World Championship Wrestling, the late 90s juggernaut that went toe to toe with the WWE is examined here.
Born out of the extremely productive Jim Crockett Promotions, this documentary chronicles the highlights of the company using interviews with the talent in front of the camera and those behind the scenes as well.
An interesting note that is brought up by Crockett, Ric Flair and others...
If the National Wrestling Alliance would have simply stayed in the Carolinas and stretched no farther than the Midwest, it is highly likely that some form of it would still be alive and well today.
The problem, they were growing big and fast, and making cash to match, so they took the show on the road.
While it was true that they were making money, they were spending more than they had in the bank.
Enter Ted Turner who bought the company.
The 2 hour block that he had been showing on TBS for years was the highest rated cable program at the time. Of course, cable was still in its infancy, but it's an important statistic to realize and appreciate.
Once they owned the program, the suits didn't want anything to do with it.
They loved the ratings, hated the idea of a wrestling program.
Numerous heads of the company were brought in to run WCW, but all simply kept trying to run it into the ground.
It wasn't until Eric Bischoff arrived, and decided that the way to make it work was to tackle the WWE head on, and so he did.
Spending money hand over fist, Bischoff brought in the nWo, and the rest was history.
Thankfully, they also note that the other important wrestling aspect from the company was the inclusion of the Cruiserweight Division. These high flying luchadores made the show entertaining with the impressive, acrobatic style that wasn't being seen anywhere in North America at the time.
Beating the WWE head to head for nearly 2 straight years, wrestling has never enjoyed a more creative time in history.
Of course, WCW began to believe their own hype, and a series of terrible booking decisions began the spiral out of control that doomed the company to completely disappear as a viable option.
It lives on now in memories and video collections.
Final Grade: A-
Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I wasn't a huge WCW fan, so I'm good. Very well done production though.
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