DD

Tell us how you got into WCW, how you got out (some may have just waited until it just didnt exist anymore, but most bailed well before that), and how important was it to you in your overall wrestling enjoyment.

For me I wasnt even watching wrestling at all in about 1996. I think I had stopped watching wrestling when Raw started actually. I was a high schooler and simply didnt even give wrestling much of a thought. I hadnt watch reguarly in like 4 years. When I was younger I watched it ALL THE TIME. But WWF was the only show available to the best of my knowledge at the time.

So in I think it was 97 my buddy asked me to come over to his new apartment. We got stoned, drank some beers and played WCW Nitro for his Nintendo. I liked the game so much that I wanted to see what looked to me like an old WWF roster. I couldnt believe how many guys they had.

I admit it....I started watching wrestling again because of Goldberg. Can you believe it? Goldberg.....

But what kept me was Kevin Nash, Hollywood Hogan, Hall. The NWO. Oh man, that stuff was classic back in the day....I was a huge NWO fan and was really into Hogan at the time. I had always disliked him and it was such a treat to see him play a dickhead for a change.

But at the end of the day I think I was just living a nostaligic time in my life and spending most of it high and drunk while watching wrestling. Monday nights were hanging at my buddies from 5pm to Midnight. But by the time 8pm rolled around for Nitro we were pumped.

I stopped watching WCW never entirely even till the end, but for the most part it was unbearable to watch. The whole Russo/Ferrera "Powers that Be" is where they really started to lose me. I HATED that angle with a passion. I was so camp.

They lost me completely when they didnt put Kidman over Hogan in the New Breed/Old School angle was going on. .


Now you.

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Brandon

It was during the Sting/Flair vs. Funk/Muta feud. I'm not sure what year it was, probably 1989-90 but I was already a fan of WWE so I gave this a chance and I fell in love with the Stinger.. Thought Muta was mad cool also.

So then that gave me the opportunity to buy some VHS tapes from like 1986-on because back then you could order all the turner videos from wrestling mags like PWI and shit like that. So I ended up watching a lot of the Horsemen era etc..

I watched wrestling from 1989 (6-years old) to 1995 and I kinda grew out of it until it got more mature with the nWo angle and in WWE, The Attitude Era.

Tyler Durden

I started watching Raw in 96ish. I liked it, I was a huge Hart Foundation fan and the five of them were living large and in charge into 97. But the match quality was extremely poor in the show. If you look at the results (on "obsessed with wrestling" or some other such site) you see that WWE were putting on 15 minute matches all the way through the show. But these were 15 minute matches featuring Faarooq, Goldust, DoA, Los Baricuas, Marc Mero......my god it was awful at times. Well, pretty much unless you count the upper card matters with Stone Cold, Taker, HBK, Harts......they were all the only ones worth watching much of, and that's the way it stayed up there.....until the Radicals, Jericho and Angle all came in within six months of each other.

One day, I was flicking around during a boring match and I think I caught the opening of Nitro, which (as usual) was featuring a cruiser bout. I loved that. Then for the rest of the show, I'd flick back and forth. Generally I would watch the start of Raw, and if (as usual back then) it was just talking, I'd start watching Nitro instead. I'd always go back to Raw for the main event stuff, but find myself more and more drawn to Nitro as a programme.....well until the Nitro main eventers came into it. I have always hated Hogan, and he was all over the main event scene down there. And guys like Luger, Piper and even Sting (once he stopped playing the mask character with any sort of mystery to it) bored me silly. Even Nash, god love him he's gold on the mic.....but he was pretty wretched as a ring guy.

And that was the way it stayed for me till 99ish. I was a fan of the WCW mid card and a fan of the WWE upper card. Then all my dreams came true(!). My favourite WCW mid carder, Jericho, joined WWE. Then to get Benoit, Guerrero and Malenko and to have the up and coming Angle in the mix too, meant I no longer had any reason to watch WCW anymore. Russso had gone there and had royally stinked the place up. I still liked bits of Goldbergs' schtick, Booker, Kanyon, Awesome, DDP, Kidman, Scott Steiner.....but the booking for those guys was beyond abysmal. Things like Ed Ferrara as Oklahoma and Madusa being all over TV, Arquette winning the title, Jeff Jarrett being pushed way way over where he stood in the industry at the time, Russo beating Goldberg & Flair. Man the place was a stinkfest.

So, coupled with WWE's much better storylines, the emergence of Rock, Hunter & Foley to the Stone Cold & Taker show, the greatly improved mid to upper card......by 99 there was absolutely no reason to watch WCW any more. Simply put, I'd been drawn by it's diversity compared to Raw. What drew me away was WWE bringing in a lot of my favourite WCW guys, along with Nitro becoming a WWElite show.

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A throne is just a bench wrapped in velvet

)85(

There was a lot about WCW i loved. i was young anything WCW did i always tried to find something good about it(WCW mark...i know) they had more comedy with Kevin Nash and the way Scott Hall looked being serious but funny at the same time. The cruiserweight division had it for me. WWF i think didn't have enough cruiserweight action(i could be wrong).

I remember seeing the new Nitro intro for the first time and i changed the channel because i thought it was Sports related(NBA or NFL or maybe some action movie) i switched back and it was WCW. i can't remember when it was the first time i watched WCW for the first time but i do remember how different WCW intro was. TNT had all the action movies that my grandfather loved, so it was his favorite channel so TNT was the main channel for me and WCW was on the programming.

I tuned in for Rey Mysterio, Juvi, Ultimo dragon, Konan, Sting, Kevin Nash, Hogan, Luger, Savage, Hall, M.I.A., DDP, Goldberg, Harlem heat, Sister Sheri, But it was mainly about Tag teams because i always pictures me and my cousin like that as myself(Booker) my cousin(Stieve Ray), or Konan(my cousin) Rey Mysterio(my self). etc. if it had something to do with brothers or cousins, i was a fan because i pictered it like that. everytime Rey Mysterio was in the ring i never changed the chennel because i didn't ever want to miss much of what he did. The giant killer days were my favorite because i switched up the people as The Giant(my bullies) vs Rey(myself).

Then there was No Limit with Master P. Man i loved that. I was at the Gym(for basketball) always saying Hootie Hoo. at School, Basketball practice, on freetime with friends, playing videogames with friends. the WCW/NWO revenge was fun because 10 matches to win a title belt, bu ti never had a Merory pack so i always had to restart everyday. the first time i got that me and my cousin were laughing because we thought you can only win with the big dawgs(Nash, hogan, hall, Sting) and i won a belt with La Parke and we had alot of fun with that, laughing and everything for a few weeks it was about swinging my knees and dancing like La Parka. Althis was takign place when i was in 6th grade.

So when i was at the Gym, and i only had 1 hour and 30 muinutes to play around with the younger kids who loved Wrestling as much as i did, in the gym floor there was a volley ball line and we used that an imaginary ring it was fun using the punch lines,

Hack Saw-HOOOOO! (with the thumb in the air)

Sting-WHOO!

and my favortie move was the Sweet chin music because you can slap your leg and a few older dudes told me to stop because they thought i was really kicking them. And then there was the double suplex that we really loved be cause the two guys would get it reveresed and turn that into the DDT. i was held in he air a few times and and i got DDT't myself in the fun.

OH MAN! when we were told to stop, we all (myself and 10 other 4th graders went to the back and we left a few dented lockers in a all out hardcore match. OH MAN! i miss the 6TH GRADE!!!!!

A few older dudes from the 7th, 9th and 11th grades started getting into our wrestling fun. when the younger kids had to leave, i was wrestling my cousin and a few other guys.

When basketball practice my i never went home to eat and rest, that was recomended by him to do but i satyed because we had all the fun wrestling everynight. He was so suprised by my love for Wrestling i had to stop because i wouldn't go home to rest because gym nights for the most part, started after out practices. He standed in Awe sometimes when i showed him why i loved WCW. I was sweating alot just showing him the catch phrases, and some storylines. I used the speed and conditioning i got from basketball practice for the the the 4th graders.

My coach and one of his players(who was close to him) tried to make Basketball cooler and telling me Wrestling fake etc. to ell you the turth....i sweated an worked harder on the matches, and it lasted the whole gym night on Saterdays.

the reason i waoked harder with those matches was because i never had a chance to play basketball because they said i was too short, too young, and slow. they finally let me play after i showed them how to work hard with soemthing you loved. wrestling is my first love because i was never good enough to play with the older guys on the court.

That why i loved WCW, it gave me something to do on the sidelines while the older dudes played basketball. it gave me a reason to go to the gym and do something. it was just pass the time by playing def or off. My coach's practice game me a body that i can have fun with and not run out of energy for awhile. WCW was my life.

I'm out like No Limit in WCW.

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Swamps

I have been watching wrestling ever since I can remember to be honest. I remember watching Starrcade and Great American Bash in the late 1980s when they were still NWA PPVs and at this time I was three or four.

The one thing that really had me hooked on WCW was Stunning Steve Austin defending the Television title constantly on WCW shows and to be quite honest I hated Austin. It didn't matter if this was one of those three hour tapings were WCW would make three shows in one day Steve Austin was out in the ring for every show defending the title. I remember when Austin won the title from Beautiful Bobby Eaton for the first time and this is what began my dislike for Austin. Bobby Eaton was part of my favorite tag team from the NWA territories (The Mid Night Express) and had become my favorite Singles wrestler at the time and man did I mark so hard when he beat Arn Anderson for the Television Title. Anyway, even though I disliked Austin I would always watch the shows just to see him defend his title. Again I marked the hell out when Barry Windam beat Austin for the title but, got so pissed off when Austin hit Windam up side his head with the title to win the championship back at CLash of the Champions. Austin would continue to defend the title and would always constantly walk away the match with the title wether it be by pinfall, or a DQ or count out loss and even those time limit draws. Austin continue to keep me watching WCW and eventully moved into the Mid cards winning the US title just to be squashed in eight seconds by Hacksaw Jim Duggun not long after winning the belt. Very soon after Austin was squashed he went to ECW for a brief stint and then onto WWE where he became probably the biggest surprise in wrestling history to many people but, the way I kept watch WCW just to see Austin I knew he was destined to be one of the greats.

The thing that made me stop watching WCW was booking making guys like Jarrett and Steiner WHC.

Deadman_015

I got into WCW mainly because of Goldberg. He was a mega star, in 98 I was way into him, I saw mainly from the start of 98, till sometime in 99, when it lost my interest. In 98, Goldberg's streak was just impeccable. I had been into wrestling since 97, my family was into it, I got into the WWF (still was and still am into WWE) when I watched a Sunday Night Heat with my Family. It featured Stone Cold vs. Triple H, I forget who won, but the brutality and the characters got me hooked, I ran into my room and started watching it by myself after that. (I was younger.. like 7 at the time, but I remember most of it.)

I think I got back into WCW when Booker was champion, and Steiner was big, I watched it mainly for that, I don't know why, I was 9 then, so I probably just got bored of WWF. The WWF kept me hooked all throughout 97, 98, 99, 00, and besides mid 04 to early 06, I've been into wrestling everytime but besides between that time.

I stopped watching when it folded, as I had lost interest, still watched as it was fun to switch through the channels over and over going back and forth, cause I could see one good thing in WCW at a time, when something bad came on one product, I'd move to the other. It made Monday Night's fun. When it folded it was disappointing, I remember the last Nitro to an extent, with the Flair/Sting, Shane coming out, David Flair (I think he was owner, or something, 6 years ago and I was 9, bad memory then I'd suppose), Booker/Steiner for both belts, and so forth.

Even when WCW sucked, it was something interesting to watch when WWF had the Moolah's, and so forth. WCW ruined a golden opportunity to dominate the scene really, and Eric & company blew it.