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

3. Utilising Industry Veterans

Hollywood Hogan Horace Hogan
WWE Network

While AEW has Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone propping up its programming, WWE takes a slightly different approach to its non-wrestling talent.

Famously, Vince McMahon's sports entertainment behemoth puts more value in the supposed aesthetic benefit of having younger faces at its announce desk. Sure, we may still got the odd Jerry Lawler appearance at the desk if the company has a vacancy to temporarily fill, but its more commonplace for WWE to wheel out a Vic Joseph or Tom Phillips from its conveyor belt of generic commentators.

As Jim Ross has so often discussed, WWE has a certain shelf live for its non-wrestling talent, particularly when it comes to those who would be used in an on-screen role. Forget the benefit that those veterans bring to the table in terms of experience, McMahon's promotion is happy to disregarded all of this.

With wrestling fans having been conditioned to this WWE approach for the past two decades, it's refreshing to see so many older heads in pivotal roles on WCW Nitro back in 1998.

There's a 54-year-old Bobby Heenan, 47-year-old Larry Zbyszko and 41-year-old Tony Schiavone at the commentary table, and there's a near-56-year-old 'Mean' Gene Okerlund on interview duties. All four of those names were long-standing veterans of the industry by '98, and WCW valued the experience and legitimacy that they brought to WCW programming.

When compared to the current WWE landscape, in that regard it's night and day.

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.