The day you knew WCW was screwed...
 

Kind of what the title says. What show, event, or day did you know WCW was going to go under. For me, it's simple...

July 6, 1998 - Nitro
United States Champion Bill Goldberg vs. World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan

THEY AIRED IT ON FREE TV! It could have/should have/would have been one of the biggest PPV matches of all time...but they aired it on free TV just so they could get back on top of the ratings for one week. Then there was nothing left. I knew the second the match was announced that was it. The end of the line. Billy Goldberg was undefeated, and as such either he was going to topple Hogan and become "Da Man", with the probleming being as soon as he DID lose there would be nothing left for him. If Hogan won, well it would be just another nWo Hogan victory and and their only potential star would have been crushed. Basically, no matter what happened, it was going to be screwedville. I think they made that right choice and the choce that was going to extend it's life a little longer, but I knew WCW was only going down from that moment. Though it took a lot longer to die off than I thought it would...

On a similar note...the WWE was screwed: McMahon and Austin shake hands. It would be at least a decade before they could ever have something that huge again...so far we're right on track, which means we're half way in and half way out of shit (hopefully).

The finger poke of death by Hulk Hogan to defeat Kevin Nash for the WCW Championship.

Hm... Tough to say. Possibly when Nash beat Goldberg for his title, and the finger poke of doom that happened soon after.

when ted turner joined with time and dipshit suits took over the wrestling part ask eric bischoff, then they sold out to aol

David Arquette

David Arquette was the stupidest move of all time but WCW was already a sinking ship before that.

Finger Poke of Doom.

Is this topic asking us what people think or what people think we should think is the answer?

Think about it.

Oh yeah I know, that was just strictly my opinion.

A little off-topic but I dont get WHY wrestlers get undefeated streaks or 99% win track records that make them into predictable monsters.

I think it ruins wrestling.

Say Cena for example. You know he's either going to win cleanly or the other person is going lose by disqualification or win after getting 845457457 people to do 53055401 powerbombs.

One word. BORING.

It's worked for years. The Goldberg streak, in my opinion though, was the last time a streak actually worked well. Although the Umaga streak is not bad, you're right about the Cena thing, and this is where the problem lies in booking streaks: You can't book them well by making them look strong AND weak.

Cena looks weak for a lot of his matches until his super "OMFG JUMP UP PUMP UP SHOES FIREMAN'S CARRY!" spots. And he gets beat down a lot more than he should. They're booking him like he's weak in most matches but takes a jolt of "fuck you up" juice at the end.

I have said it a million times and I will always say it.

Sting/Hogan Starcade 97.

Right there is when WCW was done.

benoit, saturn, malenko and guerrero defect

I was admittedly a bit slow, but that was definitely it for me. :(

I felt WCW was screwed long before that at Starrcade 1997 for Sting/Hogan.

Just the fact that they could fuck up such an incredibly realistic, long-lasting, mind-blowing wet dream with such ease amazed me. Sting NEEDED to go over strong in the main event, to re-establish WCW as a fighting force against the nWo, and to give the fans their big pay off for a year of the heels owning the company.

But they fucked it by making Sting look like a total loser, and then having the whole holding-up-of-the-belt thing afterwards, which only further diminished the value of the already sinking championship belt.

WCW kept staggering up Hamburger Hill long after this event, but Sting/Hogan was the first bullet in the hip.

The first Nitro.

Nah just kidding. The finger poke.

Sting/Hogan was certainly a sign things were going down, but they still had a LOT of potentail left in the tank. I mean if for no other reason than Bret Hart had just debuted there (if only I would have known he would become a shell of the performer he once was/WCW would use him decently aat best), they still had a lof of their young stars who looked like they could break free at any moment. The fallowing six months was really just all down hill and that's what lead to me saying that July 6 was the day I knew WCW could just never recover.

Nash beating Goldberg for the title was the beginning of the end of WCW.

Hogan/Jarrett, Bash At The Beach 2000

<font color=goldenrod>Definately the finger poke.

Although at the time I didn't know it was going down...after all I was only 10 and bought into everything</font> :o

What about Lex Luger's 6-day title reign prior to Hog Wild '97 before dropping it right back to Hogan. I think that started killing WCW's credibility right there

Hogan did a lot of things to kill WCW's creativity tbh.

Sting/Hogan Starrcade, that started the downward spiral.

THAT was their money making feud and they killed it off by letting Hogan get his stupid finish.

When I stopped watching. Because if you can ME turn your product you are seriously doing something wrong.

Nash beats Goldberg Starrcade '99.

You mean 98, Destor.

When the nWo went from three to four.

When Ted DiBiase joined as their manager...when Vincent joined as a body guard...or when Giant joined as a full on member?

Hmm, if only that were one event. Whichever started the snowball effect in turning WCW into the "nWo Show", where half the roster was in the nWo.

The idea of "nWo Vs. WCW" was great. And for a while the execution was excellent.

But that started things like... bringing in Warrior (CRAP) to fight them, and so on.

You might have been right though, in the original post, now that I think of it.

Goldberg's streak versus Hogan's stroke (pause).

It would have been monumental.

I think what happened to WCW then is the same thing that's happening now in WWE. Too much "shock TV" and not enough substance...

though, I might even say WWE now is worse. As bad as Hogan was, there was at least -someone- who was strong enough (in fans' eyes) who could counter him. Like Goldberg. Or DDP, or someone like that.

I look at WWE (Raw).... and all I see is Cena.

NWO Wolfpack. At first there was potential, but once all the stars were red and white, and the B team was white and black. Also, Jeff Jarrett as champ.

I'll go a bit off kilter with this one, like I tend to do from time to time.

When they killed off the Jericho/Goldberg "Feud."

Seriously, you had a feud that was interesting because Goldberg was getting challenged by the only heel in WCW that WASN'T a member of the nWo. Jericho didn't have to go over in a match. In fact, he SHOULDN'T have gone over in the match. It should have happened to set up for "Who should have the reigns AFTER the nWo has run it's course?" You would have had someone already established in the fans minds as a potential Main Event Threat, and the fact that he was a strong interview, a good heel, and an excellent personality (hell, he WAS the personality of the Cruiserweight Division.).

The Nash's and Hogan's said Goldberg should not sell for Jericho, and it killed off what could/should have been a money making feud and set the stage for what resulted in one of the biggest moments in the Monday Night Wars: for the competition.

I never ever thought WCW was better than WWF.

When they had the nWo black & white vs. the nWo Wolfpac. Now, it wasn't all bad. At first it was fine and it looked like a band of stars that had stepped up against the nWo or something but it drug on for so long and before too long everybody on the goddamn roster was in one or the other and it was just ridiculous.

OK, so we're actually saying that we knew for sure that WCW was going to go way of the dinosaur? I don't think so.

Nash vs Goldberg and Russo coming back in 99.

I can honestly say that I didn't know they were screwed until Shane walked out on the last Nitro. I was Nitro faithful and hoping til the bitter end that something would keep it going. Maybe it's all the drugs/booze :shifty: , but I don't ever remember thinking WCW would ever belly up. They were a staple of wrestling for decades!

I will say though that I flipped channels a whole hell of alot during the Russo era ...so thinking back, that would be as close as I could feel to them being "screwed" I guess.

If the question were asking "when did you realize WCW was going to start getting its ass kicked by WWE?" then I would suggest Austin's rise to the main event. But I was shocked as hell when I found out about WCW's sale (at the time to Fusient Media) because I didn't figure as bad as things were that it was going to come to that. Now that we have hindsight, sure, we can point fingers but at the time I don't think anyone really thought WCW was going bye-bye.