2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

Didn't they try to bring in the top guys -- Sting, Goldberg, etc. -- right away and failed to do so? I know Sting held out instead of jumping to WWE -- he never was going to wrestle for Vince, which sucked. And Goldberg, IIRC, didn't wrestle until his WCW contract was up.

 

See, I'm not so sure about that.

I think he would've run WCW into the ground within a year or two. His buddies would get all the air time, people would get tired of it and quit watching, and it would die a slow, painful death.

 

This is interesting. WCW.com is still an active link. Not just active, but a weird tribute of sorts to the company's memory. There's an interview up there now with Booker T about the final Nitro, and video of the Flair-Sting match.
Say what you want about what Vince did to the carcass of WCW, but at least he has allowed a lot of the history to be kept alive and even incorporated into the WWE history.

Meanwhile, ddtdigest.com was one of my favorite sites back in the early days of the internet. I've linked to it a few times before.
Some WCW fan (and eventually a stable of other fans who volunteered) would write recaps of every single show. Not just Nitro, but Thunder, Saturday Night, even freaking WCW Worldwide.
Truly, a labor of love and pain.
Anyway, the guy has kept his site alive all these years as a tribute, calling it "the final resting place of WCW." There's some content that's been added here and there over the years, but it's largely been unchanged from a content and design perspective since 2001. It feels like visiting Pompeii.
Here's a running, real-time recap of the final Nitro. Interesting to read some of the reader e-mails, and how what caused the downfall of WCW was readily apparent even then. And then the final show itself, which was a remarkable preview of what the next year would hold.

http://ddtdigest.com/updates/2001034m.htm

 

Sting was asked, but wasn't going to go because he hated their storylines. Which, if you recall, were pretty racy.

For Flair, Goldberg, NWO, Hogan etc., they had guaranteed contracts with WCW as independent contractors (I think, although I could be wrong with this). If Vince wanted them right away, he either had to honor the contracts or negotiate them down. For the wrestlers, they had a choice in either accepting a reduced offer from Vince, or collect their bigger checks by sitting at home and getting paid by Turner. Most of them chose to do that (can't say I blame them).

Vince wasn't really sure at first (who could blame him, when the hell had something like this ever happened with the two biggest companies being owned by one guy?)

One thought was that they would use WCW for the younger talent (like an FCW), with some established stars to bring in some ratings, and then do an invasion. Or, treat it like a Raw/Smackdown talent split, with some WWF guys who were out of shape/washed up/punished/not getting over, go down there as well.

But, as noted, with no TV, the company basically became worthless, except for its video library.

The other funny thing with the Invasion was, Vince originally was going to make WCW the babyfaces in the storyline, figuring fans would see them as the underdog. But the problem was, WWF fans were so conditioned to hate WCW, they booed the hell out of them (including the infamous Bagwell/Booker T match, which wasn't actually half-bad).

 

I remember that. I kinda felt sorry for the guys during that match.

 

If memory serves me right, there was some planning for WCW to be its own brand, provided there was an outlet that would put them on air. I think Fox was considering it, perhaps running it on a then-fledgling FX.

As for the final night of Nitro, it felt chilling. While the Attitude Era carried on for a couple of years, the best era of professional wrestling died at 9:59 EDT on March 26, 2001. It was if the soul of what made the previous five years was sucked away. I still wonder what could have been if Bischoff would have come up with a solid follow-up to the nWo in the spring of '97, right around the time WWF was on the ropes.

 

Good promos to end Raw, although I still think it at least cried out to have some refs/security guys break them up.

And besides, how do we know this match will actually go on? It's not like they had a contract signing.

 

Did Laurinitis purposely tell Miz he was on "Team Teddy ... er, Team Johnny" on purpose tonight? It's obvious his team's going to win, but it's hard to believe WWE wants this guy playing a major role on both shows when he can't get his own name right.

 

You don't remember the million other verbal botches that Johnny Ace has made?

 

Or if he hadn't pursued Bret Clark Hart.
If Bischoff lets McMahon choke on that contract, Montreal probably doesn't happen and the "Mr. McMahon" character might never see the light of day.
And on a smaller scale, old Bret wouldn't have been in place to play his role in screwing up the ending of Hogan-Sting at Starrcade, which was another huge blow to WCW. Should've been the biggest, most memorable moment of the whole NWO angle and it turned into a clusterfuck.

 

It's probably just a shoot, but is there any legitimacy to the Christian re-injuring his neck announcement?

 

I did find it funny that they had flag-bearers, considering that's how Johnny got his start in the business.