However, 1998 would be a turning point for both companies as the WWF exploded with mega success thanks to Stone Cold Steve Austin while WCW began to have a downturn that would ultimately lead to their demise.
WCW Monday Nitro had beaten WWF's Raw for 84 straight weeks from July 17, 1996 until April 13, 1998 when Austin took on Vince McMahon as the WWF was starting to climb from the bottom to go to the top. Nitro only beat Raw eight more times in head-to-head ratings for the remainder of 1998 while most of that came in the summer with its all-time high of 6.0 on August 31.
Albeit, Eric Bischoff and WCW deserve credit to an extent for creating the nWo although he saw the idea stemming from an angle in New Japan Pro Wrestling. However, the same group of people who did not get much out of the super talented Steve Austin like McMahon and the WWF did were the same group of people who did not get much out of the legendary Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
Hart joined WCW after McMahon and the WWF could not afford to pay him anymore as they were also trying to go a much different direction. Hart left the company bitter and angry after the Montreal Screwjob during the Survivor Series on November 9, 1997 when McMahon screwed Hart out of the WWF Championship and gave it Hart's bitter enemy Shawn Michaels.
WCW failed to capitalize on Hart's momentum of angrily leaving the WWF and use it to their advantage to try and put the WWF out of business and win the war once and for all. Well it was impossible to put McMahon out of business as you would have to kill him to do so and WCW just did not know what the heck to do with Hart despite the writing being on the wall.
They could have used him to be the biggest threat to the nWo especially Hollywood Hogan and many of the former WWF wrestlers since he was now anti-WWF and would like nothing more to put WWF and McMahon away and do so by taking out McMahon's biggest creation in Hogan.
Too many wrestlers were in the nWo so WCW needed more heroes to combat them. WCW decided to have many of its top stars in the nWo that the nWo soon split into two different nWos and if the nWo wasn't watered down enough before, it was surely watered down now.
The nWo even gained a new member early in the year as Scott Steiner turned on his brother Rick and joined the nWo. Scott had increased muscle mass and then dyed his hair blonde and began to be known as "Big Poppa Pump." Hogan also brought back his best friend Ed Leslie to be an nWo member known as "The Disciple."
Hart was not used in the main event much at all. He wasn't even a member of the nWo as he was just an associate to Hogan trying to get wrestlers to join the nWo. Hart was involved in a feud with Sting late in the year before not much else.
He was not at all used in the World Title picture. Hart did win the United States Heavyweight Championship three times in 1998 but not much else to write home about for one of the top performers in pro wrestling history.
WCW dropped the ball with the dismal finish to Starrcade '97 albeit Hollywood Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and even Sting to an extent had their hand with the finish. WCW started the year holding up the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and the two fought for the vacant title at SuperBrawl in February, where Sting won thanks to help from nWo member Randy Savage, who was sick of Hogan's antics.
The announcement of the WCW World Title being held up was made on the inaugural episode of WCW's new TV show called Thunder. That night, WCW James J. Dillon asked Sting to hand over the title which he reluctantly did. Sting said to Dillon "you have no guts!" and then looked over at Hogan and said "you're a dead man!" as Sting spoke for the first time in 16 months.
Thunder debuted on Thursday night, January 8, 1998 on Turner's TBS network. Thunder would air Thursday nights on TBS for two hours before it moved to Wednesday night in 2000 until WCW's demise in 2001.
Whatever started the downfall of WCW is up for debate but the creation of the Thunder show was one of the reasons why WCW started to fail. Ted Turner wanted a second WCW primetime show on his network following the success of Nitro and the popularity of WCW.
WCW President Eric Bischoff was against this as he believed having two weekly primetime shows totaling 5 hours (Nitro increased to 3 hours this point on top of it) would actually water down the product plus he felt WCW did not have enough talent to do another two-hour show without overexposing them and minimizing the storylines.
Also, the cost to produce Thunder was a lot and TBS would not pay for the cost to produce the show as Time Warner (who merged with Turner) cut costs and reduced the budgets for wrestling. The reduce in budget also prevented WCW from hiring additional people to bring in and help run the show. This would ultimately hurt the total costs for WCW in the coming years to help lead to its demise in 2001.
While the early episodes of Thunder did have the main talent of WCW on it to help sell the show, it eventually became a "B-List" show as the mid card talent only wrestled and the top talent barely performed and/or even showed up for Thunder shows. This led to the popularity dropping and many not watching it.
Early in 1998, Randy Savage was getting sick of Hollywood Hogan being the leader of the nWo and how no one could be better than him that he planned to secede from the nWo and be his own man and challenge for the World Title as Hogan refused to let any of his nWo cohorts do so as he wanted to be World Champion.
Soon after Savage separated from Hogan and the nWo, more nWo members began having their problems with Hogan, particularly Kevin Nash, who soon began to side with Savage as he too was sick of Hogan running things. Nash even called out Hogan as to why his best friend Scott Hall was not on TV and as to why his other best friend and Wolfpac member Sean Waltman was let go by WCW.
Nash helped Savage win the WCW World Championship at Spring Stampede when he Jackknifed Sting much to the dismay to Hogan as both Savage and Nash officially split from Hogan. The next night on Nitro, Hogan, with help from Bret Hart, beat Savage to win the title back. While Savage and Nash split from Hogan, they did not in fact leave the nWo.
Instead, they simply created a new nWo called the nWo Wolfpac. The colors changed from the original nWo's black and white to black and red. The original Hollywood Hogan nWo was called nWo Hollywood. nWo Hollywood remained heels while the nWo Wolfpac were faces. The nWo Wolfpac even changed their theme music to this cool theme.
I remember being in high school during this time and being such a huge fan of the nWo Wolfpac and even having a black-and-red nWo Wolfpac t-shirt. However looking back now, the two separate nWo factions was such a huge mistake for WCW.
WCW even sort of buried itself by having many of its established wrestlers not in WCW but in the "rival" faction trying to destroy WCW. They made it not cool to be in WCW and being a fan of WCW. There was no way Vince McMahon would never have anything portray something better and cooler than his own promotion and certainly not destroy it.
Joining Savage and Nash was Konnan, Curt Hennig, and Rick Rude as Hennig and Rude would soon leave and return to nWo Hollywood. Both nWos would be involved in trying to bring wrestlers into their factions. The Giant surprisingly returned to nWo Hollywood but the Wolfpac gained a new member in Lex Luger.
Both nWo factions wanted one man to join them and that man was the man called Sting. Sting had been WCW's franchise player for over a decade but this year you had to be a member of an nWo seemingly or else. It seemed the Wolfpac getting Sting's best friend Luger would mean that Sting would join the Wolfpac over Hollwood and he did just that by joining the nWo Wolfpac.
Sting would even change his face paint as instead of wearing white with black face paint, he changed it to red with with black to coordinate with the Wolfpac colors. Unlike his previous "Crow" gimmick where he barely spoke, Sting was a lot more vocal during his run with the Wolfpac as it had been nearly two years since he was this vocal on the microphone and in the ring.
Many also wondered if Scott Hall was a member of the nWo Wolfpac with his best friend Kevin Nash or was with nWo Hollywood as he had not been seen on TV for two months. When he returned at Slamboree in May, he teamed with Nash but cost Nash and himself the WCW World Tag Team Championships against Sting and The Giant to show he was really a member of nWo Hollywood.
The two "former" best friends Hall and Nash would feud pretty much for the rest of 1998 as Hall blamed his alcohol and drug problems and his family problems on Nash not being there while Nash claimed he did everything to help Hall.
WCW soon used Hall's alcohol and personal problems on TV as they tried to emulate the WWF's Attitude Era. Hall came out on TV stumbling around drunk on TV and came out with a brown paper bag which he would drink out of during his matches. One time Hall even "vomited" on Eric Bischoff on TV.
Nash one time chased Hall in and out of bars across town. Nash faced off against Hall at Halloween Havoc in October. Nash gave Hall two Jackknife Powerbombs but left the ring and got counted out as he wanted to teach Hall a "lesson."
The Turner-Time Warner executives were not fond of WCW using Hall's alcohol problems and having him "drink" on TV as Time Warner wanted more family-friendly oriented TV unlike the WWF. Turner-Time Warner had no interest in fighting fire with fire when it comes to taking down the more popular WWF Attitude Era.
WCW decided to use pro athletes and celebrities to draw much needed attention away from the surging WWF. WCW had been using pro athletes in the ring for several years as NFL stars Kevin Greene, Steve McMichael, and Reggie White had wrestled several times.
Dennis Rodman had been in WCW in 1997 when he aligned himself with his good friend Hollywood Hogan and the nWo. Rodman even wrestled with Hogan to take on Lex Luger and The Giant in the 1997 Bash at the Beach PPV.
Rodman again returned to WCW with Hogan and nWo Hollywood in the summer of 1998 following the NBA season and the Chicago Bulls winning their third straight NBA Title. Rodman and Hogan attacked Diamond Dallas Page with steel chairs one episode of Nitro.
Page responded by bringing in a nemesis of Rodman and the Bulls in the NBA by having fellow NBA Hall of Fame Karl Malone team with him in the main event at the July Bash at the Beach PPV against Rodman and Hogan. WCW played on the angle that Rodman's Bulls had beaten Malone's Utah Jazz the previous two years in the NBA Finals.
Malone was trying to get the last laugh against Rodman in the ring. Both Rodman and Malone showed some skills in the ring. Page gave Hogan a Diamond Cutter as Malone did the same thing to Rodman. However, Hogan of course got the last laugh as The Disciple gave Page the Apocalypse as Hogan and Rodman won.
At least having established pro athletes in the ring is not a terrible thing, but having a comedian who is not known for athletics wrestle is completely another. WCW decided to have comedian and late night talk show host Jay Leno wrestle.
Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff feuded with Leno as Bischoff wanted his own talk show. They even appeared on an episode of The Tonight Show to confront Leno only for Diamond Dallas Page to show up and run Hogan and Bischoff away.
Naturally this setup the main event at August's Road Wild PPV in Sturgis, South Dakota between Page and Leno against Hogan and Bischoff. Leno was what you would expect for a man with just 10 days of professional wrestling training.
Leno would duck Hogan anytime he was in the ring. However, Leno managed to get Hogan in an armbar and both Leno and Page give Hogan a double clothesline and Leno pins him once for two. Leno later fought Bischoff and gave him a low blow and several punches.
Kevin Eubanks, the leader of The Tonight Show band, snuck in and gave Bischoff the Diamond Cutter allowing Leno to pin Bischoff for the 1-2-3 and give Leno and Page the win over Hogan and Bischoff in a really lame main event.
Albeit the criticism of Leno wrestling is far warranted but what WCW wanted WCW got and that was national exposure and attention. Cameras were focused on Leno in the ring and numerous publications had Leno locking Hogan in an armbar on their front cover.
WCW would use a former NFL professional football player to try and create their next biggest superstar. The best thing WCW could do, however, in response to Stone Cold Steve Austin was create their own superstar in Bill Goldberg, simply known as Goldberg.
Goldberg was a former NFL player for the Atlanta Falcons for a couple of years before his career came to an end and needed to find a new career. He was training in mixed martial arts when he met Sting and Lex Luger in a gym as they both wanted him to try professional wrestling. Soon after, Goldberg took their advice and began training at the WCW Power Plant.
Goldberg made his WCW TV debut as an unknown on the September 22, 1997 episode of Nitro where he easily and shockingly defeated veteran Hugh Morris with a spear and his finisher the Jackhammer. Goldberg defeated fellow former NFL pro football player Steve McMicheal at Starrcade '97 in December.
As Goldberg entered 1998, he was winning more and more wrestlers and even winning a couple PPV matches and WCW announcers started to push him and his undefeated streak. The exaggeration of his undefeated streak was amazing as one week he would be 32-0 and the next week, they'd say he's 56-0 as he apparently fought 20 something matches in a week.
Goldberg's undefeated streak and ability to simply squash his opponents made him super popular with fans. His matches were to be only a few minutes to hide his flaws as a wrestler and to get him over with the fans. One exception, however, was when he was supposed to wrestle "Lord" Steven Regal on the February 9, 1998 edition of Nitro.
Regal was told by WCW management to make Goldberg "look good" since Goldberg was very limited in the ring at that time. What Regal didn't realize was that he was supposed to lose quickly like everyone else before him but make him look better in the process than he had at that point.
Regal believed though that he had to be more aggressive and stiff when delivering blows to Goldberg to roughen him up. Regal actually made the match a competitive wrestling match which totally exposed Goldberg's weaknesses in the ring. Goldberg ultimately won the match but it went a lot longer than planned as it was about 5-6 minutes long instead of about 1-2.
Regal ended up making Goldberg look bad as this along with substance abuse problems saw Regal get let go by WCW. He went to the WWF and stayed until being let go in 1999. He returned to WCW and stayed until being let go again in 2000. He rejoined the WWF (now WWE) as William Regal and remains there ever since in non-wrestling roles.
Goldberg was also popular because of his awesome entrances where security would knock on his dressing room door and escorted to the curtain where he would walk out to his awesome entrance theme as he would walk through fireworks and smoke. Because of this, Goldberg soon got to pushed to main event status despite being in pro wrestling for less than a year.
On the July 6, 1998 episode of Nitro live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA where Goldberg played during his time with the Falcons, Goldberg would face off against Hollywood Hogan for the WCW/nWo World Heavyweight Championship in the main event as he was proclaimed the number one contender.
Hogan made Goldberg defeat Scott Hall first before he could wrestle Hogan, which Goldberg defeated him to officially earn the world title shot. Goldberg shocked the world by defeating the legendary Hogan to win the WCW World Championship in front of 40,000 screaming fans in his hometown. Goldberg improved to "99-0."
While it was incredible to have witnessed Goldberg beating Hogan for the World Title on free TV on Nitro, this match should have been built up and shown on PPV and it could have made a ton of money. Eric Bischoff was obsessed in those days with Nitro beating Raw in the ratings that he decided to put this match on cable TV instead of having millions of people pay to see it on PPV.
The next month at the Road Wild PPV, Goldberg faced off against the nWo Hollywood and Wolfpac in a battle royal. Goldberg hoisted up the 7 ft tall nearly 500 lb. Giant in a vertical suplex in a completely amazing display of strength and delivered the Jackhammer to win the match.
The WWF even mocked Goldberg by having career jobber Duane Gill dress up like Goldberg and even perform his mannerisms and called him "Gillberg." While Goldberg was undefeated, Gillberg had a perfect record, but it was all losses and no wins.
As a result of winning the WarGames match at Fall Brawl, Diamond Dallas Page became the number one contender for the World Title and would take on Goldberg in the main event at Halloween Havoc. Page continued to his late-bloomer status as a pro wrestler as he finally got his first chance at the World Title.
It was an interesting main event as the guy who got a really late start, who worked his ass off for everything he gained and had to wait until he got into his 40s for his main event push took on the guy who accomplished a ton with little pro wrestling experience. This was to be a thrilling match but those who got the PPV did not even get a chance to see it. Before we get to it, we have to backtrack.
Hollywood Hogan literally stole the show but not for the good reasons. His opponent was The Ultimate Warrior as we would have thought it would be another classic match. The Warrior shockingly made his WCW debut on the August 17, 1998 episode of Nitro when he confronted Hogan after Hogan said he beaten everyone. Sadly some of Nitro's best ratings came in the summer of 1998 after Warrior's debut.
"The Renegade" doesn't count as The Ultimate Warrior's WCW debut as they impersonated The Warrior in 1995. The Warrior had not been seen in the wrestling scene for two years after he briefly returned to the WWF in 1996 and abruptly left again after a few months. WCW continued its trend of hiring old WWF Superstars in an attempt to beat the new brand of WWF Superstars.
One of the most notorious things in Warrior's brief tenure in WCW came at Fall Brawl in the WarGames match. Not only did he have a lousy performance in the match where he constantly appeared and disappeared, he entered the ring through a special trap door in the ring.
What made that worse was the fact that Davey Boy Smith landed on it during a match and was nearly paralyzed from landing on it as it almost ended his career. Smith and Jim Neidhart joined their brother-in-law Bret Hart in WCW but did not last too long there.
The Warrior took on Hollywood Hogan at Halloween Havoc as the match nowhere resembled their classic encounter at WrestleMania VI. In fact, it was a lousy match with a lousy finish. Hogan's nephew Horace Hogan hit Warrior with a chair shot that was very weak looking. Hogan attempted to throw a fireball at Warrior after the match but did not as he accidentally hit himself in the face with it.
The Warrior left WCW shortly after and basically retired from wrestling altogether. He would not be in the wrestling spotlight until he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at WrestleMania XXX in 2014. Warrior then appeared the next night on the April 7, 2014 episode of Raw. Sadly he would pass away the next day.
Hogan would shortly announce his "retirement" after this match and announced he would "run for President of the United States" in 2000. Vignettes would be shown on WCW TV of Hogan getting ready to make a Presidential run.
As lousy as the Hogan-Warrior Halloween Havoc match was and how painful it was to watch as well as way too many talking segments, the worst thing was that WCW ran the PPV way too long as it did not even get to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match between Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page.
The fans at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas got to see the thrilling championship match. Those who paid for the PPV at home did not as the PPV went off the air just before the Goldberg-Page match was to start. In an attempt to make it up to the fans who missed the match, WCW showed the match the next night on the October 26, 1998 episode of Nitro in its entirety for free.
It was a great gesture by WCW but it cost them millions of dollars as again, WCW was really starting to crack under the pressure. The Goldberg-Page match was amazing as it was the best match for both men in their entire career.
Page hit Goldberg with the Diamond Cutter, but only got a two-count. He attempted to deliver the Jackhammer to Page, but Goldberg countered it into his own Jackhammer to win the match and retain the title and improve his record to "154-0." The October 26 episode of Nitro won the ratings battle over Raw but it was the last time Nitro ever beat Raw in ratings until WCW went under in 2001.
Chris Jericho like many of the Cruiserweights have been buried in the pecking order as WCW focused mostly on the nWo and Goldberg and Page. Jericho was a super talented wrestler that had no shot at the main event. Jericho was frustrated going nowhere as he turned heel by constantly whining and showing poor sportsmanship after losing matches and attacking Rey Mysterio Jr.
With Jericho not getting major attention, he was pretty much free to do what he wanted as there seemingly were no laws in WCW. Jericho began to fine tune his microphone skills going from a babyface goody goody who was not interesting into turning in some exciting promos that got him over with the fans as well as be a stepping stone to his future success as "Y2J" in the WWE.
One of Jericho's best promos in WCW was when he feuded with Dean Malenko, who called himself the "Man of 1,000 Holds", and Jericho referred to himself as the "Man of 1,004 Holds!" One time after winning a match on Nitro, Jericho pulled out a large stack of paper the old school computer paper that was attached to each other and read out loud holds where every other hold was an armbar.
Jericho also decided he wanted to go after the undefeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg where he called out Goldberg on TV for several months. He even defeated a Goldberg imposter at Fall Brawl.
Jericho did this to build up a big storyline for people to want to see Goldberg come out and kick this loud mouth's ass in a very quick squash match. Jericho wanted Goldberg to quickly squash him in a minute but to do so on PPV where people would pay big money to see it.
WCW and especially Goldberg did not want to do this on PPV rather on WCW TV which pissed Jericho off. Goldberg came out and speared Jericho to end the "feud." Jericho frustrated decided to not re-sign with WCW and let his contract expire and left to join the WWF in the middle of 1999, where he became a superstar.
Ric Flair was not seen on TV much in 1998. After losing to Bret Hart at Souled Out in January in Hart's first WCW match, Flair was barely seen on TV much afterwards and wasn't involved in many storylines as he was involved in a contract dispute as his contract was up but he signed a new letter of intent to sign a new contract.
In April 1998, Flair no-showed an episode of Thunder after he originally asked for and got that night off to see his son Reid wrestle that night. WCW last minute decided to put him on that night but Flair did not appear.
Eric Bischoff suspended him as he was taken off TV and Bischoff sued Flair for breach of contract and to make an example out of him. Flair had an offer to return to the WWF in April. He was even going to appear sitting at ringside at the April 1998 PPV with his son Reid in Greensboro, N.C.
However, the lawsuit prevented him from appearing that night or to sign with the WWF. It was later proven that he was under WCW contract and was their property. The lawsuit was settled in the summer and Flair would have to return to WCW.
While Flair was off, Dean Malenko approached the retired Arn Anderson to reform the Four Horsemen after Flair disbanded the Horsemen the year before. as he wanted to be a Horseman along with his friend and Horseman member Chris Benoit and other Horseman Steve McMichael. However, Anderson refused to do so.
Finally on the September 14, 1998 edition of Nitro from Greenville, South Carolina in Horsemen Country, Anderson decided to reform the Four Horsemen as there was a celebration in the ring with Arn, Benoit, McMichael, and new member Malenko along with former Horsemen manager J.J. Dillon wearing tuxedos.
All of a sudden, Arn called Ric Flair to come out to the ring as he returned to WCW that night as the crowd went nuts. Flair had tears running down his face and thanked everyone for his marvelous career.
Flair then went off on Eric Bischoff as Bischoff came down to the ring. He called Bischoff an asshole and abusive of power and a no good son of a bitch. Bischoff was yelling at Flair that he would never wrestle again as Flair continued his tirade.
Flair feuded with Bischoff as he wanted to get his hands on Bischoff, but Bischoff prevented him from wrestling on TV. Flair had his 10-year-old son Reid take down Bischoff with amateur wrestling moves. Bischoff brought former Horsemen member Barry Windham back to WCW and got him to turn on Flair and the Horsemen.
Eventually a match between Flair and Bischoff would be set for Starrcade '98. On the December 14 episode of Nitro, Flair chased after Bischoff then cut a scathing promo on him in the ring. All of a sudden, Flair slumped to the corner and began breathing heavily as he storyline suffered a "mild heart attack."
A few nights later on Thunder, Bischoff took the rivalry to new heights for apologizing to Flair's then-wife Beth and sons Reid and David but apologizing for Flair having a "weak heart" and continued to rip on Flair. The nWo Hollywood held back Reid while they attacked David. Bischoff then kissed Beth.
Flair looked to have beaten Bischoff at Starrcade, but Curt Hennig gave Bischoff a pair of brass knuckles to knock Flair out with and pinned him to win the match. The next night on the December 28 episode of Nitro, Flair cut one of his best promos on Bischoff for losing the match to him the night before and wanted a rematch that night.
Flair then stripped all the way down to his boxers and handcuffed himself to the ropes as he demanded a rematch. He said if Bischoff beat him he would retire but if he beat Bischoff, he would be the "President of WCW" for 90 days. Bischoff agreed and the match was on.
Flair took it to Bischoff but members of nWo Hollywood tried to interfere but the Four Horsemen held them off. The Giant came out along with Randy Savage, who was seen for the first time in six months due to a knee injury and now sporting a black-and-white nWo Hollywood shirt. Savage even sported a slicked back ponytail and increased muscle mass and a beautiful young blonde lady.
Savage looked to have rejoined nWo Hollywood but he attacked The Giant and clotheslined him over the top rope. Flair put Bischoff in the Figure Four and Bischoff gave up. Flair won the match and would be the President of WCW.
Bischoff was definitely abusing his power as he had a "Napoleon complex." However, Bischoff admitted he was getting burned out in 1998 with the Time Warner buyout and all the corporate B.S. as it was taking its toll on him and it affected the way he was doing business and running things.
Ironically Flair was the one who recommended Bischoff to his position of power running WCW in 1993. Bischoff and Flair get along well this day as they patched things up as Bischoff is in a much better place in life these days as opposed to when he was running WCW.
Bischoff was going through a lot with the Time Warner merger and all the B.S. going on that he named Kevin Nash the head booker of WCW while he focused on all the corporate stuff with Time Warner. Time Warner was completely micromanaging Bischoff and WCW and cutting their budget to the point where it was no longer enjoyable and the product ultimately began to suffer.
Nash took on WCW World Heavyweight Champion and the undefeated Goldberg in the main event at Starrcade '98. Goldberg entered the match with an undefeated record of 173-0 since entering WCW in September 1997 and has been the champion since beating Hulk Hogan in July.
Goldberg looked to have beaten Nash when Scott Hall, wearing a WCW security shirt, tasered Goldberg allowing Nash to hit the Jackknife on Goldberg to win the World Title and end Goldberg's undefeated streak. There were reports that Nash got the booking duties and booked himself to end the streak but some including Nash said he didn't get the book until after the streak ended.
It turned out to be a disaster to end Goldberg's streak this early and it would really come ahead at the beginning of 1999 with what is the most infamous moment in WCW history that ultimately ended the promotion.
The problem for WCW was that they did not Stone Cold Steve Austin, well they did a few years before, but they did not have Vince McMahon who got the most out of their characters. Austin and McMahon took down WCW.
McMahon did not have the conservative family friendly nature of Ted Turner along with Turner executives as it did not matter to McMahon that he was showing sexual content and having foul language and drinking alcohol on his programs.
Turner had a lot more money to combat McMahon but he did not have the desire to really push the envelope like McMahon did. McMahon did not have nowhere near the money but had a never die go all out attitude to take down Turner and WCW.
Even worse for Turner was the Turner/Time Warner merger finalized in late 1998 and Turner lost all his power in the merger as it meant that whether or not he wanted to break the bank to shut down McMahon, he could not as they limited his budget and quite frankly did not care about wrestling as much as Turner did.
WCW made a then-record $50 million in 1998 but what was up was about to come down at an alarming speed as WCW enters the final year of the decade and millennium.
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