Who was winning the WWF VS WCW rivalry before and during the Monday Night Wars?

[Vader]

Basically I want to look at this thread beyond just the financial or ratings standpoint, but also in a qualitative sense in hindsight.

I'll mostly be referencing PPVs since that is mostly what's on the network.

1991-I have to go with the WWF. I don't really see a big draw in what WCW was doing during this year and they were starting alienate Flair. Luger vs Ron Simmons just isn't a draw to me. Hogan had taken the forefront of the company again the WWF were cashing in on the Desert Storm conflict by pitting Hogan against Slaughter, and the Warrior and Hogan versus Sgt. Slaughter, General Adnan and Col. Mustafa.

1992-WWF. Sting vs. Luger earlier in that year was a draw, but most of the PPV headliners were watered down. Sting is the about the only big talent with the company until Vader comes along at the end of the year. In the WWF Flair had jumped ship, won the Rumble and had a great match with Savage despite missing a huge opportunity for WWF to put something together with him and Hogan. Hogan is back (but I believe among the roid scandal), and wrestles with Sid Vicious in a yawner at Wrestlemania where Papa Shango comes out for some reason but is countered by the Warrior. Hart begins his first title reign after beating Flair, but is premature. Savage and Warrior try to recreate a Mega Powers team against Flair and Ramon which is decent.

1993-Close, but I have to go with WCW. For WCW this is the year of Vader as he is at the forefront of the story lines and an impressive gimmick. Bulldog is decent, and WCW gets Flair back toward the end of the year to wrestle against Vader at the height of Vader's dominance. Rude and Flair have a good match at Fall Brawl. For the WWF, I think things start to decline and there isn't a clear cut formula for success at this point. Your Wrestlemania is another Hogan debacle where he is in a match but refuses to become a tag champion because it's beneath him, and then pulls the goofy ending after Yokozuna beats Bret. Yokozuna ends up with the title and a lengthy run with small marketability. WWF tries to recreate Hogan with Luger, but it simply doesn't work.

1994-WCW, they had the bigger names at this point. Vader, Flair, Sting, and Hogan were all on the roster at this point and rotating through the main events all year. Hogan manages to ruin a Starrcade by putting the barber in a match against him. WWF seems to only have Bret and The Undertaker at this point. Yokozuna is involved heavily throughout the year but there's only so much of a fat guy that you can't pick up that's entertaining. WWF has a strong midcard with guys like Bulldog, Owen, Michaels, Ramon, and Diesel.

In regards to the Monday Night Wars:
1995-While close, I would say WCW was winning this year. Despite running the goofy Dungeon of Doom angle, WCW was loaded with superstars like Flair, Hogan, Savage, Luger, the newly emerged Giant, and Vader early on in the year. I believe the midcard was stronger for WCW at the time as well as the WWF was heavily cartoonish. The main event scene for the WWF was not bad, I just don't think Diesel panned out to be the huge draw despite headlining so many PPVs that year. WWF ruined their biggest match of the year having Bam Bam Bigelow go up against LT at WM.

1996-Obviously the WCW pulled ahead with the NWO angle about midway through the year. Hart and Michaels were great talents, but the story lines and heat just weren't there for WWF to be competitive. Michaels proves to be inconsistent.

1997-WCW. The NWO is in full swing for the WCW. While the main event scene still revolved around familiar faces, they weren't quite to the point of being stale and tired yet. Sting vs. Hogan is the most anticipated match of all time despite being botched. The WCW mid card was very exciting despite having little heat. WWF is flirting with the Attitude era at this point, the Canada vs. America angle is very interesting, but not going to win it for them. Austin's push is put on ice due to a neck injury, but the grittier product is starting to emerge in WWF and they are starting to pull themselves out of the slump despite losing Hart at the end of the year.

1998-Best year to be a wrestling fan. WWF is back out of the gutter and running strong against WCW. The Attitude era is in full swing and the NWO doesn't seem quite as entertaining so they form two different factions in an attempt to be fresh. The Warrior is brought on board late that year, and misused. Goldberg's very popular. The year of Austin is at hand and very interesting angles pan out. WWF produces a very gritty product, despite not having the midcard talent that the WCW has, the WWF wins out because of a much better main event scene.

1999-Finger Poke of Doom and reformation of the WCW puts the brakes on WCW. WWF wins this year decidedly as WCW doesn't seem to want to recover.

2000-WWF. WCW is not doing anything special at this point.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Let's see:

1991

WWF - This really isn't because they were doing anything special that year, but whatever they were doing, WCW was doing far less.

1992

WWF - Once they picked up Flair, WWF really started to take off, and WCW just seemed to lose it. Creatively WCW's top talent was putting on some great matches, but nothing they did could compare with the level of star power that WWF had now, or the work that Flair put in that year. There's never been a better Rumble than that years.

1993

WCW - The rise of Vader. Rude. The Dangerous Alliance. Against Hogan as a phoney champ and the Lex Express? Things changed quickly

1994

WWF - Some people will look at WCW having Hogan as the sign they were the better company. They weren't. Hogan was the drizzling shits in WCW until the NWO, and to me at least, the product was completely unwatchable. I'd always looked to WCW until then as the place I could watch a better quality wrestling product, and opposed to the showier WWF product... but once I saw the Dungeon of Doom, that changed immediately.

1995

WWF - More of the same for me here.

1996

WCW - The NWO was such a game changer it seemed to completely revitalize that product for me. WCW stopped being campy and got edgy. The intrigue factor was threw the roof. And WWF, while they had a lot of the talent they'd use to eventually win already on board, didn't have a clue how to use any of them that year. The HBK show in particular for me... sucked.

1997

WWF - Yeah they were getting killed in the ratings, but one of my all time favorite storylines was the Hart Foundation angle, and this is the year of that. What the WWF was doing that year was far more compelling to me than what WCW was doing

1998 and 1999

WWF - Once Stone Cold versus Mr. McMahon started, that was the end of WCW for me. It was just so hard to stay interested in what they were doing, especially with the never ending, stale NWO angle.

 

[Creepy Old Man]

As a UK kid I'm biased. The WWF was huge here in the 90s; everyone had an Austin 3:16 shirt, a Hogan bandana and Bret Hart sunglasses. SummerSlam was here in 1992, and there were other UK-only events like the Rampage tours, the 1991 Albert Hall show and One Night only 1997. Nobody here cared about WCW. It ran on Saturday Night for a few months before being bumped to the early hours of Sunday morning because no-one was watching. Their pay-per-views weren't even available in the UK, let alone being held here. Nitro gained minor viewership on Friday nights but it was always dwarfed by Raw (Nitro was something to flick over to during Raw commercial breaks). Honestly, most people here had no idea Hulk Hogan was still wrestling after he left the WWF. A select few wrestling trainspotters knew who Sting was, but 999/1000 people in the UK wouldn't have had a clue.

Looking back via the Network, YouTube etc, I get the impression that WCW was the stronger show in 1995 and 1996, even though I always preferred the WWF. The Fed in '95 was pretty weak, and WCW's innovations with the cruiserweights and nWo in 1996 were awesome. Personally I feel that the nWo segments in 1997 were boring, and that WWF was far stronger despite not showing in the ratings. I've heard Mick Foley say that, and I agree. Goldberg's 1998 stuff was pretty cool, but I can't remember seeing much from post-1997 WCW that I thought was any good. Pre-MNW WCW I'm not clued-up on. Most of it looks like dingy circus wrestling with a distinctly Southern feel. My WWF-wired brain can't deal with such lacklustre production values. The Disney MGM stuff was better, but a bunch of non-fans clapping inanely at anything and everything makes for some laborious viewing.

 

[baufan2025]

WcW had the thing won and then the booking got lazy and power plays took over. Sting should have won solid at Starrcade that year. That should have set up a true division of the NWO and they could have ran a storyline for 6 months about it finally dying. Then they could have took the Superstars like Nash, Hall, Hogan, and Luger to build up new guys by teaming them up with younger talent. Instead Hogan got to call his own shots, they created a second show in Thunder, and the NWO tried to hang on way too long.

 

[rmp0012002]

WCW was pretty much in control and winning the ratings war from '95 into 97. Both company's oddly switched marketing plans with WCW going the PG route and the WWE went the adult route. When '98 came the Atitude era was off and running and WCW was resorted to playing catch up because the PG product was no match for Vince and his risqué Raw.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Some of these years are just bad years...1991 was not good....Yes, Hogan was on top but he lacked credible challengers, Ultimate Warrior disappeared, Savage was gone... In WCW they completely screwed up Sting's push so they went back to Flair by default....the main event matches were better (Especially the 1991 War Games, better than anything WWE did that year) but it was pretty lackluster all the way around. Flair leaving and joining WWE in the "Real World's Champion" storyline was by far the only real saving grace of the year, poor Lex Luger finally got his turn as champ but fans were so irate at WCW brass for releasing Flair the "We Want Flair" chants and protests were embarrassing and ruined any chance he had to make this run a success. Sid pretty much bombed out after a major push and left for WWE. Id give the year to WWE and Wrestler of The Year to Hogan by default.

1992: Sting & Vader was mostly good except for the ridiculous Castle Of Fear fiasco....Steamboat & Rude were very good in the top tier, Ron Simmons had a short (if well deserved) push to the main events, Steve Austin continued his two year rise up the charts....WCW as a whole was better than WWE at this point although again neither was setting the world on fire. In WWE Brett Hart's continued slow rise up the charts is probably the best story, Flair-Savage hands down the best feud, but losing Hogan and the lackluster return and quick exit of Warrior hurt the product. Also, Vince was continuing to push cartoon characters down the audience throats but guys like Repo Man, Skinner, & the ridiculous Papa Shango were totals duds with the audience. Sid bombed out after a major push by WWE and went to WCW (this would become a recurring theme throughout the decade). - My Wrestler Of The Year would have been Flair.

1993: WWE was horrible....the undercard was weak and poorly developed, HBK was growing but was still just a second string talent, Diesel/Kevin Nash was in his infancy, Scott Hall was solid despite another stupid Vince gimmick (as if WCW's Diamond Stud wasn't bad enough, how about we make him MORE Cuban and name him Razor??), the ascension of YokoZuna is the story here in WWE, and he was quite good, but it was mostly a lackluster year. Attempts to make Curt Henning a major face didn't click, at least not after his feud with Flair ended. In WCW this was mostly the year of Vader and Steve Austin, both did some of their best work in the ring and on the mic. Brian Pillman was elevated to another level as well. Like in WWE the WCW undercard was lackluster but it was better than WWE's although the whole NWA revival storyline was very confusing to fans and thankfully was scrapped in Sept. Starrcade was better than WrestleMania for the first time in many years, probably since the Jim Crockett days. Id give another down year for the industry over all to WCW, even though Id give Wrestler Of The Year to Brett Hart.

1994: WWE was still in a rut but Nash and HBK were starting to take off, Owen Hart was gaining steam as valuable commodity and fresh face in the mid card, and Brett Hart was still the hardest working guy in the business at this point. WCW from Jan-June 1994 was pretty good too, Steven Regal continued his push and was gaining steam in his highly skilled cowardly heel persona, Sting as usual was solid although he wasn't as involved in the main events as he had been in recent years, Vader was still a major force and had entertaining runs vs Rick Rude & Flair, who carried the company in highly entertaining matches vs Vader & Ricky Steamboat. After Hogan arrived (with an influx of ex WWE 2nd & 3rd stringers like Earthquake and Brutus Beefcake) it went downhill. Rude was forced to retire due to injury, Austin was lost much of the second half of the year for the same reason, Flair was in storyline dictated exile so as not to overshadow Hogan, and the company became a 1991 WWE re-do, complete with an Ultimate Warrrior clone! For the course of the year Id give this one to WWE but if we just judged Jan-June Id give it by a nose to WCW. Hard to pick a Wrestler Of The Year between the improving HBK and the steady rocks in Hart & Flair....

1995: The arrival of Randy Savage, return of Flair, and the advent of Monday Nitro all helped WCW dominate this year. WWE was still on an un-clear path and lacked the star power WCW had at this point, even if most of that star power was created in the 80s by Vince & Crockett. When you have Mabel main eventing PPVs in World Title Matches that isn't good. WCW was giving some nice screen time to cruiserweights and benefitted from an influx of talent from outside the WCW/WWE universe but the top tier was dominated by Hogan. Luckily, by the end of the year, with the return of Lex Luger and advent of Big Show aka The Giant Hogan was in a more complimentary role and Flair, Savage, Sting were carrying the load. In WWE Nash had a dominant run as champ, HBK was by now a bona fide main event star and maybe the single most entertaining performer in either company, Hart was still solid and UnderTaker was by now an established Top Tier Talent and had far outgrown his ridiculous gimmick to be taken much more seriously, he was not a novelty act. Still, when you have things like Isaac Yankem evil dentist it's hard to have your programming taken seriously. Id give the year to WCW but Wrestler Of The Year comes down to Nash or HBK.

1996: Both companies were on an upswing in terms of interesting booking and more talent, at least initially, was being given good opportunities to rise up the ranks. Guys like Eddie Guerrrero and Chris Benoit, at least early in the year, were given nice pushes alongside the superstars while Austin was making his mark in WWE with greater impact than he was allowed to have in WCW. The NWO Invasion storyline and Hogan Heel Turn are clearly the biggest story of the year and actually bring a lot of old fans back to wrestling, fans who had been lost by both WCW & WWE over the course of the declining decade. There is no way you don't give this year to WCW and I think based on his impact on the company's success and the year's biggest storyline you have to give WOY to Hogan.

1997: WWE was getting insane, pushing any envelope they could to make in roads to WCW's growing popularity but WCW remained dominant. The fact that WCW did as well as it did this year with Hogan essentially a part timer, Flair MIA nearly half the year with shoulder surgery, and Sting in storyline dictated exile was pretty impressive. Lex Luger picked this company on his shoulders and carried them almost all year, he brought in fans, kept the numbers up, and lead the fight all year against the NWO heel group. In WWE this is the beginning of the crash TV aka Attitude Era and we are getting a lot less wrestling and lot more curse word laden promos, much more emphasis on sexual innuendos and scantily clad females, but through all that distracting junk Austin continues to gain steam as a legit force and we see the beginnings of The Rock taking shape. HHH is just starting to hit his stride too at this point. Overall Id give the year to WCW but WWE had some really big things starting to bubble under the surface. Wrestler of The Year is tough, Austin was getting so big even when WWE was getting hammered in the ratings he was getting noticed by the audience at large but I have to go with Luger, he worked his butt off this year.

1998: WWE and it isn't close. The whole NWO storyline went to S#$%....now there were two separate NWO groups, one was heel, one was face, Scott Hall was in & out due to drugs, Curt Henning dropped like a rock down the roster with similar issues, Flair was out in a multi million dollar breach of contract suit that sparked maybe the greatest protests by wrestling fans ever, forcing WCW to bring him back...Brett Hart was in WCW now but he switched between heel & face weekly and had no real character, same with Luger, Goldberg, Nash, and Flair's return were about the only saving graces. Props to DDP too who took full advantage of his push and established himself as major star but most of the non-NWO affiliated roster was de-pushed and did little except put over the NWO guys, a complete waste of talent. WWE may not have had the most coherent storytelling either but in comparison to WCW they were as easy to follow as a straight line. Rock & HHH were terrific, Mick Foley was rising, Austin finally getting the title with a great set up courtesy of an exiting HBK was superb, there is a lot about WWE I didn't like this year but there was more here I liked than what was in WCW....Austin is clearly the Wrestler Of The Year (WCW so thoroughly destroyed Goldberg by constantly booking him in the mid card AS WORLD CHAMP while Hogan continued to get all the Main Events) and the year goes to WWE.

1999: Too much instability in WCW....three different leadership regimes in about a four month span, each one doing things completely different. The return of the real NWO was terrific, immediately disbanding them in non sensical fashion was utterly stupid. Making your most hated heel a face (Hogan) was only slightly worse than taking your 2nd most popular fan fave and inexplicably turning him heel (Flair) and can anyone find Goldberg because he disappeared from the Main Event scene almost all year. DDP was good, Nash was good, some guys did well with the crap they were given (Sting, Flair, Hart) but over all the nonsensical booking, constant leadership changes, it was a bad year, it was watchable till about late spring....by the time they had DDP losing the Wordl Title to Nash and Flair & Scott Hall in the insane asylum it was really bad. WWE somehow managed to thrive despite losing Austin almost year to injury....normally a set back like that would cripple a company but The Rock really stepped into his own, as did HHH, Foley continued to grow, and as always, even when given utter nonsense, Taker managed the polish any turd he was handed. Wrestler Of The Year goes The Rock and the year goes to WWE.

 

[relentless1]

1991: WWF

1992: WWF

1993: WCW

1994: WCW

1995: WCW; neck and neck, close competition here

1996: WCW

1997: WCW

1998: WWF; neck and neck, the best year of competition ever for the fans and the closest between the two since 95

1999: WWF; by a landslide. WCW could have been competitive with their early year stories but they failed to capitalize

2000: WWF; by a landslide

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

1991: WWF because of Flair leaving WCW for WWF and the emergence of The Undertaker
1992: WWF had Flair, Savage and Warrior plus the emergence of Bret Hart
1993: WCW because Vader was better than Yoko / Luger at the top
1994: WWF Bret, Undertaker, Shawn, Owen, Diesel and Razer were at their best this year
1995: WCW for name value only and because WWF was a mess
1996: WCW only because of the nWo and WWF was so weak during this time
1997: WCW but it's close, the WWF product was fantastic this year
1998: WWF finally pulls ahead, product is much better, WCW getting stale
1999: WWF has completely pulled away, WCW is a mess
2000: WWF is untouchable

 

[Goldie]

In terms of winning the rivalry revenue wise it would be WWE every year apart from that 18 month period where WCW were on top.
If we are talking product wise, there can be a case for WCW in 1993-95 as many posters have selected.

Though in 1993-94, even though the WWE product was weak in this period.... they were brining in more revenue and had a bigger fanbase.
ie When Hogan was brought into WCW in 1994, Bash at the Beach was their biggest PPV ever (at that point in time). Yet the buy rates for Wrestlemania 10 and the Rumble were much higher.

So for me:
1991-95 WWE
1996-97 WCW
1998 Tie (Both companies were neck and neck and each made over $50 million profit)
1999-2000 WWE by a landslide

 

[HBKperfect23]

I started watching in late 91 so I'll start with 92.

1992- WWF my favorite roster in history. They wcws center piece in ric flair and basically every top wrestler of the late 80s/early 90s with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels starting their pushes to the top.

1993- WCW. Flair was back. Vader/Sting was good. I was a big fan of the tag division, especially the Hollywood blondes.

1994- it's close but I going to go WWF. Admittedly I have always been a casual WCW fan and die hard WWF fan so I just saw more WWF from this time period.

1995- WCW. I think WWF deserves more credit in 95 then they generally get, WCW was acquiring WWFs Stars and had the better product.

1996- WCW. Once the NWO hit WCW it wasn't even close. Shawn Michaels was going strong in WWF but that's about all they had.

1997- again this is going to be biast. I just didn't watch much WCW in 1997. WWF had its strongest product ever in my opinion. I loved the summer of Austin, the main event scene in early 97, and the USA/Can stuff. I'm looking forward to the network getting some 97 Nitro on there because I have heard they had a lot of good stuff too.

1998- very close but I'm going WWF. Austin/Rock/DX were in full swing. WCW did put out a great product but I have to go WWF.

1999- I was pretty much done with WCW at this point. I think WWF was a bit overrated during periods on 99 but WCW was getting unwatchable.

2000- the WCW ship has sank. It was getting unwatchable in 99, it was beyond unwatchable in2000. WWF also stepped up there game with Jericho Benoit and Angle entering the main event scene.

2001- loved 2001. WWF had one of its best years ever in my opinion. I Know I'm in the minority but I enjoyed the invasion angle and think they did pretty well with what they had. TW Contracts made it impossible to have the Nwo, flair,Goldberg,etc. I included this year because McMahon buying WCW, even tho I loved it at the time, was the worst thing for us the fans. It ended the most fun time in history to be a fan. I really think bischoff buying WCW could have at least prolonged the war and at the very least kept McMahon on his toes with competition. We will never know what McMahon vs Bischoff(without turner) could have been. I still think McMahon wins but we get more years of competition

 

[MMK]

1990: WWF by a longshot. Epic Wrestlemania main event that year, the debut of the Undertaker, arrival of LOD. Great year to be a kid and a fan of WWF. Meanwhile in WCW, Sting teamed up with Robocop. Oh dear lord.

1991: WWF again. Still in firm control

1992: WWF. Greatest Royal RUmble to date with Flair winning.

1993: WWF: Yeah the Lex Express was hokey and that finish to Mania 9 was dreadful, but on the flip side WCW debuted The Shockmaster. Nuff said.

1994: WWF by a hair. Hogans arrival in WCW and his match with Flair certainly helped give WCW a much needed boost, but WWF was countering with young fresh talent putting on 5 star matches like Bret vs Owen and Shawn vs Razor.

1995: WWF. WWF was slipping big time at this point but they were still on top. Albeit by a hair. Nitro debuted with strong numbers and they were now officially really competition for WWF but they were still losing the competition on most nights. Not to mention this was the year of THE YETI! There were a lot of bad gimmicks in both companies in 95, which was arguably the worst year for wrestling in the 90's, but no gimmick was as stupid as THE YETI! Or I should say THE YET-AH! Diesel and company weren't that great in WWF, but the dungeon of doom stable were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

1996: WCW. FINALLY. The arrival of the nWo to WCW spells the end of WWF's dominance. Vince and company had nothing to counter with other than lame skits poking fun at WCW wrestlers' ages. Oh what a difference a year makes. Time to turn the channel folks.

1997: WCW: Nitro was white hot. The nWo was still the best thing going. Nitro was must see tv. Maybe the best pure wrestling show ever produced on a weekly basis. Better than anything Raw had ever done. It had style in the nwo vs wcw storyline, it had substantive wrestling with the cruiserweights, and it had the deepest roster since the WWF in the late 80's. But WWF was getting better with the addition of stables like The Hart Foundation, D-X, the rise of Austin, and the transformation from Monday Night Raw to RAW IS WAR. But even with all that going for them WWF was still getting trounced and rightfully so.

1998: WWF. Another amazing year for wrestling. This is the year the WWF regained control and never really looked back. Still a good year for WCW though. But cracks in their armor were starting to show.

1999: WWF. Not even close. Wow how the mighty have fallen. WCW barely even registering anymore. Top WCW talent were flocking to WWF's shores at an alarming rate. Titanic going down.

2000: WWF. Game over.

FINAL SCORE: 9-2 for WWF