Many people say that the current WWE is too boring, and the weekly programs are stuffed with long and tedious routine plots, with no novelty or point of view to speak of, tasteless food, and a pity to abandon. In fact, this is largely due to the fact that WWE is a big company today and has no strong competitors. However, 17 years ago, this was not the case.
At that time, WWE had a rival rival called WCW. Under the pressure of the huge competition between you and me, both companies have done everything in their power to recruit talent, conceive plots and arrange competitions, and their competition has brought wonderful wrestling shows and brilliant wrestling booms, and the average WWE rating has even reached more than 6 million at one point, which is more than three times the current RAW program ratings.
Unfortunately, due to the comprehensive failure of all aspects of operation and the adjustment of the business strategy of the TV network where WCW is located, WCW eventually lost. In early 2001, WCW was acquired by rival WWE for a very low price of $4.2 million (previously, WCW had packaged Scott Hall and Kevin Nash from WWE as "The Outsiders" from WWE, WWE had taken WCW to court, and part of the court's decision was that if WCW was one day listed for sale, WWE would receive the right of first refusal).
Finally, the last issue of WCW, Day Night Nitro, was staged. Today, too many fans still insist that this day is the day when the professional wrestling boom will eventually die.
On the night of March 26, 2001, a beach in Panama City, Florida.
Despite much publicity for the final episode before, WCW was less confident about whether the moment was appealing enough, and in order to increase attendance, they even promised a 5-hour free refill service for every fan who spent $30 on admission tickets, which was effective considering it was spring break. But thinking of WCW's former glory, now it has become a free refill to attract the audience, and people can't help but sigh.
Just like an old man who knows that his limit is coming will sit quietly in front of the mirror for the last delicate grooming, WCW also hopes that his "dying performance" will leave a good impression on wrestling fans. They had been meticulously building the show's ring facilities a week earlier. In fact, as early as before, there were many serious problems in the financial aspects of WCW, for example, in 1999, there were more than 200 players in the WCW roster, but only about 30 of them were really effectively used, and in the case of a serious financial deficit, they still decided not to cut the budget expenditure of the last program, and to do the fireworks special effects, stage construction, etc., to prepare for this last carnival.
As the trees fell and the company was about to close, some of the company's low-level employees and visitors began to walk along the various souvenirs and utensils of WCW's headquarters, even the stapler. The atmosphere of the building will envelop the entire company, and the ambitionists who hope that WCW will one day be able to sink the huge ship of WWE has long disappeared. But even so, many naïve wrestlers are still in the clouds, wondering if the so-called "company was acquired by WWE" is meant to be a real thing or just a crazy drama joke.
With the exception of one wrestler, he is DDP, the user of the RKO prototype skill "Diamond Cutting". DDP is the only WCW player who has negotiated a contract with WWE before this, and at this moment, he is not convenient to reveal too much and quietly wait for what should happen.
Until WWE's grandfather, Sean McMan, really appeared in the WCW backstage, everyone understood that WCW was really going to be acquired, and the war on Monday night was going to end completely.
Sean promised WCW employees that WWE would keep WCW running independently as it had always been. This sentence is not just to reassure the WCW generals, WWE really thought so at the time, but the reality is cruel, WWE finally chose to completely move everything from WCW to the historical display shelf.
There were also many WWE staff members who came with Sean, but their hearts were also confused, they did not know what awaited them after coming to the former rival company, they did not know whether they would be beaten by WCW's muscle male wrestlers and thrown out of the door. However, in fact, when the people of WCW saw that the people of WWE had come, they did not act too aggressively, but they became much more stable because their doubts were finally dispelled.
WWE staff quickly took over the backstage for the show, and they even directed WCW's players and staff on how to work and schedule the game. Backstage, WCW's former famous contestants and executives can be seen everywhere, wandering slowly with slow steps, savoring the last episode like a cup of bitter and sobering coffee, and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues.
Yes, they're really going to say goodbye. Because WWE has promised that it will not "take over" any contract of a player with an annual salary of more than $100,000, these people will either accept a new contract with a low salary or wait until the end of the original contract to find another high. In fact, this approach is correct, because those ridiculously high-paying contracts are one of the reasons that bring down the WCW. Many WCW players began to worry, and the young Chavo Guerrero had been talking to his uncle Eddie Guerrero on the phone to discuss the future, and the other sullen was Muscular Daddy.
Muscle Dad was one of the highest paid players before WCW, earning as much as $850,000 a year. When the news of WCW's acquisition was confirmed, he was convinced that he was going to cool off, because he felt that his funny and ridiculous role and overly bloated contract could not be accepted by WWE. He proved self-aware, having lost the WCW championship belt to Booker Manuel in just 5 minutes and 11 seconds in the final Nitro opener. T。
And Booker · T is also mixed, yes, he is a young talent, WWE will never let go of such a talented young man, and his brother Steve Ray is not the case. Booker and Steve rode the WCW as the famous "Harlem Twins", and now they both know very well that the two will never be able to share a ring again.
Some people are very worried, and some people take this as the last game of their lives to do their best to contribute to the wonderful performance. That's what lightweight Player Sean Helms thinks. Seeing that the company was facing bankruptcy, he felt guilty and thought that this had something to do with his poor performance (in fact, it was not at all), so he spared no effort to stand for the company's last shift, and eventually, he became one of the 24 former WCW players hired by WWE, and became one of the most popular lightweight players in WWE: "Hurricane Man".
And another lightweight player mysterious Rael also played that night, look at poor Rael, an ink wrestler was deprived of a mask symbolizing dignity and glory, had to show his true face, and even grew two different horns on his head, why WCW went into decline can be seen.
After finally defeating his old rival, WWE boss Vince McMan's conceit reached its limit, and he directly fired his own hated Jeff Jarrett in the joint live broadcast (Jeff Jarrett was the WWE's intercontinental champion in 1999, and he threatened Old Mai before the end of his contract, saying that if he did not give him a huge reward, he would not honestly lose the championship to the female player Chai Na before leaving, and finally Lao Mai paid $200,000 to 500,000 for his final battle with Chai Na. Vince hates Jarrett and vows never to hire him), which makes the already demoralized WCW backstage even more panicked. And the opening speech that WWE, who manipulated the course of the show, arranged for Rick Flair to do it was also very strange. In fact, Rick Flair's microphone skills are quite outstanding, which was originally a historic moment to summarize WCW history and thank fans for their support, but Flair spent a lot of time to denounce his feud with Vince McMan in the 80s, and this kind of deliberate off-topic speech arranged by WWE did not win the favor of wrestling fans.
In addition to the strangeness of the WCW side, the wrestlers at WWE also feel that their backstage is different today - there are many scenes broadcasting the situation on the WCW side. Matt Hardy, who had no major arrangements for the day, watched the WCW broadcast footage for a day backstage.
Although WWE boss Vince McMan, who eventually won the competition, seized the opportunity to complain, he still had some respect for the powerful competitor who almost pushed his company to the brink of extinction, and under his arrangement, the main battle of the night would be "Scorpion The Great" Sting against "Son of Nature" Rick Flair.
In fact, both superstars were physically far from fit for the game at the time. The reason why Flair unusually wore a T-shirt instead of his traditional wrestling costume was precisely because he had just undergone surgery and hoped to use the T-shirt to cover the scars after the operation, and Sting was also battling the injury at the time. But Vince approached the two and said he was an avid fan of the two and hoped that the two of them would fight the historic battle.
Eventually, the two agreed, and we saw Sting calling out Rick Flair on the show, the Scorpion Emperor of the year, and many thought he would definitely start a new chapter at WWE. Unexpectedly, time flies, and when he really stands in the WWE ring, he is already more than half a hundred years old.
Sting and Flair lived up to their mission and completed the final battle of WCW. Sting locked Flair and pulled him up, and the two players embraced in the ring, this hug is not only a mutual tribute between the two legends, but also a final farewell to WCW, a company that is both radical and decadent, short-lived but forever changed the face of the wrestling world, goodbye WCW, goodbye wrestling!
In the later clips, Sean McMan interrupts Vince McMan and says that WCW is already his, and he will lead WCW to "kick WWE's ass" as always, although this is a good dramatic effect, but this is already an internal plot between WWE, although wonderful, but the real WCW has long died the moment Stine and Flair embrace.
After that, WWE sat firmly in the position of the largest wrestling company in the wrestling industry, losing their competitors and gradually losing their morale, and the ratings were steadily declining year by year, from 6.0 in the heyday to about 1.8 today. In fact, WWE and WCW's Monday night battle, the most beneficial is not WWE, nor WCW, but we wrestle fans. Some people say that if you want to recreate the wrestling world, there must be a new competitor as ambitious as WCW to make the restive WWE wake up again, and change the current situation of decadent plot and game paddling.
Do you think this statement is correct? What do you want to say about the past wrestling boom and the present era? Now that a new AEW league has emerged, do you think his presence can change the face of the wrestling world like the WCW of the past? If you have any ideas, welcome to exchange them together in the comments section!