Did people actually stop watching WCW after the finger poke of doom? I thought people started tuning out because most 1999 was kinda boring and dull?
>>18732547Nah, most of us watched until the end. WWF was doing better things by that point however.Fingerpoke of Doom was kino at the time. They just didn't do much with things afterwards.The real downfall was after the logo changed and when they brought in Russo. That's when things turned to absolute crap.
nWo fatigue was a real thing
>>18732547WCW, even in its dying days, was still pulling decent. But yeah, most of the drop off was '99-'00.'98 was actually their most profitable year.
At Slamboree 1999 WCW shoot sold out the show with 29,000 people, at Slamboree 2000 they sold under 3,000 tickets. Russo killed that company pushing shitters like Lash Leroux, Disco Inferno & Jeff Jarrett to name a few.
>>18732547I stopped watching around that time because everyone in WCW started dressing like a fag. I'm not kidding. If you know you know. It happened in WWF too but took a bit longer.
>>18732707I've been watching wcw from 96-98 and it's some of the best shows I've ever seen.
It all started going to irreversible shit once they turned DDP heel. Before that 99 was still pretty fun, but it drops off a cliff later in the year. Still more fun than modern eslop though.>>18732718Disco was on pretty much every show well before Russo though
>>18732718Kweewee!!And as everyone said, no. It still had plenty of legs even by the end and through the bizarre talent gimmicks (a sign of the time, everything was kinda gay and more silver and chrome in look and style). But the finger poke was kino, people just like to choose specific moments and claim "that's when and why". Fingerpoke of doom still reminds me of the run that started in 96, not the one that ended in 2002.
>meanwhile less than a year later
>>1873274597 Nitro and Saturday Night are S tier cozy
>>18732792What was the story here I forgot? Sting looks kino
>>18732547WCW did better ppv numbers in early 1999.
1999 WCW was mostly just kinda same old shit with the nwo, at least when Russo came in, the show became more unpredictable and crazy to watch.
>>18732802Recommend me some '97 Saturday nights to watch. Too bad most of the PPVs from that year were bad.
WCW was getting scared in mid 1998 when raw was catching up to them in the ratings.
>>18732547Not really, ratings were still steady and even going up. WCW just had nobody with the charisma levels of The Rock and Austin. That’s really it.
>>18733238Chill out, Hunter. This is a WWE board, you know that. You don't have to take petty jabs like that for us to like you.
Schiavone doesn't get enough blame for the fall of WCW, and is one of the reason AEW has been shit from the beginning. Listening to his grating voice go on and on about the NWO for 3 fucking hours every week was nauseating.
>>18733300He talks about the nwo throughout are shows? Wtf
>>18732792WCW’s rebranding has to be the biggest downgrade of all time
nobody changed the channel because of mick foley and nobody stopped watching because of the fingerpoke
WCW vs nWo > WWF No Mercy
>>18733325For me, I've pinpointed the episode when they got the new logo as being the beginning of the end.That's when I knew things were wrong.
>>18733325They turned their logo into Goldbergs tattoo
>>18733349The ring and the lighting got worse too, watching stuff from 2000 it looked so cheap and low budget.
>>18733337Yeah, it's amazing what WWE has retconned over the years. I started watching WWF maybe around 1999/2000 but before that WCW was where it was at. You wouldn't know that from how the bad parts have been talked up and the good parts have been downplayed.Funny how you never hear how much of 96 - 98 WWF was hot garbage that was worse than what WCW was doing.
>>18732718Disco was a legit mid card heel. He was the 90's Honky Tonk Man, entertaining and everyone wanted to see him get his ass beat
>>18733375Anytime I would try to watch raws or ppvs from what you said, 96-98 I would get really bored or annoyed at how awful the midcard was. The main eventers were fun.
>>18733342I’m still mad that they removed the Steiner Recliner after this but they kept shit like the Old Man Flop kekNo Mercy if it actually saved your games and ran at whatever speed it’s supposed to would be a superior title though
>>1873337597 is one of WWE's best ever years and 96 and 98 are mostly decent. 99 is the one that really stinks.
>>187339731997 was the best year of the Monday night war, they felt pretty even.
>>18732816Hogan came to the ring in street clothes, whispered something in Sting's ear and laid down and let himself get pinned without the bell ever ringing.
>>18733342The intro with Sting stopping the trucker and him going "WHAT" is burned into my head
>>18732559Pretty much this yeah
>>18732718Nash killed it first in the spring of 99 with his full retard booking such as having the first hour if nitro contain no matches. A combination of nobody giving a fuck about Kevin Nash when he wasn't standing next to Hall or Hogan, and the unwatchable TV he booked, doomed them.
Halloween Havoc 98
>>18733082This
WCW really lost its edge when they got their final Nitro setup, most of 2000. I don't think people expected it to end when it did exactly.
>>18732559>after the logo changedWhy did they do this?
>>18736395Blue ring and red ropes with a basic universal set was the most dimeless presentation in wrestling history
>>18735407>Nash killed it firstEssentially yea, from the outsiders to NWO, it became a one note show. WCW never succeeded an angle after NWO. If it wasn't about NWO, Hogan, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff, Sting, the World Heavyweight title, or Vince Russo, then the angle wasn't considered important post The Outsiders in 1996.They road the rails of the popularity & success WCW had because of NWO all the way until the merger happend.
>>18732547I'm watching some deadlock rewatches and the shit people like Nash did on WCW tv would get absolutely shit on today. just mocking and making a joke of the whole thing. can't take most of those old legends who critique today's wrestling seriously the more i watch from back then.
>>18736643https://youtube.com/shorts/24o_5TpCSOY?si=pPCmnjd98ei-BoYY
>>18736622Bischoff's insane overspending and losing their paying audience due to bad creative was going to do them in regardless if the merger happened or not.
>>18732691i was already getting it in 1996. not too long after hogan joined and they started calling it nwo. i remember when they were on the cable ace awards in 1996, they were so embarrassing all wearing the same matching t-shirts. i remember thinking how campy and goofy they were. it was like the thugs and goons from the old Batman tv show.i think if people actually go back and seriously rewatch this stuff they'd see how bad it was. Hogan's villain acting is too over the top to take seriously
>>18732547>>18732559WWF regurgitated Austin vs McMahon just as long as WCW dragged out the nWo. neither ever knew how or when to wrap up a story.
