I don't know about this man. Vince might have been treading water as far was ratings were concerned, but every week WWF pushed the envelope further and further and developed storylines and new superstars. Raw had better matches week in and week out. Austin's attitude was born in ECW. He might not have been Stone Cold yet, but even ECW was a huge part of WWF's success. And Vince was smart enough to work with ECW, not just buy out their talent like WCW did and bury them. The NWO, the best part of WCW besides the cruiserweights got stupid and watered-down in less than a year. The cruiserweights never got what they deserved for busting their asses every night and putting on stellar matches. Look at Rey Misterio and how much merch he sells in WWE NOW. WCW had him for years....and they make him take off his mask???? Not even market the guy? He looks like a damn super hero for gods sake! And when did Vince ever cry on tv tring to co-exsist? Don't remember that. I don't think luck has much to do with his success. He is a total asshole yeah, but an amazing businessman also.

Vince actually cried on a show up in Canada called "Off The Record". To be honest, imo Raw never had the better wrestling, WCW did with the cruiserweights and wrestlers like Benoit, Eddie, Melenko, Jericho, juventude, ect. The best of 5 series between Benoit vs Booker T were all classic matches. As far as NWO getting watered down...yes it did, but every storyline gets watered down, escpecially when upper management is telling you what kind of storylines one can use and they have to be green lighted through them first. Being handcuffed creatively never helps the storylines or product. A perfect exampkle of a storyline being watered down and over used (like the NWO) is the (any wrestler) vs Mr Mcmahon. The Austin Vs Mcmahon story was good, but it was done to death with sooo many westlers it became annoying. Austin vs Mcmahon, Taker vs Mcmahon, Mankind vs Mcmahon, HHH vs Mcmahon, Shawn vs Mcmahon, Cena vs Mcmahon, hell even Bret Hart vs Mcmahon. It became so annoying watching the same storyline being rehatched over and over again for over a decade. As far as Mysterio is concerned, yeah WCW dropped the ball with him, But once can say WWE has dropped the ball on wrestlers also such as Elijah Burke. The guy is huge in TNA right now...its comparable to the mysterio situation,

wCw CLEARLY had the better undercard. I mean when your talking about: Ultimo Dragon, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Eddy Guerrero, Chris Beniot, Juvi, LA Parka, Dean Malenko etc. your bound to have CLASSICS! I mean Rey Mysterio and Eddy Guerrerro 97 Halloween Havoc.
WHAT?!
You've never seen it?! It should have main evented the freaking PPV!!
BUT!
When it's 97 and Hogan and Piper (a match seen 12 years prior) is main eventing a PPV, something is SERIOUSLY wrong.

As for the WWF, their mid card was SO FREAKING WEAK! I mean 97 your talking an underdeveloped and established Rocky Mavia, The Sultan, Jesse James The Roadie.... :/
Awesome main events. Austin hitting his peak, Bret Hart, HBK, Undertaker etc.

Those 2 Starrcade's back to back were REALLY bad. Hogan looked terrible. As far as your comments, WCW had a better mid-card, but they became main-eventers when they came to WWE. Vince is still a genius though. You can't deny that.

In my opinion, Vince was a genius many years before the attitude era...many, man years before. I just find that during the 90s, most everything that worked for vince/wwe was just pure luck. The Stone Cold character and the Mr Mcmahon character (the main reasons WWF/E was able to beat WCW) were never planned but just happened out of circumstances = pure luck. There is no doubt that Vince was a wrestling genius, but the genius well seems to have ran out long ago.

Everything relied on pure luck. Heck, the whole idea of Wrestlemania was a gamble that was luckily caught on.

Besides, while circumstances called for things to be done, Vince at least used that to his advantage. An example of WCW, after Buff Bagwell came back from a life threatening injury, with genuine babyface appeal, he came back as a heel. If WCW was smart, a face push would have been money.

If Vince isn't a wrestling genius, he's a fifth grader in a Preschool class: Not as smart as higher grades, but a lot smarter then the competition.

Wrestlemania was a educated gamble, knowing whats a stake...what can be loss and what can be achieved. Wrestlemania was planned, it didn`t just happened. Thata was the era Vince was a genius. Being lucky and taking a educated gamble are two different things. yeah luck plays a small part in an educated gamble, but research and knowing what your getting yourself into is also a huge part of the equation. Luck, such as the Austin-Mcmahon era, is exactly that...Luck