The Monday Night War

[Bobbywoodhogan]

Sorry if there's already a thread for this or if this isn't the right area.

I recently watched the Monday Night War DVD for the first time in years but I just have to say watching it again I didn't really like it. It's very one sided towards the WWE (kind of understandable in a way) but for me it's very much WCW was evil for doing this and that. It effected the poor WWE ya da ya da. Vince McMahon and the WWE have to be the biggest hypocrites on the planet, WCW did many things that WWE had already done in the past themselves. Plus were it not for WCW and the nWo they never would have had the Attitude Era etc. Don't even get me started on Gerald Brisco, what an butt kissing prick he is. Anyway rant over just wanted to know other people's opinions on this DVD. I just felt it rewrote a lot of history and was full of hypocrisy.

 

[ABMorales787]

You weren't aware WWE loves to toot it's own horns in these? Yeah, they love reminding us that they and they alone did WCW in and it was never really a threat. They've even gotten the people responsable for WCW's success to slyfully take jabs at it. It's the prize of winning a war after all.

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

You weren't aware WWE loves to toot it's own horns in these? Yeah, they love reminding us that they and they alone did WCW in and it was never really a threat. They've even gotten the people responsable for WCW's success to slyfully take jabs at it. It's the prize of winning a war after all.

Of course I was, it's just frustrating especially when they've done DVDs like the Rise and Fall of WCW that aren't one sided.

 

[Bagpipes]

I really think the nature of the Monday night wars was so hostile that WWE will probably never stop boasting about being the victor, which I can understand. I thought the DVD was somewhat one sided, bit I kind of expected that going into it, so it really didn't surprise me.

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

There is obviously a pro-WWF spin on it but they don't ignore everything that the WWF did wrong and WCW did right.

Anyone who experienced the MNW as a fan, and was following the "real" goings on, can pick holes throughout it this show. But it's par for the course, I try to not get too wrapped up in it.

EXCEPT, when they have 10 different people on there saying that NOBODY knew that Hall and Nash's contracts were up, so EVERYONE thought they were actually "invading" WCW on behalf of WWE.

The revisionist history isn't just on WWE's side. Bischoff's interviews on this series (which were pulled from the original DVD from '04) are filled w/ nonsense also.

In talking about the NWO, he says how he wanted WCW to be the opposite of WWF in terms of doing "Reality-based" angles and characters instead of "Cartoonish" angles and characters. Yet at the same time the NWO was launched, he also had something called "Blood Runs Cold" going on in the mid-card, with Mortal Kombat rip-offs Glacier, Mortis, and Wrath having a "video game coming-to-life" feud. Doesn't get more cartoonish than that.

 

[Wald]

I didn't think they were too bad this time, they at least admitted that their product sucked in 1995/96 and that the WCW deserved to overtake them. The biggest liabilities they take with the truth in this is the usual depicting of WWF as being some sort of Mom n' Pop store going up against the Walmart that was WCW. It builds their narrative of Vince's comeback nicely but is just a complete nonsense.

Oh and Gerald Briscoe is hands down the most annoying guy that pops up on these things. To rip off a X-Pac quote, if he goes any farther up Vince's ass he's going to start tasting Vince's breakfast.

The only thing that comes close to Briscoe is rent-a-mouth Ric Flair, who just says whatever the guy signing his pay cheque wants him to say

 

[Alastor]

It is biased alright, but WCW was simply doing what Vince did to the territories in the 80's. Stuffing out the competition to dominate the industry. However the difference is Vince had a plan once the competition is gone. WCW's only plan seem to be to stuff out WWE to stick it to Vince. Even when WWE was struggling in NA, they were attempting to reach out to the global audience. WCW was content with simply winning over WWE.

They tried to put each other out of business, of course there would be bad blood and painting the losing side as evil.

 

[FlairFan2003]

I didn't think they were too bad this time, they at least admitted that their product sucked in 1995/96 and that the WCW deserved to overtake them. The biggest liabilities they take with the truth in this is the usual depicting of WWF as being some sort of Mom n' Pop store going up against the Walmart that was WCW. It builds their narrative of Vince's comeback nicely but is just a complete nonsense.

Oh and Gerald Briscoe is hands down the most annoying guy that pops up on these things. To rip off a X-Pac quote, if he goes any farther up Vince's ass he's going to start tasting Vince's breakfast.

The only thing that comes close to Briscoe is rent-a-mouth Ric Flair, who just says whatever the guy signing his pay cheque wants him to say

Flair's been pretty consistant in what he's said about WCW, especially in comparison to Jim Crockett, Jr's NWA and his first experience in WWE. Kurt Angle even said in an interview last year that the main reason he went to WWE in the first place was because when he met Flair at a charity event in 1996 in Pittsburgh and asked him about getting into WCW Flair (who was World Champ at the time) told him point blank he would be better off going to WWE and working for McMahon, and that was long before WCW even ended let alone his return to WWE.

 

[FlairFan2003]

As far as any WWE complaints about WCW's tactics, they are hypocritical. In the 1980s when Vince was destroying the territories, he built his success on the backs of top tier talent he signed from other companies. Between 1984-92 Vince made major investments in Paul Orndorff (NWA), Roddy Piper (NWA), Ricky Steamboat (NWA), Hulk Hogan (AWA), Curt Henning (AWA), Scott Hall (AWA & WCW), Ted DiBiase (Mid South), Greg Valentine (NWA), Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, & Road Warriors (NWA), Kerry Von Erich (World Class), Rick Rude (World Class & NWA), Randy Savage (Local territories in Mid South region), Harley Race (NWA), Ric Flair (NWA & WCW), Shawn Michaels (AWA). All of them were established main eventers or near main event status with large audience recognition, having refined their skills, before ever joining WWE. The idea that WCW should be criticized for bringing in Flair & Luger (who were NWA Guys Vince signed away) or Hogan, Savage, & Nash-Hall is outrageous.

Now Vince also made money by taking unknowns who werent stars like Nash & Taker and turned them into stars, which he deserves credit for. Likewise, even during the Mon Nite Wars Vince had no issues signing away Jeff Jarrett or Big Show from WCW.

My personal favorite moments during the Mon Nite Wars was when 'live' Nitro would broadcast match results of 'taped' Raws, that was as ruthless as when Vince paraded the WCW Title Belt all over WWE TV to proclaim the arrival of 'The Real World's Champion' five years earlier. Ruthless but brilliant. Another favorite was when taped Raw was showing DX in a skit with Rick Rude at the exact same time he was appearing on Live Nitro trashing WWE (Making him the first wrestler to appear on both shows at the same time). It was so ruthless it had Vince all over it.

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

As far as any WWE complaints about WCW's tactics, they are hypocritical. In the 1980s when Vince was destroying the territories, he built his success on the backs of top tier talent he signed from other companies. Between 1984-92 Vince made major investments in Paul Orndorff (NWA), Roddy Piper (NWA), Ricky Steamboat (NWA), Hulk Hogan (AWA), Curt Henning (AWA), Scott Hall (AWA & WCW), Ted DiBiase (Mid South), Greg Valentine (NWA), Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, & Road Warriors (NWA), Kerry Von Erich (World Class), Rick Rude (World Class & NWA), Randy Savage (Local territories in Mid South region), Harley Race (NWA), Ric Flair (NWA & WCW), Shawn Michaels (AWA). All of them were established main eventers or near main event status with large audience recognition, having refined their skills, before ever joining WWE. The idea that WCW should be criticized for bringing in Flair & Luger (who were NWA Guys Vince signed away) or Hogan, Savage, & Nash-Hall is outrageous.

Now Vince also made money by taking unknowns who werent stars like Nash & Taker and turned them into stars, which he deserves credit for. Likewise, even during the Mon Nite Wars Vince had no issues signing away Jeff Jarrett or Big Show from WCW.

My personal favorite moments during the Mon Nite Wars was when 'live' Nitro would broadcast match results of 'taped' Raws, that was as ruthless as when Vince paraded the WCW Title Belt all over WWE TV to proclaim the arrival of 'The Real World's Champion' five years earlier. Ruthless but brilliant. Another favorite was when taped Raw was showing DX in a skit with Rick Rude at the exact same time he was appearing on Live Nitro trashing WWE (Making him the first wrestler to appear on both shows at the same time). It was so ruthless it had Vince all over it.

Great post and that was pretty much my point, the hypocrisy and the way the doc portrayed poor little WWE. It's just bulls..t when you get down to it.

 

[laodaron]

When I watched all 3 episodes, I basically saw a pro WCW documentary. It isn't until the end of embracing attitude when WCW had the dumbest hardcore matches, Mike Awesome on a bus, etc. that they really made fun of WCW.

 

[Ol'Canucklehead]

I disagree. I don't recall too much foul play being ranted about WCW signing WWF stars (Lex maybe). They comment about how it hurt them, but never really cried about it. Someone posted about showing Flair as the real worlds champion. 1. WCW wasn't even competition at the time and 2. Flair owned the belt. People just like to nitpick about the E and Vince.

 

[lil steroid meat]

I haven't even seen any of the new MNW stuff past that first episode released a few weeks/months ago, but for the millions of Monday Night War/WCW stuff the WWE has released, it's a WWE produced DVD so I kind of expect it to tell sort of a kayfabe/one-sided narrative.

But WWE didn't have a damn thing to do with WCW's demise, just like if TNA were to fold tomorrow, WWE wouldn't have a damn thing to do with it.

WCW's death stemmed from the AOL-Time Warner merger and it's effect on WCW's television deal + them wasting so much money. But mostly AOL-Time Warner and that merger fucking up the television deal. Eric Bischoff has said that he would have bought it if they had a TV deal.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Actually, I was surprised how fairly I thought they presented the shows, given that they were a WWE production. They certainly included enough footage of Eric Bischoff touting his own accomplishments and bragging how he "destroyed" the competition.

In fact, I watched the first two shows finding myself anxious to have them reach the point in which WWE starts to kick tail. All we heard about was WCW breaking down barrier after barrier, with admissions that WWE had become stale and formula-oriented, falling further behind as WCW forged ahead. It was almost painful to watch as WCW used the gobs of cash at their disposal to make gains that they called innovation & creativity.

I figure that when the documentary reaches the point in which Vince McMahon turns the tables, then we'll see the WWE bias come through. All in all, though, I was surprised to see how much WWE was willing to cast themselves as losers of the first part of the war.

 

[HatchetMan84]

I'm not sure if this has been asked on here somewhere, but in regards to the Monday Night War, just how close was WWF to going out of business? I know watching wrestling with shadows, Bret and Vince talk about how the WWF is in bad shape, how Vince can't afford to pay Bret's contract, etc... but i don't think its really touched on how close they were to going out..

I also ask because alot of people are preaching doom and gloom for WWE - the stock price plummeting, all the roster cuts, etc... now the news of the lawsuit against Vince McMahon for lying to stockholders, etc....