Would WCW have gone over the WWF in the 90s if there was a No-Compete Cause?

[Justin Satiable]

Simple question really, but a fair bit to think about. The real turning point in favour of WCW during the Monday Night Wars was the nWo storyline, as you all know. This caught fans off-guard and really led them to believe that WCW was being invaded by the WWF, since Hall and Nash had been on Raw only a week before. What if, however, they hadn't been able to show up on WCW for 90 days?

Personally, I believe these 3 months would have given Vince and the WWF enough time to at least run Nash and Hall into the ground for leaving, and the buzz that surrounded the nWo wouldn't have been anything like it was. Hell, there might not even have been an nWo without Hall and Nash immediately jumping over.

Perhaps a simple clause in a contract could have swayed the entire Monday Night Wars. Let's not forget other stars, such as Lex Luger, who also jumped ship suddenly to WCW. Do you think WCW could have managed its 84 week streak of higher ratings without these shock superstar appearances? Do you think there would have an nWo and that it would have possibly been as successful as it was?

Leave your thoughts.

 

[CleverName51]

Absolutely not. The 90 day no compete is what will forever keep TNA down in second place.

Whenever someone leaves WWE, we automatically check our calendars for when they can show up in TNA. There is no surprise, there is no shock which means no reason to watch both shows.

Also, the emergence of the internet as a spoiler tool works the same way, how many reports do we see on the main page of "Wrestler X backstage at TNA/WWE tonight"

It's a new world, a new culture. Had this existed in the 1990s, it would have been the same way.

Kurt Angle is the Hulk Hogan in this metaphor, a huge star in WWE who jumped to WCW/WCW2.0


Long story short: WCW's attempts to put WWE out of business would be like TNA's 2010 Monday Night Wars 2.0

 

[Swarles Barkley]

An interesting "what if..." but you have to remember that guys didn't have contracts back in 1996. It was mostly verbal deals and handshake agreements. Vince couldn't have enforced a no-compete clause if he wanted to. It was, I believe, Hall & Nash jumping that led to Vince finally giving guys guaranteed contracts.

Also, Hall's & Nash's contracts (or agreements) had expired, and I think the no-compete clause only comes into effect when a talent is released (I could be wrong on that, though).

If no-compete clauses did exist in 1996, it would have diluted the impact. People would know that Hall & Nash didn't work for the WWF. That was the main crux of the nWo invasion at first (up until WCW was forced to have Hall & Nash admit they didn't work for the WWF at the 1996 Great American Bash - when Nash powerbombed Bischoff through a table), so that initial spurt of interest would almost assuredly have been lost. Without that, who knows how big of an impact the nWo would have had.

 

[thebarber]

um, surely nobody has that little an exciting life that they check the calendar 90 days ahead of when guys get released from WWE???? I hate threads like this, like it matters either way. Next up we will read what if WCW didnt offer guaranteed contracts????? The wrestling business is what it is. Gee WWE buried Bret Hart on his exit from WCW, he showed up a few weeks after Montreal and it wasnt WWE;s burial of him that didnt get him over, WCW used him disgracefully. A guy can be out 3,6, 12 months and BOOKED correctly, it doesnt matter how long since he jumped ship.

 

[Grizzly0u812]

That is a very good question, if there was no compete clauses implemented back then yeah many of the wrestlers who jumped to WCW would not have shown up the following night on their show because they would be grounded for 90 days with the no compete clauses, so things like the N.W.O, would have been a slower coming if any, people like Lex Luger would not have wrestled on WWF show then showed up next night on WCW show, Madusa same thing, she showed up on WCW with woman‘s title in hand and tossed it in the garbage.

Seeing guys from WWF show up on WCW programming like the next night was crazy which made you want to watch next week to see what would happen next, who will show up on which promotion. If things were just handshakes and verbal agreements back then and no actual contract to give the wrestler security of course people are going to go else where, same with if the working conditions were bad or no opportunities for them your going to go where the money and security is.

Vince knew this, WCW had just as much money to pay the big salaries to anyone they got to come over, so he had to figure out a way to keep more of this from happening, here is a question, if WWF/WWE is such a great place why did so many people jump to WCW, that is probably why Vince has bought up all the competition, so wrestlers have no choice but to stay and do things his way, pretty sure if TNA could match WWE money wise you might see wrestlers jumping ship first chance they can.

Didn’t Kurt Angle trick WWE to release him from his contract due to being burnt out and worried about his health or something along that line then showed up on TNA television shortly after that, I think that is the first time I seen that happen in years since the no compete clauses were put in place.

I notice one thing that was being done by I think both WWF and WCW, any wrestler who jump to the other side they would play video footage of that person looking weak and getting beat by their current wrestlers which they both were taking pot-shots on each other

 

[studwoodward2]

I agree that the "shock" value would have been diluted. And lets not forget that this would have prevented Rick Rude appearing on both shows in the same night.

I also believe that with the 90 clause, Vince would have had an answer for the nWo and tried his best to play it down.

 

[Gman35]

An interesting "what if..." but you have to remember that guys didn't have contracts back in 1996. It was mostly verbal deals and handshake agreements. Vince couldn't have enforced a no-compete clause if he wanted to. It was, I believe, Hall & Nash jumping that led to Vince finally giving guys guaranteed contracts.

Also, Hall's & Nash's contracts (or agreements) had expired, and I think the no-compete clause only comes into effect when a talent is released (I could be wrong on that, though).

If no-compete clauses did exist in 1996, it would have diluted the impact. People would know that Hall & Nash didn't work for the WWF. That was the main crux of the nWo invasion at first (up until WCW was forced to have Hall & Nash admit they didn't work for the WWF at the 1996 Great American Bash - when Nash powerbombed Bischoff through a table), so that initial spurt of interest would almost assuredly have been lost. Without that, who knows how big of an impact the nWo would have had.

No, These guys were under contract; because, if not, don't you think others would have jumped at the same time?? As a matter of fact, Bret Hart was offered a 10 year contract, while under an original contract that he had before them leaving. No doubt about it, with them leaving, it pretty much caused the no-compete clause, but I'm sure we could even take it a step earlier by saying that maybe Luger started it, as he worked a ppv, sunday night, then showed up on nitro the next night. This is hard to say, but remember, Bishoff has said this over and over, it was the emergence of Steve Austin that killed WCW

 

[HeenanGorilla]

um, surely nobody has that little an exciting life that they check the calendar 90 days ahead of when guys get released from WWE???? I hate threads like this, like it matters either way. Next up we will read what if WCW didnt offer guaranteed contracts????? The wrestling business is what it is. Gee WWE buried Bret Hart on his exit from WCW, he showed up a few weeks after Montreal and it wasnt WWE;s burial of him that didnt get him over, WCW used him disgracefully. A guy can be out 3,6, 12 months and BOOKED correctly, it doesnt matter how long since he jumped ship.

Hey Barber, all I see from you is "I hate threads like this" responses. Maybe look up the definition of forum. Now think of a forum where facts are discussed...pretty boring. If you don't like the threads, stop reading them.

"is what it is" What an absolute failure of a comment.

 

[New Hot Fed]

The only thing it would have changed really is with Luger and Rick Rude. As for the others it would not have made a difference since the internet was almost inexistant back then. No jumping to this and that company spoilers, nothing. What's the difference at someone jumping to another company the moment of his release or a month later if you don't know if there's gonna be a jump in the first place?

 

[DexVendetta88]

This is an interesting "what-if" topic here! Anyways, the way I look at it is if the WWF did have the no-compete clause during the Monday night wars then WCW would've been screwed royally, and they wouldn't have had that 82/83 week streak in beating Raw since former talent wouldn't be allowed to show up on WCW programming the following week after leaving the WWF. When you think about it, WCW benefited from not having to deal with the no-compete clause since most of the talent that jumped ship to WCW at the time were there within a week at the least after leaving the WWF, and their debuts were more spontaneous since the talents were fresh out of the WWF. However, WCW would've lasted a lot longer than 2001 since talent wouldn't be allowed to compete for 3 months, and the debuts of former WWF stars would've taken longer which in turn extends the storylines. Now here's another what-if. What if WCW initiated the no-compete clause before the WWF? What would that mean for the WWF, or what happens if BOTH WCW and the WWF did initiate no-compete clauses during the Monday night wars?

 

[JJ15776]

Also, Hall's & Nash's contracts (or agreements) had expired, and I think the no-compete clause only comes into effect when a talent is released (I could be wrong on that, though).

Nah, the no-compete clauses are still in effect when a contract expires. The only time it's not is if it was never in the contract to begin with(very rare now, common back then) or if the company agrees to waive it for whatever reason(in exchange for a lower buyout, confidentiality agreement, etc). Booker T is the most recent example I can think of that had his contract expire and had to sit out 90 days.

The only thing it would have changed really is with Luger and Rick Rude. As for the others it would not have made a difference since the internet was almost inexistant back then. No jumping to this and that company spoilers, nothing. What's the difference at someone jumping to another company the moment of his release or a month later if you don't know if there's gonna be a jump in the first place?

Nah. The internet certainly makes things easier to find out, but there is a HUGE difference between showing up the next week or 3 months later. GIGANTIC difference. The shock value is not nearly the same. It doesn't matter if you know he's coming or not, the impact is much bigger when you saw the guy in the other company the week before(and in some cases, the night before, or even the same night.) as opposed to 3 months before.

But I don't really understand the OP. It's making it sound like WCW won the Monday Night War or something. Nothing would have changed as WWF still would have won the war, just like they did as it was.

 

[Mustang Sally]

This caught fans off-guard and really led them to believe that WCW was being invaded by the WWF, since Hall and Nash had been on Raw only a week before.

Great question. I didn't frequent wrestling forums in those days and had no idea Scott Hall had left WWE. I truly (foolishly, as it turned out) believed that WWE and WCW had forged some type of a working arrangement and would be exchanging talent to the extent that an "invasion" angle could be done. I remember Hall standing at the mic and issuing the challenge: "Our three best guys against your three best guys" and I was told he still used his Razor Ramon accent, convincing me he still worked for WWE. Of course, he never said the name we knew him as in WWE; WCW intentionally mislead us.

If a 90-day non-compete clause existed back then, the surprise factor would have been eliminated. In those three months, we would have learned that Hall and Nash had left WWE....and the shock value of the whole NWO scenario would have been negated. Yes, WCW could have still launched the same program 90 days after Hall and Nash quit WWE, but it never would have had the same impact.

 

[Dagger Dias]

It's an interesting thing to think about. The no-compete clause could have completely changed the course of history. WWE could have buried Hall and Nash during the time in between their departure and their WCW debut. By then enough time would have passed for them to not matter as much. Part of why the nWo storyline worked so well at first was due to the shock of those two jumping ship so rapidly. Imagine how much better TNA would be today if their guys that came from WWE had been able to debut right after their last WWE show. If the no-compete clause existed back then it could potentially have altered the WWF/WCW war significantly because a lot of the shock behind the federation jumps would be gone. The nWo storyline would still have happend but I doubt it would have been as successful. Hogan's heel turn would have been the only real interesting part of it at that point.