Who Had The Better Product.

[ECW Sandman]

Back in the 80's and 90's there were two big wrestling companies WWF and NWA/WCW, They both went through a lot of different periods product wise but out of the two WWF and NWA/WCW, Who had the better product





Your Thoughts.

 

[Lowdown]

It depends on what you were into at that time. I grew up primarily a WWF fan, so I would've said they had the better product. However, when I go back and watch classic NWA/WCW matches with guys like the Horsemen, Sting, and Steamboat, the actual wrestling in the ring was better than the gimmick characters offered in WWF. Once you get into thek mid to late 90's, both companies were about equal in what they presented.

 

[gers09]

NWA/WCW in the early days had better wrestling matches but WWE/WWF had better entertainment with there gimmick characters still put on great matches then WCW saw they were falling behind and gave eric b a blank cheque book and the rest as they say is history

 

[EastCoastFan]

In the 80's, NWA/WCW had better wrestling and WWF had more "entertainment". There was a defined difference between the two products.

In the early 90's, WCW still had good wrestling but they had management problems, mainly in the form of Jim Herd, a guy who makes John Laurinaitis look brilliant by comparison. After him were Bill Watts and Ole Anderson, guys who didn't grasp how the wrestling world had changed thanks to Vince.

Then Eric Bischoff got put in charge and began buying up every big name from WWF he could lay his hands on, effectively turning WCW into "WWF Lite". So many guys jumped between companies that part of the reason people tuned in every week was to see who'd show up where.

 

[relentless1]

wcw always had the better in ring product wwf was always a step ahead in production value ecw sucked

 

[J.J.]

Nitro as a 3 hour show to me was better than Raw as 3 hours so far. WCW had an impressive mid card with the Cruiserweight division and countless luchadors that carried part of the show. Near the end of its run we saw them implement a Cruiserweight tag division as well as multiple stables. They did just enough to keep the fans entertained till the 3rd hour. I also enjoyed watching their annually broadcast at Club LaVela. I feel if WWE looks back at some of the things that worked on Nitro Raw 3 hours can be a success. WCW went wrong trying to buy stars from WWE and ECW that failed. Bret Hart and Sandman are prime examples of wasted talent in WCW.

 

[Skinsley]

In its heyday I was a HUUUGE WCW fan. But I have to admit that once the Attitude era got into full swing, the production value and the overall product was by far the best.

 

[thedon2001]

The WWF/E has always been about entertainment and character emphasis. Other wrestling companies over the years have focused much of their attention on the actual wrestling. I believe the WWF was the leader of the 80's without question. They dominated the 90's until McMahon's steroid trial.

After the trial they lost so many big names to WCW and with Turner's backing WCW owned the airwaves for a brief period of time, especially with the NWO. Then the WWE reinvented itself with the attitude era and the rest is history.

In all honesty from an overall outlook i'd say the WWE has always had the better product. Wrestling has always been in the McMahon's blood. It was just another subsidiary to Turner.

 

[sdelfin]

Others have stated the differences between NWA/Jim Crockett and WWF in the 80s. NWA/JCP was more wrestling focused with hardcore elements(the dog collar. barbed wire, etc) and WWF was more entertainment focused. One thing I have observed in hindsight is, in my opinion, the WWF tended to put on better shows from top to bottom, whereas a big JCP show might have a tremendous main event(Steamboat vs. Flair) and weak under cards with overly screwy finishes. Who had the better product? In the ring, JCP's best matches were better, but the shows suffered, so as an entire product, I'd say the WWF was better. But considering how good JCP was, I wish they would have done a few things differently.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

WWF had the more accessible product, better production values, and cleaner storylines brought about by the fact that McMahon exercised greater control over the company.

NWA/WCW had a more mature product, had grittier (sometimes amateur) production values, and focused on the wrestling in the ring rather than the outright character development. Characters were developed by the wrestlers themselves on the strength of their promos. What ultimately doomed the NWA/WCW was number one the NWA itself...the old regional promotion concept where there was no real top dog in the organization, but a sort of board of directors concept. Throw into wrestlers with egos who would work with some people but not others, and a booker in Dusty Rhodes who had some good ideas that he beat to death, and the WWF was easily able to pass them by.

 

[HBsam31]

I was always a WWF/E fan first, but I had a lot of NWA/WCW fan friends so I watched both. It really depended on what you were looking for as a fan. I always though NWA/WCW had the better in ring product during that time, and WWE was better on the entertainment side of things. I enjoyed both products for different reasons, and that was why it was so good to be a fan of wrestling during that time. There was something for everyone coming from the big 2.

 

[willross]

The WWF Tag Division and Midcard was significantly better than the NWA. I dont think you can argue that when they had Hart Foundation, Rockers, Demolition, British Bulldogs, Killer Bees, Sheik/Volkoff, Strike Force, The Fabolous Rougeous, The BUshwhackers, Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, Ultimate Warrior, Jake Roberts, Kerry Von Erich, Honky Tonk Man, Hammer Valentine, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, One Man Gang, Bossman, etc.

But the quality of matches in NWA's main events were better. Other than Randy Savage, WWF usually relied on Hogan's star power carrying the matches. Most of the time at WWF House Shows they would close the show with Hart Foundation vs Rockers or Mr. Perfect vs. Jake Roberts or something like that while NWA had Steamboat, Flair, and Dusty who were their BIG belt holders and always closed or atleast closed 9 times out of 10.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

WWF in my opinion was better. The ONLY time I ever felt the WWF product was inferior to WCW was in late 1996/early 1997. WCW had the white hot NWO going. I only watched to see who would be defecting to WCW from WWF.

WCW had some excellent wrestlers - cruiserweight division was brilliant and the Japanese wrestlers were really exciting.

But WWF had some exciting wrestlers in the 80s and 90s too.

Overall - WWF was better - it was always entertaining (apart from an awful period in early 1997).

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

The WWF Tag Division and Midcard was significantly better than the NWA. I dont think you can argue that when they had Hart Foundation, Rockers, Demolition, British Bulldogs, Killer Bees, Sheik/Volkoff, Strike Force, The Fabolous Rougeous, The BUshwhackers, Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, Ultimate Warrior, Jake Roberts, Kerry Von Erich, Honky Tonk Man, Hammer Valentine, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, One Man Gang, Bossman, etc.

I'd say that the WWF had a much deeper talent pool, but when you look at the teams and people the NWA had in that mid-card range, they had some really solid talent:

The Road Warriors, The Midnight Express, The Andersons, The Rock N' Roll Express, The Russians, The Fantastics, Samoan Swat Team, Doom, Tully Blanchard, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Steve Williams, Ron Garvin, Wahoo McDaniel, Big Bubba Rogers, Rick Steiner, Mike Rotunda, Michael Hayes, The Great Muta, Jimmy Valiant.....okay, maybe not Jimmy Valiant.

I would say that WWF's midcarders were much more recognizable and mainstream than the NWA's. I would say that the tag teams were very well matched up though. There were a lot of dream matches that would've been awesome: Hart Foundation Vs. Rock N' Roll Express, Midnight Express Vs. Bulldogs, etc. Luckily we got a couple of them happen for real: Road Warriors Vs. Demolition, and Hart Foundation or Rockers Vs. Anderson/Blanchard.

 

[IT Factor]

It depends on which era you catch both companies in. If it's the 1980s, NWA was leaps and bounds better than WWF all the way up until the Attitude Era. Their NWA product was realistic and had great matches compared to the often cartoonish gimmicks and overhyped entertainment. Now, if we are into the Attitude Era in the later 90s, both WCW & WWF had their great moments. Both products were great because they were competing for survival. Shock television was a big factor in both companies and fans tuned in to see what surprizes lay ahead each week. WCW definetely had the edge for the beginning of Attitude Era, with the whole nWo boom and Hogan's heel turn. It was unchartered territory and no one would've believed 5 years prior that Hogan would've entertained the notion of a heel turn. It did wonders to refresh his stale American Hero gimmick and gave others the opportunity to work with a reinvigorated Hogan. It's just a shame that WCW didn't give their younger talents the opportunity to work with Hogan during that era to put themselves on the map.

WWF did alot to stand out during that time too, fresh off the heels of the Montreal incident with Bret Hart. DX had alot of momentum going forward and the emmergence of Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Rock sent WWF into greatness. The evolution of The Undertaker was huge during that timeframe as well with the on again, off again feuds with Mankind and Kane. Both products were great in their own ways and its a shame that wrestling has fallen so far from those days. If we had one tenth of the effort with today's talents, our current shows would be epic.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

As a kid the only real brand avalible to me was WWE as WCW was not on tv in are area.
But after a while I managed to collect a lot of old WCW videos and to be fair I was very impressed with what i saw. But as I was still young at the time WWE was still my fav brand. I think this comes down to the fact that during this time WWE was aimed at a younger audiance then what WCW was. as I grew up I started watching WCW more as i was getting tired of the product. That is until the arrival of the attitude era, which is when I started watching both shows every week. Know my show of choice is TNA not that I don,t watch WWE its just that wwe has gone back to being aimed more at kids. so at the end of the day in my opinion, neither brand had the better product it just depended on what your age or taste was at the time.