There was once a time whenWWEhad its work cut out for itself trying to compete withWCW. World Championship Wrestling was delivering must-see, edgier content than WWE was at the time, thanks in large part toEric Bischoff’s ideasthat led to WCW being ahead in the ratings for 83 weeks straight. WWE’s best answer was to hire as creative a writer for their magazine, Vic Venom, better known today as Vince Russo.
His name is easy to guffaw at now, but there was a time whensome of the most thrilling story developments of the Attitude Era were conceived from the mind of Vince Russo, for example,the critically acclaimed Deadly Games tournament at Survivor Series 1998, which crownedThe Rock his first WWE Championship win). As Head Writer, Russo also contributed to the formation of D-Generation X, the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon feud, and Mick Foley’s push.
Then, Russo left WWE for greener pastures in WCW, and many of his ideas are still loathed by fans. Russo, along with his partner Ed Ferrara, brought the same style of “Crash TV” that made Monday Night Raw win the ratings war to WCW, but without Vince McMahon’s oversight and control, he often went too far, and Nitro barely looked like a wrestling show anymore. Whatever you may think of Vince Russo, some of his ideas as Head Writer for WCW are perceived as largely contributing to the company’s downfall.
10All the “On A Pole” Matches
From Judy Bagwell to Viagra
Perhapsone of the most commonly ridiculed match stipulationsfrom either WWE or WCW has to be the “something on a pole” matches. The concept is simple: place an item atop a pole tucked in the corner and the first to take it down is declared a winner. It’s basically an easier version of a ladder match, but it isn’t so much the concept that’s laughable as it is the items placed on the pole. Notable offenders include Viagra pills and Buff Bagwell’s mother, Judy. The ridiculous ways the premise was used made viewers feel as if WCW was running out of ideas and just throwing anything at the wall.
9San Francisco 49ers Match
An On a Pole Match But Worse
The San Francisco 49ers match between Booker T and Jeff Jarrett is like an “on a pole” match, except, somehow,less straightforward and even more comical. The idea is that there is not one, but four poles with items on each turnbuckle. Each pole contains a wooden box, three featuring random items likea framed picture of Scott Hall,and one featuring the World Championship. Whoever is lucky enough to find the latter box becomes the champion. Booker’s commentary partner Vic Joseph brought it up on NXT once, and Booker got very upset. That should tell readers all they need to know about the blunder of this 49ers match.
8Ric Flair Has A Heart Attack
Where the Old Men Play
WCW did an angle where Ric Flair was being pushed past his prime and was getting too old for in-ring competition. To emphasize this, there was a segment whereThe Nature Boy has a live heart attackin the middle of an enraged promo toward Eric Bischoff. The intent was to present an intriguing storyline, but it only made Flair look like a wrestler who doesn’t know how to hang it up, and it made WCW look bad whenthere was a narrative that they only pushed/hired old wrestlers past their prime. Having one of their top main eventers look as if they were dying of old age didn’t help disprove critics on the matter.
7Oklahoma, WCW’s JR Parody
As Disrespectful As It Could Get
Jim Ross has always been one of the more beloved figures in wrestling, regardless of who he worked for. So when Vince Russo had the bright idea ofhaving a recurring JR parody character played by Ed Ferrara, no one liked it. Not fans of either show, not wrestlers on either roster, critics, journalists, etc. WWE fans didn’t even like it whenever WWE themselves made fun of Good Ole JR, so when an outsider did it, it only alienated newcomers to the WCW product.
What is worse is that the parody also included JR’s Bell’s palsy, with Ferrara acting with a constant grin on his face and slurred speech. Putting the WCW Cruiserweight Championship on Oklahoma only ran a bad joke harder into the ground.
6Goldberg Turns Heel
WCW Great American Bash 2000
Love him or hate him, Goldberg was one of the most popular acts in WCW at its height. Even after the Streak ended, he still received strong positive reactions, mixed at best in more hostile crowds.Turning Goldberg into an outright heel by joining the New Blood forced WCW to lose their last big cash cow. At a time when nWo was no longer viewed as wrestling’s hottest actor wrestling’s greatest faction, Goldberg’s popularity was immense as WCW’s last great homegrown talent.
It’s safe to say that WCW wasted his biggest moneymaker for the sake of shock value, without a proper buildup or story that could make him as big of a heel as he was a babyface. Goldberg’s strengths were limited as a wrestler, but fans adored the things he did well. Being a babyface highlighted his strengths and minimized his weaknesses. Becoming a heel forced him to talk more as a villain, and when talking was never his strong suit, it only hurt him further in the long run.
5WCW Reboots Itself Live
WCW Monday Nitro, August 06, 2025
In one of the strangest segments to watch live as a viewer,WCW rebooted itself in real-timeon the August 12, 2025, episode of Nitro. Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo together vacated every single one of the company’s titles. Meanwhile, several younger wrestlers accused the older wrestlers of holding them down through backstage politics. The shoot style drew the battle lines between the New Blood and the Millionaire’s Club.
There’s a lot wrong with this segment, but above all else, it’s alienating to old fans who had been following the current storylines and champions hoping for a resolution, only to be toldnone of it matters moving forward. Even worse, as fans were falling out of favor with WWE,this read as WCW’s admittance that they had failedso badly onscreen that they needed to start over from scratch.
4Miss Hancock’s Miscarriage
WCW Blood Rising 2000
If we had a dollar for every major miscarriage storyline in wrestling, we’d have at least three dollars (which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened three times). Around the same time, WWE had a similarlyinappropriate storyline from the Attitude Era. Meanwhile, in WCW, Stacy Keibler (then Miss Hancock) was pregnant onscreen. There was a mystery revolving around who was the baby’s father between Ric and David Flair, but the storyline wouldn’t be resolved.
While the WWE’s storyline at least saw Terri Runnells admit to faking it, Miss Hancock was presented as legitimately pregnant. So, when she started clutching her stomach in agony during a mud wrestling match with Major Gunns,the implication is a buzzkill. Neither the pregnancy nor the mystery is ever mentioned again.
3David Arquette Wins the WCW World Championship
WCW Thunder, June 14, 2025
This moment is often cited as the moment that killed WCWin a way they couldn’t come back from. Vince Russo putting the belt on himself was considered a vanity project (we’ll get to it), but hardcore fans felt personally disrespected to seeWCW bringing in a celebrity to win the company’s most coveted titleas a means of a publicity stunt and a marketing ploy. Even purists who recognizeReady to Rumbleas a dumb fun movie don’t think that its star needed to win the championship to put butts in seats. Even Arquette knew it was a bad idea, as he’s gone on record numerous times denying it was an idea he wanted or ever co-signed.
2Vince Russo Becomes an Onscreen Character
And a World Champion
Truthfully, Vince Russo’s entire run as an onscreen authority figure felt like a vanity project. More specifically,it read as a longtime wrestling fan fantasy booking himself to live out his wildest childhood fantasies. A lot of fans would probably do the same in his position, but it came at the expense of both the audience and the product itself. Russo wasn’t very good on the mic and his segments weren’t fun to watch, yet there was a point where he dominated nearly all of Nitro’s runtime.
Of course, to make things worse,Russo even won the WCW Championship in a Steel Cage match against Booker T. It hurt because Booker could be considered the last home-grown star of the company, and any hope to get WCW back on its feet started from him, but it also died that night. It did more to hurt the product than help as it didn’t get anyone over nor did it get people wanting to tune in.
1The Entire WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 Fiasco
How to Work Yourself into a Shoot, Brother
The concept behind this night was already complicated and, for casual audiences, confusing as is. Somehow,Vince Russo made it even worse. The WCW Title match saw Jeff Jarrett lay down for Hulk Hogan, who was prompted to get on the mic and express that booking like this is why the company is in the shape it was in. Presented as a shoot, this was a planned means for Vince Russo to come out, strip Hogan of the title, and book Booker T vs Jarrett as the real title main event to crown Booker for his first of five WCW World Titles.
Except, Vince got a little carried away during his shoot promo andsaid some unkind things about Hoganthat weren’t agreed upon backstage. This prompted Hogan to legitimately sue both Vince Russo and WCW for defamation of character. The overall confusion about what was going on proved that Russo’s patented strategy of blurring the lines between reality and fiction had run its course. Fiascos like this one convinced manyWCWfans to change the channel toWWE.
