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It closed its doors ten years ago today...


Boon Town Rat

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How is it bollocks though?

 

Because "wrestling started to die" ten years ago, and it's still here. What's it dying of, a cold?

 

As for pro wrestling on TV?

 

Every week. You seem to have misread when I wrote "televised" as "televised in the UK on terrestrial channels", and for anyone who can survive on just the terrestrial channels (how??) you can still stream or download unless you're too tight to have a decent internet connection. Which is possible if you're too tight to have Sky Sports.

 

Maybe indeed wrestling will carry on how it is, or what I should say WWE will carry on, but the wrestling industry wont ever be what it was imo.

 

Yeah, thats true. It's not as good as was. But that's what everyone said in 1994/95 too. But WWE and wrestling will go on and on. The industry will change as it always will, but come back to me in 15-20 years and it still won't be dead. Unless it dies of old age.

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How is it bollocks though?

 

Because "wrestling started to die" ten years ago, and it's still here. What's it dying of, a cold?

 

As for pro wrestling on TV?

 

Every week. You seem to have misread when I wrote "televised" as "televised in the UK on terrestrial channels", and for anyone who can survive on just the terrestrial channels (how??) you can still stream or download unless you're too tight to have a decent internet connection. Which is possible if you're too tight to have Sky Sports.

 

Maybe indeed wrestling will carry on how it is, or what I should say WWE will carry on, but the wrestling industry wont ever be what it was imo.

 

Yeah, thats true. It's not as good as was. But that's what everyone said in 1994/95 too. But WWE and wrestling will go on and on. The industry will change as it always will, but come back to me in 15-20 years and it still won't be dead. Unless it dies of old age.

 

Whatever the state of the wrestling business, the vast majority of fans owe it to Vince McMahon and the WWE for introducing them to pro wrestling. Had it not been for the global domination that the WWE/F embarked upon, I think it's safe to say that 90% of us would not be wrestling fans.

 

There would have been no WCW, TNA or ECW. The UFC would not be the same juggernaut that it is. No Stone Cold, The Rock, Hulk Hogan or Wrestlemania.

 

There would be no UKFF or worldwide wrestling online 'community' or even ROH's or DGUSA whom have been born via the gap left behind by ECW.

 

If wrestling died tomorrow then at least we'd all been along for a fucking terrific ride; we've seen the nWo, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Summerslam's, Royal Rumbles, War Games, Hell in the Cell's, Survivor Series'; you name it, it's thanks to Vince McMahon's demolition of the regional territories.

 

Take a look at every wrestling-related item or DVD you own; every memory of pro wrestling that you have and thank the McMahon's for it.

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How is it bollocks though?

 

Because "wrestling started to die" ten years ago, and it's still here. What's it dying of, a cold?

 

As for pro wrestling on TV?

 

Every week. You seem to have misread when I wrote "televised" as "televised in the UK on terrestrial channels", and for anyone who can survive on just the terrestrial channels (how??) you can still stream or download unless you're too tight to have a decent internet connection. Which is possible if you're too tight to have Sky Sports.

 

Maybe indeed wrestling will carry on how it is, or what I should say WWE will carry on, but the wrestling industry wont ever be what it was imo.

 

Yeah, thats true. It's not as good as was. But that's what everyone said in 1994/95 too. But WWE and wrestling will go on and on. The industry will change as it always will, but come back to me in 15-20 years and it still won't be dead. Unless it dies of old age.

 

Whatever the state of the wrestling business, the vast majority of fans owe it to Vince McMahon and the WWE for introducing them to pro wrestling. Had it not been for the global domination that the WWE/F embarked upon, I think it's safe to say that 90% of us would not be wrestling fans.

 

There would have been no WCW, TNA or ECW. The UFC would not be the same juggernaut that it is. No Stone Cold, The Rock, Hulk Hogan or Wrestlemania.

 

There would be no UKFF or worldwide wrestling online 'community' or even ROH's or DGUSA whom have been born via the gap left behind by ECW.

 

If wrestling died tomorrow then at least we'd all been along for a fucking terrific ride; we've seen the nWo, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Summerslam's, Royal Rumbles, War Games, Hell in the Cell's, Survivor Series'; you name it, it's thanks to Vince McMahon's demolition of the regional territories.

 

Take a look at every wrestling-related item or DVD you own; every memory of pro wrestling that you have and thank the McMahon's for it.

That was one hell of a post, I agree fully. The past 25 years worth of wrestling footage has been a terrific ride to watch, but it's never going to die. It will evolve, and will be around for a long time.

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Serious question for the mainly-WCW fans out there - when it folded, did you seriously consider fucking wrestling off completely? I was predominantly a WWF fan, but I always enjoyed Nitro on TNT and Bravo. However, I always thought that if it all happened the other way around, it would be a far easier adjustment to go from WWF to WCW. WWF has always been one man's vision marketed to millions, which, if you grew up with it, is absolutely fine. But I guess it must have been just too hard to stomach for some.

 

Further to this, if you did mull over just knocking on the head but decided to stay, what kept you involved? ROH and TNA popped up in 2002, did they keep you in to it? I'd be amazed if you settled on WWF basing it on 2002, that year was fucking dogshit.

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WWF was so popular at the time, and as I said earlier, the proposed and long awaiting WCW vs. WWF angle was enough of a cushion to the blow that was WCW going out of business. But WCW going out of business is a big reason why I don’t watch wrestling as much as I once did. I only really follow WWE around Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, or if an old star returns. Wrestling was just … better back in the 90s. And it obviously isn’t teary eyed nostalgia, because the numbers both at the arena, on television and on PPV show it. WCW did some insane angle’s and made some seriously questionable business decisions, but it has such a fingerprint on the history of wrestling its so sad to know its all locked away in Stamford, Connecticut’s warehouse. And for all the money WCW lost, I cant add up to the money Vince McMahon lost in not pushing the Invasion angle. It’s the only angle that I can positively say me or any member of this forum (including Emperoseb) could have done a better job of handling.

 

It’s a shame watching the final three months of WCW, because Bischoff and Johnny Ace were running the ship so well. The cruiserweights were back entertaining us all before the usually brilliant Scott Steiner promo, the main event scene was looking decent with Steiner, DDP and Booker T tearing it up. ECW was dead, as well, so the imminent arrival of Rob Van Dam, Steve Corino, Sabu (who was under contract since 2000, but would finally be allowed to wrestler for them), Kid Kash and Super Crazy among others would have made the roster as exciting as the WWF’s excellent midcard at the time. Lance Storm and Mike Awesome were just brilliant in the tag team division and were winning the belt on the final Nitro (until WWF took over). Chris Kanyon was back and looking awesome. Goldberg, Sting, Hogan, Nash and others were off TV to freshen up their drawing power upon the big relaunch. And The Magnificent Seven were shining and the World Champion was the main man. Ric Flair was even stepping to one side and putting them all over. The Magnificent Seven were exactly what Immortal should be in TNA now, but aren’t. And of course, everyone always forgets Jerry Lawler was in the bag and about to join as Tony Schiavone’s colour man. That would have been cool to see. There was so much potential in the new WCW. The company was going to do a 180 and be so different to the shite we saw in 2000. It would have been fun to see how it ended up.

 

I’ll go put my hanky away now.

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The thing that kept me watching post-Invasion was ex-WCW stars. But WWE continued the trend of throwing money away by not booking the WCW guys like they should. The moment they fucked Goldberg over at SummerSlam was when I quit watching wrestling because they made it no fun as they killed the aura of your heroes. The chamber match was the one time WWE let Goldberg be the explosive killer that fans loved (and the fans lapped it up, going mental for the bloke), only to then have him job to Triple H and kill him stone dead - it still makes my blood boil.

It took nearly 5 years before I considered watching weekly WWE again (the only wrestling I watched was 'Mania 20 and 21 during that period).

 

It's just a shame TNA doesn't have the writing that makes you invested in its stars/product, like WCW did.

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Serious question for the mainly-WCW fans out there - when it folded, did you seriously consider fucking wrestling off completely? I was predominantly a WWF fan, but I always enjoyed Nitro on TNT and Bravo. However, I always thought that if it all happened the other way around, it would be a far easier adjustment to go from WWF to WCW. WWF has always been one man's vision marketed to millions, which, if you grew up with it, is absolutely fine. But I guess it must have been just too hard to stomach for some.

It's a good question actually. I don't really have a clue about that kinda thing, but i was a bit taken aback by an earlier post in this thread mentioning that there was still an awful lot of hardcore, loyal fans who watched WCW right up to the end, refused to watch WWF, and gave up on wrestling when WCW folded. I'm certainly not doubting that being the case, but i am pretty amazed that it was. Who in their right mind would have endured WCW throughout late '99 and '00 as their only source of wrestling, when the WWF was so hot and Benoit, Jericho, Austin, Angle, a hot tag scene etc etc were only a remote control switch away?

 

I was always more of a WWF fan, but that was only because it was what i grew up with, and the only reason i grew up with it was because it was the fed carried by Sky and was easily accessible. Now i have saw tonnes of WCW in hindsight thanks mainly to the internet. I can now see a lot of pros and cons of both, although i missed out on the nostalgia with WCW, so nothing from there feels as special as similar stuff from the WWF. Whatever was your favourite though, Wrestling really is a lot poorer today for the demise of WCW

 

Do you think the WWF really done better financially out of closing down WCW with all those extra viewers/customers switching to WWF, or would they have been better keeping it running? Basically, did closing down WCW turn out to be a fair business decision, or did he lose a potential fortune just to feed his ego and realise his dream of burying them?

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Sadly I sort of gave up on WcW after Benoit left - much of it had been pretty hard viewing for the previous few months - and migrated back over to the WWF. Plus I was away at my first year of uni between September 2000 and June 2001 and didn't see a lot of the end, just kept up with the results via DDT Digest.

 

I was a bit sad, but not all that sad since the WcW I had loved had ceased to exist for all intents and purposes by that point anyway, and I was more excited by what matches the WcW boys going over to Vince could have "up north." Pity the Invasion storyline was rather hashed.

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I used to love the athletic Southern style more than the WWF. WWF looked better, they used better arenas and better cameras but the NWA (as it was when I first saw it) had the better wrestling. Even up to the Hogan era, it was still consistently the wrestling promotion. They signed good hands and let them do the occasional fun TV match like

but they had no idea how to push somebody. They had an undercard full of popular wrestlers and they never worked out how to get them up the card. Hearing from guys like Raven, they were randomly thrown together and allowed to do whatever they wanted.
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I carried on watching because I was a fan of both, dont know why people got to be on either side, just sounds daft to me, like all these WWE fanboys that want TNA to die every month, or want to live in the WWE utopia forever, God forbid someone else out there trying to make something in the wrestling industry work.

 

I was never a big fan of ECW but I still watched it now again, because it was just something different.

 

Yes WCW vs WWF at the time was my main hook for still watching it every week, then slowly you had other ex-WCW stars come in over the years, upto 2004, put that along side the rise of people like Lesnar and TWGT Team Angle, Cena, Orton etc and you have the best roster ever imo, 2002-2004 was a great time.

 

Then ex-WCW/ECW started to leave and TheRock, Austin n Foley went along with Lensar, it left a massive hole and thats when I started to realize that if I didnt watch WWE what else could I goto? I know TNA was around in 2002 but its not how it is now back then, I didnt even find out about TNA till 2005.

 

I do feel like im getting to the stage where im ready to just give up, I dont know if its me getting older or WWE being shite, probably both, 2010 is probably the most attention WWE/TNA have gotten out of me in years, since I gave up in 2008, my time frame is usually like Ian's but for once WWE did something interesting last summer with Nexus so it kept me around till they fucked that up at summer slam.

 

Getting to watch Nitro/Thunder and RAW/SD! on fridays and then saturdays, nothing will beat those times for me.

 

I dont think a WCW run by Vince would have realistically lasted very long, the fans would turn on it anyway, and Vinces ego would prevent him from running it right.

 

Maybe if Shane really did buy it, now that would have been more Interesting, I dunno I like Shane more than Vince, he seems to get it, he foresaw what MMA was going to be for example, I wonder what Shane would have done with WCW.

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I've said this quite a few times but Nitro from September 2000 to about February 2001 was actually better than Raw most weeks, they slowed it down a shitload from Russo's stuff and built the world title up again, it was great especially as WWE went really stale around that time

 

They'd got rid of a shitload of wrestlers by the autumn of 2000 and most of the lads they had left seemed to genuinely want to perform when they went out, I'll list all the things I enjoyed around this time in bullet points otherwise this paragraph will go on forever

 

- Booker and Steiner making the world title mean something again, AFTER the Russo and Arquette reigns that supposedly killed it

- Major Gunns in her maple leaf bikini, the 15 year old me loved that for some reason

- Totally Buff, Luger was awesome for the first time in years in their feud with Goldberg

- Hogan and his Austin rip off act had fucked off, which meant he would've been fresh if he'd come back before the buyout

- Nash was quality around this time, though he did keep turning every few weeks for no reason

- Lance Storm was a highlight every week

- Jindrak and O'Haire were awesome (miles better than Palumbo and O'Haire, hated it when they made the Thrillers switch partners)

- The matches on Nitro were normally a lot better than what was on Raw at the time (Raven losing to Steve Blackman in about his 2nd TV match)

 

So yeah, for me it was a shame when they were bought out and I never even watched WCW during its glory years

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I've said this quite a few times but Nitro from September 2000 to about February 2001 was actually better than Raw most weeks, they slowed it down a shitload from Russo's stuff and built the world title up again, it was great especially as WWE went really stale around that time

 

They'd got rid of a shitload of wrestlers by the autumn of 2000 and most of the lads they had left seemed to genuinely want to perform when they went out, I'll list all the things I enjoyed around this time in bullet points otherwise this paragraph will go on forever

 

- Booker and Steiner making the world title mean something again, AFTER the Russo and Arquette reigns that supposedly killed it

- Major Gunns in her maple leaf bikini, the 15 year old me loved that for some reason

- Totally Buff, Luger was awesome for the first time in years in their feud with Goldberg

- Hogan and his Austin rip off act had fucked off, which meant he would've been fresh if he'd come back before the buyout

- Nash was quality around this time, though he did keep turning every few weeks for no reason

- Lance Storm was a highlight every week

- Jindrak and O'Haire were awesome (miles better than Palumbo and O'Haire, hated it when they made the Thrillers switch partners)

- The matches on Nitro were normally a lot better than what was on Raw at the time (Raven losing to Steve Blackman in about his 2nd TV match)

 

So yeah, for me it was a shame when they were bought out and I never even watched WCW during its glory years

 

I agree with you here, also even during the darkest days the cruiser weights were a shining light, obviously there was a lot of shit in there too, but its always watchable right up til its death. Any Jeff Jarrett World Title reign fucking sucked though.

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If you like Major Gunns in a bikini your head would have exploded if you saw her doing what I saw her do in a video the other day.

 

What I really miss about WcW is not the matches you remember, but the ones you forget. Dig out your old Nitros and think "bloody hell, I'd forgotten that." Personal favourites are a surprisingly good tag title match between Luger/Sting and the Faces Of Fear, those great Rey/Juvi matches featuring the snappiest Ultrarana/West Coast Pops ever, and for some reason an Outsiders/Wrath & Mortis match, and also a Hall/Syxx v Harlem Heat match that was particularly fun.

 

And random Beautiful Bobby sightings.

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One thing i used to love about WCW was all the different sets. In the space of about 2 years in the mid 90's you had shows in the usual studio, normal arenas, the studio with revolving ring/apron, the set where the aisle was a long road in a city (like in the Nitro graphics), A BLOODY CROSSROADS IN THE MIDDLE OF A BUSY CITY!!!, a shopping mall, and the Nitro MGM/disney outdoor sets. Then there was PPVs like Bash at the Beach, Hog Wild, and a bit later on, the spring breakout shows.

 

What did suck was that apart from Slamboree 97, the only other full PPV I fluked it with on that german station was Bash At the Beach 95. Great setting, hideous show.

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Don't you fucking DARE let this thread die.

 

I'm watching the July 1st 1996 Nitro, and here are my random thoughts.

 

Larry Z just said "this Sunday there will be a new world order in professional wrestling." Pretty cool allusion there, although Hogan does correct him 6 days later. new World organisation, wasn't it?

 

Horsemen cut a promo which stuns me. Flair just shouts a lot and says "what's causing all this" and they continue to rub it in Savage's face even though they aren't working each other at the Bash. Arn manages to say "do do" (doo doo, hee hee) and Benoit describes himself as "silent, but violent" while talking. Holy asshat, I think Mongo made the most sense.

 

On the subject of the Bash, who the fuck decided Harlem Heat v Steiners for the flaming tag belts didn't belong on the PPV but John Tenta, Big Bubba, Hacksaw Duggan and Joe Gomez did???

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