Exposing The Myth: Pre-nWo WCW Was Trash
High level main events, banging entrance themes, and the best babyface in the business.
One of the pivotal moments in wrestling history is undoubtedly the formation of the "New World Organisation of wrestling, brother!" on 7 July 1996 at WCW's annual Bash at the Beach PPV.
That initial group of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall would soon become known as the New World Order, and the group would run roughshod over WCW for the next several years, which in turn was a key part of Ted Turner's rasslin' company dominating the WWF for such a large part of the famed Monday Night Wars.
While the nWo's impact cannot be questioned - both for its positive and eventual negative effect on WCW - there's a common belief amongst certain sections of wrestling fandom that see WCW as being a complete sh*t show up until Hogan, Nash, and Hall first joined forces.
Without taking away from the success that followed that July '96 night, it's ridiculous to lambast WCW's pre-nWo days as lacking in quality and appeal. You can obviously claim subjectivity in believing that, but there was so much greatness on offer in WCW from the promotion's creation in 1988 up until when the New World Order was assembled.
Now then, it's time to break down the myth that WCW regularly served up trash until the nWo arrived to save the day.
7. The Utterly Amazing Entrance Themes
Pre-nWo WCW was nothing if not revolutionary when it came to the entrance themes given to so many wrestlers of the day.
There had previously been rare occasions over the years where wrestlers had used actual songs with actual lyrics - Hulk Hogan and Real American being the prime example - to make their way to the ring, but WCW was groundbreaking in how the company purposely put together proper songs with lyrics for a whole host of the promotion's top stars. And not just that, but so many of these songs were complete and utter bangers!
With so many of these songs having been written and produced by Michael P.S. Hayes and a fella called Jimmy Papa, the music of early '90s WCW has yet to be bettered to this day. From Sting, to 2 Cold Scorpio, to Dustin Rhodes, to The Steiner Brothers, to Ron Simmons, and so many more, Hayes and Papa served up some right tunes.
Of course, none of these fantastic musical numbers come even close to matching the brilliance of Rick Rude's Simply Ravishing theme - which has been included here for your aural pleasure.
Were some of these tracks a little too on the nose with their actual lyrics? For sure. But despite lyrics such as "he does this, he does that, he's big as bull and quick as a cat," that doesn't stop something like A Man Called Sting from being ridiculously catchy.
Even in the entrance tracks that featured no vocals, there are some legendary offerings, with Ricky Steamboat, The Hollywood Blondes, and The Dangerous Alliance having entrance songs that you'll be humming for hours on end.