Rebooking World Championship Wrestling (WCW)

[kdawg32086]

I've been watching a lot of old WCW videos lately and the Monday Night Wars and Rise & Fall of WCW documentaries. Maybe it's the nostalgia from my childhood, but WCW in the 90's was awesome up until around Starrcade 1998 and the Finger Poke of Doom stuff.

Assuming that you could go back and change history, beginning with the Starrcade 1998 PPV results, how would you have rebooked WCW to where it was still around today (or at least a lot longer than it lasted in reality)?

[Texas Chuck]

I'd start by realizing what you had in Jericho and not waste his time with cruiserweight feuds. Give him a main event push and maybe you can keep him from defecting. And you trim other fat if you have to give him a big raise to keep him. Look what a 50 year version did to springboard AEW. Imagine the 30 year old version as the lead heel for WCW.

I'd also have not gone so overboard with the NWO. Obviously the Hogan heelturn and that angle really solidified them but then it just got stupid with competing versions and such a huge chunk of the roster tied up in.

Fire Hogan.. Obviously you needed him to get that initial push, but his outsized creative control was at the root of a lot of bad booking. Easier to do obviously if you had kept Jericho. But that could have been a major addition by subtraction.

[improper]

I'd start by realizing what you had in Jericho and not waste his time with cruiserweight feuds. Give him a main event push and maybe you can keep him from defecting. And you trim other fat if you have to give him a big raise to keep him. Look what a 50 year version did to springboard AEW. Imagine the 30 year old version as the lead heel for WCW.

I'd also have not gone so overboard with the NWO. Obviously the Hogan heelturn and that angle really solidified them but then it just got stupid with competing versions and such a huge chunk of the roster tied up in.

Fire Hogan.. Obviously you needed him to get that initial push, but his outsized creative control was at the root of a lot of bad booking. Easier to do obviously if you had kept Jericho. But that could have been a major addition by subtraction.

Jericho's "Man of 1004 Holds" promo is still one of my favorites of all time.

[Ruzious]

Between the Wolfpack NWO, the Hollywood NWO, the Latino NWO, and the Japanese NWO, it was just tiresome. And the finger poke thing was just - enough's enough - with Hogan and Nash. They should have pushed guys like Jericho, Hennig, and The Giant more - I think all made big splashes when landing with the WWE. They actually booked Hennig as a redneck country singer that hated rap - more than as a wrestler - why would anyone think that made sense? Maybe the worst thing was replacing Bobby Heenan with some awful radio personality named Mark Madden - at that point it seemed like they didn't care about their fans. And Vince Russo being booked (by himself) on air to do anything was a complete disaster.

[Pharaoh]

Results from Starrcade 1998:

Kidman beat Rey & Juvi to retain the Cruiserweight title

Kidman retained v Eddie

Norman Smiley beat Prince Iaukea by submission

Saturn beat Ernest Miller

Brian Adams & Scott Norton beat Jerry Flynn & Fit Finlay

Konnan beat Jericho by submission to retain the TV title

Bischoff beat Flair

DDP beat The Giant

Nash beat Goldberg to win the title, end the streak and that set off a chain of events.

On the next Nitro Flair wins control of WCW for 90 days...which really should have been huge and stopped the Finger Poke of Doom happening!

But we'll start with the obvious change that should have happened here:

Jericho wins the TV title, going over Konnan and renewing a big push.

Eddie wins the Cruiserweight title, going over a tired Kidman to receive a bigger push.





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[Pharaoh]

Next Nitro results:

Hugh Morris beat Glacier - who cares

Booker T beat Emory Hale - what?

Chavo beat Norman Smiley

Benoit beat Horace Hogan

Jericho beat Saturn by DQ

Juvi & Psychosis beat Kidman & Rey in a Texas Tornado Match

Konnan beat Scott Steiner - WTF

Bam Bam Bigelow and Wrath went to a no contest

DDP beat Brian Adams

Hogan/Nash finger poke of Doom

I do believe somewhere on this show Flair wins control for 90 days so I'd open with that and use that as the way to block Hogan offering to take Goldberg's place in the main event.

With Flair in control I'd force Nash to defend against Scott Hall (who I believe won the WW3 ppv to be #1 contender)

So it's Hall v Nash in the main event, Hogan and Steiner come out and interfere and now it's NWO Hollywood v Outsiders at the top of the card.

After that runs it's course Hogan probably goes away again for a bit (if not you force him to)

Scott Hall still likely falls victim to his own demons

I'd force Nash to step into creative more than step into the ring.

So that eliminates a load of issues at the top of the card.

Then I'd thin out the roster at the lower level and all those dudes that sit at home and still got paid.

I'd get the strap off Nash and onto DDP as soon as I could.

DDP would go on to face Goldberg & Bret Hart (Flair probably in there too at some point) and Steiner at the top of the card for the next year before he lost the title to Jericho to start 2000.

I'd like to believe Jericho still gets the clock idea and millennium man idea, he'd just use it in WCW.

In order to get Jericho up to that level you gotta split the usual suspects into 2 different groups. For the longest time it seemed Jericho, Benoit, Konnan, Saturn, Chavo, Eddie, Rey, Kidman, Juvi & Dean Malenko were always matched up against each other in great matches but it was always on that lower level of importance.

So I'd shift Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, Booker T into next tier (US title) and allow them the time to show themselves to the world.

The other guys in that group are TV title, Cruiserweight title or tags below them.

Basically I'd shift the tiers in the company and make it obvious:

Main: DDP, Goldberg, Steiner, Bret are the obvious main guys. Sting, Flair & Nash can drop into that as you choose.

Next level: Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, Booker T are coming up. Can drop Sting, Flair, Bret & Steiner here to elevate these guys over a 12 month period.

The lower tier guys or tag teams aren't really a issue since WCW lost it's way due to the top of the card being egomaniacs

Given you've picked the January 4th 1999 Nitro as the pivot point I'll fast forward my booking ideas and show my proposed Starrcade:

DDP v Jericho for the World Title
Bret v Benoit for the US Title
Flair v Eddie
Sting v Steiner
Booker T v Jeff Jarrett

And open the show with Goldberg v Nash - rematch a year in the making!

Goldberg, Bret, Benoit, Jarrett, Nash, Sting, DDP, Booker all actually wrestled on the real Starrcade 1999.

Jericho was off TV at this point after WCW failed to move forward with his Goldberg fued and Eddie wasn't featured.

Remember that less than a month after this show a whole bunch of dudes in WCW request their releases, have them granted and then show up on Raw. Benoit, Eddie, Saturn and Malenko being those that were allowed to leave

But assuming I'd spent the year elevating 2 of those 4 and Jericho on top of that I doubt they leave or even want to.

We'd move into the year 2000 with a load of top tier talent but as a rebuilding franchise, moving away from the Crash TV, Attitude Era style since standards and practices were really blocking a lot of things WCW could do creatively. So you switch to more of a straight up wrestling show:

Jericho, Benoit, Booker, Steiner, DDP, Jarrett, Bret, Goldberg, as the most active wrestlers on the shows

Sting & Flair (& Nash) = space out their involvement more to make each one appear special.

Hogan wouldn't be brought back unless he was willing to put Jericho or Steiner on PPV.

Building towards the future: sign A.J Styles, Bryan Danielson, CM Punk from the indys

Hiring Jim Ross as head of talent relations around 2000 is probably the biggest move you could make


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[kdawg32086]

Here are my thoughts on major storylines:

1) Keep the belt on Goldberg at Starrcade 1998, but have Hall use the taser after the match to set up a Goldberg vs. Hall feud to start 1999. Hall joins Wolfpac and they don't merge nWo crews.

2) Tease Goldberg joining nWo black and white over the objections of the Horsemen who warn him that a target will go on his back if he does, but have it be Hogan's return to join nWo instead. In a swerve, Goldberg takes Mongo's spot in the Horsemen.

3) Sid returns in May 1999 and helps Flair take the belt off Goldberg, joining the Horsemen in the process (I know he's not highly rated as a Horsemen in history, but Arn is gone and I need a big monster here to get the belt off Goldberg and onto Flair).

4) Fall Brawl is Team Bret Hart vs. Team Hogan for control of the nWo black and white. Team Hart wins after the Giant turns on team Hogan and leaves the group. Hogan is taken off screen. Gradually, they begin kicking out members over the remainder of the year.

5) Jeff Jarrett returns and cuts his "Chosen One" promo but adjusts it to be the chosen one to help the young talent get the recognition it deserves. He becomes the leader of the New Blood. Dustin Rhodes debuts weeks later as "the Golden Boy" Dustin Rhodes and becomes his 2nd in command.

6) The Giant takes the belt from Flair at Starrcade 1999 and joins the New Blood.

7) nWo Black and White dissolves in early 2000, and Bret Hart becomes the leader of Team Canada, with other members initially being Neidhart, Rougeau, and Oullet. THey begin beating up wrestlers like Duggan and the Steiners until the familiar intro of "he is American Maaaaaade" plays on Nitro and Hulk Hogan returns in the red and yellow. Hogan defeats Bret Hart at the GReat American Bash to end the US vs. Canada feud.

8) WCW buys ECW in mid-2000 as they get into trouble financially and top ECW stars begin debuting in WCW.

9) Chris Benoit takes the belt off of the Giant in mid-2000.

10) At Fall Brawl 2000, it is the Horsemen (Flair, Benoit, Malenko, Sid) vs. Team New Blood (Jarrett, Rhodes, Giant, Jericho). Horsemen win after Jericho turns on the New Blood and joins the Horsemen. Benoit is kicked out of the group and locked in the cage and beaten down by the Horsemen as the PPV goes off the air.

11) Benoit feuds with the Horsemen and beats Flair at Halloween Havoc.

12) Benoit defeats the Giant at Starrcade to retain the title. Giant disappears from TV for a storyline.

13) Jeff Jarrett turns heel and Jim Cornette returns to WCW, founding Camp Cornette. New Blood becomes a face stable for young talent, led by Dustin and Dusty Rhodes. Camp Cornette becomes heel stable for young talent. They face off at Fall Brawl 2001.

14) Benoit becomes the target of Kevin Sullivan, who reforms the Dungeon of Doom for Benoit to run through in the first part of the year. (Morrus, Meng, Barbarian, The Wall, Mortis, Vampiro, and then the Giant before he gets his hands on Sullivan). While Benoit is feuding with the Dungeon, Arn Anderson begins managing Jindrak and O'Haire who eventually ally themselves with Benoit. Buff Bagwell and Shane Douglas join them and this group of 5 wrestlers is called "Future" and managed by Arn.

[Scott Hall]

A lot of WCWs downfall had more to do with them not being run properly as a business as opposed to
actual creative you saw on television.

WCW ran very few house shows especially compared to WWF. They had a PPV in Road Wild each August where
they didn't even charge fans to show up and watch live. They didn't have much of an International presence as
they didn't get a Canadian TV deal until late November 1997 and who knows if/when they had one in England
and other markets? Every other Nitro was in their territory primarily so basically Atlanta, The Carolinas, Virginia,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida etc. They entered the video game market late in the game and their toy deal was
piss poor compared to the WWF. Also as everybody knows they spent waaay to much on their roster and gave out
to many guaranteed contracts. Plus there is the whole AOL/Time Warner stuff.

As for creative...

I started watching old RAW's/Nitros from the beginning during the pandemic and am currently at the end of
April 1997. Outside of the nWo stuff I'm liking RAW waaaaay better. I find the Horsemen to be way over exposed
but I get they are over in the South. I honestly could careless about the Luchador's and the Cruiserweight division
that's not to say I don't love Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit etc but the way they are
booked it's just meaningless drivel that goes nowhere. You can tell the mentality is just throw them out there
have a good match kill some time and the crowd will be entertained well that stuff gets old real fast especially
when it's the same 6-8 guys wrestling each other over and over again. Nitro going to 3 hours really exposed this
just like with RAW now 3 hours. People only have so much time in the day and don't want to watch something
that is pointless or see stuff they've already seen before unless it's a hot angle.

Eric Bischoff said this a few months ago watching the "War" in retrospect was that a big mistake was that the
nWo usually was the only one that had any cohesive storylines where if you watch RAW everybody from the
curtain jerkers to the main event guys are in some sort of angle going somewhere. Watch an old Nitro and
you'll see a Meng vs. Glacier match with no direction or purpose that's just designed to kill 10-15 minutes.

Also WCW was the kings of hot shot booking especially in 1997-1999 they'd always give you these insane
Main Events particularly Tag matches eg. Hogan and Savage vs. Bret Hart and Sting and literally every time
they would end in a run in and a giant brawl with the show ending in chaos another example is Sting coming
from the rafters and beating everyone with Baseball bats they booked that a thousand times.

In the end the creative stuff really is minor compared to how poorly run they were as a business. No idea
what Ted Turner was thinking having someone as inexperienced as Eric Bischoff running a company of that
size and as time has went on we've learned Bischoff is lazy and would rather be one of the boys drinking,
smoking cigars and riding motorcycles then actually being "office" and doing the legwork to grow the business.

[Pharaoh]

A lot of WCWs downfall had more to do with them not being run properly as a business as opposed to
actual creative you saw on television.

WCW ran very few house shows especially compared to WWF. They had a PPV in Road Wild each August where
they didn't even charge fans to show up and watch live. They didn't have much of an International presence as
they didn't get a Canadian TV deal until late November 1997 and who knows if/when they had one in England
and other markets? Every other Nitro was in their territory primarily so basically Atlanta, The Carolinas, Virginia,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida etc. They entered the video game market late in the game and their toy deal was
piss poor compared to the WWF. Also as everybody knows they spent waaay to much on their roster and gave out
to many guaranteed contracts. Plus there is the whole AOL/Time Warner stuff.

As for creative...

I started watching old RAW's/Nitros from the beginning during the pandemic and am currently at the end of
April 1997. Outside of the nWo stuff I'm liking RAW waaaaay better. I find the Horsemen to be way over exposed
but I get they are over in the South. I honestly could careless about the Luchador's and the Cruiserweight division
that's not to say I don't love Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit etc but the way they are
booked it's just meaningless drivel that goes nowhere. You can tell the mentality is just throw them out there
have a good match kill some time and the crowd will be entertained well that stuff gets old real fast especially
when it's the same 6-8 guys wrestling each other over and over again. Nitro going to 3 hours really exposed this
just like with RAW now 3 hours. People only have so much time in the day and don't want to watch something
that is pointless or see stuff they've already seen before unless it's a hot angle.

Eric Bischoff said this a few months ago watching the "War" in retrospect was that a big mistake was that the
nWo usually was the only one that had any cohesive storylines where if you watch RAW everybody from the
curtain jerkers to the main event guys are in some sort of angle going somewhere. Watch an old Nitro and
you'll see a Meng vs. Glacier match with no direction or purpose that's just designed to kill 10-15 minutes.

Also WCW was the kings of hot shot booking especially in 1997-1999 they'd always give you these insane
Main Events particularly Tag matches eg. Hogan and Savage vs. Bret Hart and Sting and literally every time
they would end in a run in and a giant brawl with the show ending in chaos another example is Sting coming
from the rafters and beating everyone with Baseball bats they booked that a thousand times.

In the end the creative stuff really is minor compared to how poorly run they were as a business. No idea
what Ted Turner was thinking having someone as inexperienced as Eric Bischoff running a company of that
size and as time has went on we've learned Bischoff is lazy and would rather be one of the boys drinking,
smoking cigars and riding motorcycles then actually being "office" and doing the legwork to grow the business.

You might want to check revenue for WCW with Bischoff and without him.

Apparently there's a book that Bischoff has pimped on the 83 weeks podcast.

Not the other book by R.D Reynolds of Wrestlecrap fame

Sent from my SM-G781B using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Scott Hall]

A lot of WCWs downfall had more to do with them not being run properly as a business as opposed to
actual creative you saw on television.

WCW ran very few house shows especially compared to WWF. They had a PPV in Road Wild each August where
they didn't even charge fans to show up and watch live. They didn't have much of an International presence as
they didn't get a Canadian TV deal until late November 1997 and who knows if/when they had one in England
and other markets? Every other Nitro was in their territory primarily so basically Atlanta, The Carolinas, Virginia,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida etc. They entered the video game market late in the game and their toy deal was
piss poor compared to the WWF. Also as everybody knows they spent waaay to much on their roster and gave out
to many guaranteed contracts. Plus there is the whole AOL/Time Warner stuff.

As for creative...

I started watching old RAW's/Nitros from the beginning during the pandemic and am currently at the end of
April 1997. Outside of the nWo stuff I'm liking RAW waaaaay better. I find the Horsemen to be way over exposed
but I get they are over in the South. I honestly could careless about the Luchador's and the Cruiserweight division
that's not to say I don't love Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit etc but the way they are
booked it's just meaningless drivel that goes nowhere. You can tell the mentality is just throw them out there
have a good match kill some time and the crowd will be entertained well that stuff gets old real fast especially
when it's the same 6-8 guys wrestling each other over and over again. Nitro going to 3 hours really exposed this
just like with RAW now 3 hours. People only have so much time in the day and don't want to watch something
that is pointless or see stuff they've already seen before unless it's a hot angle.

Eric Bischoff said this a few months ago watching the "War" in retrospect was that a big mistake was that the
nWo usually was the only one that had any cohesive storylines where if you watch RAW everybody from the
curtain jerkers to the main event guys are in some sort of angle going somewhere. Watch an old Nitro and
you'll see a Meng vs. Glacier match with no direction or purpose that's just designed to kill 10-15 minutes.

Also WCW was the kings of hot shot booking especially in 1997-1999 they'd always give you these insane
Main Events particularly Tag matches eg. Hogan and Savage vs. Bret Hart and Sting and literally every time
they would end in a run in and a giant brawl with the show ending in chaos another example is Sting coming
from the rafters and beating everyone with Baseball bats they booked that a thousand times.

In the end the creative stuff really is minor compared to how poorly run they were as a business. No idea
what Ted Turner was thinking having someone as inexperienced as Eric Bischoff running a company of that
size and as time has went on we've learned Bischoff is lazy and would rather be one of the boys drinking,
smoking cigars and riding motorcycles then actually being "office" and doing the legwork to grow the business.

You might want to check revenue for WCW with Bischoff and without him.

Apparently there's a book that Bischoff has pimped on the 83 weeks podcast.

Not the other book by R.D Reynolds of Wrestlecrap fame

Sent from my SM-G781B using RealGM Forums mobile app

??

WCW was already losing tons of money and Bischoff said himself he knew they were in big trouble
by mid 1998. Think about that mid 1998 Goldberg was in the middle of his win streak we're only several
months removed from the huge Sting vs. Hogan match at Starrcade plus the arrival of huge FA addition
Bret Hart. They had just done a big Nitro in a sold out Georgia Dome and they were bleeding money.

Also I don't know how their TV contract worked with TNT/TBS since Turner owned the networks. Where
with WWE someone else owns the channels they are on USA/FOX (TNN back in the day) as that is the
biggest life line for revenue in the industry.

[jakecronus8]

In the words of Double J, I won’t get too granular. But I’ll hit some of the bigger points.

First off, I’m going back to 97 and the mismanagement of the perhaps the hottest acquisition in wrestling history. I don’t have Bret do anything on tv or ppv until the main event of Starcade.

I have Bret Hart not help sting, but prevent Hogan from screwing Sting out of the title and he goes over clean at Starcade 97. This leads to a prolonged Hogan/Bret feud with a ton of worked shoot promos in between.

Meanwhile, as all of this is happening taking up Hogan’s time, the nwo is systematically being torn apart by Sting. After his Bret feud, Hogan feuds with Nash over whose fault it was that the nwo went kapoot.

Bret eventually beats sting in a baby/baby match after a lengthy title reign for sting as he restores wcw’s glory by defeating the nwo.

Bret, as champion, has a similar run like Cena had with the us title a few years ago and has title programs with the likes of Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero etc which turns those guys into main eventers.

That’s all I got for now.

[Pharaoh]

A lot of WCWs downfall had more to do with them not being run properly as a business as opposed to
actual creative you saw on television.

WCW ran very few house shows especially compared to WWF. They had a PPV in Road Wild each August where
they didn't even charge fans to show up and watch live. They didn't have much of an International presence as
they didn't get a Canadian TV deal until late November 1997 and who knows if/when they had one in England
and other markets? Every other Nitro was in their territory primarily so basically Atlanta, The Carolinas, Virginia,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida etc. They entered the video game market late in the game and their toy deal was
piss poor compared to the WWF. Also as everybody knows they spent waaay to much on their roster and gave out
to many guaranteed contracts. Plus there is the whole AOL/Time Warner stuff.

As for creative...

I started watching old RAW's/Nitros from the beginning during the pandemic and am currently at the end of
April 1997. Outside of the nWo stuff I'm liking RAW waaaaay better. I find the Horsemen to be way over exposed
but I get they are over in the South. I honestly could careless about the Luchador's and the Cruiserweight division
that's not to say I don't love Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit etc but the way they are
booked it's just meaningless drivel that goes nowhere. You can tell the mentality is just throw them out there
have a good match kill some time and the crowd will be entertained well that stuff gets old real fast especially
when it's the same 6-8 guys wrestling each other over and over again. Nitro going to 3 hours really exposed this
just like with RAW now 3 hours. People only have so much time in the day and don't want to watch something
that is pointless or see stuff they've already seen before unless it's a hot angle.

Eric Bischoff said this a few months ago watching the "War" in retrospect was that a big mistake was that the
nWo usually was the only one that had any cohesive storylines where if you watch RAW everybody from the
curtain jerkers to the main event guys are in some sort of angle going somewhere. Watch an old Nitro and
you'll see a Meng vs. Glacier match with no direction or purpose that's just designed to kill 10-15 minutes.

Also WCW was the kings of hot shot booking especially in 1997-1999 they'd always give you these insane
Main Events particularly Tag matches eg. Hogan and Savage vs. Bret Hart and Sting and literally every time
they would end in a run in and a giant brawl with the show ending in chaos another example is Sting coming
from the rafters and beating everyone with Baseball bats they booked that a thousand times.

In the end the creative stuff really is minor compared to how poorly run they were as a business. No idea
what Ted Turner was thinking having someone as inexperienced as Eric Bischoff running a company of that
size and as time has went on we've learned Bischoff is lazy and would rather be one of the boys drinking,
smoking cigars and riding motorcycles then actually being "office" and doing the legwork to grow the business.

You might want to check revenue for WCW with Bischoff and without him.

Apparently there's a book that Bischoff has pimped on the 83 weeks podcast.

Not the other book by R.D Reynolds of Wrestlecrap fame

Sent from my SM-G781B using RealGM Forums mobile app

??

WCW was already losing tons of money and Bischoff said himself he knew they were in big trouble
by mid 1998. Think about that mid 1998 Goldberg was in the middle of his win streak we're only several
months removed from the huge Sting vs. Hogan match at Starrcade plus the arrival of huge FA addition
Bret Hart. They had just done a big Nitro in a sold out Georgia Dome and they were bleeding money.

Also I don't know how their TV contract worked with TNT/TBS since Turner owned the networks. Where
with WWE someone else owns the channels they are on USA/FOX (TNN back in the day) as that is the
biggest life line for revenue in the industry.

When Bischoff says big trouble in the middle of 98 he is referring to the standards and practices the networks were starting to apply to the product, not revenue.

The book he mentions had the real figures for WCW and apparently those figures differ greatly from the ones earlier reported since Time Warner used "creative" accounting as most businesses do.

The fact Bischoff (& investors) would have bought and rebooted the company as late as 2001 shows that he knew the real figures and while not profitable the last few years weren't as bad as people thought.

I can't find the book anywhere through google cause all I get is the **** version

Sent from my SM-G781B using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Scott Hall]

You might want to check revenue for WCW with Bischoff and without him.

Apparently there's a book that Bischoff has pimped on the 83 weeks podcast.

Not the other book by R.D Reynolds of Wrestlecrap fame

Sent from my SM-G781B using RealGM Forums mobile app

??

WCW was already losing tons of money and Bischoff said himself he knew they were in big trouble
by mid 1998. Think about that mid 1998 Goldberg was in the middle of his win streak we're only several
months removed from the huge Sting vs. Hogan match at Starrcade plus the arrival of huge FA addition
Bret Hart. They had just done a big Nitro in a sold out Georgia Dome and they were bleeding money.

Also I don't know how their TV contract worked with TNT/TBS since Turner owned the networks. Where
with WWE someone else owns the channels they are on USA/FOX (TNN back in the day) as that is the
biggest life line for revenue in the industry.

When Bischoff says big trouble in the middle of 98 he is referring to the standards and practices the networks were starting to apply to the product, not revenue.

The book he mentions had the real figures for WCW and apparently those figures differ greatly from the ones earlier reported since Time Warner used "creative" accounting as most businesses do.

The fact Bischoff (& investors) would have bought and rebooted the company as late as 2001 shows that he knew the real figures and while not profitable the last few years weren't as bad as people thought.

I can't find the book anywhere through google cause all I get is the **** version

Sent from my SM-G781B using RealGM Forums mobile app

The company was in complete turmoil at the top a lot of meddling going on that's why you need a hands on owner
like Vince and Tony Khan. That's why I laugh when these geeky Internet marks try to blame the downfall of the
company on Hogan or Nash or Russo etc. like if the finger point of doom or Judy Bagwell on a pole is any worse
then Mae Young giving birth to a "hand" with her sexual partner Mark Henry. WWE also did a lot of garbage stuff
like they still do today and they still thrived. Like fans are gonna stop watching an entire promotion over a bad angle
or someone didn't lose cleanly lol

[prolific passer]

Some have said that maybe Goldberg should have lost to ddp at the havoc and the streak should have ended there. Or maybe a triple threat between Booker, Wrath, and Goldberg at starrcade since all had great winning streaks with booker winning pinning Wrath. Then you have wrath and goldberg battle for the #1 contender for the january ppv in 99. Wrestle on the first nitro of 99. Wrath probably loses and it's Goldberg vs Booker for the title or have wrath/goldberg at the ppv for the contender and ddp vs booker for the title.

Also dont change the set wcw.

[kdawg32086]

What does everyone think of Ray Traylor/Big Bubba as a replacement for Mongo in the 4 Horsemen? Would it have worked?

[Lord Eder]

What does everyone think of Ray Traylor/Big Bubba as a replacement for Mongo in the 4 Horsemen? Would it have worked?

Hold on, are you suggesting that Mongo vs Jeff Jarret being resolved by the briefcase x100 didn’t work for you?

In seriousness it’s an interesting thought. The Horsemen were floundering and Ray was completely misused and wasted in WCW.

[prolific passer]

98 for wcw was great because you had 3 guys in Goldberg, Booker T, and Wrath have undefeated streaks at some point. Maybe have ddp end the streak at the havoc of halloween or do a triple threat match at starrcade between Goldberg, Booker, and Wrath. Booker wins the title pinning wrath. Wrath and Goldberg face each other for the #1 contender at the next ppv why Booker faces a returning ddp who hasn't had a match since halloween havoc for the title. Goldberg and Booker win their matches facing each other at the next ppv with Goldberg winning.
If ddp wins it at hh. Goldberg gets the title back on the nitro against the raw when Mick wins his first wwe title.

Also. Dont change the wcw logo and nitro set.