World Championship Wrestling

:There was also a World Championship Wrestling circuit in Australia from 1964 to 1978. This article is about the U.S. promotion.

The Death of WCW

Bischoff was unexpectedly replaced by Vince Russo, the former WWF head writer. Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrera were the head writers of the WWF at the beginning of the Attitude Era, subordinate only to Vince McMahon himself. WCW offered them lucrative contracts to jump ship in October 1999 in an effort to revitalize their own flagging product and weaken the product of the WWF. Russo and Ferrera tried to push the younger WCW talents straight away, and phase out stars such as Hogan and Flair. However, Russo was thought by many to be incapable of recreating the intriguing and cutting-edge TV he had produced while working for McMahon.

Related Topics:
Ed Ferrera - October - 1999 - Phase out

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Russo and Ferrera struggled to gain approval for their near-the-knuckle ideas from the conservative WCW management, such as the introduction of an effeminate (and possibly incestuous) tag team called 'The West Hollywood Blondes' (Lenny Lane and Lodi), and 'Piñata-On-A-Pole' matches between Mexican wrestlers. In late 1999, Russo and Ferrera hired their friend Jeff Jarrett from the WWF and revived the nWo storyline once more with Jarrett and Bret Hart at the helm. They next targeted Jim Ross with a tasteless parody character called 'Oklahoma', who was played onscreen by Ferrera (Ross had been suffering from Bell's palsy, and the character lampooned his resultant facial defects). Bad luck struck in December 1999 when Hart suffered a genuine concussion at the hands of Goldberg, who severely damaged his own hand less than a week later while punching through a limousine window in Salisbury, Maryland as part of an storyline that was written by Russo.

Related Topics:
Tag team - Lenny Lane - Lodi - Piñata - Mexican - Jeff Jarrett - Bret Hart - Bell's palsy - December - Concussion - Limousine - Salisbury, Maryland

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Both writers were suspended just three months later amid rumors that they wanted to make former UFC fighter Tank Abbott the WCW Champion (Abbott had little wrestling experience). Kevin Sullivan, who had been an on/off booker over the course of several years, was placed in charge in the interim. The new writing team attempted to appease the demoralized wrestlers and fans by making Chris Benoit the WCW Champion at the Souled Out PPV in January 2000. However, after learning he'd be quickly stripped of it, and because of the personal issues between himself and Sullivan, Benoit handed the belt back the next day and left WCW. He signed with the WWF along with his similarly frustrated friends Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko.

Related Topics:
UFC - Tank Abbott - Kevin Sullivan - January 2000 - Dean Malenko

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On February 11, 2000, black wrestlers Bobby Walker and Harrison Norris and Japanese manager, Sonny Onoo launched racial discrimination lawsuits against WCW, claiming that they had not been pushed as a result of their ethnicities, had not been paid as well as other wrestlers and had been given offensive gimmicks. Some people speculated that the charges of racism brought against WCW, and the resultant bad publicity for the company which had been dogged by accusations of racism for years - were partially responsible for black wrestler Booker T winning the World Heavyweight Championship later that year and his brother Stevie Ray being made a color commentator, with Ray himself acknowledging that it might have been a factor.

Related Topics:
February 11 - 2000 - Black - Manager - Sonny Onoo - Racial discrimination - Lawsuits - Stevie Ray - Color commentator

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In April 2000, with ratings hitting new lows, both Russo and Bischoff were reinstated, forming an onscreen union who stood up for the younger talent who they claimed had been held down for years by the establishment. However, the unorthodox and often controversial storylines continued. These included making actor David Arquette the WCW Champion in order to promote a WCW-themed movie, Ready to Rumble; Russo himself winning the WCW Championship in September 2000 (Russo, like Arquette, was not a trained wrestler); a botched heel turn for Goldberg that greatly diminished his popularity; and a shoot speech by Russo at Bash At The Beach 2000 aimed at Hulk Hogan which led to Hogan resigning and filing a defamation of character lawsuit against the company. Bischoff vanished once more in July 2000, and Russo was gone from WCW completely by late-2000, leaving Terry Taylor holding the reigns.

Related Topics:
April 2000 - Actor - David Arquette - Movie - Ready to Rumble - September 2000 - Botched - Shoot speech - Defamation of character - July 2000 - Terry Taylor

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Meanwhile, when Time Warner bought out Turner's cable empire in 1996, it also purchased WCW. Even though Turner was a big fan and faithful to the professional wrestling shows on his stations (a professional wrestling program had helped get Turner's very first TV station, WTBS, off the ground) regardless of whether it was losing him money, Time Warner did not share his loyalty, especially when accounts showed that WCW was losing between 12 and 17 million dollars a year because of its decline. However, Turner was still the single largest Time Warner shareholder, and WCW was supported at his behest. When AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000, Turner was effectively forced out of his own empire. The new AOL Time Warner finally had the power to auction off WCW, which they saw as an unncessary drain on resources.

Related Topics:
Time Warner - 1996 - AOL - AOL Time Warner

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In late 2000, Bischoff and a group of private investors, calling themselves Fusient Media Ventures, enquired about buying WCW but backed out when AOL Time Warner formally cancelled all WCW programming from its TV networks. With no network to air its programming, WCW was of little value to Fusient, whose offer was dependent on Turner's old networks continuing to air WCW programming. WCW, along with virtually all of its trademarks and archived footage, was sold to McMahon and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. for a paltry $7 million on March 23, 2001. McMahon did not employ all of the WCW wrestlers and staff, though, passing over proven draws such as Goldberg due to contractual compensation reasons. A gloating McMahon then opened the last-ever episode of WCW Monday Nitro simulcast with RAW on March 26, 2001 with a self-praising speech. Sting vs. Ric Flair (won by Sting) was the nostalgic final match of the final broadcast, ending affectionately with a respectful embrace.

Related Topics:
Fusient Media Ventures - March 23 - 2001 - March 26

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When Vince came on RAW after the Sting/Flair match to declare victory over WCW, Shane McMahon appeared at the Nitro event, declaring that he had bought WCW. This set up a storyline with Shane leading the WCW Invasion of the WWF, which lasted from March to November 2001 and marked the end of WCW. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship (which was renamed the World Heavyweight Championship) would continue to be used in WWF until it was merged with the WWF Championship into the WWF Undisputed Championship when Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin for the respective titles on December 9, 2001 on the PPV, Vengeance.

Related Topics:
Shane McMahon - WCW Invasion of the WWF - November 2001 - WWF Undisputed Championship - December 9 - 2001 - Vengeance

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