Deepest Most Talented Roster In History; 1996-1999?

They did have a fantastic roster. They could have created so many stars, yet sticking with Hogan, Flair etc hurt them in the long run.

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WWE in the early 2000s was pretty close, with a lot of the Attitude Era mainstays along with a lot of WCW's top stars which included former WWF legends like Hulk Hogan.

I agree. Their tag division was the best since WWE during the late 80s and early 90s. WWE in 2000 and TNA in 2006 were the only other times I remember a tag division being that deep. Some of their cruiserweights had potential to be higher on the card. They swapped talent with other companies. The feuds for the television title and the United States title were among the underappreciated things they had going on.

The lower ranked shows of WCW were more fun than the ones WWE had, it had more than just squash matches and recaps. Even the squash matches weren't as lopsided as the ones WWE had on Superstars, Mania, and Jakked/Metal. Superstars was better prior to the mid 90s. WCW Saturday Night was a great show prior to the last few months of WCW. Thunder and Smackdown was an exception. Thunder was often underwhelming to me, and Smackdown was consistently better when it later started. 1999 was the last year that WCW was consistently entertaining to me.



Reboot, restart or re-imagining is another word for remake

I am going to be a jerk and say both yes and no.

On paper it absolutely did. However, how many of the guys on that roster had their best years from 96-99 (or say 95-2001, Nitro's run).

Hogan - No way, the 80's were his time.
Savage - 1988-1989.
Piper - Mid 80's. I mean he headlined the original Wrestlemania.
Flair - from NWA champ to chief jobber. late 90's WCW might have been the low point of his career.
Bret Hart - worst years by a mile. Bret is 92-97 for me.
Sting - debatable. He was probably the most over babyface in wresting until Steve Austin came along. That being said after the Starrcade 97 debacle he kinda became another jobber for the NWO. He was a bigger name than he was in the old NWA days. I guess it depends on what you see as success.
Hall and Nash - again debatable. The highlight of both of their careers was the formation of the NWO, but they are also directly linked to the collapse of that company and with the majority of its creative mishaps. Also, would you rather watch Razor/Michaels ladder match or another NWO run in?
Lex Luger - Got a huge push in WWF in 1994, but never sold the way Bret Hart did. Best years, such as they were, were probably in WCW.
Goldberg - Okay, his best year was in WCW. Atlanta's Tatanka.
Steiners - had a few good WWF years but best years were certainly WCW.

And how many guys were overlooked until they left or else never reached the heights they would have if they had left?

Jericho - Amazing talent that was totally ignored.
Benoit - same as Jericho
Eddie Guerrero- again, best years were WWE years.
DDP - Never reached the top despite his talent. His matches with Savage revitalized Savage's career. If he had made the jump I think he would be much more remembered today than he is.
The Giant - he was Andre the Giant's son in WCW, I'll rest my case on that one.
Booker T - DDP 2.0
Rey Mysterio - He would be tearing down the house with Dean Malenko or Chris Jericho and Tony Schiavone would be going on and on about the NWO. It was sad.

Look at how much other talent slipped through their fingers
-Steve Austin
-Mick Foley
-HHH
-Nash and Hall (who made it in WWF then came back)


I have a lot of WCW nostalgia, and on a sick day like I am having today I enjoy sitting down and writing about it, but they never were able to make stars the way WWE was able to at that time. They had a deep roster, but that roster was either over the hill or had to leave to make it big.