WWE vs WCW: Your Allegiance

[The Man That Sanity Forgot]

Back in the day, when these two were the global superpowers of Wrestling, which one were you watching most?

I'd imagine most of us watched both, as I did (even though I was bout 5), but which one was your main one?

Mine was WCW. I didn't really have much access to WWF at the time, and WCW was on TNT in the UK all the time, and I had that. So I mainly grew up around WCW, but caught WWE pay per views now and then. I remember the ones they had on Channel 4 back in the 90s. They were good times.

[PKO]

I got into wrestling (as in, watched religiously each week) around 1999/2000. WWF was fantastic during that period and WCW had already gone down the crapper, so it was WWF I was watching. At the time I thought WCW was just a copy of WWF, and had no idea about the history and rivalry of the two companies.

I only remember tuning into WCW all the way through once (on channel 5) and the things I remember about the show: everyone had a manager or a stable or a big-boobed valet with them and not one of the matches had a clean finish. DQ's and interference galore.

[Red Impact]

I got back into wrestling because of The Rock, so yeah, I was a WWE guy.

[Bob Schlapowitz]

Always been a WWF/E guy, since the mid 1980's.

[The Heenan Family]

I remember being slightly resentful of the WWF in the mid 90s when everything changed. I still wanted to watch Macho Man, Bobby Heenan, Hulk Hogan, and others. I wanted WWF to win the Monday night wars though and by 98 Nitro had lost me and I was fully enthralled with Austin, DX, the Rock, McMahon, Ministry of Darkness etc

[nerdinitupagain]

WCW. I still remember the first night I really fell in love with wrestling... Hogan comes down with a chair and cracks the Giant with it. I believe he was wrestling Macho. That night it clicked for me. After that watching things like Ric Flair always cheating to retain his title (specifically really rooting for the Booty Man to win the title on Saturday Night until woman raked his eyes and got Flair DQ'd). I cried when Hogan turned heel... I hated the nWo. I loved Sting. 97-98 there was still a glimmer of it could be real (but the WWF was fake in my mind. No doubts.) and I was the markiest of marks there ever marked.

People talk about the shades of grey of that era, but to me it was clear cut.. nWo were bad and WCW were good. Sting was right in his actions to be mad at WCW guys. By the time the Wolfpac formed... the curtain had been lifted a lot for me (Thank you AOL Wrestling Chat). However, I religiously had to be home at 7:57 to catch the start of Nitro because I couldn't miss a cruiserweight match. Dean Malenko somehow was my favorite wrestler, and his matches with the Ultimo Dragon, Rey Rey, and Jericho are still among my favorite. I remember watching the Battle Royal where he had the lucha gear on... and going crazy.

That period made me a wrestling fan. ECW made me appreciate wrestling a whole lot more and gave me a passion.

And really the WWF was just there for me. I enjoyed Austin vs. Hart, but I never liked HBK...I never really liked DX. Austin vs McMahon was entertaining, but there was always something so cartoony about the WWF even in the attitude era that always put me off. I can't ever put my finger on it 100%, but it never clicked like WCW did for me.

One man's opinion.

[Citizen Grimm]

Grew up with WWF/E so I always back them. That said, I was a massive DDP and Goldberg fan back in the day.

[molson5]

I grew up in Central MA in the mid-80s, never saw WCW until around 1991 where we got access to TBS for the first time. But by then, I was a WWE guy and I have been ever since. They were wrestling. I caught the tail end of AWA, and WCW in the early 90s definitely seemed like a regional minor league. I have so many great memories watching mid-80s WWF with my siblings and friends. I watched WCW once I got access to it, but I was glad to see them lose the war.

[cherry coloured funk]

WWF/E was always easier to see here in Canada, so that's what I grew up with. During the MNW I was fiercely pro-WWF (even though... aside from the main events, it was mostly crap). I miss WCW like hell, though, especially circa 1993.

[mjolnir]

Well..I was a bit of both...and a bit of a turncoat, truthfully.

My grandfather was big into wrestling but he was strictly a NWA (and then WCW) man. He hated with a passion all the glitz & glamour of the WWF. He'd rather see the guys with legit background & what not to their names than the bloated, cartoonish wrestlers. Not to say there weren't guys he eventually hated in NWA/WCW too (looking at you, Lex Luger). My dad wasn't as big but because he grew up around it, he'd tolerate NWA/WCW, mostly when watching it with my grandfather/he's dad (and he hated WWF even more than his dad did).

But...I got curious as a lad what was so bad about the WWF and started to watch it at a young age (early 90's). I fell in love with it, for different reasons than why I loved WCW.

WCW for me was more about the matches and the abilities/skills most of their guys had.

WWF for me was about the characters & the storylines. The matches were really hit or miss for me.

In the end, I ended up converting to WWF full time more or less after a certain point. My grandfather watched WCW till its death (and hated it for the better part of the late 90's/early 2000's for what it had become but was just too loyal to the brand to not watch & support it).

I'll never forget how heart broken he looked when one day I was watching wrestling after that & he saw the mockery that was the InVasion angle. That, combined with the fact that it barely even was "WCW" to begin with (and sure as hell wasn't by the time it became "the Alliance"), made me want it to end as soon as possible & just have WWF go over & be done with it.

[Hammer Smashed Ball]

I was always a WWF guy. However, if I was 24 in 1996 I would have totally been a WCW fan. Such quality matches.

[fw91]

WWF becuase it easier to catch up on as a kid, with livewire and its sunday counterpart

[kyromax]

I watched both, but what made me choose WWE/F was that I was always excited when Wrestlemania came around, and never excited when Starcade came around.

[wrestlinggod13]

I watched both as a kid ('89-'94). Then, I exclusively followed WCW from '95-'98. By early '99-'01, I was exclusively watching WWF programming. From '02 to present, I mainly follow Japanese wrestling and the American indies.

[crimsonwolf]

Dubya See Dubya. At least initially. Growing up in North Carolina in the 90s, pretty much everyone I knew was into WCW. Around 2000 I started actively watching WWF tough.

[foreveryoung]

Ill take 96-97 WCW over just about anything WWE has ever done including the Rock and Austin or Austin-Vince.

That NWO angle, and the classic support of the midcard was just 2nd to none in that time period IMO. I mainly watched Nitro until around late 98 when it completely took a downward spiral

[BrodietheSlayer]

I stopped watching in 92/93ish (I watched both WWF and WCW).....I started watching again in 96 due to Nitro, so, I was pretty pro WCW until early 98. That's when WCW botched the Sting thing, and Attitude was kicking in. I had been watching WWF, and I saw it slowly improve in 97, but it wasn't until late 97 that it kicked into full gear. WCW started making their Major Mistakes, and WWF was making very few (or at least no COSTLY ones).

[moneyman20]

WCW. My first memories as a fan were watching Macho Man on WCW Saturday night and stuck with WCW until the end. I was a massive Steve Austin, Taker, and Rock fan though.

[papagiorgio]

WWF. I started watching the WWF in the mid-80s as a kid and it has always been my favorite federation.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Always been a WWF/E guy.