Welcome back to the next installment of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Russo!” Last week we left off after the Royal Rumble. The main talking points was that Goldberg made his WWF debut by winning the event, which means that he has a choice to compete for either the WCW World Heavyweight Championship or the WWF Championship in the main event of Wrestlemania X8. Meanwhile Scott Hall and Kevin Nash cost HHH the WWF title in his match against Austin because he refused to team with them in helping re-establishing a Kliq nWo. Along with this, Sting was eliminated by Undertaker in the Royal Rumble match, getting a measure of revenge for his defeat at the Royal Rumble.

The next night on Raw the WWF roster is going apoplectic at Vince for not giving them warning that Goldberg would be at the event. Austin comes out a worried looking man, knowing that he could well be challenged by Goldberg at Mania given that it’s an open option for the Rumble winner. Austin cuts a promo saying that he is the champion and that he forever will be the champion and that no-one will be taking the belt off him, and that he doesn’t give a damn who steps up.

Nitro would see the triumphant son’s return. Goldberg would come out and effectively declare war on the WWF, saying that at Wrestlemania he is going to destroy the symbol of the WWF and take their belt. In other words, the main event for Wrestlemania is set: Goldberg v Austin for the WWF title.

Going to skip a bit and we’re going to talk about the run to Wrestlemania X8. Vince McMahon would decide that he is sick to the back teeth of Ric Flair’s constant one-upmanship on him and that he is going to end it once and for all. He brings back Hulk Hogan to take care of Flair and get Hall and Nash on task to kill WCW. Hogan says to Vince that if Nash and Hall are focused on Triple H then there’s not much he can do about it. But, given that Vince is the one paying him, he’ll happily take care of that nobody Ric Flair…brother.

Speaking of Nash and Hall, they’ve been continuing teaming up on Triple H. Triple H would be written off for a few weeks after a load of abuse, and Nash and Hall would tease an NWO reunion with Hogan. Just as they’re about to accept, Triple H comes out and says he’s not done with them yet. Nash and Hall tell Hogan they’ve got business to deal with and Hogan leaves the three to it. Triple H challenges them to a handicap match at Mania. They laugh and ask if he’s mad, then accept. Just after they accept, HBK’s music hits. He says that he isn’t going to stand for the Kliq to be divided like this. Nash and Hall say that it’s got nothing to do with HBK and that Triple H turned his back on them. HBK would say that he can’t permit this to happen, and that he’ll be by Triple H’s side so it will be DX against the Outsiders at Wrestlemania.

And yes, there would also be a WCW title match at Wrestlemania. DDP would hold the WCW title after winning it from Sting straight through to Mania. Given that in that time he would have worked his way through all the obvious contenders, he’d issue an open challenge to anyone who he hadn’t already faced for the belt.

The challenge is answered by none other than The Rock. The Rock comes out and declares that while DDP may claim to be the champion of the people, there can only be one jabroni beating, pie eating People’s Champ and he is The Rock….ok, you get the idea of where Rocky’s promo is going. To cut a long story short, DDP accepts and the match for the WCW title is on for Mania.

For our final true marquee match-up that we’re going to discuss the build (the entire card will be up next week as well as an extremely brief description of the build that would happen to get these guys to Mania, we would be looking to reignite the Sting/Taker build.

Given that they are tied at 1-1 (Sting won at KOTR while Taker eliminated him in the Rumble) we’d see Sting desert Nitro under the logic that there was no home for him there after the fans and wrestlers turned their back on him as previously discussed. Sting would turn to stalking Undertaker from the rafters, akin to what he did with the NWO.

It’s important to note that Sting would not be interfering in any of Taker’s matches or attacking him whatsoever, just silently watching and observing the Undertaker with the threat hanging in the air during Taker’s feud with whoever eliminated him at the Rumble. After the blow off match at No Way Out with Edge/Jericho/Whoever, Undertaker would address Sting, challenging him to come down and face him face to face. Sting doesn’t answer and chooses to stay in the darkness.

The next night on Raw Sting comes to the ring. He says that there’s nothing for him in WCW, but that he feels he has a score to settle with the Undertaker. He declares that he wants the streak, and that ending is all that he has left. For himself and for WCW, because even although WCW and the fans may have turned their back on him, he will never turn his back on WCW and he will always fight for the promotion when they need him. Undetaker accepts and the decider is on.

So, to round up, the main matches we’ve got for the blow off Wrestlemania are:

Austin v Goldberg (WWF Championship)
DDP V The Rock (WCW Championship)
Sting v Undertaker
Shawn Michaels & Triple H v Scott Hall & Kevin Nash
Hulk Hogan v Ric Flair

Next week we’ll be rounding things up with a run down our re-imagined Wrestlemania X8, as well as a full run down of the card. To sweeten the deal, we’ll even throw in a few ideas of where things could’ve went after the blow off Wrestlemania. We’ll see you next week for the final instalment of our rebooking of the Invasion.

Ta Ta For Now!

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