The wrestling landscape has changed a lot over the years, but no shift in the business was as fundamentally world-altering as the collapse of WCW. Suddenly, WWE had no major competition, and that status has remained unchanged in the 14 years since. Raw was running unopposed and WWE's bookers no longer needed to look over their shoulders. While it's possible that WCW's demise allowed WWE's creative team to rest on its laurels, the competition itself was exciting. During the hottest periods of the Monday Night Wars, fans would flip back and forth between Raw and Nitro, looking to see if one company was presenting a more exciting segment, or even if history would be made on television. While this sometimes led to destructive "Crash TV" style booking, again, it wasn't boring. Wrestlers had more opportunity for work, too, and their decisions were publicized - on the very first episode of Nitro, WWE's Lex Luger appeared, signalling a jump back to his home organization and shocking millions of fans... and making for great television. It was a better environment for the wrestlers, a better environment for the fans, and even if they won't admit it, a better environment for WWE.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
