1998: WWF vs WCW

[relentless1]

1998 was the best year for Wrestling that theres ever been past or present and thats largely due to the fact that both companies; WWF and WCW were highly competitive, both were putting out their best content in order to one up the other and the fans were the ones who benefitted form this. We all know WWF came out on top in the ratings that year but WCW was never far off and opened a good chunk of the year dominating the WWF in this regard. Both roster were incredibly stacked with talent but who had the better roster that year? who utilized that roster in the best way? which company had the better matches in 1998? was there any chance for WCW to make a comeback ratings wise during this year??

 

[Mr.Maikeru_Sawyer]

1998 was the best year for Wrestling that theres ever been past or present and thats largely due to the fact that both companies; WWF and WCW were highly competitive, both were putting out their best content in order to one up the other and the fans were the ones who benefitted form this. We all know WWF came out on top in the ratings that year but WCW was never far off and opened a good chunk of the year dominating the WWF in this regard. Both roster were incredibly stacked with talent but who had the better roster that year? who utilized that roster in the best way? which company had the better matches in 1998? was there any chance for WCW to make a comeback ratings wise during this year??

Better Roster...personally I think that both were about equal at the time.
98 i think WWE had a slight lead on who used their roster better but it was close in early-mid 98 then went to WWE only as the year progressed.
can't remember to many matches directly I mean it was 20 years ago.
could WCW have come back from their problems...yes they could have but Management was to worried about the NwO/Hogan and the Corporate side lost complete faith in WCW. then there was the AOL buyout that killed any chance WCW had to continue.

 

[TellMeWhy]

This is a no brainer. WCW had a better roster. WCW's roster back then is equivalent to WWE's roster today and WWE's roster was equivalent to TNA's roster today. WWE's roster was younger and had less depth similar to Impact's roster today. WCW's roster was like WWE's roster today, where the talent pool was deeper with international stars, established stars, legends, and had some of the best young and upcoming talent in the world all on one roster. If WCW wanted, they could've had a brand split, that's how deep their roster was. WCW was the more wrestling driven show, while WWE was more focused on building characters and storylines, so I give WCW the edge as far as the better wrestling show. WWE back in 1998 had a lot of run-ins, short matches, ref bumps, and russo-riffic booking with most of their matches and imo, it was annoying. However, WWE on the other hand had little to work with and were able to focus on a core group of guys to build the company around, so you can say they utilized their pieces more than WCW. WCW was bloated and not able to run while WWE was slim and able to jog places.

 

[WWEWrestleFest]

In 1997, I was watching more WCW. And by 1999, I was watching more WWF. 1998 was the sweet spot where I would watch both shows every week. I agree, it probably was the best year for wrestling overall.

 

[ComeOnVince]

I think WCW had the better roster OVERALL still, but it was becoming more and more obvious by the hour that they had no idea what to do with it. WWF on the other hand was making the most out of damn near everyone they had (desperation will do that).

And when I say WCW had the better roster, I really mean that they should have had the better roster. More marquee names, drenched in history and accolade, making waves in pro wrestling. But after they blew their whole wad on the nWo and screwed up the Sting payoff, it was steadily downhill - slowly at first, then racing at breakneck pace.

But the ROSTER itself, AT THE TIME, favored WCW. But on paper only, which I guess is what a roster is.

But holy crap 1998. What a year for wrestling.

 

[Wolf Pac]

The WWF had the better roster, main event and midcard, and they utilized their talents better.

Easy to look at the names on the WCW side but it's incredibly misleading as they were filled with washed up legends out of their prime & that weren't in the best health and a lot of uncharismatic vanilla midget hacks not named Chris Jericho in the mid-card. There's a reason why Chris Jericho is the only one from the WCW mid-card that managed to stand out and steal the show sometimes. "But oh they could wrestle!" Please spare me that. So could a lot of the guys on the WWF side like Owen, X-Pac, D-Lo, HHH, Jarrett, Shamrock, Venis, Goldust, Snow, Savio, Taka, Kaientai, Mero, Scorpio, Gangrel, Too Much etc.

It would be like me saying the WWF had a better roster because they had Vader, LOD, Terry Funk (arguably bigger and more established names than some of the top WCW names) but it doesn't work like that. The people picking WCW's roster, that's how their mindset is working. They're picking based off names like Savage, Hennig, Hall etc. but look at their conditions in 98.

I agree though that 1998 was the best year ever for wrestling. All 3 companies, WWF, WCW and ECW were on fire and running wild. You had badasses on top in Austin, Goldberg and Taz. People's Champs in Rock, DDP and RVD at the top of the mid-card. Great factions like The Corporation, DX, Nation, NWO Wolfpac & Hollywood and The Triple Threat. Great feuds, matches, storylines, angles, babyfaces, heels and variety of compelling characters everywhere. Most magical time ever.

 

[LibSuperstar]

'98 was indeed a great year. I was getting my fill w/ any programming from WWF and WCW. Didn't watch many PPVs tho so I gotta go back and watch.

 

[FlashMarston]

I've been watching old Raws and Nitro's on the network and the product was so different back then. It was way more engaging. It keeps me on my toes, wondering what's going to happen next.

It's gotta be hard for the writers today... They have like 10 hours of TV to write each week with Raw, SD, 205, PPV, NXT etc.

 

[therockiswwf]

'98 was indeed a great year. I was getting my fill w/ any programming from WWF and WCW. Didn't watch many PPVs tho so I gotta go back and watch.

Don't. Russo was horrible at booking PPVs. The guy had no idea what to do with the undercard portion of PPVs usually.

WCW was awful in 1998. Three hour Nitros were death for them. Nitro loved doing random matches with no meaning and having them go for 10 plus minutes. They did this week after week after week after week. NWO splitting into 50 different NWOs. No advancement really for anyone except a few guys. The older guys only getting older. Nitro was boring.

The Undertaker/Kane cahoot storyline was trash. Undertaker tried to EMBALM Austin. Russo isn't a genius. Brawl for All. Goldust had an awful year. Push Funk/Foley off the stage in a dumpster. Great injury angle right? Wrong. They spent 30 minutes on it, killed the crowd and had the announcers use insider terms to sell it. The Outlaws were just trying to get over! 98 WWE had great "moments" and not much else. People overlook just how top heavy WWE was that year. It is very wrong to say the undercard had a ton of over people. They didn't. Austin, HHH, Rock, Mankind were all interesting. Kane and Taker were a notch below them. After that, just a whole bunch of shit.

WWE used their top guys way better. Austin was awesome. WCW still had a chance had they shifted their focus to young guys. WCW had better names but due to a lot of them being old, WWE had a better roster for the future. WCW had better matches due to the cruiserweights. Though today, those matches aren't as impressive. WWE had a huge amount of 5 minute matches.

People seem to forget that the AE mostly sucked. 2000 was great. 2001 was a mixed bag. 98 sucked. 99 might have been one of the worst years WWE ever had. WCW generally sucked as well. In fact, Nitro overwhelmingly sucked after 96. Even 96 was iffy. If you actually go back and watch 98-99 for both companies, it is baffling how popular it was.