Jim Herd is a prime example of why you dont let non-wrestling people run a wrestling company… this was the guy that let Flair go WITH the belt lmao. WCW had a plethora of embarrassing “booking” moments going back to its inception, its a real wonder they survived until 2001 TBH.
Yes, I believe Herd wanted Ric Flair to “update” his look and to become a gladiator-themed wrestler SPARTACUS who would have a shaved head, hahaha…
Cornette had some hilarious riff on Ric Flair that I forget exactly, but it was sort of calling him out for believing that he had actually “won” numerous championships in the same way you would in a traditional sport…i.e. NOT being booked to win the championships as part of an ongoing storyline.
EDIT - oops, sorry, this was actually Kevin Nash ‘shooting’ on Ric Flair, not Jim Cornette.
Rude kinda dicked them though, twice. Bailed on them. With Savage, that was just petty.
I don’t believe he dicked them by leaving the first time. Warrior was Champion at the time and it didn’t seem like Rude could move up the card, especially considering that the World title went from Sgt. Slaughter and then back to Hulk Hogan. Also, factor in the rumor that Hogan didn’t wanna get in the ring with Rude. As for the when he left in 1997, I don’t really blame him since he sided with Bret Hart over the infamous Montreal Screwjob. He also wasn’t under a long term contract. Shame he died in 1999. He had been planning a comeback, and had even pitched an idea to return to the WWF and challenge Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF title.
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Thats because they have no competition. WCW dying really shrunk the audience/ratings. And with there being no real competition, WWE is able to be as lazy as they want.
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Thats because they have no competition. WCW dying really shrunk the audience/ratings. And with there being no real competition, WWE is able to be as lazy as they want.
WCW didn’t really offer much competition in their last 2 years as a company though. I can’t really think of much in 1999 to write about that was good or bad, except for the infamous “finger poke of doom,” Goldberg ending the career of Bret Hart, and the clusterfuck that the nWo had become. WCW in 2000 was absolutely dreadful. There’s a serious problem with a wrestling company when its best segments feature the Insane Clown Posse, and when David Arquette is the World Heavyweight Champion.
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Thats because they have no competition. WCW dying really shrunk the audience/ratings. And with there being no real competition, WWE is able to be as lazy as they want.
WCW didn’t really offer much competition in their last 2 years as a company though. I can’t really think of much in 1999 to write about that was good or bad, except for the infamous “finger poke of doom,” Goldberg ending the career of Bret Hart, and the clusterfuck that the nWo had become. WCW in 2000 was absolutely dreadful. There’s a serious problem with a wrestling company when its best segments feature the Insane Clown Posse, and when David Arquette is the World Heavyweight Champion.[/reply]
Fuck, I forgot about David Arquette being champion! Didn’t they have that KISS themed wrestler, the beast? Fuck that was funny.
[reply]^
Thats because they have no competition. WCW dying really shrunk the audience/ratings. And with there being no real competition, WWE is able to be as lazy as they want.
WCW didn’t really offer much competition in their last 2 years as a company though. I can’t really think of much in 1999 to write about that was good or bad, except for the infamous “finger poke of doom,” Goldberg ending the career of Bret Hart, and the clusterfuck that the nWo had become. WCW in 2000 was absolutely dreadful. There’s a serious problem with a wrestling company when its best segments feature the Insane Clown Posse, and when David Arquette is the World Heavyweight Champion.[/reply]
Well yea obviously. I was alluding to WCWs competitive era of 97-99. As goofy as WCW got at the end they were still relevant, though.
[reply][reply]^
Thats because they have no competition. WCW dying really shrunk the audience/ratings. And with there being no real competition, WWE is able to be as lazy as they want.
WCW didn’t really offer much competition in their last 2 years as a company though. I can’t really think of much in 1999 to write about that was good or bad, except for the infamous “finger poke of doom,” Goldberg ending the career of Bret Hart, and the clusterfuck that the nWo had become. WCW in 2000 was absolutely dreadful. There’s a serious problem with a wrestling company when its best segments feature the Insane Clown Posse, and when David Arquette is the World Heavyweight Champion.[/reply]
Fuck, I forgot about David Arquette being champion! Didn’t they have that KISS themed wrestler, the beast? Fuck that was funny.[/reply]
i remember being a kiddie seeing Arquette win the title… cringed even then. I’ve heard that he was against winning it but the booker there at the time really pushed the idea. Fucking funny.
I had wandered off from WCW before Arquette won the title. Russo will swear up and down that it brought exposure to the company. Did absolutely nothing but get heat in all the wrong ways. But, by 98, WCW was making all kinds of bad and sketchy decisions. Finger poke of doom…
I had wandered off from WCW before Arquette won the title. Russo will swear up and down that it brought exposure to the company. Did absolutely nothing but get heat in all the wrong ways. But, by 98, WCW was making all kinds of bad and sketchy decisions. Finger poke of doom…
I honestly think Russo is trolling us or possibly sometime before hopping over to WCW he had a serious head injury he hadnt disclosed to the public.
The real killer of WCW was the merger, though, bad deal. It’s a known fact that Ted Turner was committed to having wrestling on the Turner Stations no matter how good or bad WCW was doing.
[reply]I had wandered off from WCW before Arquette won the title. Russo will swear up and down that it brought exposure to the company. Did absolutely nothing but get heat in all the wrong ways. But, by 98, WCW was making all kinds of bad and sketchy decisions. Finger poke of doom…
I honestly think Russo is trolling us or possibly sometime before hopping over to WCW he had a serious head injury he hadnt disclosed to the public.
The real killer of WCW was the merger, though, bad deal. It’s a known fact that Ted Turner was committed to having wrestling on the Turner Stations no matter how good or bad WCW was doing.[/reply]
Russo will defend it until he dies. He won’t take credit for it though. Pins it on schiavone. I don’t think he wants to take credit for it either.
I used to think the merger was the beginning of the end. I think it was just part of it. I know they wanted nothing to do with wrestling. WCW was making a lot of really bad decisions though. It was inoperable. Just about everyone there had creative control over their characters and usage. How can you book shows when everyone is saying “nah. Doesn’t work for me, brother”? It was a disaster. The merger was just their last rites.
Russo will defend it until he dies. He won’t take credit for it though. Pins it on schiavone. I don’t think he wants to take credit for it either.
I used to think the merger was the beginning of the end. I think it was just part of it. I know they wanted nothing to do with wrestling. WCW was making a lot of really bad decisions though. It was inoperable. Just about everyone there had creative control over their characters and usage. How can you book shows when everyone is saying “nah. Doesn’t work for me, brother”? It was a disaster. The merger was just their last rites.
The beginning of the end was Starrcade 1997. Sting makes his big return after being inactive for over a year, and instead of whopping Hollywood Hogan’s ass in a 10 minute squash, we get to see Sting get his ass handed to him before Nick Patrick botches the fast count by making a regular count, which then makes Bret Hart (who was working as a referee) look like an idiot for claiming Nick Patrick had made a fast count. Sting was then stripped of the World Title 2 weeks later, which set up for a return match at Super Brawl. Sting won the title back, but the match wasn’t shown in its entirety on PPV, and we had to wait until the next night on Nitro to see what happened (this would happen again later in the year when the main event to Halloween Havoc got cut off). Sting kept the title until Spring Stampede when he was defeated by Macho Man Randy Savage, and then Hogan got the belt back. This was right as the nWo was beginning to split into nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac. Goldberg then wins the title in July on Nitro (as opposed to saving that match for The Great American Bash or Bash At The Beach). Then Ultimate Warrior comes in and by this point, I was watching WCW more to see what was going with Raven and Chris Jericho, as opposed to anyone else.
I can see why a lot of people say Starrcade 97 was the beginning of the end. But WCW was still fucking WWE in the ass at that point I dont think they were losing any momentum in the ratings war til the following year.
I think the beginning of the end was the following Starrcade in 98 when some idiot decided to end Goldbergs streak. I mean at that point WWE was picking up some serious steam, but the wrestling gods sent WCW the messiah of all attractions, a guy who could put the company on his back and bring it back to life and what do these goofs do??? They end the streak! Effectively killing any chance they had of getting back into the monday night war… then you had the finger poke incident not long after which just ensured WCWs end. Its really amazing the fall from grace this company took.
Starrcade was a clusterfuck, but it wasn’t as bad as other things. According to Bischoff, Sting wasn’t really into it and he changed the finish. But, I get the whole “beat the babyface down thing, they come back and win”. Usual superman booking (thanks hulk…). Biggest WCW show of the year, and they end it with a screwy finish with the babyface winning. Then, they overturn it (think it was on thunder), give the title back to hogan, then completely undo the whole yearlong build for Sting. It was all for nothing.
The beginning of the end for me was Starrcade 98. Goldberg drops the belt to Nash. Another swerve finish. Forget about the streak Goldberg had. Just tase him and pin him. Nash wins the belt only to hand it over to Hogan due to a finger poke. That finger poke is what did it. All of the creative control and fuckery that went on behind the scenes killed it. And it was a slow, painful death.
And there’s the David Arquette title run too… Or how some backstage agent or whatever pulls a knife on four big name stars which leads to their immediate releases, and they jump ship to WWF and make names for themselves (two of them did at least).
I was a big fan during the 80s, when I was a stupid idiot kid. I think after Ultimate Warrior left I lost interest…
I think the era before and during the WWF consolidation of the national market was great.
Fabulous Freebirds were hilarious. My older brothers would see them in WCCW
The whole Von Erich family story is fucked up tho.
As a kid I didn’t appreciate it so much, but I definitely love hearing the stories of Haku/Meng getting in bar fights and breaking bones, stabbing people and biting off noses…