The booking in WCW delivered mixed results. There were highly successful angles and disappointing endings to storylines. Quite a few angles would run a bit too long, leading to fans losing interest over time. Some of them had no momentum at all, which made the feuds feel even longer than they were. Others started off hot, before unfortunately declining enough to bore the viewers.
The angles that typically lasted the longest featured talents in the main event picture. WCW tried to drag out feuds between big names, in hopes that they could easily bring in viewers with star power. It often didn’t work out in the end-game, though, as viewers started tuning out. Let's take a look at the WCW feuds that shouldn't have go on as long as they did.
10 Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair
The feud between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair went on for many years in WCW. Hogan signing with WCW would see him face off with Flair right away, winning the WCW Championship. The two continued coming back to wrestle each other in various roles.
Flair was one of the representatives for WCW when Hogan’s New World Order took over the company. The end of the nWo would see Hogan wearing the red and yellow again, moving back into another feud with Flair. WWE still brings this feud back decades later: both men coached teams for the Crown Jewel event. For better or worse, this is one of the most iconic rivalries since Batman and the Joker.
9 Kevin Nash vs The Giant
Kevin Nash and The Giant both were among the most popular bigger wrestlers industry in 1997. WCW placed them together in a long feud that never made the magic they hoped for.
Nash accidentally dropping Giant on his head during a Powerbomb played a role in the animosity extending. Giant and Nash dragged the feud on for months with no real excitement coming from it.
8 Scott Steiner vs Booker T
The last big angle in the main event picture for WCW would see Booker T and Scott Steiner feud over the WCW Championship. Booker won the title in the summer of 2000 when the company finally decided it was time to push a new star to the top.
Scott Steiner broke out in the main event picture as well, leading to a feud between them starting in October of 2000 (and running until the company’s final show in March of 2001). If WWE didn’t buy WCW, the feud would have likely continued for another month or two.
7 Chris Kanyon vs Buff Bagwell
The feud between Chris Kanyon and Buff Bagwell went on for a couple of months. Kanyon was getting a push in the heel role, with poor booking essentially preventing any chance he had of finding noteworthy success.
Bagwell became his top rival in the summer of 2000, with Buff’s mother Judy getting involved. Kanyon abducted Judy and placed her on a forklift for one of their matches. Buff luckily won the match to save his mother (the first and only Judy Bagwell on a Pole match) and mercifully end the feud.
6 Hulk Hogan vs Dungeon of Doom
The Dungeon of Doom became the top threat to Hulk Hogan in 1995. Kevin Sullivan led the group, with Jimmy Hart turning on Hogan to join the faction as The Giant’s manager. Various wrestlers with cartoonish gimmicks like The Zodiac, The Shark and Kamala joined them.
Hogan almost always came out on top, with the face wrestlers helping him overcome the odds. Randy Savage and Hogan even defeated eight wrestlers in a triple cage match. The angle ran way too long into 1996; the Dungeon just couldn’t build legitimate momentum.
5 Lex Luger vs Sting
A feud between Lex Luger and Sting would see the former best friends square off in the year 2000. Vince Russo tried to find new success with things that had not been done before in the company. Luger and Sting had shorter-term feuds, but this was the most personal one.
Luger slowed his heel work down even more than usual, with his matches becoming tough to watch. Sting tried his best, but the angle itself was such a bore. Miss Elizabeth hitting Sting with a baseball bat to help Luger was the most memorable aspect of this lackluster feud.
4 Randy Savage vs Kevin Nash
1999 was the year when things started to spiral out of control for WCW. The New World Order finally ended in the summer, as Kevin Nash continued as a singles face. Randy Savage returned with a new character, having Molly Holly, Madusa and Gorgeous George as his valets.
The addition of Sycho Sid as Savage’s partner gave him another advantage. Nash, however, continued to battle the odds as the feud lasted most of the summer. WCW started losing ratings dramatically; the company no longer had the momentum due to lackluster feuds like this.
3 Hulk Hogan vs Roddy Piper
Roddy Piper left the semi-active role in WWE to become a full-time competitor for WCW again in 1996. The emergence of Piper led to WCW bringing back WWE’s top 80s feud: Hogan vs Piper. Fans would see Piper in the face role, trying to stop Hogan and the New World Order.
The feud started off well, with Piper’s emotion stirring up interest in the match. Unfortunately, they went on to have some of the worst matches in WCW history. WCW kept going back to the well, with a handful of PPV matches. Overexposure soon saw fan interest declining.
2 Ric Flair vs Eric Bischoff
Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff had a long feud, both on television and behind the scenes. The issues started when Bischoff grew upset at Flair for skipping Nitro to attend his son’s wrestling tournament. Lawsuits, threats and backstage politics would all play a role in their backstage war.
Flair returned to television in 1998 to enter a storyline with Bischoff, as the company tried to make a successful angle out of anything they could. The storyline lasted for many months and Bischoff often came out on top. In the end, this was one of the costliest mistakes WCW made.
1 New World Order vs WCW
The best feud in WCW history ended up being the one that ran too long and hurt them the most. Hulk Hogan leading the New World Order during their takeover of WCW in 1996 created magic, bringing in record-breaking ratings while general interest in wrestling increased.
The problem was that the nWo often came out on top, with the WCW wrestlers mostly looking weak. This storyline was still going on in 1999 when the new version of the nWo Elite formed. Fans no longer viewed the group as the hottest act around, so the company started losing viewers that never came back.