[Poueff]

Well,the question is simple. If Sting won and destroyed NWO (instead of Hogan refusing to lie down to him) instead of the finish we all saw and managed to take advantage of all situations,could they do what WWF did to them?

Remember,the world was just off a Montreal Screwjob and WCW could've exploded the NWO angle up in such a big way that WWF would just be crushed (imo after this WCW started to downfall) ... instead of the Austin rise to the top of the world of wrestling...

And tbh,what would be your preference? To WCW to win the wars or not?

 

[Nuglet McJunior]

I don't desire to see any company fail. But history has proven that wrestling is at its best when competition is involved. So yes, I would have liked to see WCW last longer than it did.

 

[peachchaos]

I was never a big fan of the WCW product. I liked a lot of their workers and they had some really great matches and extremely entertaining angles, but overall I was very pleased when they closed their doors. I suppose if it had gone down like you said - Sting beating Hogan in a few minutes, then again in the rematch and the going on to destroy the NWO - they would have gained enough momentum to compete with Austin-McMahon. But then what? Once Sting beat Hogan, Nash, Hall, Syxx, Savage, etc. and the nWo is dead, then what? There was great appeal to a Sting-Bret Hart match, but not neither guy had the mic skills to sustain an entire feud like Foley, Austin and McMahon.

In retrospect, Bischoff screwed up at Starrcade '97, but it was probably for the best. Hogan-Goldberg remains one of the greatest title changes ever.

 

[johnnyshear]

Was going to fail anyway.

Sting would have been meh as Champion regardless.

 

[TelkEvolon]

All WCW needed to do was not screw up and WWF would of been out. They were so close to going under.

 

[Geeee]

From what I understand, Ted Turner just wanted out of the wrestling business. It's entirely possible WCW would be gone, even if they remained on top in the ratings.

 

[dave 1981]

I know that the ending for the Sting/Hogan match at Starrcade 1997 was wrong and Hulk Hogan should have put Sting over clean after a year and a half build up and a great storyline but WCW didn't just become a fail based on that PPV. WCW were still ahead of WWE in the ratings until September or October in 1998 and then were back on top briefly towards the end of the year before WWE took over for good in January 1999 so WCW were still on top for around 9 or 10 months after Starrcade 1997 which was at the end of December.

Where WCW went wrong after Starrcade was they should have broken up The New World Order as soon as Sting/Hogan had ended at Superbrawl 8 and left everyone involved as singles wrestler's and tag teams rather than split the group up into two different factions because that is where the wheels began to fall off. After Sting/Hogan had finished WCW should have pushed Nash/Hogan as one feud and Sting/Savage or Sting/Hall as the World title feud which all would have made sense rather than have two seperate groups with virtually the whole roster involved.

When The New World Order debuted they were against all of WCW but once they split the group into two seperate groups we saw people who were WCW join The Wolfpac against Hollywood just because Hulk Hogan was the heel, the thing is that Kevin Nash was a part of the original group but people joined him against Hulk Hogan. All they had to do was push Kevin Nash as a face and have him feud with Hulk Hogan one on one which could have led to the Nash/Hall feud after Scott Hall had turned on Kevin Nash in a Nash/Hogan match and then WCW could have had Sting/Savage, Nash/Hall and Page/Hogan as their main feuds with Bret Hart and Goldberg around as well.

Later on down the line at Starrcade 1998 when Goldberg faced Kevin Nash they could have still done the same things with Scott Hall returning and costing Goldberg the World title and then in a rematch a month later at the next PPV they could have reunited The New World Order which after a year out would have been a HUGE draw again. They could have pushed Goldberg/Hogan in the long term after Goldberg had feuded with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and the build up towards Goldberg/Hogan would have been HUGE but they went with overkill on The New World Order and eventually the fan's grew tired of it all.

 

[JigsawKrueger]

All WCW needed to do was not screw up and WWF would of been out. They were so close to going under.

Why? They made a net profit of 6.5 million dollars April 96 - April 97. They made a net profit of 8 million Apr 97 - Apr 98. Monday Night Raw's ratings in 1996 and 1997 was higher than in 1994, always in the top 20 for the year. Live attendance in 1996 and 1997 was up on 1994/1995. Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker were signed to long term contracts and they had signed a group of talented and under utilized wrestlers in early 96 (Foley, Austin, Vader, Pillman and Mero).

 

[Vic Capri]

Absolutely. They had the best talent in the world. If it wasn't for Hogan's politics and Russo's idiotic booking, WCW would still be around.

- Vic

 

[SilverX]

Not With Mcmahon being a greater heel than Bischoff could ever be.

..

 

[SilverX]

From what I understand, Ted Turner just wanted out of the wrestling business. It's entirely possible WCW would be gone, even if they remained on top in the ratings.

Ted Turner never wanted to get rid of WCW; It was the new management that was created when Time Warner merged with AOL that did. When the merger happened Ted Turner lost his 51% ownership of the whole company. And the new executives did not see any value in WCW so they pulled the plug completely.

Ted Turner did not personally own WCW he only owned it through Time Warner.

If he had personally owned it and not Time Warner, I bet it would still be around today, profit loss and all.

..

 

[SHIRLEY]

No because the business side of the company was a ticking time bomb. Hogan's antics didn't help though.

 

[SilverX]

No because the business side of the company was a ticking time bomb. Hogan's antics didn't help though.

True that. Hogan is a form of cancer for any company. I feel bad for TNA.

Vince Mcmahon explained Hogan perfectly in this promo:

 

[Bobby Brainbuster]

I got into WCW around 1997/98 up until it ended so would be wrong for me to comment on the implications of Starrcade 1997 but my guess is WCW would have gone down the pan anyway because they were a one trick pony and thought they could live comfortably off that trick for as long as it took.

From what I could see, one of the main problems WCW had was disorganisation. It wasn't a tight organisation, full of egotistical wrestlers that believed they could control the creativity of the product, bloated contracts and awful story/angle direction.

Another problem was Vince Russo. He wanted a product that was 'entertainment' first and wrestling second. I guess I could cope with that if what he was putting across was entertaining but it was just wrestlers saying the same old tired stuff and rambling on about nothing that was developing their characters or feuds. In my opinion, if a person isn't watching a wrestling show for the wrestling, what on earth is s/he watching it for?

 

[Troll™]

WCW was still thriving in 1998: only WWF was doing better. They went down in 1999, after Goldberg's streak ended, and the Fingerpoke of Doom happened.

 

[tgautier13]

WCW was not a one trick pony, there was some magnificent matches in that promotion in the 80's.

 

[SilverX]

WCW was not a one trick pony, there was some magnificent matches in that promotion in the 80's.

Yeah, back when it was part of the NWA

I did admire WCW's cruiserweight division tho, and many of their divas and antics were entertaining.
..

 

[MOBELS]

They could've because they had the best cruiserweights, best mid card and best Main Event but because of egos it got fucked up. They would've had a built Main Event 5 years later as they would've had Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Raven, Chris Beniot, DDP, Scott Steiner, Booker T and Jeff Jarrett and some older veterans, but people's ego's fucked it all up and most of the stars left to WWE and were made World champs there.

 

[Bobby Brainbuster]

WCW was not a one trick pony, there was some magnificent matches in that promotion in the 80's.

Sorry I should have explained myself. I meant the way WCW used the NWO story line and dragged it out to the point of ludicrous. It was like that was all it had to throw at the WWE during The Monday Night Wars.

WCW had some excellent matches during the 80s and into the 90s though wasn't a massive fan of Dusty Rhodes...Probably just a matter of opinion.

If you do want a laugh, you've got to watch The Shockmaster's debut in WCW - probably the most unintentionally funniest thing I have ever seen in wrestling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvgHCtjXbAI

 

[weProtectUs]

If WCW had beaten WWF the invasion would've been a hell of alot better because bischoff didn't have the grudge Mcmahon had he actually welcomed talent from other companies(see WCW 95/96). I believe had WCW actually pushed those guys in the undercard(Raven, Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho, Booker T, Saturn) to prominent roles in 1998 they would have beat WWF because the roster WCW had in 1997 & 1998 was better than WWF's hands down.