The 5 Most Historic Matches In WCW

We are nearing the 25 year anniversary of World Championship Wrestling's final show, and the company that was once a cultural juggernaut has something of a spotty reputation in the eyes of fans these days.

Some fans still have WCW as their favorite company thanks to being the "wrestling show" compared to the cartoonish landscape of the World Wrestling Federation, bringing southern-style grappling to the forefront, while also highlighting the best that both Mexico and Japan had to offer through their midcard and Cruiserweight division. On the other hand, other fans will only remember the bad times where WCW would effectively take one step forward and eighteen steps back on their way to crashing and burning to such a degree that Vince McMahon was able to buy the company for an amount of money that some wrestlers make in a year these days.

Regardless of what you think of WCW, there is no denying that the company left its mark on the wrestling industry. After all, the year is 2025 and we are about to do a list about a company that, for all its faults, died nearly a quarter of a century ago and yet people are still talking about it. WCW produced some of the most historic moments, both good and bad, during its 13 year run. Obviously, Georgia Championship Wrestling had a show called "World Championship Wrestling" in the 70s and 80s, but it wasn't until 1988 when Ted Turner bought Jim Crockett Promotions (who had previously bought Georgia Championship Wrestling) where WCW was officially born.

Most of WCW's most historic moments occurred during matches, and that's what we are here to talk about today. The good, the bad, and the absolutely insane moments that still live long in the memories of wrestling fans around the world, but all of which contributed to WCW being, at one point in time, the biggest wrestling company on the planet. So sit back, relax, dust off your nWo shirts and join us on a journey to a time before social media, as we take a look at five of the most historic matches in WCW history.

Before we get started, the matches that deserve an honorable mention are Ric Flair's "I Quit" match with Terry Funk at Clash of the Champions 9 in 1989. The WarGames match between The Dangerous Alliance and Sting's Squadron at WrestleWar 1992. Ron Simmons becoming the first-ever African American WCW World Champion after beating Vader in August 1992, "Flyin'" Brian Pillman and Jushin Thunder Liger kicking off the first episode of "Nitro," and the match to main event the final "Nitro," Ric Flair vs. Sting.

Alright, we're cheating already, but honestly it would simply be rude to pick just one of the matches that Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat had together in 1989, so we're just going to include them all in one entry to make life easier and happier.

Following a successful run in WWE, which included his legendary WWE Intercontinental Championship match with Randy Savage at WrestleMania 3, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat joined WCW in January 1989. He already had an eight year stint with Jim Crockett Promotions prior to his WWE run, so WCW fans were already familiar with Steamboat's work, and more importantly how good he was in between the ropes. In his first match under the WCW umbrella, Steamboat got one over on the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair by pinning him in a tag team match, something that was very rare at the time, granting him a shot at Flair's title at Chi-Town Rumble that February.

There's always talk in wrestling of how two wrestlers have such good chemistry that you honestly believe that they were put on this earth to cross paths in a wrestling ring, and there is no better example of that than when Flair and Steamboat first locked horns in February 1989. A match so good that people still call it one of the greatest matches of all time to this day, and after nearly 25 minutes of action, Steamboat pulled off what could have been seen by some as an upset given how dominant Flair was at this time, becoming the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion for the very first time.

The story of the first half of 1989 would then become Flair's quest to getting his title back from the man who seemed to have his number. Flair and Steamboat would routinely have 30 minute classics at house shows and TV tapings throughout the spring, including a match in Landover, Maryland in March that retroactively became the first-ever match to be given six stars by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer. The big rematch on pay-per-view came on April 2 at Clash of the Champions 6: Ragin' Cajun, this time with a two-out-of-three falls stipulation, and somehow, someway, Flair and Steamboat managed to top what they did at Chi-Town Rumble. One of the rare instances where the sequel is equal to, or better than the original, Steamboat controversially escaped with the title in hand after nearly 56 minutes of wrestling.

Flair was granted another rematch with Steamboat due to the end of their two-out-of-three falls match, with their next encounter taking place at WrestleWar that May, and the two men managed to produce yet another classic. This time, it was Flair who walked away as the new champion, concluding a series of matches that is essential viewing for any wrestling fan, Flair and Steamboat were wrestling soulmates in 1989, and to be honest, there aren't many feuds that have even come close to what they produced.

Like we said at the start, not every match on this list is going to be an absolute classic like Flair and Steamboat's series from 1989, but in the history of WCW, there might not be a more historically significant match than the main event of the 1996 Bash at the Beach pay-per-view.

In the lead up to this event, both Razor Ramon and Diesel had left WWE, dropped their former names, and invaded WCW as Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. The two men were portrayed as WWE outsiders, leading to their tag team name being The Outsiders, who were looking to take over WCW and burn it down from the inside. Hall and Nash challenged Eric Bischoff to find the three best wrestlers that WCW had to offer for a match that would be labelled as a "Hostile Takeover" match in the main event of Bash at the Beach, a challenge that Bischoff accepted, leading to Sting, Lex Luger, and Randy Savage being selected as "Team WCW." However, Hall and Nash decided to keep the identity of their third man a mystery, which would lead to turmoil in WCW as no one knew who to trust.

When the match eventually started, it was actually a Handicap match as Hall and Nash opted to start the bout without their partner, who they promised was in the building but they were more than happy to get the job done without him. As time went on, Sting, Luger, and Savage would gain the upper hand, and for the first time since their debuts, Hall and Nash were in real danger. With that said, The Outsiders distracted the referee and gained the advantage, leading to none other than Hulk Hogan coming to the ring to swing the favor of the match back towards the WCW contingent, or so we thought.

Out of nowhere, Hogan dropped a leg drop on Savage, leading to an eruption from the crowd that could have probably registered on the Richter scale. Hulk Hogan was the third man. Fans filled the ring with trash, one fan even made the bold decision to try and get in the ring but was flattened by security and Scott Hall himself, and the match was thrown out, but it didn't matter. The landscape of professional wrestling had changed on the spot, Hulk Hogan was a heel, and told everyone that after years of being treated with disrespect by the WCW fans, he wanted people like The Outsiders as his friends.

As far as what they would like to be called, Hogan simply stated that you could call them the New World Order of wrestling, and that they were going to destroy everything in their path. This moment changed the course of the Monday Night Wars over night, and WCW's reign of dominance in the wrestling industry truly started with the main event of Bash at the Beach 1996.

On "The Rise and Fall of WCW" DVD that came out in 2009, Bill Goldberg said that if he were to go back and watch some old episodes of "WCW Nitro" or one of the company's old pay-per-views, he would watch the Cruiserweight matches as they were not only the most exciting, but they were often the best matches happening in any company at that time.

WCW's Cruiserweight division was the heart and soul of the promotion even during its lowest points. If fans weren't happy with the amount of nWo antics in their programming, they could always rely on the Cruiserweights to produce something special that would keep them coming back every single week. Through cherry-picking the best wrestlers that ECW had to offer, their partnership with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and their extensive scouting in Mexico, WCW put together a collection of wrestlers that are still celebrated today, with this match being the crown jewel in the history of the division.

The Title vs. Mask match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Misterio Jr. for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship at Halloween Havoc 1997 is not just one of the greatest matches in the history of the division, it's one of the greatest matches to ever take place in WCW ring. Long before Rey had problems with his knees, he was the premier high-flyer in the 1990s. He already had standout feuds with the likes of Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera, both of whom would end up in WCW with Misterio Jr., but it was Eddie who always brought the best out of him.

Eddie was an excellent base to make Rey's moves look even better, while also having the athleticism to produce moments of brilliance for himself. He was a lot bigger than Rey which made the masked man's fight from underneath feel even more exciting, especially when you think Eddie has the upper hand, only for Rey to produce something like a springboard moonsault DDT, or countering a Razor's Edge from the top rope into a Hurricanrana. Eddie was also at his best when he was able to fight a little dirtier, constantly going for the mask to gain heat, which didn't end up working in this match as Rey's mask was part of a now iconic purple and black bodysuit that various wrestlers have paid homage too in their own gear.

While there were many more Cruiserweight matches to take place after Halloween Havoc 1997, nothing was ever going to top what Rey and Eddie did on that famous night in Las Vegas. You can literally see the influence that this match had on the 2000s indie scene right down to the movements of certain high-flyers, and if you have a spare 15 minutes at any point today, go and watch it. One of the greatest matches of the 1990s, and a match deserving of a place on this list. 

It's hard to put into words how big this match was in 1997. Take the hype for more recent examples like Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 40, or Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Page at AEW All In Texas 2025, combine them, multiply it by whatever number you like, and you're still not even close to the level of excitement surrounding Hollywood Hogan vs. Sting from WCW Starrcade 1997.

After the nWo was formed, the group tried their best to recruit Sting, but the man who was synonymous with WCW always refused. This even led to dissention between Sting and some of his closest friends like Lex Luger, and by the end of 1996, "The Icon" had shed his surfer look in favor of something darker and more mysterious. After uttering his now famous line "The only thing that's for sure about Sting is nothing's for sure," he would spend all of 1997 as a silent assailant spending most of his time in the rafters of the arena, descending down to help the babyfaces fight off the evil force of the New World Order. Without wrestling a match, Sting was the biggest babyface in the company and was on a collision course with Hollywood Hogan at WCW's final event of the year, their signature event, Starrcade.

The anticipation for this event was palpable. Starrcade 1997 had a total of 700,000 pay-per-view buys, the highest in company history, was one of the highest attended events in WCW history, and it was all thanks to the work the company put in to the main event between Hogan and Sting. Sadly, this match did not live up to the lofty expectations that had been placed upon it, and in terms of historical significance, this was the moment in WCW history where cracks truly started to show.

The story of the match is very simple. Hogan had the nWo referee Nick Patrick call the contest, stacking the deck against Sting even more. After a match that hadn't really kicked into high gear just yet, Hogan hit the big boot and leg drop combo to get the victory, but that wasn't the end of the match. WCW's latest big money signing Bret Hart stormed to the ring to tell everyone that Patrick had counted fast, and inserted himself into the match as the unbiased official once the match restarted, with Sting forcing Hogan to submit after locking him in the Scorpion Death Lock.

The backstage stories surrounding this match are murky to say the least. Sting doesn't really know where things went wrong. Nick Patrick claimed that Hogan and Eric Bischoff told him to do a straight count while Sting told him to count fast, leading to him trying to split the difference, and Bischoff claimed that Hogan simply refused to drop the belt. One of the biggest missed opportunities in wrestling history, Sting vs. Hogan is historical for all the wrong reasons.

Bill Goldberg is perhaps the single greatest homegrown talent that WCW ever produced. A former NFL player who began training at the WCW Power Plant in 1997, Goldberg would debut against Hugh Morrus on the September 22, 1997 episode of "Nitro," squashing him in less than two minutes, kicking off a 173 match winning streak that would stretch until Starrcade 1998. Of those 173 victories, this match is not only one of his best, but it's also his favorite.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1998 is an iconic show because of two matches; the main event for the WCW World Championship between Goldberg and DDP, and the match that went on before it, a rematch from WWE WrestleMania 6, Hollywood Hogan vs. The Warrior. Hogan vs. Warrior is a legendarily bad match, genuinely one of the worst matches to have ever been broadcast, but for many people it was actually the final match that they saw on the Halloween Havoc 1998 pay-per-view. The show ran longer than expected, something that a number of pay-per-view providers did not know about, meaning that when Goldberg and DDP locked up, the feed was cut, causing hundreds of thousands of fans to miss the main event.

Those who did miss the main event ended up missing out on one of the best WCW main events ever as Goldberg, who had to steer away from his tried and trusted formula of delivering a maximum of two moves and getting the win, wrestled perhaps his greatest match in a WCW ring against Diamond Dallas Page. The founder of DDP was well known for having his matches mapped out to the millisecond, and this helped Goldberg follow a structure that actually made their match feel natural, allowing both men to be patient and make the smaller moments feel even more high stakes than usual. As previously mentioned, Goldberg ended up retaining the title, and the two men were able to wash the sour taste of Hogan vs. Warrior out of the fans' mouths, sending them home in the process.

However, Goldberg vs. DDP actually reached historic status the night after on "Nitro." As a way to make up for the pay-per-view feed being cut for many customers, WCW decided to air the entire match between Goldberg and DDP for free on "Nitro." Fans finally got to see how good the match was, elevating the match's status in the process, but it was in the TV ratings that WCW really saw a result. By airing the Halloween Havoc main event, "Nitro" earned a 5.1 number in the ratings, a figure that they would only ever beat once afterwards, giving "Nitro" their first victory over "WWE Raw" in the ratings in over a month. Sadly for WCW, this would actually turn out to be the final episode of "Nitro" to beat "Raw" in the TV ratings. One final win for World Championship Wrestling, all thanks to Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page.