The beginning of the end was the Time Warner merger where Ted Turner lost all of his power. Turner backed WCW and the new management wanted nothing to do with it.
@@Charsi_Escobar I think it was a situation where Ted WAS given a high up position when the merger happened, so he probably assumed he would have some stroke, but when the board turned against him, he became more/less a figurehead with limited power. Look at that guy (forget his name) who started Papa John Pizza from the ground up, he then got greedy, and made his company go public, he was (for a while) given plenty of power, but later on (over the racial shit0 he was quickly ran out...basically fired from the company he created. Eric Bischoff has several shoot interviews on RUclips, where he explains the situation better than my ramblings though!
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL all of these people cherry pick stats to make themselves look good. Russo got dealt a bad hand but he also got more freedom in WWE than it seemed like anyone else ever did and he doesn't cut anyone else slack either. Frankly Bischoff also came into the company during a poor time he just got lucky management worked with him but Bischoff's real strong suit was he focused on avenues to make management happy which gave him more freedom. Both had their strengths.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL Yea But russo didnt really Raise the Rating either And his PPV didnt draw and he was all over TV. Not blaming Russo for everything but to act like his Shit was good is insane Go back and Watch OCT 99 So much shit would happen on a show it would be nuts just to much
That's like saying WWE's numbers were down after the Attitude Era... Well that's true, but they wasn't plummeting like they were in later years. WCW lost ratings before Russo, this is true, but the Russo Era of WCW killed literally the entire fanbase to the point that less than a million people were watching Nitro... Bischoff blames Russo for that, because Russo is to blame. Pure and simple.
Yeah, it’s always easy to blame Russo because he’s truly a fucking moron. But not everything he’s involved in is his fault. Maybe 95% is, but the downfall of WCW is far from being solely on Russo.
Bischoff was the one who listened to Hogan and had the screwy Starrcade finish with Sting and dropped the Bret Hart ball. That was the beginning of the end to me.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL honestly the only really memorable thing about the Wolfpac feud was the Wolfpac theme song. I can still hear it in my head to this day while I can’t remember who was in/out and what side they were on during that whole thing.
At the end of the day it was Jamie Kellner and AOL who killed WCW, if Ted Turner still had control WCW would have gone on for at least another 7-8 years at best
@@joetroller514 this. 98 he was looking incredible, the roster in 98 was amazing. If they would have pushed Steiner booker t benwah, etc etc etc and slowly moved them into the world title pic by booking them better ala how they booked ddp, wcw in 99 would have been a while new ball game. I also just want someone to ask bischoff how the eff did he not see jericho was a main eventer?? He goes on and on about his love of jericho etc yet here is a certain future world champ and you do nothing with him yet they push Horace hogan!!
@@somethingfishy6097 size my friend, Jericho wasn’t 6’2 & 240lbs. Still the land of giants back then, that’s why all the mid card guys went to Vince and got booked properly into stars by a guy that knew how to create stars back then.
Eric blames AOL for wanting to kill off wrestling. Ok, maybe, but if WCW wasn't such a gaping asshole of money loss when AOL came onboard, maybe they would've kept a financially sustainable and popular TV show.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL - Honestly? I would say Bischoff, because he handed out the outrageous contracts AND MOST OF ALL? Gave out too much creative control to the wrestlers. Hard to book a show when the performers can nix any idea that you come up with.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL - It's kind of like when sports franchises overspend to sign a bunch of high priced free agents. They may win for a couple of years, but then they spend a decade trying to pay off that debt, and have to re-build. Unfortunately, WCW never got the chance to re-build.
if Vince Russo had creative control or was involved in the business side of WCW, then it is his fault that they folded... but he WASN'T. The guy wrote a show that the wrestlers were able to change. It wasn't even close to being his fault.
He was not all, but he was definately part of the problem. Making Jeff Jarett world champ, doing nothing with Mike Awesome, Judy Bagwell, and viagra on the pole, among other stupid shit, was all his creation.
Russo was in an impossible situation but he also booked some terrible stuff. One of the only things done well during his run was the Storm booking and Storm said Russo wanted to make him Bischoff's son and it was John Lauranitis that booked him to win the 3 belts.
@@liamstewart4472 It's all about end results. If you hire me to fix your roof, and I fuck it up worse than when I started, despite my good intentions, it doesn't make what I did any good. Again, there is no single blame for the fall of WCW, but Russo def. had his part.
The whole AOL deal killed WCW at the end of the day, They looked down on wrestling, Told Eric to go more family friendly and WCW ratings were still better compared to most of the other crap that they had on at the time but putting that aside, Eric deserves more blame for the creative failures. Vince didn't do a good job but he was handed a garden hose to deal with a building on fire. Nobody was going to change the corporate zombies minds.
To be completely fair, Bischoff never blamed Russo for WCW going out of business. He blamed Time-Warner (which is very accurate). All Bischoff said was that Russo was an idiot who put a bunch of awful content on television and had no business running WCW.... Which is also very accurate.
Blaming Russo for killing WCW is like blaming Chan Gailey for killing the Cowboys 90s dynasty The arrogant Eric Bischoff is the one to blame for the rise(credit)and fall of WCW
I remember being 11 and 12 in the last two years of WCW thinking what is going on here and that's before I really knew the inner workings of the business and I didn't read dirt sheets
I feel like no matter what if WCW was drawing pulling the numbers and making money AOL/Time Warner would've still killed WCW because they absolutely did not want wrestling in their network and people never factor that into the equation
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL not if it wasn't fitting their brand image If it was kid friendly 80s WWF style show and pulling in crazy money they'd probably move it to a different timeslot but if it's in the state that it was in plus all the lawsuits they've had you best believe they going to do it like how they already did
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL It's a Bischoff narrative but I do agree that no matter what, AOL/Time Warner's mind was made up. Nitro could've had 10 ratings. PPV sales through the roof. The suits had no interest and they wanted it gone.
Russo era WCW is still better than anything Cornette, the Bucks or Cody could ever book. Legit, there's a lot of good shit from Russo's run in WCW, but people only remember the bad, because you know, narratives.
There was literally NOTHING WCW would have been able to do. New management wanted to stick with NBA and no wrestling on their network. Unless they found a new network out of their ass in time, the company could be doing 1997 numbers and still go under. Wrestling fans shouldn't just get news from people who have an agenda against certain individuals. Gun in head, I'd say Eric had a lot more to do with killing it than Russo, who was just a writer for them. Also, Eric's political handling of Wolfpac, as well as other wonders like Bret and Goldberg's Starrcade situation, didn't help.
When you’re spending so much on certain wrestlers it’s not easy to think let’s give these other guys more shine. Raven and The Cat stood out for me. Finger poke of doom, mishandling Brett Hart and Sting vs Hogan was still the downfall at the end of the day. That with Bischoff relentless spending.
So many things already happened before Vince. Neither one was the final nail for WCW. Between the top stars bad attitude is a major factor in my opinion. Every other week someone was getting hurt.
Funny how marks gets triggered over Russo's failed creative, yet most of it is not as worse, or more entertaining than today's shit - which receives no where as much hate.
Go watch the WCW product in August- September 1999 Russo improved the product and actually improved the ratings his first few months in then they put Sullivan in charge for a bit Russo was never given a real shot and if the product continued the way it was going in September of 99 the company probably would’ve went down a lot sooner
Honestly, Bischoff ought to be credited for the only one that turned any profit, the corporate structure trying to merge with a wrestling company was tough from the get go.
I’m no Russo fan, but hard to blame him for anything in the big picture. Big difference between a shot caller like Bischoff and a writer with heavy influence on talent that still had creative control (Russo)
I partially agree with this assessment. Bischoff was doing some things wrong prior to Russo coming in and the show was declining in quality. But the show still was better in the period before Russo took over than it was after he took over. Russo may have elevated more mid card guys, but not all those mid card guys were properly suited for those spots... and he continued to keep down many mid card guys who were better than how they were being booked. Russo didn't want to showcase the foreign talent or the guys with more in-ring skills, which is what made WCW stand out. When Russo came in, he got a honeymoon period from fans and rating went up a bit because people were hoping he would turn it around. But after about a month, it was clear that his ideas were making the show worse, not better.
Vince Russo reminds me of a kid that would get in a fight on the playground arguing about his dad having the best moustache in town. I mean come on, his mom's might have been thicker and darker
There's a lot as I recall. Time Warner not wanting wrestling was the main thing. Bischoff not having anything but the NWO and Goldberg in his hat didn't help. Russo...well, it seems the older guys were more loyal to Eric and handicapped Russo's contributions. I also recall WWF at the time shitting on Russo. Back then I 'hated' Russo as well until I realized, damn it takes energy to hate on one guy. I decided to get Russo's side of the story years later and realized he did have great ideas and openly admitted when some of his ideas were good and when they were bad. His name will always be attached to the good ratings WWF had and he'll, even TNA. He couldn't be THAT bad. Bischoff and Cornette really should calm down with their Russo hate imo🤷🏾♂️
Like any company, all the blame goes to the boss. I don't think Bishoff knew how to deal with so many egos at once and was too caught up with WWF talent that had already made Vince money.
It was Jamie kelner who killed wcw. People over the years can say the nwo,the new blood, the vets hanging on to their spots, goldbergs streak. I can go on but you guys were there. I just go by what I’ve heard over the years. Awesome as always guys
If they had fizzled out the nwo angle quicker whist not adding so many members and focused more on rivalries between their top talents they might have lasted because they had some very good wrestlers on the roster they wasted the potential
They both deserve the blame. Eric started the WCW hemorrhaging with the horrible change and screw up of Starrcade 97. He continued to oversee the hemorrhaging eith the horrible booking of Goldberg's title run and the Finger Pokemof Doom, and so on. Then they bring Russo in and instead of fixing the hemorrhage, he just tore it open even more and got it bleeding faster and faster with every subsequent decision he made. They hoth deserve the blame. P.S. I don't want to read or hear ANYTHING about the merger. If WCW was still profiting 50 million per year like they did in 97, 98, and part of 99, AOL would've gritted their teeth and bared it.
The not pushing young stars narrative gets thrown around all the time but the numbers suggest that it has nothing to do with it, in fact in 00-01 when they started featuring the young guys more like Kidman, Booker T, Steiner(I know he wasnt young but he was a fresh main event face), Bagwell, Jarrett among others the ratings plummeted at a much higher rate. Jericho became a star rather quickly in WWE but guys like Benoit and Eddie didn't. They were essentially mid card guys until 03 and 04 when the brand split happened and the rosters split.
I stopped watching wrestling when WCW was bought out. I am not sure how WWE was able to purchase it behind Bischoff's back. Bischoff should have been given the opportunity to buy it before anyone, especially McMahon. What a shame.
Russo's biggest downfall was that he couldn't staunch the bleeding. If Bischoff was more real with the sponsors with the expectations and the budget, they could have held on once it became clear Russo wasn't the answer. But he was in power for, what, two years? With all of the momentum WCW had, you would have thought they could have tempered expectations and held on if Bischoff was more real with the sponsors on where things were going. There are countless great franchises with down years who, upon realizing that the rebuilding should start, turn their fortunes around with the new expectations in place: look at the Kansas City Royals! They were a joke for years and years but changing their developmental direction, they rebuilt their rep and won a chip. But there are also plenty of franchises who, upon spending insane money that doesn't pan out, are stuck in a hole for years and years until the bad contracts go away.
Vince came in at a bad time. Scott Hall was a mess, the Goldberg aura was gone, no one really cared about Bret Hart, Hogan was aging etc. his back was against the wall.
The answer is both. Eric both didn't pay close enough attention to what was going on at times and let mostly Hogan and Nash do the damage neccessary to really hurt WCW with their egos. Vince made what was really bad, worse. He played favorites way too much with his clique. Instead of what would make the most money and was the most over with fans.
Russo was a great offensive coordinator who could create mindblowing plays under a good offense while Bischoff was a good coach as long as he had a good salary cap situation. When Russo had to be head coach and Bischoff had to be cheap they sucked. McMahon is a defensive coach who runs the ball. It usually sucks but has more long term success unless others work together and make McMahon change.
Great offensive coordinators don’t need someone standing over their shoulder, throwing out all the garbage plays for the one that might work lol Horrible analogy
Russo thought he could do all he did in wwe with wcw. Standards & Practices rejected 90% of wat he wanted to do. I blame bischoff. It started with not only goldberg losing but the finger poke of doom. Egos - HOGAN! nobody wanted to see hogan with the title again especially after being poked The wolfpack still was red hot. To do the poke and reunite with nwo hollywood nobody wanted to see. Scott steiner as well as kevin sullivan even said the poke = 100% hogan.
I disagree with K-Dog on one thing. Midcarders like Brian Cage and Archer are READY moreso than disco was. These guys have been Company champs wherever they've gone.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL Lance Archer was drawing crowds in the Tokyo dome, and Brian Cage is a guy who CAN be a Champion if booked right....Go watch Cage's matches with Kross or Keith Lee...good stuff.
Supposedly Bischoff tried to get a new tv deal but they weren't gonna give them the tv time, then Vince bought it for dirt cheap. Flair said he would have tried buying if he knew how cheap it was
Sadly I'm going to say Bischoff even though Russo didn't help. Eric looking back has been able to admit a lot of his short comings on 83 weeks. Not realizing how long it takes to properly build a maineventer, not having good finishes to matches on a consistent basis, not firing certain people who would either stab him in the back or try to take over the company, and not pushing back on Thunder which hurt financially and creatively. I've been listening to 83 weeks for a while and Eric brings up a lot of those points and had he been able to see some of these problems even he realized WCW may still be alive it would just be elsewhere, not at Turner.
are they in the studio together shooting this? Every episode sounds like they're talking over each other as if they can't see each other to know hey i'm trying to talk
That's just rude & uncalled for, Mark Fegan. ON the other hand, it's also well known that Disco killed off all of wrestling, to this very day, single handedly. He's the actual reason ancient Greeks stopped wrestling & their entire civilization collapsed. His wrestling is so bad, it time-traveled back to Greece, ending it for all time. It's less well known that Konnan is the reason the U.S. no longer constructs nuclear power plants, because he botched a promo once. I know all of the above is true because a jobber in the comments section named you told me.
@@mikefegan2324 Stop. Go back up to my comment. Read it. Look at the quality of my comment craftsmanship. Hand-made. Correct punctuation. I put effort into weaving a seamless yet interesting story about how you are the equivalent to a Hessian jobber in the Revolutionary War. Your comment quality is what happens when OSHA doesn't enforce health & safety laws on Motel 6's. You go to your room & think about that, Marlin. No more wrestling for you today.
Russo was the reason why Booker T is 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time WCW Champion it's all started at BATB 2000 because of Bischoff's boy Hogan wants to win the championship n Russo wants Booker T to be world champion.
They definitely share blame. Russo’s shitty booking vs. Bischoff’s careless spending. As much as I dislike Russo, Bischoff may actually be more to blame. A wrestling company can survive shitty booking if temporary. But it can’t survive reckless spending when the parent company demands profits.
WWF just had a more adult orientated and vocally led product that WCW couldn't compete with. I've been watching 98 nitro and some of it was lazily booked. The first hour of the fall brawl ppv was like an episode of thunder. Random tag match to start (ft disco) then a funny Jericho segment followed by a match to get the cat over who had only just started to be pushed. The nitros are very hit and miss too after a hot 97. They didn't seem to start nitros with a bang and put on too many filler matches. Ego and big wages did not help either.
there's a video on here, it's about Kevin Nash & Goldberg having a blow up backstage at Starrcade 98. In it we discuss how poor that card was despite it being the biggest card of the year
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL I might have to check that out. They would just Chuck random filler matches on. Bulldog/anvil Vs dancing fools made no sense. Both teams has jobbed out to others in recent weeks and both were heels but Bull and anvil played faces despite attacking luger on the thunder before. Dancing fools should of been given promo time, they were a good combo. The biggest balls up I've seen is the push and then dissapearance of MENG. He got crazy over for attacking people, had a match Vs Goldberg where he looked stronger and almost won till he released his death grip for no reason leading to spear/jackhammer. He then wasn't on TV after that, he may come back cos he may of got injured but he should of been on the fall brawl ppv kicking someone's ass. The fans loved him
Bottom line WCW would have shut their doors because they wanted to change their programming and wrestling did not fit the type of drama shows they were looking to start producing, even if they won the ratings I still think they would have lost the war because they didn't want it so why keep it at all, with that being said Bischoff and his short-term planning and contract signing weakend the foundation and unless they would have done '97 area numbers across the board, even if they had good ratings better than raw, they would have been losing money if those ratings, attendance or merch would have dropped past a certain point they were so ridiculous, not for any one contract but the amount of contracts Bishop said his limit was usually a million per year per contract and then anything above he had to ask the executive positions above him, yeah that's annoying here but if you have 80contracts all Worth close to million dollar or over that's a lot of fn money, and they had more contracts than 80, after thunder that's just how many active wrestlers they had signed in late '98, early '99, I kid you not, but then Russo came in claiming he was more valuable to The attitude era and raw winning than he actually was because the ratings got better once he left, his booking stopped at Austin getting run over, but the biggest downfall and the thing that toppled the tower, Ted Turner agreeing to merge with Time Warner, because once Time Warner emerged with AOL a year or two later, the only thing that he wanted to have permanent residence on his networks, was wrestling and he couldn't keep it on anymore cuz he no longer had majority vote, his vote was barely worth anything and thus he could not fight to keep it so it had to go, if Turner would have remained in control, WCW would still be alive today, with Bisch running it, and he said that countless times in several interviews after 2001, ratings didn't matter wrestling matter to him and loyalty to Eric mattered to him more than ratings ever could, I'm saying he would take a loss every year just so that wrestling would have a home there I believe Turner
the fault is 100% on Bischoff. Giving so many different guys creative control and giant contracts? it's his fault. Russo's problem though is that he can't accept that anything he's ever done can be bad.
Don't blame it on Vince Russo my friend he was hired to make WCW more like the WWF but the backstage politics and all the rednecks that run WCW and all of hulk Hogan's bulshit of him wanting to be on top and have things run his way things were working against each other Vince Russo when he came into power around September of 99 he started pushing the midcard talent the ones that were held back and he started pushing Bret Hart a lot more and a lot of WCW was getting more exciting to watch their ratings were going up. But by January or February of 2000 when they had Kevin Sullivan running everything😊 and I wanted to go back to the standard basics of professional wrestling it made WCW look like the WCW of 1990
They both should get blame its really that simple. But my problem with Russo is he never wants to take any responsible like nothing bad is his fault. He did all the good stuff in WWE but takes no blame for TNA or WCW ever like how do u take credit for all things good but nothing bad. Go back and Watch Russo first Run OCT 99 to Jan 200, He still acts like he can get ratings now lol Russo is insane
The ratings went up from October 1999 to January 2000, and his first run was in my opinion a HUGE improvement over the garbage we had throughout 1999 before he got there. The only good thing about Nitro before Russo was the comedy acts (including heel Flair).
@@TheNextStep851 rating barley went up while WWE continued to double and triple them. House went down ppv went down not blaming russo like he just did nothing but it wasnt that good
@@ajakasuperchiefaj5920 Considering he was in charge for 3 months in 1999-2000, he did a good job to improve it at all. It took RAW 9 months to see significant growth in 1997-1998. To see significant growth takes time and faith in the creative direction. WWE also declined in 2000, ratings-wise.
Here's my take homies. Bischoff was responsible for that starrcade debacle and then all those stupid nwo reboots and screwing nwo up with 1000000 members as well as being a walking atm for the original nwo. Then Russo came and took a big shit over whatever wcw had left at that point.
Eric blames AOL for wanting to kill off wrestling. Ok, maybe, but if WCW wasn't such a gaping asshole of money loss when AOL came onboard, maybe they would've kept a financially sustainable and popular TV show.
It's both and bad investments in old big head talent (hogan, savage, nash, hall) the content became stale. Wwe was make new eletric younger stars like rock, stone cold, triple h and still had hbk. With that talent willing to do the work just out shined the vets that didn't want to lose and ended every match with run ins. It just got dumb in wcw. Everything was about the NWO which started good but out lived it's usefulness. Also sting doing his crow thing dragged way to long with him standing in the rafters. It just got stale in wcw. Wwe was far more exciting and stone cold was a key part of that.
Too much talent and not enough terrorities to move talent back and forth + WWE was doing a better job getting talent over. Overall, like Konnan said, Aol/Time-Warner was killing off wrestling. As a Wrestler you need to understand this and jump to another territory/WWF/NJPW etc.
It’s Bischoff. Despite the fact that Russo really doesn’t know that much about wrestling and played out a lot of bad ideas in WCW, the ship was already sinking and structured for failure - huge contracts, creative control, reliance on aged NWO and Stars. Bischoff sure has some thick skin for a guy who put WCW out of business.
Is Rampage now the same show as Dynamite? How can all of this ex-WWE talent not be booked over the “home-grown/ day one” guys, you can’t have Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, and Punk on Dark, so that will relegate the original AEW guys to RUclips. Edit: Who’ll be the first guy to leave AEW and I wonder how it’ll be reported. Pillman Jr. should go back to MLW or NWA and be a babyface star.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL look it up he said mexican wrestler would never draw. Isn't he the reason why the unmasked a lot of the mexican wrestler back in wcw days
It was bischoff he was like a bad gambler in Vegas . You can't blame russo he just got lucky bluffing his way through the job .made his money . bischoff should have changed gears and disbanded the NWO .and cut the roster. in reality they were doomed anyway when the merger deal happened.
You can say anything but vince russo storylines were complete trash in wcw like honest to god nothing was good from him.. that's why so many fans cant remember so much the end
The gimmick matches from russo where great story s for wrestling fans,laten not for wrestler but for wrestling fans,it was never see en hooked me until today,bijschrift,russo,everybody idd it s best,ps disco?i like you,even with Alex Wright in the ons dates,great to hear you,but listen sometimes to other people,t hey are alsof wright
BILLI BHATTI talks about TESSA BLANCHARD choosing AEW or WWE ruclips.net/video/MlR3Hqalkdk/видео.html
The beginning of the end was the Time Warner merger where Ted Turner lost all of his power. Turner backed WCW and the new management wanted nothing to do with it.
💯
I never got how he lost his power if the station was his, did they own the majority share?
@@Charsi_Escobar I think it was a situation where Ted WAS given a high up position when the merger happened, so he probably assumed he would have some stroke, but when the board turned against him, he became more/less a figurehead with limited power. Look at that guy (forget his name) who started Papa John Pizza from the ground up, he then got greedy, and made his company go public, he was (for a while) given plenty of power, but later on (over the racial shit0 he was quickly ran out...basically fired from the company he created. Eric Bischoff has several shoot interviews on RUclips, where he explains the situation better than my ramblings though!
That was one of the reason but if they had handle the talents and the creatives well, the merger would not have led to the downfall.
Wcw numbers was down before Russo jump to wcw
which is something that Bischoff likes to ignore.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL all of these people cherry pick stats to make themselves look good. Russo got dealt a bad hand but he also got more freedom in WWE than it seemed like anyone else ever did and he doesn't cut anyone else slack either. Frankly Bischoff also came into the company during a poor time he just got lucky management worked with him but Bischoff's real strong suit was he focused on avenues to make management happy which gave him more freedom. Both had their strengths.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL Yea But russo didnt really Raise the Rating either And his PPV didnt draw and he was all over TV. Not blaming Russo for everything but to act like his Shit was good is insane Go back and Watch OCT 99 So much shit would happen on a show it would be nuts just to much
That's like saying WWE's numbers were down after the Attitude Era... Well that's true, but they wasn't plummeting like they were in later years. WCW lost ratings before Russo, this is true, but the Russo Era of WCW killed literally the entire fanbase to the point that less than a million people were watching Nitro... Bischoff blames Russo for that, because Russo is to blame. Pure and simple.
Yeah, it’s always easy to blame Russo because he’s truly a fucking moron. But not everything he’s involved in is his fault. Maybe 95% is, but the downfall of WCW is far from being solely on Russo.
Bischoff was the one who listened to Hogan and had the screwy Starrcade finish with Sting and dropped the Bret Hart ball. That was the beginning of the end to me.
Plus, the messed up nWo vs Wolfpac feud.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL honestly the only really memorable thing about the Wolfpac feud was the Wolfpac theme song. I can still hear it in my head to this day while I can’t remember who was in/out and what side they were on during that whole thing.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL oh yeah the biggest feud in the history of wrestling that they put all their eggs in one basket ends with a finger poke
Bingo!
At the end of the day it was Jamie Kellner and AOL who killed WCW, if Ted Turner still had control WCW would have gone on for at least another 7-8 years at best
Kellner killed a lot of what he considered violent.
Exactly, Eric, Vince and nobody else was going to change the outcome but I would blame Eric more for the creative failures compared to Vince.
it was dead before he got there
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL your hero will never make more than 60 k a year.
Bischoff will likely blame his WWE firing on Russo too.
Or he just won’t recall. He says that one a lot too.
@@markfroman738 why I don't like his show. Cornetto remembers 30 years
@@markfroman738 Bischoff is so full of it, i'm glad that people are into him
@@tylerdurden788 And if he doesn't, he will make it up. Like they all do.
How marks still don't know wrestling works by now, I will never know.
@@markfroman738 needs a T-shirt call "Eric I Don't Recall Bischoff"
they BOTH screwed up by taking so long to book Scott Steiner as the top guy
@Tiger Steiner should have gotten the push in 98, not the damn end of 2000
@@joetroller514 this. 98 he was looking incredible, the roster in 98 was amazing. If they would have pushed Steiner booker t benwah, etc etc etc and slowly moved them into the world title pic by booking them better ala how they booked ddp, wcw in 99 would have been a while new ball game. I also just want someone to ask bischoff how the eff did he not see jericho was a main eventer?? He goes on and on about his love of jericho etc yet here is a certain future world champ and you do nothing with him yet they push Horace hogan!!
@@somethingfishy6097 size my friend, Jericho wasn’t 6’2 & 240lbs. Still the land of giants back then, that’s why all the mid card guys went to Vince and got booked properly into stars by a guy that knew how to create stars back then.
@@Charsi_Escobar yeah I know I wonder what he would have done with shawn michaels if he came over. Probably put him in the cruiserweights!!
@@somethingfishy6097 great question, you should ask the guys that question via email!
This is rediculous, it's common knowledge by now that Glenn Gilbernetti killed WCW.
he infected them with Disco Fever and they never recovered
Eric blames AOL for wanting to kill off wrestling. Ok, maybe, but if WCW wasn't such a gaping asshole of money loss when AOL came onboard, maybe they would've kept a financially sustainable and popular TV show.
@@BronzeBullBalls AOL never wanted it from the start, Ted kept it alive.
@@BronzeBullBallsU have no idea how much or how little money they lost.
Dont believe don callus/ cirus
Time Warner-AOL killed WCW.
Neither Bischoff or Russo could have saved it.
right but the question is which would deserve the blame, not who's actually responsible
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL - Honestly? I would say Bischoff, because he handed out the outrageous contracts AND MOST OF ALL? Gave out too much creative control to the wrestlers. Hard to book a show when the performers can nix any idea that you come up with.
@@ryanboman8211 i'd go with that answer too. Russo only wrote part of the stuff, Bischoff signed the deals with lasted years.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL - It's kind of like when sports franchises overspend to sign a bunch of high priced free agents. They may win for a couple of years, but then they spend a decade trying to pay off that debt, and have to re-build. Unfortunately, WCW never got the chance to re-build.
Thank you
if Vince Russo had creative control or was involved in the business side of WCW, then it is his fault that they folded... but he WASN'T. The guy wrote a show that the wrestlers were able to change. It wasn't even close to being his fault.
He was not all, but he was definately part of the problem. Making Jeff Jarett world champ, doing nothing with Mike Awesome, Judy Bagwell, and viagra on the pole, among other stupid shit, was all his creation.
Russo was in an impossible situation but he also booked some terrible stuff. One of the only things done well during his run was the Storm booking and Storm said Russo wanted to make him Bischoff's son and it was John Lauranitis that booked him to win the 3 belts.
@@jeffjackson9679 wanted to make Tank Abbott world heavyweight champion 💀💀💀
@@jeffjackson9679 i'm not saying that Jarrett was an awesome choice but can you blame him for trying to create new stars?
@@liamstewart4472 It's all about end results. If you hire me to fix your roof, and I fuck it up worse than when I started, despite my good intentions, it doesn't make what I did any good. Again, there is no single blame for the fall of WCW, but Russo def. had his part.
Not having Disco and Konnan as Tag Team Champions really killed WCW.
that would have been a ratings bonanaza
Man please 🤣
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIALbruh 😂
The whole AOL deal killed WCW at the end of the day, They looked down on wrestling, Told Eric to go more family friendly and WCW ratings were still better compared to most of the other crap that they had on at the time but putting that aside, Eric deserves more blame for the creative failures. Vince didn't do a good job but he was handed a garden hose to deal with a building on fire. Nobody was going to change the corporate zombies minds.
that's because the WCW brand was suffering
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL weren’t they also losing $60 million a year during that last year of existence?
To be completely fair, Bischoff never blamed Russo for WCW going out of business. He blamed Time-Warner (which is very accurate). All Bischoff said was that Russo was an idiot who put a bunch of awful content on television and had no business running WCW.... Which is also very accurate.
Blaming Russo for killing WCW is like blaming Chan Gailey for killing the Cowboys 90s dynasty
The arrogant Eric Bischoff is the one to blame for the rise(credit)and fall of WCW
Ted Turner losing power when AOL bought the company
I remember being 11 and 12 in the last two years of WCW thinking what is going on here and that's before I really knew the inner workings of the business and I didn't read dirt sheets
Disco Inferno is to blame
is that you Konnan?
I feel like no matter what if WCW was drawing pulling the numbers and making money AOL/Time Warner would've still killed WCW because they absolutely did not want wrestling in their network and people never factor that into the equation
they wouldn't have killed a financially strong show
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL not if it wasn't fitting their brand image
If it was kid friendly 80s WWF style show and pulling in crazy money they'd probably move it to a different timeslot but if it's in the state that it was in plus all the lawsuits they've had you best believe they going to do it like how they already did
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL It's a Bischoff narrative but I do agree that no matter what, AOL/Time Warner's mind was made up. Nitro could've had 10 ratings. PPV sales through the roof. The suits had no interest and they wanted it gone.
Eric Bischoff & Hulk Hogan
Russo era WCW is still better than anything Cornette, the Bucks or Cody could ever book. Legit, there's a lot of good shit from Russo's run in WCW, but people only remember the bad, because you know, narratives.
Bischoff was a Turner executive. He's to blame if there was anyone to blame. Russo just didn't help and torqued it more into the ground.
There was literally NOTHING WCW would have been able to do. New management wanted to stick with NBA and no wrestling on their network. Unless they found a new network out of their ass in time, the company could be doing 1997 numbers and still go under. Wrestling fans shouldn't just get news from people who have an agenda against certain individuals.
Gun in head, I'd say Eric had a lot more to do with killing it than Russo, who was just a writer for them. Also, Eric's political handling of Wolfpac, as well as other wonders like Bret and Goldberg's Starrcade situation, didn't help.
making new stars wouldn't have hurt
Bischoff was the executive that lead the madness Russo was just a writer with alot of influence..
influence?!
@Tiger Bill Bush was in charge of the company when Russo came in
Russo had INFLUENCE???? Didn't WCW have a whole committee he had to go to get his ideas shredded and changed a billion times?
Nice rack.
There was a lot of "That doesn't work for me, brother."
Nitro was down bad long before Russo pulled up
When you’re spending so much on certain wrestlers it’s not easy to think let’s give these other guys more shine. Raven and The Cat stood out for me. Finger poke of doom, mishandling Brett Hart and Sting vs Hogan was still the downfall at the end of the day. That with Bischoff relentless spending.
There’s SOMEONE who’s not wearing headphones and it makes the echo unbearable. Come on guys! Don’t let the audio ruin such great content! 👍🏼
So many things already happened before Vince. Neither one was the final nail for WCW. Between the top stars bad attitude is a major factor in my opinion. Every other week someone was getting hurt.
Funny how marks gets triggered over Russo's failed creative, yet most of it is not as worse, or more entertaining than today's shit - which receives no where as much hate.
there's some golden stuff in there, Goldberg vs Steiner? amazing
Go watch the WCW product in August- September 1999 Russo improved the product and actually improved the ratings his first few months in then they put Sullivan in charge for a bit Russo was never given a real shot and if the product continued the way it was going in September of 99 the company probably would’ve went down a lot sooner
Honestly, Bischoff ought to be credited for the only one that turned any profit, the corporate structure trying to merge with a wrestling company was tough from the get go.
I’m no Russo fan, but hard to blame him for anything in the big picture. Big difference between a shot caller like Bischoff and a writer with heavy influence on talent that still had creative control (Russo)
Russo had less control in WCW than he did in WWE
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL nobody believes that lmao
Well it actually was AOL-Time merger and execs decided to go in a different direction
Lol, what's with all the echo on Disco's microphone?? I'd argue that both Bischoff & Russo are equally to blame for the death of WCW.
I partially agree with this assessment. Bischoff was doing some things wrong prior to Russo coming in and the show was declining in quality. But the show still was better in the period before Russo took over than it was after he took over. Russo may have elevated more mid card guys, but not all those mid card guys were properly suited for those spots... and he continued to keep down many mid card guys who were better than how they were being booked. Russo didn't want to showcase the foreign talent or the guys with more in-ring skills, which is what made WCW stand out. When Russo came in, he got a honeymoon period from fans and rating went up a bit because people were hoping he would turn it around. But after about a month, it was clear that his ideas were making the show worse, not better.
Vince Russo reminds me of a kid that would get in a fight on the playground arguing about his dad having the best moustache in town.
I mean come on, his mom's might have been thicker and darker
what this comment supposed to do?
There's a lot as I recall. Time Warner not wanting wrestling was the main thing. Bischoff not having anything but the NWO and Goldberg in his hat didn't help. Russo...well, it seems the older guys were more loyal to Eric and handicapped Russo's contributions. I also recall WWF at the time shitting on Russo. Back then I 'hated' Russo as well until I realized, damn it takes energy to hate on one guy. I decided to get Russo's side of the story years later and realized he did have great ideas and openly admitted when some of his ideas were good and when they were bad. His name will always be attached to the good ratings WWF had and he'll, even TNA. He couldn't be THAT bad. Bischoff and Cornette really should calm down with their Russo hate imo🤷🏾♂️
I thought hulk hogan's creative control killed wcw??
Bischoff deserves a lot more blame than Russo.
which is why i think he's so angry on his show
Russo’s booking and storylines were garbage but WCW was really declining creatively before Russo came in
Like any company, all the blame goes to the boss. I don't think Bishoff knew how to deal with so many egos at once and was too caught up with WWF talent that had already made Vince money.
It was Jamie kelner who killed wcw. People over the years can say the nwo,the new blood, the vets hanging on to their spots, goldbergs streak. I can go on but you guys were there. I just go by what I’ve heard over the years. Awesome as always guys
Bischoff
it's a fair debate.
Who thinks McMahon sent Russo as a spy to bring down WCW from the inside
Look russo didn't help but wcw was dead long before he got there
If they had fizzled out the nwo angle quicker whist not adding so many members and focused more on rivalries between their top talents they might have lasted because they had some very good wrestlers on the roster they wasted the potential
They both deserve the blame. Eric started the WCW hemorrhaging with the horrible change and screw up of Starrcade 97. He continued to oversee the hemorrhaging eith the horrible booking of Goldberg's title run and the Finger Pokemof Doom, and so on. Then they bring Russo in and instead of fixing the hemorrhage, he just tore it open even more and got it bleeding faster and faster with every subsequent decision he made. They hoth deserve the blame.
P.S. I don't want to read or hear ANYTHING about the merger. If WCW was still profiting 50 million per year like they did in 97, 98, and part of 99, AOL would've gritted their teeth and bared it.
The finger poke of doom was to blame
I actually think in storylines it killed everything especially considered it was putting all their eggs in a basket
AEW wish that they could one day be as successful as WCW in 2000.
AEW is a failing company
You ain't kidding lol
@@christerry1611 AEW's problem is that boast so much but can't maintain any success
@@philwalsh8975 Their booking is horrible and their fans are insufferable.
@@christerry1611 worst of the worst
Phil Walsh Gets No Pussy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The not pushing young stars narrative gets thrown around all the time but the numbers suggest that it has nothing to do with it, in fact in 00-01 when they started featuring the young guys more like Kidman, Booker T, Steiner(I know he wasnt young but he was a fresh main event face), Bagwell, Jarrett among others the ratings plummeted at a much higher rate.
Jericho became a star rather quickly in WWE but guys like Benoit and Eddie didn't. They were essentially mid card guys until 03 and 04 when the brand split happened and the rosters split.
that's because those guys were poorly booked for so long so that when it came to pushing them, the veterans had lost a lot of their drawing ability.
Disco dancing with Alex Wright killed WCW!!
Disco Fever MADE wrestling.
Alto alto this is Alex Wright.
Funny Cornette blames Jim Herd
I stopped watching wrestling when WCW was bought out. I am not sure how WWE was able to purchase it behind Bischoff's back. Bischoff should have been given the opportunity to buy it before anyone, especially McMahon. What a shame.
Russo's biggest downfall was that he couldn't staunch the bleeding. If Bischoff was more real with the sponsors with the expectations and the budget, they could have held on once it became clear Russo wasn't the answer. But he was in power for, what, two years? With all of the momentum WCW had, you would have thought they could have tempered expectations and held on if Bischoff was more real with the sponsors on where things were going. There are countless great franchises with down years who, upon realizing that the rebuilding should start, turn their fortunes around with the new expectations in place: look at the Kansas City Royals! They were a joke for years and years but changing their developmental direction, they rebuilt their rep and won a chip. But there are also plenty of franchises who, upon spending insane money that doesn't pan out, are stuck in a hole for years and years until the bad contracts go away.
Vince came in at a bad time. Scott Hall was a mess, the Goldberg aura was gone, no one really cared about Bret Hart, Hogan was aging etc.
his back was against the wall.
Its easy enough to try blame either one of these 2 people, regardless of mistakes made by both men. When the merger happened wcw's fate was sealed.
The answer is both. Eric both didn't pay close enough attention to what was going on at times and let mostly Hogan and Nash do the damage neccessary to really hurt WCW with their egos. Vince made what was really bad, worse. He played favorites way too much with his clique. Instead of what would make the most money and was the most over with fans.
Russo didn't have creative control though
I think this was a team effort and the same team destroyed tna as well
Russo was a great offensive coordinator who could create mindblowing plays under a good offense while Bischoff was a good coach as long as he had a good salary cap situation. When Russo had to be head coach and Bischoff had to be cheap they sucked. McMahon is a defensive coach who runs the ball. It usually sucks but has more long term success unless others work together and make McMahon change.
Great offensive coordinators don’t need someone standing over their shoulder, throwing out all the garbage plays for the one that might work lol
Horrible analogy
The one thing WCW never had and ive said it lots of times is they didnt have Vince McMahon
-Bret Hart
hot take
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL bret harts words not mine
Russo thought he could do all he did in wwe with wcw. Standards & Practices rejected 90% of wat he wanted to do.
I blame bischoff. It started with not only goldberg losing but the finger poke of doom. Egos - HOGAN! nobody wanted to see hogan with the title again especially after being poked
The wolfpack still was red hot. To do the poke and reunite with nwo hollywood nobody wanted to see.
Scott steiner as well as kevin sullivan even said the poke = 100% hogan.
I disagree with K-Dog on one thing. Midcarders like Brian Cage and Archer are READY moreso than disco was. These guys have been Company champs wherever they've gone.
and how did that help? did they draw? nope. did they bring in ratings? nope.
So what's the point you're failing to make, again?
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL Lance Archer was drawing crowds in the Tokyo dome, and Brian Cage is a guy who CAN be a Champion if booked right....Go watch Cage's matches with Kross or Keith Lee...good stuff.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL oh....and you can't like your own comment and make it look good bro... That's just sad, 🤣🤣🤣👍
Did WCW even try to get a new tv deal after TNT dropped them?
Supposedly Bischoff tried to get a new tv deal but they weren't gonna give them the tv time, then Vince bought it for dirt cheap. Flair said he would have tried buying if he knew how cheap it was
@@jesusleyva4386 Pritchard said the same 🤣 they did not want jack shit to do with wrestling and it was so sad that it was sold for pennies.
Yes.
Sadly I'm going to say Bischoff even though Russo didn't help. Eric looking back has been able to admit a lot of his short comings on 83 weeks. Not realizing how long it takes to properly build a maineventer, not having good finishes to matches on a consistent basis, not firing certain people who would either stab him in the back or try to take over the company, and not pushing back on Thunder which hurt financially and creatively. I've been listening to 83 weeks for a while and Eric brings up a lot of those points and had he been able to see some of these problems even he realized WCW may still be alive it would just be elsewhere, not at Turner.
weird that Bischoff forgets that so often.
are they in the studio together shooting this? Every episode sounds like they're talking over each other as if they can't see each other to know hey i'm trying to talk
no
Turner's to blame for allowing it all to go on lmao plain and simple
he wasn't involved with the WCW business dealings
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL trust me I figured lmfao
any company that has two jobbers of he low level as Konnan & Disco was bound to fail because they're both so horrible
GET MY GO
@BiGBluERuLes100 you're just a butt kissing stalker
That's just rude & uncalled for, Mark Fegan.
ON the other hand, it's also well known that Disco killed off all of wrestling, to this very day, single handedly. He's the actual reason ancient Greeks stopped wrestling & their entire civilization collapsed. His wrestling is so bad, it time-traveled back to Greece, ending it for all time. It's less well known that Konnan is the reason the U.S. no longer constructs nuclear power plants, because he botched a promo once. I know all of the above is true because a jobber in the comments section named you told me.
@@TheCaptainSlappy Disco is just a bitter old hater who can't accept that no one cares about him
@@mikefegan2324 Stop. Go back up to my comment. Read it. Look at the quality of my comment craftsmanship. Hand-made. Correct punctuation. I put effort into weaving a seamless yet interesting story about how you are the equivalent to a Hessian jobber in the Revolutionary War.
Your comment quality is what happens when OSHA doesn't enforce health & safety laws on Motel 6's. You go to your room & think about that, Marlin. No more wrestling for you today.
How come Russo is always getting blame but never Ed Ferrera? He was with Russo too!
because Russo's name draws attention
Russo was the reason why Booker T is 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time WCW Champion it's all started at BATB 2000 because of Bischoff's boy Hogan wants to win the championship n Russo wants Booker T to be world champion.
Everyone knows Disco is to blame
The Tomlin Harbaugh example was not good lol and would be a completely different situation
5:52 NOT a perfect example.
answer:hulk and dave Arquette
Respect to Arquette though, he was against the idea and even donated his paycheck to Owen and Pillmans families.
even though that's not the question.
They definitely share blame. Russo’s shitty booking vs. Bischoff’s careless spending. As much as I dislike Russo, Bischoff may actually be more to blame. A wrestling company can survive shitty booking if temporary. But it can’t survive reckless spending when the parent company demands profits.
WWF just had a more adult orientated and vocally led product that WCW couldn't compete with. I've been watching 98 nitro and some of it was lazily booked. The first hour of the fall brawl ppv was like an episode of thunder. Random tag match to start (ft disco) then a funny Jericho segment followed by a match to get the cat over who had only just started to be pushed. The nitros are very hit and miss too after a hot 97. They didn't seem to start nitros with a bang and put on too many filler matches. Ego and big wages did not help either.
there's a video on here, it's about Kevin Nash & Goldberg having a blow up backstage at Starrcade 98. In it we discuss how poor that card was despite it being the biggest card of the year
It's kind of amazing that despite having a poor card, Starrcade 1998 had a 1.15 buyrate and had approximately 460 000 PPV buys.
@Tiger wwe is full on corporate now, doesn’t matter if the product sucks because they get all that tv money that will carry them for years and years.
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL I might have to check that out. They would just Chuck random filler matches on. Bulldog/anvil Vs dancing fools made no sense. Both teams has jobbed out to others in recent weeks and both were heels but Bull and anvil played faces despite attacking luger on the thunder before. Dancing fools should of been given promo time, they were a good combo. The biggest balls up I've seen is the push and then dissapearance of MENG. He got crazy over for attacking people, had a match Vs Goldberg where he looked stronger and almost won till he released his death grip for no reason leading to spear/jackhammer. He then wasn't on TV after that, he may come back cos he may of got injured but he should of been on the fall brawl ppv kicking someone's ass. The fans loved him
Bottom line WCW would have shut their doors because they wanted to change their programming and wrestling did not fit the type of drama shows they were looking to start producing, even if they won the ratings I still think they would have lost the war because they didn't want it so why keep it at all, with that being said Bischoff and his short-term planning and contract signing weakend the foundation and unless they would have done '97 area numbers across the board, even if they had good ratings better than raw, they would have been losing money if those ratings, attendance or merch would have dropped past a certain point they were so ridiculous, not for any one contract but the amount of contracts Bishop said his limit was usually a million per year per contract and then anything above he had to ask the executive positions above him, yeah that's annoying here but if you have 80contracts all Worth close to million dollar or over that's a lot of fn money, and they had more contracts than 80, after thunder that's just how many active wrestlers they had signed in late '98, early '99, I kid you not, but then Russo came in claiming he was more valuable to The attitude era and raw winning than he actually was because the ratings got better once he left, his booking stopped at Austin getting run over, but the biggest downfall and the thing that toppled the tower, Ted Turner agreeing to merge with Time Warner, because once Time Warner emerged with AOL a year or two later, the only thing that he wanted to have permanent residence on his networks, was wrestling and he couldn't keep it on anymore cuz he no longer had majority vote, his vote was barely worth anything and thus he could not fight to keep it so it had to go, if Turner would have remained in control, WCW would still be alive today, with Bisch running it, and he said that countless times in several interviews after 2001, ratings didn't matter wrestling matter to him and loyalty to Eric mattered to him more than ratings ever could, I'm saying he would take a loss every year just so that wrestling would have a home there I believe Turner
How about Kevin Nash?
the question is about Russo or Bischoff though.
Hogan killed WCW.
After 20 years people are still trying to milk this? Damn....get it over it.
the fault is 100% on Bischoff. Giving so many different guys creative control and giant contracts? it's his fault. Russo's problem though is that he can't accept that anything he's ever done can be bad.
is it just me or did they not actually answer the guy's question?
Don't blame it on Vince Russo my friend he was hired to make WCW more like the WWF but the backstage politics and all the rednecks that run WCW and all of hulk Hogan's bulshit of him wanting to be on top and have things run his way things were working against each other Vince Russo when he came into power around September of 99 he started pushing the midcard talent the ones that were held back and he started pushing Bret Hart a lot more and a lot of WCW was getting more exciting to watch their ratings were going up.
But by January or February of 2000 when they had Kevin Sullivan running everything😊 and I wanted to go back to the standard basics of professional wrestling it made WCW look like the WCW of 1990
you guys didn't understand what I asked. I'm saying that if either one was to be responsible, would it be.
3:38 - 3:50
They both should get blame its really that simple. But my problem with Russo is he never wants to take any responsible like nothing bad is his fault. He did all the good stuff in WWE but takes no blame for TNA or WCW ever like how do u take credit for all things good but nothing bad. Go back and Watch Russo first Run OCT 99 to Jan 200, He still acts like he can get ratings now lol Russo is insane
The ratings went up from October 1999 to January 2000, and his first run was in my opinion a HUGE improvement over the garbage we had throughout 1999 before he got there. The only good thing about Nitro before Russo was the comedy acts (including heel Flair).
@@TheNextStep851 rating barley went up while WWE continued to double and triple them. House went down ppv went down not blaming russo like he just did nothing but it wasnt that good
@@ajakasuperchiefaj5920 Considering he was in charge for 3 months in 1999-2000, he did a good job to improve it at all. It took RAW 9 months to see significant growth in 1997-1998. To see significant growth takes time and faith in the creative direction.
WWE also declined in 2000, ratings-wise.
Russo is not solely to blame for WCW's downfall, but he definitely put it in hyperdrive.
Here's my take homies.
Bischoff was responsible for that starrcade debacle and then all those stupid nwo reboots and screwing nwo up with 1000000 members as well as being a walking atm for the original nwo.
Then Russo came and took a big shit over whatever wcw had left at that point.
Russo was the guy who rebooted the nWo
I blame aol/time warner
Eric blames AOL for wanting to kill off wrestling. Ok, maybe, but if WCW wasn't such a gaping asshole of money loss when AOL came onboard, maybe they would've kept a financially sustainable and popular TV show.
true, he's the guy who paid Bret Hart 12 million to do very little
Aol and time warner didnt want anything to do with wrestling plain and simple. That was the downfall
that's not the question.
It's both and bad investments in old big head talent (hogan, savage, nash, hall) the content became stale. Wwe was make new eletric younger stars like rock, stone cold, triple h and still had hbk. With that talent willing to do the work just out shined the vets that didn't want to lose and ended every match with run ins. It just got dumb in wcw. Everything was about the NWO which started good but out lived it's usefulness. Also sting doing his crow thing dragged way to long with him standing in the rafters. It just got stale in wcw. Wwe was far more exciting and stone cold was a key part of that.
Too much talent and not enough terrorities to move talent back and forth + WWE was doing a better job getting talent over.
Overall, like Konnan said, Aol/Time-Warner was killing off wrestling. As a Wrestler you need to understand this and jump to another territory/WWF/NJPW etc.
It’s Bischoff. Despite the fact that Russo really doesn’t know that much about wrestling and played out a lot of bad ideas in WCW, the ship was already sinking and structured for failure - huge contracts, creative control, reliance on aged NWO and Stars. Bischoff sure has some thick skin for a guy who put WCW out of business.
go tell that to The Rock
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL which part?
WCW was already dying before Russo got there. He just helped dig their grave faster.
pretty much
Plus most of the stuff Russo tried to do, Goldberg shot it down
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL can’t think of anyone else having that type of creative control and only been in the industry just a few years.
Is Rampage now the same show as Dynamite? How can all of this ex-WWE talent not be booked over the “home-grown/ day one” guys, you can’t have Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, and Punk on Dark, so that will relegate the original AEW guys to RUclips.
Edit: Who’ll be the first guy to leave AEW and I wonder how it’ll be reported. Pillman Jr. should go back to MLW or NWA and be a babyface star.
Simple answer: Both!!
how can that be the simple answer when you got the question wrong? it's about which ONE is to blame
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL Because there's more than ONE reason why ANYTHING fails
@Old Age Yeah and both are to blame equally.
Didn't Russo say Mexican wrestlers would never draw???? didn't he say some shit tho... lmao
When?
@@KeepinIt100OFFICIAL look it up he said mexican wrestler would never draw. Isn't he the reason why the unmasked a lot of the mexican wrestler back in wcw days
Both of them are , horrible business man
Disco cant read
It was bischoff he was like a bad gambler in Vegas . You can't blame russo he just got lucky bluffing his way through the job .made his money . bischoff should have changed gears and disbanded the NWO .and cut the roster. in reality they were doomed anyway when the merger deal happened.
nWo should have ended with Fingerpoke Of Doom
You can say anything but vince russo storylines were complete trash in wcw like honest to god nothing was good from him.. that's why so many fans cant remember so much the end
what's that got to do with the business side?
The gimmick matches from russo where great story s for wrestling fans,laten not for wrestler but for wrestling fans,it was never see en hooked me until today,bijschrift,russo,everybody idd it s best,ps disco?i like you,even with Alex Wright in the ons dates,great to hear you,but listen sometimes to other people,t hey are alsof wright
Numero 1
to do what?