10 Reasons why WCW lost the Monday Night War

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Even nearly 20 years later, the Monday Night War is still remembered as one of the most exciting eras in sports entertainment. WCW challenged the then-WWF's dominance of the industry in one of the most vicious, spiteful, and expensive games of one-upmanship ever played.

The internet became more of a factor in the war as insiders in the industry could post spoilers about contracts and storyline plans with relative anonymity. Fans would also debate the merits and flaws of each brand. Sometimes the fans became quite polarized, but most fans actually watched both promotions with at least a somewhat equal amount of interest.

But, as history will tell us, WCW ultimately lost not only its bid to be the biggest promotion in the world but its very existence. Bought out by its rival, WCW fans can only speculate wistfully about what might have been.

Debate rages on to this day as to what exactly brought down WCW. Here are ten things that certainly exacerbated that downfall, and why WCW thought they would be more helpful than they were.

#1 Letting talent have too much creative control

In order to lure away WWE wrestling stars to WCW, the executives had to make some pretty compelling contractual offers. One of the main tenants of these contracts was a greatly reduced road schedule--often half of their previous workload--and creative control of their characters.

This meant that Hulk Hogan, for example, could not be booked to lose a match unless he wanted to. Not such a big deal for a massive star such as himself, but this same clause belonged to many of the WCW's veteran stars. Imagine the conflicts if two wrestlers who both only lose if they want to have to face each other. Sometimes they were professional about it–Randy Savage famously put over DDP clean when the latter was trying to go from midcarder to main event star–but usually there were conflicts, which led to hackneyed booking that left fans thoroughly unsatisfied.

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