Before I start the article, all I have to say is this: What better way to celebrate my final high school days than the quitting of Dusty Rhodes as TNA booker, the departure of Brian Gerwitz from the RAW booking committee and A.J. Styles winning the TNA Championship? Although this has been spreading joy throughout the Internet, I say you're not trying hard enough. That's right; I want to see Undertaker and HHH gone from their promotions in a matter of two months. I want to see Jeff Jarrett to never get another title shot for a long, long time. I want to see Stephanie McMahon off the booking committee and Michael Hayes be sent to temporary unemployment. And while you're at it, get rid of the two has-beens Jeff Hardy and Sean Waltman and make sure that Kevin Nash never steps back in a wrestling ring again. Until then, my life will not be complete. Now, on with the most ambitious article I've ever written:

It is said that in order to turn a company into a national success, three items are required: strong bookers, great athletes and a common interaction with the fans. Believe or not, WCW once had all that. They had arguably some of the most consistent and impressive workers on their rosters, they had big-named athletes that drew a lot of money and sold a lot of tickets and most importantly, they had competent bookers that knew exactly how to handle things.

But just when it all seems right in the world, the greatness of the company fell apart, reducing WCW to shambles. For over the past decade, the monstrous mistakes that WCW made completely overshadowed the achievements that made the company refreshing and they ended up transforming the once clean product into a cesspool with shit leaking out of its filters. What was worse was that they did it to themselves...instead of trying to capitalize on something that could be interesting, they vanquished it. Great athletes were depushed immediately and the main events featuring the same old stale wrestlers fighting each other reduced its fan base prominently. Politics disrupted the creative team and created illogical storylines that left a bad taste in our mouths. Catastrophically horrendous booking decisions tore apart the morale backstage and value of fan interest. Egos and greed provided nothing but misery and depression in the locker room and to the fans. Politicians became bookers; matches became duds and the most talented wrestlers shift sides to other companies like WWF and ECW.

The downfall or death of WCW was the mistakes they refused to fix and the horrible ideas they created without thinking first. WCW could've been a contender and might still exist today if they didn't have the misfortune on not looking at the state of the product. But WCW did not care and has faded into obscurity without giving itself another chance. Now WCW is no more and only exist in our memories. And it's these 25 mistakes, blunders and disasters that turned WCW from being a multi-million dollar wrestling organization to ending up being a toy to Vince McMahon's empire.

1. Eric Bischoff Embarrasses Ric Flair

When you think of WCW, you think of Ric Flair. And how could you not? He was the guy that wrestled everyday and every night without taking a break (unless it was for personal reasons), he had dozens and dozens of classic matches with good and bad wrestlers, turning them into breakout stars, he drew heavy money, sold thousands of tickets and was the most dedicated wrestler in the industry. But to Eric Bischoff, he was nothing more than an employee or a pawn to his own company. In one faithful night, Bischoff declared only Hogan, Savage and Piper put asses on seats and called Flair a con artist and a liar. What followed turned out to be a serious backlash to WCW when the company sued Ric Flair and nearly drove him to bankruptcy. There were rumors that Flair was moving back to WWF, although it didn't happen. He should've because when Flair came back, he was never given a chance to shine like a bright star as he was put in embarrassing storylines and jobbed to nearly everyone in the roster including Eric Bischoff at Starrcade 1998. This was a disgusting display of ignorance and jealousy as Eric Bischoff, along with guys like Hulk Hogan, succeeded in destroying Ric Flair's fame and completely tarnishing his career for an eternity. Flair's fame status could've been a great way to get WCW back on track but after being promptly buried by the bookers, the fan base in WCW completely deteriorated as Nash and Hogan hogged the main events, killing their ratings slide once and for all.

And speaking of Nash and Hogan...

4. Celebrities: Main Eventers 1998 saw the rise of egos from Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan as Bischoff did everything he could to get an advantage of the ratings war against the WWF. One of his guerrilla tactics was paying a million dollars to non-wrestling celebrities like Karl Malone, Denis Rodman and Jay Leno. This move made a mockery of the sport and humiliated WCW beyond belief, exposing the business and destroying its credibility. Denis Rodman first came to WCW in a tag match with Hogan at Bash of the Beach 1997 but the results were disastrous and would be the laughing stock of the year. Forgetting the phrase "If it doesn't work, don't continue", Bischoff insisted in bringing Leno and Malone and push them in main events...over Diamond Dallas Page, Sting, Bret Hart and Goldberg!! The results were two of the worst matches in WCW history and an insult to all the wrestling fans who paid their hard earned money to see ACTUAL wrestlers.

5. Two Future Stars Kick the Bucket

In early 1994, Ric Flair was given the book as he had great matches with Ricky Steamboat, Vader and Sting and allowed major stars like Steve Austin, Arn Anderson and Johnny B. Badd to elevate midcarders and have interesting feuds. Also, Mick Foley was allowed to book his own hardcore matches along with Terry Funk during the hot Foley-Nasty Boyz feud. When WCW signed Hulk Hogan, however, it changed and Flair lost control, thus leaving the booking to become as self-destructing as a crack addict on high. Hogan brought in his friends and had them take over the spotlights from Steve Austin and all the other major stars that earned their spots. In one of the worst moments of the year, Jim Duggan squashed Steve Austin in 20 seconds to win the U.S. title, after having two ***+ bouts with Ricky Steamboat. When Austin was injured, he was fired by WCW executives, thus losing a promising star while Mick Foley was kicked out the backdoor when he lost the Tag titles to Team Wonderful. From there, Foley and Austin went to ECW and made it to the WWF, where in a matter of a couple of years, went on to become the two biggest stars in the wrestling industry. So with unintentional assistance from Hogan, Austin and Foley were buried in WCW and ended up becoming the leaders of the wrestling industry during the Monday Night Wars. Not since HHH saying he owns RAW has irony been on such a huge pile.

6. Jim Herd Fires Ric Flair

This will go down as the grave-digging moment for WCW in pre-Hogan years as their biggest draw was simply fired for not wanting to job his title to Lex Luger, all which led to WCW going through a financial rut for the next couple of years. Ric Flair was WCW Champion and people clamoured that the Great American Bash 1991 will be a huge turning point if Flair jobbed the title to Luger after Luger chased the belt for nearly three years. But Flair didn't want to job and instead of being negotiated by top executives and having promises to get paid higher if he does so, Flair was fired by then WCW honcho Jim Herd and took the World title belt to WWF where he would call it the "Real World Championship" in a hot storyline. The original Bash 91 main event was scrapped, a new title was prestige and Flair was replaced by Barry Windham, a move that didn't go well for fans that night as numerous chants of "We Want Flair" flooded a substandard main event for the entire time. The show, which was supposed to dawn a new era, ended up being one of the biggest flops in wrestling history and the effects of Ric Flair's departure left WCW in a financially disastrous state, coming close to filing for bankruptcy before finally bringing back Ric Flair, which saved WCW with a scoop.

7. Ratings: 4.8 Buyrates: 0.0

Goldberg was on the rise of popularity in WCW as he became more over than any wrestler on the roster. Immediately a US Champion, the bookers decided to give him a World title shot. This was, of course, during the Monday Night Wars when WWF was starting to roast WCW in the ratings and Bischoff was getting desperate at every attempt to get even with Vince McMahon. So in one of his most "brilliant" strategies in his WCW run, he decided to have Goldberg win the World title on National TV instead of the PPV. Although it did phenomenally on the ratings, it proved to be a fatal mistake as it didn't do any profitable good for WCW in its entity. Had the Goldberg title win been saved on a PPV, buyrates would've went up and WCW might've made a lot of money. Instead, it was just bantha fodder for Eric Bischoff's scheme to be better than the competition.

8. The End of the Tag Team Division

WCW didn't have any great tag teams, other than Harlem Heat, so in order to make it refreshing and more watchable to the audience; they gave the tag titles to the Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall). Unfortunately, instead of sustaining importance to the titles, the Outsiders blemished its integrity and completely devalued the championships beyond their prestige by not defending them and competing in singles matches instead, where every other tag team competed in meaningless number one contender matches that served no purpose but to be victims of the greasy-haired gravediggers. By the time the Outsiders lost the titles, they rendered the championships useless, single handedly destroying a prominent division that now didn't have any important tag teams.

9. A Radical Departure WCW might've been a catastrophic mess in and out of the ring but it still featured wrestlers whose loyalty and desire to work day and night for the fans are today unsurpassable. That wasn't the case anymore for Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn as after having their promises broken, their pushes flattened and for being treated like losers, they got sick of the WCW environment and wanted out of the contracts. And they got their wishes as they were released from the WCW roster and moved to the WWF. In other words, like Ric Flair, instead of negotiating with them, which would've been a smart move, WCW just released four of the best workers in the business for the hell out of it, one who was a World Champion, and ended up shooting themselves in the foot once again before getting suffocated with a plastic bag when they brought back Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff. In other words, the release of the Radicalz pretty much signalled the end for WCW.

10 The Starrcade Fiasco

One of the biggest disappointments in PPV history, Starrcade 1997 was supposed to be the show to turn WCW around for the good of the company and its talent. Instead, it ended up being a 3-hour snorefest which saw 85% of the line-up won by heels in blow off bouts that are normally won by faces. But if there was any indication of the company falling down the cliff and breaking itself apart in the future, look no further than the notorious main event between Hogan and Sting, as after months of dogging away from Sting, Hogan was finally forced to defend the belt against the man he constantly ran away from. But the match was a dull train wreck, ruined by the infamous "fast count" angle and a screwjob ending instead of a clean finish. This not only took the credibility away from Sting but it also buried him and ended his run as a main eventer. After that, Hogan won back the title, thus ruining one of the biggest blow off angles to a hot feud in ages and foreshadowing a series of turdburgers that engulfed WCW in the sewers for the next couple of years before its sale to the WWF.

11 Blind-Siding the Blonds

Undoubtedly the single greatest tag team in the wrestling industry to not be named the Hart Foundation would have to be the Hollywood Blonds (Brian Pillman and Steve Austin), the tag team that defined "heel heat". It was said that the WCW didn't want them to win the titles but in a miraculous moment, they did mostly due to the phenomenal work rate they sustained. Although their title reign ended in two months, they brought the T back in Tag Team division. Unfortunately, being that this was WCW; the Blonds were jobbed out of their titles, with promises of being pushed to a world title main event unfulfilled. Instead of capitalizing on their potential, WCW ruined it by not giving much gratitude or admiration to a tag team that might've been boosted to legendary status and help ratify the tag division if they were treated with respect.

12 Kayfabe At Its Worst

In wrestling terminology, a taping is when a non-televised live show is recorded, edited and then brought on TV in their proper time. You'll notice that pattern with SMACKDOWN (which actually airs on Tuesday but is broadcast on Thursdays) and Sunday Night Heat. Also in tapings, wrestling fans are told who to BOO and CHEER and re-edit the mouths and physical actions of fans in case they perform some inappropriate reaction. In 1993, during the beginning years of Monday Night RAW, Vince McMahon would do one live show and three tapings in one month to make it cost-efficient, even though it was a tad bit stale. But WCW went further and taped an astronomical THREE MONTHS of television for their programs. That decision came back to bite WCW in the butt as wrestling fans who DID attend the shows reported title changes to the Internet and gave away all the results. For example, they reported that the Blonds would lose the tag belts to Arn Anderson and Paul Roma, who would then lose them to the Nasty Boyz in October. Vader, who was WCW World Champion, would hold on to the belt through all the October-tapings according to the fans. Or that three titles would change hands at the Fall Brawl. This ended up exposing the business and the lack of suspenseful swerves or shock value that WCW would try to use to entertain fans caused buyrates and house show revenues to tank and cost themselves an overabundant 23 million dollars, a disastrous deficit that would be surpassed by the 80 million dollars loss mark in 2000!

13 From Hero to Zero

When WCW signed Hulk Hogan in 1994, it made the company more financially successful and much more mainstream to the public. At the same time, however, it also planted seeds of the political diseases that infested the product and WCW atmosphere and send it crashing down underwater. Hogan was automatically given the title "the leader of the company" and "the most exciting wrestler alive" when he went to the company. Unfortunately, the reception Hogan received ranged from mediocre to downright negative and the crowd started to boo him during interviews in front of Gene Okerlund, who had the utmost gall to call it a "phenomenal ovation". Hogan was shoved down the throat of the audience so many times that his ratings power started to decline. Although the heel turn was needed to save his career, people grew sick and tired of Hulk in general, whether he was a heel or face or just a tweener. It then became crystal clear that Hogan was using WCW to put himself over everyone and stuffing money in his pockets. In the end, Hogan ended up being a waste of money and in an ironic twist, a ratings failure. Hogan also feared for the popularities of many wrestlers, specifically Ric Flair, that could take away his spotlight. This was evident when Ric Flair returned to an enormous ovation in 1998 where Hulk's WCW 1994 debut and 1999 return were met with a mixed reaction. To put it in nice terms, Hogan is nothing more than a paranoid, egotistical, self-serving and jealous piece of crap that degrades the qualities of a human being and only cares about being better than everyone and having dollar bills in his safe. Say what you want about his impact in the industry but there is no denying the ignorance, the arrogance and the blowhard selfishness that Hogan contains in his character and for WCW to not realize or admit how much damage Hogan was doing for the company is enough to warrant this on the list.

14 Sting and Goldberg's Failed Heel Turns The mind-boggling bizarre prediction on who to cheer and boo really broke into kayfabe big time during the late 1990's. Hulk Hogan, despite being a top babyface, was heckled by the Internet and got negative responses by the live crowd while Sting always goes out and gets one of the biggest pops of the night. Then in a shocking moment, Sting turned on Hogan by waffling him with a baseball bat to a standing ovation, even though this cemented him as a heel. Unsurprisingly, it proved to be a huge failure because it also made Sting even more popular than ever. Had they capitalized on the heel potential, Sting might've been one of the most hated men on the roster but Sting had too many years as a babyface and the fact that he did nothing that verified him as a villain made the heel turn utterly ridiculous. But that would not be all. Vince Russo, being a lover of swerves, cartoon characters and talent less slugs, felt the need of turning the most profitable and well-over babyface WCW ever had in Goldberg into a full-fledged heel. Unfortunately, the experiment flopped big time as Goldberg was still getting cheers and was automatically turned back into a face, ruining his career and exemplify the state of the company: no matter how much faeces you throw, it never sticks on the wall.

15 The Failure of Vince Russo

Speaking of Russo, WCW needed to find a way to get itself back on track and earned back many of the fans they lost when they were getting squashed by WWF. In October 1999 when Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera, main writers that contributed in the Attitude Era, left the company, WCW seized the opportunity of hiring them to clean up the mess. Russo even convinced the management that they will do whatever it takes to help the company and not place themselves on television. You can't buy bad comedy like this. Russo broke all the promises and created some horrendous angles and substandard storylines that made no sense like Madusa winning the Cruiserweight title, putting four talented foreign wrestlers in a piñata on a pole match that enraged many fans and the worldwide audience WCW had left, ridiculing Jim Ross with Ed Ferrera as Oklahoma, booking Bret Hart like a loser and hype Tank Abbott as a World title contender. Oh, and make himself the owner heel that has been used before by Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff. That was enough to cost him his job but when Kevin Sullivan lost booking in 2000, WCW made a stupid mistake and rehired Vince Russo back to the booking team and the management went down the toilet again with outrageously bad moments like the David Arquette title win, Goldberg's failed heel turn, the moronic Millionaire's Club v. New Blood feud and culminating with Vince Russo winning the WCW title, the last straw that broke the camel's back and shattered its bones, turning the organization into a lifeless zombie with no reason to exist anymore.

16 The Dangerous Alliance Terminated

The super-hot conflict between the anti-WCW faction Dangerous Alliance led by Paul E. against WCW veterans like Sting and Ricky Steamboat was the highest selling point throughout 1991-1992. The storyline was that Paul E. was fired from WCW and vowed bloody vengeance by teaming Steve Austin with Rick Rude, Larry Zybszko and Barry Windham and try to take out any WCW worker that got in their way. This was essentially the direct opposite of the ill-fated WCW Invasion angle from 2001 or even the nWo Regime during the 90's in which the heat here is incredible, egos didn't cave in and the back-story of the competitors were nothing short of intense and violent with both factions looking stronger and going over each other like they respected each other in real life. Then came Erik and Bill Watts and the whole Dangerous Alliance angle was completely scrapped, thus killing off the one chance that could bring WCW into commercial success without any problem and have everyone move on to different directions. Had the feud continue on throughout the end of 1992, WCW might've recovered its finances and might not have lost a lot of money the following year and almost file for bankruptcy but since this IS WCW, for every good moment, a pile of turd stinks up the joint.

17 Paul Roma Inducted in the Horsemen

Another wasted opportunity combined with a retarded concept as the heatless WWF jobber is revealed to be the fourth member of the most elite stable in all of professional wrestling, a move that nearly killed the Horsemen and their heat for good in 1993. It is widely considered as the weakest Horsemen selection in the stable's history.

18 The Ultimate Bust

Arguably one of the most pathetic and embarrassing comebacks throughout the lucrative run in WCW would have to be the return of the Ultimate Warrior, the man that I can honestly say wish was run over by a steamroller and never exist in this world again. Before Warrior used his extreme right-wing agenda to diss homosexuals and tell Iranians to go "get a towel", Eric Bischoff tried every desperate act to get WCW to beat the WWF again. Concepts like celebrity main events and promoting "Bride of Chucky" failed completely so Bischoff decided to give Jim Hellwig an overpaid sum of nearly one-two million dollars for a WCW contract. To say it backfired would be an understatement. When Warrior debut at Fall Brawl 1998, he was automatically put in a main event feud with Hollywood Hogan, leading to a series of horrendous interviews and Vince Russo-style stunts like fireballs, taunts to enthral the crowd (which obviously didn't go over) and a mist entrance that injured Davey Boy Smith. The return match between Hogan-Warrior was a catastrophe...a slow, lumbering mess which saw two senior citizens blow every basic move they could muster (or have in their move set) and consisting of overbooking idiocy that ranks high in the stupidity level. Warrior, having suffered a broken arm, was paid to stay home, just showing that his ironclad contract was a nothing but a huge waste of money to begin with...another million dollars down the FRICKIN' DRAIN!!!

19 An Ultimately Dumb Idea Before the WCW brain trust brought in the Warrior, they once tried to create a spin-off of the nutcase himself during 1995 for Hulk Hogan to feud and go over...Seriously, I'm not kidding. Known as the Renegade, Hogan chose some unknown employee named Richard Williams and donned him with ridiculous makeup and costume after hints of Ultimate Warrior making a possible WCW debut. And boy, did that ever go well with the crowd? The fans didn't buy Renegade for a minute so was he depushed or removed off the roster? No, they booked the Renegade to win the TV title from Arn Anderson at the Great American Bash 1995 and push him to a main event feud with Ric Flair. If you don't understand WCW logic like this, no one does. Thankfully, the Renegade experiment ended and Williams would not be seen again before committing suicide via shooting himself in 1999. But the damage was done to the fan base as Hogan's ego and friends started to take control while the talented stars got depushed into obscurity. This was the perfect evidence of how this was happening.

20 Hey, Remember that Master P Guy?

Remember when wrestling featured just wrestlers performing in the ring? Remember the days before the McMahon’s urinated the product with their overbearing presence or the ugly sight of seeing Jay Leno do a hammerlock on Hollywood Hogan or Jim Ross giving Jonathan Coachman a terrible stunner? Well, 1999 was not a, in generosity, a decent year for wrestling as retarded angles, bonehead promotional moves and endless series of skits tarnished the one element that makes the sport important: authentic wrestling. And some of the wrestlers involved weren't associated with the roster and were outdoor celebrities. Case in point with WCW, as they went on to create a huge boner with the signing of many musicians like Master P, Kiss and Megadeth in attempt to provide fan interest. Why is this bad? Because it dropped credibility on its neck and did nothing but create an even bigger amount of backlash to WCW in the whole. Plus, the mind-insulting country v. rap feud with unpopular rapper Master P as a babyface left a bad taste in the fans' mouths as wrestlers associated with country music were the bad guys...in a south-adapted company! Another ridiculous moment, according to Wrestlecrap, was that Gene Simmons of Kiss was given a fat contract to create a wrestler based on the band and the wrestler never got a push. Funny for a company that pushed Tank Abbott as a World title threat and Dennis Rodman as a main eventer.

21 Hart Suffers a Headache

People will always debate on the annoyingly talked-about controversy at Montreal in 1997 but if people thought it were to be a poop-stain in Bret Hart's career, there was more yet to come in WCW for the Hitman. When Bret debut in WCW, it was at Starrcade 1997 where he became involved in the infamous Hogan-Sting main event that could've made Bret into a valuable player. Unfortunately, politics and ego crippled Bret's WCW run as the Hitman was put in the repetitive "Is he nWo?" storylines and did about a hundred turns in one year. Oh, and he wrestled DDP, Harlem Heat and Chris Benoit in the midcard while hanging on high water against Randy Savage and Sting. This coming from a guy that was getting paid two million dollars a year in his contract, more than most of the roster (except for Hogan and Goldberg). You had to know how Bret was feeling about this having just been rejected from the WWF and then get mopped all over the floor in WCW. The fact is that WCW once again wasted another opportunity and turned Bret Hart into a forgotten afterthought. With Hogan, DDP and Nash polluting the backstage morale, it came to no surprise that the treatment Bret was gonna get wouldn't be a wealthy hospitality. A five-time WWF Champion winning the US title several months after his first WCW appearance is ridiculous and even more so is the value that was wasted and not fully capitalized when he made his debut. Bret spent a total of two years in WCW where the only accomplishments were winning the first and only WCW Championship in a tournament and facing Chris Benoit in the classic Owen Hart Tribute match and would then retire after a severe concussion at the hands of Goldberg. Bret Hart was like a golden treasure but like a bunch of ignorant, simple-minded pirates, WCW buried its treasure and didn't bother to dig it up again when they had the chance.

22 The Horsemen Derails Again

WWE can have the Evolutions, the McMahon-Helmsley Regimes and the Cabinets and TNA can have the Kings of Mountains, 3-Live Crews and Team Canadas but none will touch the historical impact and marvellous accomplishments of the Four Horsemen, in my view the single greatest and most influential stable in this industry today, in the past and in the future. The original stable saw Ric Flair, Ole & Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and manager JJ Dillon and their heel tactics made them legendary, so legendary that newer versions were used, featuring wrestlers like Sting, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Brian Pillman, among others like Sid, El Gigante (!!!) and Steve McMichael. The Horsemen stood on top of the mountain for several years, even going through bad times like inducting Paul Roma and Steve McMichael and their tedious feud with the Dungeon of Doom. In other words, Horsemen=Ratings. Then came the nWo storyline and you can consider the Horsemen in the eyes of WCW employees obsolete. When the nWo helped increase ratings and buyrates, it also increased Eric Bischoff's ego. Bischoff, apparently believing that now he didn't need the Horsemen anymore to exceed revenues, disbanded them and put them in ridiculous one-sided feuds with Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Sullivan. The Horsemen were never given the chance to shine when they were facing the nWo, looking weak and losing in every major match each time they fought them. The final nail in the coffin was in 1998 when the Horsemen returned to a deafening roar and were completely buried by the nWo and Eric Bischoff, even though they achieved one last great ratings victory for WCW. It was at that point that people realized that the Horsemen would never come out on top, much in the same way as everyone knew that Ric Flair will never reign supreme against all odds again and that's what cost WCW a lot of fans. Bischoff's ego, along with the infesting politics, left the greatest stable in the world in a barren hole that they never got out of.

23 Tarnishing Goldberg

When Goldberg was pushed as the unstoppable monster, he squashed every single wrestler he was put in the ring with and became the #1 babyface in the company. Wresting skills and big-ass ego be damned, he made a lot of money and drew numerous crowds. In fact, Goldberg was probably the only interesting thing in WCW in 1998, other than Booker-Benoit series, Jericho and the return of Ric Flair. Unfortunately, Politics reared their ugly heads and instead of utilizing Goldberg's winning streak, they ended it instantly at Starrcade 1998, although the fault should go to the bookers rather than Goldberg himself. The result deflated Goldberg's main event run and killed off the heat of one of WCW's last major draws. Since then, Goldberg's success has been less than stellar with a hoax of a title win at Halloween Havoc 1999, the piss-poor booking during his feuds with Kevin Nash and Bret Hart and a heel turn that totally wrecked his WCW career. Since then, Goldberg's career has yet to recover and his WWE run clarified that statement.

24 Coming Soon to a Titantron Near You

In 1993, WCW was in financial turmoil with buyrates going down the shitter and a series of ridiculous promotional moves (#11, 12 and 17) that nearly sent the company into bankrupt hell. At that time, Big Van Vader was the WCW World Heavyweight champion that, though marketable, was not a draw. So when he was fed with challengers like Sting and Davey Boy Smith, WCW tried a creative way to hype their title shots as something important...they aired mini-movies starring WCW wrestlers. You think I'm joking? At a cost between $100,000-to-$1 million, the mini-movies featured Vader, Sting, Davey Boy Smith and Sid Vicious in a concession of embarrassing filming segments that ended up going nowhere and exposing the business just as bad as the tapings debacle from earlier on. One famous segment called "The White Castle of Fear" saw Sting fly via helicopter to the Rocky Mountains to confront Vader over the strap. So they played the tug-of-war with the belt and when lightning flashed, the title belt snaps and segment ends. Another one took place at a beach where Sting and Davey played volleyball with a bunch of orphans until Sid and Vader came out and one of their minions plant a bomb under the boat, which goes off, trapping Sting and Davey on the island forever. Seriously, this was supposed to MAKE people buy the pay-per-view. No one, of course, bought the shows and the creative concept ended up poking WCW in the eyes, leaving them monetarily blind before regaining their vision with Ric Flair's title win at Starrcade that year.

25 Big Lazy Is Given the Book Brad Dykens said it in his best "The WCW Pattern of Failure" article when wrestlers should not under any circumstance be allowed to book themselves in feuds, matches and title wins, no less than control their own storylines. Such was the case with Kevin Nash, arguably the most egotistical dickhead that exceeds (if not totally surpasses) the egos of HHH, Hogan and Goldberg. Nash manipulated the creative team into becoming the head booker for WCW and that's what sent the company in a downward spiral. Kevin Nash's first primary move was to end Goldberg's winning streak at Starrcade 1998 and give him his own World title belt and that was a planted seed that set the tone of a company gone down the shitter. What followed were the moves and angles that turned WCW into a polluted sewage system like the Savage/Nash feud, the hiring of Vince Russo, the signing of musicians, pushing of no-talent rejects like Rick Steiner and Sid Vicious and burial of wrestlers that go over, repetitive nWo angles and of course, the Fingerpoke of Doom that helped WWF completely flatten WCW for the next two years before WCW was sold to Vince McMahon. While Hogan ruined the product with his politics, Nash ruined the product, ripped its internal organs out and allowed diseases to infect it hook, line and sinker. Nash can make up 1988880 excuses all he wants but everyone involved knows what Nash has done to his company and all of Nash's realistic acting of what is right for the business will never disguise the failures that he bestowed upon in WCW.

A sequel is in works. If this column is a success, then the sequel will be posted.

by Joe L. --- [View Joe L's Column Index]..