History Wrestling / WCW

* ArcFatigue: The [=nWo=] concept lasted at least a full year longer that it should have. By the time it was "Black & White" versus "nWo Wolfpac", it was already getting tired. The group ended up being revamped ''twice'' more before WCW's ultimate demise.

* EarWorm: "Rap Is Crap."

* 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 entire Cruiserweight division which included both styles above but also guys like Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, 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.

** Arachniman was such a blatant Franchise/{{Spider-Man}} ripoff that Creator/MarvelComics threatened legal action, and the character was quickly abandoned.

* 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 Dean Malenko 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 Championship 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 Championship 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 New Japan Pro Wrestling 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.

* ProtectionFromEditors: When Hogan signed with WCW in 1994, he was given creative control over his matches.

* ShockingSwerve: Arguably the trope namer. ''Inarguably'', it is one of the reasons why WCW went out of business.

* ExecutiveMeddling: David Arquette fought the idea of his being WCW Champion as viciously as he could, believing that [[PromotedFanboy (as a wrestling fan himself)]] fans would hate a non-wrestler becoming champion. He was right. He then donated the money he made for the angle to the families of deceased wrestlers Brian Pillman and Wrestling/OwenHart and to Darren Drozdov, a wrestler rendered quadriplegic in an in-ring accident, ensuring he was the only person involved in the angle to walk out with a good reputation.

Naturally, fans were shocked. Hulk Hogan (now calling himself "Hollywood" Hogan) had been the Franchise/{{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 Wrestling/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 Wrestling/AttitudeEra, led to a huge surge in popularity (and financial success) for both promotions in the late 1990s.

* 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 Dean Malenko 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 New Japan Pro Wrestling 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.

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 Franchise/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 Wrestling/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.

* 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|Trope}} as emptied of equipment used during the show).

* IncompetenceInc: This has always been present to some degree. But WCW from mid-1999 until the bitter end took this trope into new heights. For the year of 2000, WCW managed to lose ''$80 million''. This is what lead to WCW getting sold to main rival the WWF for about $3 million.

WCW started as a regional promotion, Jim Crockett Promotions (which was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance, NWA). The "World Championship Wrestling" name was used in various forms by various promotions affiliated with the NWA. When Ted Turner purchased JCP, the company began using the WCW name full-time. Turner was bought out by Time Warner in 1996; WCW's association with the NWA was dissolved in 1991 (and fully ended in 1993), which resulted in the NWA's World Heavyweight Championship becoming a WCW belt, as WCW owned it (the "Big Gold Belt", as it came to be known; it is now known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship).

Watts was replaced by Eric Bischoff in 1993 (whose promotion from ''announcer'' to ''Executive Vice President'' of the company led announcer Wrestling/JimRoss to leave WCW and join the WWF, a decision that very few would question these days). Bischoff eagerly set about trying to build the promotion into a juggernaut, and he did so by poaching away the WWF's biggest names with lucrative contracts (all backed by the money of Turner Broadcasting) and pairing them with both old WCW/NWA mainstays and the hottest young talent that they could lure away from a fledgling upstart promotion by the name of [[Wrestling/{{ECW}} Extreme Championship Wrestling]]. He also started populating the roster with international wrestlers through working arrangements with Mexico's AAA promotion and New Japan Pro Wrestling (mainly high-flying "cruiserweights" like Wrestling/UltimoDragon, Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr, and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero). Bischoff took the fight right to the WWF's front doorstep, asking Turner (who owned WCW as well as the TBS and TNT networks, which aired WCW programming) to give them a timeslot right alongside the WWF's ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Monday Night Raw]]''. Turner relented, and WCW debuted ''[[Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro Monday Nitro]]'' in 1995; Bischoff decided to take advantage of the timeslot by airing the show live every week and, in several instances, giving away the results of WWF shows which were often taped weeks in advance.

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 Wrestling/ScottHall and Wrestling/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 "Wrestling/NewWorldOrder" to the WCW. At the event, the Outsiders (and their "third man") were booked to face Lex Luger, Wrestling/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, Wrestling/HulkHogan came out to the ring, looking as if he was going to aid Sting and Savage. [[FaceHeelTurn Instead, 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, the [=nWo=] was born.

Naturally, fans were shocked. Hulk Hogan (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 Wrestling/AttitudeEra, led to a huge surge in popularity (and financial success) for both promotions in the late 1990s.

* EarWorm: "Rap is Crap."

** Triple H too. He debuted in WCW in 1994 as a generic blonde heel jobber named Terra Ryzin, then got repackaged as a snobby [[ForeignWrestlingHeel foreign wrestling heel]] named Jean-Paul Levesque in a tag team with Lord Steven Regal. In January 1995, he jumped ship to the WWF after being turned down for a singles push and the rest as they say is history.
** Inverted with Bret Hart: He ''had'' caught on in the WWF, but WCW didn't have a clue what to do with him. Hart was even warned about this by [=Vince McMahon=] after giving his notice and Bret realized almost immediately after he debuted that he was right.

** Inverted with Bret Hart: He ''had'' caught on in the WWF, but WCW didn't have a clue what to do with him. Hart was even warned about this by Vince McMahon after giving his notice and it turned out he was right.

** Inverted with Bret Hart: He ''had'' caught on in the WWF, but WCW didn't have a clue what to do with him.

** Hell, they screwed up with the guy who would become ''[[Wrestling/TheUndertaker The Undertaker]]''. Uhm... how the hell do you do that? He was practically the image of everything people wanted in wrestling at the time.

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) is a 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 done since: namely, they beat the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] at their own game for (as former WCW president Wrestling/EricBischoff famously put it) 84 weeks in a row. Naturally, this success didn't come right away.

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) is a 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 done since: namely, they beat the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] at their own game for (as former WCW president Wrestling/EricBischoff famously put it) 84 weeks in a row. Naturally, this success didn't come right away.

Watts was replaced by Wrestling/EricBischoff in 1993 (whose promotion from ''announcer'' to ''Executive Vice President'' of the company led announcer Wrestling/JimRoss to leave WCW and join the WWF, a decision that very few would question these days). Bischoff eagerly set about trying to build the promotion into a juggernaut, and he did so by poaching away the WWF's biggest names with lucrative contracts (all backed by the money of Turner Broadcasting) and pairing them with both old WCW/NWA mainstays and the hottest young talent that they could lure away from a fledgling upstart promotion by the name of [[Wrestling/{{ECW}} Extreme Championship Wrestling]]. He also started populating the roster with international wrestlers through working arrangements with Mexico's AAA promotion and New Japan Pro Wrestling (mainly high-flying "cruiserweights" like Wrestling/UltimoDragon, Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr, and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero). Bischoff took the fight right to the WWF's front doorstep, asking Turner (who owned WCW as well as the TBS and TNT networks, which aired WCW programming) to give them a timeslot right alongside the WWF's ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Monday Night Raw]]''. Turner relented, and WCW debuted ''[[Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro Monday Nitro]]'' in 1995; Bischoff decided to take advantage of the timeslot by airing the show live every week and, in several instances, giving away the results of WWF shows which were often taped weeks in advance.

* FingerpokeOfDoom: The {{trope namer|s}}. Kevin Nash laid down for Hulk Hogan after receiving a gentle poke in the chest, effectively making Hogan the World Heavyweight Champion again, as well as mocking the audience.

** 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 ''Literature/TheDeathOfWCW'' phrased it, "Sure, WCW may have lost $62 million in one year, but did they ever lose ''$54 billion'' in ''one quarter''?

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) is a 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 Wrestling/EricBischoff famously put it) 84 weeks in a row. Naturally, this success didn't come right away.

WCW started as a regional promotion, Jim Crockett Promotions (which was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance, NWA). The "World Championship Wrestling" name was used in various forms by various promotions affiliated with the NWA. When Ted Turner purchased JCP, the company began using the WCW name full-time. Turner was bought out by Time Warner in 1996; WCW's association with the NWA was dissolved in 1991 (and fully ended in 1993), which resulted in the NWA's World Heavyweight Championship becoming a WCW belt, as WCW owned it (the "Big Gold Belt", as it came to be known - now WWE's World Heavyweight belt).

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 Franchise/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 Wrestling/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.

Watts was replaced by Eric Bischoff in 1993 (whose promotion from ''announcer'' to ''Executive Vice President'' of the company led announcer Wrestling/JimRoss to leave WCW and join the WWF, a decision that very few would question these days). Bischoff eagerly set about trying to build the promotion into a juggernaut, and he did so by poaching away the WWF's biggest names with lucrative contracts (all backed by the money of Turner Broadcasting) and pairing them with both old WCW/NWA mainstays and the hottest young talent that they could lure away from a fledgling upstart promotion by the name of [[Wrestling/{{ECW}} Extreme Championship Wrestling]]. He also started populating the roster with international wrestlers through working arrangements with Mexico's AAA promotion and New Japan Pro Wrestling (mainly high-flying "cruiserweights" like Wrestling/UltimoDragon, Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr, and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero). Bischoff took the fight right to the WWF's front doorstep, asking Ted Turner (who owned WCW as well as the TBS and TNT networks, which aired WCW programming) to give them a timeslot right alongside the WWF's ''Monday Night Raw''. Turner relented, and WCW debuted ''Monday Nitro'' in 1995; Bischoff decided to take advantage of the timeslot by airing the show live every week and - in several instances - giving away the results of WWF shows which were often taped weeks in advance.

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 Wrestling/ScottHall and Wrestling/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 "Wrestling/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, Wrestling/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. Hulk Hogan (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.

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 Kevin Nash), 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 Wrestling/{{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.

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 [[Wrestling/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]].)

Following the Fingerpoke of Doom, WCW tried desperately to reinvent itself. After several botched attempts to cross-promote musicians such as Music/{{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 Wrestling/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 Wrestling/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 Wrestling/KevinSullivan 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, Wrestling/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; Wrestling/PerrySaturn, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Eddie Guerrero followed Benoit, and all four debuted on ''Raw'' two weeks later as "The Radicalz".

WCW eventually reinstated both Russo and Bischoff, and the duo [[ContinuityReboot "reset" the company]] in April 2000, splitting the company into two factions: the "New Blood" (younger, newer stars) and the "Millionaires' Club" (older stars such as Nash and Hogan). Unfortunately, this was perceived as a rehash of the [=nWo=] vs. WCW feud, and many fans never got it. Unorthodox, illogical, and just plain stupid angles continued as WCW degenerated into So Bad It's Horrible territory, with the final straw for many fans being the crowning of actor David Arquette as the company's world champion. After Time Warner merged with AOL and discovered that WCW had become little more than a colossal money pit (and Ted Turner was no longer in a position to protect the promotion), they started immediately cutting budgets. Eventually, WCW found itself on the chopping block, and it was ultimately sold to the WWF in early 2001 (weeks before ''WrestleMania X-Seven'') at what amounted to fire-sale prices just days before the final ''Monday Nitro''. With both WCW and ECW (which had gone out of business just a couple of months prior) in their back pockets, the WWF was left as the lone major professional wrestling promotion in the United States.

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: Wrestling/ChrisJericho (who defeated both [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] and Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin in the same night - in back-to-back matches, no less! - to unify the two titles).

* 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|Trope}} as emptied of equipment used during the show.)

* 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 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. When he got back to the arena, dirty and clutching an axe handle, the commentators, having seen none of this, speculated that Flair might have been drunk.

** Arachniman was such a blatant Franchise/{{Spider Man}} ripoff that Creator/MarvelComics threatened legal action, and the character was quickly abandoned.
* FaceHeelTurn: When Hulk Hogan joined the nWo - one of the most memorable and well done turns in wrestling.
* FakeBand: The West Texas Rednecks (which included Minnesota native, Wrestling/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.
** 3 Count, a parody of the BoyBand phenomenon.
* FingerpokeOfDoom: The {{trope namer|s}}. 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.

* 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 Dean Malenko 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.

* IncompetenceInc: This trope has always been present to some degree. But WCW from mid-1999 until the bitter end took this trope into new heights. For the year of 2000, WCW managed to lose ''$80 million''. This is what lead to WCW getting sold to main rival the WWF for about $3 million.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Used to explain Sting's FaceHeelTurn in a [[http://youtu.be/Vwifa3PVPIM truly amazing hype video.]]

* InsistentTerminology: Eric Bischoff insisted on the term "Cruiserweight" instead of "Light Heavyweight" because he felt the latter made the smaller wrestlers seem less important.
** There was also a period of time which Ted Turner handed down a mandate that [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad banned the word "foreign" from being used on his network in favor of the word "international."]] As such, [[ScunthorpeProblem foreign objects became "international objects" on WCW television]].
* InsultBackfire: How many times has this actually killed a business? WCW might well be the first when they revealed Mick Foley would win the WWF championship, then offended the half a million fans who switched over when WCW insulted him.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Among the various people that WCW thought weren't worth a main event push were "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, and Rey Mysterio Jr. All of these guys became celebrated world champions when they went to WWE. WCW also let Jim Ross go because they thought he wouldn't go over well with mainstream America. Whoops.
** Hell, they screwed up with the guy who would become ''[[Wrestling/TheUndertaker The Fucking Undertaker]]''. Uhm... how the hell do you do that? He was practically the image of everything people wanted in wrestling at the time!
** Triple H too. He debuted in WCW in 1994 as a generic blonde heel jobber named Terra Ryzin, then got repackaged as a snobby ForeignWrestlingHeel named Jean-Paul Levesque in a tagteam with Lord Steven Regal. In January 1995 he jumped ship to WWE after being turned down for a singles push and the rest as they say is history.
** Inverted with Bret Hart: He ''had'' caught on in the WWF--but WCW didn't have a clue what to do with him.
** In fact, this and ShockingSwerve are the two main reasons why WCW went out of business in the first place.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: At its height, WCW had over 240 wrestlers on its roster. Unlike most examples, though, only perhaps half of them were ever actually seen on television. This was both a deliberate plan and a grievous error on WCW's part. Part of their plan on competing with the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] was to buy up competing talent for the sole purpose of keeping them from signing with the competition. While some were given spots on WCW programming, most others (mostly CListFodder) simply got to lay back and collect paychecks while "working" under a non-compete agreement. Unfortunately for WCW, even this plan got away from them, as the sheer number of wrestlers became unmanageable on a week to week basis. At the time, wrestlers were paid on a per-show basis, whether or not they actually worked on that show. Attendance was taken by signing your own name in on a clipboard. A fair number of GenreSavvy workers, knowing full well that WCW didn't have any intention of actually using them, simply stayed at home and had friends of theirs on the roster sign in their names in their place.

* NamesTheSame: Australia's major wrestling promotion in the 60s and 70s was also called World Championship Wrestling. It was owned by American promoter Jim Barnett, who had a stake in the American WCW (the Georgia incarnation) before Black Saturday and was a consultant for the later Turner-owned promotion.

** Various members of the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom including "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan, from "The Iron Gates of Fate" and [[Wrestling/BrutusBeefcake The Zodiac (Brutus Beefcake)]], from "The Land of Yin and Yang"
** Masked wrestler Blitzkrieg, who had a brief run in 1999, from "The Cosmos"
** The Patriots (Firebreaker Chip and Todd Champion), from "WCW Special Forces"
** The Yellow Dog (Brian Pillman under a mask), from "The Kennel Club"
* PowerStable: Four Horsemen (the UrExample), New World Order (and its various spinoffs), New Blood

* RememberTheNewGuy: Related to Enforced Method Acting above, during the late 1990s and 2000s, WCW would sometimes debut new wrestlers or teams with no debut vignettes or promos, just as though they expected everyone to already know who they were and what they were about.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: The NWO, to the point that in the ''Nitro'' prior to ''Starrcade 1997'', the NWO [[HostileShowTakeover took over the show]] and renamed it ''NWO Monday Nitro''.
* SpringtimeForHitler: ''Nitro'' was originally supposed to be this, according to Matt Randazzo. The idea was, by going head-to-head, WCW would screw up so badly that Turner would be forced to pull the plug on it. It only took them seven years.
* 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: [[Wrestling/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 Mick Foley's case led to the InsultBackfire to end all insult backfires.

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

* FingerpokeOfDoom: The {{rope namer|s}}. 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.

* FingerpokeOfDoom: {{Trope Namer|s}}. 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.

* ShockingSwerve: Arguably the [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]], ''in''arguably one of the reasons WCW went out of business.

* BShow: ''Thunder'', ''WCW Saturday Night'' (which was originally WCW's flagship program before ''Nitro'')

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 ''Literature/TheDeathOfWCW'', highlighted the failure of the company in its last years.

* 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.

* ArcFatigue: The [=nWo=] concept lasted at least a full year longer that it should have. By the time it was "Black & White" versus "nWo Wolfpac", it was already getting tired - the group ended up being revamped ''twice'' more before WCW's ultimate demise.

* CrushingHandshake: Played with at WCW Bash at the Beach 1998. StevieRay faced ChavoGuerrero, with the stipulation that if Chavo didn't win the match, he had to face Eddie Guerrero in a "loser gets their head shaved" match immediately following. Chavo, wanting to be fresh for the next match (and REALLY wanting to get to Eddie after weeks of abuse at his hands) offers Stevie a pre-match handshake.....and immediately taps out once a shocked-looking Stevie takes his hand. [[EpicFail Chavo would proceed to lose to Eddie and shave his own head.]]

Watts was replaced by Eric Bischoff in 1993 (whose promotion from ''announcer'' to ''Executive Vice President'' of the company led announcer Wrestling/JimRoss to leave WCW and join the WWF, a decision that very few would question these days). Bischoff eagerly set about trying to build the promotion into a juggernaut, and he did so by poaching away the WWF's biggest names with lucrative contracts (all backed by the money of Turner Broadcasting) and pairing them with both old WCW/NWA mainstays and the hottest young talent that they could lure away from a fledgling upstart promotion by the name of [Wrestling/[{{ECW}} Extreme Championship Wrestling]]. He also started populating the roster with international wrestlers through working arrangements with Mexico's AAA promotion and New Japan Pro Wrestling (mainly high-flying "cruiserweights" like Wrestling/UltimoDragon, Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr, and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero). Bischoff took the fight right to the WWF's front doorstep, asking Ted Turner (who owned WCW as well as the TBS and TNT networks, which aired WCW programming) to give them a timeslot right alongside the WWF's ''Monday Night Raw''. Turner relented, and WCW debuted ''Monday Nitro'' in 1995; Bischoff decided to take advantage of the timeslot by airing the show live every week and - in several instances - giving away the results of WWF shows which were often taped weeks in advance.

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) is a 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.

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 Franchise/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.

Watts was replaced by Eric Bischoff in 1993 (whose promotion from ''announcer'' to ''Executive Vice President'' of the company led announcer JimRoss to leave WCW and join the WWF, a decision that very few would question these days). Bischoff eagerly set about trying to build the promotion into a juggernaut, and he did so by poaching away the WWF's biggest names with lucrative contracts (all backed by the money of Turner Broadcasting) and pairing them with both old WCW/NWA mainstays and the hottest young talent that they could lure away from a fledgling upstart promotion by the name of [[{{ECW}} Extreme Championship Wrestling]]. He also started populating the roster with international wrestlers through working arrangements with Mexico's AAA promotion and New Japan Pro Wrestling (mainly high-flying "cruiserweights" like Ultimo Dragon, ReyMysterioJr, and EddieGuerrero). Bischoff took the fight right to the WWF's front doorstep, asking Ted Turner (who owned WCW as well as the TBS and TNT networks, which aired WCW programming) to give them a timeslot right alongside the WWF's ''Monday Night Raw''. Turner relented, and WCW debuted ''Monday Nitro'' in 1995; Bischoff decided to take advantage of the timeslot by airing the show live every week and - in several instances - giving away the results of WWF shows which were often taped weeks in advance.

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=].

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 Wrestling/{{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.

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]].)

Following the Fingerpoke of Doom, WCW tried desperately to reinvent itself. After several botched attempts to cross-promote musicians such as Music/{{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 Wrestling/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, Wrestling/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; Wrestling/PerrySaturn, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero followed Benoit, and all four debuted on ''Raw'' two weeks later as "The Radicalz".

* The WCW World Tag Team Championship. Where defended on WWE programming, and later retired when merged with the WWE (World) Tag Team Titles

--> [[KevinNash ''Look at the adjective: play.'']]

* CrushingHandshake: Played with at WCW Bash at the Beach 1998. StevieRay faced ChavoGuerrero, with the stipulation that if Chavo didn't win the match, he had to face EddieGuerrero in a "loser gets their head shaved" match immediately following. Chavo, wanting to be fresh for the next match (and REALLY wanting to get to Eddie after weeks of abuse at his hands) offers Stevie a pre-match handshake.....and immediately taps out once a shocked-looking Stevie takes his hand. [[EpicFail Chavo would proceed to lose to Eddie and shave his own head.]]

** The entire Cruiserweight division which included both styles above but also guys like Chris Jericho, Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, 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.
* ExecutiveMeddling: David Arquette fought the idea of his being WCW Champion as viciously as he could, believing that [[PromotedFanboy (as a wrestling fan himself)]] fans would hate a non-wrestler becoming champion. He was right. He then donated the money he made for the angle to the families of deceased wrestlers Brian Pillman and OwenHart and to Darren Drozdov, a wrestler rendered quadriplegic in an in-ring accident, ensuring he was the only person involved in the angle to walk out with a good reputation.

* FaceHeelTurn: When HulkHogan joined the nWo - one of the most memorable and well done turns in wrestling.

* FingerpokeOfDoom: [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]]. 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.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: BretHart for his entire WCW career; arguably a pretty good reason why he couldn't get over as well as he did in the WWF.

** RicFlair. Full stop.
** ''Everybody'' had this problem in the VinceRusso era.
* 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 [[Wrestling/DeanMalenko Dean Malenko]] 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.

* InsultBackfire: How many times has this actually killed a business? WCW might well be the first when they revealed MickFoley would win the WWF championship, then offended the half a million fans who switched over when WCW insulted him.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Among the various people that WCW thought weren't worth a main event push were StoneColdSteveAustin, MickFoley, ChrisBenoit, EddieGuerrero, ChrisJericho, and ReyMysterioJr. All of these guys became celebrated world champions when they went to WWE. WCW also let JimRoss go because they thought he wouldn't go over well with mainstream America. Whoops.
** Hell, they screwed up with the guy who would become ''[[TheUndertaker The Fucking Undertaker]]''. Uhm... how the hell do you do that? He was practically the image of everything people wanted in wrestling at the time!
** TripleH too. He debuted in WCW in 1994 as a generic blonde heel jobber named Terra Ryzin, then got repackaged as a snobby ForeignWrestlingHeel named Jean-Paul Levesque in a tagteam with Lord Steven Regal. In January 1995 he jumped ship to WWE after being turned down for a singles push and the rest as they say is history.
** Inverted with BretHart: He ''had'' caught on in the WWF--but WCW didn't have a clue what to do with him.

* TakeThat: Especially during the Monday Night Wars. Notably, revealing who would win the WWF matches and then tearing strips over their wrestlers, which in Wrestling/MickFoley's case led to the InsultBackfire to end all insult backfires.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Related to Enforced Method Acting above, during the late 90s and 2000s, WCW would sometimes debut new wrestlers or teams with no debut vignettes or promos, just as though they expected everyone to already know who they were and what they were about.

Following the Fingerpoke of Doom, WCW tried desperately to reinvent itself. After several botched attempts to cross-promote musicians such as Music/{{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 Wrestling/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, Wrestling/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; Wrestling/PerrySaturn, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/ddieGuerrero followed Benoit, and all four debuted on ''Raw'' two weeks later as "The Radicalz".

Following the Fingerpoke of Doom, WCW tried desperately to reinvent itself. After several botched attempts to cross-promote musicians such as Music/{{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 Wrestling/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 Wrestling/ddieGuerrero followed Benoit, and all four debuted on ''Raw'' two weeks later as "The Radicalz".