Memories Of a Wrestling Legacy: Why I Loved WCW

Over the past few months, I have read many articles that have compared WCW to both TNA and WWE. In these pieces, it always tends to say the same things.

Things like 'the same bad matches as WCW' and 'the same stupid things that ran WCW into the ground'.

I mean, I have nothing against what these people say.

On some respects, I completely agree that WCW basically destroyed itself from the inside and that wrestlers ruined themselves with their overly controlling contracts.

However though, for me, WCW was one of the greatest wrestling promotions in history.

When I was growing up, every week, we'd all sit in front of the television and watch WCW. In our house, WWE wasn't even talked about.

At the same time, many of my dads friends would say how WWE was superior to WCW in everyway and that we weren't true wrestling fans as we watched the minor leagues.

In my eyes, this wasn't the case.

I watched WCW because I genuinely enjoyed what I was seeing.

One of my first memories of WCW was watching a Ric Flair promo. He almost seemed like he was drunk, you couldn't understand him, he was talking about random events and he kept breaking character.

This may have seemed like a car crash to some people, but for me, this was the most entertaining thing I had ever seen in my life.

From that point onwards, I was introduced to a whole new world of sport. It started my love affair with professional wrestling.

Superstars like Booker T, Sting and Chris Benoit were paraded in front of my eyes on a weekly basis, fuelling my desire to follow WCW more than ever.

However though, as my brother entered secondary school, WWE began to infiltrate our weekly tv schedule.

He said that he had been introduced to it by a friend that he had made. This was the first shot of the enemy, and they were WWE.

Soon after this, my mum, dad and brother had become fully hooked on it. I, however, wasn't as easy to fall into line with the rest of them.

I would still sit there and get my WCW fix, wiping away bad days that I would have by becoming absorbed in the world that it created for me.

It was in the late 90's that my loyalty would be tested. The start of the Monday Night Wars.

During it's first few weeks, my family publicly announced their support for WWE, meaning that I would have to retreat to the fortress of my best friends house in order to watch what I craved.

Over dinner, they'd be conversations over what we'd seen that night and which show was better. It didn't matter what they would attempt to sway me with, I was still convinced that WCW was better.

In my opinion, there was no way that the WWE would be able to compete with what was on offer on WCW.

The thrilling matches, the classic rivalries, the passionate backstage interviews and even the comedy of the announcers managed to keep me on their side during the entire wars.

I would celebrate every time WCW won the ratings battle, I would mock like crazy every time a WWE superstar defected to WCW.

It actually got my in trouble when I would walk around quoting Jeff Jarrett and Madusa, as it use to drive my dad crazy, sometimes to the point of threatening to make me watch back to back screenings of Raw for hours on end!

Even as WCW began to go under, I would still religiously watch, praying that some how, some way, WCW would be able to survive.

We all know how that ended out.

It actually took me nearly eight months before I would start to watch WWE.

Even through all the controversy, there was also something good that came out of the situation. The method may not have been very ethical, but it would still end for the better.

Look at Bash at the Beach 2000. Hulk Hogan won the WCW World Heavyweight Title from Jeff Jarrett after Jarrett laid down for the Hulkster.

This has gone down as one of the most controversial moments in the history of any wrestling promotion, but think about it for a second.

After the match, Vince Russo would come out to the ring and basically destroy Hogan, before offering a rematch between Jarrett and Booker T for the new WCW Title.

In my eyes, this is still one of my favourite matches of the past decade.

It may not have been right, but this was the event that almost kick-started Booker T's singles career.

Isn't that a good thing?

I will concede that towards the end of WCW's life, everything went downhill because of politics, booking and certain individuals (cough *Vince Russo* cough cough), but you can't judge a promotion on it's dying moments.

I will admit, on days when I get sick of watching the feeble offerings of things like WWE and TNA, i go up onto Youtube and re-watch old WCW moments.

I still get the same feeling now as I did then everytime I relive the comedic promo's, the classic slip ups and the forgotten matches.

It helps me to feel the magic again, to imagine that I am back to being seven or eight years old and arguing with my family over whether or not Vince McMahon was a Slap Nut.

For me, this was just a time in my life when I was truly made a wrestling fan, and in my opinion, I'm not sure if it would have been the same if i'd started out watching WWE.

This is what irritates me when people only look upon the negatives when comparing WCW to TNA or even WWE.

They may have messed up, but you can't use that as an excuse to erase their legacy and make them look like little more than a pathetic wannabe promotion. You can't deny what they did to help shape wrestling today.

WCW was the launching pad for veterans like Flair, Sting and Booker, as well as the future hall-of-famers like Jericho and Mysterio.

Wrestling wouldn't be the same if these wrestlers didn't have the opportunity to shine in WCW.

Without WCW, WWE wouldn't be in the position it's in today as the most dominant sports entertainment brand of this decade.

It was because of the fight that WCW possessed that the Attitude Era was born.

It was during the Monday Night Wars that WWE had its last good years of wrestling.

Isn't that a plus in someway?

Love it or hate it, WCW had the magic and entertainment that WWE lacked. This is why I went to it, sticking with them when everyone around me was being pulled to the competition.

Love it or hate it, WCW contributed to the birth of WWE and even TNA on a wide scale.

Love it or hate it, in my eyes, WCW is still worthy of a place in the history of professional wrestling.

I don't care for the scorn of others. I know that I picked the doomed brand, but I was, and always have been, a WCW girl at heart.

And that will never change