ok, firstly, yes WCW in the past put on really fine ppvs and a major reason was the midcard talent and the big names. the problem with WCW though was the big stars never got out of the way, Hogan is the prime example. i mean he's a heel and cant lose clean to Sting???
To be honest, I feel Hogan was the least worst offender when it comes to wrestlers who hung on to long in the main event spot. Would I have liked to have seen him lose the title differently (i.e. on PPVs like with his loss against Goldberg)? In some ways yes, but I think about how much PPVs were costing even back then, and in some ways I thought it was cool to see a free title change on Nitro, people who grew up when there weren't so many PPVs on the schedule. To see a legend like Hogan on free TV lose to an up and coming star like Goldberg (who sadly I wished would have met his potential but never did), it was awesome. As far as him not losing clean to Sting, that's debatable if you're citing Starrcade 97's ending, I know there was that whole controversy with the "count", and then Bret Hart got involved, I don't know how much of that was Hogan's idea, none of us really do. Period.
Then of course you fast forward to SuperBrawl VIII some two months later. Sting had Hogan beat and the referee was KO'd as a result of the Scorpion Death Drop, and then a myriad of nWo guys came down and Sting cleaned their clock, to be honest that made Sting look like a million dollars, not only did he have Hogan beat, but he took out a bunch of his cronies to boot.
The thing to me is this, for as prominent as Hogan's role in WCW was, I think things could have been worse. Don't get me wrong there were some moments we could have done without, i.e. the redux of Hogan vs Savage (with the same result being Hogan winning all the time), I was not a fan of, I truly believe Randy Savage deserved to get some comeuppance against Hogan. The fingerpoke of doom though, I could care less about, I was not offended like most people, especially when I think of how Vince put his own company's World Title on himself. But getting back to my point here, Hogan's creative control clause if it was as encompassing and as powerful as people say it was, I don't think he ever would have lost the WCW Title from the time he stepped foot in that company, if of course it was as powerful as people claim, he would have had that title all the way from 1994-2000 when his contract was winding down.
But when you add to the mix other star power such as Ric Flair, the returns of Hall and Nash to WCW, Bret Hart and of course a staple like Sting. Those are all egos whether we notice that or not, those are all big time players amongst the roost of WCW's veteran talent. To place all the blame on Hogan like the internet so richly chooses to do is questionable. That's not to say Hogan doesn't have anything to account for because I feel there were other angles that could have gone on a lot better had he approached things differently. I mentioned the Macho Man feud earlier, when he was feuding with Kidman, I feel a return to a heel persona as Hollywood Hogan would have made more sense. Kidman would have gotten a lot more support being an underdog face going up against a bully, instead of being some snot nosed punk picking a fight with the bigger dog in the yard.
it is frustrating that the WCW midcarders who deserved a shot never got one. now personally, i never would've pushed Mysterio to the world title in WCW, but why not Benoit???? he could make a match with Hollywood Hogan work, same with Jericho and on top of that, Jericho's character in WCW was very funny.
Couldn't agree with you more about this statement, however Hogan's matches did work, granted they weren't wrestling clinics, but Hogan's strong suit in getting a crowd reaction always worked immensely. However, seeing him up against an athlete the caliber of Benoit (despite my personal opinions of him, and this isn't even about what happened in 2007) would have been nothing short of amazing. Chris Jericho was hilarious as well and I enjoyed him immensely, granted he never got the US Title, but he had a hell of a lot of airtime and publicity with his Monday Night Jericho shirts and they even filmed a commercial for that merchandise. Yes it wasn't the World Title, but still what a memorable time for him and a big reason why the WWF couldn't resist in capitalizing on what WCW started.
What we fail to mention is that although a lot of these smaller guys were going after singles titles like the US and TV championships, a lot of them were still Cruiserweight contenders, and guys like Jericho, Benoit, and Malenko were still utilized to have matches with guys like Juventud Guerrera, Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, etc. That's one thing Bischoff always did very well in WCW was the airtime for guys in the Cruiserweight division and he gave them a prime time platform that a promoter like Vince McMahon only used as a novelty, while in WCW it became a staple. I am not saying it's right per se, but I think in my personal opinion that there was a concern about cutting guys like Malenko, Jericho and Guerrero away from the Cruiserweight division would hurt this thriving portion of the company. I could be wrong, but again like I said just a theory. It would have been nice to seen new talent harvested to replace those aforementioned names, and see how they would do with a promotion to the heavyweight ranks, but in hindsight I think we find it more easy to criticize WCW, because we fail to remember how thriving the Cruiserweight division was at that time. And let's be honest WWF's Light Heavyweight division could never ever compare.
i also found fault at WCW with Hart. they should've pushed him to the world title right off by saying he deserves one after what he went through with WWE. i think if the midcard talent would've gotten a decent push, then WCW could've survived. Jericho never even won the US title and eventually Benoit got a world title push, but that was when he was out the door.
You could be right about WCW's shelf life maybe being extended beyond what it was if Benoit and Jericho had been pushed better, but let's look at it like this, ever since the 1980s there always seemed to be some unrest and uncertainty with the company we came to know as WCW, for instance the Jim Crockett Family had to sell the promotion that was then called Jim Crockett Promotions to Ted Turner. That right there was an indication that a company as rich as this could go down in a blaze, (because let's not forget JCP was around for over 50 years before Ted Turner even bought the place). Granted they had a bounce back when Ric Flair returned, Hogan jumped ship, Hall and Nash came back, this time in more prominent roles, and the Monday Night Wars started.
But like anything else it didn't last, the overspending that plagued Jim Crockett Promotions, also happened to the Ted Turner version of the company, not to mention you had so many changes in authority figures and hierarchy, WCW just found itself in a state of limbo. From what I have heard, an overabundance of guaranteed contracts never helped matters, since some of these deals resulted in WCW getting the short end. And while the viewership had dwindled it was still a highly watched product, especially when you look at WWE's numbers today, they aren't far from what WCW was getting in their dying days.
As it's been said before, before Turner Broadcasting's new programming president decided to cancel WCW's programming, there was a press release stating that Turner Broadcasting would continue to not only air WCW program after selling the promotion to Fusient Media Ventures, but that they would still hold a minority interest in the organization.
Click here for more on that. As far as Bret Hart's underutilization goes, it's unfortunate because I think things were starting to finally turned around in late 99 when he won the World Title, and then by a screwed up twist of fate had that concussion that ended his career.
Now I veered off, WCW had great events, go back to moments like Starrcade 83-85 (and other Starrcades to follow) the Great American Bash 1988, Bash At The Beach 1994 and of course who could forget 1996. There were also some sleeper hits and hidden treasures like SuperBrawl III, I thought Muta VS Windham for the NWA World Title was awesome. The Slamboree events were always cool when they had the legends portion of the event. WCW offered a lot whether we are talking about the JCP era of the company of the Ted Turner owned. It's unfortunate to see how it got overridden with a conglomeration of egos towards the end but hey that happens sometimes. It happens everywhere in life. Just my two cents.
