When did you know the Monday night war was official over?

[invincible1914]

They really shyt on their own brand too much. I was watching Fall Brawl 96 recently... the one where Sting whips everyone’s ass then walks away.

After Luger submits or passes out from a scorpion deathlock from fake Sting while Hogan has him in front facelock, the NWO beats up him and the horsemen some more.

Luger crawls toward backstage screaming “STINGER!” while he gets beat up some more.

Savage runs out and gets chokeslammed twice by the Giant.

Liz, who left Savage for Flair runs in and covers Savage to protect him. Hogan spraypaints NWO on Liz’ back and ass.

Hogan cuts a promo and calls Savage and Liz losers and pieces of trash and shyts on WCW while they lay there. Then he slaps the back of Liz head and spits on her. Then Giant chokeslams Savage again.

Then not too long later Savage joins the NWO.

What was the long term planning if they were making all their top WCW guys look like a bunch of bytches?

At one point it felt like it was just NWO vs NWO Wolfpac and nobody WCW mattered. When the NWO stuff dried up WCW was already dead and buried. Then Goldberg bust through and jack hammered Hogan and they went right back to NWO like some drug addicts.

 

[R=G]

They really shyt on their own brand too much. I was watching Fall Brawl 96 recently... the one where Sting whips everyone’s ass then walks away.

After Luger submits or passes out from a scorpion deathlock from fake Sting while Hogan has him in front facelock, the NWO beats up him and the horsemen some more.

Luger crawls toward backstage screaming “STINGER!” while he gets beat up some more.

Savage runs out and gets chokeslammed twice by the Giant.

Liz, who left Savage for Flair runs in and covers Savage to protect him. Hogan spraypaints NWO on Liz’ back and ass.

Hogan cuts a promo and calls Savage and Liz losers and pieces of trash and shyts on WCW while they lay there. Then he slaps the back of Liz head and spits on her. Then Giant chokeslams Savage again.

Then not too long later Savage joins the NWO.

What was the long term planning if they were making all their top WCW guys look like a bunch of bytches?

One of the funniest breakdowns ever

 

[thaKEAF]

After the finger poke of doom. Was rooting for Nash to become champ but then he lays down and it’s the same old shyt with Hoegan again. NWO lost any coolness it had left and at running a goofy ass Hoegan and Flair title feud in 99 against Rock/Foley and Rock/Austin.

 

[richaveli83]

When they brought K.I.S.S. to perform on an episode in summer of 1999. I mean if they wanted a musical act to perform, why not get a band that was current? Dragging out a bunch of guys whose career high was in the 70s was not a good look. I think they said that was the lowest rated segment of Nitro they ever had.

The final nail in the coffin was when The Radicalz quit and signed with the WWF in 2000.

 

[richaveli83]

To think they had entrances like this that looked so badass and still fumbled it

Those cacs had swag in their entrances.

 

[NkrumahWasRight Is Wrong]

Agree with OP

Tbh they couldve recovered from the fingerpoke of doom

 

[THE 101]

I dunno...there was a clear shift in early 99 when they changed the logo and Nitro set. They seemed to be desperately chasing WWF at that point and trying to emulate the attitude era. The booking was bad through a lot of 98 but 99 is when things got completely nonsensical. I couldn't believe they had Nash feuding with Sid for the title like it was 95 WWF

And I love Sid but that wasn't it AT AL.

But I still felt like they had a chance in 99 to comeback because the roster was still deep, it was just everyone was being used terribly. I naively thought the Russo move gave them a chance as at that point a lot of people credited Russo for single handedly reviving the WWF. But he got exposed quickly.

So I think I agree with the OP....Benoit and them jumping ship was the final nail. It just felt like they were out of solutions at that point. They had lost everything that made them so good in the first place and were now getting destroyed in the ratings and the product just came across as low rent now. Nitro was basically unwatchable.

 

[NYChase718]

I dunno...there was a clear shift in early 99 when they changed the logo and Nitro set. They seemed to be desperately chasing WWF at that point and trying to emulate the attitude era. The booking was bad through a lot of 98 but 99 is when things got completely nonsensical. I couldn't believe they had Nash feuding with Sid for the title like it was 95 WWF

And I love Sid but that wasn't it AT AL.

But I still felt like they had a chance in 99 to comeback because the roster was still deep, it was just everyone was being used terribly. I naively thought the Russo move gave them a chance as at that point a lot of people credited Russo for single handedly reviving the WWF. But he got exposed quickly.

So I think I agree with the OP....Benoit and them jumping ship was the final nail. It just felt like they were out of solutions at that point. They had lost everything that made them so good in the first place and were now getting destroyed in the ratings and the product just came across as low rent now. Nitro was basically unwatchable.

Their hardcore division
Things like a woman Named "asya" blatantly after Chyna
Jeff jarett jumps ship and gets pushed as if they just aquired stone cold or the rock

 

[Ben Ovabich]

Early 99 after the Fingerpoke of doom...When Stevie Ray &Vincent were fighting over who was the leader of the NWO B Team..

 

[dh86]

Fingerpoke of doom. In a weird way that story culminated in Hogan returning to the red and yellow 3 months later so either one.

 

[richaveli83]

Early 99 after the Fingerpoke of doom...When Stevie Ray &Vincent were fighting over who was the leader of the NWO B Team..

Oh shyt I forgot about that!

 

[HipHopStan]

I knew there was no point of return after 99 for WCW. None. I remember arguing with hardcore WCW stans in chatrooms who were like "Russo, the guy behind the Attitude era, is booking and Austin is injured. WCW is on the comeback."

How well did that turn out?

The Rock, HHH, Jericho, etc. etc. all carried WWF into the new millennium. And WCW was dead a year and a half later. I think the breaking moment for me was the Fingerpoke of Doom/nWo revival. I remember after the Jan 4th, 1999 RAW (Foley's victory) went off the air, I tuned back to Nitro and was like "This bullshyt again?!?" I only really watched WCW again after that for fukkery purposes. You had shyt like Ric Flair getting jumped on TV and then returning to the arena with announcers not knowing what happened to 10 heavyweight title changes in one year to Junkyard brawls. It was a mess,

I will say there were shots of promise in 2000 when The New Blood started, but that quickly faltered. I also liked Scott Steiner's title run. However, there was no coming back from the abysmal year of 1999 for WCW.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Early 99 after the Fingerpoke of doom...When Stevie Ray &Vincent were fighting over who was the leader of the NWO B Team..

I don’t even remember that. Must’ve been too busy watching Stone Cold and The Rock.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

One of the funniest breakdowns ever

That’s exactly how it happened too. I can’t find the whole thing on YT but if you have WWE network it was Fall Brawl 96.

Fall brawl 97 wasn’t much better either. You had the horsemen 3 vs. 4 vs. the NWO in war games. Curt Hennig had accepted AA’s offer as the new enforcer of the horsemen. Hennig apparently got beat up by the NWO and was injured and couldn’t make the match we thought. He comes out with his arm in a sling and takes off the sling revealing handcuffs. He joins the NWO and it’s 5 on 3. They handcuff Mongo and Benoit to the cage and beat the shyt out of them.

Nash gets on the mic and keeps asking them if they quit. They keep saying no til Hennig is about to slam the door on Flair’s head, and Nash says “What’s it gonna be? Give up or the old man gets a guillotine.” They say yes and Hennig slams Flair’s head in the door anyway. SMH.

It seems there were just riding the NWO wave til the wheels fell off with no long term plan. But you don’t have to be a business expert to know if you destroy the credibility of your brand, you won’t last. Their booking made the WCW brand synonymous with old, washed up, lame and p*ssy through over 2 years of almost nothing but humiliations.

 

[R=G]

I dunno...there was a clear shift in early 99 when they changed the logo and Nitro set. They seemed to be desperately chasing WWF at that point and trying to emulate the attitude era. The booking was bad through a lot of 98 but 99 is when things got completely nonsensical. I couldn't believe they had Nash feuding with Sid for the title like it was 95 WWF

And I love Sid but that wasn't it AT AL.

But I still felt like they had a chance in 99 to comeback because the roster was still deep, it was just everyone was being used terribly. I naively thought the Russo move gave them a chance as at that point a lot of people credited Russo for single handedly reviving the WWF. But he got exposed quickly.

So I think I agree with the OP....Benoit and them jumping ship was the final nail. It just felt like they were out of solutions at that point. They had lost everything that made them so good in the first place and were now getting destroyed in the ratings and the product just came across as low rent now. Nitro was basically unwatchable.

Goldberg was the key. He was the star out of the 1996-1999 deal. But you don't heel him and the Hogan focus needed to stop..the Nwo should of died after Goldberg got revenge for Starrcade 98.