WWE owns the name...and brought it back for like, an NXT house show or something. I've noticed they use WCW PPV names for NXT shows but not main roster shows, almost like it's just a throwaway thing. Not sure how AEW got away with using Bash at the Beach (well, I do, the rights to the name expired and WWE didn't renew it) but AFAIK they aren't going to do that again, maybe out of respect and not being too confrontational about WCW stuff, IDK.
IMO Halloween Havoc and Bash at the Beach, depending on the year, were more often WCW's biggest show. I think Starrcade has the rep of being the biggest because it was the first PPV, is synonymous with some of Flair's biggest mid-80's matches, and Starrcade 97. Mainly Starrcade 97.
As far as the 90's go, I'd say the only years where Starrcade feels like WCW's biggest show were 1993 and 1997. (BTW, if you haven't seen Starrcade 1993, do yourself a favor and check it out. Flair's big return against the Lesnar-like dominant champion Vader. Whole show is built around it, and whether or not Ric will survive the encounter, and it's an incredible show).
1994's biggest show was Bash at the Beach, Hogan/Flair. 1995...IDK, I barely remember 1995 WCW. 1996, again, Bash at the Beach (WCW vs NWO). 1997 Starrcade, their most famous show of all time, which put it on the map as their WM. 1998 was probably Halloween Havoc (DDP/Goldberg, Hogan/Warrior), but it could be a tie between that, Bash at the Beach, and Starrcade. I'd go with HH though. 1999 was Halloween Havoc (Sting/Hogan, Goldberg/Sid) even though they botched it severely in execution. I don't remember any other WCW show that year getting people as pumped as HH did before it happened. HH99 is the last WCW show that I remember kids at school actually talking about in the weeks around the show. It was also the last big buyrate they did. It's been the "non-WWE benchmark to beat" for AEW PPVs for a while, since they plowed through the WCW 2000 buyrates fairly quickly. I believe All Out 2021 actually beat Halloween Havoc 99 so their new benchmark to beat might be Spring Stampede 99.
2000 didn't have a biggest PPV cause nothing mattered in 2000, but I'd say Bash at the Beach was the most eventful again.
An event with every promotion BUT the WWE would be fantastic. Make it the largest show of the year. The potential matches would eclipse any retarded celebrity match the WWE can put on. I read Johnny Knoxville was going to wrestle a match at Wrestlemania this year. How exciting!!
Agreed, and I think they should bring back All In for this very purpose. Buy the rights from ROH, whatever. Do an All In once a year where all the promotions can come together and put on a bunch of great matches. And have Grand Slam be AEW's personal WM. I guess that'd bring their yearly PPVs to 6 but I wouldn't be complaining. Only issue is that All In would sort of clash with All Out in their naming-scheme, especially since All Out only exists because they didn't have the rights to continue All In.
They could also combine Grand Slam with the All In concept and have a once a year stadium show where other promotions are invited to participate. Move All Out to early August instead of late August and have Grand Slam the last week of September, halfway between PPVs. I think the audience would happily pony up for it. Might slightly hurt Full Gear's buyrates but maybe not.
