WCW Fans

[nakedmideon]

I was never really a WCW guy but i always felt sorry for their fans when they went out of business.I couldn't imagine what i would do if it was WWE that went out of business.For your favourite wrestling promotion to just cease to exist is very sad for all their fans.

I know WCW had declined in quality badly by the time they shut their doors but what was your reaction?how did you feel?did you jump to WWE or just stop watching altogether?what was the general feeling at the time?

[Push R Truth]

What pissed me off was that I felt WCW was already over the hump when it ended. For the most part it was improving!

[tafkaga]

I was broken hearted, and not too manly to admit that I cried during the last Nitro. Tbh, I had always been more of a WWF guy, but the Attitude Era was not my WWF, so I really started to root for WCW during that time.  Vince's gloating really turned me off from even caring about what he would do with it.

I stopped watching wrestling until 2005 when I started getting into Impact on Spike, and when Russo ruined that, I stopped watching until 2009 when I started watching SmackDown and WWECW. I've not been a weekly wrestling watcher since WCW was sold.

[chronocross]

I didn't like it as I felt WCW were starting to show some signs of improvement at the very end. I was shocked by the announcement that they were purchased by Vince and seeing Vince on Nitro was weird as hell.

I still watched WWE out of habit and was wondering how some of the other guys like Booker and DDP would land.

[tirtefaa]

I heard that initially Vince was considering finding a way to keep Nitro going, however that quickly got nixed. I assume the reason he was for keeping it was due to the realization that a large group of the fanbase would just simply stop watching, the same way they did after Black Saturday. And that's pretty much what happened. I knew a ton of WCW fans who just simply stopped watching wrestling because they under no circumstances would watch WWF. So whether it was Vince who thought twice or someone convinced him otherwise, history repeated itself.

[tafkaga]

Nov 12, 2022 20:21:26 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

I heard that initially Vince was considering finding a way to keep Nitro going, however that quickly got nixed. I assume the reason he was for keeping it was due to the realization that a large group of the fanbase would just simply stop watching, the same way they did after Black Saturday. And that's pretty much what happened. I knew a ton of WCW fans who just simply stopped watching wrestling because they under no circumstances would watch WWF. So whether it was Vince who thought twice or someone convinced him otherwise, history repeated itself.

I remember there being a survey on WWE.com on what to call the new WCW show and Saturday Night Nitro being one of the options.

[Deleted]

I loved WCW but didn't watch the last couple of years because it was so bad. I can't say I was particularly sad to not have more of the product they were putting out at the time, but less competition in wrestling is always a bad thing.

[thegame415]

Nov 12, 2022 20:40:40 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Nov 12, 2022 20:21:26 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

I heard that initially Vince was considering finding a way to keep Nitro going, however that quickly got nixed. I assume the reason he was for keeping it was due to the realization that a large group of the fanbase would just simply stop watching, the same way they did after Black Saturday. And that's pretty much what happened. I knew a ton of WCW fans who just simply stopped watching wrestling because they under no circumstances would watch WWF. So whether it was Vince who thought twice or someone convinced him otherwise, history repeated itself.

I remember there being a survey on WWE.com on what to call the new WCW show and Saturday Night Nitro being one of the options.

Don’t forget about WCW HARD on Saturday Night

[Hypnosis]

WCW being bought out did make me sad that there was only one major promotion left in North America, although I was interested in seeing how the Invasion angle played out at first.

Then, The Alliance happened.

[Cry Me a Wiggle]

My WCW mourning story is a bit different from most other fans. I got into WCW (and wrestling as a whole) around late 1997, and what immediately sold me on the product was the "real sports" feeling filtered through the funhouse mirror of gang warfare and absolute chaos. Yeah, I'm an nWo kid, but I quickly became a fan of other aspects of the company like the luchadores and the midcard ranks of Jericho and the future Radicalz.

By mid-1999 I was in hell, wondering what happened to the engaging product I discovered less than two years previously. So when Bischoff was sent home and Russo and Ferrera came to power, I initially cheered it on and felt like it was a refreshing change of pace. (My then-opinions on Russo's writing have aged as poorly as Russo's writing and opinions.) But the utter chaos of the company by the year 2000 had ground me down and I was desperate for some change. I was still a fan of what remained of the roster and I was still a WCW guy over the WWF, but I couldn't help but feel a bit envious of the latter's polish and effortless presentation. So when rumors began swirling in late 2000 that McMahon was looking to buy WCW, I was actually excited. Keep in mind that from the rumors in November 2000 to the actual launch of the Invasion storyline in June 2001, the plan was always presented as "WCW will be a separate promotion run by the WWF." This was before we saw what that would have likely entailed with the Raw/Smackdown split or the revival of ECW. So when the deal went down in March and Shane McMahon stepped out on Nitro, I was thrilled. THRILLED! I was all about the new WCW! And you better believe I was glued to my television for the Booker/Bagwell match in Tacoma!

For me, I didn't process that WCW was actually over until the very next week when ECW was inserted into the storyline and every aspect of the WCW that I loved was swept under the rug. And after that, I only begrudgingly followed WWE over the next two decades, occasionally getting into something they were doing (the ECW revival, the Summer of Punk, Bryan's ascension, "The Man" Becky Lynch) before reality collided with my hopes and me drifting away from the product again. AEW bringing back the feel of WCW circa 1997-1998 has pulled me back into wrestling and finally given me the product I was yearning for before WCW even closed its doors, finally allowing me to find peace in WCW's demise and the subsequent bait-and-switch by the WWF.

[Mozenrath]

I watched both WCW and WWF, but admittedly, when WCW died, I didn't really feel super upset about it. Keeping up with it was pretty much pure chaos sometimes, and most of the people I'd become attached to were gone by the end or marginalized.

[jason1980s]

I feel like most American wrestling fans in general at the time would be WWF and WCW fans so it might not have been a huge initial disappointment. They may have even believed Vince and WWF would actually keep the wrestlers on and do something with them and the WCW name. If it had still been JCP and similar to the pre Turner days, it might be different-those fans may have been fans of that specific brand. But by 2001 I think a wrestling fans in generally watched both.

[HMARK Center]

Nov 13, 2022 12:24:07 GMT -5 @wvguitar said:

I loved WCW but didn't watch the last couple of years because it was so bad. I can't say I was particularly sad to not have more of the product they were putting out at the time, but less competition in wrestling is always a bad thing.

Yeah, when I got into the Monday Night War era I gravitated more towards WCW for an array of reasons (a lot of my old favorites wrestling there, liking Austin and some of WWF's midcard but not enough to feel really attached to their product, etc.), but by 2000 I basically had my desire to keep watching beaten out of me. I remember getting a bit of a refreshed feeling when they launched the New Blood angle, but like so many Russo booking ideas it started out feeling new and exciting but curdled about as quickly as a quart of milk in springtime.

Since then I've learned how late 2000 into early 2001 WCW had things getting back on a better track, but I likely wouldn't have come back to watching full time for a bit, like if I started hearing from more people that it was a better show again.

Still, overall the idea that WWF bought everything so quickly was pretty gross back then, even to barely 16 year old me.

[Georgina's Fancy Water]

When WCW closed down all the fans started robbing ppl and stealing TVs and toasters and shit

[sfvega]

Honestly, it felt like you were mourning something that died a long time ago (at the time.) That WCW gave you a product that was largely unwatchable for the better part of the last 2 years. I loved the company so much until the set change, and then it felt like it already got bought out by someone new and was a shell of itself with the logo slapped over top.

I tried to get into WWF again, which I still watched before, but didn't have the option to just change back to another wrestling program when they put out something shitty. But between the perfect storm of how horribly they handled the invasion, the Triple H reign of terror, and the increasingly taking over the program "What?" chant, it did end in me just not watching wrestling for a few years until I found TNA and then Edge's title win brought me back somewhat.

It's weird, WCW dying also in a way killed my interest in WWE. I haven't watched it as much the last 20 years as I did the previous 15. Once Vince was essentially running unopposed, he really started booking just for himself and I took that as my cue to leave.