Column III - 06/11/00

Time to take the piss. or is it!WCW, those 3 letters make some laugh, some cringe and others, like me get severely pissed off!Since Ted Turner bought the original NWA(National Wrestling Alliance) and changed 60years of history to WCW (World Championship Wrestling) with a stroke of his pen, it has had it's highs and its lows. WCW has been in financial trouble for some time, I don't think that they have actually made money for a long time. The major reason for this is the amount of money out laid on its talent, such "stars" as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Jim Duggan and other such remnants of the 1980's. Are these a waste of money? Not if the payments are reasonable but the contract given were massive, some of Hogan's contracts gave percentages of PPVs and house shows plus creative control over his matches and storylines. The problems with giving a wrestler his own creative control is that he can position himself so that he gets a title shot allows himself to win and then can write it so he cannot lose the title. Dangerous thing to do with any wrestler but add the ego of Hulk Hogan and WCW lose control of the WCW World Title. WCW have some done some great thing over the years, although you cannot count the NWO angle as an original idea (stolen from Japan) it was very well done to start off with but then with overuse and general lack of direction it lost it's edge. Creatively the NOW angle saved the WCW in the initial time when they turned Hogan heel but the original premise of the WCW being invaded by outsiders from the WWF, (Nash, Hall, Hogan, Ted Dibiase, Sean Waltman (x-pac/syx/1-2-3 Kid) etc but then they started brining in people who had never been in the WWF then all the major stars left NWO then it split into Red and Black then disbanded then reformed, then disbanded, reformed, disbanded, reformed etc………. The same idea of a disruptive group was used in the WWF with Degeneration X however this was always a select band of wrestlers and even now after they have disbanded the fans are still with it.Creatively WCW have had some nightmares with major stars I have already mentioned Mike Awesome (in column 1) but there are plenty of others, putting Lance Storm in a team with Jim Duggan, 3 Count and Tank Abbot, the Cat being commissioner, "Above Average" what kind of gimmick is that?, Oh the list goes on, OK so it's not just WCW that make bad decisions with gimmicks but at least other feds have the intelligence to change bad ideas (The Rock is a good example of that.).WCW also have made some very questionable decisions regarding TV. Nitro going 3 hours was a very bad, this is longer than most PPVs and yet they excepted people to then buy the PPVs. In this period they put Goldburg Vs. Hogan on Nitro which was a guaranteed PPV ratings winner at the time. Later, when the WWF were winning the Ratings war and Raw is War was taped in advance, Tony Shitvoni told there audience that Mick Foley was going to win the WWF title before Raw started! Now if you are losing the ratings war against your main opposition you don't tell the people watching your show that a) there will defiantly be a title change on the other channel and b) that someone that WCW let go is now the head guy in the oppositions federation! That reeked of bitterness anyway and also serves to cheapen the WCW product further. WCW were also guilty of underselling the cards at PPVs, the main event would get some major pushes but the PPV is 3-hours long and the main event is only one part of that, this has begun to change of late. WCW also seems to pretty much ignore the first part of its name…World. Until recently there was no WCW on terrestrial TV even then the Nitro and Thunder shows were only shown on Analogue Satellite TV station TNT (owned by Ted Turner). There is also no structured plan to release the WCW PPV on video and WCW have not got an output for its PPVs on TV anywhere in the UK. ECW have a better release plan for their PPV events! Last year the WCW did do shows in the UK and even had Nash come to the UK for promo work and this year they have been promoting the new Tour for the UK this month (Nov 00). So they have had Nitro's and Thunders from Australia and from the UK but to be a WCW fan in the UK is to be shafted by lack of support and lack of strategic releases of video/merchandise.But will this change? Rumours are flying all over the net that WCW has been bought out by the WWF!! What affect will this have on wrestling state-side? Initially (if this is true) probably none, WWF will want to keep the WWF brand separate - lets be honest WWF is doing very well and WCW is a sack of shit compared to it. They will need to build WCW up to the right level and then when it has stated to make money and they have WCW where they want it they will pillage all the best wrestlers and suck WCW into WWF and there will be no more competition from them. This of course will only leave ECW as the major competition to the WWF but ECW and WWF have always had a good working relationship (WWF let Tazz go to ECW to win the Championship and also let Tazz wear the title on Smackdown and also let ECW have Tommy Dreamer attack Tazz on the show to further ECWs storylines for the Next PPV!) This is going to be a strange time for wrestling if this whole thing goes thru!That's it,

Later,

LRG E. Dangerously