So what went wrong? Who is to blame? Well, I feel like this has been covered at length in several different documentaries and countless articles, so I don’t want to repeat the same things over and over again. Obviously, Eric Bischoff created all the success that WCW ever saw, and Vince Russo destroyed the company so badly that people often suspect he was sent there by Vince McMahon to do so on purpose.
However, what I would like to focus on here isn’t any of the stupidity that came under Vince Russo, since everything he did was a complete waste of time. All I would like to mention is a few mistakes Eric Bischoff made that hurt his run in charge and left the door open for an idiot like Russo to even get hired in the first place, because had Bischoff never been replaced Russo never could have taken over.
The greatest creative storyline Bischoff ever had was the NWO and with its rise he created WCW’s one true hero… Sting (as the Crow character). So the biggest mistake Eric Bischoff ever allowed to happen was the debacle that took place at that year’s Starcade between Hollywood Hogan and Sting. After a year-long build up the payoff from that match was such a huge letdown that it destroyed everything Bischoff had built. Wrestling fans deserved to see Sting destroy the NWO and defeat Hogan clean to become the new WCW Champion, to erase the spray paint on the belt and restore order to the company. That whole year should have seen NWO members winning every title in the company, destroying WCW wrestlers, as they did, only for Sting to lead the way for WCW wrestlers to start taking back every title and having members quit the NWO and rejoin the WCW side in the aftermath of his huge win at Starcade. Instead what we got was a match full of interference, a bad referee, utter confusion and chaos that ruined everything. Now why did we get that, in my opinion, because of Bischoff's greatest mistake, always listening to Hogan.
After a long run with Sting as WCW Champion, eventually Hogan would have used every dirty trick in the book to steal back the WCW Championship and for the sake of the storyline, injure Sting and put him out of action, opening the door for a new WCW hero to step up and save the day. This would have been the rise of Goldberg. Arguably, the greatest moment in the history of WCW came when Goldberg defeated Hogan on Monday Nitro in the Georgia Dome. However, it was a tragic mistake that this match took place on Nitro. The next biggest mistake that Bischoff made was always worrying more about the short term than the long term, caring too much about the Monday night TV ratings than the overall success of the company. He had the patience to keep the Sting storyline going for a year to build it up to Starcade, why couldn’t he do the same thing the next year with Goldberg? That match at the Georgia Dome should have taken place, but it should have had what I expected at the time, which was a DQ finish, or something similar, that protected Goldberg’s streak, and still kept the belt on Hogan so they could drag it out to Starcade for the eventual victory by Goldberg. It still would have boosted the ratings that night, but it could have kept the ratings up all the way to Starcade and beyond. However, the fact that Bischoff was able to get Hogan to put over Goldberg clean for the title was still a miracle in itself.
WCW was always giving away its best moments for free on Nitro and wasting what could have been major feuds and PPV title changes. Another major one was when Lex Luger defeated Hogan for the WCW Championship, on what I believe was the 100th episode of Nitro, only to turn around and drop the title back to Hogan a week later on the next PPV. It was an epic moment, but completely wasted and ruined.
How was there never a major feud / storyline between Sting and Goldberg? How did those two never face each other in the main event of Starcade for the WCW Championship? They were the two greatest creations in the history of WCW, their own stars, not from the WWF. The company was built around those two but they never really feuded against each other. I don’t get it. Honestly, you wouldn’t even need to turn one of them heel, it could have been a showdown of the two greatest babyfaces in the company, like in the WWF at WrestleMania VI when the Ultimate Warrior challenged Hulk Hogan. They couldn’t have worked together to destroy the NWO then wanted to settle things once and for all proving who was the biggest star, the greatest wrestler in WCW. Personally, I would have wanted to see Sting go over, and possibly have this be the match that finally ended Goldberg’s streak, instead of the way it was wasted on Kevin Nash. That was an utter joke with the taser, and what did it lead to… the finger poke of doom.
Ultimately that is in my opinion what ruined WCW and left the door open for Russo to burn up what was left of the once great powerhouse of a company.
No comments:
Post a Comment