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As I mentioned in an earlier post of mine, the WWE has today become synonymous with professional wrestling for most of the world. The brand makes millions every year with its television and Pay-Per-View shows, movies, merchandise and a hell of a lot of other stuff. But with the launch of the new ‘Best of WCW Nitro’ DVD, I guess it is a good time to pause and take a look back at a company which took a gargantuan enterprise like the WWE to its limit and almost threatening its extinction.
The foundation:
It was the year 1988, when Ted Turner decided to invest in a small professional wrestling promotion known as Jim Crockett Promotions, and bought the name ‘World Championship Wrestling’ from the very man who he was trying to compete against, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. With the primetime slot bought from Georgia Championship Wrestling and the services of wrestling experts like ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes, the wheels were set in motion.
At this time, the company was affiliated to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and Rhodes booked some seriously great talent for the company like ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. Lex Luger and the Road Warriors, and restored some of the popularity of NWA’s Starrcade Pay-Per-View. Rhodes was fired after a couple of years in service, and in 1993, WCW broke off from the NWA to pave the way for something much bigger.
Eric Bischoff, Nitro and the Monday Night Wars:
In 1993, Turner promoted former commentator Eric Bischoff to the helm of affairs, and from the word go, Bischoff launched an all-out war against the WWE. He started off by getting top WWE names performing under his brand (at really hefty prices!!) like Hulk Hogan and ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. And then he dropped a bombshell by convincing Turner to start off a weekly primetime show overlapping with Monday Night Raw, and Nitro was born.
The Moday Night Wars started when Bischoff started giving away the results of Raw (which used to be taped, and not live, on TV back then) and brought the then WWE Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze and had her throw the championship in a trash can. The WWE responded by mock-ups of Hogan, Savage and ‘Million Dollar Man’ Ted DiBiase. The new promotion seemed to be going nowhere in their attempts at dominance, but then it all changed.
On Memorial Day in 1996, Scott Hall, then known as WWE’s Razor Ramon, stepped in the Nitro ring and delivered his famous ‘You want a war’ speech. He announced that he, along with two others was going to ‘take over’. His partners were Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan, and the new World order (nWo) was born. The WWE filed a lawsuit saying that Nash and Hall were being depicted as still working under the WWE and the case was settled under certain conditions, notable of which was the right for the WWE to bid on WCW’s properties, should they ever be up for liquidation; an ironic settlement that would prove invaluable in the future.
But the damage had been done. The fans loved the nWo. And with the revival of the Ric Flair-led group of Four Horsemen, they just went crazy. There were plenty of upcoming stars in the WCW roster as well, like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero and Raven. The WCW made $50 million in 1997, and the WWE lost $6 million in revenues. Nitro beat Raw in terms of ratings for 84 straight weeks. All this coincided with the infamous Montreal Screwjob at WWE Survivor Series ’97, which led to Bret Hart’s departure to WWE. All this seemed to mark the decline for Vince McMahon and Co., but that was just not meant to be.
The Beginning of the End:
David Arquette was handed the WCW Championship, further angering the fans.
Bret Hart’s arrival had the exact opposite effect than what was expected. Bischoff failed to utilise him properly, and the loyal fans were shocked to see their favourite superstar restricted to mid-card matches. This, coupled with an absurd finish to the main event of Starrcade 1997 (Sting vs Hogan), started to show that Bischoff’s creativity was getting exhausted.
At this time, Vince McMahon grew desperate, but that brought out the best in his company. New wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and Kane took centre stage, and the Attitude Era had been heralded. McMahon himself started appearing as the evil boss, and his feud with Austin finally won the Monday Night Wars for Raw.
WCW did seem to get back the edge with the introduction of their newest champion-Bill Goldberg. Goldberg’s gladiator-like combat style attracted a lot of fans back to the promotion, but a series of goof-ups had a deadly impact on the promotion, and brought tremendous loss in credibility. The main event at Halloween Havoc 1998 (the show overran its time slot and so fans could not get to see the match at all) and one particular Nitro in January 1999 (The advertised main event resulted in a complete sellout, but was changed at the last minute and had the most horrible ending), spelled the beginning of the end for WCW.
The Decline:
By ’99, the WCW had almost 250 contracted performers, and some of them were making staggering demands, while others were not being used by the company at all. All this, combined with stale plots and misused superstars (Bret Hart and the Ultimate Warrior, for starters) spelled out the company’s future. Plus, having to satisfy the huge egos of the bigger wrestlers meant that quite a few young stars felt left out. People like Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit soon jumped ship to the WWE, where they were welcomed with open arms and found the recognition that they deserved.
Eric Bischoff got replaced by Vince Russo and Ed Fererra, a former WWE employee in 1999. They presented themselves as the brains behind the Attitude angle that had given the WWE a stratospheric rise in ratings, but they could not recreate the magic in the WCW, and with Bre Hart and Goldberg suffering severe injuries, the brand hit rock bottom. Even the reinstatement of Bischoff could not turn the tides back in their favour. And at this time even greater financial losses came as a result of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by the Afro-American and Japanese wrestlers.
Finally, in 2011, AOL and Time Warner, who had forced Ted Turner out of his own empire, decided to put the company out of its misery. On March 23, 2001, all of WCW’s trademarks and archived video library, as well as a select twenty-four contracts, were sold to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. WCW was purchased for a mere $3,000,000.
The final episode of Nitro saw Booker-T defeat Scott Steiner for the WCW Championship, and the last match in the renowned Ric Flair vs Sting rivalry. That brought the end to a promotion that has not only become stuff of legend in the wrestling business, but also a lesson in damage control for quite a few business management courses.
