Did the WCW in 1998 have the best roster ever?

[Guest Bulldogs'86]

The WCW roster in 1998 seemed incredible from top to bottom.

 

There were emerging stars in Eddie Guerrero, Benoit, Rey Misterio, Jericho, DDP.

 

There were established stars in Sting, Hart, Hogan, Luger, the Steiner Brothers, the Giant, Goldberg, Nash and Hall.

 

There also was a great collection of stars past their prime but still capable of making an impact in Flair, Piper, Savage, Hennig and the Ultimate Warrior.

 

 

Would you say that this collection of talent was the best that a promotion has had in any one particular year?

[tommytomlin 0]

Absolutely. The WWF in 2002, with Austin, Rock, Hogan, Taker, Triple H, Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, Mysterio, Jericho is a close second. And the fact that both companies turned to shit a year later is testament to how inept the people in charge were.

[Guest Bulldogs'86]

Absolutely. The WWF in 2002, with Austin, Rock, Hogan, Taker, Triple H, Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, Mysterio, Jericho is a close second. And the fact that both companies turned to shit a year later is testament to how inept the people in charge were.

 

 

1998 WCW as the best roster ever.

 

2002 WWF as the second best roster ever.

 

Would you rank 1991 WWF as the third best roster ever? That year included stars Hogan, Flair, Savage, Road Warriors, Ultimate Warrior, Hennig, DiBiase and emerging stars Hart, Michaels and Undertaker. It's amazing how the WWF didn't utilize its roster in 1991 properly either. Too bad Sgt. Slaughter had to play such a prominent role that year.

[humanoid92 0]

Depends on your perception. '98 WCW and '02 WWF may have had a really impressive list of names, but in wrestling it may be a case of too much of a good thing. The roster was too saturated. Hence WCW's three hour TV shows twice a week and huge stables. And the WWF extending into two brands and throwing the likes of Flair and Hogan into major programs just for their name value. At the same time they were trying to push Brock to the moon and re-establish HHH, Flair, Hogan, Nash, Hall, etc. were pushed into major programs, and the result was guys like Jericho, Angle and RVD getting lost in the shuffle. In wrestling, it doesn't necessarily pay off to have such a huge, bloated roster.

 

I agree that name-value wise, it's hard to beat '98 WCW, '02 WWF, or '91 WWF. But as far as a truly loaded AND balanced roster, I think 2000 WWF takes the cake. You had the proven main eventers like Rock, Austin, Taker and HHH. Then the guys that looked like they could step up at any moment in Jericho, Angle and Benoit. A really solid midcard with Eddie, X-Pac, Rikishi, Val, Malenko, etc. Kane and Big Show weren't completely stale yet. The tag division was very deep with Edge & Christian, Hardyz, Too Cool, Outlaws, APA, Dudleys, etc. Pretty well rounded and it was loaded but not quite to the point of being bloated.

[cabbageboy 0]

I always thought WCW had too many guys, even during the not so peak years. What they had on TV was too hard to boil down into a 3 hour PPV card...too many guys who had been on TV were forgotten. I think the WWF in the 1980s was somewhat like this as well, but at least then you could tell some guys were there to kill time.

 

I think if anything a somewhat thin roster works well. Enough guys to keep things fresh on top and not be too repetitive, but not so many that things are impossible to follow. I think the WWF circa 1997-98 was a good example of this, as was ECW on a more threadbare level.

[Guest jm29195]

The thing I loved about the vastness of WCW's roster in 97/98/99 was the random bizarre matches that would occur on the B shows, with everyone from John Nord to El Dandy under contract you could have some really cool stuff going on if you watched all their programes....

 

WWE in 2002, right after Wrestlemania X8 had most of the ECW roster under contract, everyone from the WWF's boom period, as well as WCW big guns Hogan, Nash, Hall, DDP, Booker, Flair, and random people like Saturn, Awesome, Hennig, and Goldust all under contract...

[Just John 0]

I think WCW 97 was a little stronger than 98. They had Jarrett and Waltman who made good midcarders. I can't think of anyone good they had in 98 that they didn't have in 97.

[Guest Bulldogs'86]

I think WCW 97 was a little stronger than 98. They had Jarrett and Waltman who made good midcarders. I can't think of anyone good they had in 98 that they didn't have in 97.

 

 

You're right. I think the main reason I mentioned 1998 instead was because Bret Hart was there for a full year. I think he was in WCW for December 1997 as well though.

[Just John 0]

Yeah, he was the guest ref for the Bischoff/Zbysko match at Starrcade 97, as well as playing a part in the finish to Sting/Hogan.

 

They didn't have The Warrior in 97, but I'd still take midcard Jarrett and Waltman over him.

[Precious Roy 0]

WCW in 1998 had so many random names from the 80's

 

Rick Martel

Marty Janetty

Greg Valentine

Lanny Poffo

Barry Darsow

Barry Horowitz

 

I wouldn't call it the best roster ever, but it was certainly one of the deepest and most random, and it did make for a lot of weird B show matches.

 

I'm usually pretty partial to the WCW of 1992/1993

 

At various times in 92 you had:

 

Vader

Sting

Barry Windham

Arn Anderson

Rick Rude

Cactus Jack

Steve Austin

Brian Pillman

Ricky Steamboat

Ron Simmons

The Steiners

Steve Williams & Terry Gordy

Dustin Rhodes

2 Cold Scorpio

Scotty "Raven" Flamingo

Jushin Liger was around part-time

Masa Chono

Kensuke Sasaki

William Regal

Paul Orndorff

Greg Valentine

The Barbarian

Danny Spivey

Dick Slater

Larry Zbyszko

Bobby Eaton

Brad Armstrong

Terry Taylor

Ricky Morton

The Freebirds

The Southern Boys

Scott Hall

Kevin Nash

DDP

Marc Mero

 

And at one point in 1993 they had

 

Ric Flair

Sting

Vader

Arn Anderson

Barry Windham

Steve Austin

Brian Pillman

Cactus Jack

Great Muta

Ricky Steamboat

Rick Rude

Ron Simmons

Bobby Eaton

British Bulldog

Chris Benoit

2 Cold Scorpio

William Regal

Shane Douglas

Scotty Flamingo

Kevin Nash

Marc Mero

DDP

Brad Armstrong

Harlem Heat

[cabbageboy 0]

Isn't it interesting that WCW had all these guys in like 1992-93 and couldn't find a way to make a dime?

 

One problem WCW always had in my view is that guys simply vanished with little rhyme or reason. Just because those guys were on the roster doesn't mean that they were DOING anything on a week to week basis. WCW had such a large roster that it was impossible to put everyone on the main show. If you watched Nitro you wouldn't really grasp the whole story taking place on Saturday Night, since several guys from Sat. Night didn't make Nitro on a weekly basis.

 

If there's one thing WWE has always had on WCW it is that largely since Raw debuted they feature the guys you want to see on a weekly basis and build to the PPV accordingly. WCW arbitrarily tossed guys onto PPVs with little TV build, and it produced matches that didn't have much heat or frame of reference.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

If we're talking "best roster" purely on paper, then WCW in 1997/1998 wins. If you mean "best utilized roster", then WWF from about 1999/2000 wins hands down, I think.

[World's Worst Man 0]

Mid 90's New Japan smokes any of these rosters. The North American "big 3" (Benoit/Guerrero/Malenko) during their primes. Liger. Otani, Samurai, Kanemoto when he didn't suck as much, Akira, a prime, pre-lazy Muto, a still good Chono, Hashimoto, Hase, Tenryu, Koshinaka, Fujinami Yamazaki (after 96) plus the slew of young guys who would become better later on (Nagata, Tenzan, Kojima and Sasaki). Plus others that they brought in on occassion, like Scorpio, Jericho, the MPro guys, etc.

[Slickster 0]

Well, the BIGGEST roster definitely belonged to WCW.

 

(Past/future World champions listed in bold.)

 

The WCW roster for January 1998 was as follows:

 

Bobby Eaton, Sting, Jack Boot, Dallas Page, "Buff" Bagwell, Steve Regal, Ric Flair, Stevie Ray, Booker T, Mark Starr, Ray Traylor, Steve Armstrong, Meng,

 

Alex Wright, Hulk Hogan, Scott Armstrong, Randy Savage, Renegade, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Scotty Riggs, Lex Luger, Scott Norton,

 

The Giant, The Barbarian, Hugh Morrus, Rocco Rock, Johnny Grunge, Konnan, Dave Taylor, Bobby Walker, Rick Steiner,

 

Scott Steiner, Billy Kidman, Rob Ruckus, Ken Kaos, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Steve McMichael, Rey Misterio Jr., Jim Powers, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Chris Jericho, Juventud Guerrera,

 

Syxx, Vincent, Psicosis, Roadblock, Rowdy Roddy Piper, La Parka, Ultimo Dragon, Super Calo, Ray Mandoza Jr., Greg Valentine, Jerry Flynn, Mortis, Wrath,

 

Hector Garza, Masahiro Chono, Yuji Nagata, Joey Maggs, Ernest Miller, Silver King, Damien, Rick Fuller, Curt Hennig, Raven, Villano V, Texas Hangman #1,

 

Texas Hangman #2, Brad Armstrong, Lizmark Jr., Perry Saturn, Barry Darsow, Bill Goldberg, Fit Finlay, Kendall Windham, Barry Horowitz,

 

El Dandy, Chris Adams, Sick Boy, Bobby Blaze, Louie Spicolli, Lanny Poffo, Lenny Lane, Johnny Swinger, Norman Smiley, Jim Duggan, Michael Wallstreet,

 

John Nord, Barry Darsow, Van Hammer, Lodi, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, Rick Martel, Marty Jannetty,Wayne Bloom, Mike Enos

 

TOTAL ROSTER: 102 INACTIVE: 4

[slabinskia 0]

In 2002, the WWF really had enough talent to have 2 seperate brands and they couldn't have handled it much worse. Here is a list of some of the names they had under contract that year. They were not all on the active roster at the same time but it is very impressive no matter how you look at it.

 

Steve Austin

The Rock

HHH

Hulk Hogan

Shawn Michaels

Brock Lesnar

Kurt Angle

Undertaker

Ric Flair

Chris Jericho

Chris Benoit

Big Show

Kane

Scott Hall

Kevin Nash

Rey Mysterio

Diamond Dallas Page

Rob Van Dam

Booker T

Rikishi

Edge

Christian

Taz

Raven

Dudleys

Hardy Boys

Guerrerros

Lance Storm

MR. Perfect

Goldust

William Regal

Val Venis

Perry Saturn

X-Pac

Billy Kidman

Tajiri

 

That is 40 guys right there and there were at least 30 more lesser names that they had. Pretty tough to screw that up but they did.

[GODSON 0]

WCW Saturday night feature some of the best matches you will ever see but is totally forgettable because people was so interested in the Monday NIght Wars. Worldwide was not bad as well. I wish I had every Saturday night from 96-98, I would never watch any "new" wrestling again.

[snuffbox 0]

The only **** matches I remember seeing on Saturday Night were Flair-Steamboat and Flair-Sting from 1994.

[GODSON 0]

The only **** matches I remember seeing on Saturday Night were Flair-Steamboat and Flair-Sting from 1994.

 

What about Juvi/Rey matches, Dean vs. Eddie, Eddie vs. Rey,Rey vs.Kidman,etc. there was countless matches.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

What I liked about WCW SN was that it was just "wrestling for the sake of wrestling." It was fun to watch and see who they'd put on the show, and then see two guys go at it for five to ten minutes, without some convoluted storyline or angle to drive the match.

[GODSON 0]

What I liked about WCW SN was that it was just "wrestling for the sake of wrestling." It was fun to watch and see who they'd put on the show, and then see two guys go at it for five to ten minutes, without some convoluted storyline or angle to drive the match.

 

It was a smark dream show. No bs storylines and when they did do storylines it was great. The wrestling was always top notch,even during the last two years when they move the timeslot. I did not join the IWC until 99 and when I seen people complain about the show I never understood why. It was sometimes the best show on tv.

[Guest Krateros]

This is a good point. I am looking for any SN episode from 96 to 99, cause they had so many jobbers on the show and the impressive thing was that most od the jobbers had their own entrance music in contrast to the WWF. I am talking about people like John Nord, Len Denton, Johnny Attitude .... Apart from this I am a Themes collector and have more than 800 Themes so it would be great if somebody could post a Saturday Night episode or when somebody has episodes on tapes he can maybe just record different themes and post them later. That would be really great. So any match, recording or segment from SN or Worldwide of that time would be very appreciated.