TNA: Do Not Make The Mistakes Of WCW

Tna avoid the mistakes WCW made if you want to win this Monday night war is a comment ringing in the so called "IWC". Do not push these has beens over the young great TNA original talent. Pushing these has beens is what destroyed WCW. Well lets see if this is true.

To find out we must start at the beginning. Hogan arrives in WCW and the ratings and momentum begin to grow. Sept 4th, 1995, WCW decides to go head to head with RAW on Monday nights. The ratings are in and a 2.5 is what they receive with a main event of has-beens Hogan and Big Bossman. Tna would kill for that number. By the way RAW got a 2.2 that night. They would hold steady around this rating ranging from a 2.0 to a 2.9 with a few 3. something ratings sprinkled in until June of 2006. All the 3. something ratings did have a couple of things in common like has-beens Hogan, Flair and ex WWE castaways like Beefcake, Nastys, and others.

But then the big break occurred with the formation of the NWO. Beginning that August with Hogan capturing the belt and spray painting NWO on it the ratings went over 3.0 to stay until pretty much Dec. 1999. During this amazing run ratings went as high as 6.0 in 1998. But shortly after Goldberg winning the belt and the splitting of the NWO the ratings began to drop. Hogan left after Halloween Havoc and Nash begin to chase Goldberg the ratings dropped from 4.5 to 5+ to low 4's for those3 months.

But WCW quickly saw their mistake, Hogan returns to reform the NWO in Jan and the ratings jump back to the 5.0 plus range. But in March WCW dismantles the real NWO for the last time and the ratings drop back to the low 4's. WCW listens to the IWC and believes it is time to push someone who has never held the belt to stardom and puts the belt on DDP. Ratings drop to the low 3's as Hogan also leaves to have surgery and Flair begins to lose to everyone. A lot of younger stars were also put on TV during this time. But in late July Hogan returns, Flair is elevated back to main event status and in August Hogan captures the belt back and ratings increase back to 4.0 for a few weeks. But then the beginning of the end arrives in late Sept, early Oct as the powers that be show up(RUSSO).

The Russo era begins with some 3.0s in Oct, which is leading into the paper view with Hogan-Sting for the belt. But then at Halloween Havoc Hogan and Flair are written off with Flair being buried. Russo agreed with the IWC and thought it was time for new faces in the main event and that the legends(has-beens) did not matter. With this philosophy the ratings dropped to the low 3's in Nov and began to hit the 2.7 range in December of 1999. With ratings in the high 2.'s with an occasional 3.0 mixed in Russo had effectively made WCW basically unwatchable. So in comes the return of Bishoff.

The millionaires’ club and the new blood angle began and it did invoke some interest as the ratings did climb slightly back above 3.0 and looked to be gaining a little momentum but then once again Russo destroyed it all with Bash at the Beach 2000. After that Hogan was gone for good and Russo was back totally in charge. The rest of the year saw Russo push more neverbeens on TV and Booker T and Jeff Jarrett to main event status. This proved to be a great formula as WCW's ratings would continue to plummet to numbers as low as 1.8 on Dec. 11 2000 and average around 2.3. Then in March of 2001 WWE put Russo's WCW out of its misery.

So what is the lesson learned, if TNA wants to be successful and increase ratings, first do not get sucked in by the IWC and believe they speak for all wrestling fans because the majority of them do not have a clue to what real fans want and as soon as someone becomes popular mainstream wise they no longer like them. And above all else do not let Vince Russo control your company. Some ideas he has are ok but somebody has to keep him in check. Also it is better to push the Has-beens on TV to get ratings than the neverhave beens and go out of business. Personally I think a good mix of both so that the neverhave beens can become has-beens one day is the way to go. So if you think it will get ratings let Hogan, Nash and company reform the NWO and let Hogan take the belt off AJ. They may not be able to call it the NWO, but they could call it the OWO, Old World Order, because no matter how old they are, they are still the world order of wrestling, and they are still where the ratings and power lie.