Criticism of World Championship Wrestling

In the late 1980s, World Championship Wrestling (under the umbrella of its immediate predecessor, Jim Crockett Promotions) based itself regionally, mainly doing all its shows in the Deep South. WCW was the more popular choice among fans in the Deep South in comparison to the World Wrestling Federation. A few years later, WCW slowly started expanding nationally making it a national rival to the WWF, which led to a huge ratings competition between the two promotions. Despite signing big name stars from the WWF, WCW eventually lost out and folded in 2001.

WCW dominated pro wrestling's television ratings from 1996 to 1998 (84 straight weeks) mainly due to its incredibly popular New World Order storyline, but thereafter began to lose heavy ground to the WWF, which had recovered greatly due to its new "Attitude" branding. Repetitive story lines, questionable booking issues, and corporate restrictions eventually led the promotion to begin losing large amounts of money, leading to parent company AOL Time Warner selling the name copyrights to the WWF for $2.5 million in 2001.

Leadership and booking

After Turner Broadcasting purchased Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988, the company went through various changes in its leadership and booking during the following years. Some people, like Jim Herd and Kip Frey, were completely lacking in wrestling experience; others, like Bill Watts and Ole Anderson, had extensive wrestling experience, but were so entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion that they were ineffective at building WCW's audience.

Jim Herd

Jim Herd was the Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling from 1988 to 1992. Many wrestling personalities, fans, and workers have openly criticized Herd for his lack of knowledge of the wrestling business. Ric Flair in particular stated that Herd "knew nothing about wrestling, other than the fact that the station he ran had a hot show." ["The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection", WWE Home Video, 2003] During his run in WCW, Herd tried to compete with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation by introducing the same kind of "cartoon" gimmicks that were a part of McMahon's WWF at the time, alienating the diehard NWA audience. For example, he once tried to come up with a tag team called The Hunchbacks (with the gimmick in which that they can't be pinned because their humps would prevent their shoulders from touching the mats), and after that idea was rejected by the booking committee, he came up with the bell-wearing Ding Dongs. After that, he came up with Big Josh, a lumberjack with dancing bears. Stan Hansen left the organization after the idea was pitched to him to become a part of the comedic cowboy stable called The Desperados. Jim Cornette and Stan Lane also left the organization, breaking up the Midnight Express, leaving Bobby Eaton on his own, after Herd would blame his many failures on Cornette and others. Even the Road Warriors - as Animal has stated on WWE Home Video's Road Warriors DVD - had a fallout with Herd as well, and resigned from WCW in the summer of 1990.

Herd regularly clashed with the then-NWA World Champion and booking committee member Ric Flair. According to Flair, Herd wanted him to drop his entire "Nature Boy" persona, shave his head (even though Flair's bleach blonde hair was one of his most recognizable trademarks) and adopt a Rome gladiator gimmick by the name of Spartacus in order to "change with the times". This didn't sit too well with Flair and the committee (Committee member Kevin Sullivan was quoted as saying, "After we change Flair's gimmick, why don't we go to Yankee Stadium and change Babe Ruth's uniform number?" ["To Be the Man", Ric Flair, WWE Books, 2004] ). Herd believed Flair's time was over as a main event player and the big money was with Sting and Lex Luger. This backstage feud hit its breaking point when, during contract renegotiation, Flair refused to take a pay cut and be moved away from the main event position (despite the fact that he was by far the company's biggest draw). He also refused to drop the title to Lex Luger as Herd wanted, saying that he had promised to drop it to Sting and Herd had previously agreed. Herd didn't care what he had said earlier and accused Flair of holding up the company but Flair said he was simply holding Herd to his word. Flair tried to compromise to Herd and offered to drop the title to fellow Horsemen Barry Windham, saying that Windham deserved the title. [Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection DVD] However as Flair was planning to leave to wrestle Windham so he could lose the title, on June 15, 1991, weeks before the "Great American Bash" PPV and one day after the Clash of the Champions, where Flair successfully defended the title against Bobby Eaton in a two-out-of-three falls match, Herd fired Flair from WCW and stripped him of the WCW World Heavyweight title. There was one small problem with that decision: Flair was still the NWA World Heavyweight champion and his title belt represented both factions.

Upon notification, Flair called Vince McMahon of the rival World Wrestling Federation to inform him of the situation; McMahon offered Flair a contract with the WWF in exchange of him sending McMahon the belt and Flair obliged. A couple of weeks later, promos were being shown of Bobby Heenan with Flair's belt on WWF-TV, which drew great intrigue and tremendous ratings to the promotion as many wrestling fans around the world knew full well what that belt represented but more importantly, who that belt truly belonged to. WCW officials, who were humiliated by the promos being shown by the WWF on national TV with their title belt, were outraged at Herd's actions and made one final, desperate attempt to save face by offering Flair substantially more money to return but their efforts failed.

Flair was in his legal rights to take the NWA/WCW world title belt with him to the WWF because Herd refused to give Flair back the $25,000 deposit that the NWA required of every wrestler upon winning the world title to keep him from appearing in a rival promotion (like the WWF); according to NWA bylaws, the deposit would be paid back upon losing, plus interest. Without Flair, the "Great American Bash" became what many fans consider one of the worst wrestling PPVs in history, as the Baltimore audience loudly chanted, "We want Flair!" throughout the entire show. Many fans there and on PPV also saw the title match between the top two contenders for the title, Lex Luger and Barry Windham, as a sham because Flair still had the actual title belt (they had to resort to taping 'World Champion' on one of Dusty Rhodes's old belts, due to their new WCW World title belt not being ready in time, and giving that to Luger after winning the match) and was never beaten for it, thus the 'real world champion' angle the WWF created upon Flair's arrival had more legitimacy than the Great American Bash did. The NWA suffered tremendously and to this very day have never fully recovered, losing most of its fanbase and TV audience to the WWF; most of them switched in order to see how Flair would do against the likes of Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan. Many fans switched back to WCW several years later during the Monday Night Wars with the WWF but the NWA never regained the fame and name recognition it once had previously and dissolved into a smaller, independent-based faction.

Months after Flair's departure, Jim Herd was fired and replaced by Kip Allen Frey in 1992.

Bill Watts

In 1992, he was the Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (after Kip Allen Frey left WCW) but after clashes with management over a number of issues as well as feeling pressure from Hank Aaron over a racially sensitive piece of correspondence, he resigned. [Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.237)] He was subsequently replaced by Eric Bischoff.Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.238)]

He took a lot of his old-school values with him, such as banning moves from the top rope (due to its overuse at the time, but abolished it that fall), and the aforementioned babyfaces and heels separation. His tenure was not long, nor were his ideas overly embraced. According to his biography, "Controversy Creates Ca$h", Eric Bischoff (who worked under Watts at the time) felt Watts would intimidate anyone he was talking to and was only interested in taking the WCW product back to 1970s standards, with poorly lit arenas and house shows in remote rural towns.

He introduced his son, Erik Watts, to WCW around this time, who many felt was not ready for big-time wrestling yet. As previously mentioned, Bill was fired from his position in 1993, after comments from an interview he had done a few years earlier, which had comments considered racially insensitive to African-Americans, were brought to the attention of all-time Home Run King Henry Aaron, who himself was a vice president in the Turner organization with the Atlanta Braves by future WCW announcer Mark Madden, then just a wrestling journalist. It is ironic that Watts was fired for alleged racial insensitivity, because as a promoter, he often championed and pushed African-American wrestlers as his top stars—first Junkyard Dog in Mid-South Wrestling, as well as Ernie "the big cat" Ladd who he later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and Ron Simmons in WCW—in order to appeal to the African-American fan base. In fact, under Watts' reign as WCW chief, Ron Simmons became the first African-American to hold a widely recognized World Wrestling Heavyweight Championship. Mick Foley referred to Watts' history of "creating a black babyface and building the company around him," while talking about his match with Simmons. He was replaced by Ole Anderson.

Ole Anderson

By 1990, Anderson had been chosen to head the booking committee for WCW, which was at that time beginning to phase out the use of the NWA name on its television programming. Appearing in the credits for WCW pay-per-views (PPVs) under his real name (Alan Robert Rogowski , Anderson was responsible for some of the more infamous creative ideas tried by WCW. Among his creations were The Black Scorpion, which was intended to be a nemesis from Sting's past. After several miscues, the Scorpion's identity was eventually revealed as Ric Flair, in a ploy to confuse Sting and force him to lose the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Around 1991, Anderson became a referee. As previously mentioned, after Bill Watts was ousted, Anderson took control of WCW.

Eric Bischoff and later, Vince Russo

While Eric Bischoff has received much criticism for some of his mishandlings while he acted as WCW Executive Producer (and later, WCW President), Bischoff combined an understanding of wrestling (albeit without as much of a respect for the old Georgia/NWA legacy) with a willingness to make changes that were needed in order to help WCW become more visible in the eyes of the media and advertisers. These changes including moving some television tapings to Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, and signing both main-event performers and young stars from around the world.

Some of the creative freedoms that Bischoff granted main-event level talent, helped to bring the company down, as main-event level talent were less than cooperative in helping rising stars fulfill their potential. Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, a former writer for World Wrestling Entertainment, came on board to become the lead writer of WCW. Russo did not last long in his position, but in April 2000, WCW opted to bring Russo and Bischoff back in hopes that the duo might re-spark interest in WCW.

The two, however, did not get along well and Eric Bischoff left the company after Vince Russo - in the course of an in-ring promo - made comments about Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan) which many felt were derogatory not just to the Hogan character, but to Bollea himself.

Eric Bischoff

In 1991, Bischoff joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as an announcer, debuting at The Great American Bash. As an announcer, Bischoff reported to producer Tony Schiavone and WCW's Vice President of Broadcasting, Jim Ross. After WCW boss Bill Watts was fired by TBS executive Bill Shaw in 1993, Bischoff went to Shaw and WCW Vice President Bob Dhue to ask for the job of executive producer. At the time, Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone seemed to be the two top candidates. However, Bischoff was hired in Watts' place. [Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.237)] Schiavone remained a producer until the company's demise. Ross was soon let go by Shaw (upon suggestion from Bischoff) and ended up in the rival World Wrestling Federation (WWF). [Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.238)]

In 1994, Bischoff became a Vice President and cleared house within the WCW front office. He famously fired event manager Don Sandefeur, junior Vice President Jim Barnett, and his old boss Bob Dhue, all on the same day (in a 10/14 blog entry on his website, Bischoff denied this, stating that Sandefeur and Dhue never reported to him). Bischoff's first year as the VP was mostly a disaster. Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson were still in full creative control at this point, with what were considered to be cartoonish storylines, as well as seemingly pointless feuds with little or no buildup. For example: The Cactus Jack "Lost in Cleveland" amnesia storyline, and the mini-movies that built up the pay-per-view events, such as: 'White Castle of Fear' and the 'Beach Blast' mini movie, including explosions and other action movie clichés involving a beach theme.

Bischoff convinced Turner executives to better finance WCW in order to compete with the WWF. Almost immediately, he used the money allotted to him to sign big names such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and others away from the WWF. He also invested money in production values and increased the number of WCW pay-per-views (first 7 a year, then 10, and then once a month). The plans paid off, and in 1995, WCW turned a profit for the first time. Because of their high profiles, Hogan and Savage were able to demand and get several concessions not usually allowed to wrestlers at the time, such as multi-year, multi-million dollar guaranteed contracts and significant creative control. This would later become a problem during subsequent years of competition with the WWF, as other wrestlers were able to make similar demands, and contract values soared out of control.

Hogan, in particular, was able to gain considerable influence through a friendship with Bischoff. Another thing Bischoff may have failed to consider was the fact that many WCW fans (especially those who had followed the company since its NWA days) watched it as an alternative to the product of WWF in the early '90s that focused on in-ring action as opposed to cartoonish characters and storylines. As such, these fans viewed Bischoff's signing of former WWF talent as an attempt to copy its success instead of remaining true to the idea of WCW being an alternative to the WWF.

In 1996, media conglomerate Time Warner had acquired Turner Broadcasting. Little by little, the new owners gave Bischoff slight restrictions as to what he was and was not allowed to do with WCW. Eventually the restrictions, ranging from the presentation and direction of WCW programming to the financing/budget, increased. In the summer of 1998, he was outright forced to alter WCW's format to a more "family-friendly" output, knowing that this would never work due to the mature nature the show had been taking since it's debut. The forced shift in WCW's programming, the addition of new show "WCW Thunder", and the addition of a third hour to "WCW Nitro", took a great strain on the resources of Bischoff and the WCW staff who were firing on all cylinders as it was. At the same time the WWF, buoyed by its new "Attitude" branding and product, began beating an increasingly stagnant WCW week after week in the Monday night ratings war. By January 1999, the tide had completely turned. According to "Controversy Creates Ca$h" Bischoff marks the point when Time Warner's Standards and Practices dept. began applying heavy restrictions on WCW's creativity section as the time when he should have left the company, but he remained.

His TV presence disappeared, and a demoralized Bischoff, having lost control of his company, began to turn his attention to other projects other than WCW. He would pitch ideas to TV executives in Hollywood, being introduced by his friend Jason Hervey as "The golden boy who saved wrestling." When Bischoff returned from hiatus in April 1999, the company was in bad shape. WCW had a lot more restrictions on what it could and could not do from Time Warner. He would try to unsuccessfully extend the WCW brand outside of wrestling with a restaurant called The Nitro Grill in Las Vegas (which went under in less than a year) and a brand of cologne.

Bischoff also tried to bring in musical talent such as Kiss, Master P, and Megadeth in an effort to co-brand with WCW's product, but none of these performances were able to make an impact in the ratings. [ [http://www.fightingspiritmagazine.co.uk/article.asp?IntID=66 Fighting Spirit Magazine - Article ] ] [ [http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/38180/Loop-Diggin-Thursdays,-News-&-Rants-2.23.06.htm 411mania.com: Music - Loop Diggin’ Thursdays, News & Rants 2.23.06 ] ]

All plans were scrapped when, on September 10, 1999, Bischoff was suddenly relieved of his management position with WCW, after getting a phone call from Harvey Schiller. In August, Bischoff was replaced with WCW accountant Bill Busch.

The management change went un-mentioned on WCW television but was mentioned on their web page.

Bill Busch

However, less than six months went by before Bill Busch was removed from power. Busch, according to "Controversy Creates Ca$h", was a numbers man and had no idea how to run a wrestling company. To make matters worse, ratings, which had been at least decent under Bischoff's tenure, plummeted to embarrassing all-new lows. Replacing Busch at the helm was Time Warner programming executive Brad Siegel. Siegel's first order of business was to ask Eric what could be done to save the company, and because of this, Bischoff briefly came back into power in April 2000. However, he did not return as president; instead, he was named event and television manager, and was to be seconded by creative director Vince Russo (as on-air partners-in-charge). Although unhappy with Russo's booking (which Bischoff would later describe as "dark, mean-spirited, and creatively shallow"), Bischoff worked with Russo for the good of WCW. The last straw, according to Bischoff, was the Hulk Hogan incident at "Bash at the Beach 2000". Bischoff would leave the company after six weeks.

Kevin Nash

By the fall of 1998, Kevin Nash was in charge of booking the shows. After winning the World War 3 battle royal in November 1998, he ended Goldberg's winning streak and won the World Title at Starrcade 1998 the following month. In his defense, Kevin Nash claims that he did not take up the booking position until February 1999, two months after his victory over Goldberg. Nash's booking was heavily criticized by fellow wrestlers and fans, including Eddie Guerrero in his autobiography "". This booking decision also would set the stage for the beginning of 1999 and what is widely viewed as the beginning of WCW's long-term decline, from which it would never recover.

Vince Russo

Vince Russo was hired as a freelance writer for "WWF Magazine" following a letter that he had written to Linda McMahon, and would later become an editorcite web | url = http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2005/11/10/1301173.html | title = Review: Russo asks to be Forgiven | author = Ryan Nation | work = SLAM! Wrestling | accessdate = 2007-03-27] under the pseudonym of Vic Venom. Bill Watts invited him to booking meetings and they would exchange ideas. He was eventually promoted to the WWF Creative Team in 1996.cite web | url = http://prowrestling.about.com/od/wrestlersnotinwweortna/p/vincerusso.htm | title = Vince Russo - Biograhy of Vince Russo the Former Head Writer of WWF Monday Night Raw & WCW Nitro | author = Eric Cohen | work = About.com | accessdate = 2007-03-27] cite web | url = http://media.www.usishield.com/media/storage/paper605/news/2006/02/03/Entertainment/Alum-Trades.S.e.x.For.Glory-1642849.shtml | title = Alum trades S.E.X. for Glory | author = Anthony Pate | publisher = The Shield | accessdate = 2007-03-28] In that same year, "Monday Night Raw" hit an all-time ratings low of 1.8, as "WCW Monday Nitro" (Raw's chief competition), was in the midst of an 84-week winnings-streak against "Raw" head-to-head ("see" Monday Night Wars). With WCW eclipsing the WWF, McMahon called upon Russo to make changes to the televised product. Russo would contribute edgy, controversial storylines involving sexual content, on-camera profanity, swerves or unexpected heel turns, frequent face and heel turns, false finishes, and worked shoots in matches. Soon, this style of booking became known as "Crash TV."

Russo would eventually become head writer for the WWF along with his friend, Ed Ferrara. With the angles that Ferrara and Russo created (along with Vince McMahon there to accept and decline ideas), many outsiders felt that Russo was instrumental in putting WWF ahead of World Championship Wrestling in the Monday night ratings during the Attitude Era.

On October 5, 1999, Russo and Ferrera signed with WCW; Russo contends that his reason for leaving the WWF was as a result of a dispute with Vince McMahon over the increased workload that he (as well as Ferrara) was facing, with the introduction of the new "SmackDown!" broadcast.

Russo and Ferrara attempted to make "WCW Monday Nitro" similar to "Raw", with edgier storylines, more lengthy non-wrestling segments, an increased amount of sexuality on the show, more backstage vignettes, expanded storyline depth, and the utilization of midcard talent in a more effective manner.

Russo attempted to use the same Crash TV style in WCW that had made him successful in the WWF at an accelerated pace, including constant heel/face turns, fake retirements, and title changes. Russo and Ferrera often focused on poking fun at the WWF as well. Jim Cornette has in the past expressed a strong dislike towards Russo, partly due to Russo's style of booking, and partly due to his decision to create Oklahoma, a character that parodied WWF play-by-play announcer Jim Ross and his Bell's palsy. Russo's writing style created a large turnover in title changes. His booking of Jushin Liger losing and regaining the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on "WCW Monday Nitro" is not recognized by New Japan Pro Wrestling in the title lineage. [cite web|url=http://www.njpw.co.jp/prof/liger.html|title=www.njpw.co.jp/prof/liger.html |accessdate=2007-05-15] Swerves and everything being a "shoot" were heavily emphasized, as wrestlers supposedly did unscripted interviews using "insider" terms that were only recognized by the Internet smarks and chaotic broadcasts became the norm.

Russo booked actor David Arquette to win the WCW World Title and at one point toward the end of his WCW stay even booked himself to be champion. Russo justifies Arquette winning the title with the fact that Arquette didn't pin a wrestler (he pinned Eric Bischoff) and that it was a realistic event with the intent to gain publicity. Moreover, Russo claims that his own title win was a result of a fluke (Goldberg speared him through the cage during a cage match against Booker T, resulting in Russo unintentionally winning the match) and that he willingly forfeited the title on the next "WCW Monday Nitro". Under Russo leadership, WCW would continue to lose ratings, and eventually dropped to 2.5 in 2000. [ [http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/Big%20Sooners%20fan/15386/ Sporting News] ]

Russo is featured on the cover of "The Death of WCW" along with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Eric Bischoff, and Hulk Hogan; although the book portrays him in a negative light, he's been known to autograph copies if approached.

During this period Russo managed to take the rating from a 2.9 and bring it up to a 3.5, although during Russo's tenure, "Nitro" was reduced from three hours to two hours, losing significant ad revenue and skewing the ratings. As soon as Russo left, the ratings went back down to a 2.4 and he stated that he was not able to bring those fans back because they kept changing the channel so many times.

Kevin Sullivan

Sullivan is among those blamed for the 2000 departure of Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn from WCW, though by no direct action of his own. After the departure of Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, the resulting chaos led to Sullivan's promotion to head booker. This move infuriated a number of WCW wrestlers, given Sullivan's history of professional rivalries (notably Benoit) and poor decisions. Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero and Saturn would quit the night after, immediately signing with the WWF. Sullivan was fired before WCW's sale in 2001.

Jamie Kellner

A 2005 book about World Championship Wrestling alleged that Kellner was the one who really "killed" the former powerhouse promotion. Despite a downturn in ratings (WCW's ratings were still higher than most programming on TNT and TBS at the time) and a financial crisis, former WCW president Eric Bischoff (through Fusient Media Ventures) was still interested in buying it and turning it around. However, Kellner thought that, even if WCW could once again attract viewers, the demographics would not be favorable enough to get the "right" advertisers to buy airtime. In early 2001, Kellner announced that TBS and TNT would no longer air wrestling shows. In March 2001, the WWF purchased WCW and its related assets. Due to what is considered the decline of the WWE product, many wrestling fans have denounced Kellner's actions in regards to WCW, blaming him for the fact that WWE owner Vince McMahon has a virtual monopoly on the professional wrestling market on the national level.

Television programming

"WorldWide"

In 1993, WCW began taping matches months in advance for syndicated programming like "WCW WorldWide" from the Disney/MGM Studios in what would become known as the "Disney Tapings". Because the footage recorded would often be shown on television months later, the tapings often exposed bookings and storylines well in advance. WCW was usually forced to have wrestlers appear with title belts before they had won them in regards to the current storyline. This was regarded as a major breach of kayfabe at the time, and ultimately led to WCW's departure from the National Wrestling Alliance in September 1993.

Such logicistal errors included:
Brian Pillman and Steve Austin were WCW/NWA World Tag Team Champions for a good portion of 1993, but were scheduled to drop the tag title sometime before footage of Arn Anderson and Paul Roma with the title belts was due to start appearing on WCW syndicated television. Pillman suffered a legitimate injury shortly before the "Clash of the Champions" show in August 1993, and WCW was forced to replace him with Lord Steven Regal so that the scheduled title change could take place.

Also in 1993, several weeks of syndicated programming was taped with Sid Vicious as WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Sid was scheduled to defeat Vader at "Starrcade '93", and the material taped would have began airing in early 1994. However, Sid was fired several weeks before the PPV for engaging in a hotel room brawl with Arn Anderson during a tour of the United Kingdom. In choosing to have Ric Flair win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship instead, WCW was forced to post-produce or scrap the material taped with Sid as champion.

In order to prevent these errors from occuring, in the late 1990s, there were no title belts worn during "WorldWide" TV tapings.

"Monday Nitro"

The once highly rated "Nitro" became deprived of wrestlers, with its most capable young stars signing with the WWF and its current roster of talent being constantly misused. With "Raw" starting to beat "Nitro" in the ratings on a consistent basis, Eric Bischoff and WCW officials attempted to use a series of "quick fixes" to regain ground in the ratings war. All these attempts would win them short-term ratings victories, but the WWF continued its steady climb to ratings dominance. Signings of wrestlers such as Warrior and several top ECW stars did nothing to stop their ratings slide. "Nitro"'s inability to create new stars was its ultimate undoing, while the WWF had invested in younger talent like The Rock, Triple H, the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian and Kurt Angle, WCW continued to rely on established stars like Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage and The Outsiders to support ratings, causing much unease among the younger and less well known members of the roster. This was illustrated most clearly in 1999, when former WCW mid-carder Chris Jericho signed with the WWF and immediately started a feud with The Rock, when months earlier he had been told he was too small to sell tickets in WCW.

Bischoff's "tried & true" tactic of giving away the results from taped "Raw" shows backfired on January 4, 1999. Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title as Mankind on "Raw". "Nitro" announcer Tony Schiavone sarcastically mentioned "that'll sure put some butts in the seats." The moment that Schiavone insulted Foley, over 600,000 viewers changed channels to watch "Raw". (On the "Monday Night War" DVD, Mick Foley relates this quote almost word for word). [ "The Monday Night War" DVD] The next week, and for months after, many fans in the "Raw" audience brought signs which read, "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat!" In the meantime, while Foley's title win was airing, "Nitro" was highlighted by the now-infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom", a WCW Title match in which Kevin Nash, who had won the championship belt from Goldberg at the "Starrcade" PPV event (WCW's equivalent to "WWE's WrestleMania") two weeks before, blatantly laid down for Hulk Hogan after he poked him in the chest. The incident damaged the credibility of the WCW Title almost beyond repair, and the damage done to WCW was, in the mind of some, exacerbated when Hogan and Nash immediately announced the reformation of the nWo, which by that time was widely perceived as a stale storyline.

On July 6, 1998, airing out of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, "Nitro" defeated "RAW" in the ratings when Goldberg pinned Hulk Hogan cleanly to win the WCW World Heavyweight Title. The match drew a 6.91 rating for the quarter-hour, the highest rating recorded in the ratings war up to that time. However, it was widely speculated that the match would have made millions of dollars had it taken place on pay-per-view instead of "Nitro". After this episode, "RAW" immediately took back the lead.

Angles and gimmicks

Cactus Jack is "Lost in Cleveland"

Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) first wrestled Vader on April 6 1993. Foley and Leon White wanted an intense match, so they agreed that Vader would hit Cactus with a series of heavy blows to the face.Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.239-241)] WCW edited the match heavily because it was against their policies to show the heavy bleeding that resulted. Foley suffered a broken nose, a dislocated jaw and needed twenty-seven stitches, but won the match via countout. Because the title did not change hands on a countout, WCW booked a rematch. Foley, however, wanted some time off to be with his newborn daughter and get surgery to repair a knee injury. As a result, in the rematch with Vader on April 23, the two executed a dangerous spot to sell a storyline injury. Vader removed the protective mats at ringside and power-bombed Cactus onto the exposed concrete floor, causing a legitimate concussion and causing Foley to temporarily lose sensation in his left foot and hand. [Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.243-244)] While Foley was away, WCW ran an angle where Cactus Jack's absence was explained with a farcical comedy storyline in which he went crazy, was institutionalized, escaped, and developed amnesia. [Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.248-250)] Foley had wanted the injury storyline to be very serious and generate genuine sympathy for him before his return. The comedy vignettes that WCW produced instead were so bad that Foley jokes in "Have a Nice Day" that they were the brainchild of WCW executives, who regarded a surefire moneymaking feud as a problem that needed to be solved. [Foley, Mick. Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p. 249)]

The Shockmaster incident

In 1993, Fred Ottman would find himself the victim of one of the most embarrassing moments in wrestling history. WCW had recently signed Ottman from the WWF, and he was to make his debut in a match alongside Sting, Dustin Rhodes, and Davey Boy Smith. He would be their "mystery partner" in the upcoming eight-man tag match against the heel team, Sid Vicious, Big Van Vader, and Harlem Heat (comprised of brothers Kole and Kane) at Fall Brawl.

When Sting and Smith were about to unveil their mystery partner, they did so during a live interview (on "A Flair for the Gold", hosted by Ric Flair) in front of the WCW audience together with Sid and Harlem Heat. Sting would say, "All I have to say is... our partner is going to "shock" the world because he is none other than... The Shockmaster!" The camera zoomed in on a particular section of the set where two torches set off a small pyrotechnics explosion in front of a sheetrock wall. The Shockmaster was supposed to make his entrance by crashing through that wall in his new attire, consisting of a "Star Wars" Stormtrooper helmet painted silver and covered in glitter, a pair of jeans, and a long black vest.

As the camera was in for a close up, the upper part of his body broke through the wall, but the rest of his body did not, causing Ottman to fall through the rest of the wall. He slid across the floor, and his helmet rolled off long enough for audiences to see who it was while he scrambled to put it back on. Even the announcers were speechless. However, Flair was heard to say "Oh, God!" at what happened, and shortly afterwards Davey Boy Smith was heard saying "He fell flat on his arse! Fell flat on his fucking arse!"

During an episode of "Legends of Wrestling" Dusty Rhodes later claimed that a 2x4 was placed on the bottom of the wall, which had not been there on a successful rehearsal, which caused Ottman to trip and stumble. [WWE 24/7- Legends Of Wrestling "Worst Characters]

Despite this, The Shockmaster resumed his entrance as if nothing had happened, and he continued walking up to Sid and Harlem Heat. The interview is generally considered one of the most laughable in wrestling history [ [http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/431.html X-E - The Worst Angle In Pro-Wrestling History! ] ] , with the Shockmaster verbally threatening the four heels with, "They call me The Shockmaster. You've ruled the world long enough, Sid Vicious. Get ready! Come on, you want a piece of me? You want a piece of me? Come and get me. Come after me, Sid! I'm ready." The audience was dumbfounded, giving no reaction whatsoever and the heels were clearly trying to stop themselves from laughing while he delivered his threat. The Shockmaster's voice was a prerecorded tape that was provided by Ole Anderson. Anderson used the same voice effects as he did for another infamous WCW angle, the "Black Scorpion". Later, WCW attempted to salvage the incident by introducing a new character called the "Super Shockmaster." Also portrayed by Ottman, this was intended to be the Shockmaster's nephew, who would then refer to the Shockmaster as "Uncle Fred." After that point, the Shockmaster was portrayed as a klutz until the character was eventually abandoned.

tarrcade '97

WCW's Starrcade 1997 pay-per-view at Washington, D.C. drew WCW's highest buyrate to that date, largely because of Eric Bischoff building up the main-event of Hulk Hogan vs. Sting. Although Bischoff was praised for not hotshooting Hogan vs. Sting, the main event ended in controversy as Hogan was heavily criticized for not doing a clean finish to the match.

This confused and irritated fans, who had waited over a year to see Sting take down the nWo. Bret Hart, in his WCW pay-per-view debut, claimed that referee Nick Patrick made a fast three count in order to prevent Sting from being screwed. Although, according to Eric Bischoff, in his book "Controversy Creates Ca$h" the count looked like a normal speed count.

Hart then restarted the match with himself as referee. Sting won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but the title was stripped from him and declared vacant until SuperBrawl VIII, where Sting recaptured the WCW Championship.

Many fans were confused and disappointed with this finish, partly because of the seemingly anticlimatic finish and partly were confused of how Bret Hart would have the power in WCW to be able to reverse a decision and restart a match.

No Limit Soliders vs. West Texas Rednecks

The relationship between WCW and rapper Master P was supposed to be a symbiotic one, with WCW getting exposure with fans of hip hop music, and Master P getting his cousin Swoll a break in the wrestling business on top of getting paid.

Although the No Limit Soldiers were packaged as a face stable, they failed to connect with the WCW audience. In Master P's first and only appearance on WCW Television (against the suggestion of the bookers and other wrestlers), he bullied heel wrestler Curt Hennig by rejecting a present he gave to Silkk The Shocker and then assaulting him with a birthday cake. This was perceived as a heel action by the fans and produced a lack of reaction due to confusion because Hennig was a hated heel, but being bullied by a group of people promoted as faces. [ [http://members.tripod.com/Triwolf84/index6.html WCW Nitro Results ] ] Master P himself was disappointed with the reaction and blamed it on the racial makeup of the WCW audiences, claiming he would have gotten a bigger reaction from the crowd if more of "his people" were in attendance. P wouldn't be seen on TV to support the angle after the segment.

Hennig himself would put together his own small stable of "rap haters" called the West Texas Rednecks. Even with backup, the Soldiers outnumbered Hennig's group by nearly 2-1. Another setback for the Soldiers was that they consisted mainly of unestablished rookies and repackaged veterans, with very few members who connected with the fans. On the other end, the Rednecks played to the crowds with witty songs like "Rap is Crap" and winning matches against the odds. All these factors made the Rednecks the faces in the feud by the fans' estimation, especially in the South, where WCW's core audience came from.

Fingerpoke of Doom

On January 4, 1999, "Nitro" broadcasted live once again from the Georgia Dome. This "Nitro's" main event was originally scheduled to be Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and was going to be their anticipated rematch. However, Goldberg was arrested (kayfabe) mid-show and accused of "aggravated stalking" by Miss Elizabeth. He was released when Elizabeth couldn't keep her story straight. Meanwhile, Hollywood Hulk Hogan returned to WCW after a hiatus and challenged Nash to a match, which Nash accepted. This led to the infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom" which saw Hulk Hogan merely poking Nash in the chest with his finger, causing Nash to lie down for Hogan to win the belt.

After this episode, WCW's TV ratings steadily went down, only reaching a 5.0 rating or higher twice (it drew a 5.7 on February 8, 1999 because of a Westminster Dog Show-induced "RAW" pre-emption on the USA Network). In retrospect, some observers inside and outside the pro wrestling business noted that this storyline turned off numerous fans for several reasons: [ [http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/columns/misc/joel03.html Online World of Wrestling ] ] [ [http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2004_/articles/1094883002.php Wrestling in a Bottle: Unforgiven Predictions and the Lowdown on Randy Orton's Face Turn ] ]

*It devalued the WCW World Heavyweight Championship by having Nash simply lie down and give it to Hogan with no effort. (In proving how devalued it truly was, the title would go on to be held by men such as David Arquette and Vince Russo in the future.)

*The hierachy of the nWo became over-developed, as there was now an "elite" group sporting the black and red of the Wolfpac, and a sardonically labeled "B-team" of midcard jobbers wearing the black and white of the by-then increasingly unpopular Hollywood label. Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell joined the "elite Wolfpac" while Konnan was thrown from the group. Sting, a former member of the real Wolfpac, had been on hiatus during the nWo reunion and did not partake in the heel "elite" stable upon his return.
Over just the next few months alone, constant defections and injuries would collapse the super-group from the elite top to the bottom of the B-team. Bret Hart, Scott Steiner, the Outsiders, and Jeff Jarrett's new "silver and black" version of the nWo in late 1999 would only last a few months itself. Thus, the Fingerpoke of Doom moniker became very apropos for the storyline, which in effect killed all the progress and momentum in the nWo name.

*By this time, WCW had developed a reputation for consistently putting heels over faces, no matter the circumstances. This incident reinforced that perception in the minds of many fans.

*At the time, Goldberg was a big face who many fans perceived as a threat to the nWo. As a result, he was mercilessly and completely beaten down by the group. After the beating, his back was spray-painted with the "nWo" logo. Some fans saw this as a sign that Goldberg was going to be buried and pushed onto the back-burner for the newly-reformed (yet tiring) nWo.

*The event made it apparent that the nWo Hollywood/Wolfpac split had been a swerve all along and trivialized months of storylines just to see the nWo once again unified.

*Vince McMahon once made a reference to the incident, commenting that the Hogan-Nash encounter deserved to be held at WrestleMania or Starrcade, which would make the company millions of dollars; instead, WCW management opted to book the match on "Monday Nitro" (notwithstanding the fact that it was also reduced to a plot device for the sudden reunion of the nWo).

*This was also the night that WCW's arch-rival WWF would air a pre-taped match directly opposite "Nitro" on "RAW" in which Mick Foley (as Mankind) won the WWF Championship from The Rock. [cite web|title=History of the WWE Championship: Mankind's first reign|publisher=WWE|url=http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/wwechampionship/3044541411|accessdate=2008-05-23] Earlier that night, WCW found out about what was going to occur, and spoiled the results on their broadcast. On orders from Eric Bischoff, WCW announcer Tony Schiavone gave away the result of the match before it aired, saying "Mick Foley, who wrestled here as Cactus Jack a few years ago is going to win THEIR world title tonight!" and sarcastically added "That'll put a lot of butts in the seats." Within minutes, Nielsen ratings showed that several hundred thousand viewers switched channels from "Nitro" on TNT to "RAW" on the USA Network, many of whom wished to see a guaranteed title change and/or a title victory by the exceedingly popular Foley. After Mankind won the title, many fans then switched back to "Nitro" (which still had 5 minutes of air time left), suggesting that WCW had a show that the fans wanted to see, and could have emerged the victor that night had they not given away the "RAW" main event results. The final ratings for the night were 5.7 for "RAW" and 5.0 for "Nitro". During the year following the incident, many WWF fans brought signs to the shows saying "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat."

*Also damaged was the credibility of the company itself, which did not present the match that had been advertised (a Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash rematch from Starrcade '98); in fact, several times throughout the night, the WCW announce team talked about how they had a "real main event." This was perceived to be an underhanded way of selling out the arena for that night's telecast.

In "Wrestlecr
RD Reynolds says of the match, "That was that. Fans had been burned one time too many by WCW and the nWo. From that point on in 1999, ratings steadily dropped for the company".cite book|last=Baer|first=Randy|coauthors=R.D. Reynolds|title=Wrestlecr
isbn=1-55022-584-7|pages=201|publisher=ECW Press|date=2003]

New Blood vs. Millionaire's Club

On April 10, 2000, Eric Bischoff (now a creative consultant) and Vince Russo, returned with equal power to work as a team and attempted to reboot WCW. Bischoff was allowed back with booking powers, but no longer had control of the company finances like he did in his previous reign. The premise of the WCW revival was that a changing of the guard was in order. The Millionaire's Club, consisting of WCW's veteran stars such as Hogan, Flair and DDP, were accused of preventing the younger talent from ascending to the main event circle and feuded with The New Blood, consisting of WCW's younger stars such as Billy Kidman, Booker T and Buff Bagwell.

In theory, the younger stars would finally get an even playing field to break out as big stars in wrestling. However, a lot of the newer stars were seen as being relatively green or lacking the charisma and/or ability to truly get over. The new storyline sparked initial interest, but ultimately failed to turn around the ratings, as fans begin to see the storyline as a ripoff the WCW vs. nWo storyline in 1996 and 1997 and WCW continued its downward spiral.

Legal problems

After being released by WCW in November 1999 (his long time friend, Eric Bischoff was by then no longer with the company), Japanese manager Sonny Onoo and a number of African American wrestlers launched racial discrimination lawsuits against WCW in February 2000. Onoo claimed that he had been given a disrespectful gimmick and that his final salary—$160,000—was only half of the average pay for a wrestler at that time. cite web | url = http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingArchive2001/apr4_onoo-can.html | author = Altamura, M. | title = Kazuo 'Sonny' Onoo speaks out | publisher= Canadian Online Explorer | accessdate=2008-05-18|date=2001-04-04]

Hall of Fame

In 1995, legendary wrestling announcer Gordon Solie objected to the Hall of Fame because they were going to induct Angelo Poffo as a favor to his son, Randy Savage. Solie objected because Poffo was not a particularly notable wrestler and he was a purist at heart. They went ahead with the induction anyway and ended up surprising Solie with his own induction. Solie acted as though he was honored, but he was still not pleased with the decision and left WCW shortly after the event.

References