First WCW Moment.

[Jimmy King]

Everyone just loves comparing TNA to WCW's dying days (2000-2001.) However, there were some early signs of an inevitable demise that made you say, "the fuck?" Everyone who loved WCW remembers their first moment. Mine was the night following Starrcade '98. This was the infamous "fingerpoke of doom."

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I was 10 years old watching this and I knew that WCW had just fucked themselves. I was a Kevin Nash mark, still am, and I was just devastated. From there, we inexplicably got a face turn for Hogan not too long afterward, Savage came back and had a feud with Charles Robinson, and Dustin Rhodes (Goldust) formed a tag team with his father. WCW seemingly tied all bullshit moments to that one.

What was your first WCW moment?

 

[lamo78]

The Finger Poke of Doom is definitely right up there. But for me it was when David Arquette won the Heavyweight Title. I was in total shock and could not watch any more of it. I was done.

 

[Chardee Macdennis]

May be a corny one but I remember (vaguely) when Schivone said something about "Who the hell wants to see Mick Foley as world Champ?" I certainly did and changed the channel! Apparently plenty of others did as well. I was like..."Why the FUCK would he just tell you the title was going to change hands?"

 

[davenchi]

I am stuck between Leno, malone, and rodman wrestling, or the infamous Master P and his no limit soldiers. Absolutely terrible didn't work, I could name more and more on timeline, but it was becoming evident about 2 years before they went out of business they were in trouble

 

[RD_21]

Maybe I was late to see the sign but it's because I was following wCw but more casually than WWE. But when they turned Goldberg heel and people were changing gimmick every week and face, heel were scrapped every week it was pretty bad. Also the old person's ramp, I always hated that and I am glad it didn't stick in TNA.

 

[reed214]

.

 

[onceafan]

Back in the day i wasnt much of a wcw fan, but early on i was interested and excited about the NWO, i was a huge mark for Hall and Nash, but to be honest all i remember was it was on the same time as Raw here in Scotland i think, so i use to switch over during the adverts and if Booker T or Harlem heat were on i would turn back and watch the adverts from Sky sports. afraid after the juice or Booker t and the bookend i was done, not to mention Goldberg or as i called it Simply Boring

 

[CyDeez]

besides mick foley winning the title (most overrated,why is he even remembered), the first nail in the coffin for me was when the n.w.o...had another n.w.o and then you needed two rings for them...horrid..and you must credit stone cold and the rock (only them two)

Umm.... WHAT?


For me, a weird moment when I was like WTF are they doing, was at Starcade 97. All the build up for Sting Vs. Hogan. Hogan was deathly afraid of Sting in the storyline. Sting was to mark the end of NWO. Or so we thought.

Then Hogan gets the 1 2 3 over Sting.... CLEAN! Then Bret Hart came out and said the referee counted too fast and whatever else he was saying. But the ref clearly didn't count fast.

After about a year and a half of build up... Sting being out of the ring that long. FINALLY, the match came.

Hogan beats him clean. I still don't get it. They ruined what could have been one of WCW's biggest moments ever. Then Sting wins after Bret Hart "restarts" the match.

It still baffles me to this day. That was one of the first moments when I was like, "These guys are fucking idiots!"

They were doing great up until then in my eyes. Then after Starcade, numerous mind boggling moments came from WCW. A lot of the moments mentioned in posts before mine describe a few!

 

[WJDwjdWJDwjd]

Oh man... for me it was when Vince Russo became a character. He should have never been on an on screen character. After that, nothing made sense anymore. Everything about the show was such a clusterf*** that I just couldn't watch anymore.

 

[razerp]

Fingerpoke for sure, after all the push, after the year long buildup of Goldbergs streak, the Wolfpac being sooo over, of Nash winning the belt.. then he just hands it to Hogan.

That one moment took the 80 plus weeks of winning ratings, the 9 month Crow angle, the 6 month Wolpac/ Nwo Black n White rivalry
the Goldberg mystique and flushed it down the crapper.

Wcw in that moment lost the Monday Night War, they'd lost battles b4 then, the tide had turned but they were still in it till the Fingerpoke.

One more huge mistake was Goldberg beating Hogan for the belt.. not that he won, that it was only given a 4 day buildup, was at a Monday nitro not a PPV. If they'd gone non title, let Bill beat Hogans ass, have the run ins still so DDP n Malone could make the save, then have Goldberg chase a Title shot. would have been much better booking and kept up the momentum.

 

[BigMacHollywood217]

my first and only wcw moment was the goldberg funeral after sin 2001!! my father was watching it and i saw it, then a few years later i became a full fleged pro-wrestling fan!!!!

 

[brandogg]

I must be the only person that loved the "Finger Poke of Doom" between Hogan and Nash. Anyway, you could tell WCW was fucked when they tried to turn Juventud Guerrera *and* Booker T both into the Rock at the same time (even though the Juice was a parody, Booker T was a complete rip-off). It was like they were trying to trick people into thinking that they were watching WWE. I remember Booker saying "I'm doing it...for the people!" and then I never watched WCW again until Vince McMahon bought it. Hogan vs Warrior at Halloween Havoc was a pretty sad sight to see too. I hated when Hogan would see Warrior "in the mirror" and somehow the audience would see it too.

 

[Dimice121976]

For me it's definitely the Finger Poke of Doom, which hows this for irony, took place on Jan 4th, 1999. There were some rumblings that Nash was gonna turn, but they could of built it up a lot better. That Georgia Dome show was "suppose" to be as big, if not bigger than July 98 when Goldberg beat Hogan, but instead it was a huge let down. If you look at where WCW went after that, it was purely down hill. Another Hogan/Flair feud, the DDP title reign, Goldberg never really going for revenge against the nWo. Instead Goldberg doesnt even main event Souled Out '99, instead he's in a triple threat match against Hall and Bigelow. Nash goes into a feud with Rey over Rey's mask, it was just a mess. But then again should we be shocked by something coming out of Jan 4th, leading to a disaster??? I think not.

 

[ChuckBartowski]

Short answer, Arquette winning the title. This truly sent a message to me that WCW was more about publicity, than product. I get the fact Ready to Rumble was a big thing but you dont see the WWE making McGruber US Champ just because he was promoting a movie.

 

[cnmasaki]

Goldberg's streak getting killed by the cattle prod. That was the moment when I started to waver on watching WCW each week.

 

[wushady]

There were many horrible moments to many to pick one. I think it took 3 events that made me give up for good.

The finger poke of doom was one. I was already sick of the NWO which helped destroy WCW in it's own right

David Arquette .winning the belt destroyed all credibility WCW had left.

Vince Russo's shitty writing in general all the worked shoots, terrible gimmicks, and that BS with Hogan at Bash at the Beach. I never got a PPV again, and barely watched Nitro after that.

 

[The Earl]

I beleive the Mick Foley comment and the fingerpoke of doom took place on the same night. Goldberg was supposed to get a return match that night, and you had the whole Miss Elizabeth stalker angle that kept him from the arena until the end of the show. That led to Nash challenging Hogan and the fingerpoke. goldberg stormed the ring after the fact and was attacked by a heel-turned Luger and the NWO (version3.5 I think?)

But about half the WCW veiwers missed that part because Tony told us Mick was winning the world title.

I think that's how it went down.

They pretty much killed the thing in one night. And the sad part, 11 years later, we still get tortured with Hogan and Nash every Thursday night!

 

[waylon p]

first off, let me say that this is a good thread. at the very least, people aren't talking about things that happened six years ago as if it is "old school"

my first thought was the david arquette title win, which was quite a nasty bit of business.
next, i thought of the introduction of "the other vince". more specifically, vincce, "shane,"
"gerald and patrick" and the whole "corporate invasion" angle.

but this is about the first such moment, so i really have to go with the introduction of the hardcore title.

i remember that wwf had already done something similar with it, and i didn't like it. wcw did it worse.

sure. take everything i hated about ecw and make a division around it, leaving out everything i loved about the house of extreme.

more guys hitting each other with unconvincing weapons. thanks.

 

[Hazardous]

Plain and simple.. The O.W.N

By far the most devastating group in WcW history... On my eyes and ears that is.
When I herd that Warrior had signed with WcW, I changed the channel. Seems every time I turned back, there he was. Or Hogan going off about him.
It was at that point I knew things were done.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Much further back there were several moments over a few months period that really made me question and say What The Fuck? Sadly all were attributed to one man...

Let's set the scene... 1992 and Bill Watts has just taken over as head of WCW... in the UK, WCW was shown on Worldwide on a Saturday, we got shows about a month later but there was no internet for us to know the ins and outs...

Moment 1: One week I see a great show with guys like Liger v Pillman on it... the next, Jesse Ventura is saying "Bill Watts has banned moves from the top rope..."What The Fuck?"... so that most of Brian Pillmans offense, Ricky Steamboats bodyblock. the whole lightheavyweight divisions arsenal all suddenly banned? that makes sense...

Moment 2: Soon after another rule... "Bill Watts has banned throwing opponents over the top rope..." so suddenly there was no outside brawls or moves...no ring mats for people to land on, so when matches would suddenly end in DQ's people like Rick Rude would get hurt. for months..

Moment 3: Watts blowing 2 major talents in favour of 2 Erics:- Watts made what should have been one of the best moves in history by making Ron Simmons the first African American World Champion... The angle was a little unique with the drawing of his name out of a hat but when he beat Vader the fans felt it...they were ready for a new JYD and Simmons had the look but sure needed a bit of work on his mic skills... never mind... We've just signed exactly the right guy to do that, we'll put them into a massive match at Halloween Havoc... but actually no... Jake Roberts can go with Sting and The Barbarian can go for the title against Simmons? WHAT THE FUCK?

The Barbarian? The tag team wrestler from the WWF who wore antlers? The number one contender? Jake Roberts coming in as a heel steal from the WWF and someone who would have helped Simmons get over was paired with Sting, who needed no help from anyone...in a CHAIN MATCH? courtesy of a random wheel? Both matches were awful and Jake was gone soon after... Vader regained the title right about the time racist allegations surfaced about Bill Watts... The only guys to benefit from this were Erik Watts, who got paid a pretty penny for being as green but slightly less attractive to watch than the fake puke Linda Blair coughed up and Eric Bischoff who was able to convince Turner that he couldn't do a worse job...

Watts last blunder was his desperate reliance on Ric Flair... When things went wrong he showed old Flair v Steamboat matches... rather than let Steamboat create new rivalries with his top rope moves... when things got REALLY grim... he thought he had to sign Ric Flair again at all costs... so he did.. even though he couldn't contractually wrestle for 6 months!... 6 months of "A Flair For The Gold", Fifi, The Shockmaster... all those moments... sucked forever... ironically Watts was fired long before Flair did actually wrestle again...

WCW made blunders like this all the way along... but it started with Watts...yup he IS in the hall of fame folks...

 

[Super Strudel]

I'm going to admit something. I was a complete mark when most of these things were going on.
I will admit I watched the Fingerpoke of Doom, and didn't think it was crap. I was shocked the NWO were back together and kept watching unabated (not many people would admit to that).
I didn't see the Arquette title change. If I had, that probably would have done it for me.
The moment for me was the pathetically stupid rivalry between the West Texas Rednecks and the No Limit Soldiers. It was truly awful. You had Master P, to my knowledge lacking any sort of talent whatsoever. He could probably rap, sure, but he sure didn't belong in the ring.
Then you had some of wrestlings finest (and most underrated) technicians, let by Curt Hennig. I think one or two Windham's were in there too.
But they sang instead of wrestling. The No Limit guys wrestled instead of singing. It truly played into WCWs mantra at the time of celebrities > wrestling.
The sad thing was, Master P was never much of a celebrity in most people's books.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Vince Russo appearing on my television. The mans voice made me immediately switch the channel. He has to be one of the most annoying men in TV history, there was no reason for him ever to become an onscreen character except to boost his already massive ego.

If Russo had spent as much time working on making the product better as he did in trying to get himself over, maybe...just maybe...WCW wouldnt have gone out of business

 

[The Earl]

The Way I see it, there were 4 critical time periods that killed the thing. Start off with Starcade 97. WCW was on top of the world and had just signed Bret. The Sting- Hogan fued had almost a year and a half of buildup. So what should have been one of the biggest blowoff matches of all time, we got one of the biggest clusterfucks ever...a screwjob that pretty much killed Sting, after 18 months of buildup.

Skip ahead to the fall of 98. WWF had started winning the ratings war, so WCW's answer? The Warrior. Who injured himself the first match in. We got two months of cooky effects and a lot of damn smoke. We also got the One Warrior Nation, which pretty much consisted of Brutus Beefcake. And they blew it off with a horrid PPV match at Halloween Havoc that ended with Hogan trying to set Warrior on fire for about 15 minutes. 15 minutes of PPV time that was supposed to go to Goldbegr-DDP. The PPV timed out before the main event was over, and that pretty much killed all future PPV buyrates.

Goldberg was the champion, Nash was the booker. Starcade 98. Nash goes over with the cattleprod, kills the streak, which leads to the Goldberg-Liz angle and the Fingerpoke. Tony also told us about Mick during this period. The last two weeks of 98 were REALLY SHITTY for WCW.

After a horrid 1999, there was a chance to regain momentum at Starcade 99. Goldberg against Bret Hart. Despite Vince Russo's best efforts, the workrate of WCW was still top notch, with Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, Saturn, Jarrett, Mysterio, and a healthy Bret Hart as champion. Well, one kick to the head pretty much took care of that. The Montreal finish of the match was bad enough, but Goldberg kicking Bret's head in ended his career, and killed what little momentum they could have had. And then, the final nail in the coffin. Kevin Sullivan takes over as booker. Benoit, Eddy, Saturn, and Malenko quit and show up on Raw the very next week as the Radicals. THAT is what killed WCW.

The Arquette thing and everything that happened after that was horrible, but by that point nobody was watching anymore.

 

[INDYjon22]

Actually, my first WCW experience was getting to see Monday Night Nitro and Thunder live. My parents got tickets for us and we went and saw it. At that time I had only watched WWF but I became an instant fan of WCW. I got to witness the burial of Goldberg's career, the Magnificent 7 and the return of Kevin "The Killer" Nash, in place of Big Sexy. Rick Steiner made his return that night and there were a bunch of very fun matches on the card. Great night, great live experience and just a very fun card of wrestling.