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Post by romanstylesiii on Jan 5, 2021 16:00:37 GMT -5
WWE has used their propaganda machine for the last 20 years to tell us how bad WCW was. The fact if WCW did a lot of good for the wrestling business, from the 2 hour live show format to guaranteed contracts.
For me, it was the Cruiserweight division. This was the first time I saw a non "big man" style and it was one of my favourite parts of WCW and something the WWF had never had on their TV's before. While this style of wrestling has become the normal, main stream wrestling in the late 80's and early 90's was filled with large bruiting bodybuilders who were really not that great of athletes.
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Post by DiBiase is Good on Jan 5, 2021 17:12:50 GMT -5
The initial nWO and Hogan’s heel turn The Hogan/Sting feud (except for the pay-off).
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Post by moonpies88 on Jan 5, 2021 17:24:10 GMT -5
NWO, cruseirweights, camera work
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Post by jason1980s on Jan 5, 2021 17:52:11 GMT -5
Putting on the free Clash shows. It was like getting a free PPV. There would normally be no less than 10 matches until the last two years and the matches you saw from say 1992 to early 1994 were normally high quality matches or even title matches. Saturday Night's Main Event was great too but those were normally only three or four matches and the WWF PPV pre-shows shown the Sunday before were normally a good match or two thrown in with most star v. jobber matches. The August 1993 Clash was my favorite. The January 1991 was also very good too with lots of matches though there were a few jobber matches.
It's also good that WCW kept guys on for many years (not counting the Bischoff era where someone was paid just to sit home). I'm talking like 1989-1994 where a guy was under contract but you wouldn't see him on TV all the time. Like Tom Zenk. I don't remember him being on TV for about a year from 1993-1994 but he must have been under contract. Same for DDP. DDP's best years were obviously in the late 1990s but with WCW keeping him on rather than release him, he was able to gain a lot more steam in 1995-1996 and later. You also had guys like Butch Reed or Dick Slater who you saw a few times so they must have been under contract but they weren't around long on TV (not counting Doom era and Stud Stable era for each guy). It was good of WCW to do this so a guy like DDP could stay employed and eventually really hone his skills to make himself a big star.
Also WCW doing pre shows on Sundays before PPVs. I think their show was just called "Sunday Night" or "Main Event." WWF didn't get us that until the Free For All and that was only 30 minutes. The WCW show pre-PPV shows didn't have too many jobber matches.
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Post by Sir Woodrow on Jan 5, 2021 17:55:32 GMT -5
ECW might've given some young guys exposure but WCW gave them financial security and put food on their tables
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Wardlow on Wardlow 54
Wade Wilson
Don't get Wardlow'd by your Wardlow if you can't Wardlow them back
Posts: 28,830
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Post by Wardlow on Wardlow 54 on Jan 5, 2021 18:01:40 GMT -5
Introducing the cruiserweights to a mainstream American audience
Establishing the art of televised wrestling not just being an hour of squash matches. Before Nitro went to two, then three hours, the shows would usually have just 3 or 4 matches and it was usually competitive affairs, not one-sided stuff. Hell, Randy Savage had back-and-forth matches with Scott Norton and Kurosawa during the first two months of the show's existence.
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Post by David-Arquette on Jan 5, 2021 18:24:08 GMT -5
Thinking outside the box with their stage designs, and their venue choices. Beaches, resorts, malls. Made for great visuals and atmosphere.
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Post by romanstylesiii on Jan 5, 2021 18:32:12 GMT -5
ECW might've given some young guys exposure but WCW gave them financial security and put food on their tables Benoit, Malenko & Eddie (among others) debuted in WCW during Triple A/New Japan crossover shows before Paul E "found" them. Heyman just likes to spew that narrative that he knows is not true Hell, Paul was actually working for WCW when some of those crossover shows happened
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Post by romanstylesiii on Jan 5, 2021 18:33:25 GMT -5
Thinking outside the box with their stage designs, and their venue choices. Beaches, resorts, malls. Made for great visuals and atmosphere. They were way ahead of the curve when it came to each PPV having it's own theme. WWF just didn't have any PPV sets at all before 96
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Glitch
King Koopa
Not Going To Die; Childs, we're goin' out to give Blair the test. If he tries to make it back here and we're not with him... burn him.
Watching you.
Posts: 12,699
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Post by Glitch on Jan 5, 2021 18:42:45 GMT -5
The athleticism in general. Most of the roster (even some main enters) showed some emphasis on being good in the ring. I noticed such a huge difference when switching over to wwf during this time. It felt like matches were dumbed down when jumping over.
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Post by jason1980s on Jan 5, 2021 18:48:51 GMT -5
I forgot about the sets. I also loved the long ramp for most of the Clashes or PPVs. Of course Bill Watts eliminated them LOL. Beach Blast was a really good one and WWF should have done this years earlier for Summer Slam. Havoc was awesome as well. The only sets I can think of WWF doing were In Your House and KOTR and ITH looked like a low rent version compared to Beach Blast or Havoc. It was also cool that they did one of the Bashes on the Beach. That had to be a treat for a wrestling fan in a hotel who might not have been able to get a ticket.
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Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻
Crow T. Robot
Knew what the hell that thing was supposed to be
Peace Love and Nothing But
Posts: 41,797
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻 on Jan 5, 2021 19:05:48 GMT -5
Gave that youngster Jay Leno a main event shot.
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Post by timelimitdraw on Jan 5, 2021 19:11:59 GMT -5
Even though it was a last-minute change, the storyline of the Flair-Vader match at Starrcade 1993 is still one of my favorites. The challenge laying his career on the line, Vader being such a dominant monster, Flair saying goodbye to his family. The whole thing is just wonderful.
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Post by jason1980s on Jan 5, 2021 19:15:22 GMT -5
Gave that youngster Jay Leno a main event shot. I think WCW use of celebrities made much more sense than WWFs. The WCW celebrities brought publicity and it seemed like they were willing to help WCW and it also seemed like they may be actual fans. Ted Turner was in the entertainment business and he was a high roller and it made sense for a Turner owned business like WCW to be well known and celebrities would want to be involved. On the other hand, Vince McMahon's sole goal seemed to be wanting to be in the entertainment business but it rarely went well for him. I don't get it, the man probably is a genius and yet he couldn't get his PPV celebrities to do crossover appearances with WWF on their shows, or at least very rarely. It also seemed like most celebrities weren't fans and didn't want to be there, even for just a quick pay day.
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Post by dynamitekidd on Jan 5, 2021 20:30:37 GMT -5
Tag teams. They always kept good tag teams.
I like that it wasn’t as bright and gimmicky.
The overall ring work was usually good.
They perfected the heel champ role. Flair, Rude, Vader, Hollywood, monster heel champs.
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Post by romanstylesiii on Jan 5, 2021 20:59:07 GMT -5
Gave that youngster Jay Leno a main event shot. I think WCW use of celebrities made much more sense than WWFs. The WCW celebrities brought publicity and it seemed like they were willing to help WCW and it also seemed like they may be actual fans. Ted Turner was in the entertainment business and he was a high roller and it made sense for a Turner owned business like WCW to be well known and celebrities would want to be involved. On the other hand, Vince McMahon's sole goal seemed to be wanting to be in the entertainment business but it rarely went well for him. I don't get it, the man probably is a genius and yet he couldn't get his PPV celebrities to do crossover appearances with WWF on their shows, or at least very rarely. It also seemed like most celebrities weren't fans and didn't want to be there, even for just a quick pay day. Yeah, but WWE's docs tear WCW apart for that, despite the WWE doing the exact same thing with Snooki, Kevin Federline, Lawerence Taylor, Mr T, Seth Green, etc etc
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Post by Andy Martin on Jan 6, 2021 1:09:06 GMT -5
I always loved the way their ring sounded and could never figure out how they got it to sound like that.
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Post by jimmyjames on Jan 6, 2021 4:49:42 GMT -5
Monday Nitro. From the moment it debuted it was like the Major Leagues and made made Raw look like Single-A ball. Even though it debut4ed 25 years ago, in my opinion, when looking at Nitros now you can see how current wrestling shows are like it , from set s to production value and compared to Raw at the time, Raw looks antiquated. You can also see how Nitro forced WWE to up their presentation of Raw.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2021 4:56:49 GMT -5
It's wrestling and it was a generation ago so I'm sure there's all manner of problematic stuff but unless I'm misremembering WCW tended to push it's black and Hispanic talent a lot better than WWF. Maybe because of Russo at the helm the non white WWF wrestlers of the attitude era (Rock and Eddie excluded who both had family legacies) were booked as complete goobers who couldn't do anything right while a quick look at the recent WWR classic PPV reviews shows that wasn't the case with WCW, indeed for a long time Japanese, British and Canadian talent were also booked better in WCW than up north as well.
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Post by evilone on Jan 6, 2021 5:43:02 GMT -5
Paychecks Set & TV Production
Both were miles ahead of WWF at the time
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