10 Lessons WWE Shouldn’t Forget From WCW’s History

2. Allow New Talent To Get Over

This has been discussed at length but the reason WWE is so stale is that their main event talents are stale. Back in the WWF's heyday, it seemed as though people like Ted DiBiase, Jake Roberts, Hulk Hogan, and Randy Savage were around forever. But, if you break it down, you may be surprised: Hulk Hogan (1983 - 1993) Randy Savage (1985 - 1994) Ted DiBiase (1987 - 1993) Jake Roberts (1986 - 1992) Hogan was the longest tenured wrestler out of those four with 10 years of service to the company. These were four upper card guys who defined an era for the WWF but many of them were around for less than a decade. Compare those stretches to today's main eventers: John Cena (2002 - Present) Randy Orton (2002 - Present) Big Show (1999 - Present) Triple H (1996 - Present) The comparisons aren't even close. Cena and Orton have been hanging around for over 12 years and the Big Show has been lumbering around WWE rings for 15 years. This was the same mistake that WCW made during its dying days. They stuck with over-the-hill stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Roddy Piper, and Bret Hart when it was clear that their time in the sun was over. When Vince Russo arrived and attempted to get the younger guys over, the older stars rebelled and held them down. This has occurred in the WWE locker room as well, most famously with the Nexus. When the Nexus were scheduled to defeat Team WWE at Summerslam, John Cena squashed that idea and replaced it with him overcoming the odds to win the match. Nexus was shortly disbanded afterwards.