WCW - for those who remember
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion which was formed out of NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling owned by Various NWA Promoters over the years.) From 1972-2001 it aired on WTCG/WTBS Channel 17 out of Atlanta, GA. The promotion was orginally called NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling. It was a local NWA promotion for many years until Ted Turner bought the TV rights from Channel 11 in Atlanta in 1972. Gordon Solie (also host of NWA Championship Wrestling From Florida) was hired to be the TV host. NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling-National Wrestling Alliance was a big hit on WTCG TV 17 for many years. It was a big part of Ted Turner`s success of putting his Atlanta UHF Independent station on Sat. for local cable systems across the U.S. to carry which became the first cable Superstation. WTCG (which changed the call letters to WTBS in 1979) was the first national cable outlet. GCW changed the name to NWA World Championship Wrestling in 1982. Various promoters ran GCW/WCW from 1972-1984. Then, Vince McMahon and the WWF bought out the time. It is important to note here that McMahon only bought the WTBS air time at this point. Many NWA fans were upset about their beloved Wrestling and stars like Ric Flair, Tommy Rich, The Road Warriors, Brad Armstrong, etc. being taken off the air. So, Turner sold Saturday Morning airtime to Ole Anderson to air "NWA Championship Wrestling From Georgia". The promotion bought back Gordon Solie and Anderson to call the matches which were taped at the WTBS Sports Arena Studio. It is interesting to note that talent from Jim Crockett Jr.`s NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Jerry Jarrett`s Mid-Southern CWA promotion were flown in. Ted Turner owned the World Championship Wrestling name. However, Ted Turner and McMahon didn`t get along very well. Vince stopped the Atlanta studio Wrestling and shipped in tapes from across the Country. In early 1985, Turner made McMahon start filming live WTBS Atlanta studio matches. Strapped for cash and tired of dealing with Ted Turner, McMahon sold the air time to NWA North Carolina Promoter Jim Crockett Jr. Who ran a large NWA territory. At this time, the NWA CWFG Saturday Morning Show was absorbed into the JCP product. Promoter Ole Anderson was given a job by Crockett wrestling and forming "The Four Horsemen". Gordon Solie refused to join the Crockett Product. Solie went back to Florida with the NWA there. However, he would return in 1989 by Ted Turner`s wishes. Crockett put Tony Schiavone and David Crockett as hosts and filmed the NWA action from the Atlanta WTBS studios. In 1987, Crockett bought out the UWF/Mid South Promotion from Cowboy Bill Watts. By mid 1988, Crockett was having money problems. They had tried to grow nationally too fast, and had bought out many other NWA promotions. In December 1988, Ted Turner bought the promotion from Jim Crockett. The promtion remained with the NWA until August 1991, when they broke away to become "WCW". They did rejoin the NWA briefly in 1992-1993, but left by mid 1993. Turner, and later Time-Warner, owned WCW until 2001, when it was purchased by its former competitor, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) (now World Wrestling Entertainment).[1][2]
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion-NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling (until 1982) then, NWA World Championship Wrestling. Affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), run by various NWA promoters until 1988, when Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting purchased the promotion, renaming it World Championship Wrestling. From 1995 onwards, WCW began to turn the corner economically, largely due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer, the hiring of Hulk Hogan, the introduction of Nitro and the resultant Monday Night Wars, the New World Order and other innovative concepts. However, numerous problems led to the company losing its lead. Its fall from grace has been heavily documented within the industry. The promotion was purchased in 2001 by former competitor Vince McMahon and the then-WWF.
Contents
* 1 History
o 1.1 Leadership and booking
+ 1.1.1 Eric Bischoff and later, Vince Russo
o 1.2 Acquisition by the World Wrestling Federation
* 2 Overview
* 3 WCW in other media
* 4 Championships and accomplishments
* 5 WCW programming
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links
History
Main article: History of World Championship Wrestling
===Early usage of the name=== "World Championship Wrestling" had been used as a brand and television show name by various promotions affiliated with the NWA since 1982, (most notably Georgia Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions). When Ted Turner bought out Jim Crockett`s NWA Promotion in late 1988, he moved the headquarters to Atlanta from North Carolina and renamed the entire promotion NWA World Championship Wrestling. He dissolved Crockett`s "TWN"-The Wrestling Network name that had been used since 1986.
Jim Barnett, who had worked for the World Championship Wrestling promotion in Australia, came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle over the NWA Georgia territory.[3] Barnett wound up as the majority owner of the territory, and he wound up using the name for the territory's television program.
Leadership and booking
While initially the new company was called Universal Wrestling Corporation, very shortly following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" name for the new promotion. The company went through various changes in its leadership and booking during the following years. Some people, like Jim Herd and Kip Frey, were completely lacking in wrestling experience; others, like Bill Watts and Ole Anderson, had extensive wrestling experience, but were so entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion that they were ineffective at building WCW's audience.
Eric Bischoff and later, Vince Russo
While Eric Bischoff has received much criticism for some of his mishandlings while he acted as WCW Executive Producer (and later, WCW President), Bischoff combined an understanding of wrestling (albeit without as much of a respect for the old Georgia/NWA legacy) with a willingness to make changes that were needed in order to help WCW become more visible in the eyes of the media and advertisers. These changes including moving some television tapings to Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, and signing both main-event performers and young stars from around the world.
Some of the creative freedoms that Bischoff granted main-event level talent helped to bring the company down, as main-event level talent were less than cooperative in helping rising stars fulfill their potential, a staple of the industry. Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, a former writer for World Wrestling Entertainment, came on board to become the lead writer of WCW. Russo did not last long in his position, but in April 2000, WCW opted to bring Russo and Bischoff back in hopes that the duo might re-spark interest in WCW.
The two, however, did not get along well and Bischoff left the company after Russo, in the course of an in-ring promo, made comments about Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) which many felt were derogatory not just to the Hogan character, but to Bollea himself.
Acquisition by the World Wrestling Federation
As 2000 came to a close, a number of potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company. Ted Turner, however, was still in charge of Time Warner prior to the final merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001 (shortly following the AOL/Time Warner merger), and it appeared that WCW would continue.
One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out, however, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, World Wrestling Federation began speaking to the new AOL Time Warner about acquiring the WCW brand. Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division, and deemed WCW wrestling to be out of line with their image. As a result, WCW programming was cancelled on both TBS and TNT, leaving Vince McMahon's company, which at the time had an exclusive deal with Viacom, free to acquire the trademarks, video libraries and a few contracts.
One of the truly mind-boggling facts about the sale is that WCW was in litigation, with various lawsuits pending, and AOL Time Warner still had to pay various performers their guaranteed deals, as many had contracts directly with the parent company, and not with WCW. Since Vince McMahon only acquired select assets, the shell that was once WCW became known as Universal Wrestling Corporation once again; its only purpose now, however, was to deal with old contracts and lawsuits.
Overview
At the outset of WCW's existence, as well as with the promotions that came before it, the company was strongly identified with the Southern style of professional wrestling (or rasslin'), which emphasized athletic in-ring competition over the showmanship and cartoonish characters of the WWF.[4] This identification persisted into the 1990s, even as the company signed former WWF stars such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. The protion was forced to shift from "NWA" to the new "WCW" brand after they parted ways and sued each other in August 1991. This arouse from NWA World Heavyweight champion Ric Flair being fired by Turner boss Jim Herd. The new WCW stripped Flair of the belt. However, the NWA board of directors still pronounced Ric Flair as World Champ. The NWA promoters sued Turner in North Carolina courts and won. Ted Turner and WCW was forced out of the NWA. However, in 1992 they would rejoin the NWA. This was under new WCW President Cowboy Bill Watts. However, in September 1993, WCW once again withdrew from the NWA. In September of 1995, WCW premiered WCW Monday Nitro on TNT. The show was put up against WWF Monday Night Raw and was a big hit. WCW dominated pro wrestling's television ratings from 1996 to 1998 (84 straight weeks) mainly due to its incredibly popular New World Order storyline, but thereafter began to lose heavy ground to the WWF, which had recovered greatly due to its new "Attitude" branding. Repetitive story lines, questionable booking issues, and corporate restrictions eventually led the promotion to begin losing large amounts of money. WCW also lost sight of the fact that WCW Saturday Night on Superstation WTBS was the company`s bread and butter. The two hour show on Saturday Night`s was the basis of what made Ted Turner`s Channel 17 out of Atlanta a Nation-wide success. After WCW Monday Nitro on TNT took off, The WCW Saturday Night Show was mostly airing squash matches. Many loyal longtime viewers stopped watching all together. In mid-2000, WCW Saturday Night became WCW Saturday Morning. Then, three weeks later it was gone! This was really the beginning of the end for WCW. The poor management of the famed Saturday Night WTBS show put the nail in the coffin for WCW. A few months later, in March 2001,parent company AOL Time Warner sold the name copyrights to the WWF for $2.5 million in 2001. Shortly after the purchase, Vince McMahon purchased the entire tape library for an additional $1.7 million, bringing the final tally of World Championship Wrestling's sale to $4.2 million.
Many observers feel that the new WCW grew way too fast and lost touch with its` deep south fans who packed arenas in the Carolinas and Virginia. The old NWA Mid-Atlantic fans were known to be the most loyal Pro Wrestling fans in the U.S. Part of Jim Crockett Jr.`s failing in 1988 was that he spent too much money trying to expand west of the Mississippi and could no longer afford the salaries of some of his biggest stars. These wrestlings jumped ship to the rival WWF. Also, Crockett started to put on sub par House shows which alienated longtime loyal NWA fans. With the help of Ted Turner`s money after the late 1988 purchase, WCW started growing nationally a few years later, which led to its rivalry with the WWF. Even though WCW folded in 2001, its legacy lived on in the WWF. The WWF kept the WCW United States Championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, the WCW World Tag Team Championship, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Eventually, with the exception of the Cruiserweight title, the titles were unified into their WWF counterparts. In 2003, now known as the WWE, the company resurrected the United States title to be competed for exclusively on SmackDown. When Hulk Hogan came back to the WWE, the WWE kept his Hollywood nickname. In 2004, the WWE brought back the The Great American Bash pay-per-view. In 2009, WWE is going to bring back 2 not yet specified pay-per-views of WCW. There are talks about a WCW One Night Stand-like pay-per-view and Starrcade replacing Armageddon, but Vince and his (kayfabe) "team" are still speculating.
Vince McMahon has been debating the possibility in 2009 if they would come out with a WCW One Night Stand and a couple of months later bringing Back WCW StarrCade that will replace WWE Armageddon. And then possibly bring it back full time like they did with ECW. But most likely they will bring it back in the Summer of 2009 with Shane McMahon as the General Manager, Because when WCW went out of buisness Shane was The Owner not Ted Turner. Ted Turner sold WCW to Eric Bischoff in late 2000. Then Bischoff could not Afford it so he sold it to Shane.
WCW in other media
From 2000 to late 2001 there where a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers' names. These include nWo (2000), Sting (2000-2001), Nitro Machine (2000-Currently Inferno), Madusa (2000-Present) and Goldberg (2000-2001). The first to go was nWo, which only ran for a season. Next all but Goldberg, Nitro, and Madusa were retired after the WCW sponsorship was lost. Nitro then became Flashfire, then was converted into Inferno. Madusa has stayed as the same name ever since it was created, because it is driven by former WCW superstar, Madusa. As for Goldberg it was then changed to Team Meents in 2002 then into Maximum Destruction which debuted in 2003. WCW is now confirmed as an unlockable classification of superstars in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion-NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling (until 1982) then, NWA World Championship Wrestling. Affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), run by various NWA promoters until 1988, when Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting purchased the promotion, renaming it World Championship Wrestling. From 1995 onwards, WCW began to turn the corner economically, largely due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer, the hiring of Hulk Hogan, the introduction of Nitro and the resultant Monday Night Wars, the New World Order and other innovative concepts. However, numerous problems led to the company losing its lead. Its fall from grace has been heavily documented within the industry. The promotion was purchased in 2001 by former competitor Vince McMahon and the then-WWF.
Contents
* 1 History
o 1.1 Leadership and booking
+ 1.1.1 Eric Bischoff and later, Vince Russo
o 1.2 Acquisition by the World Wrestling Federation
* 2 Overview
* 3 WCW in other media
* 4 Championships and accomplishments
* 5 WCW programming
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links
History
Main article: History of World Championship Wrestling
===Early usage of the name=== "World Championship Wrestling" had been used as a brand and television show name by various promotions affiliated with the NWA since 1982, (most notably Georgia Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions). When Ted Turner bought out Jim Crockett`s NWA Promotion in late 1988, he moved the headquarters to Atlanta from North Carolina and renamed the entire promotion NWA World Championship Wrestling. He dissolved Crockett`s "TWN"-The Wrestling Network name that had been used since 1986.
Jim Barnett, who had worked for the World Championship Wrestling promotion in Australia, came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle over the NWA Georgia territory.[3] Barnett wound up as the majority owner of the territory, and he wound up using the name for the territory's television program.
Leadership and booking
While initially the new company was called Universal Wrestling Corporation, very shortly following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" name for the new promotion. The company went through various changes in its leadership and booking during the following years. Some people, like Jim Herd and Kip Frey, were completely lacking in wrestling experience; others, like Bill Watts and Ole Anderson, had extensive wrestling experience, but were so entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion that they were ineffective at building WCW's audience.
Eric Bischoff and later, Vince Russo
While Eric Bischoff has received much criticism for some of his mishandlings while he acted as WCW Executive Producer (and later, WCW President), Bischoff combined an understanding of wrestling (albeit without as much of a respect for the old Georgia/NWA legacy) with a willingness to make changes that were needed in order to help WCW become more visible in the eyes of the media and advertisers. These changes including moving some television tapings to Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, and signing both main-event performers and young stars from around the world.
Some of the creative freedoms that Bischoff granted main-event level talent helped to bring the company down, as main-event level talent were less than cooperative in helping rising stars fulfill their potential, a staple of the industry. Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, a former writer for World Wrestling Entertainment, came on board to become the lead writer of WCW. Russo did not last long in his position, but in April 2000, WCW opted to bring Russo and Bischoff back in hopes that the duo might re-spark interest in WCW.
The two, however, did not get along well and Bischoff left the company after Russo, in the course of an in-ring promo, made comments about Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) which many felt were derogatory not just to the Hogan character, but to Bollea himself.
Acquisition by the World Wrestling Federation
As 2000 came to a close, a number of potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company. Ted Turner, however, was still in charge of Time Warner prior to the final merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001 (shortly following the AOL/Time Warner merger), and it appeared that WCW would continue.
One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out, however, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, World Wrestling Federation began speaking to the new AOL Time Warner about acquiring the WCW brand. Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division, and deemed WCW wrestling to be out of line with their image. As a result, WCW programming was cancelled on both TBS and TNT, leaving Vince McMahon's company, which at the time had an exclusive deal with Viacom, free to acquire the trademarks, video libraries and a few contracts.
One of the truly mind-boggling facts about the sale is that WCW was in litigation, with various lawsuits pending, and AOL Time Warner still had to pay various performers their guaranteed deals, as many had contracts directly with the parent company, and not with WCW. Since Vince McMahon only acquired select assets, the shell that was once WCW became known as Universal Wrestling Corporation once again; its only purpose now, however, was to deal with old contracts and lawsuits.
Overview
At the outset of WCW's existence, as well as with the promotions that came before it, the company was strongly identified with the Southern style of professional wrestling (or rasslin'), which emphasized athletic in-ring competition over the showmanship and cartoonish characters of the WWF.[4] This identification persisted into the 1990s, even as the company signed former WWF stars such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. The protion was forced to shift from "NWA" to the new "WCW" brand after they parted ways and sued each other in August 1991. This arouse from NWA World Heavyweight champion Ric Flair being fired by Turner boss Jim Herd. The new WCW stripped Flair of the belt. However, the NWA board of directors still pronounced Ric Flair as World Champ. The NWA promoters sued Turner in North Carolina courts and won. Ted Turner and WCW was forced out of the NWA. However, in 1992 they would rejoin the NWA. This was under new WCW President Cowboy Bill Watts. However, in September 1993, WCW once again withdrew from the NWA. In September of 1995, WCW premiered WCW Monday Nitro on TNT. The show was put up against WWF Monday Night Raw and was a big hit. WCW dominated pro wrestling's television ratings from 1996 to 1998 (84 straight weeks) mainly due to its incredibly popular New World Order storyline, but thereafter began to lose heavy ground to the WWF, which had recovered greatly due to its new "Attitude" branding. Repetitive story lines, questionable booking issues, and corporate restrictions eventually led the promotion to begin losing large amounts of money. WCW also lost sight of the fact that WCW Saturday Night on Superstation WTBS was the company`s bread and butter. The two hour show on Saturday Night`s was the basis of what made Ted Turner`s Channel 17 out of Atlanta a Nation-wide success. After WCW Monday Nitro on TNT took off, The WCW Saturday Night Show was mostly airing squash matches. Many loyal longtime viewers stopped watching all together. In mid-2000, WCW Saturday Night became WCW Saturday Morning. Then, three weeks later it was gone! This was really the beginning of the end for WCW. The poor management of the famed Saturday Night WTBS show put the nail in the coffin for WCW. A few months later, in March 2001,parent company AOL Time Warner sold the name copyrights to the WWF for $2.5 million in 2001. Shortly after the purchase, Vince McMahon purchased the entire tape library for an additional $1.7 million, bringing the final tally of World Championship Wrestling's sale to $4.2 million.
Many observers feel that the new WCW grew way too fast and lost touch with its` deep south fans who packed arenas in the Carolinas and Virginia. The old NWA Mid-Atlantic fans were known to be the most loyal Pro Wrestling fans in the U.S. Part of Jim Crockett Jr.`s failing in 1988 was that he spent too much money trying to expand west of the Mississippi and could no longer afford the salaries of some of his biggest stars. These wrestlings jumped ship to the rival WWF. Also, Crockett started to put on sub par House shows which alienated longtime loyal NWA fans. With the help of Ted Turner`s money after the late 1988 purchase, WCW started growing nationally a few years later, which led to its rivalry with the WWF. Even though WCW folded in 2001, its legacy lived on in the WWF. The WWF kept the WCW United States Championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, the WCW World Tag Team Championship, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Eventually, with the exception of the Cruiserweight title, the titles were unified into their WWF counterparts. In 2003, now known as the WWE, the company resurrected the United States title to be competed for exclusively on SmackDown. When Hulk Hogan came back to the WWE, the WWE kept his Hollywood nickname. In 2004, the WWE brought back the The Great American Bash pay-per-view. In 2009, WWE is going to bring back 2 not yet specified pay-per-views of WCW. There are talks about a WCW One Night Stand-like pay-per-view and Starrcade replacing Armageddon, but Vince and his (kayfabe) "team" are still speculating.
Vince McMahon has been debating the possibility in 2009 if they would come out with a WCW One Night Stand and a couple of months later bringing Back WCW StarrCade that will replace WWE Armageddon. And then possibly bring it back full time like they did with ECW. But most likely they will bring it back in the Summer of 2009 with Shane McMahon as the General Manager, Because when WCW went out of buisness Shane was The Owner not Ted Turner. Ted Turner sold WCW to Eric Bischoff in late 2000. Then Bischoff could not Afford it so he sold it to Shane.
WCW in other media
From 2000 to late 2001 there where a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers' names. These include nWo (2000), Sting (2000-2001), Nitro Machine (2000-Currently Inferno), Madusa (2000-Present) and Goldberg (2000-2001). The first to go was nWo, which only ran for a season. Next all but Goldberg, Nitro, and Madusa were retired after the WCW sponsorship was lost. Nitro then became Flashfire, then was converted into Inferno. Madusa has stayed as the same name ever since it was created, because it is driven by former WCW superstar, Madusa. As for Goldberg it was then changed to Team Meents in 2002 then into Maximum Destruction which debuted in 2003. WCW is now confirmed as an unlockable classification of superstars in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.