MovieChat Forums > Ready to Rumble (2000) Discussion > Why WCW Is Dead

Why WCW Is Dead

posted 21 years ago by VonCouch
20 replies | jump to latest

Apparantly people think that this movie only made no money because of bad press. But actually it made no money because it's a bad movie. This movie is so bad, it actually killed WCW.

This movie was a blemish on professional wrestling for years to come. It's crap like this and guest spots on "The Mullets" that make all wrestling fans look like inbred, country bumpkins who believe in their souls that wrestling is an honest to goodness contest of strength. No, wrestling is not "fake". But it is a show. It is not, I repeat, it is not reality. People don't get fired in professional wrestling then come back, break several laws in the process, then win the world title. In story lines, sure. In real life, hell no. This is...just...crap. Crap. Crap. Just...crap. It's like someone came in to pitch this movie, took a big crap on the boardroom table, and the execs greenlighted it two hours after a six day black-tar heroin bender. I give them the bender benefit of the doubt because there's no way that someone would read this script and see any way to make money from it.

But Vince Russo tried. And boy, did he fail in the process. Thanks to Tony Sciavonne joking that Arquette should be World champion, that's just what happened. Arquette won the title. And not as a joke. He actually beat respectable wrestlers in the process. Therefore, not only crapping on professional wrestling with his god-awful movie, but crapping on one of the top honors of the business itself. A belt held by such greats as Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, etc. An actor named David Arquette won it. A bad actor named David Arquette won it. And I don't blame David, although I could. He didn't want to do it. But Russo talked him into it. Thanks, Russo. Now bend over and don't fight Vince McMahon now that he has you where he wants you.

This movie actually killed WCW. That's how bad this movie is.

Oh yeah. And as a movie standing alone from wrestling, it's still crap.

Thank you.

[–] Simmonz 21 years ago

I don't think this movie killed WCW, I think WCW killed WCW. The people couldnt book worth *beep*, and there was no unity in the locker room, just everyone at war. It was just a matter of time....

[–] Maniacmikeuswf 21 years ago

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/wcw20041/petition.html

[–] rseton 21 years ago

Vince McMahon would never make such a move. If WCW re-emerges it will be WWE owned. There has been rumours of Paul Heyman (in an angle) bringing back ECW to feud with WWE but I doubt that WCW will be brought back in any form. Vince has stated before that WCW is looked upon as a failed brand and therefore would not get any fan support.

However, if WWE got very desperate, a second Invasion angle would not be out of the question.

[–] xjuly15x 20 years ago

actually it just got bought and discontinued just like ecw.

[–] iwasherenowimnot 21 years ago

Dude it didnt kill WCW. That was Eric Bishoff. Cuz you know, Bischoff ran out of ideas. WCW started going downhill when NWO showed up and everybody knows that. The movie was childish but it was pretty funny. I admit it wasnt the greatest thing I have ever seen, but it was alright.

[–] VonCouch 21 years ago

People are too hard on Bischoff. He took a company that was losing money and turned it multi-million dollar franchise.

Ok, to be honest, I guess it would be pretty harsh to blame WCW's death entirely on this film. But you have to at least admit that not only is it a slap in the face of anyone who has ever been associated with professional wrestling, it also was the beginning of the end.

Thanks, Russo.

[–] 21 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 21 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 21 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 21 years ago

[deleted]

[–] joepublic 20 years ago

I feel by replying to this I'm about to get a barrage of mark comments but what the hell...

Ready to Rumble certainly had a negative affect on WCW but to say it was the major cause is hilarious. Terrible booking, ludicrous storylines and older established wrestlers (Hogan, Piper, Nash et al) not putting over younger, fresher talent are the reasons that WCW folded.

Someone said that WCW went downhill when the NWO showed up. This is just as ridiculous a statement. The NWO was one, if not the most important factor in WCW becoming the number one promotion in the country for a long period. The problem with the NWO was it ran too long and people became less and less interested.

Sting not getting a clean win over Hogan (Starrcade) actually brought WCW its biggest pay per view buy rate of all time so I would disagree with that to.

If you are looking for a storyline twist to pin the decline on try Nash beating superover Goldberg in a decent match to win the title and end his unbeaten record and then literally lying down for Hogan on Nitro. That was the beginning of the end.

"I believe in this, and its been tested by research, he who f$cks nuns will later join the church"

[–] sidsgirl2000 20 years ago

The movie certainly can't be blamed for the demise. Eric Bischoff may have made billions of dollars for the company but he spent (wasted) a lot of money on crap like celebrity guest appearances. Vince Russo's attempt at bringing "Crash TV" certainly didn't help matters. Furthermore, Ted Turner was ready to get out of the 'rasslin' business anyway. The movie was just a silly little piece of fun and certainly can't be blamed for what was already messed up.

[–] mkstud60 20 years ago

I was a big fan of WCW until 98. The commentator Tony somethin made a negative remark about Mick Foley(Mankind at the time) when he won the WWE title. That was the downfall of WCW. Nearly 500,000 WCW fans switched to the WWE that day. As for WCW comin back that will never again. Vince can make a lot of money of the WCW archive footage and plus if he did sell it back it wouldnt survive. TNA is the next generation WCW and soon it will be competing with the WWE just as WCW did.

[–] joefino69 20 years ago

Hopefully TNA gets up with WWE

The cause of WCW's downfall is like 10 - 20 different events.

I blame Vince Russo, for one thing, since he got the company when it was still saveable. Then he made STUPID decisions, the World Title became Vacant like 5 times in a 2 year period. He had no idea what he was doing. He was incharge of the writing team, so it was his fault.

I dont blame Eric Bischoff, he made some bad decisions, but he also lost power toward the end, but he was still a smart person and i think if he bought WCW like he originally planned, we would still have WCW up and running and it would still be kind of competitive.

Anyways, those reasons and alot more made WCW fail, but anyways, Ready To Rumble was a decent flick, bad movie standards, decent if you like wrestling, especially WCW.

[–] raygal 20 years ago

i'd definitely agree with whomever said that it was the booking, def. the inside choas and greediness and vince russo. I hope tna will at least get up to par with ecw, i dunno about it being up with wcw, but it still could be cool. They jsut need to get rid of russo, jeff jarrett, and dusty rhodes

[–] raygal 20 years ago

uhh, mkstud, he gave away the spoiler main event match at one of those wwe (then wwf) ppv matches were mick was supposed to have won. so maybe he did on purpose or maybe he let it slip, but yeah you're right tony schiovane (spelling) who was actually the one of the best commentators they ever had, did in fact say something that he wasn't supposed to say and they would pay for it.

[–] defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 20 years ago

He was actually told to say it - he said something along the lines of "don't change the channel, cause over on Raw tonight there gonna have Mick Foley, a guy who used to wrestle here as Cactus Jack, win the WWF world title. (Sarcastically) That's gonna put asses on seats...". WWF was already ahead in the ratings war by this point though, but yeah, a ton of fans turned over immediately lol

[–] Deadpool31 20 years ago

WCW was in big trouble when this movie came out, so to say its the sole factor in its downfall isn't true.

Bischoff was actually at the helm when WCW was soaring high and panning WWE week after week in the ratings war. and the NWO in there first incarnation was a major factor in that. WCW then lost its way, Vince Russo who had helped WWF/WWE come back in the ratings was poached and then systematicly went about destroying the company, by rehashing old WWE storylines and massaging the egos of the old timers who refused to let go of the main event spotlight.

Add into that guys like Nash and FLair booking (never a good idea to have wrestlers who refuse to retire a say in who wins what) Old timers like Hogan refusing to accept that they were over the hill and commanding the back office to do as they said. Young talent being buried so as said old timers could be put over, a complete lack of ideas for new storylines and no attempt to push up and comers etc etc

The film was actually meant to get more people watching again, however the film wasn't any good and to add insult to injury Russo decided that having Arquette as champ would actually help hype the film, which anyone with half a brain could have foresawn as one a huge mistake.

So you could say this movie was the final nail in the coffin, but the corpse that was WCW was rotten long before then.

[–] jefgg 13 years ago

Vince McMahon killed WCW.

[–] joblow20 13 years ago

Things WCW did well in the mid to late 90s:

1. Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall form the nWo
You can't blame them for bringing Hogan in. And from a pure booking standpoint, nWo is what propelled them past WWF for the first time. It was the hottest thing in the business and effectively started the attitude era. It wasn't until the Bret Hart/Austin feud in late 1996, early 1997 that WWF finally responded with a bit of attitude.

2. Sting turns into the crow
This was the hottest storyline in all of wrestling at the time. Is Sting with the nWo? Is Sting with WCW? Sting felt betrayed by WCW questioning his loyalty... Sting hanging out in the rafters, dropping down to the middle of the ring, WCW begging him to be on their side and help them fight the nWo... Finally leading to Starrcade '97 which was probably WCW's biggest PPV ever (don't actually know the figures, but I consider this the height of their popularity).

3. Excellent mid-card
While outside of Sting - the main event scene was not very great. But the mid-card was fantastic. It's funny when WCW was killing WWF in the ratings, I always thought WCW had a weak main event scene, but amazing mid-card scene. And WWF had a great main event scene but awful mid-card scene. Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Raven, Eddie Guerrero, Diamond Dallas Page, Rey Mysterio, Kidman, and the rest of the cruiserweights.... These guys were having fantastic matches on the undercard.

4. Building up Goldberg
Outside of Sting there was no top babyface who could be seen as a legit threat to the nWo. Whether he was good in the ring or not doesn't really matter. The guy was over as hell and was a big draw in 1998.

-------
WCW started falling apart after Starrcade 1997 in my opinion - and by the same time the following year it was never going to turn back around:

1. Not letting Sting go over Hogan clean
nWo had been the top heel group for 1.5 years. Eventually the good guy needs to win. Much like Steve Austin was booked strong and eventually took down both heel D-X at WM14 and the Corporation at WM15 - Sting NEEDED to go over Hogan in the biggest way at Starrcade 1997 - and effectively that should have ended the nWo. They had booked Sting so well leading into this PPV it is crazy how poorly it all fell apart after this. He should have had a 6 month long babyface title run... it lasted for all of 11 days before being vacated and a few short months later it was right back on Hogan.

2. Keeping the nWo strong for far too long
Same point as above, really. It got stale very fast after Starrcade '97. And let's not even mention how it was STILL going strong with Nash/Hogan past Starrcade '98. Stale story. No one cared. Quite literally, the same night Nash laid down for Hogan after Starrcade '98 - EVERYONE changed the channel to WWF and never turned it back.

3. No new stars
They had the two hottest things in the business after Starrcade '97: 1) Crow Sting and 2) the recently screwed out of the WWF title Bret Hart. If I put my armchair booker hat on around January 1998 I would have had nWo dismantled after Sting took down their leader and built the main event scene around Sting, Bret Hart, Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page and elevated Chris Jericho. Would it have been enough to compete with Stone Cold vs. Vince McMahon, plus the rise of The Rock? No, in the end probably not, but all five were insanely over at this time. It could have at least slowed their demise.

4. Backstage politics
Of course the main reason that all this happened was the backstage BS. Hogan and Nash with too much power and in Bischoff's ear. And no Vince McMahon to keep them all in check. Nash's recent comments about Benoit and Guerrero are a pure indicator of why WCW failed in the late 90s. Would he put CM Punk over if not for Vince McMahon telling him to? By the time Russo got there it was already a *beep*