In the year 2000 alone, the WCW World Title was vacated no less than 6 times. Obviously, this did nothing to cement the title as meaningful in the eyes of the onlooking audience. In 1999, the same belt had only been vacated twice, both times to the irritation of fans. Common sense would dictate that WCW would learn their lesson from this, but they didn't. It wasn't only the World Title that suffered from a lack of respect, other belts came across as utterly useless. Previously, the WCW Cruiserweight Title had been a symbol of excellence. The WWF even tried to piggy-back on the success of the title by creating their own high-flying division, the Light-Heavyweight Title league. By 2000, WCW made their own creation look awful. Ed Ferrara, one of the writing team, was cast as 'Oklahoma'. The gimmick was little more than a tasteless dig at Jim Ross, but the character actually won the Cruiserweight Title. WCW management really dropped the ball here, just how were fans supposed to take the titles seriously with champions like Oklahoma? Realistically, vacating titles and putting belts on joke gimmicks should have been avoided at all costs.
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
