It is quite funny listening to all the armchair experts explain what was wrong with WCW. They have so many things backwards. And in fact, WCW was actually what most people on here wanted. It was more a sport than entertainment, and they gave more time to more wrestlers as opposed to nowadays. What most people are confusing WCW's mistakes with, was when WCW had started losing the wars consistently and they turned to Vince Russo in desperation.
In reality, this was where they lost the war, nowhere else. It wasnt Russo's attitude era, although the production values, and "attitude" style promotions was fresh for the first time. But in reality it was the emerfence of the The Rock, and to a lesser extent Stone Cold Steve Austin that won the wars not anything WCW did. The Rock, Austin and McMahon quite simply were what really made things fresh and interesting and gave them a role. Others like Foley and Undertakers bumps, Hardy's swanton bombs, Christian and Edge emerging etc kept things moving and I think that special mention should be made of the Stephanie McMahon heel turn which was so fresh and entertaining and unexpected at the time that WWF was simply so good. And then they got some key buys back with Guys like Jericho, the Radicalz, The Big Show and the tide turned too far, especially when Ted Turner restructured and had no need for a wrestling show even though WCW was still geting decent ratings and was profitable.
Leaving that aside, what WCW was really famous for was the following:
Cruiserweights - They single handedly forced WWF to hold a cruiserweight title and pushed this division into the spotlight. There World Cruiserweight Unification tournament was revolutionary and an amazing way to give the division the spotlight and put more of an emphasis on the sports than the entertainment. It was even more ironic that one of the titles on the show was the WWF light heavyweight title and McMahon didnt even know. The real WCW had proper cruiserweight matches.
Independents - WCW had a massive roster, and they used to bring in guys from all over the place. WWF survived on ignoring anything that didnt happen in the WWF it was and is a whole seperate universe. Half the reason the Rock got so over was his teasing of the use of Hogan, Flair etc's catchphrases this had never been done before in the WWE and it is a huge part of him getting so over. Often the WWE even ignores their own history. Prime eg from years ago when the Widowmaker Barry Wyndham was promoted as a guy we knew nothing about even though he was a former world tag team champion. Anyway, WCW would not be afraid to bring in and talk about the former mid southern tag team champions or whoever. It wasnt unusual for guys like Sick Boy to pop up and fight for a while and then disappear and pop up later.
Main Event - much is made of Hogan and Co hogging the belt this tied in with the sports theme that was being promoted. You dont give the belt to anyone. Not the guy who is the funniest on the microphone, but the guy who is promoted and seen as the tougher fighter would win the belt. The way the got around the stale issue is that sometimes they would have non world title fights as the main event. For eg i can remember DDP vs Big Poppa Pump being the main event of a pay per view even though neitehr held the title. This was a good thing.
Young talent. Believe it or not, this is where WCW excelled. They were actually the ones that promoted the young wrestlers to the hilt. at one stage, WWF really was nearly finished. They had virtually no one. Just the undertaker was their only star, and maybe Michaels and Austin, The Rock The WWF only pushed young talent, because there was literally no one else. They were lucky to get some good ones at this time. WCW was always known for having the best young talent. With a huge WCW roster, this is what WCW excelled at. Though they didnt have the creative team soap opera style story telling for them that WCW did. They sort of through them in and let them sink and swim on their own. It was not until Guerrero, Benoit, Saturn and someon else who i cant remember off hand, might have been Jericho left that the WWE started to level or even lead the field on this issue.
The other important difference is that WCW was never prefaced on Face vs Heel. It was common to see face vs Face and Heel vs Heel fights. this is in line with the Sports vs Sports entertainment theme, which i would say is wcw's real niche and legacy. Back in the day, and even before the day, the Smarks trumpeted WCW (or NWA) for this very reason. It looks strange today, but in reality, faces should be prepared to fight other faces to fight their way up. WWE has taken that away nowadays. everyone gets a turn at winning a tag title, most get and intercontinental title and plenty even get the world title. MOre often than not former titlists become whipping boys. And most results are reversed week in week out. In fact 90 percent of the time the WWE requires Pay per view winners to lose the week before on Raw. WCW was more a sport, with a clearer pecking order. A guy had to work his way up by winning matches and staying over as opposed to waiting his turn and staying "fresh".
The whole thing really was a completely different setup to what is portrayed nowadays about the WCW which is really the Russo Era, where WCW copied (ironically) the WWE.
