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15 Years Ago today, WWE brought out WCW

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M

mreddie

Member
I know the deal was earlier but...

CAyo_qvUUAA6ZS4.jpg
Click to expand...
Last Nitro Intro
RAW Intro with Vince axing Jeff Jarrett

Did you watch the simlucast? Reaction to the buyout?

How has the business changed since then?

I know the RAW side is on the WWE Network, dunno about the Last Nitro other than the matches uploaded to YT.

OSW Reviews gives a good recap to both shows that night.
Final Nitro
Simlucast RAW
 
R

RBH

Member
One of the worst things to ever happen to the wrestling industry.

Even with all of the bad stuff that happened during its final two years, WCW is still sorely missed to this day.
 
R

RecRoulette

Member
Craziest thing I remember in wrestling (not counting deaths). Also was the beginning of the end for me, I didn't make it to the next WrestleMania, and didn't start watching again until 2012.
 
J

Jay Shadow

Member
I remember being in a computer lab in my school and overhearing people hyped about the big name matchups like Sting that were coming. I felt bad for them that they didn't understand they only were buying a name and the cheapest guys they could resign.
 
Strangelove77

Strangelove77

Member
That was a crazy Raw. Too bad they didn't capitalize. I wasn't a fan of the whole invasion thing.

Also wasn't WCW in the shitter and super cheap at the time? Can't imagine why people would still be sore over Vince buying it.
Plus, TNA is for all intents and purposes what WCW would be if it were still around - a total piece of shit.
 
C

Cipherr

Member
I remember kids that were wrestling fans talking about it. But they werent dreading it. Everyone was just talking about crossovers and how "Insert WWF wrestler" was gonna finally fight "Insert WCW wrestler".

From what I later heard, very little of that actually happened.
 
M

mreddie

Member
Cipherr said:
I remember kids that were wrestling fans talking about it. But they werent dreading it. Everyone was just talking about crossovers and how "Insert WWF wrestler" was gonna finally fight "Insert WCW wrestler".

From what I later heard, very little of that actually happened.
Click to expand...

There was...
220px-Wwfwcwecwinvasion.jpg
 
T

TaterTots

Banned
This is when wrestling went downhill for me. The competitive spirit was lost. It was a missed opportunity. I even preferred WCW at one point.
 
K

Keyser Soze

Member
I recently watched RAW's around where the whole "Invasion/Alliance" storyline kick into high gear. Shane is fighting the Undertaker for some reason...

...Wrestlemania 32 is truly a slow build of 15 years.
 
D

DeaconKnowledge

Member
Doomed to fail. The biggest WCW star WWF brought over was Booker T. (No offense to Book of course.)

No Goldberg, No Sting, No Big Poppa Pump, No Hall and Nash, No Savage, no La Parka, Ultimo Dragon, nobody interesting. Buff Bagwell? Fuck outta here.
 
J

Jonbo298

Member
I remember watching the simulcast. It felt unreal at the time that it was happening. Looking back, it was inevitable. WCW forced then WWF to innovate more and I feel the Attitude era was a result of WCW's competitiveness. Unfortunately, If I remember correctly, ratings were falling and it was going to either be bought out or go bankrupt.
 
M

mreddie

Member
DeaconKnowledge said:
Doomed to fail. The biggest WCW star WWF brought over was Booker T. (No offense to Book of course.)

No Goldberg, No Sting, No Big Poppa Pump, No Hall and Nash, No Savage, no La Parka, Ultimo Dragon, nobody interesting. Buff Bagwell? Fuck outta here.
Click to expand...

Majority of them stuck though their contracts.
Savage was already fired.
2002-2003 was when you really felt WCW/WWF was being a thing.
 
I

industrian

will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
It should be "15 years ago WCW finally died". The WWF just got dibs on the corpse.

That said, I'd go as far as saying that the Invasion angle is probably the biggest failure in the history of modern entertainment. If it were a movie it would have been a $200m blockbuster that made $25m at the box office. For many reasons, but mainly due to one man's hubris. It should have been so much more.
 
S

Striker

Member
Making DDP a stalker was ultra stupid. He is a guy who was mega over in WCW and they chopped his balls off and had him get beat up by a non-wrestler woman.
 
M

mreddie

Member
DeaconKnowledge said:
That's the shitty part. All of those guys ended up back in WWF, just not during the Invasion Angle. They should have saved it.
Click to expand...

WWE/F was gonna try to have WCW as a separate brand but UPN/TNN weren't up for it because WCW was a poisoned well. They tried out a few house shows but it stunk. Also not helping matters was that Vince was already burning millions with the XFL instead of buying out contracts.
 
D

DeaconKnowledge

Member
mreddie said:
WWE/F was gonna try to have WCW as a separate brand but UPN/TNN weren't up for it because WCW was a poisoned well. They tried out a few house shows but it stunk. Also not helping matters was that Vince was already burning millions with the XFL instead of buying out contracts.
Click to expand...

Of course it stunk - they had almost no one decent, and who they DID have was doomed to be buried by the WWF fanbase who by then had been conditioned to hate WCW. Not to mention the WCW style was completely different from WWF (WWF had a bigger ring, stiffer canvas and ropes and were doing far less rest spots in their matches than WCW at the time) which screwed up everyone's timing.
 
B

Burai

shitonmychest57
Imagine if WCW had buried Hall and Nash when they came in, just to stick it to Vince instead of running with them and making millions of dollars.

The Invasion in a nutshell.
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
How surreal must it have been for Shane to be in the middle of Nitro, though?
 
P

psynergylover

Member
Cipherr said:
I remember kids that were wrestling fans talking about it. But they werent dreading it. Everyone was just talking about crossovers and how "Insert WWF wrestler" was gonna finally fight "Insert WCW wrestler".

From what I later heard, very little of that actually happened.
Click to expand...

We need a "I expected everything and I got nothing".gif
 
W

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
WCW kept WWF hungry. This buyout cemented the companies trajectory into the ground. Now at 2016 look where we are.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
DeaconKnowledge said:
Doomed to fail. The biggest WCW star WWF brought over was Booker T. (No offense to Book of course.)

No Goldberg, No Sting, No Big Poppa Pump, No Hall and Nash, No Savage, no La Parka, Ultimo Dragon, nobody interesting. Buff Bagwell? Fuck outta here.
Click to expand...

lmao, the Buff Bagwell diss made this post. I remember playing that guy in the N64 games though.
 
R

RBH

Member
Strangelove77 said:
That was a crazy Raw. Too bad they didn't capitalize. I wasn't a fan of the whole invasion thing.

Also wasn't WCW in the shitter and super cheap at the time? Can't imagine why people would still be sore over Vince buying it.
Plus, TNA is for all intents and purposes what WCW would be if it were still around - a total piece of shit.
Click to expand...
Because it represented the last real competition that the WWE has and will encounter for the foreseeable future. That competition kept Vince on his toes and made the weekly Raw show better, even during the dying days of WCW because WCW still had the backing of Turner behind them, which was still a real benefit at the time. But now? It'll be a miracle before a company like Turner gets behind a wrestling company, and that's to the detriment of wrestling fans.

And WCW in its last few months from November-January was actually pretty solid.
 
NYR

NYR

Member
Worst thing to happen the industry ever. Killed any competition and made a lazy, arrogant monopoly that is nothing more than a corporate machine regurgating past-their-prime wrestlers and no new talent that is equivalent to the true stars of the 80s and 90s.
 
T

Tansut

Member
They probably had to film Vinny Mac from the waist up in the Nitro intro to keep hidden his throbbing erection.
 
S

ShooterMcGavin

Member
DeaconKnowledge said:
Doomed to fail. The biggest WCW star WWF brought over was Booker T. (No offense to Book of course.)

No Goldberg, No Sting, No Big Poppa Pump, No Hall and Nash, No Savage, no La Parka, Ultimo Dragon, nobody interesting. Buff Bagwell? Fuck outta here.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I remember the talent differential being crazy lopsided. They literally had to give the WCW team Stone Cold.
 
H

HeisenbergLannister

Member
WWE has gone downhill ever since, but if WCW had been able to buy WWE in, say, 1997, I'm not sure either company would still be around.

I think the WCW management would have screwed it up worse than Vince did.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
teruterubozu said:
Whatever happened to Goldberg?
Click to expand...

He more or less retired after leaving the WWE, though I did read that he did make a couple of in-ring appearances recently for LoW. His split the rest of his time between acting, TV show hosting and commentating for various MMA promotions.
 
D

DJKhaled

Member
Strangelove77 said:
Plus, TNA is for all intents and purposes what WCW would be if it were still around - a total piece of shit.
Click to expand...

God I am sick of this shit, I bet you haven't even watched the show. It is 100x better than WWE has been for months. Even wrestling journalists like Meltzer that have traditionally shit on TNA have said it's the best weekly wrestling show on TV. Stop circlejerking.
 
A

adj_noun

Member
I was so happy. I hated WCW back then. If they had a grave to dance on, I would have.

Now I miss the competition. #monkeyspaw
 
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