The match that killed wrestling.

why was it so bad bros

why was it so bad bros

>>2961340
The match that lead into the year that WCW made more revenue ($220 million) + profit ($50 million) than any company in history at that point.

>>2961391
That revenue was residual from a fantastic 1997 from WCW but in the long term they never recovered from this.

>>2961340
>GOAT sting attiture
>GOAT hogan tights
Never saw the match though

>>2961340
the story should have been that hogan was motivated by jealousy of sting's hairline

>>2961410
Hogan's hair is godlike here though, such a good look

>>2961401
you forgot GOAT referee mullet

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>>2961397
stfu moron

>>2961414
Yeah that too. Also the ref looks just as tall as sting and hogan in the pic.

>>2961429
i also just saw the incredibly detailed hogan sign in the crowd behind the ref's head holy shit

>>2961340
True.

>>2961427
>hurr durr Bischoff's word is God

>>2961427
this doesn't even refute anything dumbass

1999 was the collapse

They went from 4s and 5s in January to 3s in April

1998 with Sting as champ/rightful champion was wcws most successful days, idiot. Once they took the belt off Sting and on macho cuck it started dying

>>2961732
>1998 with Sting as champ/rightful champion was wcws most successful days
Sting was a joke since everyone knew Hogan beat him clean

>>2961413
he has pedophile hair, bro. wtf is wrong with you?

>>2961340
That's not the fingerpoke of doom.

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>>2961768

>>2961732

Goldberg was the highest drawing champion in WCW history

>>2962201
kek

>>2962201
Wow. Is this a kayfabe mag?

>>2962461
Yeah

>>2961340

Because they had one job. Have Hogan put Sting over in the middle of the ring. Instead they tried co-opting the Montreal screwjob into their finish. A dumb decision based on the work of a company that at that point was a distant second place. Absolutely fucking retarded.

>>2961427

Considering all of wrestling is just nothing but fucking marks who can't remember bad stories about them but what some other dude did outside of a KFC at 2:39AM in Kenntucky after a house show, I think anything the older guys say is full of shit.

Fucking marks, all of them.

>>2962461
>>2962558
PWI is kinda half and half

>>2962575
This, also I was listening to a shoot interview of Eric and noticed he was very hesitant to criticize Nash or give out any information regarding him because apparently they're friends. I'm sure Eric is friends with a lot of other people in the business. So of course, even if unintentionally, he's going to be biased and I don't think you're necessarily going to get the whole truth from him

the honest to god GOAT wrestling angle. A true epic with more than a year of build and Hogan takes an absolute shit on it.

>>2962584
meant for >>2962573

>>2961469

I'm not him but I can confirm that this is what happened.

Ted Turner got strong armed out of his companies and holdings. He lost it fucking all. Time Warner execs wanted nothing to do with wrestling no matter how much money it made them. They thought wrestling and wrestling fans weren't worth a "lesser image". They killed WCW's TV deals and that was that.

If Eric had been able to pull off a TV deal, hit the reset button, and reorganize in Vegas as he planned, the WCW would still be around today. I'm not saying they'd be the biggest thing around or would have come back and beat the WWF again but they'd be around. Their eye for talent was incredible was unmatched, they just didn't know how to use it. Undertaker. Austin. AJ. The list goes on and on.

>>2962602
>Time Warner execs wanted nothing to do with wrestling no matter how much money it made them.
It wasn't making them anything when the merger took place.

>>2962609

>what is due diligence

Mergers just don't happen. During their preliminary phases they were well fucking aware of the cash cow they had.

>>2962602

One of the major points isn't against time warner wanting wrestling off, it's that Eric and company had devalued and ruined the brand to the point no major company wanted to purchase them, and no major network wanted to air their programming.

If WCW was still raking in big money at the time, owners would have been found and networks would have been jumping at the opportunity to air it. Eric and company are just as much at fault as anyone is.

>>2962609

Time Warner acquired Turner holdings in 96. Try to keep up.

>>2962614
They didn't have a cash cow. They had a bubble that was about to pop that was largely dependent upon massive funding.

>>2962621
Correct, I should have said purchase.

>>2962615

Eric had a buyer in place. Fusient. Without a TV deal in place it's kind of hard to finalize a deal based on current expectations. He even mentioned this on Nitro "we hit a road bump that might actually be a wall."

Eric had a company and capital to keep it going. None of that matters without a TV deal.

>>2962628

They turned profits 95-98 with 98 being the biggest in professional wrestling history. Time Warner had already been screwing the pooch since Q1 1997.

Try as you might, WCW was fucked by its parent company and not Bischoff or Russo or excessive spending.

>>2962643

They had no TV deal because their ratings were shit and tiny ass fusient had no sway into convincing networks to take on programming.

If WCW was making money a much bigger company then tiny fusient would have bought it. Higher ratings with a bigger, safer company funding it would have meant networks trying to get their product on air.

WCW was a devalued tainted brand by 2001 thanks heavily to Eric and others having no idea how to properly continue running the company.

>>2962652
What should they have done? They weren't really screwed. Business was in the toilet and everyone in TV knew that the wrestling phase was done. WCW never had a good track record financially before the boom, and the wrestling industry at that time really was a wart in terms of its reputation.

>>2962657

Time Warner long had plans to reinvent TBS and TNT. Wrasslin wasn't in the plans. They saddled Nitro with a standards and practice staff; remember they had to call shit "red" instead of blood? This was the first of multiple instances of Time Warner fuckery. They also micromanaged the hell out of things to the point that the entire business model changed year to year and then month to month.

It was a shitty product by that point because Time Warner had sabotaged it.

>>2962665

Bischoff wanted to end PPVs for a few months, relocate to Vegas and operate out of a home arena similar to ECW, and develop home grown talent and regrow the company. AOL and Time Warner had to assume Turner issued contracts; Eric just wanted the name and TV deal.

Imagine TNA without complete fucking retards running it. That's what Eric had in mind.

WCW was the greatest wrestling company of all time and American wrestling legit died on the same day WCW did. Sting and Flair might as well have been bowing on behalf of their whole fucking business, artform, tradition, whatever after that last match that closed the final show.

All we've got left is Vince's globalist mess and NJWP's shit.

>>2962670

Thats more then fair, I can concede that Time Waners standards and practices fucked them over. But come on now, the finger poke of doom, refusing to push new talent, Vince Russo, WCW management has to take some blame here with how poorly they presented their product.

>>2962698

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

It's hard to compete with tits, ass, beer, and profanity when you can't do it.

>>2962587
It was fucking Nick Patrick's fault, he botched the fast count.

>>2963246
He didn't botch shit. Bischoff and Hogan together decided to do the shenanigans, though Bischoff tries to take the heat for it, because "Sting didn't seem engaged" that day. Hogan's the one that told Patrick to count normally, because he didn't trust Sting at all and, well, he's Hogan and he did that kind of shit all the time.

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>>2963272
Lol Hogan got worked into a shoot by Steve's emo gimmick

>>2963272
This is what's sad to me. Sting hadn't wrestled in a year, but he and the angle were hot as fuck. It was the biggest PPV draw WCW ever did. The crowd was hot, the story was great, the moment was right. One of those rare opportunities to close out a long term feud with the two biggest names in the company going head to head for the gold at the biggest show of the year. And Sting was nervous, and going through a shit ton of personal problems, and he's a quiet, laid back guy to begin with So Hogan and Bischoff get jumpy just because the guy who's been loyal for nearly a decade and carried the company for years isn't jumping up and down with excitement at the production meeting? What a huge, huge opportunity they blew to have a great moment in wrestling history. Now it's just one of the most controversial moments in history, which I'm sure Bischoff finds just as good.

>>2963285
Sting had drug problems during that time.

>>2963293
It was legit one of the biggest mistakes in wrestling history. Lesnar vs Goldberg and WM, that's what Sting vs Hogan @Starrcade 97 should have been. Just Sting obliterating Hogan in like 7 mins.

>>2963246
How was Nick Patrick not fired then? He fucked up the biggest finish in company history, that is if he wasn't told to count normally by Hogan.

>>2963615
They did fire him and ban him from officiating the next matches

What's the story here?

>>2963624

Sting was built up over the course of a year as being the guy to save WCW from the nWo. He would stalk them in the rafters, do spooky shit, drop down from the rafters and save wrestlers from them, he was the biggest draw in wrestling. Then they finally booked the match of Sting vs Hollywood Hogan at Starcade, WCW's Wrestlemania. The finish was supposed to be the ref fast counts a 3 giving Hogan the victory, then Bret Hart comes down to the ring and restarts the match, Sting puts Hogan in the Scorpion Death Lock and gets the win. Except Nick Patrick fucked up the fast count and counted normally, so when Bret Hart came and restarted the match everyone was wonder what the fuck he was doing, the match was over fair and square. The commentators tried to play up the angle, but it was so obviously botched that even the crowd realized it and it ruined the match. Not to mention the match was kind of a dud up until then.

Granted, Sting hadn't wrestled the entire year because of injuries and drug problems, which is why he wore the trench coat and was always in the rafters instead of wrestling, but it was played up perfectly. This was supposed to be the biggest match of the decade and it was a shitshow.

>>2963621
If they did discipline him, it was kayfabe. I'm talking about actually firing him. He had literally one thing to remember during that match - the biggest match in company history, no less - and fucked it up (again, if he wasn't told by Hogan to do a normal count).

A fast count is a shit gimmick to use on such a big match anyway. fail.

>>2963730
They should have just had Sting beat the fuck out of Hogan and beat him clean, which is what everybody wanted to see. But of course, Hogan had to get his shit in, brother.

>>2963730
Hogan is the biggest piece of shit the industry has ever seen. What a shocker that he wouldn't let Sting go over clean on him.

>>2961367
The Stinger showed up out of shape and refused to get a tan. He didn't deserve to get a win over the Hulkster, brother

Reminder that STINK never drew a dime. Hogan made WCW the biggest most popular promotion at the time. Then they put the belt on STINK and the company began to PLUMMET.

STINK shouldn't have gone over. And you smarks actually wanted him to rekt the big draw Hollywood Hogan and have him lose clean? LOL

>>2963798
Hi Terry

how did this kill wrestling? this was before the ratings peaked wasn't it?

if anything the handling of Goldberg after they broke the streak was the final nail in the coffin

>>2963798

Shut up ya goon