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HAS WCW REALLY GONE DOWNHILL? Lately, all the talk is how the WWF is killing the WCW and how the WCW has been in a 'downward spiral' for the past year. Is it really that the WCW has gotten "worse" or just that the WWF has gotten so much "better"? Let's go back in time. To a place where T&A did not appear on Monday nights to provide some prepubescent teens with some 'sweet dreams' material. A place where the 'Red and Yellow' walked without a limp and Stone Cold was in search of a catchphrase. Let me start with the beginning of Nitro. I was always a big WWF fan, going back to the time of 'Saturday Night's Main Event'. One night while flipping during RAW, I found this new wrestling show on TNT. To my amazement (because I lost interest in wrestling during this stagnant period and didn't check the 'net for updates) I saw Hogan, Savage and a few other WWF stars that I watched on those late Saturday nights (mind you, I was wayyyyy to young to drive and go out at this time). WOW! An exciting new show to rival a fairly boring WWF roster that had no real stars except HBK and Bret Hart. I was being entertained again and I liked it, damn it! Then, I noticed a pattern grow with WCW. Week to week, here is what we saw: Hogan vs. Flair, Savage vs. Giant. Hogan vs. Giant, Savage vs. Flair. Savage and Hogan vs. Flair and Anderson. Harlem Heat kicking the crap out of some white boy "suckas". Once and a while, there would be a decent undercard match, but the main events always carried the same old (no pun intended) stories. Sure, Hogan/Flair was a 'dream match', but it had already happen in the WWF before. Also, it was the type of matches that bored me in the first place. Good guy vs. bad guy. Bad guy dominates, good guy comes back and pins bad guy, but run-in by another bad guy saves the pin, but gets a DQ. Same old (no pun, again) story every time. Fans then flocked to Nitro because the WWF was trying to do the same thing, but without the old, well known stars. Let's face it, 'The Goon' is not going to beat Hogan in this type of match. Also, the WWF was running Diesel, Ramon and Michaels so far down out throats, we didn't want to watch. Three or four guys can not carry a roster. (Something WCW is finding out the hard way now.) Then it happened. The New World Order. Outsiders (two guys who were beat down our throats in the WWF) come in and dominate the organization. How? Run-ins and DQ endings (Do you see a Sid similarity here?). Plus, they need and old school guy like Hogan to get the real heat. Wrong, you say? Watch 'Bash at the Beach' when Hogan turned. What was the crowd doing when Hogan came down the isle, pointing his mighty finger at everyone? Hoping that Hogan would "say a prayer and kick their ass"! This was the time when the N.W.O. finally got over with everyone. But, alas, all this did was give a new twist on the same crappy good guy (now WCW) vs. bad guy matches (N.W..O). The overall success of the N.W.O was more in part to the lacking WWF product and lame gimmicks already happening in the WCW at the same time (Dungeon, etc.). Enter the 'Get it' era. Risky themes. Compelling story lines. Shorter, more violent matches. Attitude. No more good guy vs. bad guy. Everyone for themselves. Now, this sounds like real life. This sounds interesting. This sounds like society today. We can all identify with this. How many of us can identify with 'Good vs. Evil'? How many of us fight crime day to day as a superhero? My point exactly. Now, four years after all this started, WCW is still doing the same thing. Good guy vs. bad guy, with run-in/DQ endings to protect everyone's ego. WCW still has the same old (pun intended!) roster. Decent undercard matches, but no story to make us give a damn. Many say this is old school wrestling and is the way it should be. I disagree. Everything must change with the times. The WWF did and they are 'saying vulgarities and kicking ass' (TM, me)! The WCW is still putting on the exact same show they had during the 82 week streak. Difference is, good guy vs. bad guy is stale. Hogan (good guy/bad guy) is now nothing compared to a beer gulling SCSA (criminal/asshole/drunk). Who seems more down-to-earth? The WWF exception to this is, of course, the Undertaker. But, when was the last time you saw a good match with him in it? Why? Because he has to play the 'evil/bad' guy. If he just played a psycho who went after everyone, he would be entertaining. In conclusion, it is simple: The WCW hasn't gone "downhill". Only their ratings have. They never stopped doing what got them to the top. The problem here is that the WWF needed to change or go under. They changed, got lucky, and now rule the wrestling world. Still don't agree with me? Check out ECW. Last pay-per-view kicked the WCW's butt! Why? No good guy vs. bad guy angles. Just risky action, swearing and T&A. Just like our society today. If WCW keeps selling the good guy/bad guy stuff, they won't win back any audience. NPG freelance Mail the Author |
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