World Championship Wrestling did a lot of good for the grappling industry. Monday Nitro kick-started the 'Monday Night Wars' that hooked fans, and the promotion provided wrestlers with a genuine alternative workplace to the then-WWF. However, for all the good that WCW did, the last few years of the group's existence proved to be a miserable failure. Creatively, WCW was in the toilet by 1999. Bereft of fresh ideas, the writing team decided to keep plowing on with the tired New World Order shtick. Even as calendars turned to the year 2000, the organisation's brain trust thought simply rehashing the nWo and calling it 'nWo 2000' would fix all their problems. The entire place was a mess, and parts of the product were unwatchable. If (the second half) of 1996, 1997 and 1998 had been high points, 1999 into 2000 proved to be a crushing low. It's those years which scoop most attention in this article. There are notable exceptions, but over half of the points raised here took place from 1999 until WCW whimpered away in 2001. Suddenly, one of the only true alternatives to Vince McMahon's empire was gone. March, 2001 was a sad month for wrestling fans, because WCW was enjoyed by many. By 2001 however, the wheels had fallen off the once-great promotion. These are some of the moments that killed it, haunting fans ever since.
