KB Busts Up Another Myth: What Killed WCW

[lowandmighty]

The Fingerpoke happened over ten months before Russo arrived.

Also, Hogan was not fine with jobbing. He has always stated he played the game the best (politically) and that if they wanted his spot then they'd have to come take it.

whatever, all I was doing was pretty much writing things that I heard straight out of the Hulkster's mouth in and interview he did called "the voice vs Hulk Hogan" youtube it.

I've never heard him specifically refer to politics so your opinion (which is all it is) on his views on jobbing is purely speculation and assumption. He's fine with jobbing to those who deserve to go over in his opinion thats all I was suggesting. He does have biased views on whats good for the business, I'll give you that even though its probably not even what you meant.

 

[dukes07]

whatever, all I was doing was pretty much writing things that I heard straight out of the Hulkster's mouth in and interview he did called "the voice vs Hulk Hogan" youtube it.

I've never heard him specifically refer to politics so your opinion (which is all it is) on his views on jobbing is purely speculation and assumption. He's fine with jobbing to those who deserve to go over in his opinion thats all I was suggesting. He does have biased views on whats good for the business, I'll give you that even though its probably not even what you meant.

I am not criticizing you. I was informing you of the Fingerpoke. Most say that Hogan would not really put people over. Not saying if it is true or not. He did put over Goldberg. He is blamed for Starrcade 97 rightly or wrongly. Also, his 02 WWE run he seemed to be more of a team player.

 

[newwaveknight]

We also need to look at what happened when WCW was trying too hard to copy the Attitude era. Let's be real, WCW was pretty much dumping all over the Attitude era WWF up until about '99.

 

[InsomniaMusic]

Hogan has never shown that he's reall ok with jobbing to new guys too much

 

[AttitudeAJM]

The thing about jobbing is that the more you do it, the less impact the act becomes. Hogan was brought up in the old school mindset of the top guy only loses when it is absolutely necessary. Austin had the same mindset and refused to job when he felt it wasn't right for business, that includes personal finances.

Hogan lost when he needed to. He lost to Luger and Goldberg on free TV during the NWO era. Refusing to job is never a problem, bad booking and no leadership is what WCW had to overcome.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

For whatever reason this topics on my mind today so I'm gonna chime in.

I agree that WCW was done anyways, I don't care home much executives hate wrestling if it was a viable business they would keep it around. If you merge a company, you are looking at all divisions of a company and you realize WCW had 2 profitable years out of 13 I believe then why would you keep it? Especially if it lost $60 million the year before? You wouldn't, that would be stupid from a business point of view and no one with any business knowledge would keep it around unless they already had an idea how to turn it majorly around. Since most of them weren't wrestling people I can certainly see why they decided to sell WCW, hell even as a fan of wrestling I would have done that.

I always felt the core of WCW's problems came down to 1 thing:

1) Bad business decisions

Getting big name guys like Hogan is a good idea, signing them to contracts where they basically get carte blanche over their characters and final say in what happens in a match is a bad idea. I've heard so many times that Hall, Nash and Hogan constantly went into business for themselves. Although that's probably accurate why were they on those contracts in the first place? Why would you make Nash head booker when he has little to no experience booking and already has a reputation of going into business for himself? Why wouldn't they go into business for themselves if they can? I don't blame those guys for taking care of themselves first, believe it or not most people would in that same situation.

Bischoff was smart in getting all these big name guys to help build his brand but he let them basically do whatever they wanted with little to no consequences for doing so. If it was me, I was ready to sign Hogan but he demanded that he got creative control over his character in every way, shape and form I wouldn't sign him, even though he's Hogan. Why? Because if he wants that clause there's obviously a reason for it, he wouldn't ask for it if he wasn't planning on using it. Of course I would get his input on certain things but I wouldn't let him have final say, that's the bosses job not the talents.

Basically what WCW had was a bunch of big name stars with huge ego's who all had final say in their characters and their matches, gee, I wonder what the problem is?

I can also mention them giving away money matches for free like Goldberg vs. Hogan. Instead of trying to be the only company why not try and be #1 and worry about yourselves.

There were other problems of course in WCW, I'm not disputing that but without a strong business idea and management that can control what's going on those other problems have no chance of being fixed, it's just gonna get worse and worse until they are in the grave, and that's what happened.

 

[jlawls91]

Ted Turner not having a major say in his company ultimately led to a series of decisions that cost the company in the long run.

- Wrestlers got paid too much by Bischoff, who paid wrestlers with figures off the top of his head at times according to DDP, Nash and Kanyon on their Youshoots. It made Nash and Hall not give a fuck, since they didn't have to turn up to many house shows and their money was a given.

-Steiner was back a week after he went crazy on Flair and admitted people turned over to see Austin. Add as well Hall and Nash matching the highest paid wrestler which meant their pay often rose, again chucking money at the wall.

- Bischoff was more obsessed with beating Vince than making WCW a great company. Everything WWE did, he did the opposite. He could have used similar methods and try replicate them better but he was too obsessed with being better and getting Vince's stars.

- Hogan and Warrior's creative control made some horrific storylines. Obviously Warrior wasn't back for long but Hogan did whatever he wanted and it made shit decisions like the Fingerpoke and Starrcade 97's finish.

- Bringing Russo in when it was too late was the worst thing to do. He created an unbearable to watch knock off of the Attitude Era with ridiculous gimmicks, David Arquette and him as Champions, pushing Jeff Jarrett and Sid and those stupid worked shoots. WCW needed to get the basics right post 99 and it needed a miracle to save but Russo didn't help in the slightest.

- Giving Nash power and not utilising talent properly made the wrestlers and the fans fed up. Big Show, Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn, Malenko all rightfully jumped ship and it showed where the direction of each company was.

 

[shalliin]

I think you are missing the point. AOL/TW was selling WCW to Fuscient Media ventures. Whether the company made money was no longer a problem. Under the deal they were finalizing, AOL/TW would no longer being paying for WCW. Thus, they would get the programming of Nitro/Thunder, but they would no longer have to pay for it. WCW losing money is why they were selling it, not why it was cancelled. Two different things.



It's possible but unlikely. Fuscient's deal was in-place and the time slots were part of the deal. It screwed up the deal so much, the buyers threw up their hands because the 6 months of work was now useless. WWE had first rights to buy the company, so they did. End of story. It would have taken MONTHS for WCW to find a new home and for AOL/TW to alter the deal with Fuscient to purchase the company. It had nothing to do with the fact FX, USA or another major cable network did or didn't want them. Nitro was cancelled and Vince bought it within a 2-week period. There wasn't enough time for a network to properly evaluate the show's potential.

The fact that WWE hasn't found a home for NXT or Superstars (in the US) should tell you its not as simple as "You got high ratings, here's a network!" This stuff takes time to negotiate and evaluate potential programming options.

you're forgetting that they would have had months if not years to review ratings figures from WCW programming to decide whether it was worth going after their programming. Just because the final end was short and swift, doens't mean other stations and companies weren't tracking possible purchase of wcw or at least getting tv rights to it.

Other statiosn were absolutely paying attention when WWE and WCW started hauling in the top ratings and they kept paying attention when wcw ratings plummeted. At the rate they dropped, it would be insane for a new station to take a chance on them without some really big guarantees from the ownership. Many other shows have been canceled with higher ratings then what WCW was pulling at the end.

 

[shalliin]

Actually ratings were pretty good for a few months AFTER the finger Poker of Dome, in fact WCW Nitro twice topped a 5.0 rating after that despite going directly against RAW in 1999.

Except that having 2 ratings over 5.0 in a several month period and considering that good is like having a QB who throws 2 TD's in a season and thinking he's as good as Brady, Namath, or Marino.

The Finger Poke itself re-established the original NWO as a lean, killer heel faction, reuniting Hogan, Nash, Hall, along with Steiner and purging under used or mid card talents like Horace Hogan, Curt Henning, Virgil, etc (pretty much the entire joke NWO jobber roster that comprised the Black & White faction of 98). It also clearly drew the battle lines story wise with the new, lean, mean fighting machine NWO trying to get control of the company from WCW's top anti NWO star, Ric Flair, and clearly established a hatred with Goldberg, the company's most popular wrestler, who was robbed of the World Title by NWO shennanigans.

Except it was too little too late and trying to recapture the impact of the original NWO was impossible as the group had jumped the shark by this point.

Really the death started after SuperBrawl when it was clear they were jobbing out Flair (again) to Hogan depsite massive audience distaste. If this would have been followed by Goldberg vs Hogan II then it might not have been so bad, but they quickly began pushing Goldberg into the mid card, never capitolizing on the draw of GB vs Hogan II and really downplaying the idea of a re match with Nash, the man who ended the streak, orchestrated the NWO revival, and handed the title to Hogan in the first place. In Jan and Feb of 99 the numbers were still huge and interest (largely due to the potential fall out of the FingerPoke Of Doom) was high. The non sensical way they buried Flair & Goldberg killed much of the momentum. Switching gears completely out of nowhere having Flair turn heel, Hogan turn face, the NWO breaks up, and DDP (where did he come from) emerges as World Champ while Goldberg is MIA completley turned off the audience. Those high ratings that ran into March were significantly less after Flair's title reign ended. Even Sting's return from injury couldnt save them.

nothing much to say about this as it is fairly stated.

From that point the company never knew where it wanted to go. They bounced between bookers and booking styles so fast between Sept 99 when Bischoff was fired and April 200 when he returned alongside Vince Russo (in his 2nd tour of duty in less than 6 mths at this point) you couldnt keep track of who was coming and what was going on.

Its amazing when you think of the business this company was doing even in 99, drawing over $900,000 for a non televised house show in DC main evented by Flair vs Hogan in March to being on life support 12 months later. SuperBrawl 99 did a PPV rating over 1.0, this past WrestleMania did a 1.3, think about how big that was and in a year's time it was almost dead.

Except it likely cost then at least 1.5 to 2mill to produce and market that show, so the end result was still loss.
As for the PPV ratings, unlike TV ratings, this actually has changed in significance in a reverse fashion.
A PPV rating of 1.0 back in 99 is less significant and likely involved less
actual buys and less money. The prices have gone up since then. And there was a lot less competition in the PPV market in 99 then there is now days. So a 1.3 rating now is more comparable to a 2.0-2.5 rating then.

David Arquette's title reign helped bring mainstream media attention to the company and did a lot to publicize their upcoming PPV and weekly TV, much like Mike Tyson's ridiculous turn as "Enforcer Ref" at WrestleMania did in 98 for WWE. If anything it was probably beneficial to the company from a free advertising aspect. The problem was the product they were pushing at that point wasnt very good so all that extra publicity didnt matter in the end.

except they had tried this already bringing in Jay Leno(far bigger star than Arquette), Karl Malone, and even Dennis Rodman. If they couldn't draw outside attention back to wcw, then arquette was even more pointless. Although I rather enjoy Ready to Rumble, since I didn't and still don't take it too seriously. And they were still having some good matches, between all the politic backstage crap being forced down our throats.

The death may have started in the Spring of 99 but it really kick started after the whole Arquette thing resolved itself. Suddenly WCW programming was devoid of anyone you wanted to see. By June of 2000 Russo had de emphasized or forced out virtually all of WCW's most popular stars, Hogan, Flair, Sting, Savage, Luger, all gone...Goldberg wasnt around much longer, Nash hardly wrestled, doing backstage vignettes when he was around, you had a large collection of unknowns, WWE & ECW midcarders, jobbers, with Booker T & Steiner in the middle. It was painful to watch just because I DIDNT KNOW WHO ANYONE WAS!!! ALL THE PEOPLE WHO COULD DRAW MONEY WERE GONE!

actually this is the period I became more interested since it was dropping the has beens and trying to make and showcase some new stars and a fresher in ring product.

If Russo had been smart he would have extended his WCW vs New Blood Revolution feud, ultimately with WCW stars winning, it would have given a big rub to some of the unknowns and mid carders and maybe some of them would have become popular with the audience. Instead he wanted to ram the New Blood guys down our throats and in the process killed off everyone fans actually tuned in each week to see. That's the true DEATH NOTICE right there, June 2000, The New Blood kills WCW wrestling forever.

As far as Jarrett as champ goes, he was/is a very good in ring performer although Ive never been crazy about him. He had some very good matches with Flair, Booker T, Nash, etc during this time and fact is he's always been a hard worker. He was also well known as a "WWE" guy, he wasnt the worst choice to main event Russo's NB Revolution.

They did screw up a few things with the new blood, but there was still a lot of decent content being created. But by the time this came around it was too late as the socalled draws you claim people wanted to see had drained everything dry and then went home to sit on their asses and continue to collect their paychecks. I hate bischoff, but even i have to admit that at the end he was doing a decent job with a very limited resource that by then was not completely his fault.

 

[The Boss]

Here it is all you HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN haters and WWE marks. WWE.com has issued a statement confirming what those of us in the know have said all along. The demise of WCW had nothing to do with HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN, Eric Bischoff or even big contracts but rather the AOL/Time-Warner merger and the resulting corporations disinterest in professional wrestling.

So the next time you say "HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN and Eric Bischoff killed WCW and they are doing it to TNA" just remember, Vince says you are full of

http://www.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/8-wwe-urban-legends/page-3

 

[shalliin]

That was just the final blow. What is known as the coup de grace or mercy end. It was what lead up to that thatsaw the company loose interest in wrestling in the first place that killed it. Of course WWE and Vince won't give the full story, they might want to work with those idiots some time in the future (possibly soon if rumors of TNA and Hogan are true). I don't dsee why as neither has anything to offer any more, but wwe rightly or wrongly feel that there's a nostalgic interest in bringing those guys back every now and then.
In 2013, Hogan and Bischoff have nothing to offer. Their best years were over with 15 years ago. They should no longer be featured in anything but the type of legends deals guys like Hacksaw and the rest of the 80's stars have now. A few public appearances to promote the brand, a 2-3 minute match once a year on a throwaway raw or smackdown but never on a ppv or involved in even a minor storyline.

 

[RicSpade]

I think we miss the big picture here, there were several factors that led to the demise of WCW, Time Warner was the biggest factor. But there is a lot more too it than that. I think when haters say Hogan led to the demise of WCW its partially true. So was Kevin Nash, So was Vince Russo, so was WCW creatives direction after the demise of the NWO and I will elaborate all of this.

When I say Hulk Hogan I am referring to the supposided "shoot finish" where Jarrett laid down for Hogan and than Russo said he doesn't recognize the Hogan for his bullshit, and Hogan saying Vince has caused WCW to go down the toilet. Hogan not willing to lay down for Jarrett supposidely due to his creative control is a big factor to WCW being killed. WCW couldn't grow because they waited until the death of WCW to try and build new stars as champions. If guys like Booker T., DDP, Jarrett, had received chances to be champion sooner to help keep things fresh I think WCW could've been around longer. I mean think about it the world title picture from 95-1998 were basically surrounded by the same 5-7 guys in some form or fashion: Flair, Savage, Luger, Giant, Hogan, Sting, Piper. The first real fresh change we had was Goldberg.

Nash was a factor because he was a booker near the death of WCW, and his contract had the garuntee that no one coming in would make more money than him so anytime this guy came in for more than he was making, he got paid more than that guy coming in right off the bat no negotiation. Talking about bleeding the pig dry.

WCW bringing in Russo was the nail in the coffin because he came up with the stupidest things in WCW, putting the triple cage in with him in it was horrible. The storylines he set up and the remake of characters was lousy. Than on top of that you factor in the idea he had of the millionaires club vs. New bloods. Pathetic. Do you remember when the wrestlers were refereeing their own matches during this period? Yup thats a Russo idea.

Needless to say there were alot of factors that lead to the death of WCW, WWE may not point the finger directly at Hogan, but Hogan was just as much a bee that stung WCW to death as anything else that happened, just his wasn't the sting that killed the beast.

 

[GameOver]

AOL and Time warner walked out after 4 straight years of WCW losing money big time.
now how that came about is little to do with AOL and Time Warner, if they were making bucket loads of cash they would have kept the show alive.

So don't twist around AOL and TW was the final nail in the coffin same as the final nail in ECW's coffin was the network pulling all air time, but Heyman was the lead instigator in getting it to that point so Heyman Made and KILLED ECW, Bischoff and Hogan and politics Put WCW on top and then killed it off with stupidity and greed.

 

[Ubermensch]

You have to consider the source of most what you here about the WCW these days, which is just conjecture and hate on the WWE's end.

The NWA and WCW, never really had to compete with WWE to remain a viable or profitable company. Keep in mind WWE was Sports Entertainment Wrestling, and WCW was wrasslin' which is a different style. WCW tried to have (slightly) more realistic characters and angles for the time the WCW and WWF were competing but not on Mondays. The matches were also slower paced and featured less promos. Remember Atlanta based WCW appeared to southern fans primarily and only hit more mainstream America once Bischoff took the helm. WCW could have remained profitable to this day focusing on it's niche even though it wasn't truly competing with the WWF.

Yes fat contracts to older established talent at the expense of no development of midcard and younger wrestlers played a part in the WCW's demise. Finger Poke of Doom, Goldberg v. Hogan not being on PPV, Jarrett laying down for Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, KISS, No Limit Soldiers, revamping the NWO constantly, David Arquette, and others were pivotal moments that led to the WCWs demise. WCW's strategy was to take the main eventers of the WWF and put them in black.

Both company's borrowed ideas from each other it wasn't just the WCW. The Ministry of Darkness was like the Dungeon of Doom on steroids, and the similarities between DX and the NWO are obvious.

But you also have to look at what the WWE did right. They had edgier TV during the Attitude era, they saw the success of the ECW and created their own Hardcore division which was vastly superior to the WCW who caught up far later, with the older established stars gone the WWE was freed up to develop midcard talent like the Rock, HHH, and Austin.

With all that said, no matter how good of a relationship Hogan and Vince has. Hogan's unwillingness to take a back seat until the last couple of years of the WCW had a large part to do with WCW's demise. I can't think of anyone Hogan put over besides maybe Goldberg who was poised to do that anyway. DDP somewhat rose during Hogan's era but it was because of Savage not Hogan.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

AOL and Time warner walked out after 4 straight years of WCW losing money big time.
now how that came about is little to do with AOL and Time Warner, if they were making bucket loads of cash they would have kept the show alive.

Exactly and even let's say AOL Time Warner did not want Wrestling in their line up, period. If WCW was making a ton of money it would have been very easy to find another interested buyer and find a new Network to have their programming.

Contrary to popular belief I don't think the fingerpoke of doom killed WCW, the same reason the Montreal Screw Job didn't kill the WWF/WWE. Both were terrible decisions made by both companies but the difference was the follow through, WWF/WWE was able to find ways to capitalize from a controversial and unpopular moment while WCW just continued to tumble.

 

[Kool Aid Man]

You can't say Hogan's ego did not have a detrimental effect no matter what Vince says. The Finger Poke of Doom, David Arquette's title reign, and covering Jeff Jarrett in the ring and shooting on Russo all delegitmizes the big gold belt.

What Vince has always been good at it is promoting mid card talented guys up to the main event, that's what makes the promotion more sustainable. WCW started it's run at WWF with their veteran wrestlers. Which was fine at first, but they (guys like Hogan) stayed on top too long and refused to lose and push anyone. So during WCW's reign they had good mid card talent, unfortunately these wrestlers stayed midcard too long (guys like Benoit, Jericho, Eddie) and left for the WWE. WWE basically was able to beat WCW by taking their legs out. By the time WCW was about to fold, they had virtually no established midcard wrestlers, and very old main eventers.

 

[aholeisahole]

Another factor was Goldberg's terrible booking as champion. He wins the title on July 6 Nitro and held it until December 27 -- during that time he only main evented TWO PPVs: Halloween Havoc against DDP and Starrcade against Nash (when he lost the title). He didn't even wrestle on Fall Brawl or World War 3.

This was the hottest angle WCW ever did next to the original NWO, and he was kept off PPV for the most part. Could you imagine Steve Austin at the peak of his fame in 1998 not appearing on two PPVs as champion?

 

[MMK]

You can't say Hogan's ego did not have a detrimental effect no matter what Vince says. So during WCW's reign they had good mid card talent, unfortunately these wrestlers stayed midcard too long (guys like Benoit, Jericho, Eddie) and left for the WWE. WWE basically was able to beat WCW by taking their legs out. By the time WCW was about to fold, they had virtually no established midcard wrestlers, and very old main eventers.

Bingo. Financial problems and bad ratings are all things WWE went through and yet still survived. WCW could have done the same. All they needed was the one thing that all wrestling promotions need to survive the toughest times: talent. The cream always rises to the top.

Think about all the of the early 2000s stars in WWE: Jericho, Eddie, Benoit, Rey, all of them came from WCW. WCW had these guys and they let them go. Well, more accurately those guys left due to not seeing any future for them in WCW's plans.

Instead of hiring that idiot Russo and trying to make WCW as equally raunchy as WWF's product, they should have simply realized that they were never going to be able to do that. Why be second best at one thing when you can be number one at something else? They had the better wrestlers, but they let them all go.

While WWF was pushing nudity, language, blood and violence, WCW could have been the alternate wrestling program promoting a more traditional style. They should have stated flat out, that if you want Jerry Springer TV, go watch WWF, but if you want the best wrestlers stick with us. Fans eventually grew tired of the "Attitude Era" as evidenced by WWE hitting the bottom of the low brow barrel with segments like HLA and Triple H simulating intercourse with a corpse in 2003. If WCW had just hung on a few more years with the likes of Bret, Hennig, Flair, Eddie, Benoit, Jericho and Rey, while making smart free agent signings like Kurt Angle, they could and would have eventually surpassed WWE once again in the ratings. Rock eventually left for Hollywood, Austin became too banged up to work, and the "Attitude" trend came to an end.

Unfortunately WCW tried to be the poor mans WWF in 99-2000, and it led to all their midcard talent jumping ship. People get tired of raunch, but wrestling fans never grow tired of quality wrestling. As long as you have that, you've got a chance. That's why WWF, with the likes of Bret, Shawn and Austin, were able to survive the turbulent mid 90's. WCW was unable to do the same because they let all their Bret's and Shawn's walk.

Also, they should have given the NWO thing a rest after Hogan lost to Goldberg. That should have been the end of it. You can always resurrect it again a few years later when people were hungry to see it once more, as was the case in 2002.

WCW should still be around to this day.

 

[Seosa]

The fact that Vince couldn't find a single network willing to host WCW after he bought the company shows that it was looked upon as a ratings jinx.

In the OP, there's a reference to how WCW botched Sting winning the title in '97 and how before long Hogan had it back, etc. I totally agree, because it was moments like that that typified why WCW went wrong. Everyone knows they didn't plan out storylines long term but you can get around that if you're making the right decisions; WCW weren't making the right decisions. It's stating the obvious I know, but sometimes that's all you need.

 

[Reflection]

I understand that they had lost a lot of money by that point and were not a challenge anymore in any shape or form to the WWF, but I think that taking them off the air wasn't necessary. They could have moved it to another day of the week (losing the Monday night wars, but at least not losing a TV deal) where it wouldn't have to compete with the WWF.
I'm sure there were also people that wanted to watch both, and would watch both if they aired at different times, but chose the better one a.k.a WWF because they had to pick one. So moving it to another day of the week might have helped gain more viewers.
Also suspicious, is the matter that WCW was bringing in more TRP than other shows on the network (as I've read in places), so I don't understand the logic behind killing it just because it lost the war badly. There could have been ways to resurrect it with proper thinking and action.
I think the opening analysis is biased against WCW; the analyst has only included points that are against WCW, and conveniently left out points like the above one, along with some others that people pointed in pages 2,3,4... (one person got called a fool, although the argument provided in that comment was what can be termed foolish)... I don't think its a healthy debate when almost every person that disagrees has to begin with "with all due respect" to avoid getting foulmouthed. Anyway...
1 million dollars per week over one year is an insane amount of money, and the first thought that comes to mind is "in that case, they deserved to be screwed", but the "putting out of misery" remark is applicable on biological beings that are about to die, not companies. In cases of companies, there is always a chance of making a comeback and surviving.
I've read on some places that at one point (before starting to beat WCW), the WWF had suffered many losses and was close to filing for bankruptcy... What if the network that it aired on, had cancelled WWF then? It could also have met with the same fate that WCW eventually did.
So... Yes, WCW is certainly to be blamed for landing themselves in such a miserable position, but they are not the only ones to be blamed for its ultimate fate.

 

[nWoForever1138]

It's quite obvious what killed WCW. AOL/Time Warner just didn't want wrestling on their program. That's it, that's the only reason why. Mark Madden himself even said so, that should be the end of the WCW death fiasco.

 

[Bockwinkel's Class]

It would seem to me that WCW suffered a "death of a thousand knife cuts": No one wound was in an of itself fatal or even threatening, but taken all together the victim bled to death. Very sad.

 

[aholeisahole]

I think it isn't so much what was the "death blow" but what led to the demise. There were a thousand factors. I still believe Goldberg's title reign being mishandled (he was never in many big-name matches and lost the belt and streak way to soon) was one of the major factors. WCW took the company's most popular wrestler and just deflated his popularity.

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

Many factors are to blame for the companies demise however it was the merger that ultimately killed it. Had the higher ups actually given a crap I believe WCW would still be around today. People forget that the WWF was terrible in the mud 90s yet they survived. WCW could have been turned around and become successful again. It's why I wish Buschoff and his backup had bought the company. I'm sure they could have gotten on a network so somewhere but it seemed the risk wasn't gonna be taken without guaranteed TV.

 

[lil steroid meat]

In my opinion it was a combination of things.

Russo coming in and making it basically a cartoon, (blood coming down from the ceiling deciding matches, World Titles changing multiple times a month, angles that just didn't make sense, people doing shoot promos about stuff that nobody knew about).

Then of course, there weren't any new stars being built. Goldberg was an accident. By the time they started giving the reigns to the new guys, it was too late. Guys like Booker, Jericho, Goldberg, Guerrero, Benoit, Malenko, etc. should have been built up alongside Rock, Mankind, Austin, etc.

Then of course they were wasting money. Self-explanatory.

But the thing that made them unable to be saved was the merger that took them off the air (for whatever reason, whether it be because of the new people in charge of Time Warner not wanting wrestling on the channel or because of the poor shape the company was in).

Personally, I think if WCW had a television deal, Bischoff could have bought it and done something good with it. I remember reading he had plans to bring in ECW commentary guys and Rob Van Dam. It would have been interesting to see what he would have done with the brand. Personally, I'll always think that Vince missed out on a potential opportunity to have Bischoff run his own WCW "brand" in the early 2000's when people were still familiar with the WCW name.