12 Misconceptions About WCW You Probably Believe
9. WCW Was Where The Old Boys Played
Holy hypocrisy.
Vince McMahon and his WWF marketing machine kicked into full gear by claiming that they had youth, vigour and freshness on their side in the mid-1990s. Meanwhile, they guffawed, those idiots from WCW had just filled their roster sheets with old federation stars from the 1980s who were less hip than hip replacement. Yeah, about that.
Federation chief McMahon laughably pushed the ‘New Generation’ stuff and this WCW narrative whilst promoting matches like Jerry Lawler vs. Jake Roberts and Jerry Lawler vs. Roddy Piper in featured spots on pay-per-view. To put that into perspective, Lawler is 4 years older than Hulk Hogan and Roberts is only 2 years younger than him. Yes, it's true that the fed did have some younger/fresher stars, but in-house claims that WCW was some retirement home for the oldies was way wide of the mark.
No amount of “Huckster” and “Nacho Man” skits could change that. If anything, they were a sad sight to see on WWF television in 1996 and ripped time away from deserving full-timers. It came across as totally cheap when Vince parodied guys who had pocketed him millions of dollars, and few were fooled by his claims that Hulk and Randy Savage were worthless just because they happened to be working under a different promotional banner.
Also, and this is really hilarious, Bob Backlund was 44/45 when he bagged the WWF Title for the last time in 1994. 'New Generation' indeed. Seeing the creaking veteran holding the biggest belt in the land as commentators salivated about a youth movement was frankly preposterous.
Age never mattered. Star value, performance and fan interest always has.