Wow is the biggest wrestling promotion on the planet, but during the Monday Night Wars, it was almost overtaken by WCW. World Championship Wrestling was first born in 1988, and while it had a decent amount of success as one of the bigger wrestling brands at the time, there was still a significant gap between them and WWE, with WCW being more of a Great regional promotion. , popular in the southern United States, while WWE has a national and global reach.
That perception would change during the Monday Night Wars. Starting on September 4, 1995, WCW’s Monday Nitro would air on TNT at the same time as WWE’s Monday Night Raw would air at the same time on USA Network. Under the booking and supervision of Eric Bischoff, WCW would almost end the WWE for good Winning the ratings war for 83 weeks straight. Just as there were key business decisions made by Vince McMahon that led to WWE’s success, some of the key decisions Bischoff made were so good that they nearly put WWE out of business.
10
Give away Raw’s pre-taped results live on the air
Give audiences reason to keep channel surfing
Some modern fans will be shocked to know that Monday Night Raw isn’t always live As it is now. Much of its run in the 90s was pre-taped episodes, something WCW would take full advantage of. Eric Bischoff, weekly whenever possible, would spoil the results of the pre-taped Raw shows during Monday Nitro to deter fans from turning away from their programming and flipping channels.
However, this ended back when WWE’s product was significantly better than WCW’s. It is well documented that one of the shifts in the Monday Night Wars was the night of January 4, 1999, when Mankind beat The Rock for the WWE Championship. Underrated as universally loved Mick Foley, WCW removed the spoiler and actually inspired many viewers to switch to Raw to see Mrs. Foley’s baby boy achieve his dream. It might be easy to criticize WCW for spoiling WWE programming after seeing it back, however It was a move that consistently worked for WCW…until it didn’t.
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Go live before Roy an hour early
Ahead of the competition
One of the smarter decisions that WCW would make while going head-to-head with Raw was deciding to do it an hour ahead of schedule. Nitro would also be a three-hour show while Raw was another two hours at that time. Not only would Nitro air earlier, but it would stay on the air for longer.
In an era where any promotion could lose viewers while channel surfing back and forth, WCW would get ahead of the game by bringing in audiences an hour earlier. All WCW has to do is create enough interest from the first hour to make viewers forget to tune in to the other shows during the second hour. And more often than not, the strategy would work.
8
Signing “The Big Boys” of the WWE
Bring in proven talent
WCW has a motto of being the promotion “Where the big boys play.” It was their signature tagline that was a direct jab at WWE, and it was hard for fans not to buy into that story. After all, at the time, WWE’s biggest players — their big boys, if you will — were consistently jumping from WWE to WCW. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Razor Ramon, Diesel, Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase – the list goes on. They all wanted to be where the big boys played – and where the numbers were bigger and the working days shorter.
When WWE was considered the end-all-be-all of professional wrestling for so long, it sent a specific message to fans that WWE is not the cool place to be anymore. WCW, however, was cool. For wrestlers, the guaranteed money that Ted Turner’s seemingly endless pockets offered them (at a time when WWE didn’t provide that) and the prospect of long-term contracts with fewer days down the road made WCW the place to be. As a consequence, WCW was the cool wrestling show to watch for fans.
Working with CMLL, NJPW, etc.
While the WWE cooperated with several other promotions during its early days, most notably Giant Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling, this trend ended as soon as Vince McMahon wanted to make his promotion perceived by the audience as the “only” wrestling in the World. WCW, on the other hand, actively has working relationships with international promotions, Like AAA, CMLL and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Wrestlers from these international promotions would appear on WCW television regularly, and vice versa as many of these promotions would return the favor by allowing WCW talent on their shows. This helped broaden the horizons for WCWExpanding their reach in different markets and growing their audience in other countries. When their goal was ultimately to grow a bigger audience than WWE, these relationships were vital in WCW’s growth.
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DDP refusing to join the nWo
The first men’s champion
While former WWE Superstars jumping ship were instrumental in WCW’s success, that doesn’t mean they neglected their Homemade gift. Among such talent was Diamond Dallas Page. One of Nitro’s most important segments was a starmaking one on January 19, 1997. At that point, nWo was the coolest place to be, technically even cooler than the WCW brand itself. People were joining the nWo left and right, but when DDP was offered a black and white t-shirt, he turned it down.
DDP effectively became the People’s Champion (a moniker he held before the Ruck) at this point. It was especially important to see the fans get behind a WCW original straight out of their Power Plant training center. Become the one person who is basically too cool to join wrestling’s coolest stable made Page look like a million bucks. It instantly made Page a mega-star and launched him into the main event scene.
5
Sting’s booking after becoming the crow
One of the most iconic runs in wrestling history
Eric Bischoff can’t be credited for giving Sting his Crow gimmick (believe it or not, it was Scott Hall’s idea), but he can be credited for the way Sting was booked right before and after Donning This new black-and-white painted character. During his Surfer Sting era, nWo had their own personal Sting imposter character masquerading as if he was the real thing. The fact that fans asked if Sting would turn his back on WCW broke Sting’s heart (in kayfabe) and so he left.
When he returned, he returned under this new, dark character with the mission statement of becoming a one-man army to destroy the nWo. For an entire year, Sting did not speak on the microphone on WCW television. He would ominously appear in the rafters, without uttering a word, playing mind games with the NVO. When Sting finally returned to fight as the savior of WCW, he became the definition of “over”. It was a drastic change for a veteran wrestler That helped add longevity to his career and freshen him up for the modern era of wrestling.
4
Creating the Cruiserweight Division
Revolutionizing wrestling on television
As with WWE, WCW’s main event scene was filled with massive juggernauts who were jacked to the gills. This is exactly what the average main event picture looked like at the time across the wrestling circuit, but it made it difficult for WCW to separate its wrestling style from WWE. Eric Bischoff’s solution? He observed the fast-paced, lucha libre style of the Mexican wrestling scenes, where many American and Canadian talents were also being taught the ropes.
Eric Bischoff would hire light heavyweight talents like Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho and several masked luchadors to offer a high-octane break from the heavyweight style, often setting the tone for shows at the beginning of the night. It also proved to be a massive selling point for WCWoffering something WWE didn’t at the time, with fans often enjoying the spectacular bouts more than the recurring nWo hijinks. The decision also popularized the lucha libre style in the US. US, making it a staple of mainstream wrestling.
3
Goldberg’s unconfirmed streak
Make a homegrown star larger than life
Speaking of massive selling points, one of the biggest selling points that WCW had revolved around an original talent was The undefeated streak of Bill Goldberg. At a time when the nWo was starting to lose its luster, Goldberg’s presence and long undefeated streak were enough to spark new interest in the WCW product. During this time, Goldberg would effectively overtake the nWo as the leading face of the WCW brand and even became the highest paid talent under the WCW roster.
Granted, some try to discount Goldberg’s streak because it would be exaggerated in real-time, meaning the 173-0 number is a bit inaccurate, but the point is that regardless of the actual number, the streak was a selling point that brought in fans . In WCW events and away from WWE. The mishandling of Goldberg’s character and the end of his streak are often mentioned as one of the reasons for WCW’s final defeat in the Monday Night Wars.
2
Forming the nWo
The day the wrestling world changed
The first time it really felt like WCW had a shot at becoming bigger than WWE was when Scott Hall, then known to the public as Razor Ramon, appeared on a random episode of WCW TV. Kevin Nash would soon follow, giving readers the impression that some sort of crossover or WWE invasion was taking place. It was presented in a way that Blur the lines between fact and fictionUntil everyone would slowly reveal.
The outsiders have made it clear that they are there alone with plans to build an army to take over WCW for themselves. The Army would eventually become the nWo, one of wrestling’s greatest factions. The nWo and its success can be argued as the leading reason why WCW beat WWE in the ratings for 83 weeks. The intrusion of realism into a business, which until then was based on childish, sometimes goofy characters, marked a monumental shift. That being said, the nWo itself would not be as successful without one key ingredient…
1
Turning Hulk Hogan heel
No more prayers and vitamins
By 1996, Hulkamania was getting old, even by WCW standards, to the point that Hogan was getting booed. With the mystery surrounding Hall & Nash being joined by some elusive third person who went to Bash at the Beach 1996, Hogan was the last person most people would have expected in the role. Then, the foot drop heard ‘Around the World’ draped across the neck of Macho Man. The crowd was on their feet and flooding trash left and right as Hogan cut the first skating heel promo of his main event career.
The New World Order was upon us, and it wasn’t just a fancy name. It was truly a brave new world where WCW had the attention of every wrestling fan. The move freshened up Hogan’s character as Hollywood Hogan, modernizing him for more than half a decade, and was enough to almost put a definitive nail in WWE s Coffin.