nWo (WCW)

[Castrum]

Was anyone else a huge fan of this group back in the mid '90s?

I mainly watched WWF, mostly due to my dad being a huge fan of that particular league, but every now and then I got to watch WCW, and when I did, I loved seeing these guys backstage and in the ring. I particularly liked Kevin Nash (who I recently discovered was Diesel in WWF) and Hollywood Hogan (Hogan's best persona IMO).

Sadly, WWE seems to be wary of celebrating the group's past (in DVD sets and what-not), though Lord knows why. They were directly responsible for skyrocketing WCW's TV ratings to higher than WWF's, and the group was so badass that it just demands they have their own DVD set (the one from 2002 that was very half-assed doesn't count). There were a few matches scattered throughout the "Greatest Stars of the 90s", "Starrcade", and "Macho Madness" DVDs, but nothing substantial in the slightest. Not even one backstage spray-painting or smack-talk session. There was one or two nWo advert things, but those just aren't the same. I've got "Monday Night War" on order now, so I'm hoping that has something more substantial on it.

[AKAtheDopeman]

I remember nWo and nWo I was more of a DDP fan.

[Castrum]

I loved that Wolf Pack hand sign they did. The thing with the index and pinkie fingers as the ears and the others as the face.

[batosai]

Wolf pack ftw! :p

Edit: damn cast, you must have been reading my mind, lol.

[Castrum]

The first I ever heard of WCW was when I went to the video rental place here (back when there was only one rental place) and saw WCW/nWo World Tour on N64. I rented it and played the hell out of it with my brother that weekend, learning the names of all these new wrestlers.

After that, I saw WCW on TV sporadically, mostly whenever I went over to my brother's friend's house, who was a huge nWo fanboy (had an entire closet full of their shirts). This was around the time Goldberg showed up on WCW and began dominating the ring (frankly, I thought he was one of the few guys they had whose entrance rivaled a WWF one).

[Maawdawg]

I used to flip back and forth between the 2 shows. WCW had some really good storylines and took more risks making good wrestlers into heels. Sting, Hogan, etc. They actually made their most popular characters bad guys to drive their ratings higher. It is something the WWE should have learned by now. I liked WCW all the way back with the 4 horsemen. With both shows on at the same time it definitely let you actually watch more interesting stuff. You could mash 2 solid hours of interesting stuff out of the two shows with no problem.

[Castrum]

I was wondering: what would have saved WCW?

Would Bischoff buying WCW have saved it from ruin, against all odds? Or should they have done something to fix things earlier?

IMO, I think they should have kept the nWo, but created a second group overtly representing WCW (i.e. not just "he's not with the nWo crowd" guys), headed up by a handful of big names like Goldberg and another guy like Bischoff leading them (kind of an "old guard"/Wolf Pack group of elite members). Then they could have escalated the situation even further, to the point where a single PPV would determine the fate of the league, with every wrestler in said league (that wasn't injured or some such thing) taking part in some event or backstage antics during that period. Maybe spread it over several days, culminating in Goldberg and some other dude (I'm thinking a mystery partner high up in the nWo hierarchy, who defected from the nWo out of nowhere) vs. Hogan and Nash/Hall. During the match, it would cut to the backstage/ring entrance area where most of the other wrestlers would be fighting and preventing the others from interrupting the match (which would be a No Disqualifications match, so they would be allowed to run in). After some crazy **** and high-flying/high-risk moves by everyone, Goldberg would spear/clothesline three guys at once (Hogan, Hall/Nash, and another nWo dude who managed to break away from the massive brawl backstage), jackhammer Hogan from the top of a ladder (which Hall/Hogan/someone else would have brought in earlier, as there's no disqualifications) and pin him to win it.

I think this could have helped WCW, if not saved it during the time of Stone Cold, The Rock, and so on. Of course, all this would have been reliant upon Kevin Nash not being a douchebag and demanding that he be the biggest star on the roster, at the expense of everyone else (this is why Goldberg was tasered and lost his undefeated streak. Nash was basically in charge of the other wrestlers' careers, which is also why guys like Rey Mysterio never got much in terms of decent storylines, and why Chris Jericho always played the bad guy [getting too popular in WCW would get you knocked down a peg like what happened with Goldberg]).

[Shaynard]

The only thing that could have saved the WCW was a less greedy Vince .. For a while, it was a competition that helped both groups.. The ratings war went back and forth but both groups did well because of it.

I loved the way the WWE brought WCW in.. Making it like two shows in one.. with a split roster.

What happened was, the novelty of that ran out, and so they divided the rosters into the two shows, Raw and Smackdown. (pretty much RAW is WWE/F and Smackdown is WCW )

Same happened with ECW.. WWE started copying the ECW's features and then eventually bought the whole company and added the talent to their own rosters. ECW recieved it's own show only because it presented the chance for Vince to sell his product to even more people, on a different network, in a different timeslot... Business.

Any stars or promoters that didn't want to become part of that, have formed TNA Wrestling.. Which is basically a mix of WCW's glory days and Late 80's WWE/F.

[Castrum]

The only thing that could have saved the WCW was a less greedy Vince

It was better that a guy who knew the business wanted to take over, rather than end up like NWA/WCW after the sale to Ted Turner, with it all becoming glitz and glam and no effective story progression or wrestler promotion whatsoever. WCW also suffered from the fact that its policies in contracts and wrestler integration into its business aspects crippled its potential storylines and promotions (ex. Goldberg, Rey Mysterio, etc.), which would likely have carried on into the future and stunted the league's growth were WCW not assimilated into WWF.

Even so, I think Bischoff buying WCW could have helped keep it running for at least a few more years, as by that point Bischoff saw what kind of stupid **** Vince Russo had implemented in WCW, ruining whatever chance it had to recuperate (David Arquette as world champ...), and was willing to try something new. At the last minute, Turner decided that Bischoff could buy it, but said he wouldn't get that primetime block on TBS/TNT. Without that, there wasn't much of a point in him buying it, so McMahon stepped in and snapped it up for ****-all money (Chris Jericho said in an interview that he would have bought it himself, had he known the price it was going for).

-------------------------------------------------

I think the Invasion angle after the merger would have been much more effective if Vince had manned-up and signed guys like Hogan and Goldberg right away, rather than wait a few years after the fact. As it was, a lot of second-tier guys from both WCW and ECW got time to shine, but most of the big names were either given second-tier matches/storylines, or were just not signed at all.

[Shaynard]

It wasn't that Vince didn't sign those names, it's that those names wouldn't sign with Vince. Hogan waited until he needed to do something, and used his return to promote his daughter the first time, and his own show the second.

Vince's deep deep pockets is the only reason he got the WCW.. No one could compete with what Ted asked for knowing Vince could pay. Otherwise TNA wrestling would be WCW right now. All those who left WCW when it was bought by WWE became the Stars of TNA.. Which is where most of the old nWo are right now, and have been since the change.

[Shadow Symbosis]

there was a nwo dvd set that came out around the time they came to wwe i own it its awesome!!!!! i also met kevin nash down at comic-con in chi-town in august

[Castrum]

nWo 4 Life :-P

[AKAtheMilkman]

nWo 4 Life :-P

nWo...who were they?
:p joking, they were the **** back in the day
I saw where they were airing old episodes, but on cable, so oh well
anyways I think you have to pay too with is dumb as hell

[i lol at you]

I (this is why Goldberg was tasered and lost his undefeated streak.).

I remember this very vividly. I was roughly 10 years old. With the channel of the ppv on, but with no cable box. So it was scrambled but I could hear what was going on.

I was a huge Goldberg fan, ever since his first match where he smoked Hugh Morris (I think?). And once I heard them say something about Scott Hall being out, and then a taser, I was flipping out.

[DenyThisFlesh]

nWo 4 Life :-P

I was all about the nWo back in the day. I used to be a big WWE and WCW fan. I used to watch all the PPVs and everything. I had an nWo tshirt too. I can't watch WWE stuff for more than a few minutes now.

[Castrum]

Yeah, the recent WWE **** is garbage compared to anything from the late '80s/'90s. The storylines are so underdeveloped and basic, and it seems like they only have about 10 wrestlers in the entire league right now, most of whom show up in every damn PPV.

Also, WTF is this **** about modern-day "I Quit" matches? Back in the '80s, it meant the guy who gave up was gone from the league. That recent one with Cena/Orton was basically a submission match, nothing more. Hell, they even ended it like one.