By | April 30, 2001

This article was first posted to rec.sports.pro-wrestling by me sometime in early 1996. I am reposting it here to share it with the millions of people who have joined the internet in the last 5 years.

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PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING TODAY by MICHAEL R. FIERRO
E-mail: MICHAEL_FIERRO@Non-HP-Loveland-om10.om.hp.com
It is sad when the battle between the federation heads draws more
attention than the difference between wrestlers in the two feds. But that
is where we seem to be stuck. The war between Eric Bischoff and Vince
McMahon is heating up, and leaving wrestling and wrestling fans behind.

This war was started by Eric Bischoff. As much as others would like to say
it wasn’t, the fact of the matter is that Vince McMahon did not care what
happened in WCW. He was content to run the WWF and ignore the other
federation. Bischoff, on the other hand, decided the best way to raise
interest in WCW was to blast the WWF. And this he has done consistently.
Can anyone remember a time since Eric took over when Eric hasn’t run down
the WWF?

Bischoff and WCW decided to go head-to-head against the WWF’s most watched
show. All of a sudden, Monday Night Raw and Monday Nitro were battling for
ratings in the 7:00 PM Mountain time slot. And the status quo hung true.
Bischoff continually dogged the WWF, while the WWF ignored WCW.

The straw that broke the camel’s back might have been a couple of months
ago when Madusa Micelle, then WWF Ladies Champion Alundra Blayze, made a
surprise appearance on Monday Nitro and threw the WWF Woman’s Championship
belt into a garbage can. Not long after that, Vince McMahon started firing
back. “Billionaire Ted’s Rasslin’ Warroom” started out as a hilarious “in
your face” from the WWF to WCW. Unfortunately, it also escalated the war.

Now we have to live with threats of litigation. We have to suffer through
a Nacho Man -vs.- Huckster match at Wrestlemania. We have to listen to
Bischoff try to blame the WWF for power outages on their live shows. And
we have to listen to McMahon try to get Time/Warner stockholders to rebel
against Ted Turner.

What is the net result for the wrestling fan? It isn’t good. What we watch
wrestling for . . . what we’ve ALWAYS watched wrestling for, is being
pushed into the background as this quest for power plays itself out. It
doesn’t matter who wins in the WCW -vs.- WWF wars. The real losers are the
fans.

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