Asking who killed WCW is like asking who killed Julius Caesar. Everybody had a role in its downfall.

90's WCW was not a wrestling promotion. It was a 401K plan for Hulk Hogan.

Who Killed WCW is a collection of men and women saying it's everyone else's fault but mine and then Bret Hart saying "You're all a bunch of idiots."

I will maintain forever that the finger poke of doom killed WCW. It was the moment when the performers and writers looked straight into the audience and said "Fuck what you want to see, Hogan is ALWAYS going to go over."

Not pushing La Parka to the main event scene is what caused the death of WCW.

Who killed WCW? That Doesn't work for me brother....

Letting the show become "The nWo and friends show" by 1998.

Ep. 1 - Eric's great and how Hogan buried Sting. Ep. 2 - How they buried Goldberg, how they ruined Bret Hart and Eric's still great.. feat. Kevin Nash.

I'm always baffled by the knock that sting had no tan, and he didn't seem excited about the opportunity. That's was the gimmick!!! He was supposed to be alouf, a loner that doesn't know who to trust because those he trusted didn't trust him. He was wearing a trenchcoat, the nationwide symbol of loner. He was in the ceiling where it was dark and lonely. What about that gimmick says go hang out in the sun and get a tan

I don't think Kevin Nash gets enough credit for his efforts to kill WCW.

In my opinion, the wheels started to fall off WCW when Hogan dismantled the finish to Starrcade ‘97. I pity Bischoff because to this day he’s still delusional in making excuses for Hogan’s decisions. Bret Hart said it best, “Hogan was the puppet master and Bischoff was just a prop.”

Correction Corny: Hogan turned to everyone and said "That don't work for me brother....."

Everyone on that show just kept saying, "It's everyone else's fault but mine "

Bret Hart really summed up this show immediately, watching all these old liars talk is aggravating especially Bischoff

I will forever believe it was Hogan, Nash, & Bischoff. The main 3 anyway. They did the biggest damage.

I almost fell out of my chair when Kevin Nash said that Goldberg didn't have any skill in pt 2. Talk about the pot calling the kettle

Will always remember fondly switching between Raw & Nitro.

The 4 things that killed WCW all revolved around Hogan. 1. Starrcade 97- Hogan didnt want to loose clean to Sting 2. Hogan winning World Title with fingerpoke of doom 3. Bash at the Beach 2000, Hogan pinning Jarrett for the World Title 4. Eric being starstruck and wanting to be Hogans best friend. So Hogans ego was the main reason WCW died. Just my opinion.

This story has been told to death. However I do appreciate seeing turner execs and their perspective.

I’m waiting for episode three with Russo for cornette to review, that will be the funny one

I was 100% wcw. That starcade confused the world out of me. I wasn't a "smart" fan. I just was like...what huh..and just lost intrest

It’s hilarious that they still try and say Sting was out of shape and pale and such. You can watch the match. He looked great. 😂

Who Killed WCW? "It's me, Austin! I was me all along, Austin!"

Starcade 97 finish was them hitting the iceberg, the Goldberg loss was them taking on water, and the finger poke of doom was the ship snapping in half while sinking. 🚢

The curse of El Dandy killed it. Bret tried to tell em.

The Jump The Shark moment for WCW was definitely the Fingerpoke of Doom. If you remember the actual time Fonzie jumped the shark, anyway. It's meant to be the point where you know the show is headed down. And WCW did good numbers afterwards but was steadily trending downwards from that point.

Hulk Hogan has done as much to hurt the wrestling industry as he has done to help it. Maybe even more. The fact that Hogan could not do for Sting, WCW & the wrestling industry at Starrcade 1997 what Andre the Giant did for Hogan, the WWF & the wrestling industry at WrestleMania 3 just a list over 10 years earlier says all you need to know about Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) and who he truly is as a person. The fact that Hogan can't make that connection is mind blowing to me. To this day Hogan says that he was worried Andre wasn't going to "do the honors" at WrestleMania 3. Just goes to show how out of touch with reality that Hogan was already becoming in 87 to think that about Andre when *EVERYONE ELSE* knew Andre would do the right thing for the wrestling industry as he always had. Hogan's ego, selfishness, insecurity & delusional way of thinking was one of the biggest parts of WCW imploding.

It’s ironic that bischoff is shitting on Tony for being exactly as clueless & as unable at accepting accountability as Eric’s been his whole career

WCW had more "Montreal screwjobs" it's a miracle it even last till 2001.

Jericho is the Modern Day Hogan , the Bucks are the Nasty Boys , Kenny is Missy Beefcake and Nakazawa is Brutus.

The Starcade 97 finish and the subsequent wet fart that was the Scott Hall “feud” afterwards was the moment kids quit watching WCW. 8 year old me felt weirded out by the whole thing.

Hogan built and destroyed WCW on the day he signed that ridiculous deal

Starcade '97 killed WCW for me. It was the first and only WCW PPV I had ever purchased and I stood there asking myself "wtf".

Pretty much all of them killed WCW Eric Bischoff: got too big headed over beating Raw and couldn't keep the momentum. Hulk Hogan: Did what was best for himself more than for the good of WCW. nWo: Got way too bloated in members and diluted it. Vince Russo: What worked in 1998 absolutely did not work in 1999 and 2000 and even then he had McMahon and co to tweak the ideas into something better. Time Warner and AOL merger: reduced Ted Turner's influence and power over WCW.

The fact that you had execs who in spite of the money WCW was making from 96-98 was actively trying to kill it tells me WCW could never have beaten WWF.

The bookings at Starcade was where you knew it was going to go down the shitter. Dropping the ball on the finish for Sting and Brets debut in one night just showed Bischoff didn't have a fucking clue

Kevin Nash had the best line of this… “THANKS FOR THE CASH! 🎬”

As much as I like Eric, after watching his podcasts for a year or two now it’s pretty obvious when Eric conveniently “forgets” important factors when giving his part 😂

Not putting Sting over clean as a sheet at Starrcade could not and cannot be justified. It was like the Wrestlemania feel-good that had been all but promised to the fans and then it was taken away. That one botch was so unbelievably costly. Many lost 'hope' that the good guy was going to win at any point. Hulk and Bischoff should be ashamed. They screwed Sting. They screwed Bret Hart. And they screwed the fans.

Glad Rock found ways to weasel into this thing and make it about himself. What a guy!

Tony Schiavone spoiling Mick Foley's title win is what began the death of WCW.

Starrcade 1997: Arguably the best build ever. Arguably the worst execution ever.

"It was me bischoff! It was me, all along ...... Brother..." - Anonymous confession letter signed H.H.

nWo bigger than DX, that's for sure.

The Shockmaster killed WCW! Sent by old Grinch McMahon himself.

You didn’t kill WCW, I did. -Anakin Skywalker 😂

I'm particularly interested in Brad Siegel's perspective here. We've heard the rest of the talking heads and their reasons before, but never Brad until now.

Bischoff and Hogan blow each other more than my brother and his husband.

Listening to Eric defending Hulk Hogan's decision to change the finish, is astounding. Even if they wanted to go in a different direction, doesn't excuse Hogan telling Nick Patrick to slow down the count. Just inexcusable stupidity.

Dani Garcia is entitled to a career from the divorce settlement.

The reality of the situation is Hogan was gonna run whatever company he was in to the ground and Vince knew that.

Now everyone understands why Conrad Thomson blows a fuse anytime they talk about Starrcade or the politics of Hogan..

Why would Captain Goth who’s been living in the shadows for a year have a tan?

Its in the contract Hogan signed, Bischoff will forever protect Hogans character

Here is what killed WCW. They had on their roster Undertaker, Steve Austin, Steven Regal, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Gurrero, Jim Cornette. And they let them all go in favor of Of Hogan and friends.

What killed WCW was Eric Bischoff joining the NWO and becoming an on air character and being way too cocky and focused on the group, overbooking them rather than establishing talents like Eddie Guerrero and Jericho which lead them to jump to WWE . I mean look what happened when He and Hogan went to TNA.

You know why the finger poke destroyed WCW? Half the WCW crowd hated Goldberg and Hogan alike. My dad and my brother and I all loved Nash but after the finger poke there was no one to root for. We watched about a month after the finger poke only to see if the old white NWO would get built back up. Once we saw it was going nowhere we turned to WWF and never turned back.

The finger poke was the spot that ruined everything- Goldberg’s streak was ruined, the Wolfpac was ruined, Wrath’s push was ruined, and the Radicalz exodus the WWE started happening. …and then they hired Russo 9 months later. Tan-dah.

I agree with Brian the NWO has absolutely a game changer as was Nitro which changed the format of television wrestling. No more squash matches, live every week, backstage segments, etc. Jim is stuck in that carny mentality that he really can’t see the forest for the trees at times.

Creative control, and not respecting the actual FANS killed the WCW .😢😢

Kevin Sullivan doesn’t get enough credit for how well he booked the WCW under & mid card, which made WCW worth watching, even if the main events were poor.

What killed WCW was the fact they took a whole year to build The Sting vs Hogan match, and Hogan didn't want to put Sting over cleanly. BTW for those calling bs on it look at what that starcade went up against that year Mania 14 Arguably the begging of The Austin Attitude title run

Max Bialystock name drop popped me in the middle of my afternoon run.

Hogan's outrageous contract was a Bischoff creation, and it would continue to undercut WCW. There was no mention of the terrible Piper and Warrior matches where they were clearly sucking wind after 5 minutes

Damn, Travis did it again! That's one of the most GOAT'd depictions of the two. Regardless of the dumb suits in Turner with their anti Pro Rasslin, WCW's failure was a whole lot of cause and effect. Mickey Mouse over there signed a check that he knew he couldn't cash, got that Goofy-assed roid-head a contract with Creative Control, and that pretty much sealed the deal for WCW in the long run. Turner would've reluctantly had to keep WCW if it was good and keeping good ratings, but creatively they pretty much kneecapped themselves by having a setup where Hogan's goofy-ass ran wild, brother. Pretty much caused all the other issues that led to it's death. But imho, Eric and the deal he cut with Hogan was really the catalyst of the whole thing.

Corporate killed WCW. Jim said it before: "Just add suits."

Where I live USA was channel 32 and TNT was channel 33. It was so much fun switching back and forth between both shows back in 1998-1999.

TNT was great since you could get it for free here in the UK after Cartoon Network finished at 7pm and on Friday Nitro started, couldn’t afford sky sports

you never give a wrestler creative control

When you give these guys creative control, who comes in second? BROTHER!😳

"The NWO did not discover the polio vaccine." I still remember with great fondness the moment when Dr. Salk dropped the big leg on polio at Bash at the Beach.

Brian HATES The Rock... 😆 Obviously. I love how Jim ducks it.

WCW died when they made Alex Wright stop dancing.

I have a feeling that all the shit Brian talks about the Rock now, if he were to see him face to face, he’d be the first person trying to kiss his ass

It's easy for me to forget that hogan (despite his age) still went back to WWF/E AND won more more titles.

Scott Hall said it best. “WCW made a TON of money but it spent WAY MORE then it made.”

1:33 Don't forget Silk Stalkings

That episode was a literal clucking henhouse

In a few months Chris Jericho will come out and say him leaving WCW was what killed it

Starrcade 97. That’s where it truly went wrong.

When TNT started making their own movies in the early 90’s, it definitely felt like they were trying to come off more snobby than they were. Whenever a cable station starts making their own movies like that, they get that attitude, and then poison their own station by over-airing their product over theatrical movies people actually want to see on the station and subsequently water down the movie market. We are seeing that today with streaming services.

WHY THE HELL HAS TED TURNER NEVER TALK ON ONE OF THESE THOUSANDS OF WCW DOCUMENTARIES??

It wasn't one thing that killed WCW. It was egos, guaranteed contracts, creative control, favored nations, etc

The Disney tapings absolutely ran on TBS on Saturdays at 6:05 EST. These shows were my introduction to WCW at 7 or 8 years old.

They kind of skipped over the Herd period a bit too much imho. As a lot of damage was done there. Do love we are getting more insights from the executives.

I don't think he's not saying it because he's trying to get something out of Hogan, it's because he is friends with him and doesn't want to bury him.

Less than 60 seconds in and referring Brad Seagal as the illegitimate son of Truman Capote has me in tears

I'm a firm believer that quality of a product is a drop in the bucket compared to corporate sentiment and market conditions when it comes to the fate of these companies. I'm sure that anybody from the nineties would kill to be in the place WWE and AEW are in, where nobody can afford to turn down a cheap show with a loyal audience while TV declines and the streaming platforms fight to find ways to retain subscribers. WCW had to not only keep sponsors and their network happy, they had a parent company that could choose to prop it up or bury it beneath all of their expenses. After enough corporate shuffling, they ran out of luck.

Not that its surprising Jim could see it, but everyone sees the hulk-sting-eric Starrcade scenario the exact same way with Hulk looking out for Hulk. Though whether its to protect his friendship to hulk, or feels acknowledging shows he let hulk control him an makes others claims he didnt know what to do and let hulk run things true, Eric refuses to just say it. He finally hinted at in this doc, but wont say, yeah, it was a short term boost to give hulk all the control, but long term his self preservation damaged wcw. When Jericho tells his Goldberg story, he says was surprised cause hulk was in the room deciding things with eric on it.

Eric Bischoff and Mick Foley killed WCW

Even Thanos didn't want to use his infinity stones to change WCW

1:14 now I wanna watch the USA Cartoon Express block intro

Brian is correct at 11:00. That was DEFINITELY their way of saying Sting was having substance problems at that time. No doubt about it.

Now I'm picturing The Rock as Zero Mostel and Brian Gerwitz is Gene Wilder in The Producers.

Hogan: "putting someone over doesn't work for me brother." Now everyone is going to look at Bash at the Beach 2000 in a new perspective.

I get why the title was Who killed WCW but there was no single who. It was death by a thousand cuts. So much bad management and poor decisions over the course of a decade and a half, it only posted a profit 2 of the years Turner owned it, and forget the fingerpoke of death the real sign it was headed down the chute was when the company gave away Hogan v Goldberg. The biggest match they could possibly have, arguably the biggest match pro-wrestling in general could have had that year, was put on free TV with only four days build. I still can't believe they did that.

WCW's biggest mistake is allowing the talent to book. Everybody that did book could have cared less about what the fans wanted, or worry about the story to make scense. It was all about getting themselves and friends over. Hulk and Flair, in my opinion, were highly over paid and did little to help the younger talent.

Eric Bischoff wasn't totally to blame. In fact, he took WCW from a company that had been struggling financially and bleeding money since 1988 when Ted Turner bought the company and actually made it temporarily competitive with WWF. Obviously, that wasn't sustainable, because while Bischoff had a few really good ideas, like the NWO, exposing American audiences to smaller, technical, more athletic wrestlers and bringing in the biggest wrestling star of the 80s, he didn't have a clue how to manage all 3. He ran the NWO storyline into the ground until people were sick of it, he gave Hulk Hogan creative control and that led to a lot of really awful finishes to matches, he buried maybe the best midcard and cruiserweight division of all time in any company and the he forgot that he needed to have compelling episodic continuity. Storylines would die from week to week, like they forgot what they just did. Heels and babyfaces would change on a dime, filler matches would happen with absolutely no buildup, etc etc. Meanwhile, WWF was getting its act together and Vince was able to manage fairly consistent episodic consistency between not just one but two or three major shows, Raw, Smackdown and Heat. Sure, every once in a while, a midcard or lower midcard storyline would get dropped, but it didn't matter because you showed up to see The Rock, Mick Foley, Undertaker, Stone Cold and HHH and their storylines were kept straight. As WCW's storylines were going to hell starting in 1998, WWF's were actually getting more compelling. I know Jim hates the over the top "trash TV" and to some extent I agree, wrestling is a business and in the 90s, that type of television worked for a national audience. It doesn't matter what you as a promoter want to see. You book based on what you think will draw the most money, not just now but long term.

I loved those 2am random World Wide shows. It was just mid carders destroying southern style jobbers and then WWF would have a random late night show featuring mid carders destroying North East style jobbers

Dennis Stamp not being booked killed WCW.