History YMMV / WCW

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: Creator/{{THQ}}, who used to specialize in licensed wrestling games, did a polished job with this one. Their UsefulNotes/PlayStation title, ''WCW vs. [[WorldTour the World]]'' and its UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 sequels, ''WCW vs. nWo: World Tour'' and ''WCW/nWo Revenge'', are widely viewed as some of the best wrestling games of [[UsefulNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames the fifth generation]]. Both come with a decent multiplayer mode which is still fun today.

* Main/TheProblemWithLicensedGames: While WCW had some great games (see SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames above) there were also some really, '''really''' bad ones. 30 years later and still no one has figured out exactly how to play ''WCW [=SuperBrawl=] Wrestling'' for the UsefulNotes/{{SNES}}, ''WCW Nitro'' and ''WCW Thunder'' were worthless outside of the hilarious promos shown in the wrestler select screen (which weren't even present in the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 port of ''Nitro''), and ''WCW Backstage Assault'' is widely regarded as one of the worst video games ever made in any genre and easily the worst wrestling game ever released.

** Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling is the true spiritual successor to WCW: its flagship show ''Wednesday Night Dynamite'' ([[Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro remind you of anything?]]) originally aired on TNT[[note]]it had to move to TBS in 2022, but its secondary show ''Rampage'' remained on TNT[[/note]], it's backed by an influential billionaire, and it even employs quite a few people who'd once worked in WCW both in front of and behind the cameras, such as Wrestling/ChrisJericho, Wrestling/DustinRhodes, Wrestling/ArnAnderson, Tully Blanchard, Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage, Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels, and even Wrestling/JimRoss and Wrestling/TonySchiavone together again on commentary. In late 2020 they even managed to get Wrestling/{{Sting}} on board, despite him having retired 5 years earlier after his botched WWE run ended in a supposedly career-ending injury, and in 2021 the Wrestling/BigShow, who'd debuted in WCW as The Giant in 1995, jumped ship to AEW after his WWE contract expired.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: A weird Administrivia/TropesAreTools example in which an attempt at this actually made things worse, with in turn led to ''another'' AST: At ''Bash at the Beach'' 2000 on July 9, 2000 in Daytona Beach, Florida, Vince Russo disrespected Wrestling/HulkHogan in a big way: He duped Hogan into agreeing to reenact the FingerpokeOfDoom (again) with Wrestling/JeffJarrett. Hogan pulled rank after Russo wanted him to lose a title match to Jarrett, citing that given the storyline they were doing that Jarrett going over would have made no sense (a point he was very much right about), and Vince was really steamed about it. After much arguing back and forth they came up with a solution they thought would satisfy everyone: Russo was supposed to come out, shoot on Hogan, and garner pops for the New Blood, and build to a match to crown a new WCW Champion. Hogan would return in a few months to challenge the legitimacy of the new champion. Everybody wins, right? ''[[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15pt0 Wrong.]]'' Russo buried Hogan in front of his fans, to the degree that Hogan left WCW and filed a defamation of character suit. While it did give us Wrestling/BookerT as WCW Champion for the final few months of WCW, it was listed as yet another reason why AOL Time-Warner wanted to get rid of WCW as soon as they could.

** Wrestling/AlexWright (''[[FunnyForeigner Das Wunderkind!]]'') is weirdly popular online, moreso today than in his prime. Possibly the tallest "cruiserweight" of all time (billed as 6'4" in some places). Some of the reasons why he attracted so much interest after the demise of WCW are probably the same reasons why Wright was underestimated in his time (besides perhaps being too young): He had a gimmick of dancing to this theme song, which was techno music, when the U.S. was [[TwoDecadesBehind still trying to forget about disco]]; and multiple, seemingly unrelated wrestlers did what they could to bury him for no particular reason.

** Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage. WCW's willingness to make him look strong vs. the nWo was huge for him, especially at such a late stage in his professional life (he was seen as the 'old guy' despite being in his late-30's): he turned down membership with the nWo, nailed Wrestling/ScottHall with the Diamond Cutter, pulled the rope down as Nash [[BullfightBoss charged at him]], and then he peace'd out. [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] was the "People's Champion", but so was DDP (it was proposed in the run-up to the [=WCW=] / {{Wrestling/ECW}} [[IntercontinuityCrossover "InVasion"]] that he and Rocky feud over who was the People's Champ), and during that brief period in '97 his merchandise was everywhere. He was the original ''[[FinishingMove (finisher)]]'' '''OUTTA NOWHERE''' judging from the WWE Network Vault; part of his appeal was seeing all of the creative ways he'd go for the Diamond Cutter. His main event run from 1997-2001 in WCW was solid from top-to-bottom, whether as a face or a heel. Even his mid-card feuds with Wrestling/{{Raven}} and Benoit are considered classics. Some people might grumble about Page's push being largely due to him being close friends with Eric Bischoff, but he worked his ass off to make the most of every opportunity he was handed (something a lot of other people put in similar positions can't claim), and the fans recognized it. The only blip on his career is how WWE misused him (but that's a "blip" [[BadassDecay a lot of wrestlers have]]).[[note]]Though Page did two things to shoot himself in the foot while in WWE, the first being hugging Wrestling/VinceMcMahon when he first got there (outside of a handshake or a pre-planned spot on camera Vince does ''not'' like to be touched and people have actually been suspended over this), the second was having the nerve to walk up to '''''Wrestling/TheUndertaker''''' of all people with a piece of paper detailing a match that DDP planned out spot for spot with no input from Taker. Taker was incredibly insulted by this, both the fact that some guy from the company they were just at war with thought he could tell the most senior member of the roster what they were going to do in their match (or anything else for that matter) and the very idea of '''completely choreographing a match'''. Taker promptly had DDP buried, culminating in Page jobbing to ''Taker's wife''.[[/note]]

** Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage. WCW's willingness to make him look strong vs. the nWo was huge for him, especially at such a late stage in his professional life (he was seen as the 'old guy' despite being in his late-30's): he turned down membership with the nWo, nailed Wrestling/ScottHall with the Diamond Cutter, pulled the rope down as Nash [[BullfightBoss charged at him]], and then he peace'd out. [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] was the "People's Champion", but so was DDP (it was proposed in the run-up to the [=WCW=] / {{Wrestling/ECW}} [[IntercontinuityCrossover "InVasion"]] that he and Rocky feud over who was the People's Champ), and during that brief period in '97 his merchandise was everywhere. He was the original ''[[FinishingMove (finisher)]]'' '''OUTTA NOWHERE''' judging from the WWE Network Vault; part of his appeal was seeing all of the creative ways he'd go for the Diamond Cutter. His main event run from 1997-2001 in WCW was solid from top-to-bottom, whether as a face or a heel. Even his mid-card feuds with Wrestling/{{Raven}} and Benoit are considered classics. The only blip on his career is how WWE misused him (but that's a "blip" [[BadassDecay a lot of wrestlers have]]).

** The Puroresu and Lucha Libre stars (such as Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger, Wrestling/UltimoDragon, Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr, Wrestling/{{Psicosis}}, and Juventud Guerrera) who put on phenomenal matches every night, even to the very end, or at least until they all realized they'd never get pushes and started leaving in droves. Wrestling/LaParka in particular was massively over, but he was held back in the Cruiserweight division even though it was clear the crowd wanted more of him.

###Franchise/{{RoboCop}}[[note]][[SincerityMode Yes, really]].[[/note]] and Creator/DavidArquette, World Champion. Both sold out the arena. Though it must be said that after the Arquette match, ticket sales plummeted and ratings dropped a full five points[[note]]Between the 1999 and 2000 editions of ''Starrcade'', PPV buyrates dropped '''90 percent''' and the attendance figures were ''even worse''[[/note]].

** The period between late 1989-ish and the end of 1993 was also a pretty rough time to be a WCW fan, particularly the 18 months or so that Wrestling/RicFlair was in the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]]. Case in point: as of 2022, no weekly TV from January 1990 to the first episode of ''WCW Staurday Night'' in April of 1992 has ever been uploaded to the WWE Network, presumably due to lack of demand.

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The unique sound made by WCW's rings (prior to mid-1999) whenever wrestlers bumped on it, which has been described as a "wooden clank". Even many detractors of WCW will admit that their rings had the best collision sound in the business, or at least sounded better than WWE's rings, both in the past and the present.[[note]] According to Jim Cornette, this unique sound was due in large part to WCW's rings having a wooden frame as opposed to the steel frames used by WWE and most other wrestling companies, so that when a wrestler bumped, the wooden ring floor colliding with the wooden crossbeams is what made that sound. In addition, WCW usually had the superior audio quality across the board compared to the WWF, thanks to the promotion being owned by a broadcasting company and always using top of the line equipment. Not helping WWE's ring noise (or lack thereof) is the fact that they construct their rings to muffle as much noise as possible, because certain production people don't want to deal with it.[[/note]]

* AcceptableTargets: Mainly thanks to being booked by the biggest Acceptable Target in wrestling: an unfiltered Wrestling/VinceRusso. In the U.S., the only promotion which is more mocked than WCW is [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], and that is in no small part due to TNA hiring all of the big players who contributed to WCW's decline (Russo included), to the extent that every single person who's on the cover of ''Literature/TheDeathOfWCW'' were employed there -- ''at the same time''.
* AntiClimax: In 1992, a feud between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/JakeRoberts led to WCW booking them in an "unsanctioned" match for that year's ''Halloween Havoc'' with the stipulation chosen by spinning a wheel with 11 dangerous potential match choices. For weeks on ''WCW Saturday Night'' they hyped this match and how dangerous it was, and what might happen if the wheel ended on "Spinner's Choice" as to what sort of ruthless match would Roberts pick in that case. Then, come the PPV and the choice ended up being...a Coal Miner's Glove match, basically the least risky of the bunch.[[note]] It's a match with a steel-lined glove on a pole which the opponent ''can'' use, but isn't needed to win the bout at all. This was never really explained, in other words no one knew what a coal miners glove is or why it would be a big deal to be hit with one.[[/note]] Yes, the match did end with Jake's cobra biting him, but still, not quite the career-ending, dangerous, slugfest they'd built it up to be.

###There's a bit of revisionist history regarding the popularity of the nWo since people never got a proper payoff for it. Audiences never really [[XPacHeat got sick of the nWo]]: From 1998-98, average attendance from was up 46.7% (5,472 to 8,029), average gate receipts up 90.1% ($87,413 to $166,190), average television rating up 56.0% (2.14 to 3.40), average ''Nitro'' rating up 19.7% (3.70 to 4.43), and average PPV buyrate up 17.7% (0.79 to 0.93). WCW in '98 made $350 million in revenue and pumped out over $50 mil in profit; no other promotion in history had come close to that. Sting winning at ''Starrcade'' '97 would have been a catalyst for major change, but getting rid of the nWo altogether was out of the question from Wrestling/EricBischoff's viewpoint. The nWo re-made WCW; it's what the company was built upon. As for Wrestling/{{Goldberg}}, he debuted in front of sold-out arenas. He rode the wave the nWo created.

** Russo often gets blamed for unmasking Rey Mysterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera. While it sounds like something he'd do his hands are clean (he was still with the WWF), this one was all Bischoff (and maybe Nash).

###"I'VE NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE!"[[note]]We all do that whenever we visit a new place, right?[[/note]]
###"THERE'S NO HULKAMANIACS HERE!"[[note]]In {{kayfabe}}, Hogan draws his power from the screaming Hulkamaniacs. So if he can sense that there's no Hulkamanics, [[KryptoniteFactor then he feels powerless.]][[/note]]
###"IT'S NOT HOT!"[[note]]So, he sees this supposedly-steaming water, reaches out, touches it, pulls back, and exclaims that the water isn't hot. By sentence structure, viewers are led to believe that Hulk assumed the water would be hot. Then why would he stick his hand in potentially scalding water at all?[[/note]]
** His famous burning of the ''Observer'' at ''World War 3'' '95. “[[VerbThis OBSERVE THIS]], [[https://youtu.be/Jl_UxFUUjpU?t=134 BROTHER!!]]”[[note]]"THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A '''RAGSHEET''', BROTHER." Flair said in one of his books that Hogan was obsessed with the ''Observer'' and Dave Meltzer (probably because they were the ones [[DearNegativeReader reporting all of his burials...]]) Hogan cut a promo about "ragsheets" and burned a copy of the ''Observer'' on live PPV in response to a story about "Macho Man" Wrestling/RandySavage's injured arm. It is simultaneously hilarious and scary that WCW wanted to prove a point by making Savage wrestle twice that night. He had torn his tricep and it was really noticeable. One arm was smaller than the other. Meltzer himself said he was proud of being able to get under Hogan's skin to the point that he got mentioned on PPV and took the whole segment as a compliment. Also note the irony of telling the guy that basically invented internet wrestling journalism "This is like a dinosaur compared to the internet, brother!" before tossing it into the flames.[[/note]]

** Suffice to say, David Arquette got a lot of flak after winning the WCW world title, but Arquette was actually against winning the title, knowing fully well that it would go down as a bad idea. When he was finally persuaded by Russo into becoming champ, he chose to give all his earnings to the families of both Wrestling/OwenHart and Wrestling/BrianPillman. He also paid for everyone's drinks because he grew up hearing that a new world champ should always buy everyone a round at the bar.

###Franchise/{{RoboCop}}[[note]][[SinceretyMode Yes, really]].[[/note]] and Creator/DavidArquette, World Champion. Both sold out the arena. Though it must be said that after the Arquette match, ticket sales plummeted and ratings dropped a full five points[[note]]Between the 1999 and 2000 editions of ''Starrcade'', PPV buyrates dropped '''90 percent''' and the attendance figures were ''even worse''[[/note]].

###Franchise/{{RoboCop}} and Creator/DavidArquette, World Champion. Both sold out the arena. Though it must be said that after the Arquette match, ticket sales plummeted and ratings dropped a full five points[[note]]Between the 1999 and 2000 editions of ''Starrcade'', PPV buyrates dropped '''90 percent''' and the attendance figures were ''even worse''[[/note]].

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The unique sound made by WCW's rings (prior to mid-1999) whenever wrestlers bumped on it, which has been described as a "wooden clank". Even many detractors of WCW will admit that their rings had the best collision sound in the business, or at least sounded better than WWE's rings, both in the past and the present.[[note]] According to Jim Cornette, this unique sound was due in large part to WCW's rings having a wooden frame as opposed to the steel frames used by WWE and most other wrestling companies, so that when a wrestler bumped, the wooden ring floor colliding with the wooden frame is what made that sound. In addition, WCW usually had the superior audio quality across the board compared to the WWF, thanks to the promotion being owned by a broadcasting company and always using top of the line equipment. Not helping WWE's ring noise (or lack thereof) is the fact that they construct their rings to muffle as much noise as possible, because certain production people don't want to deal with it.[[/note]]

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The unique sound made by WCW's rings (prior to mid-1999) whenever wrestlers bumped on it, which has been described as a "wooden clank". Even many detractors of WCW will admit that their rings had the best collision sound in the business, or at least sounded better than WWE's rings, both in the past and the present.[[note]]WCW usually had the superior audio quality across the board compared to the WWF, thanks to the promotion being owned by a broadcasting company and always using top of the line equipment. Not helping WWE's ring noise (or lack thereof) is the fact that they construct their rings to muffle as much noise as possible, because certain production people don't want to deal with it[[/note]]

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The unique sound made by WCW's rings (prior to mid-1999) whenever wrestlers bumped on it, which has been described as a "wooden clank". Even many detractors of WCW will admit that their rings had the best collision sound in the business, or at least sounded better than WWE's rings, both in the past and the present.

** His famous burning of the ''Observer'' at ''World War 3'' '95. “[[VerbThis OBSERVE THIS]], BROTHER!!”[[note]]"THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A '''RAGSHEET''', BROTHER." Flair said in one of his books that Hogan was obsessed with the ''Observer'' and Dave Meltzer (probably because they were the ones [[DearNegativeReader reporting all of his burials...]]) Hogan cut a promo about "ragsheets" and burned a copy of the ''Observer'' on live PPV in response to a story about "Macho Man" Wrestling/RandySavage's injured arm. It is simultaneously hilarious and scary that WCW wanted to prove a point by making Savage wrestle twice that night. He had torn his tricep and it was really noticeable. One arm was smaller than the other. Meltzer himself said he was proud of being able to get under Hogan's skin to the point that he got mentioned on PPV and took the whole segment as a compliment. Also note the irony of telling the guy that basically invented internet wrestling journalism "This is like a dinosaur compared to the internet, brother!" before tossing it into the flames.[[/note]]

** The infamous [[FashionVictimVillain Shockmaster costume]] -- namely, a big burly warrior with a black cape and silver-painted Stormtrooper helmet -- was always stupid, but it's even funnier nowadays due to coming across less like a "terrible zero-budget last-minute WrestlingMonster-meets-Stormtrooper costume" and more a "terrible zero-budget last-minute [[Film/TheForceAwakens Captain]] [[Film/TheLastJedi Phasma]] cosplay."

** Bischoff was partnered with former head of WWF creative Vince Russo and launched two new stables: New Blood, the new generation being held down by the old, and the Millionaire's Club, a cabal of veterans who were only interested in keeping their top spot. The idea was to get the young talent over without burying the veterans, but the booking showed a lack of preparation and thought put into it: Shane Douglas in his thirties complaining about getting held down and being the "future" of wrestling just doesn't wash. Both factions disbanded once management realized the angle was a flop, as the Millionaire's Club got most of the fan reaction. Russo holding the book in 2000 didn't help matters, as he said [[NinetiesAntiHero he doesn't believe in pure "heels" or pure "faces".]] Indeed, the New Blood came off as heelish right away: violently attacking the established stars, spray-painting their chests, mowing them down with 4x4 vehicles, and printing t-shirts declaring "TRADITION SUCKS". Bryan & Vinny of ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter'' have reviewed this saga and pointed out on how screwed up it was that Billy Kidman is [[DesignatedHero supposedly the babyface]] of his feud vs. ex-girlfriend Torrie Wilson and her new kayfabe boyfriend Shane Douglas, yet Kidman released a revenge porn of Torrie, made a video of some fat woman [[YouAreFat pretending to be her at Torrie's birthday party]], then physically abused her to the point where she [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U_gQa5WXmcQ nearly fell off a balcony]], risking either [[FatalMethodActing paralysis or death]]. How exactly were Shane and Torrie [[DesignatedVillain the heels]] in this feud?
* TheScrappy: To fans of WCW, the most likely candidate for this trope would be Wrestling/HulkHogan. For a decade prior to Hogan's debut in WCW, Hogan was the face of their chief competition, the World Wrestling Federation, carrying the company on his shoulders as its most frequent champion and otherwise winning audiences with his charisma and [[NarmCharm overly energetic]] promos. In 1993, after Hogan left WWF as they entered the "New Generation" era, the wrestling icon jumped ship (which makes sense given that then-head Eric Bischoff was a ''HUGE'' fan of the Hulkster--perhaps to a fault), and WCW audiences immediately welcomed him with open arms. Right...? Not exactly. You see, World Championship Wrestling was a home-grown southern promotion, and its fanbase did ''not'' care for anything related to "the promotion up north", especially a stale [[AllAmericanFace heroic goody-two-shoes]] like Hulk Hogan, as opposed to someone like Wrestling/{{Sting}}, ''their'' homegrown hero who was said to be the southern wrestling equivalent to the Hulkster in his heyday, and these audiences preferred realistic "wrasslin'" to WWF's colorful, larger-than-life "sports-entertainment" product. If that wasn't bad enough, WCW fans had to watch that damn hotdogger and grandstander Hulk Hogan make quick work of their promotion's talent, like Ric Flair and Vader, and ''then'', to add insult to injury, he brought in [[Wrestling/RandySavage many]] [[Wrestling/BigBossMan of]] [[Wrestling/{{Kamala}} his]] [[Wrestling/JohnTenta wrestler]] [[Wrestling/JimmyHart friends]] to fill the roster, and they would be followed by Wrestling/LexLuger, Wrestling/BretHart, Wrestling/KevinNash, Wrestling/ScottHall, and many others, much to the displeasure of WCW's fans, who tended to [[XPacHeat audibly boo Hogan's very presence]]. Thankfully, he was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when he turned heel and formed the [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]].

** [[Wrestling/FredOttman The Shockmaster]] turned a worthless segment which everyone would have forgotten about into one of the most memorable botches ever. It would have been laughable even if he hadn't fallen on his face, but Sting's failed introduction (and the [[{{Corpsing}} disbelief]] of his co-stars) has more entertainment value today than just about anything from that era of WCW. The Shockmaster actually did wrestle a few matches: he lost the fur coat and helmet and had about a 6-month run, repackaged as a [[TheKlutz klutzy]] construction worker. (Maybe an electrician, thus the "Shockmaster"?). Weirdly enough, his finisher was a perfect [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker Tombstone Piledriver]]... but upside-down. The only thing it finished was his knees (they included the move with Typhoon in the new DLC pack, though in that version he doesn't drop to his knees, just a straight slam).

** ''nWo Souled Out'' '97. This is well-documented as one of the worst/most bizarre [=PPVs=] ever (''i.e.'' it's a must-watch). Cackling bad guys riding in on garbage trucks for 10 minutes, with no voiceovers or music. Wrestlers in dad-jeans. All-black everything and the fisheye lens shots. Fake live bands. Eric Bischoff attempting to be cool. The [[https://imgur.com/a/DTVHW "Miss nWo"]] contest. Jeff Katz and his silly questions. Poor Nick Patrick having to ref every match. Poorly-thought out production ideas. (''Let's interview people in front of giant speakers, hyuck!'') Calling Eddie Guerrero a "Mexican Jumping Bean". It was a neat idea. It was duly [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/nwo-souled-out-1997/ inducted]] into ''{{Website/WrestleCrap}}'', and if you can find the video of Bryan & Vinny reviewing the show, it's thoroughly entertaining; especially when it comes to the Miss nWo contest.

** Ladies and gentlemen, the company who sent Chris Jericho checks for zero dollars and zero cents (true story, they also had a habit of sending him FedEx envelopes with nothing inside them).

** Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage. WCW's willingness to make him look strong vs. the nWo was huge for him, especially at such a late stage in his professional life (he was seen as the 'old guy' despite being in his late-30's): he turned down membership with the nWo, nailed Hall with the Diamond Cutter, pulled the rope down as Nash [[BullfightBoss charged at him]], and then he peace'd out. [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] was the "People's Champion", but so was DDP (it was proposed in the run-up to the [=WCW=] / {{Wrestling/ECW}} [[IntercontinuityCrossover "InVasion"]] that he and Rocky feud over who was the People's Champ), and during that brief period in '97 his merchandise was everywhere. He was the original ''[[FinishingMove (finisher)]]'' '''OUTTA NOWHERE''' judging from the WWE Network Vault; part of his appeal was seeing all of the creative ways he'd go for the Diamond Cutter. His main event run from 1997-2001 in WCW was solid from top-to-bottom, whether as a face or a heel. Even his mid-card feuds with Wrestling/{{Raven}} and Benoit are considered classics. The only blip on his career is how WWE misused him (but that's a "blip" [[BadassDecay a lot of wrestlers have]]).

** During a DDP vs. Wrestling/JeffJarrett match on ''Thunder'', Schiavone yells, "THIS WON'T STOP UNTIL SOMEONE ''DIES!''" This would've already qualified for this, but right afterwards, the match ended in DQ (by then usual for matches on ''Thunder''). It even gets a mention in ''The Death of WCW.''

** ''Spring Stampede'' 2000. Hulk Hogan keeps screaming "I'm going to eat your ass on ''Nitro''" at Bischoff, until a cop pulls a gun on him. Did Hulk mean he was going to "beat his ass"? [[http://i.imgur.com/xtGfaSF.jpg The close captioning agrees he's going to eat something.]]
** [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=beIKeOHtVNg "THAT'S THE WALL, BROTHER!"]], observes Hulk Hogan...from about 3 miles away and 15 stories down from where Wall is currently standing.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: David Flair was a wash, but his mental breakdown made a good introduction for [[Wrestling/DaffneyUnger Daffney]] and Crowbar, both of whom became fairly popular and actually helped elevate David, if only for a while

** A classic case of this: the Dynamic Dudes (Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis and Wrestling/ShaneDouglas), who were basically every TotallyRadical stereotype crammed into one tag team (right down to skateboarding). When they received a push by having Wrestling/JimCornette turn heel on them and join an opposing faction (Wrestling/TheMidnightExpress), the audience cheered Corny[[note]]Of course, Cornette was just playing the Dudes for fools and was in cahoots with the Express (Bobby Eaton and Stane Lane) the whole time. All 3 of them would eventually turn babyface for real when [[Wrestling/PaulHeyman Paul E. Dangerously]] would bring back the ''original'' Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose) and leave Cornette a bloody mess. ([[Wrestling/DustyRhodes "I said A LITTLE blood, kid..."]])[[/note]]

** Hogan fits this trope too. Did he have a major hand in killing the company by using his creative control to keep himself in high-profile spots long after he wore out his welcome and bury a [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin bunch of]] [[Wrestling/MickFoley future]] [[Wrestling/ChrisJericho stars]]? Yes. Did he pull the company away from the brink of collapse when he got there, at a time when attendance was so poor that WCW had basically given up on running house shows and were taping TV ''months'' in advance to save costs? Also yes. Became this to the WCW fans as soon as he got there as well, he did bring in plenty more people into the buildings but the longtime JCP/NWA/WCW fans were not happy to see him and passionately booed him. [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder The latter group ended up winning that battle.]]

###There's a bit of revisionist history regarding the popularity of the nWo since people never got a proper payoff for it. Audiences never really [[XPacHeat got sick of the nWo]]: From 1998-98, average attendance from was up 46.7% (5,472 to 8,029), average gate receipts up 90.1% ($87,413 to $166,190), average television rating up 56.0% (2.14 to 3.40), average ''Nitro'' rating up 19.7% (3.70 to 4.43), and average PPV buyrate up 17.7% (0.79 to 0.93). WCW in '98 made $350 million in revenue and pumped out over $50 mil in profit; no other promotion in history had come close to that. Sting winning at ''Starrcade'' '97 would have been a catalyst for major change, but getting rid of the nWo altogether was out of the question from Wrestling/EricBischoff's viewpoint. The nWo re-made WCW; it's what the company was built upon. As for Goldberg, he debuted in front of sold-out arenas. He rode the wave the nWo created.
###In hindsight, the Wolfpac are seen as an obvious rehash of the nWo. However, in the summer of 1998, the biggest stars in WCW were in the Wolfpac. nWo Hollywood vs. nWo Wolfpac sold-out arenas that were filled with merch from both. Kevin Nash, who was already white-hot with the crowd, destroyed the stars WCW created all on their own, and got ''cheered'' for it. People were jumping up and down like they'd won the lottery (go back and watch ''Starrcade'' 98, where Nash breaks Goldberg's streak. The crowd goes absolutely ''insane'' cheering Nash when he gets the pin). The Fingerpoke of Doom just made it retroactively worse [[ShaggyDogStory since there was no real blowoff.]]

** Wrestling/ChrisBenoit is considered one of the best technical wrestlers to come from WCW. Many would argue that his rivalry with Wrestling/BookerT was the best of either's career. Another plus was the cruiserweight division and the focus on insane athletics and moves that you never saw with the likes of Hogan, Nash, Goldberg, etc. It not only included the aforementioned foreign guys, but also Benoit, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, Wrestling/ChrisJericho, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, and Wrestling/BillyKidman as well: they were the wrestlers who opened up the show to pump up the crowd, and were usually the best match of the night. It pretty much opened the gate for the lucha and puro styles. The Malenko-Jericho feud was one of the best of the year across both brands. It's a shame that WCW themselves never really saw them the same way.

** Even when it was clear that the company was keeping him away from the main event, Wrestling/RicFlair was one of the bright spots of WCW during their end. ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter''[='s=] Dave Meltzer used to make a list of the people who drew the biggest segment ratings on ''Raw'' and ''Nitro''. He would calculate the rating they drew, who they were up against on the other channel, and how much the rating went up or down from the previous segment. From late 1997 until he got pulled off TV in 1998, Flair was the biggest ratings draw in either company. His television segments were getting higher ratings than Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin at this point. When he came back in late '98, he was still consistently in WCW's top 3 along with Hogan and Goldberg. His match against Wrestling/BretHart at ''Souled Out'' '98 also did a huge buyrate. Back then, [=PPVs=] were split into "Hogan [=PPVs=]" and "Non-Hogan [=PPVs=]", because the buyrates were normally 20-25% higher (at minimum) when Hogan wrestled[[note]]This sounds great... until you remember that Hogan got 30-40% of the PPV gate ''regardless of if he was on the show or not''[[/note]]. The Flair-Hart match (which was one of the only decently-promoted matches Flair had during this period) went way above expectations into Hogan territory. It's actually one of the biggest [=PPVs=] in WCW history. And to top it off, in 1999 when WCW was losing steam and the nWo angle was fading, Flair and Hogan main-evented ''[=SuperBrawl=]''. Both men were years past their prime, and everyone had seen them wrestle 100 times before. It popped a giant buyrate which surpassed expectations. They even did a better buyrate than the WWF PPV that month. Which WWF match did they outdraw? Austin vs. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon for the first time.

** While many people consider him stupid and his AmbiguouslyGay / GorgeousGeorge character would probably not fly today the fans really seemed to like [[Wrestling/MarcMero Johnny B. Badd]]. If you watch old WCW shows where he appears, the crowd totally pops for him, and lets him put his lip stickers (dubbed "the Kiss that don't Miss) on them.

** His famous burning of the ''Observer'' at ''World War 3'' '95. “[[VerbThis OBSERVE THIS]], BROTHER!!”[[note]]"THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A '''RAGSHEET''', BROTHER." Flair said in one of his books that Hogan was obsessed with the ''Observer'' and Dave Meltzer (probably because they were the ones [[DearNegativeReader reporting all of his burials...]]) Hogan cut a promo about "ragsheets" and burned a copy of the ''Observer'' on live PPV in response to a story about Wrestling/RandySavage's injured arm. It is simultaneously hilarious and scary that WCW wanted to prove a point by making Savage wrestle twice that night. He had torn his tricep and it was really noticeable. One arm was smaller than the other. Meltzer himself said he was proud of being able to get under Hogan's skin to the point that he got mentioned on PPV and took the whole segment as a compliment. Also note the irony of telling the guy that basically invented internet wrestling journalism "This is like a dinosaur compared to the internet, brother!" before tossing it into the flames.[[/note]]

###"[[ItsTheBestWhateverEver This is the greatest night in the history of our sport!]]" The man had a gift for hyperbole.

** "[[{{Wrestling/ChrisJericho}} Hold 265: ARM!!!!! BAR!!!!!]]"

** Russo often gets blamed for unmasking Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr and Juventud Guerrera. While it sounds like something he'd do his hands are clean (he was still with the WWF), this one was all Bischoff (and maybe Nash).

* AntiClimax: In 1992, a feud between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/JakeRoberts led to WCW booking them in an "unsanctioned" match for that year's ''Halloween Havoc'' with the stipulation chosen by spinning a wheel with 11 dangerous potential match choices. For weeks on ''WCW Saturday Night'' they hyped this match and how dangerous it was, and what might happen if the wheel ended on "Spinner's Choice" as to what sort of ruthless match would Roberts pick in that case. Then, come the PPV and the choice ended up being...a Coal Miner's Glove match, basically the least risky of the bunch [[note]] It's a match with a steel-lined glove on a pole which the opponent ''can'' use, but isn't needed to win the bout at all. This was never really explained, in other words no one knew what a coal miners glove is or why it would be a big deal to be hit with one[[/note]] Yes, the match did end with Jake's cobra biting him, but still, not quite the career-ending, dangerous, slugfest they'd built it up to be.
* AuthorsSavingThrow: A weird Administrivia/TropesAreTools example in which an attempt at this actually made things worse, with in turn led to ''another'' AST: At ''Bash at the Beach'' 2000 on July 9, 2000 in Daytona Beach, Florida, Wrestling/VinceRusso disrespected Wrestling/HulkHogan in a big way: He duped Hogan into agreeing to reenact the FingerpokeOfDoom (again) with Wrestling/JeffJarrett. Hogan pulled rank after Russo wanted him to lose a title match to Jarrett, citing that given the storyline they were doing that Jarrett going over would have made no sense (a point he was very much right about), and Vince was really steamed about it. After much arguing back and forth they came up with a solution they thought would satisfy everyone: Russo was supposed to come out, shoot on Hogan, and garner pops for the New Blood, and build to a match to crown a new WCW Champion. Hogan would return in a few months to challenge the legitimacy of the new champion. Everybody wins, right? ''[[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15pt0 Wrong.]]'' Russo buried Hogan in front of his fans, to the degree that Hogan left WCW and filed a defamation of character suit. While it did give us Wrestling/BookerT as WCW Champion for the final few months of WCW, it was listed as yet another reason why AOL Time-Warner wanted to get rid of WCW as soon as they could.
* BaseBreakingCharacter: Opinions about Wrestling/TonySchiavone's role as commentator are all over the place. Detractors point out that when the luchadores were killing themselves with suicide dives and chair shots, he was either ignoring it, making fun of the masks/names, droning on about some [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]] stuff, or laughing at some vaguely racist joke; and overreacting to something like David Flair winning the Hardcore title, to which he would give his "[[ItsTheBestWhateverEver the greatest night in the history of our sport]]" slogan and so on (and that stern face he always gives). However, supporters point out that, re-watching WCW in its sad, dying days, the man had to sell absolute car crash TV, but with a vigor and air of professionalism few could muster. Moves are being called, talent is being put over—and when he's in there with Mike Tenay, calling lucha or puroresu matches, he does bring his A-game.
** Hogan fits this trope too. Did he have a major hand in killing the company by using his creative control to keep himself in high-profile spots long after he wore out his welcome and bury a [[Wrestling/SteveAustin bunch of]] [[Wrestling/MickFoley future]] [[Wrestling/ChrisJericho stars]]? Yes. Did he pull the company away from the brink of collapse when he got there, at a time when attendance was so poor that WCW had basically given up on running house shows and were taping TV ''months'' in advance to save costs? Also yes. Became this to the WCW fans as soon as he got there as well, he did bring in plenty more people into the buildings but the longtime JCP/NWA/WCW fans were not happy to see him and passionately booed him. [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder The latter group ended up winning that battle.]]

###Franchise/{{RoboCop}} and Creator/DavidArquette, World Champion. Both sold out the arena. Though it must be said that after the Arquette match, ticket sales plummeted and ratings dropped a full five points[[note]]Between the 1999 and 2000 editions of ''Starrcade'' PPV buyrates dropped '''90 percent''' and the attendance figures were ''even worse''[[/note]].
###There's a bit of revisionist history regarding the popularity of the nWo since people never got a proper payoff for it. Audiences never really [[XPacHeat got sick of the nWo]]: From 1998-98, average attendance from was up 46.7% (5,472 to 8,029), average gate receipts up 90.1% ($87,413 to $166,190), average television rating up 56.0% (2.14 to 3.40), average ''Nitro'' rating up 19.7% (3.70 to 4.43), and average PPV buyrate up 17.7% (0.79 to 0.93). WCW in '98 made $350 million in revenue and pumped out over $50 mil in profit; no other promotion in history had come close to that. Wrestling/{{Sting}} winning at ''Starrcade'' '97 would have been a catalyst for major change, but getting rid of the nWo altogether was out of the question from Wrestling/EricBischoff's viewpoint. The nWo re-made WCW; it's what the company was built upon. As for Goldberg, he debuted in front of sold-out arenas. He rode the wave the nWo created.
###In hindsight, the Wolfpac are seen as an obvious rehash of the nWo. However, in the summer of 1998, the biggest stars in WCW were in the Wolfpac. nWo Hollywood vs. nWo Wolfpac sold-out arenas that were filled with merch from both. Kevin Nash, who was already white-hot with the crowd, destroyed the stars WCW created all on their own, and got ''cheered'' for it. People were jumping up and down like they'd won the lottery. (Go back and watch ''Starrcade'' 98, where Nash breaks Goldberg's streak. The crowd goes absolutely ''insane'' cheering Nash when he gets the pin.) The Fingerpoke of Doom just made it retroactively worse [[ShaggyDogStory since there was no real blowoff.]]
###The Fingerpoke of Doom actually fulfilled its purpose, at least initially: not only did it spike their ratings, the following PPV (''[=SuperBrawl=]'') actually got more buys than the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]]'s competing ''St. Valentine's Day Massacre'' event. It got people tuning in and their ratings remained steady (around 4 or 4.5) until April.
* DorkAge: WCW during Vince Russo's tenure is the point where WCW fans tend to look away due to how ridiculous things got. Tony's resigned [[http://wrestlecrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/tonyshrug.gif face]] at ''Bash at the Beach'' 2000 says it all.
** The period between late 1989-ish and the end of 1993 was also a pretty rough time to be a WCW fan, particularly the 18 months or so that Ric Flair was in the WWF. Case in point: as of 2022 no weekly TV from January 1990 to the first episode of ''WCW Staurday Night'' in April of 1992 has ever been uploaded to the WWE Network, presumably due to lack of demand.

* {{Padding}}: A clear indicator of when WCW really started to go off the rails. Even for much of '98 (when they were still incredibly popular), there were episodes of ''Nitro'' that started off with a promo, went to commercial, came back to Tony Schiavone interviewing someone, cut to a promo backstage, went to commercial, and then came back to recaps...They had some bad direction, or none at all, by the summer of '98. Just one example: Kevin Nash once cut a promo where he asked if Goldberg would tag with him in the main event. Then Goldberg came out, going through his entire entrance, which takes anywhere from 2-5 minutes from the locker room, to fireworks, to the ring, only to come into the ring and say "you got it." Then he left. There's a reason why for the first 70 years or so of "moderen" professional wrestling the TV shows were only one hour long.

* MostWonderfulSound: The unique sound made by WCW's rings (prior to mid-1999) whenever wrestlers bumped on it, which has been described as a "wooden clank". Even many detractors of WCW will admit that their rings had the best collision sound in the business, or at least sounded better than WWE's rings, both in the past and the present.