Kamala's Random WCW Bullshit thread

[Big Papa Paegan]

Dude left so much money on the table by never using, or wanting, that tape library. Even if he bought that, he could've cut a deal with someone to produce state-of-the-art DVDs for the time.

WCW in a nutshell. They had so much footage that could've been put together to sell tapes to the home market and barely touched any of it.

 

[Valeyard]

I stand by my theory of WCW, with the help of Turner video, changing the game with DVDs if they had any sense. Wouldn't reverse fortunes but would've absolutely been a positive for the company and Turner.

 

[snuffbox]

Sometimes I wonder if things would've gone differently if Bischoff had made good business decisions in the 1990s instead of making up endless lies in the 2010s-20s.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Sometimes I wonder if things would've gone differently if Bischoff had made good business decisions in the 1990s instead of making up endless lies in the 2010s-20s.

Wait...you do that too?!

 

[BUTT]

He tried, OK. He tried to give you last week's Leno monologue on nWo Nightcap. Turner Standards & Practices got mad because he made a Monica Lewinsky joke. So what more do you want from him?

 

[BruiserBrody]

Assuming we are talking Eric getting the video rights in 2001, I'm not sure DVD releases would be super lucrative without the WWE machine pushing them on their TV in front of 5 million eyeballs.
Once they cut through distribution, production and advertising costs, they only have a handful of guys who would really move big numbers of discs.
Plus they would then potentially have to hire a proper documentarian to make something more than just a Best of format.

I tried to Google WCW Superstar Series sales, but failed to find any info

 

[Valeyard]

You have the Turner machine pushing the most polished DVDs wrestling could produce. You have WWF guys to promote from when they were where the big boys play, in addition to a boom period full of shows people cared about and would revist. It wouldn't reverse fortunes, but would make money and restore some goodwill, unlike the product the previous three years. You're also underestimating the segment of fans who wanted all the older stuff they could find but didn't know anything about tape trading.

 

[snuffbox]

Instead, when Bischoff was still in charge and at the peak of WCW, they still weren't putting out every ppv on vhs. He learned a lot about business from Verne Gagne.

 

[Valeyard]

Not ever seeing WCW videos at Suncoast and the like is probably a huge part of why I never gave them a fair shot. Not until I started buying out mom and pop rental store's wrestling sections did I really appreciate the best of WCW.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Instead, when Bischoff was still in charge and at the peak of WCW, they still weren't putting out every ppv on vhs. He learned a lot about business from Verne Gagne.

Verne was ahead of JCP who only had some yellow box VHS releases during the wrestling boom of 85 and that was just random TV taping stuff spliced together. (At least we got Steamboat/Rhodes and Manny(???) vs Tully/Black Bart and Ron Bass IIRC on one of them) Magnum was at ringside hog tying Dillon.

Verne released 30 min comps on big VHS' which looked different than the VHS you'd normally think of. AWA at least tossed arena matches on there with promos and squashes. SuperClash 85 was split between 4 VHS releases IIRC. I really wish I would have known when our Hollywood Video went under so I could have bought them out. Another mom and pop store had the other AWA releases and this would have been early 2000s yet.
Verne beat Vince to the market on the Remcos vs LJNs IIRC. Gagne didn't give royalties to the guys though, giving them another reason to quit and go work for Vince, who we learned in the Six Pack paid a big sum out until he cut the percentage way back after the 1st run of LJNs. '
Gagne also sold a hard cover book of his Pro Wrestling USA roster, another avenue I don't think JCP ever touched.

I think Starrcade 86 was JCP's first VHS attempt. They released a War Games and Starrcade comp in 1988.

Daniel Cohen was my go to with his "Wrestling Superstars Vol 1 and 2" books. I believe he had another wrestling one as well.

WCW went overboard in 1990 trying to catch up to the WWF machine with Galoob and released 2 or 3 different board games, along with a card game, and wrestlers in 3 different sizes of figures.

 

[Zetterberg is God]

Not ever seeing WCW videos at Suncoast and the like is probably a huge part of why I never gave them a fair shot. Not until I started buying out mom and pop rental store's wrestling sections did I really appreciate the best of WCW.

Pretty much how I have the handful of WCW tapes in my collection, video store closings. It's mostly those late era superstar series though.

 

[snuffbox]

JCP also released an abbreviated VHS for the first Great American Bash and a compilation with PWI that included Starrcade '83 highlights among other things. These sold well due to voluminous advertising in the Apter mags for years. After they sold to Turner, T.H.E released almost every ppv on VHS into 1992. The regular releases stopped happening around the time Bischoff took over. After spending so much money on celebrities like Jay Leno, it would've helped that business by releasing those ppvs on VHS, and later on DVD, to recoup the expenses.

Doing action figures, etc, was a good idea. The point of a business is to sell stuff and make money. When you do so you don't have to make up a bunch of bullshit years and decades later.

 

[Valeyard]

Controversy creates cash. As does Blue Chew.

 

[snuffbox]

Is Blue Chew pills for these podcast people?

 

[Brocklock]

Pretty much how I have the handful of WCW tapes in my collection, video store closings. It's mostly those late era superstar series though.

I had a 30 minute video from the early 90's called New Blood On The Block and focused on the young guys in WCW. It was mostly great cause it had highlights of Pillman/Liger from Superbrawl II.

 

[snuffbox]

I had a 30 minute video from the early 90's called New Blood On The Block and focused on the young guys in WCW. It was mostly great cause it had highlights of Pillman/Liger from Superbrawl II.

Yes, that was part of a batch with 3 or 4 other tapes. There was a Sting one, a Rick Rude tape, and, I think, one more compilation like New Blood. They also released Superbrawl 2 on VHS. Like the other ppvs during that pre-Bischoff, pre-dontmakemoney era, some matches were left off and some matches were clipped. But Pillman-Liger was on that commercial release as well as the compilation tape Brocklock mentioned. Highlight tapes, and later DVDs, of the cruiserweights and workrate talent would've served Bischoff's WCW in a couple ways: they would've made money and they would've helped build guys up into drawing-card main eventers if he'd had the strength to move his friends down the card on occasion.

Another tape (a two-cassette set) that T.H.E had success with was a best of Starrcade compilation.

 

[Valeyard]

The tapes I did see I legit got turned off by because they didn't have match listings a lot of the time, and when they did it was only a couple matches. If I'm spending money on a tape I want to know all that's on it. If a cash in Kmart WWF clipjob tape can do that, a WCW ppv can.

 

[snuffbox]

Or to prevent that confusion just don't release ppvs at all!

 

[Valeyard]

The video store I used to get all my wrestling stuff was closing down years ago, so I grabbed what they had left: Slamboree 98. The cassette was for Uncensored 98. It was a perfectly fitting end for all things.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Or to prevent that confusion just don't release ppvs at all!

By George, I think you're on to something!

 

[Valeyard]

Yes, that was part of a batch with 3 or 4 other tapes. There was a Sting one, a Rick Rude tape, and, I think, one more compilation like New Blood. They also released Superbrawl 2 on VHS. Like the other ppvs during that pre-Bischoff, pre-dontmakemoney era, some matches were left off and some matches were clipped. But Pillman-Liger was on that commercial release as well as the compilation tape Brocklock mentioned. Highlight tapes, and later DVDs, of the cruiserweights and workrate talent would've served Bischoff's WCW in a couple ways: they would've made money and they would've helped build guys up into drawing-card main eventers if he'd had the strength to move his friends down the card on occasion.

Another tape (a two-cassette set) that T.H.E had success with was a best of Starrcade compilation.

I just remembered that WCW briefly has ppv compilations of things like Wargames. I recall a commercial promoting Cactus Jack, too, but maybe just as a highlight of something else. I'm assuming these were the same things?

Also it sucks we never got Cactus in Wargames.

 

[snuffbox]

I'd mention how dumb it was for Bischoff to let guys like Foley and Austin go but he was just continuing a long history of stupid WCW booking including Ole Anderson not seeing the dollars in Undertaker.

 

[BUTT]

I’m not sure if Bischoff was behind the decision to stop editing PPVs down to 2 hours. But Beach Blast ‘93 was the last time they did it. Watts in particular hated the editing but THE told him the video stores didn’t want 3 hour rentals.

 

[JHawk]

I remember the SuperBrawl II video showed Terry Taylor's prematch promo about his match with Marcus Alexander Bagwell but edited out the actual match

 

[Valeyard]

It really made WCW look bush league cutting the shows up. Me as a young fan scoffed when I saw my first WCW tape and it was substantially shorter that some Coliseum Videos.

 

[BUTT]

IIRC the following were removed from WCW home video releases:
Havoc ‘92: the opening six-man tag
Starrcade ‘92: All the Lethal Lottery tag matches were clipped to the finish
Superbrawl III: Blonds-Watts/Bagwell, R&R Express-Bodies and Maxx Payne playing Taps
Slamboree: Scorpio/Bagwell-Benoit/Eaton, Sid-Hammer (unforgivable) and Flair for the Gold
Beach Blast: Simmons-Orndorff, Watts-Regal, Scorpio/Bagwell-Tex/Shanghai

 

[snuffbox]

Some others: GAB 89 shortened a few undercard matches, Havoc 90 was missing 2-3 matches including Junkyard Dog vs Moondog.

Coliseum Videos had some editing too. The first couple Survivor Series and Summerslam '88 for example. But it was rare that they'd cut any full matches out. They might've left out Koko-Mountie from the 1991 Rumble.

But back to the topic: I think $10-20 tapes of WCW's 1997/98 ppvs at Walmart a couple months after airing would've helped stop some of that crazy financial bleeding.

 

[Valeyard]

ECW was smart. Just pump compilations out while in the death rattle. Won't save it but it helps somewhat.

 

[BUTT]

I think Royal Rumble '89 was the last WWF PPV to get cut down to 2 hours. They removed the Haku-Race match and I'm sure they made cuts elsewhere. And Mountie-Koko got cut from '91 but that show went over 3 hours so I understand the edit.

 

[BruiserBrody]

The early 88 "Danger Zone" release was a weird one for JCP. 40 mins of promos and match clips with Flair losing to Ronnie Garvin in Detroit as the selling point filling out the last 20 mins or whatever.

Fun to watch now only to see all the heels putting over Dusty Rhodes verbally while cutting promos on him.
"Listen Rhodes! You just might be the toughest man I've ever stepped in the ring with, able to ignore pain that would send the average man to the hospital, but I HATE YOU and I will be the one to end your career!"