What Killed WCW?

I give my thoughts on the death of wcw. What I thought of the documentary. As well as the death of wcw. Who do i think killed wcw? What was it? talent, creative, or the network? Did I watch WCW? 

The Documentary?

I know a lot of this information. So, I have been watching, and noticed that the documentary started in 1993. The documentary failed to cover, the 80s, like JCP, NWA, AWA, Black Friday, Hulka-mania, and even WWF in the 80s. Also, failed to cover Ted Turner buying wcw in the early 90s. But a lot of this came information I have heard before from 83 weeks. I have heard about Hulk coming, Ted telling Eric that either make a profit, or WCW will go away. Also, hulk turning heel and the NWO. As well the NWO coming together, and as well as Hall and Nash coming in. The Goldberg streak and Kevin Nash beating him the following year. As well as Eric exit from the company. I know I am up to part 3. Which will cover Russo, and part 4 will cover WWF buying WCW. 

I do like that the documentary got everyone from WCW, but Goldberg and Bret as well Booker T, were never in the corporate part of the company. I think those guys should have just covered the wrestling parts of their careers. I know Hulk and Ric Flair are missing, but I guess Evan and Jason chose not to bring them on. I know a couple who have passed that are missing like Dusty, and Scott Hall. As well as Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan, But I think Russo and Jeff Jarett will be great to talk to about WCW in 2000. I did see part 3, and 4. Both show how bad the creative was in 2000. Also, how Russo didn't accept how his creative hurt the product and just blamed others. The hulk thing is crap because Russo wanted to push new talent. Looks how he booked Flair. Also, 2001 you see Aol merged with Time Warner. Then WCW get sold to WWF because of Jamie Keller.

Did I learn anything on the documentary?

I did watch all 4 parts. The only thing I did learn is when Russo left WCW in 2000 instead of 2001. But everything else I kind of knew because of listening to podcasts like 83 weeks. It's a great documentary but has been talked about a million times before. 

Did I watch WCW?

I got into wrestling late 2003 until early 2004. But I did watch WCW clips on YouTube.  As well as watching the rise and fall of WCW. I did watch some WCW on peacock. Also, listening to podcasts like 83 weeks and my world. I will say the product was great from late 95 to mid 1998. Then the product started slowing declining. I think this was a lot to do with Turner not understanding wrestling and what WWF was doing. Another one could be trying to make WCW more family friendly. So, the rating declined and so did the product by 2000 and was highly unwatchable in my opinion. I tried watching some stuff in 2000 and couldn't do it. Turning Goldberg heel was a mistake, but I understand why it happened in wcw. I just feel like the Tuner Network was what was slowing killing WCW, made WCW creative decline, and by 2001 had a lot to do with why WCW was sold to Vince and WWF.

Who Killed WCW?

I know people blame Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, and even Russo. But none of these killed WCW. These are a part of the reason WWF ratings got stronger and people changed the channel. In a way, WCW ratings declined. But not in a way, as in killed the company.  The wrestlers were not part of the reason. Now don't get me wrong, WCW did have crappy creative in 2000 into 2001 but that only drove the fans to the USA channel to watch Raw. Which was like the next channel on cable. The reasons like in the YouTube short I made are, when Ted Turner merged with AOL Time Warner, that could be a part of what helped kill WCW because the Turner network didn't want wrestling. Turner got rid of Ted Turner shortly after. Then as time went on, Tuner showed how they didn't want wrestling. Like Kevin Sullivan and others have mentioned, it didn't matter what the ratings are, they don't want wrestling. So, AOL was giving the guys new contracts, so the wrestlers are paid even if Turner pulls the plug on this tomorrow. The next reason is money like, when Thunder started, the network wanted another wrestling show but didn't want to pay for it. Which that can be expensive and it hurt WCW in a finical way. The other reason is guys getting paid to sit at home, because those guys are not being used like Lanny Poppo and Bobby Eaton. The last reason is a lot of guys are making a million dollar plus which back then was like wow that is a lot of money just going out for the wrestlers. The last reason is when the ratings started declining in WCW like 1999 to 2001, the network wanted to get rid of WCW, and started talking to people to get rid of it in 2000. One was Eric Bischoff, who was going to work with Fusion to try to buy WCW over the next year for like 81 million. Then in 2001, Eric Bischoff was told by Jamie Keller, I don't see anything in wrestling, and was the reason WCW was sold to Vince for like 3 to 5 million shortly after that. Which WWF really just wanted the library and the Turner Network.

WCW Didn't Work In WWF

I know I have heard Bruce say WWF wanted the library, and the turner network. I think WWF didn't want to pay the WCW but a certain amount like a lot of guys were low balled and came in at like 6 figure paydays which is why the big names which WWF knew wouldn't come in like NWO, Sting, Flair, and even Goldberg. So, WWF started using WCW on the house shows and saw this wouldn't work. Which I heard if it was successful, WCW would be on Monday like Raw, and WWF on Thursday, as in Smackdown which was taped on Tuesdays and aired on Thursday. So, ECW 2000 in 2001 was doing better with house shows. So, WWF, thought let's bring in ECW, which is RVD and Tommy Dreamer came in, and let's do the invasion storyline. Then some WWF guys like Dudley's, Tazz, and others joined the ECW part of the invasion who worked in WWF. Then the following week, the alliance was formed together with ECW and WCW guys. This was like really trying to make this work. Which it didn't and lacked a lot of big names. A lot of fans didn't care and some even checked out for a period. The creative wasn't great for the alliance guys like DDP is the stalker to Sara to basically feud with the Undertaker, instead of DDP being the people champion vs The Rock. Because of the lack of main event level guys in the alliance, we saw Austin turn back into a heel after a week of being a face. Which shouldn't have happened. Because the boos were only for a short period of time and by the fall, Austin wasn't getting booed and, what thing was getting hot toward the end of 2001. Triple H was injured but felt like that would have been a better idea. You saw Kurt Angle join too, which didn't really help the alliance. As in I think a couple names like Eddie and Benoit would have been better names to join the alliance. As well, as Triple H. All were out of the company. 

Then, in the end on WWF TV, you saw WWF beat the alliance at Survivor Series. Austin turned back to the old good guy. Which restarted Austin VS Mcmahon. But with Kurt join Vince, as well as Booker and Bossman for a minute in late 2001 into early 2002. You did see Flair come in the next night after Survivor Series which led to the partnership of Vince and Ric on TV. Triple H came back in January, which made him a Goodguy until the following summer when he turned on Shawn. NWO came in the following spring, which by WrestleMania saw Hogan turn back to hulk-mania. Scott Steiner came in late 2002, which set up some not-so-great matches with Triple H vs Steiner into the spring of 2003. Then Scott Steiner, was in a tag team with Test, then would feud with test over Stacy, then turn heel and team with Test. Goldberg came in 2003 and the run wasn't bad, but he did get beat like Nash and Steiner by Triple H. He did leave in early 2004 after being unhappy with the company. Then in 2014, Sting came in. At first this was great, but after that Sting run wasn't good and would lose to Triple H, at mania 31. Have the title match at night of champions in 2015, get injured, then hall of fame 2016. This just showed what happened after WCW went out of business and bought by WWF into becoming WWE.

Closing Thoughts

I feel like WCW could never get popular again and is why WCW never came back unlike ECW in the mid 2000s. Even though ECW wasn't that great to watch from 2006 to 2010. So, WCW will have it popular years. Without WCW we may have never seen heel Vince. So, WCW did help with a lot of ECW to create the attitude era and made WWF get better as a product because of the competition. I do know WCW will go down as a company that came close to beating WWF but failed due to the network never wanting the wrestling, or WCW to succeed.

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