I like the fact that this is not a top-10 ranking, but a series of events in chronological order. It just feels so fresh to see a top-10 list have a different set of rules.
It is a bit overdone at this point. I think most wrestling fans know the many reasons why WCW failed. Not enough people talk about that the new Turner execs at the time had zero interest in wrestling anymore. The ratings and attendance crash certainly didn’t help, but they wanted it gone.
So many people give Eric Bischoff a pass. Yes WCW died under Russo but the cancer was already there under Bischoff. He wanted to be friends with the wrestlers instead of being the boss. I started to lose my interest when the NWO had 72 members. The show was a merry-go-round and that stated under Bischoff.
WCW was a sinking ship long before Russo got there. And even when he was there he was only head of creative for a few months, before Bishoff came back. Either way Russo had nothing to do with WCW getting taken off air
@@absolutez3r019 Russo did return as head of creative after a few months of the Kevin Sullivan disaster where he put the world title on Benoit only for him to leave the company the next day.
@@CamberRockerCamber Shawn ended up giving us one of the most entertaining things to see during that period. Throwing a fit or not, that shit was hilarious.
1995-2002 best time of my childhood. We recorded every second on VHS back then.We pooled our pocket money together to convince the parents of the one guy with a cable connection that we could watch the ppv's. I miss these carefree, beautiful times
I’ve watched different reviews on Starrcade 97, Wrestling with Wregret and Wrestling Bios, but I will never fully understand the insane main event. Just a mess.
I'm not sure what happened at *Bash at the Beach 2000,* but I do know that when Hulk Hogan comes across as one of the more reasonable people involved, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. Massive respect for David Arquette, though. He somehow knew better than the fucking bookers, made something good out of it and it lead to his genuinely entertaining "apology" tour (not that he had anything to apologize for), training and taking part in matches well into his 50s.
For me and my brother, we had been watching wrestling since the early 1980s and none of these events really had an impact on turning us away from WCW. For us it was just frustration in that they'd announce a match for next week or later that night that we'd really want to see and then either the match didn't happen or it ended with a big chaotic finish with half the roster in the ring and fans throwing garbage... For a bit we were OK with that: it made sense that they'd want to save the really big matches or finishes to a long story for the next pay per view... but then the pay per views started ending the same way. We had to start asking "Why are we paying $50 for a pay per view when we just get the same crap we get on free tv?" and then from there it went to "Why are we watching this if we're never going to see actual finishes to the stories and we aren't wasting money on the pay per views?"
Oh that was the shits. For about a year there, EVERY main event ended in a schmoz. It was unbelievably short sighted to think people would stick around for that trash. (and, we didn't!)
Very well said! I just wanted to see some big matches NOT end with controversy or interference. I got go along with silly storylines that really made little sense as long as there was a payoff at the end. WCW stopped providing that, which is why I began to not care nearly as much for their product, but still liked the wrestlers. Just wanted to see them actually wrestle!
I hated the main event scene of WCW from 96 to 01, my whole viewing time. If it wasn’t old timers in trunks being unathletic and slow and boring, it was the endless unsatisfying BS finishes. I loved WCW for the bottom to mid card, so if I were smart, I’d have always went to bed 20min before the end of the show!
@@sandboxplayerz667 True. But it still pissed off a lot of fans. Also Goldberg's streak had to end eventually. He couldn't go undefeated his whole career.
@@TheBmb2jn DDP Could've realistically done it at Halloween Havoc. The fans loved him at the time and he was probably the only one at the time fans would've accepted beating him.
100%. I think this list really does shortchange a lot of the bad luck and poor decisions that happened between the two Starrcades. Here are some of them in no particular order: - suspending Ric Flair - bringing in the Ultimate Warrior - splitting the nWo into two factions, and then letting the faction war peter out (which is what necessitated the finger poke of doom in the first place) - Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff feuding with DDP and a rotating selection of celebrities (one reason the above-noted faction war died on the vine) - booking Goldberg in a main event squash match on virtually every Nitro, thereby defeating every credible title challenger (modern wrestling commentators love to say "Goldberg was so hot; he should have held on to the belt longer." The problem with this thinking is that there was practically no one left besides Kevin Nash to challenge Goldberg.) - neglecting Chris Jericho, who was easily the brightest spot of 1998 WCW - other notable neglectees included Eddie Guerrero, who had outgrown the midcard but wasn't given main-event opportunities - notable long-term injuries included Booker T and Randy Savage. Starrcade 1997 was a fiasco, but putting Sting over Hogan in a few rematches seemed to have smoothed things over with the fans. But then WCW creative started making all sorts of little mistakes (largely motivated by panic as the success of Wrestlemania 14 reinvigorated WWF Raw) which finally painted them into a corner in late 1998. The one-two punch of Starrcade 1998 and the Fingerpoke of Doom were the disastrous and desperate climax of eight ill-advised months as WCW creative tried to refresh their product back to the state it had been in a year earlier.
WCW should've required more than just a pay TV subscription for that match. WCW left a ton of money on the table. Eric Bischoff was way too concerned with the Monday Night Wars to understand that.
If you even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, fans do not. Because we understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here one time as Cactus Jack, is going to win their world title. Whoe that'll put some buts in the seats. Pha
I think Starrcade 97 should have been higher on the list, simply cause of implications involved. Keep in mind, Starrcade 97 was less than a month away from the Montreal Screwjob, and it was still fresh in the minds of everyone. Putting it simply, WCW had WWE by the throat, and one great show would have cemented them as the #1 wrestling company in North America. WCW not being able to finish the job when they literally had all the cards in hand is why this moment is so damning. Regardless of Sting's lack of shape or enthusiasm, or Hogan's politicking, this was the one moment where Bischoff should have put his foot down and say "no, we go with the planned finish". He could not, and well, we know the rest.
@@michaelahern9126 I loved Starcade 97 and me and my then 9 year old Brother and other fellow 9th Grade Classmates were ALL Popping for Sting, but why The HELL didn't they let him win clean? I don't get it. Even my Classmates with NWO Shirts were asking the same question.
You missed the Hogan/Flair double turn in March of 1999. That's when shit really started falling apart on screen. The nWo reunion which was doing fine in the ratings was just forgotten about. They were still getting 4.0 - 4.5 in the ratings but by the end of April/Start of May it dropped to a 3.0 and could never do more then 3.5 after that.
I heard Bischoff saying that Hogan was the one that did that. Hogan wanted to be a babyface again at that time. Goldberg also took a few months off to film Universal Soldier so there wasn't much for NWO Elite to do as that was done as a hell factory for Goldberg to run through.
For respect of accuracy, Goldberg was a heel at the start of his career, infamously feuding with a babyface Steve McMichael over McMichael's Super Bowl ring so Goldberg turning heel at 2000 Great American Bash was not the first time he was a heel.
@@charlesorlando794 oh he was definitely the heel. The story was he was stealing Mongo's super bowl ring because he never got to win one with the Falcons. It clearly didn't last but he was 100% heel even if he is terrible as a heel.
@@markellzey1531 to be a heel though is more than how they present you in a feud, if I remember he wasn’t getting booed. He really wasn’t getting cheered much either but more cheered than booed.
@@charlesorlando794 of course they weren't booing him. He was squashing people in 2 minutes with devastating power moves, but he portrayed the heel in that feud. That was his first program in late 1997.
@@markellzey1531 I spoke to about 8 buddies tonight while watching the MLB all star game all of us in our 40s lived through the Monday Night Wars, were die hard fans watched Raw then Nitro on replay, brought up this discussion about Goldberg being a heel against Mongo. Most of us remember the program pretty clearly, we all say the same thing. Goldberg wasn’t a heel, WCW was in a weird place. The horseman were face vs. the nWo but they were heels vs. WCW roster. Mongo was heelish vs. Jarrett but Jarrett was also a heel for example. Goldberg was the same thing he was right on that line, I get the perspective that he was heel, but not everything is heel vs. face. Remember the early 1990 wwf jobbers, one week a jobber is cheered for when he wrestles IRS, the next week he wrestles koko b. Ware and is a face but he’s not really either. It’s kind of the same thing with a lot of the WCW roster at that time. Goldberg wasn’t a heel, he was at worst a tweener but still on the face side, just less of a face. He definitely wasn’t a true heel like Hogan was at the time.
And they did the Fingerpoke of Doom the same night Mick Mankind Foley won the WWE Title and Tony Schivone (sp?) made the infamous “butts in seats” line. My personal moment that killed WCW.
That was when I left WCW for good. I spent 1998 wanting to see Nash vs Hogan and sat through Hogan fighting celebrities and basketball players waiting and there never was a full Wolfpac vs Hollywood feud. I lost my shit when Hall came out in red and black with Nash and then the Fingerpoke and I remember changing the channel within 10 seconds of Nash flopping to the mat and never going back.
That line really goes to show how out of touch WCW management was (supposedly it wasn't Schiavone's idea) and how bad they were at spotting which wrestlers connected with the audience.
I watched both WCW and WWF in 98 and was immensely happy. The ending of the streak and the Fingerpoke plus the treatment of Goldberg afterwards made my WCW fandom start fading. I followed tentatively afterwards, but when Goldberg injured Hart (accidentally) in 99 was the last WCW match I saw. They lost their biggest technical main card wrestler that night.
@@markellzey1531 My baby brother and I watched Nitro on January 4,1999 to witness "The Fingerpoke of Doom". We both Sat there in complete SILENCE for 3 minutes. I then replied "Eric Bischoff just COST Ted Turner the Monday Night War". The Next Morning at my HS as we were returning from the '98-99 Holiday break, my Classmate Kevin said "WCW just lost to RAW. There's no going back from this". I even saw other Classmates selling off their NWO T Shirts.
@@marumaruko_47 It was a Boneheaded move. Goldberg was OVER with the Crowd and Audience and they(ESPECIALLY Bischoff) knew that. How The Hell could they do this?
The issues with WCW’s TV product during its later years definitely contributed to its closure. Once the 83 weeks were over and WWE got on a hot streak, WCW could’ve stayed a strong number two but the rapid creative decline of Nitro and (ugh) Thunder alienated all but the most die-hard fans. By the time of the AOL/Time Warner merger WCW was hemorrhaging money on bloated talent contracts and live productions, and the brand had fallen so far there was basically no chance of it breaking even let alone turning a profit. If anything, pulling the plug and selling WCW to WWE was an act of mercy.
David winning the title is a slap in the face for many wrestlers and fans. But to his credit: he became an actual wrestler and performed in the indies to make up for it. Everybody overlooks this fact but I think it deserves at least some credit.
One- Starrcade 97 two- Starrcade 98.Nash ending streak Goldberg three- Fingerpoke of doom four- Uncensored 99 , Double turn five- White Hammer Angle and GAB 99 six- Vince Russo and Ferrara, chapter first seven - The Radicalz Gone and Sullivan's booking eight- Vince Russo chapter second and his era, from april to october nine- David Arquette and Vince Russo wins WCW Title ten- fusion AOL/Time Warner
What really killed WCW was the Time Warner merger Without Ted Turner no longer in charge made no sense for them to keep losing money and that why they were sold to Vince for only 2 million dollars but that was most for the video library
Exactly and a certain executive in charge of the company and of The WB and Kids’ WB! who also canned a bunch of shows like MonsterVision, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Pinky and The Brain and other shows because he didn’t see their value. He even said WCW and MonsterVision were considered too lowbrow programming for Turner and refused to let whoever bought WCW have the time slots on TNT and TBS. Oh, and in the case of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, said executive claimed it wasn’t worth the money to keep it around. He did pave the way for Batman Beyond so I’ll give him credit for that, but he destroyed what I loved about TNT.
@@TheAbnormal actually, Chris Jericho on his podcast and in his books even said Vince told him he paid $2 million so @nicktaylor2657 is right. I think Bruce Prichard even said it was $2 million as well on his podcast.
i would also suggest that not having any friggen plan or even idea what to do with Bret Hart when he arrived was a big part of it. All they had to do was have Sting win clean, hold the belt for 2 months as Hogan tried to get it back, have Bret face a few folks then NWO guy Hennig or Hall. Hogan wins and Bret chase Hogan. For WCW to not use the Best there is , was, will be as the natural successor to Sting as the foil to Hogan was baffling.
It's amazing to think that Bret Hart didn't even get close to the WCW title until two years after his arrival in WCW. Instead, he stayed pretty much in the micdard.
In 'Friends', Monica's boyfriend (Jon Favreau) becomes a UFC fighter in 1997. In real life, Courtney Cox's husband David Arquette becomes a WCW wrestler in 2000. Surely someone noticed this irony at the time, right?
Kevin Nash seems to get a free pass in these conversations, yet Nash played a pivotal role in all the rotten events that killed WCW. Nash was like a cancer to the promotion. In fact, Nash took a lot more from the wrestling industry than he ever contributed. But he doesnt have the same bad reputation as the Biscoffs, Russos and Bolleas of this world.
Man this stuff brings back a lot of memories I remember being in school and people doing the Wolfpack thing and NWO and all that stuff greatest showman
The finger poke of doom night was the death blow for me. Video didn’t mention it but that was the same night Mick Foley won his first WWF title. Raw was taped so WCW already knew it was going to happen. Bischoff thought it was cute to share Raw results and when Schiavone announced it 400K people instantly changed the channel, watched a classic and still had time to catch Nitro overrun main event only to get the finger poke of doom.
Dlo at the end nice!! I always wonder what if dlo ( given they push push) Would have done in 1999 wcw when he was up for new contract I say us title at the very least and a run for the title
When Viagara On A Pole & Judy Bagwell On A Forklift matches dont crack the Top 10 that tells you all you need to know why WCW isnt a thing anymore lol. The AOL Merger was the official death but all they did was put a dying dog out of its misery. Anyone that tries to tell you WCW was a strong company & AOL would've killed them even if they were still #1 is lying to you as well as living in Mark denial 😂
So when exactly were they supposed to end Goldberg’s streak then? This is the one point I don’t get. I may be one of the few people who agree with that decision. The aftermath is more the issue than the actual event.
Thats similar to what WWE is doing now with the US title, by having it on a nobody like Logan Paul, who just a few yrs ago was only a famous RU-vidr, and his bro Jake is the physical sportsman (Boxing), not Logan! 🤦
@@simplysteve68 Not to mention he's not even a full time wrestler. I can't stand the fact on how wrestlers such as Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, & now Logan Paul who don't wrestle full time are allowed to be champion. Like Ricky Steamboat said, having a wrestler as champion who only wrestles sporadically makes the championship irrelevant and dormant.
Sick of seeing Starrcade 98 listed as a reason the company died, what was supposed to happen? Have Goldberg never lose in his entire career? They were already piping in Goldberg chants in some buildings and dealing with an increase of anti-Goldberg signs due to growing fatigue at the '5 minute entrances, spear, jackhammer, match over in 2 minutes' routine from the guy who was now the main event and world champ. Also, say whatever you want about him, but Nash and the Wolfpac was insanely popular at the time. What happened afterwards, yeah that definitely helped the death happen, but a better follow-up would have made the end of the streak here not be a bad thing. Just bootlicker media parroting WWE revisionist history and propaganda.
At the time I didn't necessarily have a problem with Goldberg's streak ending. But the way it ended was incredibly lame, as Goldberg gets taken out by the same type of weapon used by Jacques (Mountie) Rougeau in the early 90's.
The bill goldberg vs Nash match gave me nightmares as a kid, the part where Scott hall electrocuted my hero at the time left me with many sleepless nights.
@@craigderby4416 no he didn’t. The Rock did, Stone Cold did, the McMahon character did. Want me to keep going?? Russo played a “part” in it, but only a part
@@mwcarolina I was on about when he went to wcw, but yes he did get wwe ratings up too, it's factual, you can deny and deflect all you want, ratings went up under his pen, also austin and the rock have both put russo over in the past.
@@craigderby4416 nope, Russo didn’t do anything to fix WCW, he made it worse actually. He booked himself strong, why!!?? Why should Russo be booked as world champion!!?? That was the WORST move and decision he ever made and he made some BAD ones. His PPVs sucked, he had a good belt thrown in the trash for a worse belt and turned the Cruiserweight division into a story he did in wwe
Missing the true moment when WCW died. AKA at the survivor series when Kurt angle turned on the alliance resulting in WWF defeating the alliance and the alliance members to lose their job.
Bro im 40 i grew up watching wcw . People were sick of goldberg when he lost the title . They were pumping in those goldberg chants at that point . What killed goldberg losing the belt was the stupid finger poker of doom the next night .
The finger poke of doom was the first nail in the coffin and I had to watch that fiasco on tv instead of mankind winning the wwf championship from the rock due to a wwf hating step brother.
Kayfabe Nash after the Fingerpoke of Doom: "Hahaha! Got you all! You all fell for it! You idiots thought I wanted to be World Champion.........hey wait?"
I love David Arquette. Aside from what he did with all the WCW money he came back to wrestling years later and was seriously good, including in his emotional match with Jack Perry in tribute to his father, Luke, and being quite seriously hurt against Nick Gage. He's not a celebrity but he's in the top tier of celebrities who've ever been involved.
Despite their off screen issues being well known at the time and since, Chris Benoit always claimed that, despite Sullivan being main booker in WCW at the time and holding literally all the power over all of the wrestlers including Benoit, Sullivan never took undue liberties against Benoit both in and out of the ring and, outside of the storyline, acted as consumate professional and accepted that Nancy had left him for Chris. Until his tragic end, Benoit claimed that, despite everything that happened between them, he held Sullivan in high regards and had respect for him. This, however, contradicts the fact that Benoit left WCW in 2000 because of Sullivan being reappointed head booker.
The story of number 1 actually was that Booker T, who was originally booked to win the match and the title, got legitimately injured and would require a time off, which did happen after the event, so they needed to quickly come up with a new ending. Russo winning was decided on the spot during the match as only a temporary solution. As we all know, only one day later on Nitro he immediately relinquished the title and his win was never mentioned again until the end of WCW.
I'm so sick and tired of seeing one of the reasons why WCW was on the decline was because Goldberg lost to Nash, which isn't true at all. Nash got a HUGE pop after beating him. Now, the Finger Poke of Doom is what did them in.
I think Nick Patrick said Hogan caused the confusion at Starcade, not Bischoff. The three of them and Sting had a meeting and agreed to the fast count, but before Patrick went to the ring Hogan told him they were doing a regular count instead. Patrick tried to check in with Bischoff but couldn’t find him before he had to go to the ring.
Me and my brothers watched WCW religiously weekly and it was over for us with the Goldberg streak ending and then the finger poke, essentially ruined wrestling for us altogether
I hate to say this but them 3 man walking out of WCW was not really a big loss. Y’all need to cut that out. They never drew a dime not to take anything away from Chris Benoit. He was a great one, but he did not draw a dime and that sellout and wrestlemania were him and Eddie Guerrero won the world titles. They did not sell that out. It was a bunch of people that was helping them sell out that wrestlemania hate to say it but it’s the truth
8:17 This movie is unironically good and a cult classic. It wasn't appreciated back then. Russo, and Hogan were the biggest(but not the only) reasons WCW died.
I favored the WWF but I didn't start watching WCW more often until I watched Goldberg and this was when his streak was in the single digits. I watched Thunder more than Nitro. I love watching both companies back and forth. I started watching WCW less when The Rock first won the WWF title. I didn't watch WCW during it's downfall but I was shocked when it went of business. Ready to Rumble is the last piece of WCW I ever watched and I still watch it I love that movie. Great video 👍👍
Not sure about order, but the 3 names that are the main reason for WCW’s downfall is Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and Vince Russo. But also you can blame TNT for not giving a shit about wrestling in general.
Was a huge wrestling fan back then. Wwf/wwe, wcw, ecw...ring of honor...even tna...it was rough watching wcw go downhill and fast. Still alot of good memories of the promotion but some horrible ridiculous ones as well.
I was a WWF fan - yes, before they became WWE! Then eventually switched to WCW - to be honest I was still watching both but more of WCW. When things started to go down hill like the infamous Hogan lying down to get pinned...I just decided it's about time to go back to WWF! I felt bad for WCW because it could have been better than WWF but it just got crazier and crazier...
I feel what was a down fall for WCW was when they Hired talent wasting a lot of cash 💰 💵 but didn't Capitalize in the moment. When they brought in an easy Alley-oop 🏀 like Brett Hart ❤ & the Ultimate Warrior 💪 they dropped the ball. Also Making Nash the booker & Hogan having Creative control. Complete down fall 👎
Starting in around early 1998 when the Attitude Era was in full swing I would watch Nitro live and tape Raw to watch after school the following day. After a couple months of watching both I started favoring Raw, and started watching it live and taping Nitro. The very last episode of Nitro I ever taped was the one when they debuted the KISS Demon. It was so cringe, and impossible to get behind a wrestler themed after a band my parents liked. It was the last episode of Nitro I ever watched.
