Good old Eric, he gave us the phrase of "Controversy creates cash".

Do you know what's fun about WCW? It's a really great story than can be told in a hundred different ways. The WWE, being the eternally vindictive sacks of shit that they are, would rather only tell the versions of story that imagine that WCW was a horribly inept company that got a little lucky but then failed to sustain their place at the top and couldn't recover as it desperately tried in vain to delay its inevitable demise.

The show on VICE called "Who Killed WCW?" is a story told from the WWE's bent perspective on history.

Most of us were forum junkies during the dawn of the widely available internet. Professional Wrestling forums were some of the pioneers in the burgeoning forum-verse. We had a pretty good understanding of how the average fan felt about any professional wrestling storyline.

It should come as no shock that the WWE is using this opportunity to spread some outright bullshit about the later stages of The Monday Night Wars. The most glaring example me was how they present the story of Starrcade 1997. According to this docuseries, fans were outraged at the result of the Sting vs Hogan match.

No, we weren't. What I recall is that fans of every internet forum were absolutely ecstatic with the result of that match because Sting would be wearing the WCW Championship. Sting and Hogan had another match with another fluke finish, and then they'd have a PPV match where Sting was allowed to pin Hogan clean.

My best guess is that Hogan switched the fast-count to a slow-count because he wanted Bret to look foolish. If he wanted to sabotage Sting then be would have left with the belt immediately after his clean pin.

I could go on-and-on. So basically, fuck the WWE.

Now then, who really did kill WCW according to me? Once again, I'm confronted with a bit of a mystery where I feel as though I've deducted the one true solution to the question. Everyone is throwing some very plausible names around, but nobody has named the individual that I believe is the one true culprit.

My answer:

Click for Spoiler:
The man who killed WCW was Paul Wight.

Yes, The Big Show is the reason why WCW would begin on its slippery downward slope toward an inescapable demise.

The WWE and its sycophants love to tell the story of Mick Foley and the "butts in seats" comment. They tell this story as though that moment was when fans chose to switch from the fingerpokes of WCW and instead watch the thrilling underdog stories of the WWF.

Yeah, that's a big fucking load of bullshit. Fans were into either show, and there's never been a reliable metric that could indicate that fans chose to switch to the WWF because of the "butts in seats" comment.

Paul Wight was an incredible acquisition for the WWF. Not only was he considered to be a perennial WCW guy at the time, but he was the motherfucking Giant. Fans were now intrigued to see how encounters between this WCW titan would play out against the WWF's main card which now featured some new talent.

Think about the acquisitions that followed for either company.

WCW got a Dustin Runnels who was burned out, and WWF got a Chris Jericho who was starving for the fame he was owed.

Paul Wight didn't just turn the tide of ratings dominance. He was able to provide consistent ratings where the WWF would often have double the numbers of WCW.

Mark my words, pun intended, Paul Wight killed WCW by causing them a slow and painful death after he abruptly left them.