okay...going down the list here, since I couldn't respond over the weekend.
--Yeah, the Raw-was-must-see thing makes sense. Situations were different then, being a singular brand, half the roster size, and reasonably stable competition...none of which holds true now...which is good & bad, depending on exactly what yer talkin' about.
--Show/Bossman was a top angle at the time. Hard to believe in hindsight, but that doesn't make it any less true. It was the feud they chose to cement Show as the WWE champion after he won the gold the first time, so I'd say that qualifies as the #1 or 2 angle at the time. Granted, it was funnier than the Cena's dad thing, but there were a lot of moments in there -- prior to Show's casket-surfing, of course -- that made it seem like it was originally intended to be serious. Kinda like the Katie Vick angle with Kane & HHH. And really...what about the Orton-kicked-Cena's Dad angle isn't utterly ridiculous?
--Zini, good to see you're still alive, amigo. lol
--TNA getting their game together would be great...but I don't think they'll be taken seriously in the way WCW was until they do any combination of the following:
1. get a directly competitive timeslot -- go against ECW, Smackdown or Raw.
2. Stop relying so heavily on pre-established stars like Angle, the Stieners, the Dudleys, and Sting, and put the company in the hands of their own capable talent like Christopher Daniels, Abyss, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles.
3. Ditch the novelty ring and return to a standard ring. Novelty is great, but as we've seen with experiments like the 6-man tag titles, Cruiserweight Tag Titles, Hardcore titles, old ECW, and the Raw Bowl, it's not exactly good for longevity.
4. Stop dropping angles at seemingly random moments. I could rattle off examples until monkeys flew outta my ass here, but I'll save us all the time and effort by saying it's happened a LOT.
5. Find some stability in their respective divisions. The emphasis on the tag division & X-division shifts every few months, so that half the time one group is almost entirely in the background. It hurts the credibility of the athletes and the titles, and nobody benefits from it.
6. Convince the world they aren't WCW-lite. They bring in all these "names" and their original talent gets lost in the shuffle. WCW did almost the same thing, and it drove at least 6 of their bigger "original" stars out of the company (Show, Jericho, Guerrero, Benoit, Melenko, and Saturn.) Most of the guys they picked up from ECW -- exception of Mike Awesome & Lance Storm-- bailed and went back to ECW, and rumors were that Kidman & a handful of others were trying to get out of their contracts before the company folded anyhow. If TNA isn't careful, their going to lose the originals they have and suffer a similar fate.
--NwO...almost did in WWE, definately did in WCW.