Ten Years Later: WWF Wins the War

[Xero]

It's been ten years to the day that the WWF announced publicly that they had purchased WCW. By doing so, the WWF put an end to the Monday Night Wars, arguably the greatest era in professional wrestling history. Three days later, on March 26, WCW would air the final Monday Nitro, which was overseen by WWF officials.

What is WCW's legacy and impact on the wrestling world? Is the business better or worse off without WCW? Would WCW have been around today had Bischoff managed to buy it out?

Discuss the buy out and WCW in general in here.

[VSG]

2 months later we got the Invasion angle.

[Steveviscious89]

Well it's difficult to say if WCW left any kind of legacy because Vince bought nearly everything they were and hasn't done much with it. I think a lot of fans are aware that once the wars were over, that marked the end of end of wrestling's boom period. So whether WCW was any good towards the end, they still had the means to provide some kind of competition and make wrestling a little more legit in the eyes of the beholder. You could also say that a little piece of it lives on in TNA, but none of the good parts seem to have come out yet.

[Gertner]

Without Turner backing up WCW they would have been dead. Bischoff's pockets weren't nearly as deep as Turner's and with all the pending lawsuits at the time and the company bleeding money it probably would have maybe lasted another year or two.

[MoFo]

It was entertaining at least.

(in a car crash sense most of the time)

[voncouch]

I think one thing WCW was best at was giving promising young stars some national exposure and TV time. They never really created any stars (Sting and Goldberg aside), but guys who could never break the glass ceiling created by the main eventers (Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guererro, Rey Mysterio, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, etc) all went on to do great things and get their first main stream training in WCW. The company of course did so many other things for the business, both good and bad, that listing them all in one post would be impossible. But when I think of how it affected the future, that's what comes to mind for me.

[wwe2222]

I always thought they rushed the Invasion angle, but at the same time, they did have to strike while the iron was still hot from the WCW purchase.

[YoungFlyFlashy]

Hell yeah they left a legacy, people love to bash Eric all the time, but he struck gold, and he was the reason the beloved "Attitude Era" was created, because Vince was forced to get rid of the clowns and garbage men and compete. WCW under Eric introduced us to a lot of new things in wrestling, "real" backstage segments, more frequent usage of real names, etc. etc.

[ClockShot]

Big day for pro wrestling, that's for sure. Shane showing up on Nitro to say he "bought" WCW, etc.

But I think it was bound to happen when Chris Benoit, Eddie Gurrerro, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn all didn't sign new contracts with WCW about year before this, and showed up on the next Raw. That was crazy.

[Wolfpack423]

I think one thing WCW was best at was giving promising young stars some national exposure and TV time. They never really created any stars (Sting and Goldberg aside), but guys who could never break the glass ceiling created by the main eventers (Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guererro, Rey Mysterio, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, etc) all went on to do great things and get their first main stream training in WCW. The company of course did so many other things for the business, both good and bad, that listing them all in one post would be impossible. But when I think of how it affected the future, that's what comes to mind for me.

WCW gave alot of people exposure. People like Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman (who had a much better career in WCW), Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko (who had a much better career in WCW), Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Chris Jericho (WCW got him on the map in my opinion), Lance Storm (WCW used him properly for a time). There's a few examples of people that were being used properly.

[DLVH84]

The one bad thing I dispised for over a year is there was no alternatives. It was only WWF or nothing in America, and it sucked.

[Rammsteinmad]

And ten years later, Chavo Guerrero has outlasted everyone from the original Invasion. :cool:

[St. Jimmy]

What are you talking about, TNA only declared War a year ago?

[St. Jimmy]

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfczf2wvSE1qcovr1o1_400.gif

[SaskatchewanChamp]

10 years ago today, everyone started to not give a flying fuck about wrestling.

[XL]

Yep. That's exactly how it happened. :roll:

[dhellova guy]

WCW was a horribly mis-managed company from long before Eric Bischoff took hold. They produced some of the greatest "wrestlers" in the business, had tremendous matches, and an extremely loyal fan base, but they couldn't make money because they couldn't find the right person to run it. The people in charge either wanted to change everything and produce a show like WWF, there by alienating their core fan base, or they wanted to be so "old school" that they couldn't get new fans.

Bischoff, to his credit, stuck the exact right cord at the exact right time. He mixed wrestling (coming from the undercard wrestlers and the luchadores) with theater (the NWO). This is WCW's lagacy. 1996 - 1998. No one really wants to remember the Ding-Dongs or the Shockmaster, they remember the best run "invasion" angle ever produced. Ya, they ran it so far into the ground that, at the end, the angle resembled nothing like it began, and its true that they pushed established stars over younger wrestlers, thereby killing any chance of a future, but most people remember the good days.

If Bischoff had bought WCW, I do not think it would be around today, simply because I do not believe Bischoff is that creative. His run in TNA is a perfect example of his thinking that he can re-package the same storylines and think people will continue to watch him. But, at least it would have been interesting...

[Gertner]

Bischoff has nothing to do with creative in TNA.

[XL]

I'm pretty sure he's not just paid as an on screen talent.

[Innovator]

Bischoff has nothing to do with creative in TNA.

It depends on how good the rating was for that week.

[Gertner]

I'm pretty sure he's not just paid as an on screen talent.

I could have sworn he's being paid for marketing and program development. Something like that.

[Xero]

He's not "on" creative, but don't tell me he doesn't sit in on the meetings and tell them his opinion and has a shit ton of stroke. Even Vince Russo wouldn't say "gee, you know what would be a great idea? Opening Impact with a 10 minute guitar concert by Eric Bischoff".

[#BROKEN Hasney]

WCW was pretty bad by that point, even as someone who loved WCW up until Russo being fired.

Still, even at it's worst, it was still better than St. Jimmys negative funny image above.

[Rammsteinmad]

I think if Bischoff had bought WCW, things would have been different, because it would have been his own money he's spending, not Ted Turners.

[Emperor Smeat]

The impact of WCW was showing it being possible to compete and beat Vince's WWF in the short term but also the idea of giving a few wrestlers complete creative control and large contracts is a bad idea in the long run. Ted Turner wasn't able to beat Vince's creative vision for wrestling but he could beat him financially and leave the daily work to people with better experience.

I doubt Bischoff's WCW would last beyond a few years unless it dropped to an ECW or TNA/ROH level with or without a tv deal. Bischoff was able to work well with established talent but not great with young or new talent until it was too late or got lucky (ex. Goldberg).

[Damian Rey]

I think if Bischoff had bought WCW, things would have been different, because it would have been his own money he's spending, not Ted Turners.

Good point. He undoubtedly would not have had the resources to continue to buy and push established vets. He could have gone the mid market baseball franchise way of scouring indy talent, offering them national exposure, developing them as a mainstream talent, and then pushing them to become established, only to recycle once the talent wanted more money.

[NormanSmiley]

too many ifs to say what would be of wcw today.
what i remember most about wcw was every Monday hearing Schiavone being the worlds most annoying hype man about an epic main event coming for 2 hours and 50 mins that usually never happened. All the while glossing over their best in ring action. But I watched nonetheless for the brain, ddp, savage and goldberg

[Rammsteinmad]

Not for Norman Smiley then?

[Ultra Mantis]

Unlike Matt Hardy, I guess Norman Smiley isn't a mark for himself and his big wiggle.

[NormanSmiley]

well played sirs, i am from the jim rome school of never glossing yourself. norman had a good little niche for a bit.

[BigDaddyCool]

I miss wCw the way I miss the USSR. It gave a sense of purpose.

[Tom Guycott]

If WCW were still around as a second entity today, AJ Styles would still be in midcard hell and tagging with Air Paris and wearing flight suits and aviator glasses.

[RiX1024]

Didn't like the buyout at first because there was no competition. The invasion would of been better if it was properly booked by bringing in Hogan, Flair, Goldberg, Sting and Steiner etc. straight away not a year later.

Wish WCW did stick around as a seperate promotion owned by someone else not WWE.

[Gertner]

too many ifs to say what would be of wcw today.
what i remember most about wcw was every Monday hearing Schiavone being the worlds most annoying hype man about an epic main event coming for 2 hours and 50 mins that usually never happened. All the while glossing over their best in ring action. But I watched nonetheless for the brain, ddp, savage and goldberg

To be fair, the WWF used to do that alot as well. Especially with Austin vs McMahon.

[ministrychick77]

it was a great 18th birthday present.. lol.

could have been done a *lot* better, but with the bigger names not wanting their contracts to be bought out, they used what they had.

[NormanSmiley]

true Gert, was more trying to say I would rather listen to JR hype a nude workout video of him and mae young than listen to Schiavone's voice try to hype anything. hated that dude