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of the WCW World Championship
World Championship Wrestling (Turner)
World
Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional
wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to
2001. In 1988, Ted Turner bought the promotion
from Jim Crockett. 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).
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional
promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling
Alliance (NWA), named Jim Crockett Promotions
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. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
History
Early
usage of the name
Although 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) it was
not until five years later that an actual NWA-affiliated
promotion called World Championship Wrestling
appeared on the national scene, under the ownership
of media mogul Ted Turner, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
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. 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 the World Wrestling Federation,
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 Hulk Hogan
which many felt were derogatory.
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 canceled 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.
During the sale, 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 company 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.
This identification persisted into the 1990s,
even as the company signed former WWF stars such
as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. 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, leading to parent company AOL Time Warner
selling 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.
WCW started out as a regional promotion in the
late 1980s focusing mainly in the Deep South.
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 and also in 2009, released Starrcade:
The Essential Collection as a three-disc DVD set.
WWE is planning to release a DVD set chronicling
the history of WCW called The Rise and Fall of
WCW.
History
of the WCW World Championship
The
World Heavyweight Championship that has recently
been carried by such greats as Batista and Triple
H got its start in WWE back in 2002. But its prestigious
lineage can actually be traced back all the way
to George Hackenschmidt and 1904. For years, it
was known as the NWA Championship; then when WCW
pulled out of the NWA in the early 1990s, Ric
Flair was recognized as the first-ever WCW Champion.
Since that time, top names such as Hulk Hogan,
Ron Simmons and Bret Hart carried the championship
prior to WCW's demise. (Credit:
World Wrestling Entertainment)
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