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5 huge mistakes that killed WCW

NWO, the savior as well as the destroyer of WCW
NWO, the savior as well as the destroyer of WCW

The rating war between WCW and WWE in the late '90s was famously dubbed "The Monday Night War", and it ended with WWE buying off WCW in 2001.

There was a period of 83 straight weeks during the Attitude Era when WCW's ratings trumped WWE's numbers. The character of Stone Cold Steve Austin was perhaps the biggest reason why WCW lost the war in the end. The sudden rise of future Hall of Famers like The Rock and Triple H helped too.

But there were several other reasons that led to WCW's eventual death. Let's take a look at six grave mistakes WCW made that proved fatal in the end.


#5 Turning Superstars into mid-carders

Luger became an afterthought in WCW
Luger became an afterthought in WCW

Lex Luger was on the verge of becoming the next Hulk Hogan in WWE. He jumped ship to WCW and went on to do absolutely nothing of worth in the company. A long term rivalry with Hogan could have garnered major fan interest in WCW.

Randy Savage was another legend who ended up being a pretty insignificant part of WCW. Several other stars who could have been properly used were put into the ever-growing faction NWO.


#4 Nitro goes three hours

Three hours of Nitro was too much for the fans
Three hours of Nitro was too much for the fans

Similar to what WWE has been doing for a while now, WCW Nitro used to be three hours in length for a good while. As fans of the current WWE product have noticed, three hours is a long period of time when it comes to watching a wrestling show.

Not only do the fans get burned by the end, the creative teamĀ also needs to be on their toes at all times to fill the extra TV time. WCW went on to have a Kiss Concert headline the show at one point, resulting in one of the lowest ratings in the history of WCW Monday Nitro.

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