Whatever the worst era of TNA was vs "Last Days" WCW

[bmfjules]

Meltzer and Alvarez were talking about this today on their podcast, and I'm curious to see what the public opinion on this will be.

For clarification, I'm talking about purely subjective opinions on the quality of the TV shows at any given time. In terms of which company had the biggest impact on the industry, obviously WCW's fall was much more damaging to the wrestling landscape than anything TNA has ever or could ever do which made watching them at their worst hurt a little more for me back in the day--but I'm asking you to set that aside and answer this strictly in the terms of which company produced the crappiest television shows, at their worst---whenever you feel their worst was.

Also a related question: What was the worst single segment of TV in WCW history, and what was the worst single segment in the history of TNA?

(To mods: if this needs to be moved to either WWE, which owns the WCW library, or Wrest., I understand. Since the idea here was a direct comparison to TNA, I felt like this was the most appropriate forum for it, but no big deal if I'm wrong.)

[James Fabiano]

TNA. At least dying WCW had a bright spot or two.

[StuntGranny®]

I'm an idiot and voted last days of WCW, but TNA is way worse. TNA is the most "Who could possibly give a f***?" thing going in wrestling right now. To me, it's amazing that this company still exists and that there's a (very small) audience that still loves them.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

WCW in its dying days was very much a company on the upswing, Hogan was gone, Russo was gone, Hall was gone, Nash would likely follow and the roster was filled with fresh, young talent from the powerplant and the best of the indies (Including ECW) on the way. Had Fusient managed to get a 6 month stay of execution to find a new home, WCW would still be alive now, TNA, spike could come calling tomorrow and they would still be dead. TNA have some good talent but the damage is done, they're a company with no base and no hope of building one.

I'd take the dying days of WCW over the Hulk Hogan era of TNA.

[chazraps]

WCW 2001 > TNA today > WCW 2000

[chazraps]

I don't think fans today could really grasp just how bad WCW at its worst absolutely got. When you watch it back-to-back in bulk on the network, you become kind of desensitized to it. In a pre-YouTube world, when your week-to-week options for wrestling and access to wrestling-based programming were both MUCH more limited, it was just soul-crushing hope-killing television people turned away in mass numbers from.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

TNA wins this to me. People cared about WCW. Not enough people care about TNA. It could fold tomorrow and people would be over it fast. There won't be a TNA invasion angle in the WWE. There won't be people going crazy years from now because Bobby Lashley decided to show up on Raw to challenge Brock Lesnar. That's not going to happen for TNA or its "legacy". If WWE buys their library, you'll get an awesome AJ Styles Blu Ray collection in a couple years. That's about it.

[lws]

WCW at its absolutely worst (which was actually mid 99-mid 2000, not 2001) is still miles better than TNA at its average. WCW at least felt like a rival company making bad mistakes, TNA has always felt like the kid brother desperately trying to be as cool as older bro, despite the fact the kid brother started doing a shit ton of drugs the second people started noticing him.

[vinnie245]

WCW was actually pretty damn good in the last few months when Russo was gone and Steiner became champion, plus it still had 3 million people watching every week.
The only memorable thing in TNA the past few months has been the Broken Matt Saga and even that is still polarising to most people.

[Big Bad Kahuna]

Depends which last days era you mean

Dec.2000-March 2001 WCW was pretty okay/entertaining/inoffensive

Jan.99-Dec.00 WCW was the absolute worst wrestling programme ever. Absolutely horrendous from top to bottom. Besides big stars and occasional good match/feud/angle (very few), it was just a trainwreck of biblical proportions

Nothing will be worse than that WCW period

[auph10imitated]

As bad as it was WCW was still relevant as it was dying, TNA has just faded so far.

[Deleted]

Both were/are despicably terrible in their final days, TNA's been that way to me for a long time now, but WCW didn't have Broken Matt Hardy.

I vote WCW - for that, and because I felt bad when WCW died. I'll feel nothing when TNA finally drops dead.

[corndog]

Oct 20, 2016 15:47:28 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

WCW in its dying days was very much a company on the upswing, Hogan was gone, Russo was gone, Hall was gone, Nash would likely follow and the roster was filled with fresh, young talent from the powerplant and the best of the indies (Including ECW) on the way. Had Fusient managed to get a 6 month stay of execution to find a new home, WCW would still be alive now, TNA, spike could come calling tomorrow and they would still be dead. TNA have some good talent but the damage is done, they're a company with no base and no hope of building one.

I'd take the dying days of WCW over the Hulk Hogan era of TNA.

I agree WCW in it's last few months was pretty solid. It's the two prior years that were completely unwatchable. But Hogan era TNA might have been one of the worst things ever and while WCW 2000 was really bad I think TNA 2010-11 was actually worse.

[Push R Truth]

WCW had hope.


TNA has Dixie. The exact opposite of hope, wisdom and integrity.

[GuyOfOwnage]

Yup, had WCW went to Bischoff and Fusient, I really do believe they would've once again become a viable competitor to the WWF. There was a ton of upside to the product at the time of the sale, whereas even the bright spots that TNA does have with the Hardy stuff isn't enough to salvage an overall toxic name and product.

[Muskrat]

Oct 21, 2016 5:37:23 GMT -5 Big Bad Kahuna said:

Depends which last days era you mean

Dec.2000-March 2001 WCW was pretty okay/entertaining/inoffensive

Jan.99-Dec.00 WCW was the absolute worst wrestling programme ever. Absolutely horrendous from top to bottom. Besides big stars and occasional good match/feud/angle (very few), it was just a trainwreck of biblical proportions

Nothing will be worse than that WCW period

This. WCW 2000 was bad. Like, indescribably bad. No book, documentary, anything can fully explain just how bad WCW was from around the arrival of Russo in late 1999 until late 2000. Even when something was awesome, like Lance Storm's push for example, they managed to bog it down with some of the stupidest shit you've ever seen

[chronocross]

I'd say TNA is worse, there was at least some hope with WCW at the end as I thought it was a decent show once Russo left.

TNA is just a shambling corpse with no hope at all, which is sad because there was a time where I would gladly order their PPVs, now I can't be bothered to read their spoiler threads here.

[The Ichi]

It hurt more with WCW because I loved the shit out of them. So them.

[jason1980s]

WCW was at least, pretty good, up until 2000. With TNA, the last 6+ years have been equal to WCW's dying days. The n w o, for example, was an amazing angle/faction...up until 1998. They tried to take the idea and make it work in 2010. But they didn't make it into n w o 1996, they made it into n w o 1998. It's pretty sad because a lot of the guys who work(ed) for TNA are incredible performers, given the right stage, but a tiny audience at a TNA ball park show is not the right audience. Plus, there "shock" and surprises were always sub-par. While WCW would have say, Rena Mero in the Nitro audience (as the surprise) or even Ted Dibiase, TNA pans to a shot of the Highlander and mentions he's a WCW superstar. Highlander's such a low card guy so it makes no impact (no pun intended).

[circus]

I haven't watched that much TNA so I can't really answer but I do think some people underestimate just how bad WCW got from a booking stand point when Russo and Nash was at the helm... Maybe they had some entertaining matches on the B shows at least. I think the best you could say is, at least WCW still had decent ratings, relative to what else was on TNT (despite being way, way down from their peak obviously). TNA at their worst was barely drawing flies while WCW had decent crowds (again, still way down from their peak though) and travelled across the country.

I agree that WCW picked up a bit with, I think it was, Terry Taylor, Ed Ferrara, and Johnny Ace, booking at the end. Greed wasn't a bad show.

ECW would be an interesting comparison as well. They were total shit at the end with jobbers feuding over titles, guys leaving left and right.