Saving WCW in October 1999

[JaymeFuture]

After reading El-P's inspired effort in the Highway to Hell thread recently, for this week's podcast we're looking to tackle the commonly held belief that WCW was still salvageable when Vince Russo came along, and as always we're looking to get some feedback from your good selves on this issue.

 

If the date is October 1st, 1999, what would you have done to try and turn the tide against the WWF? Who are you pushing, who are you not, is there an angle you think could have made a difference? What changes would you make? Or do you think it was beyond repair?

 

Post your suggestions for what you'd do to "save" WCW, and as always the best ones will be read on the show, and I'll post the link in here this weekend.

 

So whaddya think?

 

EDIT - The podcast taking your suggestions on saving WCW in 99 is now available at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/khzvan/SCGRadio42-SavingWCWinOctober1999.mp3

[NotJayTabb]

I think at that point, WCW needed to concentrate less on trying to compete with the WWF and more with being a sustainable business. Cut back on the enormous undercard of guys that never made it to Nitro or Thunder - people like Van Hammer or Hardbody Harrison had zero value and were just a drain on resources. Stop overpaying for celebrity guests like Megadeth or Master P, who managed to lure in no viewers.

 

I also think that, rather than try and lure away the WWF audience, WCW needed to consolidate the audience they currently had. They still had millions of viewers who were tuning into Nitro because they weren't fans of what the WWF was offering, which was a lot of character work, but one of the worst in-ring years in the companies history. The fans they had left were probably tuning into WCW because they wanted to watch some actual wrestling. You can see how much the company started to lose popularity when Russo turned it into WWF-lite, and in October 99 WCW still had a great roster in the midcard who could put on good 10-15 minute TV matches. You can still use guys like Hogan, but don't have him wrestle on TV every week, make him a special attraction so that his matches still feel like a big deal. Bottom line in, WCW needed to accept being no.2 (and there's no shame in being Pepsi rather than Coca-Cola), try and run like a real business and try and keep their existing fanbase happy (and maybe appeal to the WWF fans who were bored of a lack of good wrestling on TV)

[overbooked]

A massive oversimplification of what they needed to do, but I'd boil it down to:

 

1. Sort out the finances - stop the massive overspending, work towards balancing the books

2. Make the product/company less of an embarrassment, and more of a good 'corporate' fit

 

The AOL/Time Warner merger was on the horizon, WCW needed to look like an attractive, potentially profitable and low-maintenance product, either for whatever corporate structure it ended up in (so they would keep WCW as an asset), or to make it more appealing to any other corporate structure that might want to buy it/invest in it. WCW could have had the best booking in the history of the world, but if the finances weren't right its days were numbered. And I'm not sure a hot product would be enough to shore up the company.

[Johnny Guitar]

The major problem was that the corporate structure in WCW was a complete mess from day one. Bill Watts and Eric Bischoff are polar opposites in their views on wrestling, but both agree in hindsight that their first major move should have been to fire most of the office and production staff. Without a solid and capable staff in place everything else, booking, talent roster, TV production etc suffered through out WCW's history.

 

Alot of really smart and capable people worked for WCW over the years and they were never able to overcome the bureaucracy that existed in the company. The AOL/Time Warner merger was going to bring a whole load more.

 

I don't think there was anyone in the company that was capable of navigating that situation in 1999.

[Grimmas]

Cut some talent. Push new stars (Rey, Eddie, Benoit, etc..) and refocus on Goldberg.

[Mad Dog]

Cut the expensive deadweight. Brian Knobbs, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, etc. Anyone that was making six figures and you wouldn't put on a PPV card. I would saw trim the roster down to about 50 guys or so.

 

Refocus on Ric Flair in a face role for the company leading the Horsemen. At the same time push Bret Hart, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett and Booker T as your main event.

 

Overhaul the announce team. I don't know who I would have signed to replace Tony and Co though. I don't think Joey Styles was necessarily the answer. I might have promoted Scott Hudson to being the main announcer and used Kevin Nash as the Nitro color commentator. Stevie Ray stays obviously.

 

I would have brought every moderate name in from the indies and kept anyone that connected with the crowd. Reckless Youth, Quack, American Dragon, Christopher Daniels, etc. Do a Young Lions Tournament and see what you get.

 

I would have also brought the luchadores back and gotten back to having those crazy six mans on Nitro every week.

 

I would approach Rob Van Dam and pretty much hand him a blank check to jump ship from ECW.

[Loss]

I think they should have found a way to leverage whatever music was part of the Time Warner library. What made WCW cool at first was eventually their undoing. Lapsed fans saw all of their childhood stars on Nitro and tuned in. Meanwhile, a new crop came along elsewhere that was younger, cooler and fresher and because WCW had one of the strictest caste systems any wrestling company has ever had in terms of card placement, they had no one prepared on their undercard to make the leap despite having a wealth of options to develop new stars. They just assumed Hogan would be current forever. Anyway, I mention the music because they needed an aesthetic overhaul that made them feel more contemporary, and that might have helped.

 

I've been thinking about WCW booking in 1999 since 1999, probably. My starting point is usually the night after Spring Stampede, but basically my key things were:

 

- Get the belt on Goldberg immediately and put him in the center of everything, building to two key matches later in the year: Bret and Flair. Bret seeking full redemption after the Owen tragedy. Ric making one last run at the top and putting everything he has out there.

 

- Make Benoit and Malenko a main event level tag team with Arn there to run interference and act as their mouthpiece. They would still work most of the same guys they did as a team anyway (Rey-Kidman, Raven-Saturn, etc), but the division would be more spotlighted

 

- Speaking of tag teams, a heavier focus on tag teams all around would have been a way to revitalize the division. Tag team wrestling started making a comeback in the WWF later in the year when the Hardys and Edge & Christian had the ladder match, but before that, it had been dead for years. Tags could have been WCW's calling card. Even the top singles wrestlers should have been interested in the tag team titles and had a regular partner when the situation called for it. For Goldberg, I would have made that person Booker T. Not the goofy spinnerooni Booker T in the WWF, but the suit-wearing serious athlete in WCW

 

- Pull some guys off TV for a while that had unique demo appeal and could have meant much more, then bring them back months later with a new look and vignettes that humanize them. Konnan is the first guy that comes to mind here, but there are others.

 

- Rebuild the relationship with New Japan and maybe try to establish something with RINGS where shooter types can come in and take dives for Goldberg, building him up as the real deal who can beat the best fighters in the world. I think with the right booking, Goldberg-Don Frye could have drawn in 1999. Find a way to sign Ken Shamrock at all costs.

 

- Speaking of Japan, revitalize the cruiserweight division by bringing in stars from Michinoku Pro that were starting to get stale there, but would be in a fresh environment now. While there were many talented wrestlers in the division already, so many of them were wasted and seen as jokes, so I would have cleaned them out and replaced them with a new crew of M-Pro guys and whatever good juniors were available stateside in '99 (if there were any). Most TV matches would be multi-mans, with singles title defenses mostly just happening on pay-per-view second from the top. Rey would be the focal point of the division. I realize he had already been unmasked at this point and he can't just put the mask back on, but I do think a Muta-Muto alter ego thing could have worked here. Maybe he uses his real name and works TV mostly without the mask, but "Rey" shows up as an alter ego on pay-per-views and dome show Nitros.

 

- Let the WWF presentation of women run its course. They had educated fans (it wasn't too difficult I suppose) to not really give a shit about the talent women had in the ring, so a more credible women's division in WCW would have been doomed to fail because no fair comparisons could be drawn. So I'd keep women out of the ring as long as possible with the idea of building something when the Sable-Debra types faded away.

 

- Re-focus on some of the strategies that put WCW over the top in the first place -- Nitro parties and accompanying presence at college campuses, counter-programming, signing the best guys in the world regardless of where they lived, etc.

 

- Pump some money into merchandising and start marketing their video library like crazy (admittedly, that's a case of hindsight being 20/20)

 

- Revamp the C-shows by getting them out of the Disney buildings and putting them in front of ticket-paying customers. There's nothing wrong with taping the shows before or after Nitro or Thunder, but I don't even think that would have been necessary.

 

- More annual traditions that link to yesteryear -- Starrcade wasn't really presented as their Wrestlemania and hadn't been in some time. A few history packages and that would be an easy change. Bring back the Bash tour by doing a series of more "special" than usual shows with the series ending at the Great American Bash pay-per-view. I don't know that a Crockett Cup-type tournament would have worked in 1999; in fact, it probably wouldn't have. But I'd still take a loss on the first year and know it may be a failure, but see what lessons can be learned to revamp it in subsequent years.

 

- Ric Flair needed to be presented as an almost untouchable icon who only wrestled 3-4 times a year and usually won when he did. He could have had all the interview time they wanted to give him, as those segments were usually a good bet to pop a rating, but there was no reason for him to be wrestling on TV all the time. He's someone that WCW fans held in such high regard that they needed to protect that.

 

- Hogan turning babyface in 1999 didn't bug me so much because the time was probably right for a change, but they could have made a great, months-long redemption arc for him instead of him just switching to red and yellow one night like he did. How about a storyline where he has to repent and he realizes he wants to bring back Hulkamania but he has to earn it and prove that he has changed, maybe by taking out a few of his old running buddies. There needed to be some angles where he was attacked by a group of heels and no one came to his rescue as well, as that would put big sympathy on Hogan.

 

- New announcers. I don't know where they would come from or who they would be, but Bobby needed to go. Tony I don't think was bad, but he was burned out and the Mick Foley thing really hurt his credibility. Larry Z didn't add much, and Tenay was good for providing background on the Japanese and Mexican guys, but I'd use him more as an assistant to help prep the lead announcers than to actually bring him to the booth.

[Bierschwale]

Sign Super Dragon and run a Dragon-Parka blood feud.

[NotJayTabb]

I think they should have found a way to leverage whatever music was part of the Time Warner library. What made WCW cool at first was eventually their undoing. Lapsed fans saw all of their childhood stars on Nitro and tuned in. Meanwhile, a new crop came along elsewhere that was younger, cooler and fresher and because WCW had one of the strictest caste systems any wrestling company has ever had in terms of card placement, they had no one prepared on their undercard to make the leap despite having a wealth of options to develop new stars. They just assumed Hogan would be current forever. Anyway, I mention the music because they needed an aesthetic overhaul that made them feel more contemporary, and that might have helped.

 

 

I really feel WCW really dropped the ball when it came to music. Think about how the WWF trained their audience to recognize a wrestler within seconds of their theme hitting to maximise the pop. As soon as crowds heard the glass smash/a car skidding to a crash/"If you smell...", they knew who was coming out and reacted accordingly. In contrast, WCW in 99 has very few memorable themes. Goldberg, Booker, Hogan, Flair, Nash, (surprisingly) Bagwell.....now think about other guys near the top of the card. Could anyone here hum Bret's ring music? Sid? Rick Steiner, Benoit, Luger? I can only remember Macho Man's new theme because I bought a copy of the WCW Mayhem album for £1 in Cash Generator. Basically, the WWF guys had music that made even lower card guys memorable (Gangrel being the prime example), whilst WCW had music that made their stars unremarkable.

[Ray]

It always baffled me that of the million different World Champions they had from 1999-01, not one of them was Goldberg.

[Mad Dog]

I forgot one. Run with Goldberg vs. Steiner in 1999.

[WingedEagle]

Normally fantasy booking delivers too much on fantasy rather than booking. That being said, I really enjoyed just about everything Loss laid out above. The part I wonder about is what kind of changes are necessary at the top -- do you have to axe Hogan, Nash and Bischoff in order to facilitate any other promotional focus? If that crew still has the pen is there any hope at all for a turnaround? Who do you give it to -- Russo's not the answer, a Turner exec doesn't work because you need a wrestling mind to actually lay things out and someone who can keep everyone in line.

[Loss]

The thing about Hogan that WCW never realized is that the more business declined, the less power he really had. That he was the centerpiece of everything as WCW started declining demonstrated that while he was maybe the most important part of the turnaround, he wasn't the sole reason it happened. Contractually, Hogan had them by the balls because of the creative control clause, but in terms of having to keep him happy because he's carrying the company, those days were over. If he didn't like what was proposed for him, he had the option to go home, just as WCW had the option to send him home. So yeah, with Hulk, play ball or get out. As Dave has said, Bischoff was in the Hogan business, not the wrestling business, so that would have taken care of both of them with one stone.

 

Nash is an odd one. By this point in time, he added nothing and took a way a lot, so there would be a pretty low tolerance for bullshit anyway. Him going to the WWF in 1999 may have had a short-term impact, but they were behind anyway and WCW didn't need Nash at all anymore. So again, play ball or go.

 

As far as who should have run the company, that's a really tough one. Wrestling did a horrible job of grooming booking and managing talent during this time.

[WingedEagle]

We see businesses write off assets and take losses all the time, yet for some reason there was no talk of that happening with Hogan's contract here. Simply paying him to stay away is the easiest and likely best option, but Nash stepped right in to fill that power vacuum. Another loss leader that could easily be set side, but yes, that does leave the big gap on top. I can't even imagine who would both have the credibility with Turner to get the job and with talent to make it work. Anyone with a clue in WWF at the time was under contract. Heyman? Also on Vince's IV and by all rights it sounds like he could on a given day either blow away the corporate suite or find himself escorted out by security depending on the approach.

 

Such a shame what the stranglehold on that company caused.

[Mad Dog]

I don't think anyone could have successfully navigated it. I think you could have found a competent booking staff but as far as a head guy goes. No idea. I think you were going to be staring down Bischoff regaining power no matter what you did.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Given that Sting had just made his ill-advised heel turn in September, Goldberg-Sting for the title should have been the Starrcade main event and probably would have been if not for Russo coming in and changing everything. I also would have set up Hart-Hogan (face vs. face) as the other main event for Starrcade, preferably with Hart going over although it really wouldn't be a big deal if Hulk felt he had to win. I don't really have any more creative suggestions for this time period, though I do have a bunch of ideas for WCW starting at the April 2000 point where Bischoff/Russo returned that have been floating around my head for the last 15 years or so, and maybe I'll post them in the fantasy booking folder one day.

[Parties]

I realize this is a thread about fantasy booking 1999/2000. But the thing about "saving" the company is that the reason Kellner and Siegel publicly gave for dropping wrestling wasn't that WCW was bleeding money. It was that their hugely popular networks lacked brand identity. They wanted TNT and TBS to be viewed as upscale, and wrestling was the opposite of that. They candidly said so in the New York Times, with more forthright honesty than you typically get from executives.

 

A TBS spokesman, Jim Weiss, said: ''Basically we've decided that professional wrestling, in its current incarnation, is not consistent with the upscale brands we've built at TNT and TBS. Therefore, we will not be carrying it.'' (NYT, March 19, 2001)

 

If you take them at their world, it had less to do with ratings or money and more to do with the new boss disliking wrestling. To save the company from that philosophy, you would have had to either:

* get someone above Kellner - the guy who'd been made new head of TBS two weeks earlier - to overrule his first order of business,

* dramatically change the show's presentation into something as reputable as, say, the NBA, or present-day UFC at minimum,

* or find a new network fast, which they tried and couldn't do.

 

Even if the ship had been steered back into place in '99, I'm not convinced that great creative and better ratings would have even saved them in '01. The landscape was so against them at that moment. In the same way that Bischoff was "in the Hogan business", the media was never "into" wrestling. They were into the Rock and Austin. Keep in mind that at this same moment of truth for WCW, the XFL was bombing on a colossal level, starting the month before WCW went under. As weird as it sounds, that absolutely had a hand in networks wanting nothing to do with anything that smelled like wrestling.

[WingedEagle]

I realize this is a thread about fantasy booking 1999/2000. But the thing about "saving" the company is that the reason Kellner and Siegel publicly gave for dropping wrestling wasn't that WCW was bleeding money. It was that their hugely popular networks lacked brand identity. They wanted TNT and TBS to be viewed as upscale, and wrestling was the opposite of that. They candidly said so in the New York Times, with more forthright honesty than you typically get from executives.

 

 

Yes. But its fair to wonder -- albeit simultaneously irrelevant -- whether brand considerations would've weighed as much in the decision if WCW were a profitable operation instead of one with mounting losses.

[ButchReedMark]

Bischoff says FX wanted Nitro. Surely when Kellner cancelled WCW programming he could have just taken FX up on that and dropped Thunder as it was just making life more difficult?

[Ryan Faulconer]

- Speaking of Japan, revitalize the cruiserweight division by bringing in stars from Michinoku Pro that were starting to get stale there, but would be in a fresh environment now. While there were many talented wrestlers in the division already, so many of them were wasted and seen as jokes, so I would have cleaned them out and replaced them with a new crew of M-Pro guys and whatever good juniors were available stateside in '99 (if there were any). Most TV matches would be multi-mans, with singles title defenses mostly just happening on pay-per-view second from the top. Rey would be the focal point of the division. I realize he had already been unmasked at this point and he can't just put the mask back on, but I do think a Muta-Muto alter ego thing could have worked here. Maybe he uses his real name and works TV mostly without the mask, but "Rey" shows up as an alter ego on pay-per-views and dome show Nitros.

MPro guys in WCW would be fun but there really wasn't much left to pick from.

 

TAKA and Funaki were still in the WWF at that point for another year - although they did get a trip to MPro here and there because they meant so little. MENS Teioh stopped working in the WWF in November 1998 but he would go to Big Japan initially until popping back up in MPro in late 1999.

 

Tiger Mask IV was doing Super Astros for WWE. He was getting better each year - until he apparently fell off a cliff into mediocrity in 2004.

 

Gran Naniwa kept breaking a leg here and an arm there. He could have been a La Parka-type fan favourite if the announcers didn't bury him. He would have a good stretch and then he'd go and break something to stall his momentum.

 

Naohiro Hoshikawa was coming along nicely but then Osaka Pro went and happened in January of that year denying WCW the use of Super Delphin/Dick Togo/Hoshikawa.

 

I guess Minoru Fujita was still in MPro back then and he actually had a long(ish) stay in the US in 2001 touring the indies. He didn't show a lot of personality but WCW should have given him a tryout or something.

 

Seno and Sugamoto never really reached higher than being average or inoffensive. Seno was a junior "big man" so that MAY have added something different to the cruiserweight division but this is Osaka Pro and none of these guys are available.

 

Sasuke along with Hamada and Shinzaki are really all that's left over besides the cavemen. Shinzaki couldn't be Hakushi and he and he could be very inconsistent. I don't think WCW would want Masao Orihara/Takeshi Ono/Masayoshi Motegi. The first two are scrawny Battlarts guys and the other is just not good at all.

 

For a few months into 1999 WCW had Crazy MAX along with Magnum TOKYO and Dragon Kid from Toryumon. They could have (and rumours persisted that they did) negotiated with Ultimo Dragon but I don't think they were all that friendly after the botched hand operation. The Mochizukis/Kennichiro Arai/SAITO/Horiguchi/Kanda would allow WCW to cut all the small heavyweights that would pop up from time to time in the cruiserweight division. Stalker Ichikawa in WCW would have melted some minds.

 

WCW should have gone after the foreigners that MPro booked.

 

James Mason

Robbie Brookside (I think he did work some in WCW)

Jody Fleisch

Dos Caras

Fantastik (Shiryu II)

[ButchReedMark]

James was only 18 or 19 or so then, so I don't think he'd have been ready for the US, despite being a 4-5 year vet.

[Loss]

I realize this is a thread about fantasy booking 1999/2000. But the thing about "saving" the company is that the reason Kellner and Siegel publicly gave for dropping wrestling wasn't that WCW was bleeding money. It was that their hugely popular networks lacked brand identity. They wanted TNT and TBS to be viewed as upscale, and wrestling was the opposite of that. They candidly said so in the New York Times, with more forthright honesty than you typically get from executives.

 

A TBS spokesman, Jim Weiss, said: ''Basically we've decided that professional wrestling, in its current incarnation, is not consistent with the upscale brands we've built at TNT and TBS. Therefore, we will not be carrying it.'' (NYT, March 19, 2001)

 

If you take them at their world, it had less to do with ratings or money and more to do with the new boss disliking wrestling. To save the company from that philosophy, you would have had to either:

* get someone above Kellner - the guy who'd been made new head of TBS two weeks earlier - to overrule his first order of business,

* dramatically change the show's presentation into something as reputable as, say, the NBA, or present-day UFC at minimum,

* or find a new network fast, which they tried and couldn't do.

 

Even if the ship had been steered back into place in '99, I'm not convinced that great creative and better ratings would have even saved them in '01. The landscape was so against them at that moment. In the same way that Bischoff was "in the Hogan business", the media was never "into" wrestling. They were into the Rock and Austin. Keep in mind that at this same moment of truth for WCW, the XFL was bombing on a colossal level, starting the month before WCW went under. As weird as it sounds, that absolutely had a hand in networks wanting nothing to do with anything that smelled like wrestling.

 

I know this was the public explanation, but I've never completely bought this. WCW made a $55 million profit in 1998. Had that been true in 1999 and 2000, I can't see them dumping the company.

[Jesse Ewiak]

Yeah, if Nitro was still drawing mid-3's to low 4's, or still running a profit, Kellner and others may have wanted to kill of WCW, but they wouldn't have had the political pull to do so. I'm sure there's people at USA who want to get rid of RAW because they consider it's low brow, then they look at the ratings and shrug their shoulder.

[JaymeFuture]

Just wanted to thank everybody for the responses, we got to a good few of them on the show, which is now available to listen to at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/khzvan/SCGRadio42-SavingWCWinOctober1999.mp3

We ended up taking a booking meeting approach - cutting the roster and talking pushes, talent, angles and feuds to change the product, evaluating all the issues WCW had at the time and the problems they were facing, as well as taking your suggestions on how to salvage a company spiralling downhill and heading for disaster at a pivotal time, and talking about whether or not it was beyond repair. A very fun show this week, check it out~!