WWE Needs Some Real Competition To Acheive Greatness Again

Since Vince McMahon bought out WCW and ended the Monday night wars, some wrestling fans have been complaining that the product has become stale.  And I have to agree to some extent.

In the '90s WWF was the top dog in wrestling, but they had some competition who were looking to make an impact. 

WCW was a former affiliate of the NWA, and had broken away to try and make its own name.  Ted Turner had bought the budding promotion, and used his massive reserves to improve the product.

When Eric Bischoff took the reigns he was asked one question by Ted, "What would we have to do to compete with the WWF?"

Eric's response was, "Put us on live on Monday nights."  He said this fully expecting to get shot down, but instead was given free reign to build the brand's new flagship show, Nitro.

Nitro Debuted at the Mall of America with a free show featuring Sting, Ric Flair, and Macho Man Randy Savage.  Hulk Hogan was still the focal point of the company, but he wasn't the biggest thing around that night.

The appearance of Lex Luger less than 24 hours after appearing on a WWF pay-per-view gained the company huge ratings, and some new fans.

The same thing happened when Rick Rude seemed to pull a magic trick and appeared on both Raw and Nitro in the same night.  Raw was pre-taped at the time, so fans had no idea what to think.

WCW began to gain steam, and Eric Bischoff had seen something in Japan he wanted to use here in the US.  There was a promotion in Japan where there was a stable that was essentially feuding with the whole company.

Bischoff liked this concept, and he used newly-signed Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to usher in the new stable.

Once Hogan made his iconic heel turn and joined them, they officially became the New World Order.

The NWO was a fresh concept to US fans, and it intrigues us enough to tune into WCW more often than WWF.  This led to the WWF being the No. 2 dog in the fight for the first time since Vince killed the territory system.

The WWF was clamoring for ideas on how to get their groove back.  Their prayers would be answered by one of WCW's castoffs who Eric Bischoff saw no potential in to be a main-eventer.

This castoff had plain trunks and boots, and wrestled a technical and brutal style.  He was a bruiser who had never really had much time on the stick.

This man's name was Steve Williams.  You may know him by another name—Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Steve Austin, along with DX, The Rock, Undertaker, E&C, and The Hardyz helped usher in the attitude era.  This new edgier style brought many of WWE's fans back who had once left for WCW, and even gained them some new fans.

For the first time in years wrestling was a popular, mainstream form of entertainment the people didn't feel embarrassed to watch.

Vince McMahon used controversial story lines, sexy women, and most of all, high quality wrestling to win back his lost ratings.  Once WWE began winning ratings on a regular basis, WCW became desperate.

Bischoff, along with Vince Russo, tried many different things to get fans to watch WCW.  They tried having multiple NWO groups, they tried having even crazier characters than WWE did, they tried to have celebrities be wrestlers (cough arquette cough) and they even tried to reboot the whole brand by stripping every title off its champion.

Soon it became clear that WCW was a sinking ship, many of its most talented stars jumped ship to WWE.  Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho, Malenko, and many others were WCW homegrown talents who made the switch, and it worked out for the best.

Guys who never had a shot at a world title in WCW were suddenly contenders in WWF, and Jericho went on to become one of today's best wrestlers in the world.

The point I am driving at here is WWE was at its best when they were trying to overtake a competitor. Now that they are on top and have no real competition, the product has become less exciting.

I am not saying I hate WWE; on the contrary, I love it.  But I will not deny that I enjoyed it more in the past.

WWE has some amazing talent on their roster, and if utilized properly, they could help WWE get back to the ratings they were getting in 2002.

I am not advocating the return of the attitude era by any means, I am advocating for the other companies to step up and really go after WWE.

TNA is trying, but failing at this point to be any kind of real competition.  While some may argue that TNA has better "wrestlers," it is no question that WWE has better "entertainers."

So this is more of a plea to TNA, ROH, DGUSA, and anyone out there who runs a promotion to step up, nut up, and get the job done.

Thanks for reading and feel free to share your thoughts below.