bagwell Vs. Booker T Was The Wrong Match At The Wrong Time

There are ways of spinning Buff Bagwell and Booker T competing over the WCW Championship as an ideal match to introduce the WWE audience to the WCW brand. After all, Booker was an exciting young star who’d emerged from the final WCW Nitro as world champion. Bagwell had a WWE-friendly look and charisma. Both were names familiar to fans who’d already followed WCW, but new to WWE fans for never having worked in that promotion before. It was even a traditional face vs. heel matchup to keep things simple.

However, for all the factors that may have made sense in booking this match, there were many more that did not. WWE put on the match “cold,” without any storytelling or heat going into it. Moreover, while Booker was a main eventer, he wasn’t necessarily one of the first marquee stars fans associated with WCW, like Sting, Goldberg, Ric Flair, Hollywood Hogan, or even Diamond Dallas Page (arguably the biggest name who actually would immediately cross over to WWE). And even for faithful WCW fans, Bagwell was someone who’d never really been a main event guy—an oddball choice to get a world title shot without significant storytelling to get him there.

Beyond the star power issue, there was the reality that it’s hard to imagine Booker T and Bagwell having a great match, least of all in the main event spot on an episode of WWE Raw. Booker had great match potential with the right opponent, but wasn’t in that class of Ricky Steamboat, Randy Savage, or Bret Hart kind of worker who could get three-plus stars out of a broomstick. For everything Bagwell did bring to the table, he was at least one full step behind Booker as a worker. Combine these factors and the match only getting about five minutes bell-to-bell, and it was all but guaranteed to underwhelm before it even got started.

Buff Bagwell Thinks WWE Sabotaged His Match With Booker T

It’s not just conspiracy theorists who think Buff Bagwell vs. Booker T was set up for failure. In a visit to the Who The Fook Are These Guys podcast(h/t WrestlingINC) Bagwell shared his thoughts that WWE went out of its way to be sure the match, himself, and the larger WCW brand did not get over with their fans. That includes booking it for a show that emanated from Tacoma, Washington, never much of a market for WCW, even in its prime. That’s in contrast to Raw traveling to Atlanta—arguably the single hottest city for WCW—just one week later.

In addition to the locale for the failed match, Bagwell offered additional suggestions WWE had it out for him. One of the most infamous backstage stories about Bagwell is that his mother called Jim Ross on his behalf to “call in sick” from an appearance, which JR has used to illustrate Buff’s lack of professionalism. Bagwell completely denies the story, going so far as to suggest Ross lied to ruin Bagwell’s career. “God, me and him are the only three witnesses I have, and who are they going to believe?” Bagwell said. “They're going to believe Jim Ross. It put me in a bad situation ... I said 'why would I wrestle Booker T with 25 … staples in my head and then take off three house shows when you're trying to make it to [WWE]?" While fans may never know for sure who is telling the truth, Bagwell does seem conscious of how absurd it would have been for him to have made that choice.

The Legacy Of Booker T Vs. Buff Bagwell

As the old wisdom goes, winners write the history books. WWE controls most of the popular understanding of the WCW narrative by virtue of having bought out the competition, and the failings of Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell have become an important coda to the Monday Night War.

Related: Buff Bagwell Vs. Booker T & 9 Other Bad Matches That Hurt Major WWE StorylinesThe match flopping was used as justification for no business partners wanting WWE to relaunch the WCW brand, not to mention, more quietly, a demonstration of the limited skills that Bagwell and, by extension, so many other WCW contracted talents actually brought to the table. WWE hasn’t dropped the story of Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell, including keeping it available to date on its official YouTube channel to remind fans who are curious of just how bad it was, and the implication that WCW on the whole was this lackluster of a product.

Buff Bagwell never wound up getting another shot on WWE television—even in a part-time legend type of role that many of his colleagues from that era have had the opportunity to access. Booker T became that rare start to cross over from WCW to WWE and achieve comparable success, but that’s generally considered a testament to his incredible talent and work ethic to make that happen. Nonetheless, Bagwell vs. Booker remains something of a cautionary tale about why WWE doesn’t trust talents coming from outside their system to succeed, and a reflection of all WCW’s shortcomings.