Which was the most important move in the WCW/WWF War?

[bassmann87]

The move of The Giant/Big Show from WCW to the WWF was IMHO the biggest. He was the first to bail on WCW. His move opened the floodgates of WCW stars jumping off the sinking ship and heading to WWF. If Show hadn't jumped ship, would Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, or any others have had the guts to be the first to go?

 

[LascoX]

I voted for Hogan moving to WCW but I wanted to throw in an honorable mention. I think one of the most important moves in the WWE / WCW wars was the opening shots back in the early eighties. Vince had purchased Ga. championship Wrestling that aired on TBS and replaced it with his own programming. The southern fans and fans across the nation were shocked as suddenly cartoonish charictors were wrestling where a more keyfab old school product had been airing. The show failed and Vince sold it off to Jim Crocket who in turn sold it to Turner. One day Vince got a call from Turner who proudly announced "I just bought myself a rasling company!" From that point Turner who was a die hard wrestling fan launched the most successful campain against Vince to date. There was many key factors in the WWF / WCW wars but the opening shot will always stick in my mind as one of the most important events in the war.

 

[The Roid Rage]

To answer this question, let me take you back. Imagine if you will, that we are back in 1994 again, your 10 maybe 11 years old and you've been watching wrestling your entire short life. I want you to look through those eyes. When you see Hulk Hogan suddenly working for WCW it made you think maybe this WCW show is worth watching more. This is the guy you've been watching since you can remember, he's Hulk Hogan, the biggest star in history, Hulkamania is running wild in WCW. You see him on the other show and you have to wonder what is so great about WCW that Hulk Hogan wants to be apart of it. It was a big deal, he WAS the WWF and there weren't any real replacements for him when he left there either. Sure, people we refer to now as legends were there, but they weren't legends then. They were all guys working their way up.

The WWF at the time was home. It was what you watched. WCW was around and you may have watched it from time to time, but the WWF was where it was at. When Hogan was officially with WCW it told you there was another dog in the yard. The only thing though is that as mentioned by some earlier, Hogan was not as big a deal technically when he went to WCW. He did have some baggage and his name had been tarnished. As a kid you probably didn't know that, but you knew by 1994 that Hogan had lost some of the luster. In a lot of ways Hogan going to WCW helped him as much as it did WCW itself. It revived his career which had slumped pretty bad basically since 1992. For that reason and that reason alone I have to say that Hogan going to WCW was not the biggest moment. Keep in mind, when he made his move there was no Monday Night War ensuing either. It was big, but it wasn't THE moment.


The WWF by 95-96 had changed completely. It was the "Next Generation" as they put it. The WWF wasn't as strong as it had once been, and WCW was picking up steam by this point. They had Hogan, Flair, Sting, The Giant, and Mach while the WWE had Shawn, Bret, Taker, Diesel, and Razor. As a kid WWF was still the top dog at the time, even though we know now they were having some trouble, THEN they were still the biggest and the best. WCW even with the talent they had, wasn't really a threat. Sure, they were making good with what they had, but it wasn't enough yet to really take it to the WWF. Even when Luger showed up in surprising fashion on Nitro, that really wasn't as big a deal either, at least as far as how it affected the Monday night situation. WWF wasn't really losing anything when he left. Sure, they had invested a bunch of time and money in him, but he wasn't anywhere near as successful as they had tried to make him, and they knew he wasn't going much further anyways.


Then one Monday Night, your watching both shows going back and forth because now you can, and you can see people you like on 2 wrestling shows. Your on Nitro right now but you are waiting for a commercial to end before you switch back to WWF. Suddenly you notice a commotion in the crowd, something is going on but you can't make out what. You see someone going through the audience but can't quite make out who it is right off hand. Then in a matter of seconds you see the figure and realize that for some odd reason Razor Ramon is on Nitro!!!! You had just seen him on WWF not too long ago, so this doesn't make sense to you. Why would a WWF guy be there??? Then he gets in the ring, and utters those famous words " Hey Yo! You all know who I am, But you don't know why I'm here." WCW from that point on was red hot.

Once Razor Ramon went to WCW and he and Diesel started The Outsiders everything else including he NWO with Hogan became possible, and without his surprise attack on WCW it wouldn't have been as big a deal either. It didn't hurt that he was easily one of the most popular stars in WWF. See, WCW's problem before then was that they had plenty of real big talent, but they were all older guys. They didn't have any YOUNG talent, even sting was older talent to the company. No one wants to watch their grandfathers fighting on television. So, when they got Razor who was hugely over in WWF that made a really big statement. The smartest thing they did that whole time too was playing it off like he was still with the WWF and it was a takeover. It might not be the actual start of the Monday Night Wars, but it was certainly the point that sent everything to it's heights.

There are plenty of other moments that were important and played their roles. But, this one I think tops them all. It shouldn't be either Razor or Diesel though, they should have been put together for the poll, and in that case it was their arrivals in WCW that really make everything else happen. It was Razor and Diesel who convinced Hogan to do the heel turn and the NWO thing, and it was they who made people watch WCW because it was so cool to see WWF guys running a muck in another company. It just made the WWF look bigger in my opinion. It established that WWF was the bigger better company, because it was their superstars invading the WCW.

If they had tried a takeover angle with their own guys it wouldn't have worked. They needed bigger stars than they already had and they found the exactly right people for the job. When Razor Ramon showed up on WCW everything changed from there. I would argue that without the departure of Razor and Diesel from WWF you wouldn't have got Stone Cold, DX, The Rock, or Mankind. They were made out of necessity because the WWF had once again lost some really big talent and needed new guys. Also, they needed not just new talent but new gimmicks because of how dramatically Razor and Diesel changed things once they got to WCW. They were the ones who really made "Bad" cool. WWF had no choice but to follow in suit and come up with some edgier, harder hitting, more serious programming to compete which led to the birth of the above mentioned characters. In essence you could say that one moment was the one that set it all off to the next level ushering in a new era in professional wrestling, that led us to where we are now.

 

[j.beaner]

There are a few moments that i felt changed the wcw/wwf monday night war. First off it was huge when hogan joined wcw. but idk if that moment was surpassed by Hogan's heel Turn by joining the nWo. Now for those of u who think macho or luger joining wcw was the biggest. I strongly disagree. even if Niether of them joined Hogan could've had matches with The Remaining Members of WCW. Such as Steamboat, Arn Anderson, or some of those already established stars.

Now that was probably the biggest moment in WCW but in WWF, Its kinda hard to say. Getting Steve Austin Was big But Getting him The Title Was Even Bigger. Cause thats when they really started to match WCW in entertainment and ratings. And I think vince, bret, and shawn in Montreal was huge. I think many at the time viewed it as the begining of the end for the WWF cause they were losing Bret. But In hindsight we now know that it created the Mr.McMahon Character.

And the last thing that helped the WWF was vince Russo leaving and going to WCW. He Just destroyed that company and couldnt run a mayjor buisness like wcw. that was one of the demises of wcw. so those were the mayjor points, to say what moment is the biggest. idk. Thats not really for me to say. All these moments are signifigant in their own way.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

I think the reason I chose Hall was because that was the REAL beginning of the war. Hulk had been there for a few years by this point. WCW had become bigger, but not BIG enough. When Hall came in, Nash followed (they signed at the same time, but for storyline purposes, they said Nash followed Hall). If those two wouldn't have come over, a lot of things would have never happened.

If the Outsiders hadn't come in, Hogan wouldn't have turned heel. If Hogan wouldn't have turned heel, the NWO might never have been as big as it was. If the NWO wasn't as big as it was, WCW probably wouldn't have been legitimate competition. If WCW wouldn't have become legitimate competition, WWF might have never stumbled upon the amazing talents of Steve Austin. If Steve Austin hadn't become Stone Cold, Vince might have never been a serious on screen character.

Sorry for rambling. But if Hall/Nash wouldn't have come in and did what they did, who knows what wrestling would have become. All of the events I mentioned were basically a domino effect. I am just glad it happened the way it did (minus WCW going down in flames. Competition makes wrestling much, much better).