OKay, i am writing this without looking at the spoiler above.
But too many people confuse WCW/NWA with WCW/Russo.
Here are some facts about WCW/NWA from someone who used to read every bit of wrestling info available in Australia (most people here didnt know the NWA even existed for a long time).
Firstly, WWF was always criticised by the trublu wrestling fans, because it was always good guy vs bad guy. For example, Ricky Steamboat never once fought Hulk Hogan, because both were good guys. Warrior - Hogan was literally the first ever good guy/bad guy match ever featured on Australian TV.
Anyway, WWF took over the NWA and the AWA's spot around about the time of Hulkamania, and they became the no 1 fed. When AWA folded, it left just two organisations that were serious organisations, and there were a few regional organisations (UWF springs to mind, although it was previously called something like mid southern wrestling which shows you the extent of what they really were). ANyway, WWF took over, due to TV and pay per view coverage and they started to go mainstream. They had the money to buy most of the NWA stars and became more and more entertainment than sports. NWA was always said to have better actual wrestling but this just wasnt as popular and it was always just time before there stars were bought by WWF, with Sting being the only one who didnt have a run.
Before long Ted Turner bought the NWA (sort of) and turned it into WCW. It continued to push wrestling, with good guys fighting good guys and bad guys fighting bad guys. but little impact was had until the NWO formed. The reason for this was that Hogan's heel turn gave them mainstream media coverage and with it, it grew to equal terms and even better WWF. At one stage, they had literally bought the WWF's virtual entire roster. At their peak at this time, WCW stood for a very large roster, matches not between only the select three or 4 but between a number of fighters. This meant that good fighters were often left off pay per views. Sometimes the main event of a pay per view was not even a world title match. At their height, the NWO vs WCW theme meant that you did not have to be the main event to be in a big match. And because bad guys fought bad guys and good guys fought good guys, there was twice as much matches to be made.
The reason that the guys at the top never lost, was because WCW tried to keep sport aspect of wrestling going as much as possible. Their whole concept revolved around wrestling as a sport and pretending to be real. WWF basically abandoned this concept and focussed on Entertainment. At this time, they hired two guys Russo and Ferrara, who tried to use scantilly clad women, extreme moments and soap opera style women. WWE experimented for a while with the good v good and bad v bad matches but largely stuck with the face heel format.
When WCW had the lead, they worked on matches which could be sold as a historical matchup for sports purposes. Look at their big stories and they all have this history in common. Look at Hulk HOgan v Ric Flair was always a dream matchup through the 80s because both guys ruled their respective roost. Hogan vs Piper was huge not just because of wrestlemania I, but because Hogan never managed to pin Piper, The outsiders cleaned the tag team belts but each team - Warriors, Steiners, Harlem Heat etc all had their moments where they were considered the best tag team ever and this angle was played on. The horseman Angle vs NWO was another which drew upon history. Even Goldberg, reached the top with the Streak angle and by beating Hogan, only through the focus on sports and not sports entertainment. The full time roster was about 60 wrestlers meaning many didnt show up for quite a while, but the flip side to this is that old and stale wrestlers became fresh. Hulk Hogan in his prime rarely wrestled, but it only helped his popularity in the long time. Stone Cold, the rock etc all benefit similarly. This was actually a strength of WCW and it is the hardcore fans who actually liked this.
The problem WCW had was that as the NWO succeeded continually, they started to move towards a more Entertainment than sport product. The famous hogan finger pin is looked back on now as the symbol of the change and from there the belt did take a credibility push. That was definitely a mistake with hindsight. Shortly after this, HOgan was hurt, the outsiders seemed to go off the rails and the NWO basically became the NWO B team and they started losing ground big time. When Vince Russo came in, WCW abandoned the sports aspect totally and started trying to copy the WWE. The WWE incidentally not only were lucky that WCW stalled at this time, but it is often forgotten that they were lucky enough (through necessity as all their top stars were signed) to sign two of the greatest ever wrestlers, in The Rock And steve Austin. Eventually they put on a product that pulled ahead. When Russo started going crazy and we saw him lose guys like Jericho, Guerrero, Benoit, Big Show etc then WCW started falling apart.
In a desperate attempt, he had Jarrett lie down to Hulk Hogan and then stripped Hogan and kicked him out of the WCW and put the title on a then unknown (or at least tag team only) wrestler in Booker T and tried to get buy with Scott Steiner and a host of young wrestlers and extreme Cruiserweight style matches and generally promoting an "entertainment" style WWE clone product. Although it didnt work, it shouldnt be forgotten that WCW was making money and while well behind WWE was still a succesful product getting good ratings. (this is despite what many people will say isnt true nowadays). The problem is that Ted Turner decided to sell his tv channel and the new owners did not want wrestling on the new channel, even though it was the highest rating show on that channel. It was a change of direction. In a matter of months or even weeks, the WCW was finished and sold to vince mc mahon for only about 5 million dollars(from memory). It happened so quick that Eric Bishoff on the second last nitro offered an open invitation to any world champion to show up on Nitro (in the hope that he could raise the money to buy the show) the next week, but he couldnt and vince mcMahon bought it instead.
Since this date, Vince has pushed his soap opera style stories, concentrated on entertainment not sports and we rarely see anything but good v bad matchups. WCW is (hopefully) going to bring back the sports to sports entertainment. I think that they will and they will compete in the long run because of this, and it will actually end up making the WWE a lot better. Being honest, The mike Tyson and Brett Hart Raws were already big steps.
Finally, onto the product, i like everybody ahve been a little disappointed but it is not all bad. It will take time to get things into gear and to establish an interesting order of things. I will offer the following:
Hogan: He hasnt wrestled so far. Isnt that what the younguns want. I dont think he will or should wrestle more than once a month or less and he will simply make occassional guest appearances split by a once a year match where he will fight a big name opponent. I still see interest in Hogan vs Austin, The Rock, Lesnar, Lashley, Goldberg, Great Kali, Kurt Angle, Tazz etc, if all are booked properly although not all are signed with TNA obviously.
Plus, some of the younger stars have the ability to get a huge rub by either beating or running close or even just feuding with him. At the moment AJ Styles has the most to gain, after joining with Flair and beating ANGLE, and generally being the TNA original chosen to beat the big guys. But, depending on booking, there is a chance that Samoa Joe, Matt Morgan, Abyss, Beer Money, Ken Anderson and several others could get absolutely massive pushes from working the right program. All will take time to build up.
On the band, they are widely criticised, but what more can they do. The initial promo was awesome, and they are good on the mic, even Sean Waltman was better than i expected. In their match, they actually put over Beer money, so again where is the problem. They will take some time to find their feet and their spot, and people seem to forget that their job is to be hated. Given their popularity, i think that Hall and the band has done a pretty good job of being the bad guy so far. Time will only tell.
Flair, again him joining with AJ will only help AJ in the short and long term. There is no real reason for these guys to wrestle much, their job is to put over the younger talent. I think AJ can and will improve with the aid of Flair.
Next up is Sean Morley. I got to say, i cant explain this one. I can only think that his film productions is expected to be something big in the upcoming months, because his promo on it was bizarre and i cannot fathom how he is possibly seen to be victorious over Daniels. That one really surprised me but i guess it needs a week or two to see how it pans out. Maybe Daniels is on his way out, or just not thought of that highly?
Wolfe and the Pope both seem to have decent pushes on the shows so far. I am not so sure i am sold on Pope yet, but Wolfe seems to have some good potential. Mr Anderson will be interesting to see. Of all the up and coming stars, (wwe or WCW) i think that he has the most charisma and potential to be then next Rock or Steve Austin. I am not sure if he would or not.
And finally on the Nasty Boys, I have to say i was never a huge fan. But saying that they really surprised me on the Hulkamania tour. Saggs in particular was actually pretty good in the ring. They might be better than people think and so long as they only wrestle occassionally (they havent wrestled yet), what is wrong with it. The Dudleys vs Nastys is actually not that bad of a little feud, particularly if they Dudleys clean house like they probably will.
And last but not least on the fact of talent, comparing the two companies is not as lopsided as people think.
Name Wrestlers
WWE - HHH, HBK, Undertaker, Cena, Batista, Jerich, Big Show
TNA - Hogan, Foley, Angle, Hall and Nash, Jarrett, Steiner, Booker T
Youngish Upper card talent I/c level talent -
WWE - Orton, Edge, Dibiase, Rhodes, Kingston, Mysterio, Christian
TNA - Wolfe, Samoa Joe, Daniels, Morgan, Abyss,Motor City Machine guns
If you look at the rosters (i know i have missed plenty), there is actually not that much between the two. In fact, if the rosters were reversed, i dont think it would have any affect at all on the ratings, WWE would still be outrating TNA.
