Highlights
- Cross-promotion between Battle Dome and WCW was a bad idea that didn't benefit either party and ended due to a money dispute.
- Terry Crews, a popular alum of Battle Dome, gained wrestling experience during his time in WCW and almost became a wrestler himself.
- Crews has had discussions with WWE about working together in the past, but scheduling conflicts have prevented any collaborations from happening so far.
A bad cross-promotional job benefits who? If anything, it hurts both parties involved and that’s what happened when Battle Dome and WCW worked together. Now assuming most people don’t know what Battle Dome even was, it was basically a very bad rip-off of American Gladiators but with some wrestling elements added to it. The most popular alum of this show was of course Terry Crews, who used the stage name T-Money.
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As part of the cross-promotion, Battle Dome Warriors and WCW wrestlers appeared on each other’s shows and feuded. So what was this whole thing about, and how did it end?
Rick Steiner Invaded Battle Dome
The storyline began with WCW guys going into the Battle Dome arena and causing havoc there. Rick Steiner started a feud with T-Money, and they competed in Battle Dome as well, which later turned into a brawl. Sometime later, Steiner showed up on Battle Dome again, with T-Money’s coat and claimed that everything T-Money had was now his. This again led to a brawl between the two, which ended with wrestlers like Diamond Dallas Page, Buff Bagwell, and Ernest Miller interfering and later claiming they got one over T-Money when it was an unfair matchup. Oh, and Rick Steiner also stole the Battle Dome Championship.
To take revenge, guys from Battle Dome showed up in WCW during a Monday Night Nitro. Then DDP showed up in the ring and made fun of the Battle Dome warriors (T-Money, Bubba King, Michael O’Dell, D.O.A., and Cuda). Other WCW wrestlers came out as well, and then when a brawl was about to begin, the security intervened and separated them. They brawled again on a different episode of Nitro and then one night Steiner came out with the Battle Dome Title that he stole, and then it led to a match in the ring that ended with the Battle Dome Warriors taking away what was theirs.
None of this sounds good. It doesn’t sound like a storyline that benefited anyone or even had a point. It wasn’t like Battle Dome was super popular, and just because it had scripted storylines like wrestling didn’t mean this crossover had to take place. It wasn’t even Battle Dome’s idea to work with WCW; the latter approached them. Eric Bischoff planned all of this, and no one else on the writers’ team was allowed to alter any part of it. As much as this whole invasion sounded bad on paper, however, it was successful with the WCW crowd. The angle actually ended due to a dispute over money. WCW refused to pay for Battle Dome Warriors travel fees, so they ended this partnership.
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Terry Crews Almost Became A Wrestler
Now all of this happened before Terry Crews became a major pop culture name. Crews has talked about his time in WCW several times and has said that he gained a lot of experience. He learned how to be in a character so that everyone believes him. While talking with Titus O’Neil, Crews even said that he almost became a wrestler once. “What you do every week, every other day up there in that wrestling ring is phenomenal. You know, I almost ended up in wrestling, man. I was this close.” While Terry never actually got to have an official match in the ring, he did work with WWE for a video package hyping SummerSlam 2018.
They had plans to work more with Crews at that time, but according to Titus scheduling issues didn't let that happen. “We were hoping to do more with him, but then Brooklyn Nine-Nine came back. He had to leave that Sunday instead of being with us for that week – but if the opportunity arises, I’m almost positive we’ll be working together very soon.”
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Some years back, while he was promoting his movie Rumble, where he voiced the character of Tentacular, Crews also revealed that he was in talks with WWE to come in as a celebrity and work matches. But again there were issues with his schedule and things never came to fruition. It’s still not too late, however, should WWE choose to collaborate with Crews in the future. The actor did train for a movie project some years back with the late Shad Gaspard.
