The Death of WCW/YMMV


 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Compare the Death of WCW take on Bill Watts' run as WCW booker to the Ring of Hell take. The former portrays him as a delusional nut still mentally stuck two decades ago and with no respect for the wrestlers. The latter as the kind of firm authoritarian the spoiled idiots at WCW needed and who would likely have saved the place if he hadn't been politiced out.
 * Furthermore, Mick Foley portrays Watts in one of his books as a firm authoritarian still mentally stuck two decades ago with no respect for the wrestlers who might have saved the place if he hadn't been politiced out.
 * Running the Asylum: One of the main reasons that WCW floundered in its later years. Hulk Hogan had complete creative control over his character, and used that to make himself look good whenever possible. Kevin Nash got control of the booking, and frequently put himself on top, even though the fans wanted newer talent.
 * Too Good to Last: Kip Frye's run as booker. Morale and match quality skyrocketed due to his policy of giving the wrestlers who put on the best match of the night a cash reward. He quit six months in.
 * What an Idiot: Eric Bischoff's booking decisions in 1998 and beyond were all done in an effort to unseat Raw in the ratings war, something that only Eric Bischoff seemed to care about.
 * To elaborate: as smarks know, a wrestling company makes a lot more money if they save the biggest and best matches for pay-per-view. That's not to say that you don't put good matches on free TV, but the HUGE matches that everybody wants to see should be booked for PPVs. Bischoff, however, was so obsessed with beating Raw every week that he often booked PPV quality matches for Nitro. An excellent example of this was when he had Goldberg beat Hogan for the world championship on an episode of Nitro. Another time, Sting and DDP faced off for the world championship on Nitro. This might have been good for ratings, but it didn't help convince people to shell out money for the pay-per-views. Why pay to see a world title match between two of the company's top stars when you know you'll see one on free tv sooner or later?
 * Also, Kevin Nash's decision to "prove" that the actual matches in pro wrestling were passe. His hour of no-wrestling did a 2.4 in the ratings - in an era when Raw and Nitro were regularly pulling two to three times that on average, that's abysmally bad.
 * Worse yet, TNA has reused a similiar concept for their tv-show "Re Action".
 * The Woobie: Bret Hart. Aside from the obvious (The Screwjob, his lack of push in WCW), you really feel bad for him when you read about all the crazy stunts he was told to do. It becomes chilling when suggested that it was the same type of stunts that led to his brother's death.