Looking back at DDT Digest: one of the oldest and best WCW archives on the internet

WCW was finally making a name for itself in 1996 when the nWo was formed. That is when Bill decided to create a website that heralded every WCW event that would ever be on television and PPV (with some house shows thrown in). I remember following ddtdigest.com in the early 2000s to experience the humor and updates of the dying wrestling company. Bill understood what it meant to be a WCW fan.

Bill was a fan of WWF in the 80s seeing live shows and getting Vince McMahon's autograph at a diner. It wasn't until 1990 when Bill saw WCW's Capital Combat 90' in the arena and he was blown away by all the over-the-top ridiculous stuff in the show. That was the famous event where Robocop saved Sting from jail and you can even see Bill in the crowd.

In 1996 Bill jumped on the bandwagon of the blossoming internet. He created the DDT Digest site using only HTML code (and he boasts that his code was very tight). WCW had four weekly shows and a monthly PPV, leading Bill and his team to write constantly so that the results would show up the day after. The internet relied on his quick turnaround to get their results faster than most wrestling sites could provide. At one point in the website's history, he was getting over 1 million visitors a year including military personnel overseas that thanked him for keeping them up to date. Wikipedia even cleared the website to be a credible source for notation. You can't get more legit than that.

DDT Digest afforded Bill and his writing team many great opportunities. He had met Barry Darsow, had lunch with Bobby Eaton, and even got a playful headlock from Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho. Bill recalled that it was guys like Barry Darsow and Bobby Eaton that he appreciated the most because they acted like ordinary guys and they were not afraid to treat someone on a personal level. Fun fact, the night Booker T won his first WCW title against Disco Inferno, Bill bought him his first beer (though he would never get close enough to meet Booker T he still treated him at the hotel bar).

DDT Digest pulled no punches with its criticism of WCW as it headed toward its demise, but there were definite things that WCW did better than any wrestling company. The cruiserweights like Eddie Guerrero and Rey Misterio Jr. provided such an exciting experience that even the WWE wanted to promise them exciting careers.

The nWO was another bright spot for the company, making a heel stable that would skyrocket WCW to the head of the table. It was an exciting time to be a WCW fan.

Bill's preference for the best ring personality was Ric Flair, who had a charismatic personality that was so entertaining. Bill fondly remembered Ric Flair telling Syxx that he had more championships than the wrestler had relations with women. One of his favorite wrestlers to watch in a match was Arn Anderson who showed expert ring knowledge and athleticism. Arn Anderson made wrestling feel real.

It was the negative things that made WCW so hard to watch in its dying days. The nWo was becoming too common and Vince Russo had some of the worst ideas in the company, cementing its fate. There were several instances where the DDT Digest writing team groaned over the cheesy finishes, short matches, and awful booking that anyone can experience on the website.

A lot of speculation has gotten popular over what killed WCW. Bill agrees that it was management within the company that went through the motions and had no desire to see WCW thrive apart from Ted Turner. But it impresses Bill that WCW was able to survive so long despite all the management sabotaging it with their indifference. It was the dedicated wrestlers that hustled in the ring, and the fans that kept the company alive for fifteen years longer than it should have been. The real success story in WCW is that it overcame so much adversity for so long.

When WCW closed down in 2001, it was a relief for Bill. Writing about the company was very time consuming and he wanted to move on with his life and start a family. He had no desire to follow WWF's invasion angle (and he wasn't missing much). Today, Bill does not keep up with mainstream wrestling, but he does pay for the website to stay online and he has been known to catch a few episodes of Women of Wrestling (WOW).

I want to personally thank Bill for this interview and for giving the internet a very historical archive of WCW. If you are curious about any episode of WCW between 1996 and 2001 then you should definitely give his website a look.