History Wrestling / WCW

In the promotion's early years as WCW, it was horribly mismanaged and badly written by people who had no idea what wrestling fans wanted to see, and devised stunts and gimmicks intending, but failing, to capture the glamor and flash of the WWF - like a live appearance by RoboCop at a pay-per-view event, or the infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Scorpion_(professional_wrestling) Black Scorpion]] storyline. Jim Herd (a former TV station manager and Pizza Hut executive with no experience in the wrestling industry) ended up making the biggest mistake in the company's early years when he asked RicFlair to drop the "Nature Boy" persona, shave his head, and take up a gladiator gimmick. On top of that, he wanted to move Flair, the company's biggest draw, away from the main event, and he wanted Flair to drop the WCW World Title to Lex Luger (Flair refused, because he wanted to drop the belt to Wrestling/{{Sting}}). This led to WCW officially firing Flair prior to the Great American Bash in summer 1991. Flair jumped to the WWF, taking the Big Gold Belt with him (since WCW didn't return the deposit he'd paid on it, he felt he didn't have to return it). Herd was fired not too long after this. Unfortunately, he was replaced by "Cowboy" Bill Watts, who - among other poor decisions - made top-rope moves illegal, severely restricting some wrestlers' movesets.

In the promotion's early years as WCW, it was horribly mismanaged and badly written by people who had no idea what wrestling fans wanted to see, and devised stunts and gimmicks intending, but failing, to capture the glamor and flash of the WWF - like a live appearance by RoboCop at a pay-per-view event, or the infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Scorpion_(professional_wrestling) Black Scorpion]] storyline. Jim Herd (a former TV station manager and Pizza Hut executive with no experience in the wrestling industry) ended up making the biggest mistake in the company's early years when he asked RicFlair to drop the "Nature Boy" persona, shave his head, and take up a gladiator gimmick. On top of that, he wanted to move Flair, the company's biggest draw, away from the main event, and he wanted Flair to drop the WCW World Title to Lex Luger (Flair refused, because he wanted to drop the belt to Wrestler/{{Sting}}). This led to WCW officially firing Flair prior to the Great American Bash in summer 1991. Flair jumped to the WWF, taking the Big Gold Belt with him (since WCW didn't return the deposit he'd paid on it, he felt he didn't have to return it). Herd was fired not too long after this. Unfortunately, he was replaced by "Cowboy" Bill Watts, who - among other poor decisions - made top-rope moves illegal, severely restricting some wrestlers' movesets.

At ''Starrcade 1998'', Kevin Nash defeated Goldberg for the the World Title, which also ended Goldberg's undefeated streak; two weeks later on ''Monday Nitro'', Nash and Hogan were scheduled to have a match for the World Title, but instead, Nash [[FingerpokeOfDoom took a poke to the chest from Hogan and sold it like he'd been shot with a cannon]], laying down for Hogan. After the pinfall, the two [=nWo=] factions reformed and ended up beating down an enraged Goldberg, who had been kept out of the arena for most of the show by nWo trickery. This incident came to be known as the Fingerpoke of Doom; in addition to the main event swerve, announcer Tony Schiavone (per Bischoff's orders) revealed prior to ''Nitro's'' main event that [[MickFoley Mick "Mankind" Foley]] would be winning the WWF Championship on a pre-taped edition of ''Raw'' [[InsultBackfire ("That'll put a lot of butts in the seats!")]], which led to '''half a million viewers changing the channel''', because fans wanted to see the well-liked Foley win the championship. The incident ended up turning many fans away from WCW and towards the WWF. (You can read all about the incident, and its impact on both WCW and the WWF, on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fingerpoke_of_Doom That Other Wiki]].)

* HilariousInHindsight: For a period in late '96, Ultimo Dragon defended the J-Crown, a collection of cruiserweight/light heavyweight championships from various promotions unified into one collective (and [[TooManyBelts cumbersome]]) title. At Starrcade '96, he defeated DeanMalenko and added the [=WCW=] Cruiserweight championship to the J-Crown in the only time the J-Crown collection was seen on American television. What makes this so hilarious? One of the titles that made up the J-Crown was the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF Light Heavyweight championship]] [[note]]When first created, the Light Heavyweight title was defended almost exclusively in Mexico, making it a [=WWF=] title pretty much InNameOnly. Over time, it made its way to Japan, where it eventually became part of the J-Crown. When the WWF got it in its head to start a dedicated cruiserweight division in late '97, they went through the books and found out they already had a perfectly good Light Heavyweight title belt they'd given out on loan for over a decade ''and had no idea where it was!'' After some searching, they tracked it to NewJapanProWrestling and finally got it back for their inaugural tournament.[[/note]], meaning that Ultimo Dragon was a legitimate [=WWF=] championship titleholder and was legitimately defending that title on a [=WCW=] pay-per-view, ''and neither organization realized it'' until months later.

Following the Fingerpoke of Doom, WCW tried desperately to reinvent itself. After several botched attempts to cross-promote musicians such as {{KISS}} and rap group No Limit Soldiers in 1999, Time Warner took control of the company away from Bischoff and brought in former WWF writers VinceRusso and Ed Ferrara (who had built themselves up as the "brains" behind the Attitude Era). Russo and Ferrara tried to turn the image of the company around, but they were met with several setbacks, including BretHart suffering a career-ending injury at the hands (or, more accurately, foot) of Goldberg - who accidentally injured himself during a backstage segment on ''Nitro'' two weeks later. Less than three months after they'd come into the promotion, Russo and Ferrara were suspended, and Kevin Sullivan was placed in charge of the promotion's booking. This change led to several wrestlers wishing to leave the company. In an attempt to appease these wrestlers, ChrisBenoit was booked to win the World Heavyweight Championship at ''Souled Out 2000''. However, this didn't do enough to appease them, and Benoit gave the belt back, leaving WCW and signing with the WWF the very next day; Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and EddieGuerrero followed Benoit, and all four debuted on ''Raw'' two weeks later as "The Radicalz".

Following the company's sale, the WWF made tentative plans to revive it as a wholly separate "promotion" that was still covered by the WWF umbrella. Unfortunately, following the appearances of WCW midcarders on WWF programming, these plans were scrapped, and the "[=InVasion=]" angle was born. After the angle ended (you can read about the whole thing elsewhere), WCW stuck around in name only as the company's titles were all eventually unified with their WWF counterparts, ending with the unification of the WCW and WWF Championships at ''Vengeance 2001'' into the WWF Undisputed Championship. Ironically, the man who unified the titles was the first major WCW-to-WWF defection during the Monday Night Wars: ChrisJericho (who defeated both [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] and SteveAustin in the same night - in back-to-back matches, no less! - to unify the two titles).

** The entire Cruiserweight division which included both styles above but also guys like ChrisJericho, ChrisBenoit, Dean Malenko, and Billy Kidman were the wrestlers who opened up the night to pump up the crowd and were usually the best match of the night. Despite this, crusierweights were often disregarded in terms of getting a push. In fact, many mentioned that they would get ''punished'' for getting over.

* SureLetsGoWithThat: Bischoff was put on the spot when asked what WCW needed to turn the tide by Ted Turner. After some nervous stammering, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: [[MondayNightWars a Monday night time slot to compete head-to-head with RAW]].
* TakeThat: Especially during the Monday Night Wars. Notably, revealing who would win the WWF matches and then tearing strips over their wrestlers, which in MickFoley's case led to the InsultBackfire to end all insult backfires.

* VinceRusso

* Ensemble Darkhorse[=/=]JustHereForGodzilla: The Puroresu and Luchadore stars who put on phenomenal matches every night, even to the very end, well, until they all realized they'd never get pushes and started leaving in droves.

* EnsembleDarkHorse[=/=]JustHereForGodzilla: The Puroresu and Luchadore stars who put on phenomenal matches every night, even to the very end, well, until they all realized they'd never get pushes and started leaving in droves.

* The WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship. After WWE's purchase of WCW, this was the only title to be abandon and never be defended on WWE programming.

* HilariousInHindsight: For a period in late '96, Ultimo Dragon defended the J-Crown, a collection of cruiserweight/light heavyweight championships from various promotions unified into one collective (and [[TooManyBelts cumbersome]]) title. At Starrcade '96, he defeated DeanMalenko and added the [=WCW=] Cruiserweight championship to the J-Crown in the only time the J-Crown collection was seen on American television. What makes this so hilarious? One of the titles that made up the J-Crown was the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF Light Heavyweight championship]] [[hottip:*:When first created, the Light Heavyweight title was defended almost exclusively in Mexico, making it a [=WWF=] title pretty much InNameOnly. Over time, it made its way to Japan, where it eventually became part of the J-Crown. When the WWF got it in its head to start a dedicated cruiserweight division in late '97, they went through the books and found out they already had a perfectly good Light Heavyweight title belt they'd given out on loan for over a decade ''and had no idea where it was!'' After some searching, they tracked it to NewJapanProWrestling and finally got it back for their inaugural tournament.]], meaning that Ultimo Dragon was a legitimate [=WWF=] championship titleholder and was legitimately defending that title on a [=WCW=] pay-per-view, ''and neither organization realized it'' until months later.

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) is a now-defunct [[ProfessionalWrestling professional wrestling]] promotion that operated under the corporate umbrella of Turner Broadcasting (a Time Warner company after 1996) from 1988 until 2001. They're most notable for doing something that nobody else in the business had done before, or has since: namely, they beat the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] at their own game for (as former WCW president EricBischoff famously put it) 84 weeks in a row. Naturally, this success didn't come right away.

* EarWorm: "Rap is Crap"
* EnforcedMethodActing: Starting in the late 90s, WCW management decided to not allow the commentators to see the pre-taped segments, thinking that this would make their commentary "more spontaneous". What it ended up doing was making sure the commentators had no idea how to sell the angles that were taking place. One of the more notorious examples of this was when WCW shot an expensive to film segment (there was a camera in a helicopter) where the [=nWo=] beat up Flair in a field, and Flair hitchhiked to the arena in a turnip truck. So when he got back to the arena, dirty and clutching an axe handle, having seen none of this, the commentators speculated if Flair might be drunk.

WCW, or World Championship Wrestling, is a now-defunct ProfessionalWrestling promotion that operated under the corporate umbrella of Turner Broadcasting (a Time Warner company after 1996) from 1988 until 2001. They're most notable for doing something that nobody else in the business had done before, or has since: namely, they beat the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] at their own game for (as former WCW president Eric Bischoff famously put it) 84 weeks in a row. Naturally, this success didn't come right away.

WCW's fortunes didn't really pick up, however, until they came up with an idea that was as simple as it was brilliant. When ScottHall and KevinNash (Razor Ramon and Diesel in the WWF) defected to WCW, people wondered if they were actually under contract to WCW or if they'd been sent by the WWF to "invade" the promotion. Bischoff ran with this and labeled Hall and Nash "The Outsiders", booking it as though they were looking to destroy WCW from the inside out. But they weren't alone: leading up to the 1996 ''Bash At The Beach'' pay-per-view, Hall and Nash teased a "third member" of their group and threatened to bring a "NewWorldOrder" to the WCW. At the event, The Outsiders (and their "third man") were booked to face Lex Luger, RandySavage, and Sting, but the Outsiders chose not to reveal their third man just yet, leaving them in a 2-on-3 situation. During the match, Luger was incapacitated, leaving it as a 2-on-2 match; eventually, HulkHogan came out to the ring, looking as if he was going to aid Sting and Savage - [[FaceHeelTurn and then he turned on them]], helping the Outsiders beat down both men and revealing himself as the third member of the group. From this moment - and Hogan's now-famous post-match promo - was born the [=nWo=].

Naturally, fans were shocked. HulkHogan (now calling himself "Hollywood" Hogan) had been the {{Superman}} of pro wrestling for over a decade - he was the colorful, muscle-bound superhero who told kids they could do anything as long as they trained, said their prayers, took their vitamins, and believed in themselves. How on Earth could they play him as a villain? More and more fans tuned in to watch as the entire promotion went to war, the Soap Opera Wheel being abandoned as WCW's entire roster all found themselves in the sights of the ever-growing nWo. The fans must have liked what they saw, since the WWF began hemorrhaging viewers while WCW swept them up. WCW even temporarily displaced the WWF as the biggest wrestling promotion in the world (as partially stated above, ''Nitro'' defeated ''Raw'' in the ratings for 84 straight weeks, thanks mainly to the strength of the [=nWo=] angle). There was even a point where the WWF was seriously looking at bankruptcy. This period, known as the MondayNightWars, resulted in the biggest success for the professional wrestling industry in years, as the nWo angle for WCW - and the WWF's answer in the AttitudeEra - led to a huge surge in popularity (and financial success) for both promotions in the late 1990s.

At ''Starrcade 1998'', KevinNash defeated Goldberg for the the World Title, which also ended Goldberg's undefeated streak; two weeks later on ''Monday Nitro'', Nash and Hogan were scheduled to have a match for the World Title, but instead, Nash [[FingerpokeOfDoom took a poke to the chest from Hogan and sold it like he'd been shot with a cannon]], laying down for Hogan. After the pinfall, the two [=nWo=] factions reformed and ended up beating down an enraged Goldberg, who had been kept out of the arena for most of the show by nWo trickery. This incident came to be known as the Fingerpoke of Doom; in addition to the main event swerve, announcer Tony Schiavone (per Bischoff's orders) revealed prior to ''Nitro's'' main event that [[MickFoley Mick "Mankind" Foley]] would be winning the WWF Championship on a pre-taped edition of ''Raw'' [[InsultBackfire ("That'll put a lot of butts in the seats!")]], which led to '''half a million viewers changing the channel''', because fans wanted to see the well-liked Foley win the championship. The incident ended up turning many fans away from WCW and towards the WWF. (You can read all about the incident, and its impact on both WCW and the WWF, on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fingerpoke_of_Doom That Other Wiki]].)

Unfortunately for WCW, their success didn't last. As the WWF reinvented itself with a new DarkerAndEdgier image lifted in part from ECW, WCW kept beating the nWo horse for all it was worth. The group was originally planned to dissolve after ''Starrcade 1997'', where WCW mainstay Sting defeated Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Instead, the group split into two factions (the "original" nWo, led by Hogan, and the nWo Wolfpac, led by KevinNash), which feuded with each other throughout 1998. Things were looking up, though - WCW not only managed to secure a second major show in ''Thunder'', but it was building up a new megastar in Bill {{Goldberg}}. Booked as a near-invincible human wrecking machine, Goldberg's undefeated streak became legendary. His biggest victory was during the ''Nitro'' on July 6, 1998, where he defeated "Hollywood" Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship; while the match helped give WCW its last major ratings victory against the WWF, it cost them potentially millions in pay-per-view revenue. 1998 also saw several other bad moves by the company that led into its decline, such as several pay-per-view matches with non-wrestlers (including Jay Leno and Karl Malone) and UltimateWarrior's short WCW tenure (which culminated in one of the worst matches ever as he faced "Hollywood" Hogan at ''Halloween Havoc 1998''). Their biggest mistake, however, was yet to come.

* {{Expy}}: Glacier for [[MortalKombat Sub-Zero]].

** Arachniman was such a blatant SpiderMan ripoff that {{Marvel}} threatened legal action, and the character was quickly abandoned.

* FakeBand: The West Texas Rednecks (which included Minnesota native, CurtHennig). Despite being pushed as {{Heel}}s against Master P's No Limit Soldiers, they were cheered anyways and actually received airtime on Southern radio stations.

* FingerpokeOfDoom: TropeNamer. Kevin Nash laid down for Hulk Hogan to pin him after receiving a gentle poke in the chest, effectively making Hogan World Heavyweight Champion again, as well as mocking the audience.

** Various members of the Dungeon of Doom including "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan, from "The Iron Gates of Fate" and The Zodiac (Brutus Beefcake), from "The Land of Yin and Yang"

* ShockingSwerve: Arguably the TropeNamer, ''in''arguably one of the reasons WCW went out of business.
* SpiritualSuccessor: {{TNA}}, both in some good ways, like the early focus on the X-Division / cruiserweights, and bad, like the heavy emphasis on kayfabe-breaking storylines and constant turns. It was also founded to replace WCW in the first place.

By the time WCW closed down, they had the following Championships; WCW World Heavyweight Championship[[note]]Was defended on WWE programming. It was later merged with the WWE Championship and abandoned[[/note]], WCW Cruiserweight Championsip[[note]]Was defended in WWE before it was retired in 2008[[/note]], WCW United States Championship[[note]]Is currently being used in WWE[[/note]], the WCW World Tag Team Championship[[note]]Were defended on WWE programming, and later retired when merged with the WWE (World) Tag Team Titles[[/note]] and WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship[[note]]Title was abandoned after WWE's purchase of WCW and was never defended on WWE programming[[/note]]

** Arachniman was such a blantant SpiderMan ripoff that {{Marvel}} threatened legal action, and the character was quickly abandoned.

!!'''Tropes associated with WCW:'''

** Starrcade 1997. Start there.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Used to explain Sting's FaceHeelTurn in a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnHa4xw4ewcWCW truly amazing hype video.]]

WCW, or World Championship Wrestling, is a now-defunct ProfessionalWrestling promotion that operated under the corporate umbrella of Time Warner from 1988 until 2001. They're most notable for doing something that nobody else in the business had done before, or has since: namely, they beat the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] at their own game for (as former WCW president Eric Bischoff famously put it) 84 weeks in a row. Naturally, this success didn't come right away.

* TakeThat: Especially during the Monday Night Wars.

While WCW is often talked about in a joking manner by marks and smart marks alike, many choose to remember the memorable moments and genuine superstars that the company produced right alongside the company's low points. In 2004, a book titled ''TheDeathOfWCW'', highlighted the failure of the company in its last years.

** Previously, Ted Turner had been able to tell anyone who suggested closing or selling WCW to stuff it, but after the AOL Time Warner merger, he was put in a figurehead position where he had no real power, which lead to an exec who'd never been part of the wrestling business named Jamie Kellner cancelling all WCW related programming and Turner being unable to do anything about it. Kellner himself was a great example of incompetence, and was forced out of his AOL Time Warner job in 2003. For that matter, AOL Time Warner wasn't exactly not incompetent. As ''TheDeathOfWCW'' phrased it, "Sure, WCW may have lost $62million in one year, but did they ever lose ''$54 billion'' in ''one quarter''?

* CardboardBoxes: There were always plenty of them backstage for someone to be knocked into. And Clangy Poles, which served no other purpose than to be knocked down and make noise. (At least the boxes could be {{Justified}} as emptied of equipment used during the show.)