A Love Letter To Georgia, Home Of WCW
My tribute to World Championship Wrestling.
When I think about why I’m a wrestling fan, many images arise: love of the matches, intensity of the wrestlers, reactions of the crowds. It all comes together to form a beautiful melting pot.
But it wouldn’t exist without my love for World Championship Wrestling.
The first article I wrote for The Wrestling Estate gave readers a brief overview of the roots to my fandom, emphasizing the significance of WCW. I’m indebted to the promotion for introducing me to what would become my biggest passion.
As a child, I was not a gifted sportsman. My coordination was not the best, and my fear of failure and being a disappointment overrode my ability to practice. To fill the void of physical sport, I was drawn to TV, and after seeing football (soccer), cricket and tennis, (all of which I tried and failed), I resigned myself to only watching sport and not partaking in it.
But then one Friday evening in 1999, on the recommendation of my elder cousin, I turned over to Channel 5 at 7 p.m. and saw my first episode of WCW Worldwide. The effect the show had on me cannot be understated. It blew my mind!
Compared to footballers and tennis players who looked like normal people, Kevin Nash, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Sting looked like superheroes. Not just anybody could do the physical feats they did, which helped grow my confidence. I wasn’t watching something that made me feel inferior to my peers. My family used to casually watch World of Sport and occasionally WWE, but I became obsessed with every idiosyncrasy of the wrestling industry, which persists to this day.
Nostalgia is something you have to yourself and which makes you smile. That is what WCW is for me. It’s a trip back to a time when the curtain hadn’t been pulled back, altering my perception of the business. I really believed Goldberg was the unstoppable force, the nWo were running the company and that Bret Hart was going to reclaim the World Heavyweight Championship. It was a blast!
I remember watching those WCW shows, and everything drew me in. At the same time as WCW was on TV, the WWF aired on Sunday afternoons. I had WWF merchandise, but the product didn’t grab my attention in the same way. It was too segment heavy and the cards were too top heavy to enjoy them. Why would I want to watch an undercard with The Oddities, when I have got Psicosis and La Parka going at it, leading into a main event with Booker T, DDP or Ric Flair?
WCW opened up doors to new areas of the wrestling industry I didn’t know existed. Without the previously mentioned Psicosis and Mysterio, I never would have sought out lucha libre. Without seeing Jushin “Thunder” Liger, I never would have known what puroresu was so young into my fandom. That high-flying style has inspired me so much that I launched a podcast dedicated to the cruiserweights.
Now I’m not expecting everyone to share my love for WCW. On the contrary, I know there are a lot of people who hate how the company destroyed the reputations of many talented wrestlers. I can’t deny this. But what I will say is that when WWE purchased WCW in 2001, it had a tendency to rewrite history and essentially create anti-WCW propaganda. The company has always had a checkered history, but hasn’t the WWE? Didn’t ECW? WCW is not alone in its ups and downs.
I’ve always been frustrated with how the negatives outweigh the positives of WCW in retrospectives, not just ones produced by WWE either. Thankfully, things have gradually got better, and with the advent of WCW DVD sets and great books like Nitro, a well-rounded picture of the promotion is coming to light.
It’s amazing to think that 20 years have passed since the final WCW show. I was so upset when the company came to a close and although a lot of my favourites had already moved on, the thought that my favourite wrestling promotion was not going to be there anymore really hurt me. Like many WCW fans, I considered giving up on wrestling altogether.
What was there to keep me watching?
To alleviate my disappointment, I bought as many WCW VHS tapes as I could, played WCW/nWo Revenge (something I still do today) and read lots of WCW books and magazines. But try as I might, I had caught the wrestling bug, and before I knew it, once we got Sky TV, I was straight into watching the WWF in 2002. Ironically, the timing couldn’t have been better as the nWo had just debuted at No Way Out, Booker T was starring on the shows and Rey Mysterio was set to debut in the summer. It wasn’t the WCW I remembered, but it was a close alternative.
WCW showed me a new form of entertainment I could call my own. WCW introduced me to a legion of personalities I have followed ever since. And WCW taught me that wrestling is to be enjoyed and loved around the world. I just want to thank all of the staff and wrestlers who made WCW such a phenomenon.
You made me smile and cheer at more wonderful moments that I can begin to list here. I owe you all so much gratitude for helping me stay invested in the thing I love more than anything else on the planet: professional wrestling.
About Author
