Today, April 19th, is the official 20th anniversary of me checking for spoilers and using this site wrestlezone. I remember this because I remember for the first time ever that evening checking the WCW Spring Stampede results. Before April 19th, 1998, I would just wait for the next RAW or Nitro after a PPV to read about the results. Before then I watched every Nitro. After the popularization of 'spoilers', I didn't have to watch the full shows anymore. And with 'spoilers' also came wrestling 'news' which confirmed to fans that, yes, there was an indeed a war between promotions behind the scenes. Many of us in 1998 did not even know what we know today about a ratings war. We just suspected it. With 'spoilers' and 'behind the scenes' stuff and this new concept called 'television ratings', wrestling fans took their obsession with the company of their choice to a whole new level. I had become a massive WCW fan. So I became obsessed with its product. I just couldn't for the life of me get back into WWE after it had pushed Jeff Jarrett, Triple H and the Godwins. When I look back now and try to see what I missed in WWF from 1995-2001, I just see a lot of horrible wrestling matches and cheap publicity stunts. However, when I go back and watch WCW, there's all this anticipation and then the big let down DQ at the end of the show. It's clear looking back that you had to be living in the present back in the 90s to fully love and appreciate the Attitude Era whether it be WCW or WWF. Those of us who missed the live atmosphere of the time definitely missed out.
With that said, I'm going to offer up an alternative opinion. I believe that if Turner's new decision makers hadn't purposely sabotaged the product, WCW could have survived and possibly even outlived WWE. The Time-Warner merger took power out of Turner's hands and consequently out of Bischoff's. Eric could now no longer push the envelope and had to follow standards and practices while Vince gave WWE performers the freedom to do or say whatever it took to beat the now watered-down competition. The dual citizens who took over Turner had now bought up the television competition in the US. They and their tribe had now gained full control of American television. They were NOT in a position to compete as they now had a monopoly. Therefore, the powers that be forced Bischoff to soften the product and cool down the NWO angle.
I believe Bischoff was intelligent enough and his roster was deep enough that WCW could have survived and prospered if left alone from mid 1998 to 2001. I even believe WCW would have survived just fine without Jericho, Benoit, Eddie and Show jumping ship. Given a little more time, these guys would actually water down WWE. WWE actually begin to crumble the moment it started calling itself WWE, as evidenced by the ratings collapse during the second half of 2002. Here's the thing: Stone Cold only had another year or two left in him. Rock was ready to move on to Hollywood. Foley was finished. Triple H began his reign of terror aka the neverending push from hell. Guys with mediocre ability/mic skill like Cena, Lesnar, Orton and Batista were being pushed to the moon. Old WCW guys like Benoit Jericho Show Eddie were decent mid carders. Jericho even made a good heel main eventer. But WWE put these guys in positions to draw which, in hindsight, really is laughable. WWE could have bought over all the big names and old guys from WCW and screwed up their own business all on their own pushing vanilla midgets and fumbling hugely anticpated returns (like Goldbergs and the NWO). The problem with WCW is that some Time Warner idiot lured Vince Russo away from WWE to take over for Eric Bischoff. When the problem wasn't Bischoff at all, it was the dual citizen idiots at Time Warner. Russo did horrific damage to the WCW product and pushed wrestlers who had no business being pushed. He also killed the NWO by throwing Bret, Jarrett and the Harris Brothers together. The secret to killing WCW was to kill the NWO and McMahon's buddies at Time Warner and Russo did a fantastic job doing just that.
And for those of you who parrot the same old crap about the NWO becoming stale, that is just a personal opinion - it is not factual. Because WCW had its highest ratings EVER toward the end of the NWO angle in late 1998-early 1999. It didn't matter if there were too many guys in the group. Mainstream fans were tuning in by the millions by 1998 and 1999 to see the revolution and it really was quite something to see week in and week out. The NWO was a cash cow! It was 3 times as over as Daniel Bryan at his height.
Anyway, that's my argument. If there's no merger in August 98 and Bischoff is allowed free reign over the company/Turner's money then, given time, WCW could have survived and maybe even possibly put WWE out of business. With Bischoff entrenched at WCW, McMahon is stuck with with Russo. So here are a few questions to ask oneself. Where does WWE end up if McMahon doesn't fire Russo? What happens if Bischoff uses Turner's money to steal dissatisfied big name talent? What happens when the disillusioned guys waiting for a push behind Paul Levesque decide they want to jump ship? If WCW had of remained strong, could Bischoff not afforded to buy the headliners like Rock or Austin who were sick of Triple H and the McMahons? Wouldn't guys like Rock or Austin want to matchup with wrestling's greatest in WCW like Hogan, Savage, Flair etc? And if these guys were bought with Turners' money, would that not sway the majority of the mainstream audience away from WWE Raw and back into watching WCW Nitro? Just look at the drop in WWE's ratings when Triple H became Hogan 2.0 and Rock and Austin ditched WWE for good in 2003. Simply put, WCW EASILY could have survived.
