The End of WCW
 

Ok so I am sure you're wondering: "What in the heck is he thinking? 1994?"
Did 1994 mark the beginning of the end for WCW?

Several things happened there in 1994 that would have consequences and, in my opinion, would ultimately lead to the demise of the company.

The single biggest thing that happened however, was that WCW gave Hulk Hogan a fat contract and almost total creative control. Oh, sure there was Erich Bischoff, but everyone knows he didn't try in the slightest to keep Hogan under control.

Let's look at what happened not long after Hogan's arrival in the company:

- Hogan got the title IMMEDIATELY. That alone was a booking mistake. Instead of building up any kind of chase program, it was just Hogan wanting the belt ASAP.

- Ric Flair, after two great matches with Hogan was put into "retirement" and subsequently forgotten about for awhile because Hogan didn't want Flair getting in his way.

- Hogan brought a bunch of his old WWF buddies (Earthquake, Bossman, Randy Savage, Ed "Brutus beefcake" Leslie) who were subsequently pushed at the expense of homegrown WCW talent (for example Brian Pillman or a certain Steve Austin, both of whom were great wrestlers).

Sure WCW eventually got hot with the creation of Nitro and the dawn of the nWo, but even during the boom period, Hogan still retained his almost total creative control over the major storylines in the company (all of which inevitably centered around the nWo). This meant that Hogan and his cronies won virtually every encounter and WCW came off looking like a disogranized group of losers instead of serious opposition to the nWo.

My point is WCW made a terrible mistake in 1994. Not by signing Hulk Hogan, that was a brilliant move. No, they made the mistake in giving Hogan so much creative control and power within the company, with no one of consequence to oversee any of it. Bischoff never really filled that role, he had some control, but, as per usual, what Hogan wanted, Hogan got.

Think about how the late 90s wrestling period might have unfolded if Hogan had been kept on a tighter leash behind the scenes...who knows, maybe WCW would still be around today.

WCW 'ended' in the executive boardroom, not in the booking office.

WCW is over? I just saw it on spike TV.

what's your question or is this a rant?

The question is in the 2nd sentence of the post.

oh yeah, then no. without hogan, his mates and bischoff there was no WCW

No, 1994 actually boosted WCW up a lot more.

The styles, booking methods, etc. changed - but WCW did benefit.

There was no one single move or effect of that move that killed WCW - rather a big clusterfuck of things that came together to crush the company.

and I haven't even seen tonight's impact yet....

WCW ended once Ted Turner lost interest in the company and power when AOL became the main owner of the company.

Wrestling-wise, around the year 2000 when WCW reformed the NwO for the 3rd time in a row, refused to really push any new main event stars until it was too late, and Russo given almost complete control of the storylines.

Yea, it did end with the AOL-Time Warner merger, but the product certainly didn't help. They pulled the plug because they decided they didn't want to be in the business anymore. If business was better (like it was in 96-99), it might have been a different story. Business was not great though, and it had been going downhill for a while. The bottom line is there weren't asses in the seats, and that wasn't directly a result of what was going on backstage or in a boardroom. That was a result of what was happening on the show.

As soon as Turner lost control WCW was finished. Nothing more, nothing less. Execs at Time Warner didn't understand or want to take the time to understand wrestling.

WCW needed Hogan in 94 to gather momentum to reach the heights that they did following.

Fingerpoke of Doom

You cant say "1994 Hogan winning the title" or "finger poke of doom" and it was over. What hurt WCW was the constant mistakes financially and storyline wise. They threw soo much money to clebrities and they didnt pay off. They paid Master P tons of money, trained and hired his cousin, even built him his own stable but I've heard backstage he was difficult to deal with. It's the same thing with KISS. They paid them soo much to preform and had this huge long term plans for them. There preformance was one of the lowest rated segments in Nitro history, so not only did the product suffer wrestlers like The Demon, Chase and 4X4 never really got a solid run.

I have to agree that the nails in the coffin were set when Hulk Hogan signed with WCW.

Before Hogan got signed, Ric Flair was actually getting ready to feud with Steve Austin and possibly dropping the title to him.

The whole nWo storyline was based on the NJPW-UWFI feud of 1995-1996.

And the nails in the coffin were struck when Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera did the booking.

el dandy killed wcw to end the doubt

Flair feuding with / dropping the Title to Austin could have killed WCW too.

We will never know.

Hogan signing definitely didn't kill WCW.

WCW killed WCW, to borrow from a wrestling catchphrase.

Those who loved WCW and who once believed in it, for whatever reason, at whatever time, will know WCW never ended, it still lives on in those who truly believed and still do.



WCW also lives on through video games, so.

Actually, it does :(

I loved WCW.

Just wanted to reiterate that I also, loved WCW.

I know.

We should celebrate WCW, with a celebrate WCW thread.

No man, you don't know.

I REALLY loved WCW. Like, a lot.

We should get together sometime and compare our love.

PM me.

Disagree

I don't understand how people can lay the blame with people like Russo, when Sullivan came in and lost the guys that he did and was even worse to the point that when Sullivan was relieved of his duties they had to shutdown for a week to reboot WCW.

One of my top favorite wcw matches was Bret Hart vs Chris Benoit in a Tribute To Owen Hart. I watched it on the Bret Hart DVD.
Wasn't Owen in WCW for a short time?

I also liked playing wcw games like mayhem, thunder, nitro, backstage assualt, and wcw vs the world.

Owen did wrestle for WCW a few times, but negotations for a contract fell through so he returned to WWE, that was in 1991.

Nobody enjoyed Backstage Assault.

horrible game

Beth Phoenix Fan missed out not having WCW/nWo Revenge.

REVENGE!!

This is the gayest thing that has ever been uttered on TPWW.

I want a dick in my butt.

Do I win?

That was the intention.

I think if I request TWO dicks in my butt, I will win.

Ah, but then I would throw in a third.

I suppose you could request three dicks - BUT - could you take them all in there at once?

As long as the balls don't touch each other it wouldn't be gay