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20 years ago, the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro aired on TNT
- Thread starter RBH
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That was a legendary show and I'm happy to say I watched it live (on tv lol)
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It's sucks how it played out but IMO that moment couldn't be topped.
it is strange IMO both wcw and sega's console business both ended roughly the same time period. 2001, along with the effects of the dot com bubble burst, was savage AF
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It's sucks how it played out but IMO that moment couldn't be topped.
it is strange IMO both wcw and sega's console business both ended roughly the same time period. 2001, along with the effects of the dot com bubble burst, was savage AF
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Sid Vicous- WHY ME?
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I was a WCW kid during the Monday wars. I was huge on Goldberg and the Sting v. NWO story buildup was amazing. However, the show had a million flaws that I never really appreciated as a kid:
1. They had great cruiserweights and mid-cards that they never built up.
2. Bret Hart was completely wasted there.
3. Sting v. Hogan (Starcade 1997) was supposed to be the biggest match ever and politics (i.e. Hogan) botched it.
4. Goldberg and Booker T. were the only new faces they built up.
5. The NWO story was amazing at first but then sucked once they had like half the roster as members.
6. The Glacier buildup was amazing but they gave up on the character immediately.
Probably other stuff I'm forgetting.
1. They had great cruiserweights and mid-cards that they never built up.
2. Bret Hart was completely wasted there.
3. Sting v. Hogan (Starcade 1997) was supposed to be the biggest match ever and politics (i.e. Hogan) botched it.
4. Goldberg and Booker T. were the only new faces they built up.
5. The NWO story was amazing at first but then sucked once they had like half the roster as members.
6. The Glacier buildup was amazing but they gave up on the character immediately.
Probably other stuff I'm forgetting.
So much potential, so badly executed. It was doomed to failure with most of the big stars missing, but I don't think I'd have trusted Vince to have pulled it off even with them. The urge to rub the WCW talent's noses in it might have been too great. Just look at that humiliating stalker angle they gave DDP.
According to Wikipedia that was the approximate price for acquiring the name and video library. AOL Time Warner's management at the time seemed desperate to get rid of it.
All good points for another kid who flipped back and forth between both.
If it makes you feel better, this alternate booking sounded awesome.
There was a lawsuit around 95-96 I believe between WCW and WWF. WCW lost and part of the terms were WWF had first right of refusal if they were selling.
Unfortunately TNT didn't want wrestling anymore, so they only sold the name, all the rights, and the tape library to WWF. Not sure if that was too low, but it would have been lower regardless since Vince wasn't buying out contracts, or getting a TV show out of it.
Now the funny thing is, WCW had potential buyers a year or so prior that wanted to buy for something around $100-$150 million, but WCW laughed at it.
WCW's decline really stung for me because I didn't follow WWF at all, and couldn't get into it the few times I tried, and then suddenly all the other kids were talking about it exclusively. Meanwhile I had to watch things like the Fingerpoke of Doom. Plus, as someone who couldn't afford the pay-per-views, the Monday Nitro afterwards seemed to never give a recap, which always bugged me. Towards the end I could tell something was off - horribly off - and, I just stopped watching and moved on.
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So I did not dislike WCW back in the day but I was definitely more of a WWF person. When Nitro was 3 hours I would watch the first hour and then switch over to Raw, then during ad breaks or just segments I didn't like I would flip over to Nitro for a short bit. All that's to say I generally missed a lot of WCW promos when they switched back to being a two hour show BUT I did see this one back when it aired and I thought it was fucking hilarious. So wonderfully dumb.
I like to imagine that DDP wakes up every morning and tapes up those ribs still.
I ran through the Monday Night Wars again a few months back, and even checked out some 80's WCW which is fantastic. WCW made me love wrestling when I was kid. Then Vince single handedly pushed me away since then.
HE'S GONNA RACK HIM
The escalation on commentary is beautiful. It felt like Thanos was just defeated. Of course he won it back six days later.
It's still better than what Sting got, which is the moment that killed WCW for me. Over a fucking tan!
I ran through the Monday Night Wars again a few months back, and even checked out some 80's WCW which is fantastic. WCW made me love wrestling when I was kid. Then Vince single handedly pushed me away since then.
HE'S GONNA RACK HIM
The escalation on commentary is beautiful. It felt like Thanos was just defeated. Of course he won it back six days later.
It's still better than what Sting got, which is the moment that killed WCW for me. Over a fucking tan!
Not completely accurate, if technically correct (insert Futurama GIF). The total purchase price was around $25 million, because the WWE agreed to buy $20M in advertising* over 4 years with AOL/Time Warner as part of the deal.
In addition to allowing the WWE to buy WCW on an installment plan it allowed them to structure the deal in ways that were better for taxes for both parties.
Still a far cry from the over $100 that was reportedly on the table a few years prior.
*This was covered on a recent Grilling JR episode.
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Uuuh, It's kinda common knowledge that monopolies without any form of competition or risk of lose/failure would produce mediocre work, simply deliver only the bare minimum to meet expectations and not elevate the product or industry to higher level due to a lack of drive. It wouldn't be in any of their interest to produce something better/different/fresh/new/exciting if they are confident that their product will sell anyway because of a lack of a competitive product. So with that in mind, pretty sure someone at the time would've predicted and anticipated how bad WWE would have become based on how other monopolies operated.
I think the real baffling thing is how it took nearly two decades for a compelling alternative to really rise to fill the void WCW left in the business (I mean, there was TNA, but it was TNA...).
I remember sitting on a blanket on the floor, looking up at the TV watching it. I was so sad and dropped wrestling completely a few years later for the longest time.
Millions of fans left the industry forever after Vince killed WCW and then made a total joke of the leftovers.
WCW did put itself in the dire situation to begin with though. The kind of fuckery so insane it would be hard for a movie to accurately portray it.
Any current wrestler watchers. I hear AEW is really good. Is there any way to watch their stuff if you don't have cable TV?
If you're in the UK, there is a $5 a month subscription on FITE TV.
It's what I use and it's great. Although I am in the US. So I use a VPN and it works great.
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If you live outside of the U.S.:
Join AEW Plus - TrillerTV - Powered by FITE
Join AEW Plus on TrillerTV - Powered by FITE
Otherwise, Sling is probably the cheapest way to get TNT in the U.S. Or better yet, get a VPN in order to watch through Fite.
VPN babyIf you live outside of the U.S.:
Join AEW Plus - TrillerTV - Powered by FITE
Join AEW Plus on TrillerTV - Powered by FITEwww.fite.tv
Otherwise, Sling is probably the cheapest way to get TNT in the U.S. Or better yet, get a VPN in order to watch through Fite.
I did too. It felt like WCW was just starting to right the ship again. It wasn't perfect and probably would have taken a few years but it was on the right course.
You had the right guys on the roster. You had the best of the best of the old guard left, you had a lot of midcard guys on the edge of a breakout, you had young talent that was going to be future stars (Hell AJ Styles was on the roster) and then...
AOL-Time Warner's new board decided they were above wrestling, even though Nitro and Thunder were still out performing most TBS and TNT programming even in thier decline.
And WCW's fate was sealed.
There is a reason a What If WCW wasn't sold has been a popular scenario for games like Total Extreme Warfare and other booking Sim games since the Invasion ended.
I've never marked out more in my life than when this happened. That was an unforgettable night!
Yassssssss I'm totally Tenay
Though I do run a Heenan gimmick sometimes lol but but true self is a Tenay