Wcw's failure

[Guest]

I've been thinking about this lately, and I want the opinion of someone else. I can think of many reasons why WCW was so bad at times..... especially in 99 and 2000.

 

 

1. Hulk Hogan- Now, I know the guy has done a great deal for wrestling. There is no denying that. However, did WCW do the right thing by signing him to a contract in 1994? Lets go back to WCW in the year 1994.

 

talent: Sting, Flair, Brian Pillman, Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, Rick Rude, Vader, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, The Nasty Boys, Harlem Heat, Johnny B Badd, Diamond Dallas Page, Arn Anderson, Paul Orndorff, Lord Steven Regal, Maxx Payne, The Patriot and Marcus Bagwell....and some others that I have forgotten.

 

Thats some pretty good talent. When Hogan came in, so did Jimmy Hart, Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, MR T, Savage and Jon Tenta. I mean, my God... at WCW's biggest PPV, starcade, Hogan defended the world title against his friend Brutus Beefcake!!!

 

Vader was ruined in a few months because he was dominated in a feud with Hogan. His career was never the same after that.

 

Steve Austin jobs in a 30 second match to Jim Duggan and losses the US title.

 

Cactus Jack, who was already pissed off at WCW, leaves for ECW and other independents.

 

Hogan wins the world title at his first PPV by defeating Ric Flair on 7-24-94 and doesn't lose the title until...10-25-95. He doesn't actually lose this match and the title was held up for WW3. Hogan hangs around, but in the summer of 96 he stays off TV for a while.....and comes back as the 3rd man of the NWO. This was a great angle, but then... Hogan defeats the Giant for the world title. He holds that title until Starracade 97.... actually he lost the title for one week to Luger during the that summer.

 

Here is where it gets really bad: Sting VS Hogan..... this should have been a clean win for Sting. IMO, Sting should have held that title for almost a year, but that didn't happen. We all know the results of that match. Hogan wins, but they claim that Nick Patrick made a fast count, but that made no sense because it was a normal 3 count. Hart comes out and restarts the match.... giving Sting the win.

 

We go to Nitro and Sting defends the title against Hogan....in what could possible the worst ending for a  match in wrestling history. Nitro goes off the air as Sting hits the Stinger Splash on Hogan.........

 

people that didn't have the internet were kept in the dark on what happened until the next Nitro. Then on Thunder, they hold up the title..... having Sting and Hogan wrestle at SuperBrawl. Now... Did Sting get the clean win? of course not... Savage has to knock Hogan out with a can of spray paint for Sting to get the pin.

 

At Spring Stampede..... Savage beats Sting for the world title.... only to lose the title to Hogan the next night!!!!

 

I'm stopping here with my Hogan rant. I'm not putting all the blame on Hogan. WcW made a lot of mistakes without him, but one has to wonder........

[Guest Tony149]

WCW is a sad story. It was a promotion that should of done better than it did. WCW always started a hot period every few years ie. 1989, 1992, early 1994 & mid-1996. Out of all those years they were only #1 once. A lot of it was due to being owned by a company (TBS, later AOL Time Warner) who didn't know what to do with a wrestling company. Putting people who didn't understand wrestling in charge ie. Jim Herd, Bill Busch, K. Allen Frey (Although when he took over he did some good things and WCW's product was hot). The only thing WCW owners knew was it did good ratings. Hogan didn't help much except for the nWo. WCW will always be a promotion with a lot of "what if's".

[Guest dreamer420]

Well put Tony and Strike.

[Guest toggle]

Mick Foley wrote in his second book that the failure of WCW had a lot to do with the strict hierarchy. You were either a star or you weren't. That's why Austin (and Foley himself, and everyone but Hogan et al) never really got a shot in WCW. The WWF, on the other hand, tends to go more by crowd reaction(or at least who they think will make them money). Thus, Austin becomes top guy in 98 and some guy named Foley gets the WWF title(see Tony Schiavone's famous remark about that).

Another thing I see is WCW's failure to come up with new ideas. They kept trying to do the same thing over and over again if it was successful. The Goldberg heel turn was supposed to have the same impact Hogan's did, except they forgot that Goldberg had been in wrestling for about two seconds at that point, whereas Hogan had been a huge face forever. The other example is the nWo. That angle just got stale, but they kept on beating the dead horse. Wolfpac, Hollywood, nWo finish, blah blah blah.

Then they got desperate and started pushing guys like Palumbo and O'Haire who were way too green to be on national TV. Heck, they put The Giant against Hogan for the WCW title in his very first match ever!

Of course, giving guys a bunch of guaranteed money isn't such a great idea, either. Just look at Randy Moss: A guy with all the talent in the world who just refuses to work now that he has the huge contract. Remind you of anyone who recently injured his bicep, possibly while shampooing his hair(minus the talent part, of course)?

Finally, I don't think WCW ever really understood what wrestling fans really want to see. There's no guaranteed formula for success, yet they seem to have always been searching for one. Which goes back to their repeating the same stories and pushing the same guys, no matter how bored everyone gets.

I think the WWF is in danger of the same sort of thing that got WCW in trouble with guys like Hogan, but that's another post.