What would you have done to help WCW survive ?

[Mr. Manhattan]

What booking decisions would you have done, to bring ratings and overall interest in the WCW product

For me crow Sting wouldve carried the whole 1998, and he would be presented similarly to Undertaker, fueding with NWO, Ric Flair, younger wrestlers majority of the year

Goldberg would still be climbing the ranks till it culminated to Sting vs Goldberg WHC match on Starrcade

Goldberg would win the championship and carry 1999-2000 undefeated, like Cena or Roman

 

[Theodoresolderbreh]

Fired disco inferno and the guy who designed their hardcore belt

 

[Ya Sinning Mane]

Sting and Bret beef-did they try this? I know they had a match
Push them high flying Mexicans like Rey to the front cause cruiser weights lit

 

[Maliciouslarynx]

They said the average audience range for WCW was early 30s.

I would've stopped bringing in old novelties ala Warrior, Animal, Piper.

I would've stopped renewing those outrageous contracts and focused on increasing tv production even at a higher cost to offset the reduction in staff cost (wrestler contracts).

Built out a women's program at a point they had Medusa, Molly Holly, Midnight (racist asf), Jacqueline,

97 would be year of Crow Sting vs NWO, 98 Sting holds belt until ultimately facing Goldberg, captilaizing on wrestling mainstream popularity without acutlally having celebs wrestle, and build a women's division, 99 year of Goldberg, loses to Y2J or Ben... after building them up against Flairs, DDP etc... Then we can have begun a cycle of the future who would be around for the next 5 years

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

From a business standpoint I would've made Turner correct the books to show they were actually profitable; they collected no tv rights fees since they were owned by the network, but ate all the expenses.

From a booking standpoint, I would have paid the lower and midcard guys enough to keep them as to keep the first 90 minutes of the show interesting. Then I would build up the stronger WCW guys like jericho, Benoit, ddp, eddy, konnan, kanyon, Goldberg as legitimate formidable babyfaces to take down the nWo, culminating at WW3 98 and starrcade, with the wcw finally taking down nWo for good. nWo goes into WW3 with all the belts, but loses, with the final wargames survivors being Goldberg, Benoit, and Luger. Nash looks strong asf, and Hall gives up as Nash is being beat down by the good guys.

From there, the final blowoff is starrcade 98. All belts on the line. Any nWo member that loses their title is suspended indefinitely (declared by an angry Hogan and bischoff, as a threat...Nash does not approve of this) bischoff also faces flair...if he loses nwo is disbanded 4-lyfe. In fact that's the name of the show: STARRCADE 98: 4-LYFE

• Goldberg vs Hogan (c) - steel cage (Nash turns on Hogan, becomes a top Babyface) - WCW title
• Benoit vs Hall (c) - us title
• Flair vs Bischoff - if flair wins nwo is banned forever
• DDP vs Savage (falls count anywhere)
• Jericho vs Bagwell (c) - tv title ladder match
• Harlem heat vs Steiner Bros (c) (rick is in nWo in this story) tag titles
• Eddy Juvie, Syxx (c) - cruiserweight triple threat
• Sting & Luger vs Muta & Chono

nWo loses every match, including bischoff, nWo is no more. Goldberg is top face still, with his top challenger being a newly signed Mike Awesome, and Savage who doesn't give af about nWo and never did. Nash is top tweener and becomes most popular in WCW, and Eddy and Juvie fued over cruiserweight title, culminating in a nitro main event ladder match in a couple weeks.

 

[Cal Cutta]

Agreed with pretty much everything in this thread. A small thing that would have been low risk/high reward:

- Keep and build the relationship with AAA established from When Worlds Collide. Keep an annual show going, and trade more talent. This also hamstrings WWE at a critical moment (Royal Rumble 97). I'm not saying WWE couldn't have figured out an alternative game plan but from what's known, the damage would have been tangible. It also builds more brand support to WCW outside the United States which was important in the mid-90's.

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

would've never created Thunder

 

[Toe Jay Simpson]

I truly believe Bischoff when he says there is nothing that could have been done to save WCW. Yes it was a terrible product near it’s end although it was rebounding, but Bischoff tells a story where he went to a meeting at the Turner building with the new mgmt and they didnt even know what day the show came on. Apparently they were being condescending to him so he decided to be a jerk and ask them what day does “Monday Night Nitro” come on, they had to think about it. They were doomed no matter what.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Fired Vince Russo and Bischoff, end the nWo stuff, boot the old b*stards like Hogan who went out of their way to hold back the rest of the roster.

 

[HipHopStan]

Sting and Bret beef-did they try this? I know they had a match

They had a few matches (one that culminated in a backstage brawl on Nitro, Halloween Havoc 98, and WCW Mayhem 99.) The best one out of the three was the first one I mentioned, the backstage brawl. The other two were surprisingly subpar.

 

[Dog Based Gremlin]

When they changed the logo, it was a wrap but 3 Count was my favorite act of the shytty logo era

Absolutely loved the gimmick

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

• Never would have hired Hogan (It was a gift and a curse, along with the direction I would want the company to go)
• Give the youngins the chance to shine while the midcarders will end up being main eventers (The 94 roster before Hogan)
• Give Flair the Terry Funk stimulus (Southern draw that can put over the talent while maintain his "spot")
• More strength on the lightweight division (WCW always will be known for their cruiserweights, so I would OD on the division, thus allowing flippy shyt to be the formula to put the company in its own lane)
• Get rid of the redneck cacs (fukk em)
• Fix the bridges burnt with Heyman (Working a deal with ECW and eventually putting them on the payroll)
• Make the "world" part of WCW have legs (Work with promotions out of the ass from NJPW, AAA, AJPW, etc)
• Find another channel brand (To avoid the merger)

But on the real, these ideas will never fall through because WCW is a intricate puzzle of a wrestling promotion. Without Hogan, the company would had died. Without Turner, the company doesn't have a identity.

The whole promotion was doomed to die from the start, and this is coming from a ex WCW mark.