Timeframe with the strongest roster (WCW)

[HBKperfect23]

Same as the last thread but with WCW. When was the WCW roster at its deepest and why?

I didn't watch WCW religously and was more of a casual fan but I'll run down my favorites.

93: the flair return/pre hogan days were my favorite time in WCW. The tag division had a lot to do with it. I really enjoyed their mid carders as well. Favorites included: sting/Vader, Hollywood blondes, rude, Daley, flair, steamboat, muta.

96/97: I think this is the obvious one. They had aquired a ton of WWf talent and a lot of up and coming talent from ECW. They were easily the number one company in the wrestling world.

I'll go 93 because that's the time I enjoyed WCW the most.

 

[relentless1]

it has to be 1998 hands down; the main event level was loaded with Hogan, Sting, Hart, Flair, Giant, Luger, Warrior, DDP, Goldberg, Savage, Hall, Nash

while the mid card was STACKED with high level performers and other talent like Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, Mysterio, Guerrerra, Psychosis, Raven, Saturn, Booker T, Bagwell, Steiner, Konnan, Wrath, Bigelow, Kanyon, Bulldog, Norton, Wright, Disco, Kidman

hands down WCW from 95-99 had the greatest talent roster of all time in pro wrestling, its just too bad they couldn't capitalize on it past the nWo

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

The Year 1998:

Main Eventers:
Hollywood Hogan
Goldberg
Sting
Bret Hart
Lex Luger
Kevin Nash
Scott Hall
The Giant
Roddy Piper
Randy Savage

Midcarders:
Scott Steiner
Diamond Dallas Page
Buff Bagwell
Curt Hennig
Chris Jericho
Chris Benoit
Booker T
Raven
Saturn
Meng
The Barbarian
Glacier
Wrath
Kanyon
Konnan
Rick Steiner

Cruiserweights:
Rey Misterio Jr
Juventud Guerrera
Billy Kidman
Psichosis
La Parka
Ultimo Dragon
Chavo Guerrero Jr
Eddie Guerrero
Dean Malenko

Tag Teams:
Public Enemy
The British Bulldog & Jim The Anvil Neidhart
Disco Inferno & Alex Wright

 

[FromGlasgow]

WCW was my favourite wrestling company during the 90s, Probably my best memories of it was when Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura was announcing with Gary Michael Cappetta ring announcing and the style of the entrance ramp attaching to the ring during the early days but talent wise I would have to say around the 97/98 era it had by far the biggest name main eventers, greatest cruiserweight style wrestlers in world, best tag teams and best storylines with the NWO etc, They even had the best group of potential future talent, WWE to me just seemed second rate at the time but WCW still all went so wrong in such a short time afterwards.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Is this only WCW, IE after the 1991 Name Change from NWA ???

Personally, I think the roster in 1988 was pretty stacked
Ric Flair (world champ)
Dusty Rhodes (#1 good guy)
Sting (new)
Lex Luger (main eventer)
Tully Blanchard
Arn Anderson
Barry Whyndam (in his prime 87-88)
Dr Death Steve Williams
Rick Steiner (new)
Road Warriors (in their prime)
Midnight Express (Stan Lane version)
Rock & Roll Express
Nikita Kolloff
The Freebirds
Kevin Sullivan
Mike Rotunda
Powers Of Pain

There were some pretty big names and several performers at or near their peak performance wise who were major names (Rotunda, Sullivan, R&R Express).

 

[detroitking02]

I have to say from 96-99 WCW had the best roster with the most depth. You had it all main eventers, mid carders, light heavyweight/cruiserweights, and tag teams. I believe that's what hurt WCW there was too many superstars and everyone wanted to be the top person. Nonetheless WCW in 96-99 will always be my favorite period of wrestling and I'm thankfully for the all the memories WCW gave me as a kid.

 

[Creepy Old Man]

1997/1998. They'd acquired all the big WWF names by then, had a stellar mid card, and credible names weren't leaving for the WWF yet.

It's STAGGERING when you look back at who WCW had, while haemorrhaging money and producing god-awful programming. In 1999 the company had Hogan, Sting, Goldberg, Bret, Savage, Flair, Hall, Nash, Jericho, Mysterio, DDP, Hennig, Benoit, Booker and the Steiners. How on EARTH could you reduce a company with that kind of star power and talent to something so ghastly?

Yet they did. Sigh.

 

[OYDK]

Yeah 98 was absolutely STACKED. It's friggen incredible that they could barely produce a worthwhile product with all the talent on their roster. INCREDIBLE.