10 Secrets Nobody Has Told You About WCW

1. Early '90s WCW Was Better Than The Monday Night Wars WCW

Stunning Steve Austin Stone Cold Steve Austin
WWE

When reflecting back on when WCW was at the peak of its powers, many will offer up the famed nWo-driven Monday Night Wars period as being the very best of Ted Turner's rasslin' promotion.

Sure, those years featured some phenomenal moments and matches, and yes, WCW did best the then-WWF for a mammoth 83 weeks in the ratings, but the reality is WCW was a better product at the start of that decade.

Going back and looking at the first few years of the '90s, it was a fantastic time to be a fan of WCW. Not only was Sting utterly tearing it up as one of the greatest energetic babyfaces the industry has ever seen, but the WCW poster boy was surrounded by so much other awesomeness.

On the tag team front, you had pairings such as the Steiner Brothers, Doom, Harlem Heat, the Road Warriors, the Enforcers, the Nasty Boys, the Midnight Express, the Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Fabulous Freebirds, the Southern Boys, Terry Gordy & Steve Williams, the Hollywood Blonds, and the majestic, brief pairing of Arn Anderson and 'Beautiful' Bobby Eaton.

In the singles ranks, the main event scene was dripping with star power, with Ric Flair, Nikita Koloff, Lex Luger, Sid Vicious, Big Van Vader, Rick Rude, Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat, Paul Orndorff, Cactus Jack, Ron Simmons, and Davey Boy Smith all getting some time in the main event spotlight alongside Sting.

Lower down the card, this period also had rising stars such as 'Stunning' Steve Austin, Lord Steven Regal, Brian Pillman, Dustin Rhodes, 2 Cold Scorpio, Marcus Alexander Bagwell, Johnny B. Badd, Scotty Flamengo, and even sporadic appearances from the legendary Jushin Liger.

Simply put, from the start of the '90s through until the arrival of Hulk Hogan, WCW was ridiculously fun and featured some of the very best wrestling on the planet. Plus, in someone like Vader, the promotion had a genuinely fear-inducing monster who made for the perfect foil to WCW's babyface roster.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.