15 Times WCW Was Better Than Literally EVERYTHING
There was a time when it seemed like WCW would inherit the earth. WWE was toast.
Did you know? World Championship Wrestling was once the hottest thing going. You probably did, but WWE has done a remarkable job of squashing that truth since 2001. Vince McMahon detested the thought that Eric Bischoff (backed by Ted Turner's steely determination and wealth) redefined what it meant to be cool in wrestling before the 'Attitude Era' came along.
The then-WWF cast themselves as a 'mom and pop' promotion who simply couldn't compete with Turner's millions, but that was wide of the mark and really quite cheeky. McMahon had blitzed his competition in the 1980s to monopolise the biz, and now here he was crying foul because somebody else had financial might. A vast bank account wasn't the only thing WCW had to offer anyway.
They produced some of the absolute best moments in wrestling history right under Vince's nose, and that made Bischoff very, very smug. Of course, things would all come crashing down (and they definitely hurt inside) to the point that McMahon could cherry pick pieces of WCW for paltry sums in 2001, but there were astonishing highs in Atlanta that WWE loyalists don't want people to think about.
It's time to celebrate everything that WCW did well. They revolutionised the game with clever concepts like the nWo, delivered thumping Cruiserweight action that proved to be the bedrock for future WWE headliners, changed expectations for weekly TV shows, created legends like Goldberg, DDP and more - and they did much of that within a few short years.
Sometimes, this much-maligned WWE beater was better than literally anything else you could find in wrestling. Here's proof!
15. SuperBrawl? More Like Super Tag Team Wrestling!
Tag team wrestling over in the WWF by mid-1991 looked like this: The Nasty Boys were champs, and they clashed with everyone from Hart Foundation duo Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart to The Legion Of Doom's Hawk and Animal. That was all well and good, and these teams did have solid matches, but WCW's star-laden SuperBrawl 1 clash proved what was possible for a doubles division that went next level.
Singles stars Sting and Lex Luger combined to take on The Steiners in what must be considered one of the finest tag bouts of all time. Put this match in front of a WWE or AEW audience today and they'd still leap out of their seats to cheer and applaud. WCW's quartet mixed superior tag chemistry (Rick and Scott, obviously) with some of the best power moves available for the era.
The way Scotty Steiner, in particular, hit suplexes, powerbombs and more was bespoke to him, and it gave people a brief teaser of what it'd be like once he went solo. This was one hell of a tag team effort - you just didn’t see tag bouts this dynamic featuring big stars on the WWF side at the time. Contrast and compare this to Hulk Hogan teaming with The Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel Adnan and General Adnan at SummerSlam the very same year.
It's night and day. Heaven and hell.
Nobody was delivering hard-hitting tag matches that also had this kind of star power on pay-per-view in 1991. You'd have needed the likes of Hogan and Warrior to develop classic New Japan skills to see that. Meanwhile, in WCW, it was happening in front of a pumped up live crowd who knew they were seeing something special.