The Importance of…11.07.08: WCW, Part 1 of 2… What To Do

-This Monday’s Raw was quite an interesting one. I dug the opening tag—sure it could have used an extra 5-10 minutes and a legit heat segment, but what we got was entertaining, and I sort of loved that the heels were the ones to get screwed over when the ref didn’t see the tag—I’ve probably seen that happen sometime before, but it was the first occasion I could recall it.

-I have mixed feelings on the big Raw title change. Jericho was doing well as champion, and is certainly more entertaining than Batista. On the other hand, rapid fire title changes do not help the weight of the championship itself, and, besides popping the crowd at Cyber Sunday, it makes you wonder why they moved the strap around at all if they’re going to end where they began. In the end, I’ll condone this decision because it was right for the match itself, regardless of the booking implications.

For one, no one expected Jericho to win, and it was refreshing to see someone actually win a high profile return title match. Secondly, I’m not sure who was at fault, but the timing was off at a several points in the match, and Jericho should have won a few times over (Batista was late catching him on his way out of the door when he escaped the Walls of Jericho; Jericho seemed to be waiting at the top of the cage for an eternity before the climactic brawl up top). These close calls had me thinking there was no chance he would take the strap, and it was both surprising and believable when he finally did get the win.

-This may be an unpopular sentiment, but I have not been a fan of Santino Marella’s work in this I-C title run. I’ve had the feeling that they were going to extend the run until he either passed the Honky Tonk Man’s record, or just short of it, so he could go on a comedic tirade. With William Regal challenging for the strap next Monday, in England, I have high hopes that Santino’s reign will be over sooner rather than later, and that Regal may have re-earned the trust of management enough to get at least this middling push. Putting the strap on Regal could also add some fire to his lower-card program with Jamie Noble, which has the potential to be quite entertaining.

-I like the dynamic developing between Shane McMahon and Randy Orton, as face authority figure and top heel. They’ve teased some sort of program between the two since the summer. I’m not saying I want a series of PPV matches between the two, but I am intrigued with the idea of Shane as the anti-Vince to Orton as the anti-Austin.

On to our regular column…

A strange thing has happened as of late. I’ve found myself pining for the old days of WCW. This is strange because I grew up a WWF fan, and by the time WCW keeled over and died I had stopped watching their product altogether. And yet, there are certain pieces of WCW that were so unique, and so memorable. There were pieces of the company that helped revolutionize the business, and the after effects are still on display to this very day. Today, it’s easy to laugh off WCW as a mismanaged promotion, that failed at every turn, and was inevitably going to go under. With each of these perspectives in mind, I’ve decided to devote a two-part column to WCW—the first, documenting how the company demonstrated what a wrestling promotion should do, the second demonstrating how WCW set an example for what not to do.

One of the defining characteristics of WCW was the fact that it was, for most of its years, under the management of a ‘non-wrestling’ guy. While Eric Bischoff was a wrestling fan, he didn’t come from a background of having performed in wrestling himself, nor was he born into a wrestling family. On the contrary, he joined up with the old AWA as a sales guy and worked his way into a broadcast role. He became a broadcaster in WCW before maneuvering his way into an executive position. In not really growing up in the business, and in not really having the clear credentials for such a management role, Bischoff got a lot of flack. And yet, in taking over, Bischoff demonstrated a Generation Y ideal. You don’t need to pay your dues. You don’t need to have a fancy degree. The right person for the job is the person who can get the job done, period. Bischoff thought differently, finding ways to save the company a fortune, finding more effective ways to market the company, and spearheading research to get to the souls of wrestling fans. That’s not to say there isn’t value in wrestling’s old hands helping to lead a company, but Bischoff underscored the near-universal rule that older is not necessarily better, and that creative thought can change the rules of the game.

Among Bischoff’s outside of the box thoughts was beefing up the pay per view calendar. While WWF was running its traditional big four shows, WCW expanded its calendar until it was running PPVs almost every month. Many fans will lament this shift, as it made following wrestling seriously a several times more expensive hobby, and, indeed, WWF followed suit in organizing monthly super shows, in a formula that has only expanded in recent years. Regardless, what WCW did made sense. From a financial standpoint, it brought in more revenue. From a booking standpoint, it made for a logical pattern, in which the fans knew each month of booking would culminate at the upcoming big show.

What’s more, WCW pay per views were distinct—many of them carrying a unique gimmick or gimmick match to help it stand out. There was a Super Brawl, with the feel of a premium show at the start of the year. There was Uncensored, a forerunner to One Night Stand, featuring a bevy of hardcore gimmick matches. Slamboree was a tribute to wrestlers past. You had Bash at the Beach, the fun, summer outdoor show that literally occurred on a beach. The Great American Bash was, appropriately, a patriotic event. There was Fall Brawl, which would mark culmination of a big feud between feuding factions with the War Games match. There was Halloween Havoc, with its obvious macabre theme, and, for a couple years, the fun gimmick of the Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal Match. World War III featured the impressive visual of a three ring, 60 man battle royal. And then there was Starrcade, WCW’s answer to Wrestlemania, positioned at the end of the calendar year, culminating a year’s journey up to that big point.

When it came to free TV, WCW also did a lot to revolutionize the wrestling world. Many will criticize Bischoff for the less than honorable games he would play on Nitro, but the wrestling world would be a very different place without them. First off, the show aired live every week, which was a pretty new concept at the time. WCW used its live status as an opportunity to pull surprises of its own, as well as spoil the surprises of the competition. There was the unexpected arrival of Lex Luger on the premiere. There was the Monday when Rick Rude showed up on taped Raw and live Nitro on the same night. There were the bevy of surprises introduced in the NWO angle. Meanwhile, Bischoff and Tony Schiavone were spilling the results from Raw to spoil their shows. What’s more, Nitro would start a few minutes early and end a few minutes late, just to make sure that the first and last things wrestling fans would see was the WCW product. Were it not for all of these innovations, you have to wonder if Raw ever would have turned to the weekly live TV format that we all know and have come to expect today. It was WCW that set the bar.

With its extra long TV shows on Monday and Thursday, as well as time to fill on weekend programming, WCW could justify having an, at times, absurdly large roster. The variety of talents allowed WCW a variety of luxuries, including a deep supply of tag teams, a good mix of veterans and up and comers, and, perhaps most notably, a talented stock of foreign talent—specifically from Mexico and Japan—to kick off shows with rousing, high-flying spot-fests that really engaged audiences from the get-go. It’s a bit of a shame that this formula never truly caught on, as WWE’s attempts at cruiserweight divisions have always been short-lived and half-hearted. TNA has carried on the legacy a bit in its X-Division, and specifically in the World X-Cup programs, but no one has really prioritized showcasing different styles the way WCW did for much of its run.

In conjunction with its diverse array of talent, WCW featured many different belts. Secondary titles can be a bit of a joke when they’re just props for uppercard talent, or get lost in the shuffle of big time feuds. Many will criticize WCW for having too many titles, and yet I would contend that the company had it just right. There, of course, needed to be a world title. Similarly, no one will question the need for tag straps. From there, the US title marked a talent who was on the cusp of the main event, and at times, it was even the number one contender who carried the strap. The TV title was for up and coming stars—guys who weren’t ready for the main event level, but had established themselves as more than curtain jerkers. The Lightweight championship marked a distinct goal for smaller talents, and added a touch of realism, as many of the best little guys wouldn’t be bought as legit threats to their larger counterparts. WCW did get a bit carried away at times, with the International title, the Lightweight Tag Team title, and so on, but usually corrected these errors within a reasonable time, and ensured that the proper emphasis remained with the more legit straps.

For all of WCW’s problems, which I will discuss at length next week, the company boasted many important elements to make it a promotion of note, and a company that has helped to define the modern wrestling landscape.