Rewatching The Last Wrestling Show To Beat WWE Raw In The Ratings

4. The Sheer Star Power

Hollywood Hogan Horace Hogan
WWE.com

Even those lower down on the totem poll were getting a solid reaction back in 1998, but higher up the card WCW had a ludicrous amount of star power at its disposal at this time.

In terms of bona fide main event stars, you had Goldberg, Hollywood Hogan, Sting, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Roddy Piper, Kevin Nash, Diamond Dallas Page, Ultimate Warrior, Lex Luger, the Giant, and even a Scott Steiner who was starting his ascension up the singles ranks.

Whether you like them or not, all 12 of those names are true A-list superstars with countless World Championships under their respective belts.

If you look at the current landscape of WWE, there are obviously plentiful wrestlers who can lay claim to having been a World Champion, yet the star power is painfully lacking. That's not necessarily down to the talent, of course, with them often expected to magically turn chicken sh*t into chicken salad.

Somebody like a Kevin Owens had the potential to be a money-drawing, eye-grabbing true main event star, but then WWE goes and books him like a joke during his eventual Universal Championship win. Realistically, if you're looking at WWE in the hopes of finding that true top, top megastar, there's only a handful of people who you can look at - the persistently absent Brock Lesnar, the similarly in limbo Ronda Rousey, the out-of-action Becky Lynch, and Roman Reigns.

That's not a knock on WWE talent, that's simply an indicator of how bad a job WWE has done in presenting its talent like legitimate must-see stars.

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.