All I can say is that this is the craziest time in wrestling I’ve experienced ever since I started watching three years ago. This may be the craziest time the wrestling business has ever gone through, and with very good reason.

The WWF bought WCW. ECW has folded, and the WWF has taken some if not most of the stars. Shawn Michaels is going to start wrestling again soon. Mick Foley will be back on TV soon, according to some sources. The biggest pay per view of the year, Wrestlemania, is only 8 days away. The biggest main event of all time, The Rock v. Steve Austin, is headlining it. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to be a wrestling fan.

With all of this in mind, there are so many possibilities to think of happening. Shane McMahon running WCW. Triple H being the top guy in WCW. Maybe Stephanie McMahon running WCW, who knows? One thing is for certain, though: WCW had many opportunities to avoid this, but it failed many times.

The first time WCW shot itself in the foot was in July of 1994. It was at Bash at the Beach 1994 that Hulk Hogan debuted in WCW and immediately won the world title from WCW icon Ric Flair in his first match. Hulk, the Hulkamaniacs, Jimmy Hart, and even Shaquille O’Neal celebrated as Hulk took the life out of WCW’s resurgence with one legdrop. WCW had gone through one of its worst years in 1993, but it seemed to be rebounding in 1994. Before Hulk’s arrival, we had two old past-their-prime veterans, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat, show up at Spring Stampede and show all the young people how to put on a great wrestling match one more time. Flair and Steamboat in a wheelchair match would be better than most stuff going on in wrestling, to be honest. With the exception of the two Hart brothers and Bret and Steve Austin, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a great combo with great chemistry as Flair and Steamboat had. They put on arguably the three greatest matches in the history of the business five years prior, with their Chi-Town Rumble classic, their 2 Out of 3 55+ minute Clash VI match, and their historic and amazing Wrestlewar match. Five years later, they proved at Spring Stampede that they could still go. In a match overshadowed by a particular ladder match and two matches between two Canadian wonders, they went out there and tore the house down one more time. After that, Ricky Steamboat started teaching his magic to Steve Austin, carrying him to some great matches. Austin was groomed to be Flair’s biggest feud, after a few matches with Vader and Sting. But that all changed when the Hulkster came in. Hulk, the dominating babyface, was actually booed by the old NWA fans who appreciated the talent of Sting and Ricky Steamboat, appreciated the overall magic of Steve Austin and Ric Flair, appreciated the hard work of Vader and a young Cactus Jack. Eric Bischoff wouldn’t listen. What a shock.

WCW shot itself in the foot a few more times. The nWo is a prime example. The nWo would have been one of the best stables ever with a lineup consisting of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hollywood Hogan, Syxx, Eric Bischoff, the Giant, Randy Savage, and Ted DiBiase. But they had to keep adding more members. People no one cared about, like Brian Adams, Vincent, and many others. People over-the-hill without any place in the nWo, like Curt Hennig, Rick Rude, and many others. People who just annoyed the hell out of you and made you change the channel, like Buff Bagwell, Scott Steiner, Eric Bischoff, Konnan, and many others. People who went nWo and back so many times that you couldn’t keep track, like the Giant and Bret Hart. People who had no place whatsoever in the nWo, like Sting and Lex Luger. But they didn’t stop there. They had to break up into nWo Black and White and nWo Wolfpac. Then, they reformed, having an nWo A-team and an nWo B-team. Then, they all started fighting, and was reformed by that genius Vince Russo for all of about a month, before Scott Hall vanished and Bret Hart recuperated. The nWo just made no sense after a while.

Politics and bad decisions were the main reason WCW died. Eric Bischoff probably didn’t care about Terry Bollea at first; he just adored the fame and statue of the name "Hulk Hogan". Bischoff was like one of those cartoon characters who just saw $$$ signs in his eyes at Hulk. Then he signed away the WWF top heel Diesel, and he signed WWF midcard babyface Razor Ramon. He also started giving away the results of taped editions of RAW, because Nitro was live. Of course, Bisch made sure that poor loyal WCW servant Tony Schiavone would get the blame if the tactic failed, and Bisch himself would get credit for its success. Schiavone was just doing his job and supporting his family when he gave away Mick Foley’s first WWF title win, but people look at him as the jackass. No wonder he’s sucked for years. Would you be motivated if that stuff happened to you? But back on topic, Bischoff just let Hogan and Nash run wild. Scott Hall beats the crap out of the Nasty Boys in real life and gets nothing, but Ric Flair gets fired for watching his 12 year old son wrestle in a state championship of some kind. Bisch signed WWF top star Bret Hart, but Hogan and Nash make sure he looks like an idiot on TV and making wrestling fans think Hart was a bitch for complaining about his WWF stay and being fine in WCW. Hogan brought in Roddy Piper and let Piper beat him in a major match at Starrcade 96; Bisch and Hogan just decided that it would be non-title. The Outsiders and the Steiner Brothers had a year long feud, until finally Bisch decided he would rather have the Steiners break up then satisfy the buildup by having them win the tag titles. When Nash started booking, he gave the world title to the person he trusted: himself. What a shock. I’ll save my gripes about the Ultimate Warrior debacle for later.

The ultimate "jump-the-shark" moment in WCW history and the ultimate example of politics was Starrcade 97. After 15 months of endless buildup, evil WCW/nWo champion Hollywood Hogan would defend the WCW title against WCW’s good guy, Sting. Never mind the fact that the reason this was built up so much was because Sting didn’t have to wrestle anymore due to his contract, so he decided to take a vacation. Well, the match should have gone like this: Hogan dominates, Sting comeback, Stinger Splash, Deathdrop, Deathlock, new WCW champ. However, the match went like this: Hogan domination, Hogan legdrop, Hogan clean pin, Bret Hart reverses the decision, and Sting wins, making him look like a sap. The title was held up for two months anyway, and Sting won a meaningless rematch against Hogan for that vacant belt. Fuck you, WCW.

Another huge moment in WCW history was when Goldberg defeated Hollywood Hogan clean for the WCW Title in front of 40,000 screaming Georgia Dome fans on July 6, 1998 on Nitro. Goldberg, a rookie, had attracted a major following by squashing people like Raven, Saturn, and in his debut on September 22, 1997, Hugh Morrus. Of course, Goldberg’s debut that night paled in comparison to two much more important things in wrestling history occurring on RAW that night: Steve Austin Stunnering WWF commentator Vince McMahon (which of course, led to Austin v. Mr. McMahon, which carried the WWF for over a year), and Hunter Hearst Helmsley losing a streetfight to the debuting Cactus Jack (and the Triple H/Cactus Jack wars carried the WWF for the first quarter of 2000). But still, Goldberg had gotten big buildup and deserved this match. One problem: thus could have gotten the biggest buyrate in WCW pay per view history if booked right. But Bischoff, seeing as how the Steve Austin v. Kane title switch the week previous had gotten one of the biggest crowd pops for a world title switch I’ve ever heard and also had achieved one of the biggest quarter hour ratings in WWF history to that point, decided to rush things and had the match occur on Nitro. It was a historic night, and was booked right. However, Goldberg then went on to not even main event, taking a backseat to political stuff, like Hulk Hogan deciding to fight another political idiot, the Ultimate Warrior. Of course, some things he deserved to take a backseat to, like the return of Ric Flair. After an uneventful run as champ, Goldberg then lost the belt at Starrcade 98 to political mastermind Kevin Nash, who a few weeks later gave the belt to his best friend one day/worst enemy the next, Hollywood Hogan. It had come full circle.

Soon, Bisch was fired, and WCW scooped up WWF writer Vince Russo to control their product. He then badly copied the WWF and, by disrespecting cruiserweights and good wrestling, alienated his fanbase. When he was fired, Kevin Sullivan took over, and Chris Benoit and company left for the WWF. WCW had the nail put in its coffin, and Benoit went on to teach The Rock how to put on great matches.

WCW had many chances to win the war, but they failed miserably. Dig dong, the witch is dead. WCW lost, which means only one thing: Ric Flair is back in the WWF, ready to entertain all the fans and hopefully verbally spar with microphone greats like The Rock, Kurt Angle, Vince McMahon, and Shawn Michaels.

We can only thank WCW for that.