The Death Of WCW

[Loss]

Reading The Death of WCW over Christmas break has been an eye-opening experience. While it's true that most of what is covered here isn't new, this is the first time anyone has really recapped the history of the promotion in one format with added thought and analysis.

 

Dave Meltzer's quote in the foreword may be what stuck with me most. He said that there have been far more cases since 2001 of companies attempting to repeat WCW's failures than there have been of companies attempting to repeat WCW's successes. The NWO, quite frankly, is probably the greatest and most successful storyline in the history of American wrestling. Most will say Austin/McMahon or Austin/Rock, and both have probably drawn more money, but the road to the WWF's big boom was paved by WCW making wrestling cool again with the NWO.

 

It's sad that because wrestling is constantly based on looking to the next show and hoping for it to be a success instead of looking at the last show and seeing what worked and what didn't, promoters are so prone to repeatedly make the same mistakes. WCW's downfall was caused by pushing talent that was over at one time but incredibly stale eventually for far too long a period of time, not properly blowing off angles, going against the wishes of the fans, putting less care into the pay-per-view lineups resulting in bad show after bad show, burying their top stars in markets where they remain strong because certain people in management have it out for them, making huge continuity errors in storylines, trying to repeat the same ideas over and over to less effect, promising to deliver certain things to their audience and coming up short, advertising matches that end up not happening, focusing too much on ratings and too little on house show attendance and PPV buys, letting top stars work schedules where they rarely - if ever - appear on house shows, cutting the legs off of midcarders who start to stand out, raising prices for remaining fans during a business downswing, running angles with bad timing in bad taste and sacrificing the credibility of their lead announcers on a regular basis.

 

You tell me ... am I talking about the dying days of WCW? Or am I talking about the past few years of WWE?

[sek69]

I've always felt it was insane when WWE raised the price of their ppvs up to $35. What other business model allows you to charge more when your product is noticably lesser in quality?

 

I think more people would buy ppv if the price was about $20-25. That's about what a DVD goes for, and more people would be willing to risk a shitty card for that amount.

[Mad Dog]

I think in a lot of ways the WWF has gone right past WCW stupidity and gone straight for AWA stupidity.

 

For what it's worth I thought the Mag 7 storyline in 2001 was the best WCW storyline since Sting/Hogan bombed in 97 and better than anything the WWF has done since.

[sek69]

Sting-Hogan was probably my favorite wrestling angle of the last 10 years until they horribly botched the payoff. I think that gets overlooked when people try to pinpoint the exact time WCW went over the barrel, I put my money right there. Nothing says "fuck you" to the fans more than a year long program getting the blowoff changed because of ego and/or politics.

[Mad Dog]

I think the company was salvagable until the close actually. Had they not cancelled the shows they were getting Rob Van Dam and most of the worthwhile ECW rejects.

[goodhelmet]

I think in a lot of ways the WWF has gone right past WCW stupidity and gone straight for AWA stupidity.

 

For what it's worth I thought the Mag 7 storyline in 2001 was the best WCW storyline since Sting/Hogan bombed in 97 and better than anything the WWF has done since.

Refresh my memory. What was the Mag 7 storyline?

[Mad Dog]

That started during the last 3 months of the promotion. It was Flair, Steiner, Luger, Bagwell, Jarrett, Animal and I don't recall who the others were injuring every top face in the company.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

I just got that confused with the Millionaire's Club. That was the one with all of the old-timers that suddenly had belts, right?

 

It's been said a million and one times. There's no real competition, so WWE has allowed itself to become everything there was to dislike about WCW. The wrong people going over, ridiculously insulting angles, and politcs up the ying-yang. People finally realized WCW wasn't worth their time and more and more are doing the same with WWE.

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

You guys are so silly. WCW failed because WCW sucked at everything. Since the WWE kicks ass at everything, the WWE can do the things WCW did and be successful at it because WCW was garbage and couldn't do anything right.

[Slasher]

That started during the last 3 months of the promotion.  It was Flair, Steiner, Luger, Bagwell, Jarrett, Animal and I don't recall who the others were injuring every top face in the company.

Mike Sanders was in this too. And yeah the idea was that they'd injure the likes of DDP, Sid, Goldberg, etc, shut down the company temporarily while they went for a restart. Then have the injured faces come back culminating in the return of Goldberg to get their payback so to speak. It would have led to Steiner/Goldberg Starrcade I think.

[Loss]

Continuing with this, let's talk about 1996 WCW, at least from June-September, because in retrospect, it was pretty amazing in pretty much every aspect.

 

Great American Bash -- One of WCW's two or three biggest angles in history occured, with Kevin Nash powerbombing Eric Bischoff off of the stage. Rey Misterio Jr debuts in a great match against Dean Malenko. Chris Benoit has a highly memorable brawl against Kevin Sullivan. The Horsemen are portrayed as strong heels and made a complete unit again, putting the Dungeon of Doom shit behind them, if only briefly. Steve McMichael is turned heel in what was a very gutsy booking risk that paid off.

 

06/10/96-07/01/96 Nitros -- Nash makes his very first appearance on Nitro after Scott Hall paves the way. Hall and Nash show up in the crowd and raise Hell with baseball bats and armed security surrounds the announce team as Kevin Nash screams "ATTICA! ATTICA!" while they're being arrested. The show expands to two hours and features some great wrestling from all the new fresh faces in the cruiserweight division.

 

Bash at the Beach -- Hulk Hogan turns heel in what was the most shocking moment in wrestling up until that point. Hall and Nash are pushed as KILLERS, decimating Sting, Luger and Savage in a handicap match. Rey Misterio Jr and Psicosis tear the house down in the opener. Hogan gives the most memorable interview of his entire career. More great undercard matches.

 

07/08/96-08/05/96 Nitros -- Probably my favorite five consecutive episodes of any wrestling-related TV show ever, at least from a storyline point of view. 7/8 sees Misterio and Malenko have a match that tops their Bash match in June, culminating in Rey winning the title. Eddy Guerrero and Psicosis also have a good match. Sting and Arn Anderson have a pretty solid main event as well, with Hall and Nash again getting ejected from the arena for raising Hell at ringside. Sting gives a terrific interview with Savage at his side, as Luger still sells the injury from the Outsiders and is off the show. Hogan does not appear, further creating the anticipation for his initial appearance on Nitro in his new persona. 7/15 sees Luger return for a main event, but there's a problem -- he's the only top guy at the show that night, as everyone else is in Japan. The NWO take the opportunity to destroy him, and Hogan closes the show with another memorable interview, his first appearance after the formation of the NWO, who covered the WCW letters with their own earlier in the evening. 7/22 sees all the top guys return, only for Flair's allegiances to be questioned because he no-shows the main event he's scheduled to appear in. A limo appears at ringside before the main event and Arn looks in, shakes his head and continues going to the ring. We'd later find out it was the NWO in the limo, and Flair's whereabouts remain unknown. 7/29 sees the NWO make their first overly aggressive move, hospitalizing about a half-dozen guys backstage while the Horsemen, Sting, Luger and Savage are all in the ring having a match. Rey Misterio Jr gets thrown into the trailer backstage like a lawn dart in a very famous spot. Rey starts screaming in Spanish that he saw four guys. Flair and Sting, mortal enemies for 10 years, are forced to ride side-by-side in an ambulance while their friends Arn Anderson and Marcus Bagwell are rushed to the hospital. Woman is hysterical and Chris Benoit is nearly in tears seeing Arn Anderson in the shape he's in. Bobby Heenan takes a hike, citing his neck problems and fearing for his own safety. Randy Savage ends up jumping on top of the NWO limo, which takes off while he's hanging from the top of it and disappears out of sight. Best storyline TV show of all time, IMO. 8/5 sees the NWO send flowers stating "our condolences on the death of WCW". Flair beats the everloving shit out of Brutus Beefcake, stating that if Hogan is going to hospitalize his best friend, he's going to hospitalize Hogan's best friend. Steiners v Nastys headline and all the big stars in the company surround the ring and help the Steiners win, since the Nastys are longtime friends of Hogan.

 

Hog Wild -- The unthinkable happens, as Hulk Hogan wins the WCW World title and spraypaints the letters N-W-O on the belt. Hall and Nash defeat Sting and Luger with an (accidental?) assist from WCW ref Nick Patrick. Benoit v Malenko and Rey v Ultimo steal the show on the undercard, even if the non-wrestling crowd doesn't take to an otherwise great wrestling match in Benoit v Malenko. Beefcake comes out as the fourth member while presenting a birthday cake to Hulk Hogan, only to get destroyed for his efforts.

 

08/12/96-09/09/96 -- These five shows were almost as good as the five between BATB and Road Wild. Lots of great undercard matches featuring all sorts of fresh faces such as Chris Jericho and Juventud Guerrera. 8/12 sees Hogan assist Flair in defeating Randy Savage, which raises even more questions about Flair's allegiances, which is erased a few days later when the NWO pummels Ric Flair at the live Clash of the Champions when he almost beats Hogan for the title. Nick Patrick makes yet another questionable call in the Sting/Luger v Hall/Nash main event, Hall and Nash's first televised match, a full TWO MONTHS after debuting, showing just how patient and slow-building this angle really was. 8/19 sees Flair, Sting, Luger and Arn all agreeing to put aside their differences and fight for survival, a huge deal considering how long they had hated each other. Arn does a great promo hyping War Games as something huge. 8/26 sees the NWO attack both the Horsemen and Sting and Luger, spraypainting NWO on all of them for the first time ever. Ted DiBiase appears in the crowd and holds up four fingers, promising next week there would be five members. No one knows if he's talking about the Horsemen or the NWO. 9/2 sees some incredible storytelling, with Sting and Luger getting distracted by what they think is a limo containing the entire NWO. Sting throws a brick through the window and they hi-jack a police car and chase them out of town. They never really left though, as they use the opportunity to attack the Horsemen and the Dungeon of Doom in a huge mess later that evening. Flair tries to fight back and they spraypaint his hair black. The Giant makes the save, supposedly, before chokeslamming his fellow WCW guys and joining the NWO himself. The ring is pelted with trash. Savage comes out of nowhere and tries to kill them all with chairs, but gets attacked again as Hogan spraypaints a yellow streak down his back and they take turns doing their finishers on him multiple times. 9/9 sees the greatest swerve of all, with "Sting" turning on Lex Luger and joining the NWO outside in a dark, rainy parking lot. The show immediately becomes somber and Flair and Arn do some outstanding mic work. Luger disappears in shock.

 

Fall Brawl -- It's revealed that Sting never actually turned, but it was an NWO impostor pretending to be Sting. However, Sting was shocked that his best friend and home company would believe he would turn on them and disappears into the rafters for months, slowly going into a dark metamorphosis and changing into a totally different Sting. He speaks with his back to the camera the following night on Nitro and declares himself a free agent. He leaves the ring after evening the odds, and the NWO destroys Flair, Luger and Arn. Benoit/Jericho, Chavo/DDP, Rey/Calo and Konnan/Juvi all impress on the undercard. Sean Waltman debuts the following night on Nitro, joining the NWO and naming himself Syxx. The Horsemen beat the shit out of Luger for submitting the night before at War Games and no one comes to his rescue.

 

This makes me sad now, because wrestling may never be this good again.

[Al]

I've always felt it was insane when WWE raised the price of their ppvs up to $35. What other business model allows you to charge more when your product is noticably lesser in quality?

 

I think more people would buy ppv if the price was about $20-25. That's about what a DVD goes for, and more people would be willing to risk a shitty card for that amount.

Obviously they're making more money overall doing it. Why shouldn't they?

[Guest brian]

$35 is perfect for them, because I woulod presume their costs are fixed no matter who buys at what price, but the $35 tag brings in the most revenua.

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

You're killin me here, Loss. Goddamn, I remember seeing Nash powerbombing Bischoff off the stage and it was probably the most shocked I've been watching wrestling.. I'd never seen anything like that before, I couldn't believe Bischoff would take that. The whole "Who's the 3rd member?" storyline was fucking captivating, at the time, I never thought of Hogan. Completely groundbreaking for nationally televised wrestling in the way they worked the whole angle during its initial stages. It's a shame they never got beyond that and just tried the same formula over and over again. Success is a bitch.

[Mad Dog]

Sting attacking everything in sight at Spring Stampede 97 is still an awesome moment.

 

As much as I can't stand Luger I still get excited when he makes his big comeback and submits Hogan for the title on the Nitro before Road Wild 97.

[Guest EastCoastJ]

I've always felt it was insane when WWE raised the price of their ppvs up to $35. What other business model allows you to charge more when your product is noticably lesser in quality?

 

I think more people would buy ppv if the price was about $20-25. That's about what a DVD goes for, and more people would be willing to risk a shitty card for that amount.

Historically speaking, pay-per-view prices have had absolutely no bearing on buyrates. When WWF and WCW pay-per-views went from $24.95 to $29.95, it had no effect on buyrates. When In Your House pay-per-views went from $19.95 to $29.95, buyrates remained constant. When Wrestlemania went up to $50, buyrates didn't go anywhere.

 

If WWE was smart, they would boost The Royal Rumble and SummerSlam up to $30 while they are at it.

[goodhelmet]

Did you mean $40?

[Guest EastCoastJ]

Did you mean $40?

Yeah, $40.

[sek69]

In business, there's always a tipping point in prices. If something is under a certain dollar amount, more people will go for it.

 

I picked $20-$25 since the advent of DVDs have made that an acceptible price for 2-3 hours of entertainment.

 

Lowering PPV prices to a point that people already feel comfortable spending would get a lot of on-the-fence buyers who don't want to commit $35-40 for a PPV that might end up the next Bash 91.

[Mad Dog]

I don't understand why anyone buys a WWF PPV anymore. If you wait two months you can just get it on DVD for less. Nothing happening on current PPVs is must see enough that you need to see it live anymore.

[sek69]

The only PPV I ever even consider buying is WrestleMania, but now that it costs $50 for that, I just wait for the DVD.

[Mad Dog]

Sports bars are a good way to see the PPVs. You can usually watch the whole thing for a couple dollars worth of food. Most of the PPVs aren't worth the pain of sitting on a bar stool for 3 hours.

[goodhelmet]

I got this in the mail yesterday and I have read almost the entire book. I have about 40 pages left. What a depressing, depressing story. These fucking idiots had the world at their feet and they pissed it away. What a tragedy.

[Marty]

*bump*

 

Reading the book right now. Ditto on what Loss has already brought up, but I'm surprised he didn't already mention the cutest little bit of the whole book, which is a few pages in:

 

"To Hunter and Steph"

[Guest Luds]

I read the book shortly after Christmas as well and it almost brought tears to my eyes. WCW had it all. SHame on Bishoff for not making Hogan job to Sting.