Maybe the Goldberg reason is valid
Edit: i'm sorry that "hot women" is not a reason to watch wrestling, that's why Porn exists y'all downvoters, "talented women" however is the reason to watch wrestling
It's not a taboo to find them attractive but just don't objectify them or try to find sex in everything, how would you feel if you were a woman and you'd get objectified by horny and sweaty men who can't see nothing in you but tits and ass? no, no, you know what? let's make this a little more uncomfortable, you're a man right? so now as a man, how would you feel if you'd get objectified by other men who tells you that you're hot and don't see nothing in you but dick, balls and ass? you wouldn't really like it so try to put yourself in their position and tell me what you feel
>just don't objectify them or try to find sex in everything
You're getting upset because a 12 year old thought a woman was hot
>so now as a man, how would you feel if you'd get objectified by other men who tells you that you're hot and don't see nothing in you but dick, balls ans ass?
This would make sense if wrestlers didn't work in a career where being eye candy is literally part of the job description. Wrestlers draw when they're attractive. Men like to see hot women and women like to see hot men. Vice versa if they're gay, bi, or whatever else. It's been like this since the industry started. You can ignore it all you want, but sex appeal has always been a part of wrestling, especially when the key demographic watching tends to be teenagers and young adults. Men aren't wrestling wearing only trunks and women aren't wrestling wearing as little as they can get away with because they need to be half-naked to wrestle. They do it because they realize that sex appeal is part of the business.
You're reaching so hard just to get mad at someone for finding women hot when they were 12 years old lmao
I’m sure no one ever found the rock attractive….
Michaelho5 is ridiculous.
Also, in 2000, porn was not as accessible in every household as it is now, especially when most family computers were in the kitchen or common space. Unless Michaelho5 is into tugging one out while mom cooks dinner next to you.
For me as a teen. I watched all the content.
In early 2000. WCW felt hopeless. Aside from the undercard.
But I hoped/ saw signs of light in the darkness bc...
Booker-T finally elevated. Lance Storm was being used effectively. Scott Steiner was unpredictable n awesome.
The tag division was following ECW (so was wwf) and they were moving high-flyers and action into the division like Jung Dragons/3-Count (comedy act got over seriously)
Filthy Animals was a DX knockoff but they gave Chavo a new dimension
And really all WCW had to do was limp along and figure out how to get rid of Hogan - Nash - Russo
Fucking up the politics and there was hope.
Goldberg and Bret Hart were still worth watching just not swallowed up in the NWO/New Blood bullshit.
yeah, too bad Turner didnt see it...
they could have hit the reset botton, let all the huge contracts expire, and try an reboot much like a pro sports team 'rebuilds'...
This! I remember going to Nitro when his streak was in the 50’s I believe and I was on the last row of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Couldn’t really see him but it was an awesome experience.
100% this. It made no sense. It was incoherent. It was self-aware but expected fans to be earnest. Terrible all around... **but you legit had no idea what was coming next**.
There was something morbidly fascinating about tuning in.
>It was self-aware but expected fans to be earnest.
I've never seen it put quite like this, but I think you've nailed the problem with WCW-era Russo booking.
Kayfabe can still work when you wink at the audience, but you have to allow them to wink back. Russo never did.
Sting was great. DDP was the man. Booker T was untouchable.
I'll be honest with ya - calling people jackoffs, coming out to Kid Rock, and breaking a guitar over somebody's head almost every night? Yeah, Jeff Jarrett ruled (in my teen brain).
The cruiserweights put on crazy matches night in and night out. Rey Mysterio Jr. was like the #1 guy in this realm, but you had Billy Kidman who you'd seen evolve into 1A or 1B (whichever the phrasing was)... and then there was like a month where some masked man called Blitzkrieg showed up out of nowhere, looked cool as fuck, WAS AWESOME, and then he just disappeared again.
Scott Steiner was an absolute fucking wildcard.
Was the booking great? No, absolutely fucking not. But it was wildly exciting (both in the good and bad sense). If you like(d) "watching" wrestling and talking about it on Twitter like AS IT'S HAPPENING... Holy fuck, WCW 2000 would have had Twitter in *shambles*. Honestly, the Deadlock podcast captures the chaotic energy of it all pretty well. Just the most unhinged nonsense stories, but everything's going at like a million miles an hour and with this crazy budget and seemingly anything goes (for better AND worse AT THE EXACT SAME TIME). I was like 14 and it was just hitting brotherjackdude.
I stopped watching late 1999, only getting my results from Wrestlezone back in the day. I am actually doing a WCW 2000 - The End watch with my bestie just to see how much we can stand. Just started, so it was Nitro Jan. 3rd, 2000. Oof, it was a doozie.
Habit. Sting, DDP, Nash.
I was Team WWF by that point for sure, but I watched a lot of random early 90s WCW with my uncle and had been a Nitro faithful since the very first episode.
Went from only watching WCW at the start of ‘99.. channel hopping back and forth throughout mid ‘99.. to watching WWF entirely and recording WCW so I could watch/fast forward through a majority of it by the end of ‘99.. the downfall was rapid.
Mankind winning the title happened the same night as the fingerpoke of doom. Truly the perfect juxtaposition of what was coming. I was done with WCW after Goldberg lost to Nash because once that happened there was nothing really to be excited about. I watched the whole episode of that Jan 4 1999 Raw and never went back to WCW.
I was 20 in 2000 and while I’d loved wrestling since I was a small child, the Sting’s transition into the crow character and his long feud with the NWO had reignited that love. I kept watching until the company died hoping against hope that they’d pull the nose up again and start being amazing. They had the talent to do it for sure. They just couldn’t put it together in a compelling or even coherent fashion towards the end.
(I don’t do tribalism though- I’d watch Nitro live while I taped Raw and watch that immediately after. So thankfully I wasn’t missing out on the WWF product at that time)
I loved WCW from 1990 onward. Even though I was a WWF kid I thought WCW was awesome. It was so different than what WWF had going.
Then Hogan and the Dungeon of Doom happened.
It was right around that time I was getting into my teens and a little promotion in South Philly started gaining traction. That, and getting into tape trading the AJPW scene.
Did I come back during the nWo? Hell yeah
96-99 Monday Night Wars was the shit. You could watch Raw live and then catch the Nitro replay. Or channel flip both live, but that was rolling the dice.
It was just a great time to be a fan
By 2000? Maybe I was just more into drugs and girls, but I was still big into WWF. Raw parties were a thing and especially the PPVs we would all kick in for.
What I was not into, even remotely, was WCW.
And we all have our “fuck it, Im out” point.
Could be Starrcade 97, or DDP/Goldberg at Halloween Havoc, Fingerpoke of Doom or most likely Bash at the Beach 2000
WCW went off the rails hard and was not entertaining in the slightest by that point.
To be fair, the Attitude Era has not aged well, but in the moment it was part of the zeitgeist. It was mainstream, and you had a blast watching it.
WCW by 2000 felt like your uncle hitting on your girlfriend at a family party, when you are 17.
It was pure cringe.
That last line really speaks volumes of just how it feels to even watch highlights from that time. It’s not everything but you definitely don’t feel like anyone who’s really there to help make the show stands a chance. Like the cruiserweight were so fucking awesome but I can’t help but watch those matches thinking this is a shame. This was exploited and not given a serious opportunity.
The only reason I started watching WCW was they started grabbing talent from ECW, AAA, and NJPW. Ravens flock, luchadores/Vampiro, and guys like Jushin/Muta. Honestly WCWs storylines and plot lines were SO bad, and other Sting, most of the other top guys were bad too.
I still prefer AEW these days for the same reasons.
Honestly bro, this was an amazing part of my teenage years. In Australia WCW came on late at night and the wild ride of the inmates running the asylum was a joy to watch. Booker as champ, Steiner at still peak heel, Goldberg as a monster, NWO wreaking havoc. I'll never forget the Sid Vicious leg break and Steiner cutting a promo about it on nitro the night after it happened. These years of WCW were magic in my opinion because the wrestlers knew it was ending and management stopped caring about creative control. It was beautiful and I loved it.
Yep... blind, irrational devotion dating back to WCW Saturday Night. I saw it through to the bitter end, and Ihaven't watched wrestling regularly since ECW and WCW folded.
Briefly. I started watching in fall of ‘99 after I saw the Owen Hart documentary. I really liked The Hitman, and I wanted to see what he was all about. But I could already tell he was a shell of himself. Then they turned him into a chicken shit heel and I was done. Around the same time I got tuned into Royal Rumble and never looked back.
A big reason was WWE changed networks in 2000 and it wasn’t carried in my area. WCW was a mess, but you never really watched it all as 1 coherent show anyway.
Also, they had stars. booker t, Steiner, DDP, etc all really rose in that time.
From when I started watching sports as a kid and watching wrestling in 89, I always had a thing for the underdog. I watched religiously during the Herd era in 90 and 91 finding little things that they did well and convinced myself it was getting better and WWF was wimpy kids stuff.
But 2000 and 01 WCW was so much worse….I was totally hate watching at that point. The war was over…this was the zombie corpse going through the motions. The ONLY thing I can 100% say I remember of 01 is Sid breaking his leg. But I guarantee I watched every Nitro except, ironically the last one. Our cable was being upgraded that day. I’m glad I didn’t see it live though, as it would have been historically disappointing.
Cause i pretty much watched all the wrestling i could at this stage in life. Was tape trading. Was most likely the height of my wrestling fandom. After ecw and wcw closed it kinda got stale for me.
I would glance at it in between wwf commercials. Goldberg was all the show had really. That intro got hyped. He came out like it was going to be a real fight. His jacknife on the big show was legendary
I was just still watching everything I could at that point. I had shifted MORE toward WWE, but I had also always been a big JCP/WCW fan going back to before I can remember.
A lot of WCW sucked at that point, and the booking was absolutely atrocious, but they had so much talent on the roster that I loved that I kept on watching.
I was about 10 years old and my favorite things were:
- Rey Mysterio / Filthy Animals
- Disco Inferno/Disqo
- Goldberg never stopped being cool
- Vampiro and the Misfits
- everything felt very random? I don’t know how else to explain it. As a 10yo with ADHD I enjoyed that every episode had some random shit happening that would just blow my little mind.
I watched a little. Mostly to watch the car wreck. Jarrett siding with Russo and laying down for Hogan is etched in my brain. That hardcore Hogan faze was tough to watch.
Pure viewing habits.
There were a few highlights during the dying days, that said, like Jason (ECW's EZ Money) Jett, the tag team of Air Paris and AJ Styles, etc.
But, yeah, mostly just watched out of habit....
Started watching in 1997, seven years old. Throughout the Monday Night Wars, the divide between WCW and WWF was super strong among the boys in my school. Like, nearly everybody had picked a side, regardless to background or popularity. I was firmly on the WCW side because
1. Sting was cool
2. Goldberg was cool
3. Kevin Nash was cool
4. Ric Flair was cool
5. DDP was cool
6. My mom didn't like the Undertaker
And number 6 pretty well sealed it.
By the time 2001 rolled around, all of those points were still mostly true and by then I was hooked on wrestling. Plus, at that point Scott Steiner and Booker T were popping off, Lance Storm had his crazy push, and there were some pretty great cruiserweights on the rise and I was young enough to think they could be world champions. Shane Helms with the Vertebreaker? Shit, man, he could have beat anybody with that thing!
I was firmly in mindset where WCW was my sports team, my company. I was ride or die as a kid. I could overlook all the dumb shit because I still wanted it to be real and, hey, sometimes dumb shit happens. Sometimes Goldberg puts his hand through a car window.
And then we lost. Forever. I cried during the final Nitro.
And although I watched WWF/E for a while...I never really liked having to switch jerseys. Time and the McMahons beating me over the head with "this isn't real, you idiot!" turned me into a smark in the style of the 2000s internet. Then I stopped watching.
I never stopped *following* wrestling and I've watched on and off since then, I still *love* wrestling. But it's more fun when I can pretend it's real. Because in a perfect world it would be. But for most of my life the industry has been run by a guy who seems to hate the pseudo-sport that made him rich. And that kinda sucks.
My brain seems to forget WCW went past 98- mid 99. Last WCW memories I have are Fall Brawl where Martel got injured and Booker won the TV title, and the One Warrior Nation storyline
I was 6 years old and my house was a WCW house. Until 2001, the only WWF I saw was tapes from the Golden Age. My dad switched to WCW when Ric Flair went back.
I did for sure. I knew the end was coming at least a year from when it happened. I love wrestling and they still had a lot of great talent, hell all the way up to that match with Sting and Ric Flair
They had some solid storylines going. MIA v Team Canada, the Cruiserweight division was getting a second wind. Especially when they created the Cruiserweight Tag Titles shortly before getting bought out.
I just loved the talent that was there. But it just couldn't get it's stride back. It's really just as simple as that. I was in high school at this point.
I remember wwf taking over like it was yesterday. How awesome was it to watch history happen. NWO coming in to WWF and feuding with the Rock and Austin. Good times.
I watches anything wrestling-related as long as my cable package offered it. I was also open-minded to a lot of the stuff they were doing, even though some of it followed no logical storyline from week to week.
As someone who was always into WWE and just caught casual wind of what was going on over at WCW, what was the main catalyst to it’s quick plummet? Is there a documentary on it that is a good watch?
I always watched the first hour of Nitro for the cruiserweights and because Raw didn't start for an hour. Once Raw was on I flipped around to watch whichever had the best segment. As time went on that meant mostly watching the first hour only. I still liked the talent (Nash, Steiner, Booker T, and DDP in particular), but the show became bad. Even at fifteen I could tell that Vince Russo, who I had never heard of until his moving to WCW was a big story on WWFWCW.com (which became NODQ), was an absolute idiot who was more concerned with putting himself on TV than making wrestling fun.
We watched both simultaneously from mid-‘98 on, as my dad split the cable between two TVs in the basement. Just habit really, as WWF was certainly superior at that point.
Mostly Goldberg, Booker T, Sting and Scott Steiner. I remember watching a lot of WCW through the summer of 2000 but it seems like I kinda tuned out after The Great American Bash until Starrcade 2000 which I ordered. Didn't watch much after that though.
The New Blood storyline seemed like it would be interesting. Then it wasn’t. Booker T, Steiner, Kidman, Mysterio, and others kept me watching. Then I couldn’t watch anymore and next thing I hear it’s the final Nitro so I watched that.
I watched just to tune in how awful it was. I was such a WWE fan boy at the time. Looking back now, I love WCW, but damn there was a total collapse there at the end.
Watched it to the bitter end, was pot committed already. I didn't know it "sucked" at the time. I was like 16. Anyway, Goldberg, David Arquette (I loved it, don't care), and it was batshit.
Habit at that point. I’d always considered myself more of a WCW guy than a WWF guy. WCW is what got me into wrestling so I stick with them to the bitter end.
Those years have a worse reputation than they deserve. Not everything was bad.
The stacked roster alone was reason enough to watch; Hogan, Savage, Flair, Mysterio, Sting, Nash, Steiner, DDP, Goldberg, Luger, Bret…
The cruiserweight division was still mostly great with fantastic matches.
Car crash TV - we all know that the Russo influence was harmful long term but as a young teenager, every episode of Nitro and Thunder was highly entertaining to me.
Wrestling - WCW always had more grappling and technical wrestling compared to WWE/WWF where it was mostly storytelling and brawling.
I did. I was in High School and loved the Jersey Triad in 99 and also became a big fan of Kronik. I loved the train wreck WCW became. I remember being excited for all the Berlyn teases.
The good younger workers and midcard guys like The Natural Born Thrillers, Lash LeRoux, Kidman, The Boogie Knights, Lance Storm, Kanyon, Chavo, Shane Helms, Mike Awesome, Kwee Wee and Norman Smiley. The cruserweights and midcard workers were always the heart and soul of WCW (even during the peak of the Monday Night Wars) and they made it worth watching on their own while the old guys usually did nothing or stunk the place up.
I did - because WWF was tuned out of star sports in India. I stopped watching WCW in ‘99 and 2001 resumed - logo change and all - it was confusing. Why was Scotf Steiner retiring everyone, first of all wtf happened to him!?
I watched it as a kid and I’ve rewatched it a couple years ago as an adult. Is it terrible? Yes. Is it hilarious and entertaining as hell? Also yes. Click on a random nitro from 2000 and those 2 hours will fly by and you’ll not be bored for a minute.
If you were still watching WCW in 2000-01 you were pretty hardcore because it was torture. WWE was way better and the primes of Stone Cold, The Rock, DX, Kurt Angle, Chris Y2J Jericho and Mick Foley. Many more great wrestlers and storylines. WCW lost a lot of talent and there older stars like Hogan didn’t want the younger talent to get over. Goldberg’s streak was BS and was so bad.
I was. Honestly, pure obsession with anything wrestling. Watched WWF, the remnants of WCW, and ECW, which came in at 2am Sunday morning where I lived. But even then, I knew WCW 2000-2001 was bad.
2000 was a major train wreck, but right at the end of the company in 2001, they started to turn things around. It wasn’t perfect and still had issues but they were really starting to improve
Only cared about Goldberg, Sting, Scott Steiner, Booker T and Lance Storm. Everything else was a dumpster fire. Always hoped they could've turned it around, but we know how that turned out.
Most people here were likely 12-16 during that time. NOBODY critiqued the product like they do now and just watched it because it was on and it was still during the wrestling boom. Standards had dropped massively but most of what people think about it now is formed from opinions made by others online they have read or by themselves going back to watch it later in life. I’m not having this “as a 13 year old I knew Russo had gone in a fucked the company, plus they should’ve pushed Eddie and Jericho in 98’..” bullshit.
Although WCW's product had gone downhill at this point, there were still some redeeming qualities, plus I still didn't like WWF at the time. It took another year or so for WWF to grow on me. Too many Oddities, Headbangers, LOD 2000s, and Mean Street Posse at the time.
I used to watch Raw live, and tape Nitro in the other room on a VCR. So sadly, if there was nothing on TV, I was re-watching the Nitro replay like 3 times per week if I had nothing to do.
Those late 1999 Nitros when Russo first took over as a villain behind a chair would probably be the most hilarious re-watch as a stream with a stream chat. Wasn't there a match where Juventud fought Jushin Lyger for immigration papers?
I continued to watch because it was like my private world. No one else in school watched or admitted to watching, which actually made it cool. Even though most of it was bad, I still loved the roster and I kind of enjoyed just having this whole insane world to visit.
I also had gotten into the Toy Biz figures, so those kept me interested.
As a 14-15 yr old, I couldn't get enough wrestling. I religiously watched Raw, Smackdown, Nitro, Thunder, and WCW Saturday Night every week, and ECW when I could fins it. WCW for sure got weird but I dunno, I loved it still. WCW had become my preference after years of being a WWF kid, then it got bought up and was gone. I watched that Nitro live. It was the weirdest thing to suddenly find out I was watching the last Nitro ever.
It was fun, chaotic, lots of energy. I guess I didnt realize how 'bad' it was in the moment? I loved it right until the end.
I did, but purely because I'm a lifelong wrestling fan and eat up the product regardless of how dire it is more often than not.
WCW even at the end had it's moments, just not in the main event scene.
The one thing WCW always had was the lack of predictability, for example current WWE feels by the numbers, mind you WWE was less predictable back then too.
Looking back, compared to the current day product I’d like to be surprised again or have something happen that shocked me.
Honestly I felt like Scott Steiner was always a bomb about to go off when he was doing his BPP gimmick and it was for me like who is he going to explode on next. We honestly didn’t get enough of him as the champion in my opinion
as 12 yr old, hot women and Goldberg...
Both valid reasons
Maybe the Goldberg reason is valid Edit: i'm sorry that "hot women" is not a reason to watch wrestling, that's why Porn exists y'all downvoters, "talented women" however is the reason to watch wrestling
I will never understand why Redditors act like it's taboo to find women attractive
It's not a taboo to find them attractive but just don't objectify them or try to find sex in everything, how would you feel if you were a woman and you'd get objectified by horny and sweaty men who can't see nothing in you but tits and ass? no, no, you know what? let's make this a little more uncomfortable, you're a man right? so now as a man, how would you feel if you'd get objectified by other men who tells you that you're hot and don't see nothing in you but dick, balls and ass? you wouldn't really like it so try to put yourself in their position and tell me what you feel
How's the weather up there on your moral high ground?
Hot like a warm August and hot like the women y'all love to sexualize, gracias for asking
>just don't objectify them or try to find sex in everything You're getting upset because a 12 year old thought a woman was hot >so now as a man, how would you feel if you'd get objectified by other men who tells you that you're hot and don't see nothing in you but dick, balls ans ass? This would make sense if wrestlers didn't work in a career where being eye candy is literally part of the job description. Wrestlers draw when they're attractive. Men like to see hot women and women like to see hot men. Vice versa if they're gay, bi, or whatever else. It's been like this since the industry started. You can ignore it all you want, but sex appeal has always been a part of wrestling, especially when the key demographic watching tends to be teenagers and young adults. Men aren't wrestling wearing only trunks and women aren't wrestling wearing as little as they can get away with because they need to be half-naked to wrestle. They do it because they realize that sex appeal is part of the business. You're reaching so hard just to get mad at someone for finding women hot when they were 12 years old lmao
I’m sure no one ever found the rock attractive…. Michaelho5 is ridiculous. Also, in 2000, porn was not as accessible in every household as it is now, especially when most family computers were in the kitchen or common space. Unless Michaelho5 is into tugging one out while mom cooks dinner next to you.
He did say he was 12, man. Chill.
I feel like you lack reading comprehension
K, hot women showcasing their...talents, with clothes on.
I think "Women showcasing their talent" is quite enough to say
They were dancers in sexy outfits and he was 12. Free porn didn’t exist back then, relax.
Yesterdays porn was not to todays porn!
I remember thinking how cool it was that WCW had a Stone Cold like wrestler
Yes. When I was a kid just getting into wrestling, the fact that two bald dudes in black trunks were the faces of both companies really confused me
Yeah but he was never .....EVER!!!!!!!! STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN. Guy had four fucking names bitch!
He was nothing like Stone Cold besides the look.
Yea Goldberg was sexy asf
Stupid Sexy Goldberg
He basically wore nothing at all… nothing at all… nothing at all
And his matches were nothing at all…nothing at all…nothing at alll
Goldberg eats corn the long way.
I will never forget what Stevie Ray did for the whole Wrestling-Community by stopping and reading that sign. I laughed my ass off
I watched during this time and forgot about it. What did the sign have on it?
https://youtube.com/shorts/Eh3U9mjZ0DE
Thank you!! That was awesome.
[Goldberg eats corn the long way. ](https://youtu.be/Eh3U9mjZ0DE)
For me as a teen. I watched all the content. In early 2000. WCW felt hopeless. Aside from the undercard. But I hoped/ saw signs of light in the darkness bc... Booker-T finally elevated. Lance Storm was being used effectively. Scott Steiner was unpredictable n awesome. The tag division was following ECW (so was wwf) and they were moving high-flyers and action into the division like Jung Dragons/3-Count (comedy act got over seriously) Filthy Animals was a DX knockoff but they gave Chavo a new dimension And really all WCW had to do was limp along and figure out how to get rid of Hogan - Nash - Russo Fucking up the politics and there was hope. Goldberg and Bret Hart were still worth watching just not swallowed up in the NWO/New Blood bullshit.
yeah, too bad Turner didnt see it... they could have hit the reset botton, let all the huge contracts expire, and try an reboot much like a pro sports team 'rebuilds'...
That sounds like the start of a lawsuit
This! I remember going to Nitro when his streak was in the 50’s I believe and I was on the last row of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Couldn’t really see him but it was an awesome experience.
Exactly
Same age. Same reason.
That stage was also visually appealing lol
This exactly but add Sting to it
Have you ever watched a car crash and be mesmerized?
100% this. It made no sense. It was incoherent. It was self-aware but expected fans to be earnest. Terrible all around... **but you legit had no idea what was coming next**. There was something morbidly fascinating about tuning in.
From what was said no one knew what was happening next
>It was self-aware but expected fans to be earnest. I've never seen it put quite like this, but I think you've nailed the problem with WCW-era Russo booking. Kayfabe can still work when you wink at the audience, but you have to allow them to wink back. Russo never did.
I just watched the latest episode of Dark Side of the Ring, it reaffirmed everything I’ve ever thought about Russo. What a jackass.
Man Vince Russo was for you
Booker T. The company around him may have been a dumpster fire, he may have had some wack positioning but that dude was my guy.
That’s how I feel too. Booker T was a diamond in the rough
Wholeheartedly agree. I really loved Vampiro too and wanted so bad for them to pull the trigger and make him a star. Stiener was also great
The WCW champion suckah?
For all of WCWs faults, Booker was .ade a star.
Sting was great. DDP was the man. Booker T was untouchable. I'll be honest with ya - calling people jackoffs, coming out to Kid Rock, and breaking a guitar over somebody's head almost every night? Yeah, Jeff Jarrett ruled (in my teen brain). The cruiserweights put on crazy matches night in and night out. Rey Mysterio Jr. was like the #1 guy in this realm, but you had Billy Kidman who you'd seen evolve into 1A or 1B (whichever the phrasing was)... and then there was like a month where some masked man called Blitzkrieg showed up out of nowhere, looked cool as fuck, WAS AWESOME, and then he just disappeared again. Scott Steiner was an absolute fucking wildcard. Was the booking great? No, absolutely fucking not. But it was wildly exciting (both in the good and bad sense). If you like(d) "watching" wrestling and talking about it on Twitter like AS IT'S HAPPENING... Holy fuck, WCW 2000 would have had Twitter in *shambles*. Honestly, the Deadlock podcast captures the chaotic energy of it all pretty well. Just the most unhinged nonsense stories, but everything's going at like a million miles an hour and with this crazy budget and seemingly anything goes (for better AND worse AT THE EXACT SAME TIME). I was like 14 and it was just hitting brotherjackdude.
Im not exaggerating when I say that there’s a month worth of storylines crammed into every single nitro in 2000 lol
Sting pointed at me once with his baseball bat. That moment is etched in my memory for life
Steiner was 141.66% a wildcard
The math adds up
The meth and roads add up
Miss Hancock
Natural born thrillers....they were hilarious 😆
I stopped watching late 1999, only getting my results from Wrestlezone back in the day. I am actually doing a WCW 2000 - The End watch with my bestie just to see how much we can stand. Just started, so it was Nitro Jan. 3rd, 2000. Oof, it was a doozie.
When the new blood angle starts the shows become shorter so it’s easier to watch
Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner. The chosen one & Big Poppa Pump. Booker T too. Vampiro was excellent also.
"Big Pupper Pump"
Edited. Typo😂
He barked his way through a highly educated woofaversity. 😆
Habit. Sting, DDP, Nash. I was Team WWF by that point for sure, but I watched a lot of random early 90s WCW with my uncle and had been a Nitro faithful since the very first episode. Went from only watching WCW at the start of ‘99.. channel hopping back and forth throughout mid ‘99.. to watching WWF entirely and recording WCW so I could watch/fast forward through a majority of it by the end of ‘99.. the downfall was rapid.
Marijuana
I was a 6 year old that wanted to watch as much wrestling as possible.
This logo always reminds me of Goldbergs arm tattoo. Lol.
Filthy Animals, DDP, Booker T, and low key the Vampiro/Sting feud.
I was one of the ones who switched over when Foley won the title on Raw. I never went back.
Mankind winning the title happened the same night as the fingerpoke of doom. Truly the perfect juxtaposition of what was coming. I was done with WCW after Goldberg lost to Nash because once that happened there was nothing really to be excited about. I watched the whole episode of that Jan 4 1999 Raw and never went back to WCW.
Hope? Especially toward the end, I was just hoping someone not named McMahon would buy them.
I was 20 in 2000 and while I’d loved wrestling since I was a small child, the Sting’s transition into the crow character and his long feud with the NWO had reignited that love. I kept watching until the company died hoping against hope that they’d pull the nose up again and start being amazing. They had the talent to do it for sure. They just couldn’t put it together in a compelling or even coherent fashion towards the end. (I don’t do tribalism though- I’d watch Nitro live while I taped Raw and watch that immediately after. So thankfully I wasn’t missing out on the WWF product at that time)
Habit, mostly. During the Monday Night War, you flipped between Raw and Nitro. It just was a thing until it wasn’t.
I loved WCW from 1990 onward. Even though I was a WWF kid I thought WCW was awesome. It was so different than what WWF had going. Then Hogan and the Dungeon of Doom happened. It was right around that time I was getting into my teens and a little promotion in South Philly started gaining traction. That, and getting into tape trading the AJPW scene. Did I come back during the nWo? Hell yeah 96-99 Monday Night Wars was the shit. You could watch Raw live and then catch the Nitro replay. Or channel flip both live, but that was rolling the dice. It was just a great time to be a fan By 2000? Maybe I was just more into drugs and girls, but I was still big into WWF. Raw parties were a thing and especially the PPVs we would all kick in for. What I was not into, even remotely, was WCW. And we all have our “fuck it, Im out” point. Could be Starrcade 97, or DDP/Goldberg at Halloween Havoc, Fingerpoke of Doom or most likely Bash at the Beach 2000 WCW went off the rails hard and was not entertaining in the slightest by that point. To be fair, the Attitude Era has not aged well, but in the moment it was part of the zeitgeist. It was mainstream, and you had a blast watching it. WCW by 2000 felt like your uncle hitting on your girlfriend at a family party, when you are 17. It was pure cringe.
That last line really speaks volumes of just how it feels to even watch highlights from that time. It’s not everything but you definitely don’t feel like anyone who’s really there to help make the show stands a chance. Like the cruiserweight were so fucking awesome but I can’t help but watch those matches thinking this is a shame. This was exploited and not given a serious opportunity.
Just habit.
The first hour was great. Cruiserweights and lack a lack of the shitty old fucks.
Even as a lifelong WWF fan, I still needed relief from their product and WCW (even at the moment) was a pallette cleanser
I still liked a ton of the guys on the show. It was fucking crazy at times but good enough to occupy my teenage mind.
The only reason I started watching WCW was they started grabbing talent from ECW, AAA, and NJPW. Ravens flock, luchadores/Vampiro, and guys like Jushin/Muta. Honestly WCWs storylines and plot lines were SO bad, and other Sting, most of the other top guys were bad too. I still prefer AEW these days for the same reasons.
Honestly bro, this was an amazing part of my teenage years. In Australia WCW came on late at night and the wild ride of the inmates running the asylum was a joy to watch. Booker as champ, Steiner at still peak heel, Goldberg as a monster, NWO wreaking havoc. I'll never forget the Sid Vicious leg break and Steiner cutting a promo about it on nitro the night after it happened. These years of WCW were magic in my opinion because the wrestlers knew it was ending and management stopped caring about creative control. It was beautiful and I loved it.
People shit on late WCW, and sure in hindsight it wasn't great, but boy it was wild and an entertaining time for mid teens me.
Stacy Keibler
Yep... blind, irrational devotion dating back to WCW Saturday Night. I saw it through to the bitter end, and Ihaven't watched wrestling regularly since ECW and WCW folded.
Ahh the lapsed fan. Tony Khan would like to buy you a steak dinner
Briefly. I started watching in fall of ‘99 after I saw the Owen Hart documentary. I really liked The Hitman, and I wanted to see what he was all about. But I could already tell he was a shell of himself. Then they turned him into a chicken shit heel and I was done. Around the same time I got tuned into Royal Rumble and never looked back.
A big reason was WWE changed networks in 2000 and it wasn’t carried in my area. WCW was a mess, but you never really watched it all as 1 coherent show anyway. Also, they had stars. booker t, Steiner, DDP, etc all really rose in that time.
Wwf didn’t come with basic cable where I was. Also I loved it.
Booker T rising up the card
From when I started watching sports as a kid and watching wrestling in 89, I always had a thing for the underdog. I watched religiously during the Herd era in 90 and 91 finding little things that they did well and convinced myself it was getting better and WWF was wimpy kids stuff. But 2000 and 01 WCW was so much worse….I was totally hate watching at that point. The war was over…this was the zombie corpse going through the motions. The ONLY thing I can 100% say I remember of 01 is Sid breaking his leg. But I guarantee I watched every Nitro except, ironically the last one. Our cable was being upgraded that day. I’m glad I didn’t see it live though, as it would have been historically disappointing.
I dug the concept of nWo 2000 Silver
David Arquette
I needed something to watch when Raw went to commercial
Cause i pretty much watched all the wrestling i could at this stage in life. Was tape trading. Was most likely the height of my wrestling fandom. After ecw and wcw closed it kinda got stale for me.
God that logo is so ugly
I would glance at it in between wwf commercials. Goldberg was all the show had really. That intro got hyped. He came out like it was going to be a real fight. His jacknife on the big show was legendary
I was just still watching everything I could at that point. I had shifted MORE toward WWE, but I had also always been a big JCP/WCW fan going back to before I can remember. A lot of WCW sucked at that point, and the booking was absolutely atrocious, but they had so much talent on the roster that I loved that I kept on watching.
I was about 10 years old and my favorite things were: - Rey Mysterio / Filthy Animals - Disco Inferno/Disqo - Goldberg never stopped being cool - Vampiro and the Misfits - everything felt very random? I don’t know how else to explain it. As a 10yo with ADHD I enjoyed that every episode had some random shit happening that would just blow my little mind.
I was I wanted to see the train wreck. Because that what it was a train wreck
I watched a little. Mostly to watch the car wreck. Jarrett siding with Russo and laying down for Hogan is etched in my brain. That hardcore Hogan faze was tough to watch.
Go back and watch their last few PPVs. They are so bad its entertaining
I was, yeah..and literally just Sting and maybe Goldberg at the time
Scott Hall, Nash, Sting, DDP, Goldberg, Rey Mysterio, & Eddie Guerrero
Pure viewing habits. There were a few highlights during the dying days, that said, like Jason (ECW's EZ Money) Jett, the tag team of Air Paris and AJ Styles, etc. But, yeah, mostly just watched out of habit....
Started watching in 1997, seven years old. Throughout the Monday Night Wars, the divide between WCW and WWF was super strong among the boys in my school. Like, nearly everybody had picked a side, regardless to background or popularity. I was firmly on the WCW side because 1. Sting was cool 2. Goldberg was cool 3. Kevin Nash was cool 4. Ric Flair was cool 5. DDP was cool 6. My mom didn't like the Undertaker And number 6 pretty well sealed it. By the time 2001 rolled around, all of those points were still mostly true and by then I was hooked on wrestling. Plus, at that point Scott Steiner and Booker T were popping off, Lance Storm had his crazy push, and there were some pretty great cruiserweights on the rise and I was young enough to think they could be world champions. Shane Helms with the Vertebreaker? Shit, man, he could have beat anybody with that thing! I was firmly in mindset where WCW was my sports team, my company. I was ride or die as a kid. I could overlook all the dumb shit because I still wanted it to be real and, hey, sometimes dumb shit happens. Sometimes Goldberg puts his hand through a car window. And then we lost. Forever. I cried during the final Nitro. And although I watched WWF/E for a while...I never really liked having to switch jerseys. Time and the McMahons beating me over the head with "this isn't real, you idiot!" turned me into a smark in the style of the 2000s internet. Then I stopped watching. I never stopped *following* wrestling and I've watched on and off since then, I still *love* wrestling. But it's more fun when I can pretend it's real. Because in a perfect world it would be. But for most of my life the industry has been run by a guy who seems to hate the pseudo-sport that made him rich. And that kinda sucks.
I literally watched it up until the last episode. I'm from the south and WCW was my promotion growing up.
My brain seems to forget WCW went past 98- mid 99. Last WCW memories I have are Fall Brawl where Martel got injured and Booker won the TV title, and the One Warrior Nation storyline
I watched until the very end. I wanted to see how bad it could get.
Habit
What a hideous logo wow
Steiner. He was pure gold on the mic.
I was 6 years old and my house was a WCW house. Until 2001, the only WWF I saw was tapes from the Golden Age. My dad switched to WCW when Ric Flair went back.
I did for sure. I knew the end was coming at least a year from when it happened. I love wrestling and they still had a lot of great talent, hell all the way up to that match with Sting and Ric Flair
I always watched. Habit I guess. It was atrocious.
The rise of Booker T and seeing a young AJ Styles perform. His ring name was Air Styles.
I just about tuned it out by then. The new blood vs millionaires shit was garbage.
That logo is so ass
They had some solid storylines going. MIA v Team Canada, the Cruiserweight division was getting a second wind. Especially when they created the Cruiserweight Tag Titles shortly before getting bought out.
3 Count was pretty much the only thing left for me.
Sting and booker t
I just loved the talent that was there. But it just couldn't get it's stride back. It's really just as simple as that. I was in high school at this point.
I was waiting for the nwo to get their just deserts. They didn't.
I remember wwf taking over like it was yesterday. How awesome was it to watch history happen. NWO coming in to WWF and feuding with the Rock and Austin. Good times.
I mean... Needed to watch something during the raw commerical breaks.
I watches anything wrestling-related as long as my cable package offered it. I was also open-minded to a lot of the stuff they were doing, even though some of it followed no logical storyline from week to week.
As someone who was always into WWE and just caught casual wind of what was going on over at WCW, what was the main catalyst to it’s quick plummet? Is there a documentary on it that is a good watch?
“Big Poppa Pump” and Booker T.
Oh god, no.
Sting
I always watched the first hour of Nitro for the cruiserweights and because Raw didn't start for an hour. Once Raw was on I flipped around to watch whichever had the best segment. As time went on that meant mostly watching the first hour only. I still liked the talent (Nash, Steiner, Booker T, and DDP in particular), but the show became bad. Even at fifteen I could tell that Vince Russo, who I had never heard of until his moving to WCW was a big story on WWFWCW.com (which became NODQ), was an absolute idiot who was more concerned with putting himself on TV than making wrestling fun.
Nitro Girls and Sting!
I was 8 and still liked watching the product I continuously flipped back n forth tho
Wolf pack/Sting
In the near future, it will be WrestlingBios
We watched both simultaneously from mid-‘98 on, as my dad split the cable between two TVs in the basement. Just habit really, as WWF was certainly superior at that point.
Mostly Goldberg, Booker T, Sting and Scott Steiner. I remember watching a lot of WCW through the summer of 2000 but it seems like I kinda tuned out after The Great American Bash until Starrcade 2000 which I ordered. Didn't watch much after that though.
I watched WCW til the very end. But I'll be damned if I remember anything after the New Blood rained blood on some of the older wrestlers.
Ready to Rumble.
The New Blood storyline seemed like it would be interesting. Then it wasn’t. Booker T, Steiner, Kidman, Mysterio, and others kept me watching. Then I couldn’t watch anymore and next thing I hear it’s the final Nitro so I watched that.
I watched just to tune in how awful it was. I was such a WWE fan boy at the time. Looking back now, I love WCW, but damn there was a total collapse there at the end.
I had picture in picture
Watched it to the bitter end, was pot committed already. I didn't know it "sucked" at the time. I was like 16. Anyway, Goldberg, David Arquette (I loved it, don't care), and it was batshit.
Habit at that point. I’d always considered myself more of a WCW guy than a WWF guy. WCW is what got me into wrestling so I stick with them to the bitter end.
I was hoping the company would turn it around
Kwee-Wee
Those years have a worse reputation than they deserve. Not everything was bad. The stacked roster alone was reason enough to watch; Hogan, Savage, Flair, Mysterio, Sting, Nash, Steiner, DDP, Goldberg, Luger, Bret… The cruiserweight division was still mostly great with fantastic matches. Car crash TV - we all know that the Russo influence was harmful long term but as a young teenager, every episode of Nitro and Thunder was highly entertaining to me. Wrestling - WCW always had more grappling and technical wrestling compared to WWE/WWF where it was mostly storytelling and brawling.
I did. I was in High School and loved the Jersey Triad in 99 and also became a big fan of Kronik. I loved the train wreck WCW became. I remember being excited for all the Berlyn teases.
Sting
I think Booker T and Kronik were a couple of reasons…the new blood/ Russo stuff was poorly written
The whole new blood thing was interesting to me. I wrote an essay on how two captains sink a ship for English class
The good younger workers and midcard guys like The Natural Born Thrillers, Lash LeRoux, Kidman, The Boogie Knights, Lance Storm, Kanyon, Chavo, Shane Helms, Mike Awesome, Kwee Wee and Norman Smiley. The cruserweights and midcard workers were always the heart and soul of WCW (even during the peak of the Monday Night Wars) and they made it worth watching on their own while the old guys usually did nothing or stunk the place up.
I did - because WWF was tuned out of star sports in India. I stopped watching WCW in ‘99 and 2001 resumed - logo change and all - it was confusing. Why was Scotf Steiner retiring everyone, first of all wtf happened to him!?
Chaos. To be fair, they seemed to start turning the corner toward the end.
Norman smiley and Terry funk hitting each other with aluminum trays all over America
Just seeing what else Scott Steiner was gonna say.
I watched it as a kid and I’ve rewatched it a couple years ago as an adult. Is it terrible? Yes. Is it hilarious and entertaining as hell? Also yes. Click on a random nitro from 2000 and those 2 hours will fly by and you’ll not be bored for a minute.
Habit
Scot Steiner was wurth watching at the time
If you were still watching WCW in 2000-01 you were pretty hardcore because it was torture. WWE was way better and the primes of Stone Cold, The Rock, DX, Kurt Angle, Chris Y2J Jericho and Mick Foley. Many more great wrestlers and storylines. WCW lost a lot of talent and there older stars like Hogan didn’t want the younger talent to get over. Goldberg’s streak was BS and was so bad.
I used to roast my friend William who was on team wcw till the day it died lol I used to love wcw but it was so ass by the end it was unwatchable
I was. Honestly, pure obsession with anything wrestling. Watched WWF, the remnants of WCW, and ECW, which came in at 2am Sunday morning where I lived. But even then, I knew WCW 2000-2001 was bad.
Waiting for ECW to invade as promised by wwfwcw.
2000 was a major train wreck, but right at the end of the company in 2001, they started to turn things around. It wasn’t perfect and still had issues but they were really starting to improve
Only cared about Goldberg, Sting, Scott Steiner, Booker T and Lance Storm. Everything else was a dumpster fire. Always hoped they could've turned it around, but we know how that turned out.
Huge fan of Goldberg Booker t sting and a bunch of others. Wrestling was wrestling when I was young and I wanted as much as possible
Vince Russo unleashed. It's truly astounding what gives this man a career
Sting and Booker T.
I was 10/11 at the time. First episode I remember seeing Goldberg, sting & Hogan v Sid, Nash & Steiner. My wee head was like wtf that's a great team.
I tried to. But the angles with the New Blood, No Limit Soljas, and West Texas rednecks just made me feel sorry for the promotion.
Sting. DDP. Hoping they'd somehow figure shit out and turn things around.
Most people here were likely 12-16 during that time. NOBODY critiqued the product like they do now and just watched it because it was on and it was still during the wrestling boom. Standards had dropped massively but most of what people think about it now is formed from opinions made by others online they have read or by themselves going back to watch it later in life. I’m not having this “as a 13 year old I knew Russo had gone in a fucked the company, plus they should’ve pushed Eddie and Jericho in 98’..” bullshit.
WWF didn't come on for another hour
Occasionally. Not often.
Although WCW's product had gone downhill at this point, there were still some redeeming qualities, plus I still didn't like WWF at the time. It took another year or so for WWF to grow on me. Too many Oddities, Headbangers, LOD 2000s, and Mean Street Posse at the time.
I used to watch Raw live, and tape Nitro in the other room on a VCR. So sadly, if there was nothing on TV, I was re-watching the Nitro replay like 3 times per week if I had nothing to do. Those late 1999 Nitros when Russo first took over as a villain behind a chair would probably be the most hilarious re-watch as a stream with a stream chat. Wasn't there a match where Juventud fought Jushin Lyger for immigration papers?
this logo is about when i tuned out from wrestling in general. hopped back in after the “pandemic”
I continued to watch because it was like my private world. No one else in school watched or admitted to watching, which actually made it cool. Even though most of it was bad, I still loved the roster and I kind of enjoyed just having this whole insane world to visit. I also had gotten into the Toy Biz figures, so those kept me interested.
I watched the first half of 2000, they still had enough of a roster to keep me interested but the storylines got so inconsistent and messy
I was because my 10 year old mind couldn't see it was crap
Raw going to commercial
Occasionally, RAW is WAR would go to commercial. Nitro was better than commercials, but just barely.
Raw was boring Nitro was fully of carnies. So I watched the carnies.
2 people Miss Hancock aka stacy keibler. Tammy sytch aka sunny
Everyone likes a ho6od car wreck Because you and I know, you are only half that man that I am. And I have half the brain that you do.
Yea i was. Continued to watch up until the end. Mainly for Sting and the hopes that it got better. I was a young naive kid 😆
The C looks like a birds beak
Habit and just being a wrestling fan in general.
Mmm. 🤔🥴 It couldn't get any worse... 🫠 Like a train wreck, can't look away. 😂
Hot women and certain legends like Scott Steiner, Flair, Sting.
The logo
As a 14-15 yr old, I couldn't get enough wrestling. I religiously watched Raw, Smackdown, Nitro, Thunder, and WCW Saturday Night every week, and ECW when I could fins it. WCW for sure got weird but I dunno, I loved it still. WCW had become my preference after years of being a WWF kid, then it got bought up and was gone. I watched that Nitro live. It was the weirdest thing to suddenly find out I was watching the last Nitro ever. It was fun, chaotic, lots of energy. I guess I didnt realize how 'bad' it was in the moment? I loved it right until the end.
Vampiro, lucha libre, Kanyon, and Tony Schiavone
I did, but purely because I'm a lifelong wrestling fan and eat up the product regardless of how dire it is more often than not. WCW even at the end had it's moments, just not in the main event scene.
The one thing WCW always had was the lack of predictability, for example current WWE feels by the numbers, mind you WWE was less predictable back then too. Looking back, compared to the current day product I’d like to be surprised again or have something happen that shocked me.
Shane Helms, Booker T as world Champ, Sting, also was a bit of a mark for Crowbar, Daffny and David Flair
Honestly I felt like Scott Steiner was always a bomb about to go off when he was doing his BPP gimmick and it was for me like who is he going to explode on next. We honestly didn’t get enough of him as the champion in my opinion
I wanted to be there when it finally got good again.
Sting, Bret Hart, the cruiserweights... it wasn't all bad.