I bought the 'Monday Night Wars' on DVD last month, and it left me fascinated and astonished at how the WCW managed to throw away the best chance of becoming the best promotion in the world. They had the financial clout, the talented roster and the unpredictability that could, and should, have toppled the WWF/WWE and cemented the WCW's place at the top of the table. Look at the roster that the WCW had during their winning streak in the Wars. They had the pure wrestling talent wasting away in or below the midcard like DDP, Chavo Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Psicosis, Billy Kidman, Shane Helms, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Booker T. Hell, even Jericho, Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were refused a push to the main event, and they are some of the best wrestlers the business has ever seen!

Added to this talent was the market value of the New World Order, mainly Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and the Giant, along with Sting, Piper and Randy Savage as the other main attractions. These superstars must have made millions of dollars in ticket sales alone, never mind the merchandise and pay-per-views. Added to this was the fact that WCW was live on a Monday night and, excusing the underhand tactics of Eric Bischoff to hurt the opposition e.g. give away WWF/WWE's results before their taped show even started, this gave Nitro that feeling of unpredictability and the ability for surprises that wrestling fans crave for. Finally, the millions of Ted Turner gave the company the opportunity to bring in new stars, try new things, and always have the financial confidence to fall back on.

Looking at the past two paragraphs, you would wonder why the WCW failed and eventually folded. However, some major mistakes were made in the company that rendered all of the above irrelevant. The main and most obvious flaw was the failure to push the most talented workers on the roster. The likes of Benoit, Jericho and Guerrero were never given the chance to become stars because, although they obviously had the most talent on the roster, the older, more marketed veterans like Hogan always blocked them off. Look at the WWE at the time. They pushed Rocky Miavia up to the legend that is The Rock. 'The Ringmaster' Steve Austin, although suffering a severe neck injury against Owen Hart, still became the biggest superstar since Ric Flair - Stone Cold. The Undertaker became a legend in that period. Finally, the tag division became full of talented teams, like Edge and Christian, The Hardy Boyz (I know that Jeff is/was a druggie, but as a team they were entertaining) and the Dudley Boyz (maybe not talented, but their gimmick worked extremely well.)

Another main reason was the over-booking of the New World Order angle. It was blown well out of proportion, as more wrestlers got fed up of getting their ass kicked every week and joined the stable. Also, the World Heavyweight title was always within a certain group of old has-beens that blocked the younger, fitter (not in a gay way) and more talented workers. These two factors made the product boring, as if it was the same week in, week out.

What was the point in this history lesson that any good wrestling fan would already know" Well don't you think that the problems of WCW resemble a certain other big company that has three letters today" I have heard and read a lot of comments regarding the state of NWATNA and it is doomed to follow WCW, but I believe that the WWE bears more of a concrete resemblance.

Look at the potential in the WWE midcard. Kidman, Shane Helms and Chavo Guerrero are still wasting away and are coming to a dead end (Although Chavo has recently been given the Cruiserweight title). Paul London is a very talented wrestler, yet he barely breaks into the midcard! Tajiri, Rhyno, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin are also highly talented individuals, yet they are being left to rot in the wilderness of the midcard (Benjamin may be Intercontinental champ, but facing Gene Snitsky every week isn't very much of a push!).

Also, look at who the WWE have lost in the past few years, some of which were big money raisers. Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan and even Goldberg were big crowd pullers, yet they have all stopped appearing on TV, and in some cases left the company altogether.

Look at the titleholders on both shows. On RAW, Triple H seems to have a god given right to the World Heavyweight Championship. Now I like Triple H, both in the ring and on the mike, and I do believe that he is cruelly insulted due to his marriage to Stephanie McMahon. He is a worthy champion and he does his job well at putting people over, as I will describe in a bit. However, his seemingly constant hold over the main title on RAW may put people off the product.

On SmackDown!, the situation is even worse. John Bradshaw Layfield has had the title for such long time that I can't remember who the last champion was. And, as Triple H is quite a talented performer, JBL is extremely flat and boring, both in and out of the ring. He doesn't put people over, and doesn't give the fans entertaining matches to justify his hold over the main SmackDown! title, and I know for a fact that people are turning off SmackDown! due to this common occurrence.

However, for all of the similarities with the two companies, there are some welcome differences. Triple H does put other workers over e.g Benoit at WrestleMania XX, Batista at WrestleMania XXI, Orton, and even Eugene to some extent. Just being in a feud with HHH puts a worker over. Also, there are some welcome signs of midcard pushes, like John Cena versus Bradshaw at this year's WrestleMania. WWE needs more of this, and I would recommend the push of either Benjamin, Edge, Mysterio, RVD or Booker T.

Finally, a lot of people say that the WWE is suffering from a lack of competition. I totally agree with this statement, as it seems that NWATNA is not up to the standard of a very poor WWE.

Thank-you for reading my first article; I hope that I have made you think about the current state of professional wrestling.

by Chris Woodcock ..