WCW's 10 Biggest Mistakes

[Deleted]

Hi all

I just found this on youtube and enjoyed it so I thought I'd share it.



Personally though, I do disagree with a few of them. So I will say what I think were the 10 biggest errors.


10. Mistreatment of Ric Flair

I agree and disagree with this one.

Everything pre 97 I agree with. He was the top star in WCW and should have been treated as that.

But 97 onwards, he was old and tired and should have been retired to a creative position and brought out for a nostalga pop. WWE has lived on these for 10 years now, and WCW could have used that in 99 when everything fell apart.

As a wrestler, he really didnt add anything as he had already won everything and fought everyone. So a few appearances for autographs and maybe 1 big match a year would have help WCW loads more than his 9 million, Four horseman reunions.

9. The Warrior

The match up was money. They are two huge stars after all. People were always going to pay to see it.
It did hurt WCW as it made them look pathetic. Warrior just didn't show up. He stunk up every ring he was in and looked like he had completely forgotten how to wrestle. Everything he did was a mess at best and a disaster at worst. I personally rate Hogan/Warrior 2 as the worst match of all time.

As for Hogan just wanting his win back...well its possible I guess. It does fit with that ego maniacs agenda. But I personally think, that WCW saw that Warrior wouldn't draw a dime going forward and were just looking to be rid of him.

8. The nWo adding way too many members

I agree with this one. nWo Japan was a good idea though and should have been more involved. As for how long teh angle should have ran. Most people agree that Starrcade 97 should have been the end, with them giving WCW back their wins thorough 98 with them finally disbanding and moving forward with a new direction.

7. Goldberg vs Hogan for free on TV

Yes I agree with this one. 98 was the year WCW lost the plot and a lot of stupid decisions started to get on TV. They got away with it all year, but finally paid the price in 99. 1998 was the year in which the new stars should have finally gotten the push they had long earned and the old guard being pushed to the back. I wrote in a different thread a while ago, that I feel that Hogan, Hall and Nash should not have been resigned. officialfan.proboards.com/thread/528424/unpopular-wrestling-opinions?page=12

ps I personally at the time thought the match sucked.

6. That'll put butts in seats

God yes. I cant believe how much Bishoff underestimated Mick Foley. They got what they deserved here. And I didn't switch over...because Raw was on 3 days after Nitro in Australia, but to everyone who did...God I envy you.

5. The Finger Poke of Doom

The moment when good WCW died. The whole show sucked and felt rather empty. After this Nitro was full of increasingly stupid crap that still involved the nWo. I still have no idea why this happened. Surely they knew better...Yes I know, Hogans Creative Control. But come on! There was just nothing to get excited about on this 3 hour show and the last thing I personally wanted to see was Hogan returning. I was thoroughly sick of him by this point. He stunk up every match he was in and after the whole Warrior angle, I was happy to see him go.

And no one is buying your BS explanation for the angle either Kevin Nash. We all know who's massive ego needed to be stroked that night.

4. Creative Control

I've read and hear a few things here and there about Hogans Creative Control perk. One thing I read a few years back claimed that Hogan forced WCW creative to rebook every match to a DQ finish so that he could be the only winner by pin fall. From several people I've also read that Hogan had final say on Nitro and would regularly force them to re write the show hours before it went on TV. See it wasn't stupid booking, it was desperate rebooking that killed WCW.

I am still amazed that even after all of Hogans BS, Bishoff resigned him for more money and let him keep his Creative Control. This is why I have zero respect for Eric. He is an idiot. If he had just refused he most likely would have gotten Hogan cheaper and without the Creative control BS. Failing to resign, I would say that Hulk would have gone to Japan rather than WWF as Vince would never have meet his salary expectations and would have laughed as his clauses.

3. David Arquette

God yes. If WCW had a chance to recover, it was dead and buryed after this.

Russo just didn't understand Rassling fans and that WCW was a Rassling company. He was actually fired by WCW months earlier and brought back. I think this is the bigger mistake, as he had clearly proved that he wasn't going to be a good fit.

I still cant watch it without facepalming. And even worse, Russo would even have a run with the belt. I don't what lies he told about that, but his ego was out of control. I actually first awarded myself the title as a protest to Russo and Arquettes title reign. Now days, it just makes me laugh, so I haven't bothered changing it. WHO BETTER THAN MYAU!?

Hey if they get a run, then I get a run.

2. Bosses that had no wrestling knowledge

Lets be honest here. No one was going to smarten Herd (or any of the others) to the business. I believe that he was constantly facing a wall of disrespect and criticism from everyone backstage (especially Ole Anderson). Not to mention a certain wrestler that went completely into business for himself. Damn Flair.

I think the signing of Jim Herd wasn't that bad an idea. But he should have been fired at the 6 month mark as he was clearly bad for business, not 4 years later after he had killed them in every town they used to draw good crowds in. The whole Flair thing should never have happened. Someone higher up should have spoken to Flair and to Herd and then fired Herd.

According to The Death of WCW, Kip Frey was actually good in the role as he gave bonuses to whoever had the best match on a show. Even Foley admitted that it lead to better quality shows and the workers had motivation.

*note* the vise goes onto to talk about TNA going down hill when Dixie Carter took over. Thast not entirely true. TNA always sucked and was saved from death by Dixie. Jarrett didn't learn from WCWs mistakes and repeated them. His badly named company was never going to succeed

1. Letting Steve Austin go

I disagree with this. Being completely honest here, "Stunning Steve Austin" was a mid carder. He was great in the ring, but was a dull promo and had little charisma. Frankly he wrestled all the big names in WCW and was good, but you were more interested in Sting/Vader/Steamboat etc than in Austin. Frankly Johnny Be Bad was a bigger star than him in WCW. Steve even admits that he improved massively due to being angry about being fired by Bishoff. I also think that the Bret Hart matches really made him a star.

Letting Mick Foley go, was in my opinion their biggest mistake. He was already a main event level guy in WCW and was already cutting great promos. He would have helped WCW a lot and hurt WWF as it was him that worked with Austin when he won the WWF title and despite revisionist history it was also him that made the Rock a main event star (not a certain son in law, actually Mick made his ungrateful ass too). His Hell in a Cell match in my opinion is what ultimately won the war for WWF as it made WCW look old and tired by comparison.


So agree/disagree?

[Saul Goodman]

To me one of them was signing Bret Hart.

[gatordone]

I think letting Chris Jericho go was a big mistake. He was starting to pick up steam as a heel when he left for the WWE. They should have had him break Goldberg's streak but then gain it would've pissed off Hogan. The David Arquette was total bs just like having Jay Leno main event a PPV.

[A Platypus Rave]

you forgot with 9 that warriors stupid trap door rings caused injuries.


3. but you see it's a good thing since you're still talking about it today, bro! -what Vince Russo actually says.

[benstudd]

Well with Flair it's a case of he's a once in a generation uber talent. So even old he was better than the majority of guys they had. Basing their whole show around Hogan vs Flair in the early 90s though was ridiculous.

Warrior, I actually thought he wasn't too bad when he faced Hogan. But the booking was so misguided that fans didn't care and the finish was horrible. People didn't take to Warrior's "super-hero" character in a shades of grey 90s. Also, when Bischoff was pissed off that it didn't work out the way he wanted, he stopped using Warrior and the guy was paid to sit at home. Even after the Hogan match, they could have used him. Book a Warrior-Sting reunion. Maybe have them have a match. He could have fought Goldberg too.

[theshockmaster]

I disagree with number 1. Austin HAD to be screwed over by WCW to become Stone Cold. I doubt he would have ever found such a great character or such huge success in WCW.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

10. Unmasking Luchadores. With a mask, guys like Psicosis and Rey Misterio Jr are superheroes, people who can defy gravity and will be looked up to by kids across the world despite their short stature, they could have made millions selling replica masks, as the WWE did, but no, they unmasked them, knowing how unmarketable they looked, sans mask, Rey looked like a 14 year old tomboy and Psicosis looked like he'd had bad plastic surgery. You can make a case for unmasking Juventud, however, as he was boyband level attractive.

9. Hiring up and coming performers and then doing nothing with them based on things that have nothing to do with their performances. Mikey Whipwreck and Vampiro were guys who should have been a shot in the arm to the US/Cruiserweight scene, yet both ended up sat at home doing nothing while in their prime. Vampiro, especially, was a big, handsome guy with a great look for a wrestler, okay skills in the ring and was capable of working with heavyweights and cruisers, he should have been on the same level as Raven and not because they made Raven take a huge step down.

8. Trying to solve the declining ratings in 1999 by gutting the midcard rather than fixing the NWO situation. The something for everyone approach had worked for them since day 1 of the Nitro era, that was never the problem, the problem was that there was a block of heels who weren't getting any comeuppance, and to make matters worse, the biggest heel of them all, Hulk Hogan, decided early in 1999 he'd like the title, and when that went over like a fart in church, decided he'd like to be the biggest babyface face in WCW and lead them into the new millennium. He didn't have a face turn, no moment of realisation, he just decided he'd like to be a face now, swapped colours and that was it.

7. Not having a plan for life after the NWO. If Hogan played ball in 1997 and jobbed cleanly to Sting, he could and should have turned face with the Wolfpac being the next big bad for the company, but instead he refused and made it as screwy as can be to keep the NWO rolling.

6. Hogan v Goldberg on free TV. Hogan seems to be involved with most of the worst mistakes of WCW, doesn't he? Hogan v Goldberg could have made WCW millions on PPV, but instead they burned through the feud in under a month and gave the big moment away on Nitro, and to add insult to injury, they used it to set up Hogan's next feud with celebrities, which was worthy of multiple PPV matches, apparently.

5. Goldberg's reign in general. Remember how Hogan over shadowed Warrior completely during his run on top? Repeated with Goldberg only with lesser opponents.

4. Bret Hart. You've just signed the hottest free agent in wrestling, a guy at his peak in terms of ring and mic work that can legitimately claim to still be the other company's world champion, do you A: Have him debut as an avenging angel face, stopping one of the hourly NWO beatdowns on world champion Sting and strike up a feud with his old adversary Kevin Nash, best friend of the guy that wronged him? B: Have him debut as an angry heel who uses his world champion status to run down the current face champion Sting and have the next major feud be Bret v Sting in a 'champion' v champion encounter, putting over WCW's guy? Or C: Have him debut as a ref in the Eric Bischoff/Larry Z feud, participate in a screwy finish that made Sting look like ass then repeatedly flip him from face to heel and give him nothing to work with until his heat dissipates? They went with C.

3. Spending money like it was going out of fashion. PPVs with non paying crowds? Paying a 10 years past their prime KISS millions to slap facepaint on a midcarder that he could have worn without paying them a cent? Genius.

2. Vince Russo. Books gave been written on how bad this decision was for them.

1. Creative Control. It made WCW unbookable, because Hulk Hogan didn't just have power over his own booking, he had the power of veto over the booking of the entire card. Hulk Hogan had no business being able to nix spots in a Bret Hart v Goldberg match, yet Eric Bischoff gave him that and more so he could be booked like a star to the detriment of everyone around him.

Honourable mentions:

The Powerplant. You'd think some of the wrestling people backstage in WCW would have noticed that most of the graduates from there were incredibly flawed, they had issues with storytelling and protecting their opponents, which is a big problem in a sport where the aim is not to hurt your opponent.

Roddy Piper as a major face in WCW in the late 90s after hip surgery.

David Arquette was a bad decision, but the company was damaged long before he got the world title.

Warrior. Horrible feud and that goddamn trapdoor.

Hiring people just so Vince couldn't have them.

New Blood.

Trying to humiliate Ric Flair at every turn.

Tank Abbott. Like 90% of the audience, I had no idea who this guy was, only that he looked like the product of some grotesque night of passion involving Rick Steiner and Jim Neidhart. I didn't care about either of those two guys so I'm not sure why WCW expected me to care about a third, only he was on far more money.

[eDemento2099]

Getting Bret Hart and Sabu - two of the most iconic, influential and insanely popular wrestlers of the 90s - and doing almost nothing with them. WCW did a little better by Raven, but could have done so much more with him.

Taking a good thing - the cruiserweight division - and forcing the talented wrestlers to play second fiddle to old has-beens.

Too many nWo members, and too many nWo revivals.

The nWo Wolfpac was total garbage. (I don't care how popular it was in the short-term.)

Having Sting join the nWo (... for NO REAL REASON) was beyond stupid, kayfabe-wise.

[gatordone]

Dec 14, 2015 11:22:02 GMT -5 eDemento2099 said:

Getting Bret Hart and Sabu - two of the most iconic, influential and insanely popular wrestlers of the 90s - and doing almost nothing with them. WCW did a little better by Raven, but could have done so much more with him.

Taking a good thing - the cruiserweight division - and forcing the talented wrestlers to play second fiddle to old has-beens.

Too many nWo members, and too many nWo revivals.

The nWo Wolfpac was total garbage. (I don't care how popular it was in the short-term.)

Having Sting join the nWo (... for NO REAL REASON) was beyond stupid, kayfabe-wise.

I'm surprised the list was only ten.

[Viking Hall]

I might be being controversial here but in hindsight one of the biggest on screen mistakes might have been the formation of the NWO. I think it's a bit revisionist history that it was their formation that put WCW on the map. WCW were already doing well, had a lot of fresh faces when the WWF were struggling and arguably a far superior roster when it came to drawing power too. The NWO certainly provided them with a shot in the arm with sheer shock power initially and it made Hulk Hogan relevant again but beyond that what was its legacy? A load of failed rehashes, terrible storyline decisions to accommodate the group and its ranks bolstered with endless irrelevant has-beens that shouldn't have been near WCW television let alone as a part of the biggest storyline in the company.

[Sephiroth]

Oven ever quite understood why Bischoff has this obsession with killing the WWF. It lead to him pulling some of his lamest stunts and blowing money out the window.

[Saul Goodman]

Signing Bret Hart was one of the worst mistakes that the company made, however it was not 100% the fault of WCW. When Hart came to WCW, he stopped caring and did very little to change his gimmick during a time that every other big star evolved into a new gimmick that fitted for the time period. All American good guy, Hulk Hogan became Hollywood Hogan. Surfer Sting became the Crow Sting. Hall and Nash changed from good guys in the WWF to bad asses in WCW. Savage went back to his crazy 80's gimmick, but added a new flavor to it. Hart was still just Bret Hart, he became stale by the time he came to WCW. He also put zero effort in his work. WCW had guys like Chris Jericho, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero, who worked their asses off to get noticed, while Bret Hart came in only to collect his $30,000 a month paycheck. I know he blames his lack of passion on Vince and HBK, but if I or many other people got screwed the same way as he was, I would do what ever I could to get back to Vince. The only way to get back at Vince is to show him why he made a mistake of getting rid of me, I would work my ass off and change my gimmick to try to become the most over wrestling in the company.

[Hulkshi Tanahashi]

Dec 14, 2015 0:26:58 GMT -5 Saul Goodman said:

To me one of them was signing Bret Hart.

Signing Bret Hart wasn't a bad idea. All their ideas (or lack there of) for him were.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Dec 14, 2015 13:25:32 GMT -5 Saul Goodman said:

Signing Bret Hart was one of the worst mistakes that the company made, however it was not 100% the fault of WCW. When Hart came to WCW, he stopped caring and did very little to change his gimmick during a time that every other big star evolved into a new gimmick that fitted for the time period. All American good guy, Hulk Hogan became Hollywood Hogan. Surfer Sting became the Crow Sting. Hall and Nash changed from good guys in the WWF to bad asses in WCW. Savage went back to his crazy 80's gimmick, but added a new flavor to it. Hart was still just Bret Hart, he became stale by the time he came to WCW. He also put zero effort in his work. WCW had guys like Chris Jericho, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero, who worked their asses off to get noticed, while Bret Hart came in only to collect his $30,000 a month paycheck. I know he blames his lack of passion on Vince and HBK, but if I or many other people got screwed the same way as he was, I would do what ever I could to get back to Vince. The only way to get back at Vince is to show him why he made a mistake of getting rid of me, I would work my ass off and change my gimmick to try to become the most over wrestling in the company.

What? Bret was fresh off a gimmick and attitude change in the WWF. I have absolutely no idea why people keep spouting this like he came into WCW the same guy he was from 1989-1996. He wasn't a bland, WWF face of the company style babyface, he was snarky, angry and vicious, his moveset at times with things like the figure four on the ringpost seemed like it was designed to torture his opponent while staying within the rules of the ring but not the spirit of it. His attire changed as well, he soon began to wrestle in hockey jerseys and street clothes rather than the Sgt. Pepper look he'd sported for the longest time. The 'Bret's heart wasn't in it' stuff is bullplop spouted by Eric Bischoff to justify the fact he did sweet FA with the hottest signing in wrestling, there was no big storyline ready for Bret that he underperformed in, his role in WCW was guy who fights with/against/with/against/with/against the NWO until his heat died and his passion for that angle did likewise, but when he was put against a worthwhile opponent and given the chance to run with it, he showed he still had it, look at the feud with Goldberg, up until his injury.

[toodarkmark]

A painful thread indeed.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Letting Steve Austin go is really a bad one to suggest.

The Austin they fired was an injured, fairly over midcarder, not Stone Cold f***ing Steve Austin. Even the WWF didn't know they had Stone Cold Steve Austin for a couple of years.

[domrep]

Dec 14, 2015 12:37:32 GMT -5 Viking Hall said:

I might be being controversial here but in hindsight one of the biggest on screen mistakes might have been the formation of the NWO. I think it's a bit revisionist history that it was their formation that put WCW on the map. WCW were already doing well, had a lot of fresh faces when the WWF were struggling and arguably a far superior roster when it came to drawing power too. The NWO certainly provided them with a shot in the arm with sheer shock power initially and it made Hulk Hogan relevant again but beyond that what was its legacy? A load of failed rehashes, terrible storyline decisions to accommodate the group and its ranks bolstered with endless irrelevant has-beens that shouldn't have been near WCW television let alone as a part of the biggest storyline in the company.

WCW had no fallback option after the NWO and the eventual split. That's all they had, it put them at the top for over a year, made them a ton of money so why ruin a good thing?

I'm watching the Nitros in order. I am in March 1997, honestly...the members thing isn't a huge deal. When you have a stable, you always have a few job guys. Big Bubba, VK Wallstreet, even Buff were the fall guys. Norton was in Japan most of the time so you hardly saw them. And according to Wiki, Bubba and Wallstreet were out by April 1997 anyway so they were members for like 6 months. They also had separate music, so you knew the "B" team was coming out, not the main guys.

I just think if you took the angle from when Hall showed up, through Starrcade 97 with the right ending it would have capped off one of the better angles in wrestling history.

Post-Starrcade: still do the split...Wolfpac vs. Black and White, but Sting should have been the face of the company again and should have been feuding with the likes of Bret Hart, maybe the Benoits and Guerreros of the world (for the record, I still would have done Sting vs. Hogan II at Superbrawl)

I think what killed it for me was Bischoff joining. This looked like something where he saw it was getting over and decided to jump in on it. It killed Ted's involvement as the money guy, b/c he wasn't really the money guy, in essence it was Eric using Ted's money.

[Halloween]

My thoughts on all ten:

10. Mistreatment of Ric Flair

He wasn't really "mistreated" in my opinion. Even in 2000-2001 he was still treated like a big star and was still getting a big pop so why stop using him? Hell, reforming The Four Horsemen in 1998 and Ric Flair's return was what won them the ratings war for one of the last times.

Also, Flair and DDP were the only two guys who were really willing to put the young guys over in WCW's later years.

9. The Warrior

Hogan Vs Warrior didn't have to be a good technical match but it did have to tell a story and The Warrior had no interest in doing so. Some would blame Hogan but Hogan was telling stories and having good matches in 1998. The fireball botch and Horace Hogan coming down to give Hogan the win was dumb as well.

Warrior should have gone onto lose to Goldberg as well. Could have been a good World War 3 match instead of Hart/Page for the US Title headlining.

8. The nWo adding more members

People tend to say this but they forget that during that time period the nWo was so big and powerful that they could get young guys over simply by having them in an nWo shirt. Also, for the nWo to remain a threat to WCW itself they needed more guys. WCW could easily overcome a team of Hogan, Hall, Nash and X-Pac but a group of 10-15 huge guys? A lot harder.

You say in your original post that you feel the nWo should have ended at Starrcade 97 but do you know that about a week later a Hulk Hogan Vs Sting match at a House Show did over a million dollars in ticket sales for a HOUSE SHOW? Even the nWo Wolfpac in mid 1998 was doing huge business.

The right time to end the nWo would have been Starrcade 1999 in my opinion. You have Goldberg tear through the nWo and get to Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1999 before beating him. Undercard you have the nWo lose to a WCW team which splits the nWo. You go into 2000 with a new champion in Goldberg who has got revenge for what happened a year earlier (Fingerpoke) and you have guys such as Hogan, Hall and Nash turning face to fight guys such as Steiner, Jarrett, Luger

7. Goldberg/Hogan free on TV.

It was a dumb idea I agree but at that stage Bischoff was trying to stop the hurting and the Georgia Dome was always a huge show for WCW so it made sense to do something big. I think if it were me I have Goldberg about to win the World Title and instead the nWo rushes out. Goldberg beats them up as the referee rings the bell due to losing control of the match.

To be honest though I don't know the circumstances. Maybe Hogan didn't want to lose twice (Likely), maybe it wasn't planned in advance at all and there was no possibility of Hogan/Goldberg on PPV due to the Hogan/Rodman Vs DDP/Malone match (Also likely).

6. "That'll put butts in the seats"

Dumb idea but hindsight is 20/20. It is an edgy comment and it does make WCW seem edgy which the 90's was all about. Also, in the past this concept had worked. People tend to forget that Eric gave away the results every now and then and it stopped people from changing the channel.

5. The Finger Poke Of Doom

People (Including the OP) feel that this is the moment when WCW died but it wasn't. The idea behind the story line was for Goldberg to get robbed at Starrcade 1998 and for it to be this huge inside plan by the nWo all along to stop the undefeated Goldberg. How do you make Goldberg look stronger after losing? Not only did he lose to a huge star in Nash but Nash needed Bam Bam Bigelow to run in, Disco Inferno to run in, Scott Hall, a stun gun and then it's revealed a week or two later on TV that the most powerful group in the history of wrestling were behind it all. This makes Goldberg look like a million dollars and it legitimately gives you 12 months of television where every PPV is Goldberg beating an nWo guy en route to Starrcade where he can avenge his loss from a year earlier.

Good idea in theory right? Right. So to show solidarity they have Nash take a poke in the chest and they have Hogan pin him to win. This was good. People HATED them for doing it and the audience booed. Hogan bounces up and both sides of the nWo start hugging one another and laughing at the audience. Whether or not it devalued the belt (I don't think it really did, it just showed that Nash's loyalty to the nWo/Hogan meant more than the belt) is irrelevant because the angle got heat. Afterwards you have Goldberg sprint out and he's beaten down 12 on 1 by the nWo.

So leading up to Starrcade you have this man who has been hurt, robbed and had his best friend (Luger at the time, in terms of story) turn on him. He's pissed and WCW went with the revenge stuff for about 2 months. After the 2 months something happened to Goldberg and he took the next PPV (Uncensored off) which caused the angle to lose steam but at Spring Stampede he beat Nash so they were clearly still going in that direction.

After this something happened to Goldberg again because he wasn't around from May until July. At this point without a main hero for the story the nWo were kind of lifeless and the group kind of broke up. The idea in theory would have been fantastic but injuries and whatever happened to Goldberg is what hurt it and that's why people say it was terrible. If it had worked out to plan I think people would put it up there with Hogan/Sting but knowing the full story you can't really blame WCW for it.

4. Creative Control

You seem to be pointing to certain things that killed WCW a lot. Creative Control, Fingerpoke Of Doom etc etc. WCW didn't die because of that at all, WCW died because the WWF came up with a huge hot idea that worked and WCW ran out of steam that's all it comes down to.

As for Creative Control, again, people tend to not know what it means. Creative control generally is a right to refusal so if I said "DarkMyau, I'm going to book you against Evan Karaigas in a three month feud" you'd have the right to say "No, I won't make money off that". In Hogan's circumstance he has it to protect the Hogan name, image and brand and he can refuse anything he wants. He doesn't control anyone else's booking and he definitely does not have writing power.

Eric is not an idiot. Hogan was WCW's biggest star until he left in 2000. If he refused Hogan in 1998 (Which is when Hogan's last WCW deal was signed) he would have lost his biggest star to the WWF guaranteed. WWF was doing good enough business at that point that they'd have got Hogan and they'd have crushed WCW with Austin/Hogan, Hogan/Rock, Hogan/Triple H, Hogan/Taker and everyone else they had at that point.

Meanwhile Eric loses the nWo as well because as history shows the nWo without Hogan isn't really the nWo. Hogan is likely given creative control in every company or agreement he makes with anyone. You're severely undervaluing Hogan's popularity in 1998 and if Eric had taken your advice and refused to resign him he'd have been on RAW the following week.

3. David Arquette.

First of all, Russo wasn't fired in late 1999. He was asked if he'd be interested in giving up the head writers job and sitting on a commitee instead. Russo rightfully said "My contract says I'm head writer and I'm not interested in any deal except that" so he sat out his contract. His WCW contract was never terminated, he was not fired as you've just said and in his absence they had Kevin Sullivan take over as head writer and the product was appalling until Russo returned in April.

As for Arquette, it was a dumb idea no doubt but people are always quick to forget that Vince McMahon gave himself the belt six months earlier and the WWF didn't even receive publicity for it. Stephanie McMahon was the Women's Champion for 5 months and only defended it three times because she wasn't a wrestler and Shane McMahon despite being an okay brawler is a former European and Hardcore Champion despite the fact that HE ISN'T A WRESTLER. Shane McMahon held the European Title for four months. Amount of times he defended it? Three times.

So yes, it was a dumb idea but if you're going to put the belt on a non wrestler doesn't it make sense to get some publicity from it compared to the WWE who did it for no reason and it's rarely if ever brought up in threads like this that mock WCW for the same idea?

2. Bosses that had no wrestling knowledge.

Admittedly there was the Pizza Hut guy that Flair talked about on a WWE DVD once but apart from him who? Bischoff, Sullivan, Johnny Ace, Flair, Ole etc etc etc all had wrestling knowledge and were great wrestling minds.

The "Vise" have no idea what they're talking about. I'm no Dixie Carter fan but TNA was about to die until she took it over. With all due respect to you, you clearly haven't seen a lot of old TNA either. TNA hasn't "always sucked" they were good for many many years. 2004, 2005 and 2006 were all good years for TNA. They had a couple of "average" years afterwards (Definitely nothing to scoff at though) and picked their game up in 2009. 2010 was bad but 2011 and 2012 were both good with 2013 being "average" (But again, not terrible). TNA started to "always suck" since about October 2013.

To say "TNA always sucked" is your opinion but I would assume you haven't watched tons of TNA because every TNA's biggest detractors admit that TNA was good for a few years.

1. Steve Austin

This one always comes up but Austin wouldn't have ever made it in WCW. Stone Cold is an edgy character and WCW never went in that direction. When they did have Austin he was a midcard guy (Upper midcard at a stretch) and nobody really cared about him. He needed the Attitude Era to become a big star and only the WWF was offering that.

Foley is the same. He's most known for the hardcore stuff and WCW never went in that direction. If he stays with WCW into the mid 90's and into the late 90's he doesn't become a star and is probably at every wrestling convention selling pictures for a tenner.

[Malcolm]

I know people in this thread question the firing Austin was a mistake, but I wonder what would the wrestling world be like if there never was a Stone Cold Steve Austin? Would WWE have won the Monday Night Wars without Austin? Would the Attitude Era have had the same impact as it did without Austin? Would there have even been an Attitude Era without Austin? Did WCW shoot itself in the foot in the long run for firing Austin just like they did with the "put butts in seats" comment?

[Milkman Norm]

Dec 14, 2015 17:58:58 GMT -5 Malcolm said:

I know people in this thread question the firing Austin was a mistake, but I wonder what would the wrestling world be like if there never was a Stone Cold Steve Austin? Would WWE have won the Monday Night Wars without Austin? Would the Attitude Era have had the same impact as it did without Austin? Would there have even been an Attitude Era without Austin? Did WCW shoot itself in the foot in the long run for firing Austin just like they did with the "put butts in seats" comment?

No. Austin was a talented midcard guy at that point. But more importantly WCW was not going to get prime time tv in 1995 with Steve Austin. That's an advantage WWF had even when things were going badly. They'd had prime time programming on USA since 1988. It wasn't until WCW brought in Hogan and Savage and the increased add revenue they created by being names that making new stars was even possible.