Positive Things About The Final Months Of WCW

[Y 2 Jake]

There wasn't much good about the end of WCW. But I'm pretty sure there are some positive things that happened. It can't have all been bad could it? So from say The beginning of 2000 till the day WCW closed shop, was there anything good about the promotion?

They pushed lots of new talent. It's debatable as to weather any of them deserved pushing. But they did try to make new stars. And hey if people has still cared about WCW in 2001 then it might have payed off.

Booker T. Was he ready for a world title run? No, was he fuck. But he's a a huge name now. If WCW hadn't put the belt on him then he probably wouldn't have had half the push he had in WWE, and the Invasion would have been considerably worse.

I can think of more but I want to see what other people think.

 

[THe WHoLe FuCKiN SHoW]

well they did end it all with sting vs flair. i mean that was the right way to end wcw if u ask me. i mean in the grand scheme of things it probly doesnt mean a damn thing what the last match in the histroy of wcw was but thats about the best thing i can think of as far as the end of wcw goes.

 

[jpickens]

I did like that they were finally pushing the new guys and were trying atone for two years of Russo/Bichoff but when you have a wrestling company owned by a group that hates wrestling your pretty much fucked.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

Air Raid and Jung Dragons. Basically, the Cruiserweight Division was still at an all-time high then too. Personally, I never cared about the big names at this point, except for Ric Flair and Sting for their final match.

 

[ExtremeIronChef]

Trying to push the younger guys was one of the better things about the final run of WCW. Not all of them had what it took, but at least they were trying something new other than putting the belt on Hogan or Flair for the millionth time. I personally feel that Booker T was ready for a main event level push, but maybe not becoming WCW champ when he did. Had the company not gone under then maybe a year or so later.

The final Nitro was pretty good. Sting/Flair was IMO the only way they should have gone out.

 

[hahahaha]

The JUng Dragons Three COunt feud was silly but had great matches. From Jan-the end of its run in 2001 everything looked up.

Wrestling became the focus again. Ric Flair got more TV time and the Magnificent 7 wasn't the worst idea. Love him or hate him Scott STiner was fine in the champion role.

Sugar Shane Helms vs. Chavo.

Pushing up and comers. Makes you think if the company would have improved given one more year.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

This might sound morbid, but I was in attendance at WCW Sin when Sid broke his ankle. Did this suck for Sid? YEAH. But let's be honest...was this a good thing for WCW? Yes. Why? Because Sid sucked. Terrible. Awful. No mic skills. Terrible in the ring. But still, for the majority of WCW's final year or two, Sid was a top face.

Nobody minded too much when he was gone, so it didn't produce any kind of shockwaves when he went down. However, this injury really increased heat on Steiner and made the way for Booker T to be a top face.

 

[ironman1180]

I don't remember much from the last few months of WCW, but I DO remember the last match of WCW. Sting vs. Flair. What a way to go. They had one of the longest, but best feuds, but seeing that last match...you knew how much respect they had for each other, feuding or not. An amazing end to what was a good (though sometimes awful) wrestling promotion.

 

[KoolKade]

Earnest "the Cat" Miller was starting to entertain me every week. He was a great dancer and good on the mic. He was certainley a bright spot during their final year.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

My overall last impressions from W.C.W. regarding what was great about them...

Cruiserweight Division: Being lead by Chavo Guerrero was the only downside to this, but the upside was they created a major stars in 'Sugar' Shane Helms, Shannon Moore, and Jimmy Yang. Some of the final cruiserweight multi-man matches were absolutely amazing. And the fact is, the last time their cruiserweight division was off the charts to me, was in 1998 when Kidman, Mysterio & Juvi were the main focus. So from 1999-2000 the division faded.

Another focus was the cruiserweight Tag Team Championships. If they'd brought these in perhaps a year sooner, maybe the division would've been worth paying attention to more closely.

Midcard Talent Push: Booker T., Hugh Morrus, Lance Storm, The Steiners, Kanyon, & pretty much the entire group of talent that came out of the Power Plant. (Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Reno, Mike Sanders, Shawn O'Haire & Mark Jindrak) I think a lot of these guys really took off whether they deserved it or not.

I also liked seeing guys like Jason Jett (E.Z. Money in E.C.W.) become huge. Its sad that out of this list, the only guy who's truly continued with such a great thing is Booker T.

 

[klunderbunker]

I remember actually liking the final days of WCW. WCW was clearly done, so it was kind of fun to get to see things completely get thrown out the window. The company was completely revamped with lots of people getting huge pushes, some of the undeserved. I always loved groups like the Natural Born Thrillers, because they were able to get significant time while getting great experience under their belts at the same time. Couple this with guys like Booker and Steiner getting their main event pushes and I actually enjoyed the final year of the company. Also there was the triple cage match on Nitro for the title, called war games, one of my all time favorite matches. Last but now least, the Hogan-Russo incident at Bash at the Beach, which I'll always remember fondly.

 

[Slim Pickns]

Though few people chose to acknowledge it, WCW was actually getting better before they shut down. It was just too little too late. The crusierweights were tearing it up, but few cared about them since they were in the background for so long. There were also new faces in the main event. As much as I love Hogan, he was the champ way too long in WCW.

Since we are talking 2000 and beyond, I will once again state that I think the Sting vs Vampiro feud was awesome. Vampiro played a great heel and Sting was WCW version of Undertaker in that any feud or match he was in became interesting. Their match at Slamboree is one of my favorites.

 

[Total Impact]

WCW had the best PPV's in match quality than the WWE had in the final months in my opinion. The crusierweights had Sugar Shane Helms, Elix Skipper tearing it up everyweek and Scott Steiner actually was a great heel. Tag Team wrestling was better in WCW & it was looking like if Eric had bought the company, then the Sow would of been great.

 

[Kfabe]

WCW's matches were amazing in the last year of the promotion. They seemed to have threw away the shackles and let the wrestlers get on with it. The mid carders were putting on amazing matches and getting pushed well, the PPV's were vastly improving, I have no doubt that given another 12 months, WCW would have turned it around and still been here today.
The last days were the best days in years.

 

[klunderbunker]

A few months ago I found a Nitro from April of 2000. This was during the time of Arquette being champion. Aside from that storyline, this show was nothing short of great. We had Hogan going against some mid carders, making them look good in the ring, good tag matches, and the typical awesome cruiserweight matches. WCW still had that it factor that made the company number one. The problem that messed the whole thing up though was the main event angle. It made no sense and was just flat out stupid. Was there anything wrong with Jarrett and DDP? Not a thing that I saw. Those two in the triple cage, even with Arquette out there as a supporter would have worked. The show was doing very well I thought, but by then it was jsut over. There wasn't a thing that could have saved it by then.

 

[proweeks]

Ive been wondering about this lately, does anyone think that maybe Fusient Media Ventures pulled out too soon on Eric Bischoff, and does anyone think that maybe if theyd have given just a few weeks longer he could have found a tv station that would carry WCW and then he could have bought it and maybe, just because of that few extra weeks time, WCW would still be alive today, but I dont know, WCW had become so bad that maybe even Bischoff running it again still wouldnt have saved it

 

[Zandrax]

Late 2000-2001 was kind of a holding pattern of sorts, because they didn't know who was buying the company or when. I did like the logic shown, building up Steiner as an unstoppable monster, and had the buyout not been from McMahon, I think it would have been a satisfying conclusion.

 

[Zandrax]

Ive been wondering about this lately, does anyone think that maybe Fusient Media Ventures pulled out too soon on Eric Bischoff, and does anyone think that maybe if theyd have given just a few weeks longer he could have found a tv station that would carry WCW and then he could have bought it and maybe, just because of that few extra weeks time, WCW would still be alive today, but I dont know, WCW had become so bad that maybe even Bischoff running it again still wouldnt have saved it

I don't think there were any stations interested in WCW programming at the time. I can't recall when or where, but I seem to recall Bischoff saying that they looked into that option, but it just wasn't as cost effective because under Turner, the contract was already there.

For those of you blaming people for "killing WCW", the true final blame lies in Jamie Kellner. He's the guy that canceled the shows.

 

[xeducatex]

they gave alot of new talent the ball but they wouldnt follow through. it was too little to late when they finally realized "hey mabey hogan CANT be champ forever"
the best thing to happen out of it was definetly booker t becoming champ. i wish he would have stayed in the m.i.a. tho. i kinda like the last year or so of wcw. but they were to inconsistant with it. theyd have an excelent show and then follow it up the next week with something that had nothing to do with last weeks show.

 

[golden miz]

I'm so sick of people blaiming the wcw of having a terable formula because in truth Eric Bishoff and others had nothing to do with the shows in the finnal 2 years, the merger between turner and time warner did wcw in because eventually it led to people being in charge of turner that wanted to sabatauge wcw and no one to save them, once this happened turners standards and practices was up bishoff's ass making him do things that were obviously not marketable and didn't make sence, so the last 2 years, especially the last year of wcw was major caos for many reasons and the vince ruso thing also led to there fall because the turner exect that recomended him to be hired found out from sources in wwe that he will drag a company down and he did

 

[DC24]

I for one wish WCW was still here; I loved both companies to death and it brought out the best competition and made the best on-air product. I mean look at the WWF now they are as bad as WCW was in there final days they couldn't sell out there last PPV. Its so predictable its redicoulos just we knew Hogan would be champion; you Triple H will have the belt. I think just like Vince got the WWF out of a slump Eric could have with time got WCW out of a slump because they had the talent its not like they have a bunch of bums like TNA shit they had more talent than WWF then when they closed.

 

[Mr. TM]

One of the best things about the end of the WCW was the push of Lance Storm. Every canadian fan loved it as he quickly won the TV title, Hardcore title, and cruiserweight title, and renamed them in honour of Canada. His matches were good, and the feud was made good by Lance Storm against MIA. It would have been awesome if Lance had won against Booker T. That would have been a great feud to end WCW on. The could have both went to WWE and countinue the feud.

 

[xN Starksx]

I sort of agree with TM. I don't think it would have been the greatest feud ever, it would however have been cool to maybe see the WCW strap on Lance Storm at least. It's amazing how a guy can get over with a gimmick that plays on the fact that had no gimmick.

Plus, at that point.. Lance Storm was better than Booker T. in my opinion, probably still is. I just don't think that at that point, Booker was ready to be champ. 'Cause honestly, it was pretty forgettable, much like Big Show's run as the champ. Lance Storm could have ran the table and won all of WCW's titles, which would have been interesting. That could have led to Lance Storm being in Booker T.'s spot before he left the WWE. King Lance would have been a whole lot better than the reign of King Booker.

As far as the end of WCW, I still think the best part of the end was Team Canada, the cruiserweight division and the pushes of a lot of mid-carders that normally would not have received. And as someone else, I think if the Cruiserweight Tag Titles would have been introduced a little sooner.. You might still see them around and WWE might actually have a solid division.. Instead of that sad excuse of one that they tried to put out there for a while.