Why did WCW have better ratings during the late 90's?

Everyone looks for the next best thing. They hoped it was WCW. It wasn't.

If I remember correctly this was during the NWO times, which explains a lot. For a while they at least matched, or maybe even outdid the WWE in the attitude era. That storyline went stale eventually though, while the WWE remained at least relatively consistent. Also WWE pilfered a lot of WCW's talent at the end of course.

Bill Goldberg

There was a time, when they could have shown Goldberg lacing his boots and they would have gotten better quarter ratings than WWE

They did a good job of presenting it as more of a sport.

Ratings were higher but were spot shows?

More established stars. A lot of them are still wrestling today.

flaneur wrote:

If I remember correctly this was during the NWO times, which explains a lot. For a while they at least matched, or maybe even outdid the WWE in the attitude era. That storyline went stale eventually though, while the WWE remained at least relatively consistent. Also WWE pilfered a lot of WCW's talent at the end of course.

For the most part, this is correct. You had NWO vs. WCW storyline, which eventually evolved into the NWO splitting into the White NWO vs. Red NWO. Coupled with the rise if stars like Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page, WCW not "matched and even outdid WWF(E)," but for a period was SLAUGHTERING them in the ratings.

Not to be nit picky, WWE didn't pilfer WCW's talent. WCW was straight up bought out by WWE. It wasn't the WCW of the past and was then #2 to WWE when it met it's demise, but it was actually still fairly viable. It was an executive decision made by Jamie Kellner to dump as he felt the "demographics of TBS and TNT were changing and they couldn't get the 'right' advertisers with WCW," so he sold it to WWE.

Two words wrote:

Bill Goldberg

There was a time, when they could have shown Goldberg lacing his boots and they would have gotten better quarter ratings than WWE

Yes. Also during that time, they created the greatest hype for a match. Sting vs. Hogan. That sort of anticipation and hype will never be matched again.

Sadly, they screwed it all up by having the match end in controversy.

Here: Read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Night_Wars

And look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monday_Night_Wars_Ratings.JPG

WCW was still viable....but AOL acquired Time Warner and Ted no longer ran the show so the network wanted to go in a different direction.

Alan

So....actually the WWF/WWE had higher ratings in the late 90s. WCW had higher ratings in the mid 90s

Alan

West L.A. and Hollywood TV producers and screenwriters teamed up with L.A. martial arts guys and started MMA/UFC. They tore into WWE's martket share with better stunts, theater, and crafted lines. The WWE could not compete with the MMA/UFC screenwriters. The rest is history.

I was a loyal supporter of NWO Black and White. My former best friend supported Black and Red. The NWO split ruined our friendship.

Slightly off topic, Ready to Rumble is an awesome movie.

What the hell is this nWo Red and Black? Wolfpac people.

Watch "The Rise and Fall of WCW" on Netflix. Lays it out there. WCW was king and then they had a few bad storylines - David Arquette won the championship, Nash laid down in a match vs. Hogan, Vince Russo wasn't the great writer they thought he was, it all spiraled from there. The AOL/TimeWarner merger finally did it in.

I learned something today: now I know where Runningart's muscle building and protein eating compulsions come from.