Many long-time professional wrestling fans remember WCW fondly. The days of the nWo wreaking havoc, Sting descending from the ceiling, the Four Horsemen, and the revolutionary Cruiserweight division are still engrained in the memory of those that lived through this exciting time in wrestling. Others may still look back at WCW's early days after Jim Crockett Promotions closed its doors and the days of Jim Herd and Bill Watts - for good or bad. And, of course, there is the crazy late-stage era of Vince Russo.
Whatever era you associate most with WCW, there is no denying that the company had a different feel than WWE. This was never more apparent than during its PPVs. If you re-watch WCW's events today, this becomes especially apparent, along with the fact that they never had any chance of putting WWE out of business.
9 The Main Events Often Stunk
Sure, on paper, matches like Luger vs Sting (Superbrawl II), Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan (Halloween Havoc 1996) or Scott Steiner vs. Kevin Nash (Superbrawl Revenge) sounded good for their time. But the actual in-ring action often couldn't live up to the hype - for a variety of reasons. Considering the fact that your main event is usually drawing the largest number of people into buying the PPV, the fact that these matches couldn't deliver didn't help - whether the finish left people happy (Luger vs. Sting) or not.
8 Happy Ending? Maybe!
Speaking of delivering: WWE made it a point until late 1996 to send fans home happy by having the babyface winning the main event. There were a few exceptions (Survivor Series 1987 or Royal Rumble 1992) but those were few and far between. WCW, in the tradition of Jim Crockett Promotions and southern territory wrestling, didn't put emphasis on this. Even after Hulk Hogan arrived, WCW would end PPVs with heels celebrating more often than not.
7 Unclear Endings
Speaking of how PPVs end: one thing you can not accuse the WWE of is unclear PPV endings. At the end of any WWE event, you know who won the main event. You may not know where the story goes - for example why somebody interfered or turned - but that intrigue keeps us fans tuning in. In WCW, there were multiple occasions where PPVs ended with fans simply in a state of confusion. Uncensored 1995, Halloween Havoc 1995, Starrcade 1996 or Uncensored 1998 left fans with more questions than answers. How did Hogan beat Vader by dragging Flair to all four corners make sense? Was Luger a member of the Dungeon of Doom (after fighting it on the same PPV)? Was Piper the world champion? Who won the cage match between Hogan and Savage? Intrigue is good. Confusion is not.
6 Booking Influenced By Egos
Part of these problems stemmed from the influence that various wrestlers had on the booking. Hogan's creative control was just the tip of the iceberg. Especially by the late 90s, the power struggle between the top stars and their groups (Nash, Hogan, Flair, etc) lead to many screwy finishes and confusing booking decisions that kept everybody (allegedly) looking strong while shutting out midcard talent from higher card regions.
5 Glass Ceilings
Which brings us to the next problem: the glass ceilings that WCW's card had for every member of the roster. This became especially clear after the NWO angle began. Cruiserweights remained in their division, and the few that did break out (Guerrero, Jericho, Malenko, Benoit) never broke through into the main event scene. By the same token, those in the main event never lost their position and remained feuding among each other. The two main eventers that were built - DDP and Goldberg - never had the lobby for the top spots.
4 Terrible Commentary
But enough about the main event scene of the late 90s. There were other problems WCW had throughout its existence, and one was its commentary team. For all the problems Vince McMahon caused in the ear of different announcers, the problem with WCWs announcers was that it seemed like nobody produced them. From an unmotivated Jesse Ventura talking about anything but the matches to Dusty Rhodes' gibberish, Tony Schiavone's exaggerations and lack of technical knowledge, and Mark Madden's uninspired sleaziness, the commentary in WCW was never really good.
3 WCW Production
There have been many stories over the years about WCW's production being light years behind WWE's standards, so it is no surprise that WCW's PPVs always looked to have a smaller budget. The lights were not as bright. The buildings were not as big. Commentators sometimes weren't sure what to pitch to. Early on, WCW's entrance consisted of tinsel. For a company that didn't mind spending the big bucks and were owned by a television/movie mogul, their production was lackluster.
2 Poor (Or No) Video Packages
Over the years, WWE has not only been praised for its video packages - it has influenced the entire sports industry with them. The ability of Stamford's production team to make even the most lackluster storyline look like Emmy-worthy television dates back to the mid-nineties and the influence of David Sahadi. While WCW lacked an editor of Sahadi's talent, it could have at least started to look for one by mid-1998. Instead, WCW basically didn't include video packages until Russo's arrival - and even then, the quality of those packages was less than impressive.
1 Matches Without A Build
In the late 80s and early 90s, PPVs were still special occasions. Fans usually saw one match pitting two superstars each week on television and the rest were squashes. As a result, both WWE and WCW got away with putting together some PPV matches without a build. However, WWE stopped that practice - with a few exceptions - once Monday Night Raw began its run while WCW continued with it almost until the end. Matches like Mike Enos vs. Chris Benoit or Mikey Whipwreck vs Scotty Riggs had no business being on PPV - much less getting more than ten minutes of PPV time.