25 Years Ago Today...

[Chico Torres]

21 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Undisputed Title: Steve Austin vs. Mick Foley

The Undertaker vs. Terry Funk

The Rock vs. Sting

Hulk Hogan (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Dusty Rhodes (w/Jim Cornette)

Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon, winner gets 5 minutes in the ring with Eric Bischoff

Brock Lesnar vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

This subset of the card sounds great to me…

Anyway, when WCW died that was the end of me watching wrestling as it happened. I lost interest in WWF after 1997 but always had a soft spot for WCW because it was always my favourite promotion albeit pre-1995, but still stuck around (inconsistently) as it descended into chaos and died a long drawn-out death.

Any interest in the Invasion died when it was clear that WCW would be represented by gimps like Lance Storm and Hugh Morrus rather than the proper stars.

[Devon Malcolm]

In fairness to Cornette, almost all those matches would be great fun in isolation. Lesnar vs Bam Bam? Yes fuckin please.

[Chris B]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

It's interesting to think of what WWF TV would have been like if they hadn't bought WCW and WCW stayed in business.

I find that interesting - not just for that time period, but over the next number of years. Because WWE was leagues ahead of TNA, it never really had to change that much over the years - and the perception amongst networks was that only McMahon could produce wrestling for TV successfully. 

Without the competition in 1996, we might not have had the shift towards the Attitude era - for all that it was, it was experimental and trying new things, before becoming more downright confident by 2000. However, by the mid/late-2000s, a lot of that confidence had gone, and it all became a bit same-old, same-old, conforming to Vince's vision a lot of the time.

I feel like WWE became complacent through the 2010s. I don't know if stuff that seemed to land better like the Bloodline story would have been the approach they'd have gone for without an AEW being more competitive. If there'd been some genuine competition (rather than the whole big/little leagues thing that only made them sniff their own farts more), there might have been more experimentation and interesting stuff over the years.

[LaGoosh]

If WCW hadn't of died then TNA would never have existed which means no X Division. The X Division of early TNA has had a massive influence on the modern wrestling style. If it never came about I wonder if wrestling still would have gone in the high spot/athletic direction it's gone.

[BomberPat]

4 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Heel Austin vs US hero Kurt would still probably have been the main story of the summer with the Jericho heel turn in the Autumn. Hard to think what else they could have done.

Cynically, they lucked out with Kurt Angle turning babyface in time for 9/11. As much as I would generally say that Wrestlemania 17 was the endpoint of the Attitude Era, you could make an argument for it being 9/11 because that was the point when the defining characteristic of the era - people wanted anti-heroes, and were sick of Hogan-esque goody two-shoes babyfaces - ended, and culturally the US got back to ideas of just pure Good vs. Evil.

I think without the trappings of the Invasion, Angle probably would have had a longer pro-US babyface run that he did, and maybe without the catalyst of the WWF vs. Alliance Survivor Series match, they wouldn't have got so quickly to Austin turning back babyface again. You then have Triple H returning at the Royal Rumble, and I think they'd have gone back to the Two Man Power Trip storyline and had babyface Triple H vs. heel Austin pencilled in for Wrestlemania, with Jericho against The Rock instead.

Not having TNA around would almost be a bigger fallout of WCW staying in business - you get no X-Division (though you couldn't rule out WCW doing better by their Cruiserweights, they were trying to renew focus on them towards the end), but you also get no Knockouts division, which was a real catalyst for women's wrestling being taken more seriously in the US than it had been in years. Maybe the indie boom of the early 2000s does some of the work for the X-Division - you still get ROH, you still get cheaper and easier filming and DVD production and distribution, and later streaming, to make smaller indies more accessible, you just don't get the specific focus of the X-Division. 

[LaGoosh]

The "What if WCW never went out of business" question is far less interesting. If Bischoff had taken it over again I know he went in with a lot of talk of new ideas but I'm pretty sure it would have just gone straight back to the same old shit with Hogan on top.

[Supremo]

That period between Wrestlemania 17 and The Invasion is so rough, with the Two Man Power Trip stinking up everything, that it’s terrifying to imagine what might have happened on WWE TV that Summer if WCW and ECW hadn’t gone under.

Equally fascinating is to imagine how much worse The Invasion would have been if fate hadn’t ripped Triple H’s quad in half just before it started. Undertaker was bad enough shitting on everyone, imagine if Hunter was around, too? Christ.

Not to worry though. Hunter beat Sting in the end. That was the real quiz.

[TheScarlettChad]

Hunter would've been the leader of the Alliance. Lets face it, his wife was leader of ECW, And he never wanted to play babyface. It'd have been so much worse, is what I'm saying. And if Goldberg, Sitng etc had come in, He'd have buried them. I seem to recall, that he didn't want Flair to come in around 1998ish because he thought he was too old. But was happy enough 4 years later, when he became a Triple H arse licker.