WCW's 10 Biggest Mistakes

4. Creative Control

WWE.comWWE.comTo this day, wrestling fans have no idea how something like this was even thought about, let alone actually put into several contracts through the years. Creative Control is pretty much what it sounds like... when a wrestler has it in their contract, they have full control over how their character is booked on television. You can come up with all of the storylines and ideas you want, but they don't make it to television if the wrestler doesn't want them to. Wins, losses, title changes... they're all at the mercy of someone with Creative Control. For lack of a better phrase, someone with Creative Control can essentially hold a promotion hostage to get themselves what they want. Imagine having that kind of power at your job, where you had bosses, but they still had to do what you said. If they asked you to handle this report, but you didn't want to do it, refuse it. If they were going to give someone else a promotion over you, shut it down and take the promotion for yourself. Through the years, we've heard about a handful of WCW wrestlers who had that kind of power written into their contracts. Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and The Warrior are just some of the names that reportedly had partial or full Creative Control in their deals. Multiple WCW employees have gone on record in saying that pretty much every big free agent signing that the company made in those Monday Night War years had some sort of Creative Control in their contracts to make the offers more alluring, helping them to "jump ship" from the WWF, where Vince McMahon was the end all be all when it comes to making decisions. You take all of those egos, throw them in a pot, and mix with a bunch of hard-working wrestlers who have zero Creative Control... you have yourselves quite the disaster casserole.
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Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.