Once upon a time I briefly thought WCW was WWF renamed or rebranded.
This might seem stupid now but hear me out.
I started watching the WWF in 1988 or so as it exploded in popularity inNew Zealand. There was no Monday Night RAW which I never actually saw until this year on the WWE network.
We had "Superstars of Wrestling" which was 6 months out of date and the WWF magazine. I had no idea what kayfabe was or a dirt sheet. Hell I was only 10 years old.
I was only vaguely aware that other wrestling companies existed and even then it was limited to AWA and the NWA mainly because the local video store had some VHS tapes of them. Back then no DVDs either magnetic tape baby.
And small town New Zealand 1980's was kind of like 1950's USA, hell our TV shows were from the 1970's. Battlestar Galctica, Greatest American Hero, and Buck Rodgers in the 25th century. In 1989 we got our 3rd TV channel we got a 4th in 1997 or so (1996?).
Wrestling was a fad for a few years, died off a bit around 1991/92. Things like grunge happened, I started high school and wrestling was no longer kewl. And it was no longer on free to air TV IIRC or I was not watching it.
I watched the odd main event on VHS and in the mid 90's sort of got back into it and hired out everything I could. The problem was I knew about the 4 main events but the monthly PPV such as In Your House I had no idea about. Basically I watched stuf out of order with little context and no weekly show to fall back on.
In 1994 I heard about this thing called the "internet" but it was new, no one had it except the computer teacher at school. It kind of exploded in 1995 but I had no PC back then either.
I also discovered this thing called "girls". They had boobies. In WWF land that was things like early Sable and Sunny. I like class a bit more though like Miss Elizabeth in the late 80's.
Around 1997 it was my last year watching WWF events but WCW started to screen. It was not as popular as the late 80's but people did not look at you funny if you admitted to watching it. It was on free TV and it was on every week and it was only a few months out of date not 6.
If you have the WWE network go and have a look at a pre RAW is WAR episode of Monday Night RAW and then watch the 1st 5 minutes of Monday Night Nitro. This was when WCW was klcking WWEs ass in the lead up to the attitude era.
This was also not to far after 1995 which is generally regarded as the worst year in wrestling, WWF almost went under, main event were in the 8k-19k range, WCW sucked then as well (pre NWO) and other wrestling promotions went tits up (went under USA talk).
So Nitro was something I had never seen before and it was full of WWF wrestlers hence I thought it was WWF renamed briefly. To be fair I was in my own bubble, no one else I knew was watching wrestling that much, and compared to late 80's and early 90's WWF you were getting PPV quality on free weekly TV.
Hell 1995/96 were shit for WWF you were getting better than WWE PPVs on free TV via WCW. In new Zealand free is good, hell a 10 minute phone call to Germany cost me $35 in 1993 or so.
Small town NZ, no regular access to the net (used at friends house), no idea about wrestling site, no social media, I never knew about forums until 2001, got my 1st PC in 2003, no satellite TV (NZ got that 1989 or so, never had it except briefly in 2003).
I can remember stuff from 1996 and 1994 (WM X was good IIRC) but I can't remember much from 1995. Golddust and maybe Vader doing something or other I don't remember that well. What year was Razor Ramon/Goldust feud?
Of course it did not take me to long to figure out WCW was not WWF but initially I had no idea.
In hindsight watching old RAW and WWF PPV's you can see things like WCW signs in the crowd and NWO T shirts. Hell you still see them in the crowd in 2016 events as the T shirt is available for sale in the WWE shop.
Also would anyone like a free wrestling Promotion? Vince got WCW for 2 million dollars + 2 million in advertising commitments. However WCW income was back dated so once Vince bought it he got the last several months of WCW income, in effect he got WCW for free if not at a profit+ tape library+ wrestlers.
The WCW A listers had separate contracts with Time Warner basically to keep their cost off the books of WCW which lost 60 million in 2000 and had been losing money since mid 1999 (1996/97 were the only years WCW actually made money). Vince lost more money on the XFL than WCW did in 2000.
I stopped watching WCW just after the finger poke of doom and I had not watched WWF since late 1997 with Kanes debut IIRC. I never saw the decline of WCW as such but I never saw the attitude era either just the very start of it and the odd highlight (watching it now).
This might seem stupid now but hear me out.
I started watching the WWF in 1988 or so as it exploded in popularity inNew Zealand. There was no Monday Night RAW which I never actually saw until this year on the WWE network.
We had "Superstars of Wrestling" which was 6 months out of date and the WWF magazine. I had no idea what kayfabe was or a dirt sheet. Hell I was only 10 years old.
I was only vaguely aware that other wrestling companies existed and even then it was limited to AWA and the NWA mainly because the local video store had some VHS tapes of them. Back then no DVDs either magnetic tape baby.
And small town New Zealand 1980's was kind of like 1950's USA, hell our TV shows were from the 1970's. Battlestar Galctica, Greatest American Hero, and Buck Rodgers in the 25th century. In 1989 we got our 3rd TV channel we got a 4th in 1997 or so (1996?).
Wrestling was a fad for a few years, died off a bit around 1991/92. Things like grunge happened, I started high school and wrestling was no longer kewl. And it was no longer on free to air TV IIRC or I was not watching it.
I watched the odd main event on VHS and in the mid 90's sort of got back into it and hired out everything I could. The problem was I knew about the 4 main events but the monthly PPV such as In Your House I had no idea about. Basically I watched stuf out of order with little context and no weekly show to fall back on.
In 1994 I heard about this thing called the "internet" but it was new, no one had it except the computer teacher at school. It kind of exploded in 1995 but I had no PC back then either.
I also discovered this thing called "girls". They had boobies. In WWF land that was things like early Sable and Sunny. I like class a bit more though like Miss Elizabeth in the late 80's.
Around 1997 it was my last year watching WWF events but WCW started to screen. It was not as popular as the late 80's but people did not look at you funny if you admitted to watching it. It was on free TV and it was on every week and it was only a few months out of date not 6.
If you have the WWE network go and have a look at a pre RAW is WAR episode of Monday Night RAW and then watch the 1st 5 minutes of Monday Night Nitro. This was when WCW was klcking WWEs ass in the lead up to the attitude era.
This was also not to far after 1995 which is generally regarded as the worst year in wrestling, WWF almost went under, main event were in the 8k-19k range, WCW sucked then as well (pre NWO) and other wrestling promotions went tits up (went under USA talk).
So Nitro was something I had never seen before and it was full of WWF wrestlers hence I thought it was WWF renamed briefly. To be fair I was in my own bubble, no one else I knew was watching wrestling that much, and compared to late 80's and early 90's WWF you were getting PPV quality on free weekly TV.
Hell 1995/96 were shit for WWF you were getting better than WWE PPVs on free TV via WCW. In new Zealand free is good, hell a 10 minute phone call to Germany cost me $35 in 1993 or so.
Small town NZ, no regular access to the net (used at friends house), no idea about wrestling site, no social media, I never knew about forums until 2001, got my 1st PC in 2003, no satellite TV (NZ got that 1989 or so, never had it except briefly in 2003).
I can remember stuff from 1996 and 1994 (WM X was good IIRC) but I can't remember much from 1995. Golddust and maybe Vader doing something or other I don't remember that well. What year was Razor Ramon/Goldust feud?
Of course it did not take me to long to figure out WCW was not WWF but initially I had no idea.
In hindsight watching old RAW and WWF PPV's you can see things like WCW signs in the crowd and NWO T shirts. Hell you still see them in the crowd in 2016 events as the T shirt is available for sale in the WWE shop.
Also would anyone like a free wrestling Promotion? Vince got WCW for 2 million dollars + 2 million in advertising commitments. However WCW income was back dated so once Vince bought it he got the last several months of WCW income, in effect he got WCW for free if not at a profit+ tape library+ wrestlers.
The WCW A listers had separate contracts with Time Warner basically to keep their cost off the books of WCW which lost 60 million in 2000 and had been losing money since mid 1999 (1996/97 were the only years WCW actually made money). Vince lost more money on the XFL than WCW did in 2000.
I stopped watching WCW just after the finger poke of doom and I had not watched WWF since late 1997 with Kanes debut IIRC. I never saw the decline of WCW as such but I never saw the attitude era either just the very start of it and the odd highlight (watching it now).
