Wrestling Has “Jumped The Shark”
Professional wrestling saw its heyday in the late 1990s/early 2000s when the WCW pushed the WWE to new creative fronts in an ongoing war. With the WWE’s purchase of the WCW, it eliminated the competition and the need to be truly innovative and creative.
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Being a professional wrestling fan used to place one on just this side of achieving nirvana. The late 1990s and early 2000s were a fan’s delight, with the WCW on the one hand and the WWE on the other, each pushing one another to new heights in creativity and innovation. That came to a crashing halt in 2001, when the WWE bought the WCW and its assets. Since then, it has never been the same.
The hallmark of the rivalry between the two organizations were the “Monday Night Wars” that raged from 1995 until 2001 and largely featured unrelentless tenacity from the WCW as it attempted to take on the giant of professional wrestling, the WWE.
Arguably the most successful idea in the history of professional wrestling was initiated when WCXW came up with the idea of the nWO, agroup of WCW wrestlers who rebelled against their own company and promised a com plete takeover. It was a radical idea, and one that worked really well. The WCW had declared war on the WWE, and was now sometimes winning the weekly ratings war by featuring a radical group of wrestlers intent on taking over there own company, the WCW.
On the WWE side, they were waging war as well by parodying the WCW every chance they had, through segments such as “The Nacho Man,” “Billionaire Ted,” “Scheme Gene,” and the “Huckster,” taking shots WCW stalwarts Randy Savage, Ted Turner, Gene Okerland, and Hulk Hogan (pictured), respectively.
The result was a heyday for fans of professional wrestling amid a steady stream of unforgettable characters such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Lugar, Ric Flair, Ricky Dragon and so many others.
The very things that allowed the WCW to mount and somnetimes win its battle agaainst the WWE were the same things that led to its demise, most prominently big-money contracts and ceding of creative comtro, to wrestlers over their characters. Not to mention overuse of the nWO angle and spreading it too then, eventually with five or six versions of nWO groups simultaneously.
The WWE retained the characters of many of the WCW wrestlers after buying the company in 2001 but has been largely lacking in its creative control. A good number of wrestlers have since left and gone to Total Nonstop Aaction (TNA), which is trying to mount a challenge to the WWE but lately appears largely to be an alumni association of the WWE.
Wrestling saw its heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and it was no coincidence. It was a time when competition really did drive the marketplace to new heights, which thus far have yet to be seen again.
