WCW was a threat in the sense that for about a year and a half they had a better wrestling product than the WWE did. They also had enough money behind them to force the WWE into bidding wars on alot of the talent. The WWE in the mid-1990s had a terrible, boring product. Vince was basically letting an unstable lunatic (Shawn) run his company into the ground. The WWE saved itself by transforming itself into an interesting wrestling product aimed at adults rather than a cartoon for children. Vince basically saved the WWE by making all kinds of talent decisions that were against his normal instincts. I mean without WCW, there would have been no push for Steve Austin and they would probably not have given someone like Mick Foley a serious look. WCW also forced Vince to change his mind about size and cruiserweights.
True when Shawn left for a few years they where able to get there ratings up and gave us stars like Stone Cold, The Rock and even Triple H managed to get partly out of Shawn’s shadow with his rivalry with The Rock.
I mean I understand what you're saying but Shawn didn't create Bastion Booger, or Duke the dumpster Drosie. Vince has always had a terrible business sense for the product when left to his own devices.
WCW was a genuine threat, but Bischoff couldn't sustain what he put together in '96-'97. Once the guaranteed creative control contracts backfired and TimeWarner's deliberate handcuffing kicked in, they were doomed.
Agreed and the NWO thing worked so good it’s all they depended on WCW got way too unorganized and the other superstars they never put over besides Goldberg it was always Nash, hogan or sting they put over guys like Booker way too late and had no idea what to do with Bret Hart, plus guys like Eddie and Benoit should’ve been put over around 97-98
@@maxxdahl6062 It was supposed to be a six-month build to Hogan-Goldberg 2, with Goldberg winning the belt back. But bookers changed. Suddenly the belt went to Flair, DDP(which is where the viewership actually dropped), Sting, DDP, Nash... It was a hot angle that simply got abandoned. It's revisionist bs that January 4 1999 was any sort of 'turning point'.
@@DarksaberForce tna never had the kind of success wcw did. Tna has been a losing comPany since it's started they have survived by different people thinking they can turn it around And they never have. That's why it's so impressive that aew is making a good profit already
@@mikeywhispers1588 I'm sure you're aware of the theory some people have regarding Russo in WCW? They saw his writing as so stupid and horrible that they believed Vince McMahon sent him down there on purpose to ruin everything. Imagine being so incompetent at your job that everyone around you thinks that there's no way anyone could be so bad naturally.
@@megamike15 I think starrcade97 is specifically when they stopped being a threat. The arguments against sting winning where stupid. Hogan and his Creative Control really screwed the company and the talent
Tony Schiavone said that when he first saw how well WWF was run compared to WCW, he knew that WCW would die some day and even in WCW's peak he still believed so
Cornette tells a great Tony story of when Tony came back to WCW from WWF, Corny said "I'm telling ya, it's so bad here you're gonna be wanting out again." Within a few months Tony was slamming his booking agenda ledger down and storming out of creative meetings because Herd was that much of an idiot.
@@jonathancurran5366 he could afford Bret and never tried getting rid of him .he lied and said he couldn't afford him but he changed and mind and said he had the money to Bret .Bret was on deep talk with WCW and WWE . Bret didn't like what Vince offered him .WWE was in black by Sept 1997 . There more to 💸 then ratings
@@theophrastusbombastus1359 vince did try to keep bret . he told bret he had the money and tried to convince him to stay but bret did not like direction his charactor. wwe was in the black by sept 97 . they were never danger going under . house shows and ppv were worth more then ratings back then
When the NWO started getting watered down with 100 members, even Dusty Rhodes, WCW lost its edge......Even though Goldberg was interesting for awhile, WCW didn’t have what it took to compete with the ultimate anti-hero in Steve Austin, The Undertaker getting WAY more evil, the creativity of Mick Foley, the edginess of DX, the rise of The Rock, and Sable’s T&A.
Yup the NWO got to big with you many in it. Had it been the core of the old WWF crew it might have lasted longer. Creative control was the real down fall for WCW.
As a 16 year old in 1996, around Wrestlemania 12, I can say I really thought McMahon was scared during those Billionaire Ted skits. Taking out ads in National Papers about Time Warner merger, which if he only knew it ended up being the best thing for him, scared him into making product better and made him desperate enough to let Russo book his garbage. Even then I didn’t care for some of Russo’s ridiculous innuendos, said to myself if Bret and Undertaker move over to WCW than I may have to switch. I’m rambling now, just memories are coming to my mind of a 42 year old man.
@@davidcwajgenberg6185 early millenials are in their 40s now though...do you mean zoomers? Post '97 kids? Cuz if you were born in 1980 to 96, you are in fact a millennial.
No, it’s okay. I miss those times and that era too. Things were much more interesting to me back then. I was 12 years old in 96, I loved being tuned in each week for the Nitro vs. Raw wars on Monday nights. It was fun. I remembered being really confused by the Montreal thing and Bret leaving. What a time to be alive.
NOTHING will ever be as exciting as 90s wrestling or the crowd back then. Especially with flash photography and everyone’s engagement and freedom and not the kid show it is today to feed politics. What a time to be alive.
@@kingme1931 the PG shift was definitely shortly after Benoit. First though they just implemented more safety procedures. No more headshots with chairs etc. Overall it's really just marketing
I miss the flash photography of old. I love watching old footage of, say, Savage dropping the elbow with the flashes going off. Then it would linger onscreen for a second. Good times.
Stone Cold was like a giant mining Haul truck running over cars. His aura, charisma and anti-authority persona made him such a big star that WWF blew away WCW.
Look at DX and look at the nWo, that tells you all you need to know. DX was always between 3-7 members even when it was on fire. The nWo ballooned to 80 people.
If one was losing sleep over the other, guaranteed that it was Vince. Although Ted said that wrestling helped build TBS, it wasn't the centerpiece of his business empire, unlike it was for Vince, which I'm sure still eats at the latter. I think Vince was always jealous of the sense of business legitimacy that Ted had. I think Jim has said before that as wealthy and accomplished as he has become, Vince was embarrassed that it was due to "wrasslin".
Vince lost tons of sleep over that. WWF was getting destroyed by WCW and it only fell off after the Time Warner merger and completely fell through after the AO/Time Warner merger. Ted Turner wasn't in charge any longer because he was forced out.
Then maybe Vince should've chosen a different business venture that he would've been proud to be a part of, and not chose to be the one to take the company from his father. Oh wait, that's right! You think he'd still have the kind of money that he currently does if he didn't continue with the family legacy of WWE? I think not. He can be ashamed/embarrassed of it all he wants, but at the end of the day, the word "wrestling" will be forever associated with Vince Mcmahon until the day he dies.
WCW was like a street racer hitting the Nox boosters early on, yes they were blowing WWF away at the start but they were tearing up the engine before the finish line was even in sight
WCW forced Vince to evolve the WWE product to become the Attitude Era and produce (arguably) the biggest stars in its history it will be interesting to see if AEW's rise in popularity will force another change in the long run and what kind of change that will be
The WWE has too big of an headstart on AEW now, they have been mainatream for too long. The funny thing Is the WWF back then looked more like AEW than current WWE.
The only reason WWF was forced to change back then was because Vince was in serious financial trouble and had to adjust the tone of the product just to stay alive. AEW will never be more than a pimple on WWE's ass. The serious competition days are long gone. WWE has nothing to lose, they got more money and revenue than ever before and they could care less what any other wrestling company is doing good or bad.
@@j.t.8848 Depends on how hot AEW gets really, not saying it's likely. But if they can get 1997 WCW like hot, I could see advertisers, business deals, etc moving over to AEW instead, especially if the creative of WWE is happy just doing what it's already doing.
@@gothard5 I'd have to agree. I was a child of the 90's and always loved the Monday Night Wars but I got a friend who's ten years older that said the late 80's were even better. My grandfather still raved about Bruno Sammartino and George Steele in the 60's. Too bad the last 20 years have sucked
💯 between the fueds, the ppvs, the videogames, it definitely felt bigger than ever at that time. In high school there was a buzz Tuesday morning about what happened the night before
@@steveb9713 That's why I laugh hysterically when Brian Zane tries to defend today's wrestling by saying "there's more to do now". It didn't matter what you were doing in 1998, you dropped it to watch Raw or Nitro. Nobody did that when it was AEW vs NXT on Wednesday nights and if Brian wants to say kids are saying Fortnite, that's on wrestling for not being good enough to drop Fortnite for.
It was a 'new boom period' but the days of heels getting so much heat someone pulls a knife on them in the crowd were over back during the Monday Night Wars, that was the Silver Age if Attitude Era is Golden Age. The ability for WWE to create megastars like Dwayne The Rock and John Cena and Batista, or like Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs "Kane", or like Xavier Woods working for G4 and his UpUpDownDown YT channel, or Big E hosting College Football Homecoming kickoff parties as the WWE Champion, and etc.-- WWE has certainly contributed to wrestlers making legitimate society-leaders out of themselves thanks to their charisma as a wrestler. Arguably today's age ('Peacock Age') has more potential for wrestlers working outside of wrestling and gaining mainstream fame-- but the 'Golden Age' vets like The Rock could probably be the POTUS if they really wanted to run for election so yeah lmao things might have peaked during the Monday Night Wars.
“What can we call our performers besides Superstars?” “Well let’s see they’re wrestling in a wrestling ring wearing wrestling boots and tights for a company called World Wrestling Federation, how about Wrestlers?” Jim you are the GOAT! 🤣
WCW was like Sega to Nintendo. They were likely never gonna win long term, but they were the first challenger that the bigger brand actually had to sweat over.
Just a theory; reverse-brand loyalty. WCW had poached much of the talent that had made WWF huge, so since WCW had wrestlers they were already familiar with (Already gotten over), watching WCW felt more comfortable than watching all the new wrestlers at WWF.
Because the content in the mid-1990s WWE was horrible. WCW had its problems, but all the young and interesting talent was there. Without that competition from WCW, the WWE probably never gives Steve Austin or Mankind a chance at the top of the card. Without WCW, we would probably have had more years of Shawn rampaging through the WWE getting anyone he didn't like fired and lots of bad warmed-over 1980s style gimmick wrestlers.
I quit watching the WWE in the mid 80s because the shows were so bad - a bunch of (terrible to inept) squash matches where the "superstar" prances and poses around the ring after his win.
His revenge for Vince humiliating him in 1990 when he applied for a job and Vince had him doing a promo with a mop. When Saturn was stuck with the "moppy gimmick" that was another dig at Eric as well
Jericho was a loss to WCW and him not being there left a hole in the product. The Radicalz was good riddance to bad garbage (Eddie did later show mic skills and charisma, but at the time he was as bland as Malenko). Losing Sting or Goldberg would have been a major blow, losing the equivalent of Crash Holly, Funaki and Billy Gunn was not.
Wcw had a miles better mid card to WWF around the time wcw was winning week in week out. But for me once the nwo BS started going longer than it should I switched off and moved to WWF. But wcw wasn't massive in the UK as WWF was me and school friends would talk about both on a Monday morning but wcw wasn't that big
I think late WCW thought they were a threat, I think maybe Vince played his cards well, and was developing a plan, and he finally lowered the boom and bought and ended WCW
I think WCW had it up until late 1997. The Montreal Screwjob gave the WWF a ton of momentum and the NwO got stale and old after Starrcade97. The screwjob finish really killed WCW momentum.
It changed when they introduced Tyson as he brought massive to publicity the company and him putting Austin over as well as being involved in the WM XIV got more interest then Vince being the mega heel too.
@@MichaelWilliams-so1pq Short of it is that Time Warner merged with AOL. Ted Turner lost his controlling interest, and was booted from the board of directors. Turner was the one protecting WCW, so it was quickly shut down, losing it's TV slots, and sold for pennies to the WWF, as the AOL executives in power didn't like wrestling. Ultimately however, had it been actually successful, it might have been a harder sell to the shareholders. As it was, WCW had a history of red ink on the financial side from the time Turner bought Jim Crockett Promotions out, and only had a year and a half of success in ratings before failing again.
WCW was absolutely a threat. They so broke in the New Generation that Vince couldnt honor the contract he offered Bret. Vince was so butthurt he was running those carnie billionaire Ted skits. And at one point they spent like a year in 2nd place in the ratings...I know the kid is 24 but that question is silly.
Every Mark on a podcast does. Corny has trashed WWE numerous times but when WWE does something right in his eyes, Corny will say it. The same applies to Vince. Corny doesn't like Vince's take on Wrestling but Corny never trashed Vince as a human being. Brian shits on both no matter what. Only difference, Corny has met and been around Vince where as Brian, like most marks, has not.
WCW tried to spend them into oblivion by taking WWFs stars without having to get them over. From 93-96 they took Hogan, Savage, Hall, Nash, Waltman, and it worked.... for a little while. That forced them to get new people over. The 97 Royal Rumble is on YT. Look at the final 8. All of them are HOF caliber, while only 2 or 3 would have been considered that at the time.
WCW had a good thing going in the early-to-mid '90s. Regal was the shoe-in to a British audience deprived of television wrestling from about '86 and the roster had strength in depth: Sting, Arn Anderson, Flair and many others. I never missed the British edition. I used to tape it and watch it more than once. WWF, besides the obvious innate similarities, was a very different show. No less strength in depth but they were more about invincible action figures struggling to move under the weight of their own muscles. Exemplar of this style for me was Nailz; I was gutted that his stint was so short lived. Although I sneakily admire the way he left. Matt Bourne as Doink was most instrumental in my tuning in as and when I did.
WWF had to weakly create a 'Light-Heavyweight' title belt to combat the EXCELLENT "Cruiserweights" on WCW and their show-stealing matches. I'm glad we got the EXCELLENT 'Cruiserweight Classic': commentary by Mauro Ranallo and Bryan Danielson; featuring the likes of Zack Sabre Jr., Cedric Alexander (sadly the CWC continues to be the best he's ever been booked in the WWE), Pete Dunne, and of course Tyler "The Master"Bate. I don't know that a ppv/WWE-special has impressed me with pure wrestling as much, and it's thanks to WCW's Cruiserweight Division that made it possible.
@@teecakes - Regal's co-commentary overdub was the magic ingredient in WCW British edition, furthermore one of the all-time great innovations in the entire sporting almanac. Similarly, Perfect on WWF - paddling among urchins with his brilliant humour.
either way even IF WCW truly did beat wwf , the whole Merger thing truly killed off WCW, and the whole suits not wanting wrestling on tbs didnt help matters. in the end WCW was on borrowed time and didnt matter.
It was kinda hurting them. Kinda. For 83 weeks. History showed that WCW was not the most well run company so the 83 week run was eyebrow raising but it was a mere blip and true to form they fucked it up royally. The curse kicked in pretty strongly.
But wwe attitude era was something outside of what I think Vinc3 prefers which ih s why wwe is more family oriented however being pg doesnt mean your product is bad or boring that more or less creative and wwe not letting talent get over how ever they are a public shared company and having to answer to shareholders perhaps some of their reason but in may ways wwe's brand is bigger now by name and history alone and them being able to keep a hugh number of those fans some over 30 or 40 years adds up but I'd be lieing if I said for ever 1 good moment in wwe they are 10 cringe moments wwe has probibly have a much wider audience then aew or even ppl ervious eras but the I see coming out of nxt man I dnt see any hugh stars just wrestlers and to be a big star in wwe you have to do or be more than that people always say we need an alternative to wwe which is wrestling but wwe actual was and is the alternative but I dnt ever see are being a threat to wwe as long as wwe is owned by their current family just to much history
It's gonna sound crazy, but hindsight is 20/20. The biggest mistake WCW made was signing that egomaniac Hulk Hogan and given him creative control. It took a few years, but if you go back and look at the history of how everything went downhill after his signing, you can see all the dominos falling one by one. They gave him the one thing Vince never would and that was creative control. Now, albeit that's because Vince is the one person who has a bigger ego than him, you know, but still. I digress.
Sting said what happen was that WCW got so concerned with what WWE was doing and took there eyes WCW off what we were doing got so concerned with WWE and wanting to spank them WWE so bad and got to carried away with what we WCW was doing it just went down hill
I also really loved the territory days. Lots of wrestling to watch-WWF, AWA, Lutte Internationale from Montreal, Stampede, NWA Crockett (my grandfather had a satellite) and I kept track of the others through the Apter mags.
WCW didn't go out of business, AOL TIME-WARNER didn't want wrestling as part of their business. Lower ratings (but still respectable) gave them an excuse to dump WCW!
Not sure threat would be the word but viable alternative they were for sure from mid to late 96 to late 97 but as the NWO grew in #s and everything was screwjobs and 10 on 1 beatdowns with the rise of Stone Cold by early 98 the momentum was gone. WWF was the better product without a doubt. WCW had the chance to be something special but they made mistake after mistake while Vince finally stopped going after the kids and focused on getting those young adults who grew up on the 80s product. Just an amazing time to be a wrestling fan that will never be matched again
There was always room for two big wrestling companies. There still is as AEW is proving. Vince McMahon didn’t end WCW. Corporate execs from AOL Time Warner killed WCW. If Ted hadn’t sold his company and remained in charge, then both companies would have continued and would flip flop in quality every few years. Yes, 1999-2001 WCW was trash, but it could have rebounded by the mid-2000’s. But snobby AOL/Time Warner executives hated wrestling and didn’t want to be associated with it. It isn’t more complicated than that.
I was just drunkenly explaining to the 'wife' last night just how different the fate of WCW woulda been if not for...Magnum TA's car accident. Yea i know this has been already stated and opined upon- but its still worth considering just how things coulda turned out differently even all those years later had Magnum not wrecked both his rig and life that fateful night. Oh, and no 'wifey' wasnt paying any attention to one word i was sayin neither.
Sorry but it looked like intentional sabotage from within to me. The contracts alone were so absurd to nearly the entire roster, they were lucky to make money even during the good times because of it. There is no way they didn't know what burning up all that cash would do, and how eventually the doors would be closed because of it. And all the wasted money to guys they never used, people staying home getting paid and the overall waste sealed their fate. The moment things slowed down even a little, it was over. Those on the inside might as well have been working for Vince, he had only to wait it out and allow them to waste more money stealing his talent and overpaying more people. This never gets mentioned, and Jim doesn't enlighten us about it when it is so implausible that anybody would do what WCW did, unless it was intentional sabotage.
WWF = Rome and WCW = Carthage the Monday Night Wars is like the Punic Wars. As the night Mankind won the belt the Zama of WCW as the moment didn't stop and the Night WWF bought WCW that was the destruction of Carthage and the earth salted so it would never grow again.
If trying to decide, who was the bad guy... Ultimately, it was about what side of the fence you were on... If you we're on WWE side, you might of saw Ted Turner, as the enemy. But if you were on WCW side, you might of saw Vince McMahon, as the enemy.
I never liked the boring dark drab colors of WCW. I think they had black and grey ropes with a dull colored mat. And their venues always had a dark blue, grey and black aesthetic. And then the logo was baby blue and yellow for some reason. Their characters weren't as larger than life as the ones in WWF, either. They definitely had great legendary wrestlers but the WCW "theme" felt boring. The commentators sounded more like a boring radio sportscast as well.
@KaneMagus Being "more legitimate sport than WWF" doesn't mean it was presented like the Olympics, corky. It just means it was less cartoonist than WWF. Which at the time, it was, even with the stuff you mentioned l.
Yeah WCW might still be around if either of the three would be stopped going in business for themselves (though Hall had other issues) and stop need admiration and glorification all the f**king time
WCW's problem in Europe was that Nitro and Thunder would air on satellite TV back to back about 2-3 weeks after they went out live in the US, or at least it did in the UK. Meanwhile Monday night Raw would air on the Friday of that week, so it would be easier to remain spoiler free. WCW's PPVs weren't even aired in the UK so we'd have to wait for VHS releases to be able to watch them, but WWF's would be on usually in prime time the night after they happened.
@@Kauto36 yeah, they had the Royal Rumble, Backlash, Judgement Day/Invasion & Armagedden between 2000-2001. There was a lot of trouble after the 2000 Rumble because people complained about the HHH Cactus Jack street fight. Backlash aired on an hour tape delay with lots of cuts to avoid showing blood etc, and I think got even more complaints so then channel 4 aired the remaining shows on a tape delay, but as live and with commercial breaks added in etc. That's why they didn't try to renew after the deal was up. A version of Heat used to air on a Sunday afternoon as well with Raw & Smackdown recaps.
@@jazzygeofferz I can remember heat was pretty much just Essa Rios every week 😂. Then Lita doing her moonsault, I would have to stay up to like 4am to watch the ppvs and then go to school.
The flaw I saw in WCW is they weren't creating new talent they were just recycling talent. Kind of what the AEW is doing now on a much smaller scale of talent.
Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Booker T, Steven Regal, Triple H, Dean Malenko, Jericho, …Creating new talent wasn’t the problem. The problem was not giving those guys any main event push, and sticking with the same old NWO angle that got boring.
I was recording a lot of those episodes at that time. And rewatching over several months. WCW was bland and stale as NWO stayed static way too long. Promos were almost identical from week to week. There was no progression and predictability was the norm. Then Russo shows up and everyone is a buzz but with no restraints or guidance his stupid ideas weren’t influencing stories, they were the stories.
From what I can remember in the U.K. they were never shown at the same time. WCW was shown at like 18:00 on a Friday and then Raw was on later at around 21:00. WCW always felt like the WWF’s undercard show.
WCW was threat for a moment. Let's not be delusional! They kicked Vince ass from July of 96- April of 98. It was to the point Vince had to give his champion (Bret) away. However, I do feel the WWF kept it cool and focused on their own stuff. Think about it. In 1997 WCW was at its peak while in the same year, the WWF was plotting. Not only did they stomped WCW to hell by 98 but they became a pop culture phenomenon.
I definitely didn't think vince was going to buy wcw! Like cornette said, when I turned on smackdown and I saw the license plate said wcw I was like what? Cause I didn't see the raw when vince bought them and nobody told me about it either, but I started watching smackdown and jbl and farooq were gathering the troops, and lance storm hugh Morris Booker t Kidman and etc was fighting week after week, palumbo and Shaun o hara also, the beginning was exciting, Vince just likes winning
If they would have kept trying to do the New Gen crap instead of changing course in the late 90s then yes, I think WCW would have continued to be a threat. But WCW was a terribly run company that was its own worst enemy b/c of a lot of the bad decisions it made and ended up bleeding itself.
The biggest reason why WCW would never win was because they couldn't/didn't want to get newer talent over, with the exception of Goldberg. They literally *wasted* Eddie, Benoit and Jericho, all of whom got over in WWF. Not to mention that Hogan was never going to be a bigger draw in 98-99 than Stone Cold, DX, Foley, Taker or The Rock.
I love how Travis has a ""1990s" Vince look and a "2020s" Vince look for these different segments.
1990’s Vince hadn’t yet been corrupted by the power of egg.
@@oldmate5779 ...grumble...EGG!
The lipstick on 2020s Vince is the icing
@@apolloadamos8771 he looks like an old lady now
Today's Vince McMahon looks like a poorly made Madame Tussaud's wax figure painted by a mortician.
Mussolini and Meat and Cheese, pickles and onions if you pleaaaaSe
Lol, that was so great! I'll have you know.
Love it.
The cult of meat and extra cheese!
Real funny joking about a brutal dictator
@@josgor9061 your kidding right? I'll have you know, Jim is great!
WCW was a threat in the sense that for about a year and a half they had a better wrestling product than the WWE did. They also had enough money behind them to force the WWE into bidding wars on alot of the talent. The WWE in the mid-1990s had a terrible, boring product. Vince was basically letting an unstable lunatic (Shawn) run his company into the ground. The WWE saved itself by transforming itself into an interesting wrestling product aimed at adults rather than a cartoon for children.
Vince basically saved the WWE by making all kinds of talent decisions that were against his normal instincts. I mean without WCW, there would have been no push for Steve Austin and they would probably not have given someone like Mick Foley a serious look. WCW also forced Vince to change his mind about size and cruiserweights.
“Unstable lunatic” 😅
The nWo saved WCW but Stone Cold stole their thunder... WCW Nitro Thunder that is.
True when Shawn left for a few years they where able to get there ratings up and gave us stars like Stone Cold, The Rock and even Triple H managed to get partly out of Shawn’s shadow with his rivalry with The Rock.
Calling it a product takes away from it being entertainment
I mean I understand what you're saying but Shawn didn't create Bastion Booger, or Duke the dumpster Drosie. Vince has always had a terrible business sense for the product when left to his own devices.
WWF had better main events at that time..WCW had the better undercard.
WCW was a genuine threat, but Bischoff couldn't sustain what he put together in '96-'97. Once the guaranteed creative control contracts backfired and TimeWarner's deliberate handcuffing kicked in, they were doomed.
Agreed and the NWO thing worked so good it’s all they depended on WCW got way too unorganized and the other superstars they never put over besides Goldberg it was always Nash, hogan or sting they put over guys like Booker way too late and had no idea what to do with Bret Hart, plus guys like Eddie and Benoit should’ve been put over around 97-98
They stopped being a threat the second Hogan's finger touched Nash's chest...
And the ref counted to 3 with regular cadence lol
Do you really believe that?😂
Nah that didn't kill it, it was the no followup or anyone taking that faction down afterwards that did more damage.
@@maxxdahl6062 It was supposed to be a six-month build to Hogan-Goldberg 2, with Goldberg winning the belt back. But bookers changed. Suddenly the belt went to Flair, DDP(which is where the viewership actually dropped), Sting, DDP, Nash...
It was a hot angle that simply got abandoned.
It's revisionist bs that January 4 1999 was any sort of 'turning point'.
@@danielburger1775 That and goldberg hurt himself, so they were fucked on the babyface side.
I've said it before: WCW did more damage to itself than WWE could ever dream up.
Agreed wcw kicked their ass for quite awhile then just were their own worst enemy and started doing stupid shit
Sadly same with TNA.
@@DarksaberForce tna never had the kind of success wcw did. Tna has been a losing comPany since it's started they have survived by different people thinking they can turn it around And they never have. That's why it's so impressive that aew is making a good profit already
The biggest mistake WCW made was hiring Vince Russo. He really sank them quick
@@mikeywhispers1588 I'm sure you're aware of the theory some people have regarding Russo in WCW? They saw his writing as so stupid and horrible that they believed Vince McMahon sent him down there on purpose to ruin everything. Imagine being so incompetent at your job that everyone around you thinks that there's no way anyone could be so bad naturally.
When David Arquette won the WCW title, they stopped being a threat.
They stopped being a threat before that. That was when they were desperate.
they stopped after 97 when it was clear the nwo was getting stale.
@@manuhakala they were a threat and we're consistently winning untilt they ran themselves into the ground
The Fingerpoke of Doom was the end.
@@megamike15 I think starrcade97 is specifically when they stopped being a threat. The arguments against sting winning where stupid. Hogan and his Creative Control really screwed the company and the talent
Tony Schiavone said that when he first saw how well WWF was run compared to WCW, he knew that WCW would die some day and even in WCW's peak he still believed so
Cornette tells a great Tony story of when Tony came back to WCW from WWF, Corny said "I'm telling ya, it's so bad here you're gonna be wanting out again." Within a few months Tony was slamming his booking agenda ledger down and storming out of creative meetings because Herd was that much of an idiot.
I remember reading in Bret Hart's book that WWF was so well run that even the ring trucks were immaculate.
@@jonathancurran5366 he could afford Bret and never tried getting rid of him .he lied and said he couldn't afford him but he changed and mind and said he had the money to Bret .Bret was on deep talk with WCW and WWE . Bret didn't like what Vince offered him .WWE was in black by Sept 1997 . There more to 💸 then ratings
@@HhhHhhh-nu4lm That was a good attempt considering English isn't your first language
@@theophrastusbombastus1359 vince did try to keep bret . he told bret he had the money and tried to convince him to stay but bret did not like direction his charactor. wwe was in the black by sept 97 . they were never danger going under . house shows and ppv were worth more then ratings back then
When the NWO started getting watered down with 100 members, even Dusty Rhodes, WCW lost its edge......Even though Goldberg was interesting for awhile, WCW didn’t have what it took to compete with the ultimate anti-hero in Steve Austin, The Undertaker getting WAY more evil, the creativity of Mick Foley, the edginess of DX, the rise of The Rock, and Sable’s T&A.
I don’t know, I think the nWo hit its stride when they secured megastars like Scott Norton and Virgil.
Mr Adams, you just earned a 👍
@@IHateNicolasCage funniest comment of the week good god almighty 😂
Yeah, they really ran it into the ground.
Yup the NWO got to big with you many in it. Had it been the core of the old WWF crew it might have lasted longer. Creative control was the real down fall for WCW.
As a 16 year old in 1996, around Wrestlemania 12, I can say I really thought McMahon was scared during those Billionaire Ted skits. Taking out ads in National Papers about Time Warner merger, which if he only knew it ended up being the best thing for him, scared him into making product better and made him desperate enough to let Russo book his garbage. Even then I didn’t care for some of Russo’s ridiculous innuendos, said to myself if Bret and Undertaker move over to WCW than I may have to switch. I’m rambling now, just memories are coming to my mind of a 42 year old man.
Undertaker sucked
Always happy to hear from someone else in my age group ha ha seems like all millnalenals on these sites
@@davidcwajgenberg6185 early millenials are in their 40s now though...do you mean zoomers? Post '97 kids? Cuz if you were born in 1980 to 96, you are in fact a millennial.
No, it’s okay. I miss those times and that era too. Things were much more interesting to me back then. I was 12 years old in 96, I loved being tuned in each week for the Nitro vs. Raw wars on Monday nights. It was fun. I remembered being really confused by the Montreal thing and Bret leaving. What a time to be alive.
It was until late 1998.
NOTHING will ever be as exciting as 90s wrestling or the crowd back then. Especially with flash photography and everyone’s engagement and freedom and not the kid show it is today to feed politics. What a time to be alive.
What politics is it feeding?
@@kingme1931 Linda in U.S admin. That’s why they went pg. it’s about the money not the product.
@@noahmiller4953 Oh yeah you right. I thought they went pg because of the whole Benoit situation
@@kingme1931 the PG shift was definitely shortly after Benoit. First though they just implemented more safety procedures. No more headshots with chairs etc.
Overall it's really just marketing
I miss the flash photography of old. I love watching old footage of, say, Savage dropping the elbow with the flashes going off. Then it would linger onscreen for a second. Good times.
Stone Cold was like a giant mining Haul truck running over cars. His aura, charisma and anti-authority persona made him such a big star that WWF blew away WCW.
Well him and The Rock really put the stamp on it. But, Austin was that bomb to ignite first.
WCW Killed themselves
So hes the one to blame for them still being around
Look at DX and look at the nWo, that tells you all you need to know. DX was always between 3-7 members even when it was on fire. The nWo ballooned to 80 people.
@@melvynsngltn27
The merger killed WCW.
If one was losing sleep over the other, guaranteed that it was Vince. Although Ted said that wrestling helped build TBS, it wasn't the centerpiece of his business empire, unlike it was for Vince, which I'm sure still eats at the latter. I think Vince was always jealous of the sense of business legitimacy that Ted had. I think Jim has said before that as wealthy and accomplished as he has become, Vince was embarrassed that it was due to "wrasslin".
But it's his heritage.
@@MohamedAli-xu3uw
He hated it though. He hated the word "wrestling" in fact.
Vince lost tons of sleep over that. WWF was getting destroyed by WCW and it only fell off after the Time Warner merger and completely fell through after the AO/Time Warner merger. Ted Turner wasn't in charge any longer because he was forced out.
Then maybe Vince should've chosen a different business venture that he would've been proud to be a part of, and not chose to be the one to take the company from his father. Oh wait, that's right! You think he'd still have the kind of money that he currently does if he didn't continue with the family legacy of WWE? I think not. He can be ashamed/embarrassed of it all he wants, but at the end of the day, the word "wrestling" will be forever associated with Vince Mcmahon until the day he dies.
"we make movies"
WCW was like a street racer hitting the Nox boosters early on, yes they were blowing WWF away at the start but they were tearing up the engine before the finish line was even in sight
Well not exactly they were way behind at first . Before the Monday night wars
Vince McMahon was really lucky WCW was run by people who are in business for themselves.
I don't imagine it took him too long to figure that out.
WCW forced Vince to evolve the WWE product to become the Attitude Era and produce (arguably) the biggest stars in its history
it will be interesting to see if AEW's rise in popularity will force another change in the long run and what kind of change that will be
The WWE has too big of an headstart on AEW now, they have been mainatream for too long.
The funny thing Is the WWF back then looked more like AEW than current WWE.
"AEW's rise in popularity will force another change in the long run"
To what? Wrestling is dead and it can't come back.
WWE seems so stuck in its ways for any changes.
The only reason WWF was forced to change back then was because Vince was in serious financial trouble and had to adjust the tone of the product just to stay alive. AEW will never be more than a pimple on WWE's ass. The serious competition days are long gone. WWE has nothing to lose, they got more money and revenue than ever before and they could care less what any other wrestling company is doing good or bad.
@@j.t.8848 Depends on how hot AEW gets really, not saying it's likely. But if they can get 1997 WCW like hot, I could see advertisers, business deals, etc moving over to AEW instead, especially if the creative of WWE is happy just doing what it's already doing.
The Monday Night Wars was the golden era of wrestling.
Depends on who you ask. I would say the golden era of wrestling would be either the 1960s or the 1970s.
@@gothard5 I'd have to agree. I was a child of the 90's and always loved the Monday Night Wars but I got a friend who's ten years older that said the late 80's were even better. My grandfather still raved about Bruno Sammartino and George Steele in the 60's. Too bad the last 20 years have sucked
💯 between the fueds, the ppvs, the videogames, it definitely felt bigger than ever at that time. In high school there was a buzz Tuesday morning about what happened the night before
@@steveb9713 That's why I laugh hysterically when Brian Zane tries to defend today's wrestling by saying "there's more to do now". It didn't matter what you were doing in 1998, you dropped it to watch Raw or Nitro. Nobody did that when it was AEW vs NXT on Wednesday nights and if Brian wants to say kids are saying Fortnite, that's on wrestling for not being good enough to drop Fortnite for.
It was a 'new boom period' but the days of heels getting so much heat someone pulls a knife on them in the crowd were over back during the Monday Night Wars, that was the Silver Age if Attitude Era is Golden Age.
The ability for WWE to create megastars like Dwayne The Rock and John Cena and Batista, or like Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs "Kane", or like Xavier Woods working for G4 and his UpUpDownDown YT channel, or Big E hosting College Football Homecoming kickoff parties as the WWE Champion, and etc.-- WWE has certainly contributed to wrestlers making legitimate society-leaders out of themselves thanks to their charisma as a wrestler.
Arguably today's age ('Peacock Age') has more potential for wrestlers working outside of wrestling and gaining mainstream fame-- but the 'Golden Age' vets like The Rock could probably be the POTUS if they really wanted to run for election so yeah lmao things might have peaked during the Monday Night Wars.
When Bret Hart left WWF for WCW, I thought WWF was going to die. I was very wrong.
Hey Brian, Brian! Hey hi, we get it you hate Vince McMahon.
“What can we call our performers besides Superstars?”
“Well let’s see they’re wrestling in a wrestling ring wearing wrestling boots and tights for a company called World Wrestling Federation, how about Wrestlers?”
Jim you are the GOAT! 🤣
WCW was like Sega to Nintendo. They were likely never gonna win long term, but they were the first challenger that the bigger brand actually had to sweat over.
There was a moment when nwo shirts were being sold in regular shops they had a chance.
WCW stopped being a threat to the WWF when Gillberg arrived on the scene.
Gillberg was just too much of the same. He should of teamed with Dex Dugar or Stung. Maybe even Candy" Nacho Man" Ravage.
GILLBERG IS A LEGEND!
"That's probably why I couldn't have nice things." 🤣
"Which I still scratch my head till this day and I go why would anybody watch WCW over the WWE" - Bret Hart
Answer: The Cruiserweight Division
Bret Hart is a crybaby lol
Just a theory; reverse-brand loyalty. WCW had poached much of the talent that had made WWF huge, so since WCW had wrestlers they were already familiar with (Already gotten over), watching WCW felt more comfortable than watching all the new wrestlers at WWF.
Because the content in the mid-1990s WWE was horrible. WCW had its problems, but all the young and interesting talent was there. Without that competition from WCW, the WWE probably never gives Steve Austin or Mankind a chance at the top of the card. Without WCW, we would probably have had more years of Shawn rampaging through the WWE getting anyone he didn't like fired and lots of bad warmed-over 1980s style gimmick wrestlers.
I quit watching the WWE in the mid 80s because the shows were so bad - a bunch of (terrible to inept) squash matches where the "superstar" prances and poses around the ring after his win.
Vince claims not to be wrestling so the athletic commission could not tell him what to do with his own business
More RoboCop would have saved WCW.
Robocop vs. Jeff Jarrett could of saved the company. 😅🤣😂
Robocop vs El Egante could have been a game changer?!
Please... Chucky would have saved WCW if it wasn't for those pesky Steiner brothers, and Judy Bagwell on a forklift.
Not sure who would have been more immobile though!!? Not too many high spots I'd imagine!
Ted calls Vince: "I'm in the wrestling business."
Vince: "I've always been a 'sports entertainment' guy myself."
Yeah sure
Eric was the one who said he wanted to put Vince out of business. Not Turner.
His revenge for Vince humiliating him in 1990 when he applied for a job and Vince had him doing a promo with a mop. When Saturn was stuck with the "moppy gimmick" that was another dig at Eric as well
When Jericho, Benoit, and Guerrero jumped to the WWF, that was when it became clear they would win in the end.
Jericho was a loss to WCW and him not being there left a hole in the product. The Radicalz was good riddance to bad garbage (Eddie did later show mic skills and charisma, but at the time he was as bland as Malenko). Losing Sting or Goldberg would have been a major blow, losing the equivalent of Crash Holly, Funaki and Billy Gunn was not.
Wcw had a miles better mid card to WWF around the time wcw was winning week in week out. But for me once the nwo BS started going longer than it should I switched off and moved to WWF.
But wcw wasn't massive in the UK as WWF was me and school friends would talk about both on a Monday morning but wcw wasn't that big
it was huge in Poland
WCW was free-to-view in Britain. WWF required satellite subscription but scored big with merchandise saturation.
@@herbert9241 was it on channel 5? I remember catching Thunder replays on there
@@beaniebrotha - ITV at the time I was watching, early-to-mid '90s.
It was from mid 96-late 98
I think late WCW thought they were a threat, I think maybe Vince played his cards well, and was developing a plan, and he finally lowered the boom and bought and ended WCW
I think WCW had it up until late 1997. The Montreal Screwjob gave the WWF a ton of momentum and the NwO got stale and old after Starrcade97. The screwjob finish really killed WCW momentum.
It changed when they introduced Tyson as he brought massive to publicity the company and him putting Austin over as well as being involved in the WM XIV got more interest then Vince being the mega heel too.
WWE was in black by Sept 1997
Starrcade 97 was the beginning of the end for WCW
@@jtothehtv in terms quality yeah. They should toned it down during 1998
It's insane how Vince got WCW for $5M, crazy!
If Ted Turner had not been given the boot from the boardroom -- WCW would have never gone onto the auction block.
sorry, what happened here, I guess I can google it.
@@MichaelWilliams-so1pq Short of it is that Time Warner merged with AOL. Ted Turner lost his controlling interest, and was booted from the board of directors. Turner was the one protecting WCW, so it was quickly shut down, losing it's TV slots, and sold for pennies to the WWF, as the AOL executives in power didn't like wrestling. Ultimately however, had it been actually successful, it might have been a harder sell to the shareholders. As it was, WCW had a history of red ink on the financial side from the time Turner bought Jim Crockett Promotions out, and only had a year and a half of success in ratings before failing again.
Im the cult of meat and cheese, the cult of meat and cheese! Lol
Travis' depiction of late 90s era Vince really captures his essence
*Glacier vs. The Yetti should tell you all you need to know about this question..;)*
The Yetay.
@@DespicablepunK25 *Yeti.*
WCW was absolutely a threat. They so broke in the New Generation that Vince couldnt honor the contract he offered Bret. Vince was so butthurt he was running those carnie billionaire Ted skits. And at one point they spent like a year in 2nd place in the ratings...I know the kid is 24 but that question is silly.
I think Brian really hates WWE and Vince lol
Every Mark on a podcast does. Corny has trashed WWE numerous times but when WWE does something right in his eyes, Corny will say it. The same applies to Vince. Corny doesn't like Vince's take on Wrestling but Corny never trashed Vince as a human being. Brian shits on both no matter what. Only difference, Corny has met and been around Vince where as Brian, like most marks, has not.
WCW tried to spend them into oblivion by taking WWFs stars without having to get them over. From 93-96 they took Hogan, Savage, Hall, Nash, Waltman, and it worked.... for a little while. That forced them to get new people over. The 97 Royal Rumble is on YT. Look at the final 8. All of them are HOF caliber, while only 2 or 3 would have been considered that at the time.
And now history is repeating itself.
One Of Them Retired In 2020 His Name Is Undertaker
WCW had a good thing going in the early-to-mid '90s. Regal was the shoe-in to a British audience deprived of television wrestling from about '86 and the roster had strength in depth: Sting, Arn Anderson, Flair and many others. I never missed the British edition. I used to tape it and watch it more than once.
WWF, besides the obvious innate similarities, was a very different show. No less strength in depth but they were more about invincible action figures struggling to move under the weight of their own muscles. Exemplar of this style for me was Nailz; I was gutted that his stint was so short lived. Although I sneakily admire the way he left. Matt Bourne as Doink was most instrumental in my tuning in as and when I did.
WWF had to weakly create a 'Light-Heavyweight' title belt to combat the EXCELLENT "Cruiserweights" on WCW and their show-stealing matches. I'm glad we got the EXCELLENT 'Cruiserweight Classic': commentary by Mauro Ranallo and Bryan Danielson; featuring the likes of Zack Sabre Jr., Cedric Alexander (sadly the CWC continues to be the best he's ever been booked in the WWE), Pete Dunne, and of course Tyler "The Master"Bate. I don't know that a ppv/WWE-special has impressed me with pure wrestling as much, and it's thanks to WCW's Cruiserweight Division that made it possible.
@@teecakes - Regal's co-commentary overdub was the magic ingredient in WCW British edition, furthermore one of the all-time great innovations in the entire sporting almanac. Similarly, Perfect on WWF - paddling among urchins with his brilliant humour.
either way even IF WCW truly did beat wwf , the whole Merger thing truly killed off WCW, and the whole suits not wanting wrestling on tbs didnt help matters. in the end WCW was on borrowed time and didnt matter.
It was kinda hurting them. Kinda. For 83 weeks. History showed that WCW was not the most well run company so the 83 week run was eyebrow raising but it was a mere blip and true to form they fucked it up royally. The curse kicked in pretty strongly.
But wwe attitude era was something outside of what I think Vinc3 prefers which ih s why wwe is more family oriented however being pg doesnt mean your product is bad or boring that more or less creative and wwe not letting talent get over how ever they are a public shared company and having to answer to shareholders perhaps some of their reason but in may ways wwe's brand is bigger now by name and history alone and them being able to keep a hugh number of those fans some over 30 or 40 years adds up but I'd be lieing if I said for ever 1 good moment in wwe they are 10 cringe moments wwe has probibly have a much wider audience then aew or even ppl ervious eras but the I see coming out of nxt man I dnt see any hugh stars just wrestlers and to be a big star in wwe you have to do or be more than that people always say we need an alternative to wwe which is wrestling but wwe actual was and is the alternative but I dnt ever see are being a threat to wwe as long as wwe is owned by their current family just to much history
It's gonna sound crazy, but hindsight is 20/20. The biggest mistake WCW made was signing that egomaniac Hulk Hogan and given him creative control. It took a few years, but if you go back and look at the history of how everything went downhill after his signing, you can see all the dominos falling one by one. They gave him the one thing Vince never would and that was creative control. Now, albeit that's because Vince is the one person who has a bigger ego than him, you know, but still. I digress.
It's pronounced "Luh-trobe", PA. Home of Rolling Rock Beer
I live there bud. No it aint
Sting said what happen was that WCW got so concerned with what WWE was doing and took there eyes WCW off what we were doing got so concerned with WWE and wanting to spank them WWE so bad and got to carried away with what we WCW was doing it just went down hill
83 weeks👀🙊🤷
Well, if anything, Eric Bischoff was admittedly trying to run Vince McMahon and the WWF out of business, while, working for billionaire, Ted Turner.
I’m just so happy I can say I lived it and can Rmr the Monday Night War. An incredible time we will never get back
I also really loved the territory days. Lots of wrestling to watch-WWF, AWA, Lutte Internationale from Montreal, Stampede, NWA Crockett (my grandfather had a satellite) and I kept track of the others through the Apter mags.
What the hell happened to the Vince McMahon that cared enough to put out a product that crushed WCW? At least that Vince gave a shit.
WCW didn't go out of business, AOL TIME-WARNER didn't want wrestling as part of their business. Lower ratings (but still respectable) gave them an excuse to dump WCW!
WWE should do more RAW and SMACKDOWN overseas, better fan reaction
Not sure threat would be the word but viable alternative they were for sure from mid to late 96 to late 97 but as the NWO grew in #s and everything was screwjobs and 10 on 1 beatdowns with the rise of Stone Cold by early 98 the momentum was gone. WWF was the better product without a doubt. WCW had the chance to be something special but they made mistake after mistake while Vince finally stopped going after the kids and focused on getting those young adults who grew up on the 80s product. Just an amazing time to be a wrestling fan that will never be matched again
Vince understood that successful pro wrestling is marathon and not a sprint! Sure, WCW was successful in the beginning, but WWE won the race! 💪
There was always room for two big wrestling companies. There still is as AEW is proving. Vince McMahon didn’t end WCW. Corporate execs from AOL Time Warner killed WCW. If Ted hadn’t sold his company and remained in charge, then both companies would have continued and would flip flop in quality every few years. Yes, 1999-2001 WCW was trash, but it could have rebounded by the mid-2000’s. But snobby AOL/Time Warner executives hated wrestling and didn’t want to be associated with it. It isn’t more complicated than that.
Lol clearly the answer to the video's question is a big fat NO lol
I was just drunkenly explaining to the 'wife' last night just how different the fate of WCW woulda been if not for...Magnum TA's car accident. Yea i know this has been already stated and opined upon- but its still worth considering just how things coulda turned out differently even all those years later had Magnum not wrecked both his rig and life that fateful night.
Oh, and no 'wifey' wasnt paying any attention to one word i was sayin neither.
I remember when that happened...Kerry Von Erich's accident was about the same time. Who knows what would have happened.
Sorry but it looked like intentional sabotage from within to me. The contracts alone were so absurd to nearly the entire roster, they were lucky to make money even during the good times because of it. There is no way they didn't know what burning up all that cash would do, and how eventually the doors would be closed because of it. And all the wasted money to guys they never used, people staying home getting paid and the overall waste sealed their fate. The moment things slowed down even a little, it was over. Those on the inside might as well have been working for Vince, he had only to wait it out and allow them to waste more money stealing his talent and overpaying more people. This never gets mentioned, and Jim doesn't enlighten us about it when it is so implausible that anybody would do what WCW did, unless it was intentional sabotage.
WWF = Rome and WCW = Carthage the Monday Night Wars is like the Punic Wars. As the night Mankind won the belt the Zama of WCW as the moment didn't stop and the Night WWF bought WCW that was the destruction of Carthage and the earth salted so it would never grow again.
If trying to decide, who was the bad guy... Ultimately, it was about what side of the fence you were on...
If you we're on WWE side, you might of saw Ted Turner, as the enemy. But if you were on WCW side, you might of saw Vince McMahon, as the enemy.
If you grew up during the late 80's and 90's you know WCW was a very sizable threat to Vince at one point.
I never liked the boring dark drab colors of WCW. I think they had black and grey ropes with a dull colored mat. And their venues always had a dark blue, grey and black aesthetic. And then the logo was baby blue and yellow for some reason. Their characters weren't as larger than life as the ones in WWF, either. They definitely had great legendary wrestlers but the WCW "theme" felt boring. The commentators sounded more like a boring radio sportscast as well.
They wanted to present it as more of a legitimate sport than a clown playing jokes on a half-man-half-bull.
If I wanted colors I'd take LSD. I liked WCW's higher quality wrestling. (Generally.)
@KaneMagus Being "more legitimate sport than WWF" doesn't mean it was presented like the Olympics, corky.
It just means it was less cartoonist than WWF. Which at the time, it was, even with the stuff you mentioned l.
The WCW was most definitely a threat to the World Wrestling Federation who got their butt kicked for 83 weeks in the television ratings
Brian, Latrobe is pronounced la-TROBE, not LAY-trobe.
dubba C dubba R.I.P.
I miss 90s drawn vince
2021 drawn vince scares me
WCW messed up when they went away from 5:05 on Saturday night. We never missed that.
With Hogan Nash and hall's ego running the show in was inevitable that wcw was doomed to fail
Yeah WCW might still be around if either of the three would be stopped going in business for themselves (though Hall had other issues) and stop need admiration and glorification all the f**king time
WCW will always be the true competitor to WWE. No other company came close to putting them out of business like they did.
And he wonders why Vince Russo was picked to helm the attitude era
WCW's problem in Europe was that Nitro and Thunder would air on satellite TV back to back about 2-3 weeks after they went out live in the US, or at least it did in the UK. Meanwhile Monday night Raw would air on the Friday of that week, so it would be easier to remain spoiler free. WCW's PPVs weren't even aired in the UK so we'd have to wait for VHS releases to be able to watch them, but WWF's would be on usually in prime time the night after they happened.
Channel 4 had the WWF PPV coverage in the uk for about a year or so free of charge.
@@Kauto36 yeah, they had the Royal Rumble, Backlash, Judgement Day/Invasion & Armagedden between 2000-2001. There was a lot of trouble after the 2000 Rumble because people complained about the HHH Cactus Jack street fight. Backlash aired on an hour tape delay with lots of cuts to avoid showing blood etc, and I think got even more complaints so then channel 4 aired the remaining shows on a tape delay, but as live and with commercial breaks added in etc. That's why they didn't try to renew after the deal was up. A version of Heat used to air on a Sunday afternoon as well with Raw & Smackdown recaps.
@@jazzygeofferz I can remember heat was pretty much just Essa Rios every week 😂. Then Lita doing her moonsault, I would have to stay up to like 4am to watch the ppvs and then go to school.
What's address to get your mail on air with Jim
Would it be the best if Ted Turner bought WWE after all these years
The flaw I saw in WCW is they weren't creating new talent they were just recycling talent. Kind of what the AEW is doing now on a much smaller scale of talent.
Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Booker T, Steven Regal, Triple H, Dean Malenko, Jericho, …Creating new talent wasn’t the problem. The problem was not giving those guys any main event push, and sticking with the same old NWO angle that got boring.
With Hogan having creative control..WCW would never win
The nwo along with the monday night wars made wcw and wwe reached the heights and popularity that we will probably never see again
If they wernt throwing money into a black hole they could have still be around today
I was recording a lot of those episodes at that time. And rewatching over several months. WCW was bland and stale as NWO stayed static way too long. Promos were almost identical from week to week. There was no progression and predictability was the norm.
Then Russo shows up and everyone is a buzz but with no restraints or guidance his stupid ideas weren’t influencing stories, they were the stories.
They were until the merger. The company just got left to die after that.
Mad to think that ECW and WCW went bust in the same year
The Monday Wars was the golden era of wrestling.
I had to double check to see if Ted Turner is still alive, cause he seemed old when I was a kid in tbe early 90s. Seems he's still here at 83.
WCW was certainly WWE's biggest threat because casual viewers would tune in back in the late 90s.
I miss wcw in the mid and late 90s they were good and made wwf improve on they product
From what I can remember in the U.K. they were never shown at the same time. WCW was shown at like 18:00 on a Friday and then Raw was on later at around 21:00. WCW always felt like the WWF’s undercard show.
WCW was threat for a moment. Let's not be delusional! They kicked Vince ass from July of 96- April of 98. It was to the point Vince had to give his champion (Bret) away. However, I do feel the WWF kept it cool and focused on their own stuff. Think about it. In 1997 WCW was at its peak while in the same year, the WWF was plotting. Not only did they stomped WCW to hell by 98 but they became a pop culture phenomenon.
Reminds me of Vince in "Beyond the Mat"
"We're not wrestling.... We make movies....
I definitely didn't think vince was going to buy wcw! Like cornette said, when I turned on smackdown and I saw the license plate said wcw I was like what? Cause I didn't see the raw when vince bought them and nobody told me about it either, but I started watching smackdown and jbl and farooq were gathering the troops, and lance storm hugh Morris Booker t Kidman and etc was fighting week after week, palumbo and Shaun o hara also, the beginning was exciting, Vince just likes winning
WWF was close it losing the war if not for Stone Cold, Rock, Undertaker, and Mick Foley. WCW had no were to go after the NWO
83 weeks
If they would have kept trying to do the New Gen crap instead of changing course in the late 90s then yes, I think WCW would have continued to be a threat. But WCW was a terribly run company that was its own worst enemy b/c of a lot of the bad decisions it made and ended up bleeding itself.
Thanks and safety to ya both as always!
WWE/WWF was the Babyface. WCW was the Heel. Eventually, the Babyface wins.
Except it's not wrestling
The biggest reason why WCW would never win was because they couldn't/didn't want to get newer talent over, with the exception of Goldberg. They literally *wasted* Eddie, Benoit and Jericho, all of whom got over in WWF. Not to mention that Hogan was never going to be a bigger draw in 98-99 than Stone Cold, DX, Foley, Taker or The Rock.