NWA, JCP, WCW, TNA…….in Vince McMahon’s eyes there could only ever be one, WWE is that one.
Wrestling was a thriving form of entertainment in the USA during the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s. Filled with intriguing characters and excellent ring tacticians the product boomed ,with regional promotions dotted all over the country. The majority of companies during this time were all members of the National Wrestling Alliance, they all booked their own talent and shows, yet there was only one recognised world title, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The NWA World title was revered the world over, established in January 1948 ,it’s had it’s up and downs, what was once the most prestigious belt in professional wrestling is now nothing more than an afterthought. Held by legends such as Lou Thesz, Buddy Rodgers, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair who helped to create and carve the legacy of the belt and the NWA.
In the early 1980’s a young brash businessman by the name of Vincent K. McMahon purchased capitol from his father, thus talking control ,of the then World Wrestling Federation. Vince had a business plan for the WWF, he wanted to make it the number one wrestling company in the USA and establish a globally recognised brand. The WWF predominantly promoted shows in the northern states and there was an agreement that promoters wouldn’t infringe on their competition, promote rival shows or steal talent. Vince saw things differently, his business plan was only possible if the WWF was the only competition. Therefore, shortly after he purchased the WWF he began his expansion into competitive territories, singlehandedly changing the wrestling business.
The developmental territory system that had been in place since the NWA’s founding suffered massively during McMahon’s expansion. Another tactic was to get the WWF product on syndicated television across the United States, this further rubbed regional promoters the wrong way, and they felt Vince was reneging on agreements made years prior. The WWF then decided to hire new talent who had made a name for themselves outside of the company, Vince’s biggest signing was AWA talent Hulk Hogan. He then added Roddy Piper, Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, Randy Savage and many more, all were former AWA and NWA talent. The revenue generated from TV & promotion further enhanced McMahon’s grip on the business, this allowed him to purchase new talent and book shows far and wide. The territory system was dead.
Jim Crockett Promotions was Vince’s only main rival in the mid 1980’s, they aligned themselves with the NWA to try and fight the WWF tide. In October 1988, media tycoon Ted Turner successfully purchased the company outright from JCP, and renamed it as WCW. World Championship Wrestling was now a contender. Over the course of the next few years WCW was the alternative to the family friendly WWF, WCW still acted and did the business the southern way. It was still viewed by Vince as a regional promotion, even after Turner acquired it he never really gave it much time, as far as he was concerned the WWF was king. At the time many agreed with Vince, especially as in 1992 ,WCW made “Cowboy” Bill Watts head booker who made great decisions such as banning top rope moves. Ted Turner however saw this wasn’t the way to go and cut ties with Watts in 1993.
WCW would begin to rebuild and with that Turner promoted Eric Bischoff to Executive Vice President in early 1993. Eric slowly started to make changes, such as moving all of WCW’s television tapings to MGM studios in Florida to save money. WCW however still suffered financial losses due to irrelevant storylines and bad booking, 1993 ended with losses of $23 million. Bischoff had to find a cure, so in 1994 WCW’s own expansion began as they secured the services of both Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage to million dollar contracts. Ted Turner wanted to compete with Vince McMahon and eventually defeat him and become number one.To achieve this his next move was to award Bischoff and WCW with a two hour programme called Nitro which went live every Monday on TNT. The first show broadcasted from the Mall of America was a critical success, WCW managed to further stick the knife into Vince when Lex Luger made his debut only hours after his contract with WWE had expired.
The debut of Nitro, alongside the marquee signings of Hogan, Savage and Luger finally made WWF stand up and take notice. For the first time in a long time WWE had actual competition. WWF meanwhile started to promote new young talent, the emphasis was more on athletic smaller guys than the bigger more muscular wrestlers of the 1980’s. The new wave of WWF talent included names such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon and the 123-Kid, who all went on to achieve great success with both WWE and WCW. Although Vince introduced new talent the WWF was still marketing itself towards being a family friendly form of entertainment with such characters as Papa Shango, Doink the Clown and Bart & Billy Gunn. Eric Bischoff wanted to get away from that mentality, he wanted a fresh product that he could aim at 18-35 year olds, a more adult orientated product shall we say.
In the spring of 1996 the contracts of both Scott Hall & Kevin Nash were expiring, as Razor Ramon and Diesel they were two of the WWF’s biggest stars.
In May ,Scott Hall made his debut on a live episode of Nitro, on June 10th Kevin Nash joined him, together they became known as the Outsiders. The appearances of these two alone changed the landscape in WCW. At the Bash at the Beach PPV in July, Hulk Hogan turned heel and formed the NWO with Hall & Nash. WCW had changed the wrestling business forevermore, the WWF was king no more. As explained countless times the formation of the NWO was a critical and commercial success for WCW, it propelled them to the top of the wrestling world, Bischoff and Turner had struck gold. Due to WCW’s new reality based direction they overtook WWE in the ratings as fan interest grew in their adult aimed entertainment, there would be no Papa Shango, Doink or Goon in WCW.
WCW gained the upper hand for the better part of two years, that was until Vince himself unearthed the Mr. McMahon character, Stone Cold Steve Austin and the WWF’s Attitude. Over the course of the NWO’s run they actually did more harm than good where WCW was concerned, storylines became predictable, confusing and completely self-centred. The NWO gimmick itself became watered down and boring, WCW unfortunately had nothing in reserve so trying to fight the WWF’s resurgence was proving difficult. By the time Wrestlemania 14 happened the WWF were in the driving seat both creatively and commercially, they had once more become the cool kids. 1998-2001 was the WWF’s boom period, packed full of realistic characters, great storylines and nonstop action they had found the remedy to the once powerful WCW.
2001 is where the WWF’s lack of direction truly started, in March of that year Vince McMahon finally defeated his competition when he signed the cheque to purchase World Championship Wrestling. With that purchase the WWF became the king of sports entertainment in the world, there was no alternative and no competition for Vince. WWF then presented us with the long awaited, much fantasised WWF vs WCW war featuring ECW, the possibilities were endless, Sting/Taker, Goldberg/Austin, DDP/Triple H……..wrestling fans were in heaven. However what we got was WWF stars joining what was left of the mid-card of WCW in a failed feud designed to prove that the WWF was top dog. WCW died a slow painful death and with that competition died, competition that kept WWF fighting, creating stars and creating intriguing feuds. Alongside the fall of WCW, WWF suffered heavily.
In May 2002 WWF became WWE, with losing the ‘F’ they also lost their way. Don’t get me wrong WWE still got things right when they wanted too, however the lack of competition stopped WWE striving for the best, they became content. Except for the class of 2002 i.e. Brock, Orton, Cena, Batista, WWE lost a decade of creating the stars for tomorrow, and just into the new millennium the WWE lost the Rock and Stone Cold two of the biggest stars ever in professional wrestling. Creatively the WWE has suffered ever since the 2001 fall of WCW, except for John Cena and now Roman Reigns they failed to create new stars. What they did do however was sign the superstars of the independent circuit, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan both joined the WWE, they were ready made for the bright lights due to paying their dues. WWE’s grip on the wrestling industry forced the start-up of such groups as ROH and CZW and later TNA.
The three companies mentioned haven’t proved much competition against Vince and personally I don’t think it was ever their intention to do so. TNA attempted to be a player but they quickly learnt the hard way how difficult it is and how much money it costs. ROH, CZW and countless other independent promotions however have provided WWE with the stars of tomorrow, Rollins, Ambrose, Cesaro, Balor, Joe, Crews all proved themselves elsewhere before stepping foot in WWE/NXT. With the mention of NXT that is where the point of my article came from, if a rival promotion can’t compete with WWE why don’t they create it from the inside?
NXT has already created its own aura, image and fan base, it’s treated as a separate entity to WWE no matter what Vince McMahon and other officials say. WWE is really experiencing a creative slump right now, major stars are missing and viewership is down into the 2.1, there has to be a creative cure. The current trend of WWE resting on their laurels has to stop, with the wealth of talent at WWE’s disposal there should no excuse for the current decline. With the competition that WCW provided Vince was able to strike back and create a sublime product that shook up the wrestling scene and made it engaging once more. Yes the WWE creative department is lacking, yes the NXT talent isn’t fully there and yes WWE needs help but look no further than the past to understand the future, because sports entertainment really isn’t that hard.
@ciaran_1986
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