Jericho was wasted on WCW. He showed Bischoff that the low cards were the real talent. Dont get me wrong, Hall, Macho, Hogan, etc *were* once very talented individuals. But WCW was a roster of wash ups with the added in segment of Goldberg and a few other small gimmicks. At the time it seemed amazing but looking back now it was anything but.
Stone Cold was the #1 reason... If he didn't become champion at Wrestlemania 14, WCW would of kept winning all of 1998. Who knows but Austin became fucking huge. It was his feuds with Vince, Undertaker, Mick Foley, The Rock and HHH eventually that made the best entertainment. If it were anybody else in Austin's shoes in early 1998 it wouldnt of carried the same momentum. Just look in the crowd by mid 1998 you could see hundreds of Austin shirts and signs. Hell , Austin was already the most popular guy there when Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were still around. .
themadrapper101 I remember going to a WWE event in 1996.It was so weak and pathetic.Shawn Micheals and Stone Cold was the main event.The match only lasted around 10 minutes and it was over just like that.Austin hadn't came to be the huge star yet and the attitude era hadn't started so these shows were terrible at the time and people were expecting Shawn Michaels to really put on a show but all we got was a quick super kick and it was over.The look on everyone's faces were priceless.I think back then they only put on best shows for Monday night or pay per views.The rest of the days out the week were garbage
You guys missed the point of this comment. The night Raw destroyed Nitro in ratings for the first time in forever was the night Mankind won the WWF Championship Belt.
I loved it when BROCK LESNAR was on Stone Cold Steve Austin's podcast, and Austin asked Brock, "Why is Heyman doing all the talking for you man?" Brock replied, "I've gotta feed the Jew, man!"
@@Apeing510 no actually they weren't and they weren't when Mick fool won or the following shows. It wasnt until wrestlemania that year. Just look up the timeline
@@Miller2h41 I think it was. If someone is THAT much of a Captain Obvious then he is entitled to get shamed. It's like calling a video "Elephant dances to piano music" and you'd write "He is dancing because he is listening to piano music".
@@Bambuzzsprosse I wrote a comment but you obviously feel the need to demean me to make yourself feel good. You are a sad piece of human waste on this earth.
IWatchAnime92 he's a living proof that understanding how the industry works is different from knowing how to actually run it. He obviously understands how it works, his predictions are spot on.. but he obviously can't run it, Vince destroyed ECW
He honestly may have known he'd get bought out. The thing is, didn't he make a LOT of money being bought out? So to him, it wasn't a bad deal. To everyone else, it was.
TheTaterTotP80 He filed for bankruptcy and had to pay Vince back all the money he loaned to ECW. Not exactly the greatest deal for somebody who deep down really wanted the product to continue but a lot of it was Paulie's fault as well for literally gambling a lot of his money away and not having the best relationships with major networks. My thing is if TNA can still be on TV with their shit ratings than ECW definitely should've been kept on TV
Vince didn't destroy ECW, Paul E. did. Heyman around this timeframe was getting paid by WWF. Thats why they did the ECW invasion angle in like 96-97. ECW was already employed by WWF long before they officially bought it.
He didn't say anything wrong in this video. A 50 year old company tried to go head to head with Vince, and only lasted 6 years after starting the Monday night war. WCW got owned, even if they were winning the war initially. Everything paul said would happen, ended up happening.
+The Game Corner BY 50 year old company, I assume you mean JCP and not the NWA. To say that JCP and WCW were the same thing, just because Turner bought its talent and trademarks, is drawing a long bow indeed. Different company, different people, different structure. And no, Heyman said Nitro would be an utter failure. And all this bluster was coming from some John Belushi looking motherfucker whose company never got out of the bingo hall.
+The Game Corner Actually, he did say something wrong. Paul said that Nitro had no chance and it would get destroyed. Nitro was number 1 for 83 weeks in a row at one point. No matter how you spin it, Paul was wrong that Nitro would get crushed. Eventually, it did, but I guarantee you that Paul thought it would have happened a couple of years before 2001.
The fact that Heyman, Cornette, etc, are actually younger than I thought is kind of incredible. I thought they were in their 60s. Cornette isn't even 60 yet and Heyman is even younger!
No he wasnt, wwe propaganda machine worked on you. Wcw won ratings that night and the following shows. Things to change until wrestlemania that year. Mick foley winning had nothing to do with it.
In the end he was right. Once the nWo ran out of steam and the backstage politics got too out of hand, WCW just couldn't compete with WWE and the Attitude Era. Had WCW continued to be innovative and creative and not let backstage politics get in the way of a good product, they might have pulled out a win, but not shockingly, Paul Heyman knew what he was talking about a WCW went bankrupt.
Idk how aware people were of their backstage politics back then. Paul knew cuz he worked there but it had to be obvious to more than just the most likely guys that WCW would fall early on. Look at the facts: -Wrestlers who push their creative control just to stay on top (Hogan) -Bischoff writing a big check for every stupid decision - lack of professionalism in the backroom I remember somebody described the 2 as followed: WWF was a wrestling company trying to produce a TV Show. WCW at this point was a TV company trying to produce a wrestling show or something like that
1996-1998 WCW was winning the Monday night war, so he was right, when he said the reason wasn't because they can't win, or that they couldn't pull it off, it was that ego, unprofessionalism and a true lack of leadership would stop them from doing so. That's exactly what happened.
I was never a WCW fan, but doesn't history show they were on top for the majority of the Monday Night Wars, until they started spoiling results from [the pre-taped] WWF Raw live on air, the main one being Mick Foley [ironically sat next to Paul in this video] winning the WWF title on an episode of Raw, so all the WCW fans tuned out from Nitro to watch Mankind become champion on Raw.
The Monday Night Wars lasted roughly 6 years. there's 52 weeks in a year. that makes 312 weeks of competition. WCW won about 100 of those weeks total. So no history doesn't show that.
WCW were spoiling Raw results almost from the start of the war. Foley was just the first time it backfired since Foley was very popular and WCW had already begun it's decline.
WCW won for awhile, but imploded, so he was partially right. What it did do was motivate the WWF to develop new things, and actually make a show worth watching.
I really wish someone would upload this whole video. This is from the Fan Festival Q&A ECW had at Hardcore Heaven 1995. I had this on VHS. A lot of really great question and answers, and Paul E. was great the whole time.
Update 2019: WWE is buying every talent and slowly sinking it's own ship with piss poor booking and shody deals. AEW, ROH, NJPW, AAA, CMLL, Impact, MLW and others are starting to blossom and show how obsolete Sports Entertainment and Superstars are.
If you pay attention to NXT. You'll see the wwe business is in good hands with hhh likely to take over full duties soon. It needs to happen sooner rather than later. Wwe buying all the talent is them buying time as well.
He's a wrestling promoter. They're like modern carnies. Charisma is how they do business. How else do you think he got away with not paying his wrestlers for weeks (or months) at a time? He's gotta be a master bullshitter.
Blader But bigger than that. It's just haunting to witness the expertees he has on business. He's probably the biggest mastermind on the wrestling industry. I truly believe that if he had a bigger word in WWE like Bishoff once had the company would run much smoother then it is currently
@@damienblack1283 Wtf are you talking about? He was never wrong? That is not what kill means, look where wcw is now? Nowhere, that's what kill means, austin killed the fkn garbage ass wcw company
@@lifeafteryou8179 The WWE didn't really win anything. They gained some things. They managed to stay alive after being financially hobbled by this situation. Then they absolutely f'd up the whole invasion angle so badly the "victory" was damn near meaningless. If Vince could have stowed is ego, the original plans for WCW would have worked much better. That snafu is one of the worst in wrestling history. So what the WWE really won was their survival and making more money. That is about . They botched WMX7 by turning Stone Cold into Vince's mitch, and then botched the invasion. They turned a guy the crowed was hot for into a damn clown. Let's be honest...WCW had more to do with their own destruction than the WWE did.
+Johnny Skinwalker WCW beat them for nearly 2 years during its hot run with the nWo, and all-time lows for Vince because if poor booking and handling of talent. Then superstars started shining on WWF television, and the nWo got out of control (because, exactly as Heyman predicted, all the massive egos involved weren't kept in check, INCLUDING Bischoff's), and WCW faltered. Hogan and the rest of the crew devoured WCW for everything it had left to feed their egos and paychecks until they could do no more, then jumped ship, and left it to sink - just like the Hogan-Bischoff connection did in TNA, just like they'll do to poison every single organization they're brought in to to 'save' from now until the day they're all so old they can't stand in the ring any longer.
+Kotaro Tytan With respect that isn't quite true. It is fair to say that WCW didn't dominate the ratings until the nWo started, but they were beating WWF regularly from September 1995 and, of course, the nWo didn't appear until BATB 1996. I agree with the rest of what you say though.
+Butts McCool Exactly as Heyman predicted? No. Most of what he prophesised didn't happen. WCW made somebody a huge tonne of money. And yeah, maybe Ted Turner took a hit in the end, but you think he gives a fuck? Ted Turner is a billionaire: it's like that classic line from "Citizen Kane" where Charles Foster Kane brags about losing a million dollars last year, and knowing he'll lose a million dollars the next, but he doesn't care, as he can afford to lose a million dollars a year for the next 60 years before he'll have to close his newspaper. The reason why WCW self-destructed was BECAUSE it became hugely successful. WCW idled along for years, losing a little bit of money here and there, and could be doing so to this day, as long as it had the potential to one day become really big--Ted Turner was very patient with the company. WCW was a fairly benign wrestling company in terms of costing Turner, and it could've existed for years as a promotion that drew a respectable albeit largely unimpressive 3,000--5,000 fans per night. However, Bischoff lifted it to the level of company that consistently drew 15,000 fans--Heyman did NOT see that coming. And when the crowds got to 30,000, then 40,000, THAT is when things got out of control. Everybody wanted more money, salaries inflated, and everybody started leaving the ship. much like a football team that exceeds its salary cap and needs to draft talent all over again, at a cheaper price. What Heyman said was totally different. He said that Nitro wouldn't work, period. What in fact happened was Nitro became a firestorm of success, but it was lucrative even beyond Eric Bischoff's wildest dreams, too much too quickly, and he didn't know how to handle the sudden prosperity. Heyman, on the other hand, never took ECW beyond the level of a bingo hall promotion. I mean, here's Heyman, at some wrestling convention, talking crap about WCW and Bischoff. And Heyman could make all the jokes he wanted about Bischoff wanting to get laid with 19 year old girls, but I've seen the average ECW fan, and I'm sorry, but most 19 year old girls would find them repulsive. That's why Heyman's acolytes were laughing at his irrelevant jokes, the same reason Heyman was making them--insecurity. I don't deny that Bischoff was/is a prick, but he did a lot of stuff Heyman wanted to do, but couldn't. Heyman is almost undoubtedly a lot more likeable than Bischoff, but I can't possibly defend Heyman here--he just sounds totally jealous. I remember EVERYBODY said Nitro would never work in 1995, and they were wrong. WCW's later explosion doesn't retrospectively justify such doomsday prognostications from Heyman. It's like saying the Roman Empire was an utter failure, just because it no longer exists, but the fact remains at one stage, for several centuries, the Roman Empire ruled a huge part of the world.
+Johnny Skinwalker Know your facts pal. Russo signed with WCW on October 5, 1999. WWF was beating WCW at the start of April 1998. WCW started losing against WWF 1.5 years before Russo signed with WCW, get wrecked.
@@fromolwyoming going into the 2000s meaning 97, 98, and 99, but even in 2000 to 2003, he was still the biggest. Rock was only on top for a few months and that was only because austin left. And i would say brock and Goldberg, and hogan were bigger than rock was at that time. Then Cena took over in 2004. so o.g post was right.
I've said this in two replies already, but I'll give it its own post. Paul Heyman was as right as humanly possible. He knew the guys running the show were either too stupid or too conceited to run the show properly. He knew they were getting in way over their heads. That's all correct. What he didn't know--what he couldn't have known--was that they'd start the nWo, which was the biggest thing wrestling had seen since the initial Hulkamania run. (Actually, it was bigger than that, in every sense except length of time) Just like you couldn't have predicted Ringo Starr would have been in the most famous band in the history of the world. Some things just come out of the blue. Once the shine faded, though, it was over. Everything he said would happen, happened. Guys in the business for the wrong reasons, with the wrong priorities, sunk the ship.
maybe he's predicting wrestling in general...seems that wwe is going the same way slowly but surely too. one thing they can't take away from wcw 97-99 was it was the best wrestling show ever and put wrestling on the map and brought it to mainstream...which it never will be again
Question for you folks: Was is ever really possible for WCW to truly "win" the Monday night wars, given the immense internal political and financial problems of the WCW? In hindsight the picture for WCW looks very grim, especially when all of their backstage problems get brought to light, but there was a time when they were winning the war (and not a little) so the question remains. Thoughts?
Guillermo Moreno RAW was superior to Nitro in every way. The initial shock of Hollywood Hogan and The Outsiders was nice, but they quickly oversaturated the nWo and stuck with Sting's storyline way too long. WWF adopted ECW's signature of small arenas and high-impact wrestling, and it was just better. They had younger, better talent, and much more creative storylines.
WCW dd wind up catching lightning in a bottle but the exact things Paul brought up about bad management and guys looking out for their own self-interests eventually did them in.
+Robert Granros I just imagine Paul accidentally bumping into a teenage Brock Lesnar, and thought to himself: "A few years down the road, I have a gut feeling I'm gonna manage that kid."
+Robert Granros If you're talking about the Undertaker's Wrestlemainia streak. The streak wasn't even a thing yet The Undertaker had only wrestled in four Wrestlemainias. 91-92-93 injured in 94 and wrestled in 95.
Paul's words really did predict the future.Even with WCW winning for awhile, the reason they managed to do it was because they did get their shit together, for the briefest of windows. And it just so happens, it was also at a very low time creatively for Vince and Co. And the reason WCW lost all the momentum they built up was for the EXACT reasons Heyman claimed.
He was kind of right. He correctly guessed that Bischoff said they should do Monday nights (well, actually he just said primetime) and was then shocked to see Turner actually say okay. He also says that he thinks they had COULD take it to the WWF if they did "X,Y and Z" but they won't because they're inept... the fact is they actually did do the "X, Y and Z" that he lists... but then eventually still fall to the problems that he predicted afterwards. So he's wrong a little and right a little. Considering he doesn't have a crystal ball that IS still interesting to hear now years later.
He's only wrong in that he didn't predict the nWo, which he would have had no way of predicting. That one gimmick was responsible for all of WCW's success; they mishandled literally everything else, and eventually mishandled the nWo as well. Paul was as right as you could be in predicting something like that. He knew they would fail, and they did. He just couldn't have predicted that they'd stumble into the greatest big idea of the 90s.
***** That's actually a very good point and one that few people realize. Also, I don't think WCW was ever really on good financial footing and this caught up with them during the AOL/Time Warner merger.
Charlie Acklen not only did it kick ass it put wrestling on the map!!! to this day wwe has to continue to bury it...14 years later. it was the best wrestling show EVER hands down
Paul is talking about WWF here as if 93-95 werent the worst years in the promotions history. Nobody watched WWF at this time except for the hardest of hardcore fans. Which is why It was not difficult for Turner to take his talent (a tactic Vince used when he destroyed the territories) and do something more appealing than Vince's cartoon story lines. Bischoff made wrestling better by challenging Vince out of the cartoon bullshit, and forcing him to fight for his livelyhood with better programming.Vince needs that kind of competition again, because Raw is back to being almost unwatchable.
+AntiPopLTD Well said, but there will never be another promotion who can challenge WWE ratings wise. It just won't happen again unfortunately. Wish WCW hadn't self destructed so they could still be around today and we'd have them and WWE. But oh well.
Mario Mattessich You are absolutely right, and they didn't draw a dime at that time. Half of the audience walked out of the Wrestlemania 12 main event 60 min Iron man match between Bret and Shawn. Did you know that?? Casual audience just didn't want to see small guys back then. From 93 to around when Austin caught fire they were down to their most loyal base..
I agree with Alex, he couldn'r run the buisness and the show on his own. he needed an owner. But when he never paid his employees and never mentioned bankruptcy, it was sheerly to protect them and he raised the point that he was not getting paid either, they could afford to leave, at the time he couldn't.
Give me a fucking break. The only thing that killed WCW was the AOL merger. When your whole company is based on buying away the top talent with overpriced contracts, and suddenly your money dries up because a failing internet company is sucking your parent company dry, the end is going to come quickly.
WCW's money dried up because they were hemorrhaging money. In 1999 they had a loss of $15 million. This was BEFORE the merger. The company was on top and turning a profit 1996-1998, but they were back to losing money, and at a much faster rate than ever before by the time of the merger in 2000, and WWF already had double their ratings by that point. To say the only thing that killed WCW was the merger is ridiculous. If the company had been turning a profit the new bosses wouldn't have had a reason to kill it.
Yes...and before the AOL disaster, Ted Turner was willing to lose that money to contribute to try to build the brand. After the merger, with the money lost, he was no longer willing to do so. I don't get why you are trying to refute me on this. It has been THOROUGLY discussed and pretty much AGREED UPON by all parties involved. From everybody at WCW, to Turner himself. That yes...the merger was the death blow to WCW.
knickknack07 If the company was turning a profit like it had been until 1998 instead of hemorrhaging money like never before there would have been no reason to fold the business, so the merger wasn't the only thing that killed it. What caused it to have an all-time record loss in 1999 and falling ratings BEFORE the merger?
no he wasnt the WCW started dying in 1996 it just took some time for it to become a financial burden, mainly because they where backed by a multi BILLIONAIR!
Amazing how according to Bischoff's own interviews Heyman's interpretation of what went on behind closed doors to cause Nitro to happen was spot on, that's exactly what happened, Bischoff gave Mondays as the excuse, convinced Turner wouldn't give him Monday Nights and then was stunned when he did just like Heyman interpreted lol he knew these people well lol
Or more likely he was talking to people in the business and hearing stories. You honestly don’t think he wasn’t talking to people at WCW? He was talking to Sullivan no doubt during that time
@@808allday7 OMG, I´ve watited 2 years for this moment. And finally I can r/WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH the Sh*t out of some captian obvious on youtube. You´ll be a hell of a General obvious one day, I´m sure !
Paul Heyman: Hilarious and accurate at the same time. Its amazing how accurate this prediction was too, like WCW eventually giving away free tickets to fill up their TV tapings. Genius.
If you wish to disagree with me then fine, thats up to you, don't expect me to get into a typing argument on youtube. I'm allowed my opinion and you're allowed yours.
VeryFriendly Nihilist bullcrap. he said they would go really good if they give it a try, thats what happened, until mankind won the wwf title and got asses in seats. the attitude era has started and nitro would never beat wwf at ratings again and thnx to their personal problems they sold wcw to wwf. chris jericho quote: "for the money vince bought it even I could have afford it" .. and remember, jericho was in the cruiserweight divison.
VeryFriendly Nihilist They did well in terms of ratings, yes, but WCW in the 12 years they were in business only turned a profit in 2 of them. Bischoff's over-spending really did them in and Russo's booking put the final nail in the coffin.
VeryFriendly Nihilist he had it prety much right. Goldberg is the only "new" guy I saw who got a descent push. WCW was like a retirement house. Hogan is an ego-maniac.
WCW had a chance, but mismanagement destroyed WCW. Vince was actually scared for some time. The Rise and Fall of WCW made me realize the stupid contract stipulations. "oh if you hire another guy (after me) with a higher salary than mine, then i should get a raise" I mean wtf? fucking egocentrics. I thought Bret Hart loved wrestling, but he loved how wrestling brought him money.
Paul was ultimately right! The nWo angle and Goldberg gave them some steam and were on top for a while (In ratings... not always in show quality and maybe never in profit) but they fucked that up. Basically over the reasons Heyman is stating here.
Look at the TV WCW produced right before Scott Hall showed up. Look at the team that they sent against the nWo at Bash at the Beach. Monster Truck fights, face painting during the time people wanted cool and badass. So lucky with the nWo but the bad booking crept back up and the nWo wasn't new enough anymore to take the attention away from it.
Steven Simmons Kevin Sullivan was the booker in WCW until 98, Hogan had creative control over his own matches, but that was the extent of Hogan's booking reigns. Hall was never involved in the booking outside of being friends with Nash, and Nash only had the book for about 8 or so months.
Sparkledash1 He mentioned it in a shoot interview where he basically said that he was surprised about their success and admitted that he did not see it coming.
I really beleive that if Ted Turner let Paul Heyman run WCW instead of Bischoff they would have won the Monday Night War since Heyman has always had long term vision, while Bischoff just like Russo was pretty much just into shock value short term angles and that's why the NWO became so stale once that the Sting-Hogan feud was over
It didn't happen until 1999 when Mankind won the WWF championship that WCW started losing. Creative Control contracts, Obsession with Ratings and failure to lift younger stars killed WCW. In the end the nail in the coffin with the AOL merger who wanted nothing to do with wrestling.
No, April 6 1998 is when WWE started winning. After that, Vince Mcmahon came out and declared RAW the highest rated wrestling show. This was after Austin became Champ. Mankind winning in 1999 was more like the final nail in the coffin before WCW got buried. 5 years after summer 95 would be summer 2000, Rock was the champion, RAW and WWE were at their popularity peak, WCW had a meter of dirt on them.
The only reason being is that Ted Turner was not really in to wrestling as a livelihood. WCW was just a small side thing for Ted Turner but if he had wanted to throw money at it and sink Vince and the WWF he could have just by the shear amount of money Ted Turner had that he could throw at a wrestling promotion. Ted Turner was tightening up the financial belt of his business ventures at the time close to year 2000 in order to sell off to TIME WARNER. So if Ted Turner had decided not to sell off his business ventures which WCW was one of them he could have and would have easily beat WWF in to the dirt. Remember that Ted Turner had his own freaking TV networks too. TBS and CNN which he could have leveraged to promote the WCW product. Facts are facts. Ted Turner was loaded with a shit load of cash to spend on the WCW but he really was not interested in doing that because of him moving to sell off all his businesses.
Where WCW screwed up was the guaranteed contracts. They had to have that to compete with Vince. But the problem long-term is that when guys have say over their characters, you’re log jammed at the top and you can’t develop your mid-Card beyond a certain point. It’s not a successful business strategy to let the Steve Austin’s, Mick Foley’s, Chris Benoit’s, Eddie Guerrero’s, etc walk in order to keep 45-year-old Hulk Hogan and his cronies.
@@cjuare123Incorrect. AOL Time Warner wanted nothing to do with the product after the merger. Regardless of how successful they never wanted wrestling in their portfolio. They always had intentions of selling once Ted was pushed aside. That and a few key players working for Warner basically set it up so Vince would get first dibs at buying it. The entire story is actually quite interesting.
@@nastynastke the ratings were not good. Are you that clueless? If the ratings were high they would not have sold it. I know how the industry worked back then. The ratings is what made executives make decisions on certain shows.
@@cjuare123 No you my friend are clueless. Do your research on a man named Jamie Kellner. Once you do, you should have all the info you need to not be clueless anymore and you'll have the answer as to why WCW is no longer here today. At the time of WCW goin out of business it was still the highest rated show on TNT...So do not tell me I am clueless and that it was about ratings. Good grief
If Ted didn't make that merger with AOL. wrestling would still be on Turner networks. Ted would have footed the bill forever. And that's what Heyman was essentially saying at the end.
By the time AOL came along, Ted Turner was already removed from power by Time Warner. IF Turner could've retained control of Turner Sports and TBS, we would likely have been given another 5 years of WCW
WCW was dead in the water long before that the minute Rock and Stone and Mick became the focus of wwf you knew WCW lost the war and that was 1 year before WCW lost at this point the minute Vince Russo went to WCW he fucked them up left and right I believe Mcmahon paid Russo to fuck WCW over
Yeah, I thought that at first too, but then I saw the classic missing front teeth and started to question if was Foley. Never realized how similar they looked at that time.
Sad thing is that AEW will do the same. Tony Khan and Ted Turner are pretty similar as well as the elite and the nwo with their backstage politics and just like how WCW signed every free agent back then AEW is doing the same. 20 years later.
heyman just wanted to have a promotion solid but never compete with vince he always like the partnership..... he just wanted to do his best this is why vince still hires him constantly the guy has a good mindset
Guillermo Moreno after wcw downfall no company could compete with wwe, it became global entertainment, and will dominate that stuff in my opinion 4ever. yeah there will be mexican and japanese companies, but in usa no chance for another promotion, tna will die in years and probably will be bought too :) they are doing same stuff like wcw did, buying old overused wrestlers and use them years and years. paul was succesfull cause he started something new in pre monday night era, also these times tv dont let extreme stuff, its pg era, even wwe can use few swear words in years... no doubt he is genius, but that why he is in wwe and managing wrestlers and helping stories etc
MindaugasLegend It'd be nice if another Ted Turner would come along and really bankroll another company much like Turner Cable did with WCW back in the day.
MindaugasLegend but yet he was wrong...the ONLY thing he got right is that wcw wouldnt exist. wcw decimated wwf in the monday night wars and vince has said himself that he was THISCLOSE to bankruptcy during the monday night wars...i think i heard somewhere that the turning point in the wars was the night mick foley won the wwf championship and bischoff made the stupid move of announcing it on nitro and everyone turned on raw to watch it happen
yep tim, you got it...vince is a prick and his show sucks...he couldve seriously made wrestling something quadruple what wcw was but instead he let his ego get in the way. paul got it made now tho and hes doing what he really wanted to do, which is be a great manager (if not the greatest of all time dare i say). Ring Of Honor is where its at now baby #DEMBOYZ
From what I gather, Heyman based his "prediction" on his experience in WCW when it was run by Jim Herd, a guy that knew more about selling pizzas than tickets. Heyman simply thought WCW would fall in short order due to mismanagement and fragile egos in the locker room (Hogan), as well as a few select wrestlers (also Hogan) getting paid much more than half the roster. He was right in everything except _when_ WCW would fall, which was postponed due to Hogan's heel turn and the formation of the nWo. Nevertheless, his prediction came true: Guys with big egos clashing and constantly changing the booking to put themselves over the rest of the boys, the repetitive nWo-centric angles, Nash's wallet making more money from WCW than vice-versa, etc started the fire that eventually burned it down; Russo simply added more napalm with his fucked up gimmick matches.
Hogan's heel turn literally changed wrestling forever. The guy was making 10 million a year in the 80s. He did'nt have a fragile ego, he was always thinking about his legacy & business. Hogan did'nt hold anyone back period. Goldberg came in & took it, did Hogan not job clean to him? You need to learn how his contract was set up.
Heyman is correct only in the sense of polarity: WCW lost, obviously, and did not win. However, they did not "get their asses royally kicked," but instead went on a ratings winning streak for over a year, and stayed competitive for another year and a half after that. I understand people want to say that the nWo was the one lucky idea that lead to WCW's success, but if you watch material from 1996 and 1997 nitro outside of nWo, the show was arguably better than RAW and reached for an audience that WWF did not until the Attitude Era kicked in, because of WCW's success. As for Ric Flair wanting to get laid by 19 year olds at age 46, I wouldn't doubt it.
Heyman was correct about everything save for the people who would be complicit in the fall of WCW. Instead of Bischoff, Hogan, Flair, and Arn, it was largely Bischoff, Nash, Hogan and Vince Russo. WCW Did get their ass kicked after staying on top for 84 weeks[a little over 1 1/2 years], then WWF/E stomped them into the ground.
knickknack07 Ummmm no. AOL did not suck Ted Turner dry. Ted Turner was still a billionaire after the deal. He just was not in control. WCW in the years that Ted Turner owned it, only turned a profit for 2 years. It lost all kinds of money and the losses were subsidized by Turner's other business ventures: The Atlanta Braves, The Atlanta Hawks, CNN, Headline News, Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT.
How was Heyman spot on?! Like a year or so later, WCW went in on WWF/E for 2 years straight with one of the best angles to this day… The reason why Vince won at the end isn't because of anything Vince did… It was eventually backstage foolishness that caused the promotion to implode…
You just answered your own question. Heyman was predicting that the idiocy and ego that existed in WCW & Time Warner would be their undoing. He was most certainly right about that.
Heyman did say was Bischoff said later--he asked for Monday nights as he thought it would show that he wanted to kick WWE's butt, but Bischoff thought it was safe as Turner would never give him Monday night.
Clinton Peacock While Heyman did not call it 100% (eg.: not knowing the ultimate "good guy" Hogan would turn heel and the nWo would be a success until they watered it down with most of the roster being on it in some form of fashion), the backstage issues that he outlined 5 1/2 years before their demise was correct. As for Vince and the then WWF, Vince did have a lot to do with them winning because if he stuck with the cartoon character crap he was putting on TV (granted WCW was doing the same at the beginning of the "wars" with gigs like the Dungeon of Doom), he could have folded before WCW did. After being stripped of all of his big names, he created new stars with "attitude" (pun intended) that the fans got behind and it was a smashing success! Granted, he did have a little luck believe it or not due to a couple of injuries: HBK having the back injury that kept him out of the ring for 4 years led to there being no obstacles in the way of Stone Cold's huge rise to the top in which he carried the company with him and Stone Cold needing neck surgery in 1999 which allowed there to be no obstacles in the way of The Rock rising to the top and being almost equal with Austin as a face and HHH rising as a big time heel (of course not on Austin or Rock's level). If Vince didn't make changes, which contributed heavily to WCW's demise, then both companies would have been in the toilet shortly after the turn of the millennium.
Heyman was right about how WCW was running their business, but he couldn't foresee a few things and in a few ways, he was wrong. He couldn't predict the nWo, which was the big game changer. He also couldn't predict ECW's role in WCW's product - that it wouldn't just be guys from Jodie Hamilton's school coming and that many of the talent who ECW highlighted would be wooed away with big money contracts. Rey Mysterio and the luchadors, Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, Raven, etc. That said, WCW did die the way Heyman believed, once the creative well ran dry in WCW, the egos and everything he was talking about took over. It just wasn't as immediate as he predicted.
I don't think no one could have saw the nWo coming. That's where Paul was wrong. But once the nWo faded, basically it took two years and WCW was close to dead and on that third year they wished Paul was right about running shows on TBS because now they are just old school shows on the WWE Network.
Even before nWo, WCW was beating WWF about 1/2 the time. They were neck and neck before nWo. Heyman was completely wrong here because (like most observers) he assumed that WWF and WCW had an overlapping fanbase while in reality the Northern and Southern fans were two distinct fanbases watching one promotion or the other.
@@jjalkman1999 the true NWA/WCW purists were pissed when Bischoff brought Hulkamania to the company... When WCW withdrew from the NWA, they wanted to create an completely new, fresh and different alternative to the WWF and were really pushing the young up and comers like Stunning Steve Austin and Jean Paul Levesque as top talent until Bischoff pulled the rug by having an updated 80s version of the WWF with Hogan, Macho Man, the Earthquake, Hacksaw Duggan, the Giant (a new Andre), Brutus Beefcake, the Renegade (a new Ultimate Warrior), etc
1:29 I love how the camera pans out to show Mick Foley sitting there when Heyman while was shouting "Holy Shit we're gonna get our asses kicked!" Because that's the man who actually kicked WCW's Ass once and for all on January 4th 1999.
I think it is so interesting how Paul predicted how the Monday Night Wars would end. Obviously WCW didn’t get immediately destroyed like he predicted, but he even said that WCW had the resources where they could have been a major success if they got their shit together, he just didn’t think they would. Of course WCW did monster business for about 2 1/2 years, but they ultimately went out of business for exactly the reasons he predicted, Bischoff could not keep control backstage, disorginaztion was insane and most of the top guys only cared about themselves to the detriment of everyone else.
Thank you for noticing he was wrong they would not compete even though stated they could. He was still incorrect about that. Heyman has always been one of the greatest minds, and unlike Cornette he can transcend the era he was brought up in. The truth is in 1995 the WWF was really losing momentum that started sometime in 1993. It was a slow bleed, but it was happening pre-WCW doing anything. Bischoff just took advantage of their weaknesses such as not being live and doing handshake deals. Even at that people get on these tirades about ratings today and all these promotions combined don't pull the ratings of the mid to late 90s. What are they debating? Who is struggling less?
The prediction was not accurate. Nitro beat Raw the night of its premiere and ended up beating Raw for 84 consecutive weeks. In the clip Heyman predicts that Nitro would fail and end up being cancelled immediately, forcing WCW to revert into a smaller, regional promotion. That didn't come to pass.
*He also said they have a shot if WCW came together. Which they did* for awhile with NWO but it became stale with no evolution or progress. Thus WCW became the shit product that was predicted it will become as a result of idiots running the company. NWO helped with ratings but WCW fell so fast soon after the last couple of years. Vince shows up on Nitro shows how pathetic WCW was in staying alive. Only some WCW wrestlers abandoned ship within the last couple of years to WWF.🤣 Heyman was right. WCW fans so salty in ignoring Paul saying they have a shot to go against Vince. Paul knew, most people who knew WCW management knew it was that bad.
He was not right. He predicted that Nitro would be an instant failure and that they would be "massacred" by Raw and be forced back to Saturday nights. He was completely wrong.
If a basketball team is up by 30 in the second quarter but the other team comes back in the fourth then they lose. WCW was up by 30 in the second quarter. All the things Paul said did happen and for the very reasons he said.
This is what AEW is heading for when Tony Heamorrges enough money his Dad notices. Retire Sting and Copeland happy. Have that roster condensed to at least 30 or 40 heads. Have it compete with RoH. And dont be worrying about what wwe is doing. Drop collision and focus on one main TV deal. The net suffices in this day and age. AEW will either thrive from this slump its found itself in or if not. It peaked at All In London. And its gasping for life from then on. Its looking shaky.
Nitro did really well in the ratings, often beating Raw, up until mid 1999. After that it was a fairly steady slide downhill. Even so, the Nitro ratings were still respectable up to the end. Nitro did far better than Heyman ever thought it would, even before the nWo hit the scene.
No one had a clue the NWO was going to come along. Heyman is obviously talking about the 1995 WCW product which was cheesy as all hell (Hogan vs the Dungeon of Doom) If I was comparing that to 1995 WWF, then yes id assume the WWF would eventually sort it self out and destroy WCW. But then the NWO came along and all that cheesy WCW Dungeon stuff evaporated into the mid or low card.
One of the greatest minds in wrestling of our era, shame other aspects of his personality have gotten him in hot water with so many people over the years 😂
84 weeks of ratings dominance in the Monday Nights wars aint shit when your company is bought out by the company that was on the losing end of that 84 weeks. I loved both companies, however WCW was poorly manage with one angle(NWO) & no pushing of any new stars. Even if WCW were still running today itll be TNA-esque. Running in small venues. Stale storylines with stale crowds.
