Would It Interest You If....

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE, someday, restarted WCW as it's own separate brand? I'm sure this is a question that a lot of people have asked themselves, some have probably asked on this forum or forums like it all over the net, talked about it among friends, etc. As I was driving along early this morning, for no apparent reason, the notion simply popped into my head that it'd be interesting, and potentially very cool, if WWE brought back WCW as it's own separate wrestling company.

When I say WCW as a separate brand, I mean a separate brand in which promotion has its own titles, it's own roster, it's own television deal, it's own writing staff, it's own authority personnel, the whole nine yards. Basically, it would kind of be like what's going on with NXT but on a much bigger scale. Triple H runs NXT how he wants it, so reignite the WCW brand and do the same thing. Now, of course, WCW would still be owned by WWE but there'd be little to no interaction between the two promotions. The most interaction would be that some of the main roster could be sent to WCW to wrestle and some of the talent being developed in NXT could be assigned to WCW as well. In this new WCW, some of the WCW championships could be reactivated or reassigned like the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, put the United States Championship back under WCW control and reinstate the WCW World Tag Team Championship. In WWE, there could then be a single World Championship again and a single mid-card title.

WCW is a name that still carries a lot of history and, in my opinion, there's potential for the WCW brand other than to be used in various DVD compilations. It'd means more television, live event, merchandising and ppv revenue for the company. Again, and I can't stress this enough, WCW would be its own brand with someone placed in charge that would be permitted to do things his or her way. In my opinion, that's the only way such an attempt could really succeed.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I would love it as a fan, but from a business standpoint, it just wouldn't make sense. Right now, with little competition, the WWE is trying to maintain a decent PPV buy rate and weekly ratings, with marginal success. It's stock price is around a historical low. Now, they'd be taking on extra overhead, personnel and talent to form a new business, and further dilute the amount of money being spent for merchandise and PPVs. Plus, they wouldn't even get the benefit of healthy competition because there'd be no way that they'd let WCW actually compete with the parent brand. Finally, even from a fan perspective, there's little chance that it would be allowed to aspire and rise to much. As soon as someone became popular in WCW, they'd be moved to the WWE. It would be no different from the brand extension of Raw and Smackdown.

I know that's a very boring, business-like POV, but I can't get away from the fact that they'd never let this happen.

 

[John Stevens]

No way, needs to fix this up first. We have like 2 main eventers (Cena/Punk) who are actually completely over. How can we start something else... I would love it if everybody was over as much as they used to be.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Even though we are more then a decade removed from when the actual WCW federation closed, this is still an idea that I would support if it happened today. A lot of people remember the WCW name so it would catch the attention of older fans to see it return. WWE has such a large roster that they could focus on building up more people if there are only so many wrestlers in the same tier on the card. Moving some over to the new WCW brand would bring us back to where we were when the brand lines still mattered.

Raw and Smackdown would remain WWE shows with the WWE, Intercontinental, Divas, and Tag Team Championships being the title tiers. WCW could then have Nitro and Thunder as its television shows although they would probably be better off showing them on different nights. Maybe on Tuesdays for Nitro and Thursdays for Thunder, which leaves Wednesday as a night off from WWE/WCW programming. The WCW championships can include the World Heavyweight, US, Cruiserweight, one for the women, and a set of tag team titles.

That brings us to PPV events. WWE could set it up to where they alternate every other month or so. Keep the big 4 and a couple of others of their own PPV brands, then have the other half of the year be WCW shows. This provides time for the feuds to be built up more significantly and the older fans get to see PPV brands they miss from the good old days! I'd set it up something like this:

January - WWE Royal Rumble
February - WCW Superbrawl
March & April - WrestleMania (Can include both WWE and WCW talent, it's the biggest of the year after all.)
May - WCW Bash At the Beach
June - WWE Money In the Bank
July - WCW The Great American Bash
August - WWE Summerslam
September - Night of Champions (ALL belts from BOTH federations)
October - WCW Halloween Havoc
November - WWE Survivor Series
December - WCW Starrcade

That is 5 from each with Night of Champions turning into a huge supercard featuring title matches for every single belt in both brands. WrestleMania is still the biggest show of the year and the WCW guys can participate in it too. It fixes issues of PPV's not having time to generate interest, wrestlers on the roster not having anything to do, belts having lower prestige.... There is literally not a single negative to this scenario and countless positives.

I'd love to see it happen. Highly doubt it ever would though. Just imagine if they had done this 10 years ago. It would have been amazing.

 

[scottyshowman82]

Y know it seems like a long shot, Vince like to create his own ideas but I'm the retro DVD's appear to be doing well and Vince does like money. It's a no brainer for me and I've said this in previous posts, they have all rights, the pay per view names, the copyrights to all logos and WCW's entire library. Why not use it. I think eventually some more and more ideas and trickets from WCW will show up on WWE TV, because damn, it's not easy to captivate an audience, it's hard to be original all the time and why not fall back on something that could work and is shown to still have interest.

Vince from his past actions is so gung ho and determined to make his own original concepts, which I love and is admirable. I love originality but I think anyone eles in that power position would be so tempted to bring back WCW,and other WWE owned properties back today. But the more I think about it the more I do think we'll see more WCWesque ideas at least pop up here and there but I don't see the entire company coming back in the upcoming future.

 

[JohngysBeat.com]

Yes, it would interest me, but so would a real ECW company and WCCW for that matter.
There is no way this would happen. As soon as one company had a rash of injuries, there would be "trades" from the other to booster their roster. There is no way for it to be a completely separate entity and remain as such.

 

[#IndyRules]

No. ECW is a prime example of why WCW should never and i mean never come back as brand or even another entity altogether. There are two reasons i can think of, off the cuff.
1. TV is simply saturated with WWE content at the moment. There is no need for anymore and quite frankly we need less. I would just have Raw, Smackdown, NXT (which is bloody brilliant and sometimes better than Raw) and Superstars or Main Event for all the mid-carders.
2. WWE simply don't have enough good talent and to restart WCW without some of WCW's main stars would be stupid. Only real full-time draws are Cena and Punk and possibly in the future the likes of the Shield, Ziggler and let's say Daniel Bryan and even they are a not big enough (yet).

So WCW coming back ? No Thanks !

 

[fenderjapan]

Good god, no.
What would be the point?

I like the idea of branding some WWE PPVs with the WCW names...and some nods to the history of WCW...but no, I can't see any possible merit to bringing back WCW. All of the old WCW stars are just that, old. The guys who carried that company are either dead, retired, or not interested in being part of WWE.

 

[Loveless]

God no, not unless it was completely separate from the WWE in every was possible. The WWE can't put together 1 decent show right now, we don't need any more crap.

 

[anvilx8]

That wouldn't interest me AT ALL. For a few reasons,
For starters, It wouldn't feel like WCW. It would be the equivalent to WWE's version of ECW. Watered down and not at all like the original. The WCW name means next to nothing nowadays anyway, so I really don't see the point in re-starting wcw.

I wouldn't be a fan of WWE re-starting ECW either (unless heyman had 100% control...but that would never happen) but IF WWE re-started ecw, that would atleast make sense. ECW had a style to it, and when you watched ECW; it couldn't be confused with any other promotion. WCW had absolutely nothing unique about it, expect Sting, and Flair, and former wwe wrestlers, who obviously couldn't wrestle today haha.

 

[Odisho]

you just described smackdown from 8 years ago, and they fucked it up. LOL

if they made it a completly seperate company, like how TNA is then i would love it.

 

[THE Great GAMMA]

With the brand extension dead I feel there is no need for two major titles. With that said WWE has done a great job of shitting all over the WHC anyways.

Now to my point. The idea of WCW coming back is an intriguing one. And as Jackhammer said it would be semi autonomous from WWE. I would totally be interested in it. But I think (and this is sad) that this could happen when VKM croaks and Steph and HHH take over.

I like Daggers idea about the PPVs except I would have Starccade also as a duel PPV. And have the Main Event of Night of Champions be a champion of champions match where the WWE champ and WCW champ compete for all the glory.

And the thing about Cena and Punk being the only draws...well so what? If the program is good enough and gets enough exposure the guys from the WWE (cos they would obviously be drawing from the same talent pool) still have some name recognition would spark interest in fans as to what they doing and they will create new Stars.

As for the WWE poaching the over talent yes this would be the next step. For me I would have it as follows: Nxt as grass roots development and training (new talent comes in and learns the WWE style)

WCW as first major national TV exposure (Where talent gets polished and finishing touches are done to a performer)

WWE: where your best talent is. Be it promos, in ring etc.

This would lessen the burdon of carrying such a huge roster where the majority is lost in the shuffle.

So yes WCW being reborn would interest me.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Seriously?

No this would be just as bad as WWE's version of ECW.

I hear whining.

Who said anything about it being watered down like WWE's ECW was? That's a horrible reason to dislike this idea. WWE's ECW was doomed to fail from the beginning because they did not make the effort to make it appear to be as important as Raw or Smackdown. They should have revived ALL of ECW's old titles, not just the ECW Championship. Where was the Television Championship? What about the third set of tag team belts? They should have made it on par with Raw and Smackdown but it immediately was viewed as inferior. I won't even start on the December to Dismember PPV event.

This idea is entirely different. We're talking a new brand that would be viewed as near (or hopefully in the best case scenario AT) the level of Raw/Smackdown for Nitro and Thunder in the new WCW. They would have their own World Championship (leaving the WWE Championship as THE prize on Raw/Smackdown), the US Championship gets moved over, and then a set of tag team titles as well as likely a title for the women. The Cruiserweight Championship can get brought back. There is also the potential new PPV lineup that I mentioned in my previous post. It also gives time onscreen for everyone who needs it if they brought back Thunder or at the very least just Nitro on television.

WWE made a mistake with their version of ECW, but it could have worked out well if they went about it in a less lazy way and completely revived the brand making it on par with Raw/Smackdown while also making it stand out in a good way. They can do that with WCW here. Not only could it gets its own tv shows, its own PPV's, its own set of titles, but it can be the PG product while WWE can return to a more edgy product or WWE could remain PG while WCW returns in a more edgy form.

ECW was clearly viewed as inferior compared to Raw and Smackdown when it was first brought back:

RAW
Raw tv show on Mondays
WWE Championship
Intercontinental Championship
Womens Championship
World Tag Team Championship
New Year's Revolution PPV
Backlash PPV
Vengeance PPV
Unforgiven PPV
Cyber Sunday PPV


SMACKDOWN
Smackdown tv show on Fridays
World Heavyweight Championship
US Championship
Cruiserweight Championship
WWE Tag Team Championship
Armageddon PPV
No Way Out PPV
Judgment Day PPV
The Great American Bash PPV
No Mercy PPV

ECW
ECW tv show on Tuesday
ECW Championship
December to Dismember PPV


See the difference in what it was provided as a brand?


Now take a look at how the WWE/WCW format could potentially look if they treat it with its full potential:


WWE
Raw tv show on Mondays
Smackdown tv show on Fridays
WWE Championship
Intercontinental Championship
Divas Championship
WWE Tag Team Championship
Royal Rumble PPV in January
Wrestlemania PPV in March/April (WCW guys participate here too)
Money In the Bank PPV in June
Summerslam PPV in July
Night of Champions PPV in September (WCW belts on the line too)
Survivor Series PPV in November


WCW
Nitro tv show on Tuesdays
Thunder tv show on Thursdays
World Heavyweight Championship
US Championship
Womens Championship
WCW Tag Team Championship
Superbrawl PPV in February
Bash At the Beach PPV in May
Great American Bash PPV in July
Halloween Havoc PPV in October
Starrcade PPV in December


Then you divide the roster in half other than at Wrestlemania or Night of Champions being the only dual branded shows. It has enormous potential even if they don't use the setup that I came up with. As long as they bring back multiple belts, Nitro, a few PPV brands, and Thunder if needed, then this should be more than enough for it to succeed. Could it be a failure? Sure there is always that chance, but I highly doubt WWE would make the same mistake twice by only giving it one show, one title, and one disastrously bad PPV. They learned their lesson years ago.

So the bottom line here is don't use WWE's ECW as your excuse for shooting down this idea. Just because they brought THAT back with only one title and one awful PPV event doesn't mean that bringing back WCW doesn't have the potential to give the fans a very memorable change to the way WWE's programming currently goes. I personally think it's an awesome idea and while it might never happen I'd love to see it happen. Goodness knows it's better than having tons of wrestlers with nothing to do, half the belts with low prestige levels, and many PPV brands that could potentially be done away with. Can you think of a better way to change WWE programming that has as much potential as this does? I sure can't.

 

[anvilx8]

This idea is entirely different. We're talking a new brand that would be viewed as near (or hopefully in the best case scenario AT) the level of Raw/Smackdown for Nitro and Thunder in the new WCW. They would have their own World Championship (leaving the WWE Championship as THE prize on Raw/Smackdown), the US Championship gets moved over, and then a set of tag team titles as well as likely a title for the women. The Cruiserweight Championship can get brought back. There is also the potential new PPV lineup that I mentioned in my previous post. It also gives time onscreen for everyone who needs it if they brought back Thunder or at the very least just Nitro on television..

But I fail to see how calling it "WCW" would make it FEEL any different that watching Smackdown! Seriously... whats the difference? The WCW name means dick all to most fans these days, and its not like WWE could bring WCW back and make it feel like WCW.. unless they based it in Atlanta and brought back luger, sting, Jarrett, the wolfpack etc etc etc. It'd be like watching an episode of SD but called wcw

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

So the bottom line here is don't use WWE's ECW as your excuse for shooting down this idea. Just because they brought THAT back with only one title and one awful PPV event doesn't mean that bringing back WCW doesn't have the potential to give the fans a very memorable change to the way WWE's programming currently goes. I personally think it's an awesome idea and while it might never happen I'd love to see it happen. Goodness knows it's better than having tons of wrestlers with nothing to do, half the belts with low prestige levels, and many PPV brands that could potentially be done away with. Can you think of a better way to change WWE programming that has as much potential as this does? I sure can't.

It's a cool idea, but the complaint is valid. Nobody's "shooting down" the idea. It's not an idea that's being realistically considered. It's a fantasy what-if scenario. It's not like anyone posting here is going to be the one making the decisions. Fans have seen several times now how the WWE handles the creation of multiple brands. It isn't pretty.

 

[IconMCI]

I dont think so. I think the days of the Monday Night Wars was the best time to be a wrestling fan. It was lightning in a bottle. Here are the reason why I dont think it would work:

1.) Not enough good wrestling talent to fill this company with a compelling roster. Lets say that Vince woke up Monday and decided to re-establish WCW as a separate stand alone brand, where does he get the talent? TNA... ROH.... The great thing about WWE and WCW was that there were true territories still that could fill them, however, it also led to the demise of the territorial system and as such, potential wrestling talent really has two options for themselves right now.. OVW or NXT...

2.)Too much wrestling is not a good thing when its not compelling. The current product that WWE and TNA put out is dreadful compared to the Monday Night Wars... During the height of the wars, I was watching 5 hours of wrestling on Mondays, and it was good.. mostly from WCW... Smackdown and Thunder added another 4 hours during the week. Saturday night was tolerable for WCW... it became a throwaway program after the NWO was formed. Not even the nWo invaded Saturday... it wasnt worth their time... WCW did Clash of the Champions which was PPV quality for them on Free TV

3.) You cant force lightning in a bottle. Anything done like this today would seem forced and again the product would not be compelling to watch. WWE wanted this to happen with Raw and Smackdown, however the fans are smart and dont believe its ever been two separate entities with drafts, and people going back and forth. For someone like Rick Rude or Lex Luger to show up on WCW TV less than 24 hours than they were last seen on WWE TV was awesome. There was no mistaking the fact that there were two separate companies. While it was cool seeing Vince and Shane on the last Nitro, it was apparent that there would never be another true competitor for WWE. TNA is the best option right now (sad, yes I know). There are numerous threads here documenting what in our minds could TNA do to make them true competition for WWE, that I dont even want to start that mess.

 

[EastCoastFan]

Sorry, that ship sailed a long time ago. Supposedly, WWF had plans to make WCW its own brand in 2001 but after the failure of the relaunch match (Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell), those plans got scrapped.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Just as a concept, it sounds like a cool idea. But really, it just reminds me of when Smackdown and Raw were separate entities. Owned by the same company, very little interaction, different writing staffs, authority figures, etc. So what you're really asking for is a more complicated brand split. BUT...the idea of WCW existing as its own thing is kind of appealing.

There's a major problem I saw coming from that, and it's how weak WWE's rosters are now, even with combined talent from Raw and Smackdown. There's a handful of main eventers, a handful of mid-card talents, and everyone else that fills in and jobs out. There's not enough mainstream, brand-carrying talent to flesh out a third, completely separate brand for WWE. Maybe if they hired about 50 new developmental talents, and they all worked out, then in 2-3 years they could think about doing it.

But that presents its own issue - what do they gain from WCW? Name value? Fans that care about the WCW branding are already watching Raw every week. So really, what do they gain from a third TV promotion? They can barely manage their one hour broadcasts that don't mean anything. A separate WCW product would draw a decent rating for a few months and probably fizzle out. Vince and Triple H would, out of necessity, have to control it. They put too much into their products to just hand it off to some third party. WWE is all about cross-promotion and a unified product. Won't happen.

BUT, I suppose the point isn't about whether the idea is plausible in a real world situation. It's fun to think about. I guess I just don't see the real appeal. They're not going to bring back old WCW talents, nor should they. So really it's just another brand, another promotion, and more over-saturation in an extremely watered down industry.

 

[lowandmighty]

The short answer to the question is no.

WCW is too far gone to be brought back. Saving WCW may have been viable if Vince McMahon kept running it as its own company right from the start rather than integrating a few of its wrestlers and belts into the WWE.
WWE has so much of the market these days that there isn't really any room for other wrestling organisations.

Impact Wresting is barely able to survive even with the awareness factor of having guys like Sting and Hulk Hogan. Admittedly those guys are old and Hogan basically contributes nothing but his fame but the fact it barely has a cult following does say something about where the whole industry is at.

In a way wrestling as a whole has almost jumped the shark. I'd say its even already jumped it. The pin point moment being when Cena Fu'd Paul Wight whenever that wrestlemania was when they had the match for the U.S title fucking years ago. It was almost a carbon copy of slamming Andre and it was what gave Cena his boost.

My Point is everything has been done to the point its being done again. Lets face it, everything about John Cena is painfully close to just being modern and even not so modern anymore day Hulk Hogan.

All of wrestling is in serious need of a new idea in my opinion. Bringing back WCW is the furthest away from a new idea you can get.

Bringing back shows that were popular in the past just doesn't really have a good business track record.

We've seen networks try to bring back old game shows etc or variety programs and they have more often than not flopped.

What made WCW its own distinguishable brand is now gone, all its talent is old and gone and its lost its reputations. Its belts have been butchered, its a lost cause.

 

[Honkey_Kong]

Vince bringing back WCW is a ******ed idea.

First WWE owns the rights to WCW, which means no matter what it will not be an independent company. You think Vince is going to give up his top talent to this other promotion? He was supposed to have done that with Smackdown with the brand extension. All the top talent with a couple exceptions would appear on Raw.

Also part of the fun behind WCW was the Monday Night Wars. These guys were bidding each other out for the top talent and they were competing against each other each and every Monday night (and later Thursdays too). Even if Vince evenly split the roster amongst the two promotions, what are the odds they'd be going up against one another? The weaker show would get Tuesday or Friday billing and there'd be no head-to-head competition.

I get what you are really coming up with this asinine idea for. WWE is at an all-time low for match quality AND ideas. But the cure to it wasn't exactly just having WCW around. That was just part of it.

WCW needs to exist with a person that has an endless supply of money financing it and willing to go against the WWE and actively compete with them on Monday. TNA tried to, but they don't have the bread nor do they own the networks that they can keep it on the air until it wins.

But beyond that, they need a promotion that's coming up with the material and talent for both promotions to raid. They need an ECW. All they have is a Ring of Honour and DGUSA to raid right now. Those promotions have some top indy talent, but no material for the top promotions to steal.

 

[RicSpade]

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. WCW had a major fanbase, and some of their work laid the foundation for wrestling now, but WCW is dead...not only has it been dead, but its dead for over a decade. Think of the ECW reboot, it started off good, then it sucked, the best thing out of the ECW reboot was CM Punk got noticed. What can we actually benefit from with a WCW reboot? half of the WCW original roster is either old or overweight (see Billy Kidman). Besides Rey Mysterio and Jericho what can you benefit from in a WCW? Nothing... This is why we have NXT, new faces from the indys meets the WWE superstars of today, and you get noticed and become a success or flop and go to the indys, I loved WCW but its dead and needs to stay that way...

 

[thebowtiekiller]

it would be cool to see but i have to agree with the peeps making comparisons to wwes ecw it started out great but eventually got too wwfied which kills the original vibe and makes it pointless but i think a good idea would be if they did an old school nitro on occasion kinda like the old school raws they have done

 

[Honkey_Kong]

it would be cool to see but i have to agree with the peeps making comparisons to wwes ecw it started out great but eventually got too wwfied which kills the original vibe and makes it pointless but i think a good idea would be if they did an old school nitro on occasion kinda like the old school raws they have done

Started off great? For months before it finally debuted, we on here said it was going to be stupid and boy did we understate it. It was dogshit from the first day and only went down from there. The ECW fans even hated the WWE version of their programs to the point where they were chanting "CHANGE THE CHANNEL" on live tv. And God help me forget that PPV they made.

It's really hard for me to read comments on here about WCW or ECW since the majority of the guys writing on this forum only know of both promotions from YouTube videos or "best of" DVDs.

Both of those promotions had a magic to them that happened when the right things "gelled" together. When Vince did his version of ECW, it was really him giving his "out of touch" interpretation of what it was. He'd do the same thing for WCW and anything else he'd attempt to copy.

 

[sTyLnK]

Short term, I'm sure it would actually create a lot of interest, but long term it just wouldn't work. It wouldn't actually be WCW. Just the WWE with another brand name.

 

[LuckyLouie]

Like many have said, this wouldent be WCW. Just like new ECW, it wasnt even close to beings its former self.
WCW was WCW because it wanted RAW to die. Plus there would be no competition really if its owned by WWE. Unless its privately run, which im sure would not happen.

But there is a mini-WCW today....TNA.
And I dont hate TNA, they have great wrestlers. But hey have a part of WCW..a big part.