A Continuing Debate - Why Did WCW Fail? And Is The WWE On The Same Path?

[CosaNostra]

I'm carrying this debate over from the Undertaker's Daily Rating thread so we don't keep bumping it. PerfectOne, Loose Cannon and I were having a pretty lively discussion there.

I know that this is an old debate, but it seemed to rear its head again spontaneously. Anyway:

Originally Posted by PerfectOne WCW began beating out WWF every Monday night with the debut of the NWO for something like 70 consecutive weeks. I don't have the exact figure, because it doesn't matter. The point is, the NWO and Goldberg, among other things, kept fans interested enough that they preferred WCW over WWF. If you say otherwise, that's a perfectly valid opinion, but I would have to disagree.

Nope, I can't and won't disagree with that. But I don't think that it is illogical to state that most of those guys in the NWO had already been developed and pushed to the top by the WWF and thus fan devotion followed them. When you look at it the other way around witness the current HHH in contrast to his lame WCW gimmicks. Or Mark Callous, who was preactically a jobber in WCW. Or Steve Austin. He was a tag team partner in an admittedly cool tag team. However he then came to the WWF and became bigger than anyone could have ever envisioned. I could go on and on. Who developed these guys from what they were into the blockbusters they became? Thats right - the WWF. Can the WCW ever claim the same either way? No.

Originally Posted by PerfectOne Goldberg in particular had a following at that time that was bordering on absurd, which is not an opinion but based on merchandise sales and marketing. To say that the NWO (which on THIS BOARD has been repeatedly argued to be one of the greatest, if not THE Greatest stable, ever) and Goldberg didn't contribute to this success is, in my opinion, not a fair judgement.

I agree with your there 100% They are my third favorite stable of all time, behind D-X and The Four Horsemen.

Originally Posted by PerfectOne Just because WWF eventually purchased the WCW does not mean that WCW did not win the Monday Night Wars for dozens of consecutive weeks...just that the WCW product became stale after a while and they missed their opportunity to engage the mainstream fan. By the time they found working solutions, like champions such as Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, and Booker T, it was too late as WWF had a larger following, so the product was doomed.

Hardcore fans were disenfranchised with the product that was WCW, that can't be disputed. However, WCWs demise is due more to the fact that the WWF was able to draw in casual fans on a more consistent basis with their innovative progamming. The WWF was ascending faster than the WCW was disintegrating.