HOW popular are these WCW/NWA guys really to non east coast brehs?

[ZEB WALTON]

question. I see a variety of these shoots and shytload of material about all these non wwe promotions but as a kid growing up, I didnt discover wcw til later on.

was Ric Flair really as popular as Hulk?

Hulk was a pop icon to me and i just saw flair as a regular wrestler that i assumed he wrestled elsewhere and was popular that they just threw into the picture but he was never hulk or mach level TO ME.

i didnt know who any of those guys like rock n roll express, von ericks, jerry lawler ganes ect were AT ALL. I been seeing a lot of shoots n docs that say they were BIG AS fukk. Big as wwf tho? wwf always was like the tops with the biggest crowds and on tv, news, movies,etc.

The first wcw ppv i even remember was hulk vs flair which was huge and got mad promo. i prolly found wcw round like 92-94 and didnt go look for it till hulk jumped

I respect what they did now... i try to watch as much of the old material as I can find online; docs, shoots, etc. but do any older brehs care to speak on wwfs influence to them or how popular these other territories were back in the days? just curious to see what others saw growing up

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

I didnt give a fukk about WCW unless I saw ric flair, lex luger, or the harlem heat, until Nitro premiered

 

[Cobratron]

They were big to me. I grew up in Virginia on WWF, WCW, USWA, World Class/USWA Texas, and GWF.

Flair, Sting, Luger, Lawler, and The Patriot were just as big names to me as Hogan and Warrior were. They just didn't have the production values or marketing.

 

[puppetmaster]

I was raised on NWA/WCW southern wrestling in general, they NWA/WCW had a stronghold in Chicago


Their mid to late 80's stuff holds up very well in 2016 especially the promos and the reality based storylines. Even jobbers cut decent promos


Sting got LOUD we want Sting chants last year during his time with the WWE. That's amazing when you consider most of their young audience "shouldn't" know who he is.


Ric Flair's promo's from the mid 80's are all over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. hell most of our favorite "real" athletes love that guy.

Vince had a plan to make his guys larger than life from day one. .. whereas NWA/WCW didn't really know how to go about being much other than wrestling even though they had the personalities to go all the way with.

 

[DLo]

I grew up in Philly and that was as far north as NWA would go before Turner bought them. They used to run the Civic Center while WWF did shows in the Spectrum. My dad would take me to both shows and NWA had a nice size crowd even when WWF was at its peak in the 80s. I could only imagine how popular it was in the south.

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

COKEBOY USED TO KEEP THOSE SOUTHERN "RASSLIN" GUYS OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM WITH A WALL LIKE GAME OF THRONES, BROTHER!

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

COKEBOY USED TO KEEP THOSE SOUTHERN "RASSLIN" GUYS OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM WITH A WALL LIKE GAME OF THRONES, BROTHER!

Are you here to see....

Dubyaceedubya

Or are you here to see the......

 

[ZEB WALTON]

Are you here to see....

Dubyaceedubya

Or are you here to see the......

never rooted for a group harder in my life. hall nash hulk as team wwf pushing wcw around was the BEST

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

never rooted for a group harder in my life. hall nash hulk as team wwf pushing wcw around was the BEST

For me it was just a needed changing of the guard I mean col rob parker and friggin mike enos were getting heavy burn in 95

 

[R=G]

I used to read PWI as a kid and always saw AWA, Wcw, and USWA. I knew of Lawler, Perfect, Flair, Sting, and Kerry Von Erich for years. Macho Man and Hogan definitely were more mainstream though.

 

[8WON6]

I grew up in KC and this was like NWA/WCW country. I was born in 82, so I can remember a little 80's stuff and I can remember going to NWA events with my father when I was real little and WWF shyt was like "cable shyt" . I know we had like Superstars on tv but WCW/NWA was more popular here back in the day. Like, if you listen to some of those shoots, alot of them old wrestlers would always mention the KC territory being like a staple of the NWA. I'll always have fond memories of 80's NWA. 80's WWE stuff was a tad bit too cartoonish for me even when I was little.

 

[BodeineBrazy]

Im from NY, but i knew most of them from PWI... I would watch WCW worldwide as a kid. And my uncle used to tape Clash of The Champions for me when I was a kid, and bring it up to the city when he visited.

 

[richaveli83]

Not as popular until the late 90's. NWA/WCW was always seen as "rasslin" even though at times they had the superior wrestling. I grew up in Texas and although we had WWF superstars and other syndicated WWF programming WCW, WCCW, etc was huge. The Von Erichs, The Freebirds, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, etc were the equivalent of Savage, Hogan, etc down south.

 

[Cheercomp]

I was first introduced to wrestling by my grandmother in the late 80s...88/89, and she only watched NWA/WCW. I basically caught onto WWF stuff on my own asking for wrestling and stuck with both til the wheels fell off. Of course, Sting wasn't on television like Hogan was for crossover stuff, but to me and my friends in New Jersey, Sting, Luger, Flair, Steiners were big stars.

 

[ZEB WALTON]

Im from NY, but i knew most of them from PWI... I would watch WCW worldwide as a kid. And my uncle used to tape Clash of The Champions for me when I was a kid, and bring it up to the city when he visited.

Yea thats really how i got to know these dudes

Wrestling magazines and the source was my mags as a youngin. Those cheap wrestlin mags in the dolla stores n shyt