World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American organization of Catch, which existed between 1988 and 2001. World Championship Wrestling was used in the past like name in the televised shows of divisions of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), like the Georgia Championship Wrestling since 1983 and it is only in 1988 that WCW will always pass as a division independent at the national level under the supervision of NWA but from now on under the control of the powerful business man Ted Turner.

As of continuations, the WCW will become according to the wishes of Turner the principal rival of the World Wrestling Entertainment (then called World Wrestling Federation ). It will then acquerra its fame thanks to its particular style of " federation; sudiste" , the air important month that the large WWF, but especially with enrôlement of old glories of the latter like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage then in conflicts with the federation of Vince McMahon. The WCW will have dominated the professional world of the fight of 1996 with 1998 with better audiences TV that its competitor the WWF, and this success was undoubtedly also due to the incredible popularity generated around the history of the new World order (nWo), but it then started to lose ground on the WWF which entered " the Era Attitude" , with the new generation of all-in wrestlers. The company started to lose much money in addition to losing this war, which obliged AOL Time Warner to sell the WCW with the WWF for nearly 7 million $ in 2001.

History

Years NWA

Although World Championship Wrestling was a name of show used by the promoter Jim Barnett for his Australian federation, very first to have used this name with the the United States in a greater measurement was Georgia Championship Wrestling (even if the Capital Wresling Corporation of Vincent James McMahon have in fact already used this name in some house shows).

This promotion in the beginning property of Jack Brisco and Gerald Brisco, directed for the shows by Ole Anderson, was the first division of the NWA to have had access to a televised representation. In 1983, Georgia Championship Wresting decided to change the name of its televised show (and thus to change public) into World Championship Wrestling and to start to produce shows in other judged territories " neutres" like the Ohio or the Michigan. Even if much thought that Anderson managed the federation very badly, much had been done as idea that Georgia Championship Wrestling could compete with other federations of national scale like World Wrestling Federation of Vince McMahon. This name change will have helped Georgia Championship Wrestling to be best federations until the WWF was able to leave the NWA officially and to create its own representation, WWF All American Wrestling. The WWF consolidated its superiority thanks to the victory for the championship of Hulk Hogan, and Tuesday Night Titans.

In May 1984, the Brisco brothers decided to sell their shares in Georgia Championship Wrestling, as their schedule on the chain TBS (which was diffused in premium time ) with Vince McMahon. The televised shows of the WWF them, did not do many audiences. The fans of World Championship Wretsling were not interested in the style WWF which was placed more on the Divertissement, preferring the aspect " athlétique" wrestling. Whereas in an original manner, Vince McMahon was supposed to produce shows televised for TBS with Atlanta, it was satisfied to sell only summaries of its shows of the WWF. In May 1985, McMahon sells the schedule in the Jim Crockett Promotions under the pressure of Ted Turner, which made reappear name World Championship Wrestling (Turner Braodcasting deposited the rights of them in order to prevent McMahon from making use of it). The WWF and Hulk Hogan, however, were at this time at the top after the success of WrestleMania I. The new WCW, which was a combination of the Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and Georgia Championship Wrestling, was from now on as for it the show number one on TBS, and will have allowed Jim Crockett Jr. to become President of the NWA once again.

In 1986, Jim Crockett Jr. controlled several territories of the NWA under name Jim Crockett Promotions, in particular of the traditional territories of the NWA like the North Carolina and the South Carolina, the Georgia and the Missouri. Crockett made of all these territories only one group under name National Wrestling Alliance (in fact, JCP became synonymous with the NWA). A competition began between Crockett and Vince McMahon, each federation wanting to encase the step on the other about the televised rights. In fact the WWF, however was able to strike a great blow with Saint-Louis (and the remainder of the Missouri), which will bring besides disorders in the middle of the NWA. The competition between Hulk Hogan and Paul Orndorff carried out much audience; result, Bob Geigel once more became the President of the NWA.

The same year, JCP included off Hearts America Sports Attractions Inc (HASA), and thus to obtain the right to promote shows of Catch in several states (Kansas, Missouri and Iowa). HASA was recognized in the businesses like " the Central States territory" , and a televised show of the name of All Star Wrestling held.

In 1987, JCP found an agreement to control Championship Wrestling from Florida (the JCP did not buy this company), and Universal Wrestling Federation (which recovered the Oklahoma, the Mississippi, Arkansas, the Texas and the Louisiana), and which were not members of the NWA, which will make it possible Crockett to become again president of the NWA. The territories of Florida and Mid-South (two companies), were also absorbed by the JCP. Jim Crockett was from now on the owner of NWA Saint-Louis, the UWF, his JCP, Georgia Championship Wrestling, the Exchange States Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Georgia and the well-sure CWF.

Crockett has almost achieves its goal to create a national federation. Between its purchases of several territories NWA, World Class Championship Wrestling with the Texas which left the NWA in 1986 (and to amalgamate later with Championship Wrestling Alliance of Jerry Jarret to form United States Wrestling Association), and the territory of Portland which went bankrupt (it closed in 1992), it was the last bastion of the NWA, and the last to have a televised cover. As from this moment, much of people thought that Jim Crockett was really the NWA. Although JCP and the NWA remained separate, with Crockett like President of the NWA, they were from now on more over the same wavelength. The NWA was indeed an organization founded by Crockett, which enabled him to use name NWA to promote its representations.

With all its acquisitions with an aim of creating only one federation on the national plan, Crockett had heavily involved in debt its business. It was in the same situation as the WWF with the beginning of the year 1980: a broad deficit, and future of the federation which depended on the success or the disaster of the launching of Pay per view. Thus Crockett made StarrCade '87, the response of the NWA to the WrestleMania of the WWF. However, the WWF launched the Survivor Series the same day. The company of Vince McMahon informed the various diffusers that if they would choose to diffuse StarrCade, they will not be able to diffuse shows of the WWF any more in the future. The majority of the chains diffused then the Survivor Series (only three chains respected their contracts with Crockett). In January 1988, JCP launched another Pay per view, Bunkhouse Stampede, and McMahon countered to him with the first Royal Rumble on the USA Network. Both Pay per view thus carried out very low level of purchases, and it had thus become the beginning of the end for the JCP which gave rise to the WCW. Moreover, the decision to make unroll the shows with Chicago and New York, displeased much to the fans of the first hour for the majority located as a Caroline.

In 1985, Crockett had signed Dusty Rhodos as a script writer of its shows. Rhodos had a good reputation in the creativity in the writing of the storylines (assembled stories being used to create competitions) and also as an author of memorable competitions, but also for the invention of matches like the War Games . In 1988, after three years or it will have tried to compete with Vince McMahon, and to have had a long verbal conflict with champion NWA of the time Ric Flair, Rhodos was put more and more at the variation. The fans were tired of what they called the " Charlotte clique" (Rhodos, Ric Sense of smell, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Nikita Koloff in particular), and had enough the " of it; Dusty finish" (and other not-ends of show), which deteriorated the promotion of the house-shows (representations not-televised). One of the last creative things that Dusty Rhodos had realized, was the very first Clash off The Champions, the night of WrestleMania IV, with a match epic between Ric Flair and Sting, which did last one of best with the WCW. However, this match stopped well before the end of WrestleMania IV which lasted four hours, the fans thus changed chains to see the sacring of Randy Savage as a WWF Champion for the very first time, and thus ensured even more the victory of the WWF. With the end of the year 1988, Rhodos scriptait its shows with goes-quickly, and even planned to save an all-in wrestler of low-stage Rick Steiner, against Ric Flair for title NWA and in less than five minutes at the time of StarrCade. With the end of the year, Rhodos was transfered by the federation after a script where the Road Warrior Animal made bleed this first with by opening the face with one to him of the points of its épaulières, after an ordinance of Turner not to have blood in the federation after its purchase.

WCW under Ted Turner: a new era

To preserve televised programs of Wrestling to lower costs, the Jim Crockett Promotions was completely sold in Turner the November 21st 1988. Incorporated in an original manner by TBS as a Universal Wrestling Corporation , Turner promised to the fans that the WCW would be in the style of the NWA, directed side " athlétique".

1989 was one year of transition for the WCW with Ric Flair as a champion, but also with the head of the team of script writers. Sense of smell contributed to the arrivals of Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk, and its matches of statement with each one all were as well made a success of on the financial plan as sporting. New talents also were born like Sid Vicious, Sting, Scott Steiner, The Road Warriors, Brian Pillman, The Great Muta and Lex Luger had all grosses storylines and opportunities for matches of championships.

In spite of this impulse of talents, the WCW was going soon to start to introduce more glamor and openly of " gimmicks" (characters) for which the WWF is recognized. None of these exploits like the appearance of Robocop in a statement in 1990, or the personality of " Chamber off Horrors" or famous the " Black Scorpion" storyline did not succeed. In the slides, the WCW had become increasingly autonomous, and gently began all to separate from the NWA and its historical name. In January 1991, the WCW separated officially from the NWA and started to make recognize its own titles, the WCW Wordl Heavyweight Championship and the WCW World Tag TEAM Championship.

The WCW and the NWA recognized both that Ric Flair (which was not any more script writer as a chief) was their World Heavyweight Champion until first half of 1991, but the WCW who had elected with his presidency Jim Herd, was turned over against Flair for various reasons and decided to transfer it right before statement The Great American Bash in July of this same year following failures in the renegotiations of the contract of the " Boy" nature;. Thereafter, they thus withdrew to him its title of WCW World Heavyweight Champion. However, according to the autobiography of Sense of smell, they refused to pour 25.000 $ to him and thus to refund it for the deposit of the belt, consequently it took it along with him to the WWF according to wish Vince McMahon. Sense of smell incorporated this belt in its character by naming " the True Champion of Monde".

Later, the WCW renegotiated the rights on the names of the NWA which it associated like a Co-promotion with the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), and ordered with the WWF to stop showing in its programs Ric Flair with old belt NWA pretexting the rights on the registered trademarks with regard to appearance of this one. The belt was returned to the WCW by Flair when Jim Herd left, and it thus touched its refundings dûent. The title was brought back as NWA World Heavyweight Championship again.

For the period when the WCW worked with its own champion, she also recognized title NWA that Flair will recover after having left the WWF in good terms to turn over to the WCW in July 1993. Immediately, the others, maintaining smaller organizations of the NWA started to kindly request Flair to defend the title under their rules in their territories, as an old payment of the organization indicates it. The title was later envisaged to be lost by Flair vis-a-vis Rick Rude, a change of title which took place during the recordings TV to the Studios Disney with Orlando in Florida. The WCW and the NWA separated once more and for goods in the month from September 1993.

However, the WCW preserved legally title NWA World Heavyweight without evoking the name of it. The title was from now on known under the name of WCW International World Heavyweight Championship.

The WCW realized that this belt of share its historical past and its impact visual, very popular and was respected in particular with the Japan and thus invented this International branch for this reason to give even more appropriations. The WCW wanted that the " WCWI" that is to say recognized as the belt legitimates of World champion. For one short duration, there were then two championships of the World.

Sting gained the WCW International Championship and will lose it vis-a-vis ten times WCW World Champion, Ric Flair in a match of unification the June 23rd 1994. " The Large Belt in Or" by the WCW for represented throughout the world until its closing in 2001 was thus chosen. This belt (in a slightly modified appearance) is today always present at WWE as a WWE World Heavyweight Championship in division SmackDown! (before with RAW). However, the WWE considers that it is a title with whole share, and WWE.com lists only in its history of the title the champions since the September 2nd 2002, in fact with the WWE with Triple H that Eric Bischoff had given to him to RAW.

Beginnings of the era Eric Bischoff

The creative product of the company had heavily been degraded in 1992 and 1993 with in the chair Bill Watts and Jim Herd then. The WCW went up later the slope in 1993 when the former commentator Eric Bischoff was named President Exécutif federation. Bischoff which was the second commentator of late American Wrestling Association (AWA) behind Jim Ross, was completely desperate to give a second breath to the WCW, but it nevertheless impressed Turner by its tactics chosen to save the organization.

The first year of Bischoff was regarded as unfruitful. Dusty Rhodos and Ole Anderson had controls of the creative team, with their creations of competitions and stories which did not have funds, constructions. For example, mini-films of promotion of statement, or the segment " a Sense of smell for Gold " during the Clash off Champions who was used to promote the statement Fall Brawl, where the WCW decided to introduce a " partner mystère" for the fighters face, a known man masked under the name of The Shockmaster. The Shockmaster (in the past Typhoon with the WWF) was supposed to pass through a false wall and thus to intimidate the heel. But instead of that, it broke the figure and lost its mask on line on television making of him forever an itinerant joke (it gained some matches nevertheless).

The WCW decided in 1993 to be based once again around Ric Flair. This was perceived more like one alternative, whereas during this time, one of largest the Face of the federation, Sid Vicious, tried to wound Arn Anderson with a scissors and this four weeks before the StarrCade event, in a round in England and was consequently transfered. Sense of smell gained the title with StarrCade and was again named script writer.

Bischoff went declared an open war with the WWF of McMahon in the media and aggressively to recruit old large stars of the WWF like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in 1994. Using the financial resources of Turner, Bischoff made of its war-horse makes it recruit old glories of the WWF. Because of their large statutes, Hogan and Savage could required obtain concessions and advantages which no all-in wrestler could have at the time, and thus for several years, guarantees of touching several million dollars and deciding themselves of the direction that their character must take. This was going later to become a problem for the WCW in its war with the WWF, as of other fighters later who will require the same advantages and the contracts will become amazing and out of ranges. Hogan, in particular, obtained a considerable influence thanks to its friendly relation maintained with Bischoff. Another thing that the latter forgot to consider, it is the fact that good number of fans looked at the WCW like an alternative solution with the WWF with the beginnings of the year 1990, and much of fans of the NWA saw in this one a simple copy of the WWF with its old talents, whereas they seek only the concrete one, the action.

The main thing Pay per view held by the WCW since the arrival of Hogan is the Bash At the Beach, which saw the " Hulkster" to beat Ric Sense of smell for the WCW Championship. Both had worked at the same time with the WWF of 1991 with 1992, and a competition was engaged between them, but this great match which would have enormously brought back money and which was planned for WrestleMania VIII was finally changed for a match by teams Flair/Savage against Hogan/Sid (a Hogan match/Flair all the same took place with the WWF, it was gained by Ric Flair and also was filmed, but not diffused on television). When the WCW organized this match, the statement thus carried out good sales dûent with the intrigue that the fans around this great confrontation were posed. In spite of a success as well on the sporting level as financial, and this will not last a long time for the competition Hogan/Flair which had been held only for this match where the WCW hoped for a long-term effect on the purchases of the statement and their audiences.

This does not pass unperceived for Turner which did not approve the expenditure and the manners of making of Bischoff, and thus decided to make a complete point with this last in 1995. It will result creation from it from the emission WCW Monday Nitro Monday evening to counter WWF Monday Night RAW.

Monday Night Wars

See the article: Monday Night Wars

StarrCade 1997

In 1997, the WCW was propelled at the top, especially thanks to the nWo. During this time, the nWo competed with the Four Horsemen and then the Hero of the WCW, Sting. This competition with the " Stinger" was used to promote the Pay per view StarrCade in December, the great appointment of the federation. When the WCW carried out the match between Sting and Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, the statement carried out the strongest rate of purchases of the history of the organization and Bischoff was largely congratulé to him months which followed this pay per view not also not to have made a construction of the event with goes-quickly.

In addition, certain fans considered that this show was the beginning of the end for the WCW, even if it always had better audiences that the WWF. Hogan was extremely criticized not to have finishes a match in a manner " clean" , which made confused and irritated the fans who waited during nearly one year until Sting takes the top on the nWo. The end of this combat implied the new arrival Bret Hart (which arbitrated in the preceding match between Bischoff and Larry Zbyzsko for the control of Monday Nitro ) which arrived on the boxing ring after Hogan gained the match. Binder challenged the referee Nick Patrick on the fact that it is carried out an account of three too fast on Sting, indicating that it wanted " to make good a chose". He insisted that the continuous match (with itself as a referee) to prevent that Sting is made have like the " Hitman" was with the WWF in the Montreal Screwjob.

Vince McMahon counter-attacks

When Hart left the WWF after Montreal Screwjob with the Survivor Series 1997, it appeared sure that the WCW was going to finish of them good once for all with the WWF. Indeed, the WCW had the largest stars of this industry, like Hogan, Savage, Sting, Flair, Hart, Hall and Nash. But in addition to the stars rising not being yet in the foreground like Chris Benoit and Raven, without forgetting one exciting division cruiserweight (weight-means) which brought together acrobats of the Mexico (the luchadors) and Japan in addition to those of the the United States. However, the things were not held as the WCW had envisaged them.

The general opinion was that Screwjob and the acquisition of Bret Hart by the WCW were favorable to this one and were going to carry a fatal blow with the WWF. The whole of a company swindling an all-in wrestler more than popular and putting the fans at back would have could generate the end of the WWF and left credit to the WCW to work on this history. However, after WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, Vince McMahon took again the head in Monday Night Wars with its new WWF " Attitude" and all its new generation of stars rising like " Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock'n'roll, Triple H, and Mankind. The traditional competition between McMahon (its character became a true diabolic leader) and Austin (which ironically, had been transfered by Bischoff at the summer 1995 not to be enough a salesman) captivated the fans completely. The April 13rd 1998, RAW saw with the poster clashing Austin and McMahon, and thus marked the 84 weeks end of domination of the WCW in the audiences since 1996. The WWF did not stop there for as much. Their audiences strongly increased in the two years which followed, and this more than ever. The WCW tried to always counter by dividing the nWo with Hogan side " heel" carrying out the nWo Hollywood and other Nash in " face" who carried out the nWo Wolfpac, but much thought that they did nothing but take up the idea of history WCW vs nWo. Without discouraging itself for as much, the WCW launched a new show televised Thursday evening, WCW Thunder .

Next the large blow of the WCW in the hope to take again its supremacy in the audiences, was enrôlement of the former player of NFL Bill Goldberg as an invincible monster with a series of victories record and thus without defeats. Goldberg was incredibly popular near the fans who sang " Goldberg, Gold-Berg" at the time of its entry on the boxing ring, but this did not last a long time considering the list of stars of the WCW agreeing to be made destroy by Goldberg became increasingly thin. One of the last grosses victories of the WCW in Monday Night War was the July 6th 1998 when the federation offered very waited confrontation between Hogan and Goldberg for the championship of the World (that this last will have gained) at the time of Nitro. By doing that, they boosté their audience for one week only and lost much money which would have could be gained if the match were in Hand-vent of statement. The September 14th 1998, the WCW once more gained the audiences with a memorable moment which saw the return of Ric Flair to the federation and the reformation of the legendary gang of the Four Horsemen. The October 25th 1998, the statement WCW Haloween Havoc finished later that envisaged because of the addition of a match for the title by teams. Blow, much could not see the end of the event with the match of championship between Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg. The following day, the WCW decided to correct the problem by diffusing at the time of Nitro the entirety of the match free, and thus gained Monday Night War for the last time.

The WCW fell gently but surely into a period when it did not have any more creative ideas and where amazing expenditure was going to make debate a long time. One of the possible reasons is the arrival of celebrities (like Dennis Rodman and Jay Leno) for catcher in matches of statement. Another reason is that the credibility of the WCW is taken by it a blow with decisions as that to put at the sides of Rick Steiner the tueuse headstock Chucky in order to promote off the exit of the film Bride Chucky in 1998. Other reasons could be that the evil came from the storylines to the airs from already considering and without-interests, concoctées by script writers without experiment like Kevin Nash, but also the fact that large the stars did not have any more the motivation necessary to offer good combat, and were satisfied with their wages exorbitant. What is sure, it is that the programs of the WCW really started to lose quality, and thus people extinguished their TVS or zappaient on the WWF, the company took panic then and spent even more money while misant on expensive personalities of which she thought, thanks to them, to regulate the problem. Many fighters have were also engaged for prevented from joining the WWF. With such point, that the WCW did not have less than 260 all-in wrestlers with guaranteed contracts, of which the majority remained at the house nothing to make, and right touch their pays.

Several people started to criticize the storylines of Nash which put it always ahead. After being itself given the victory in the royal battle of World War 3 in November 1998, it was going to put an end to the impressive series victory of Goldberg and to gain the world title at the time of StarrCade later one month. Then the famous match " came; fingerpoge off doom" with Hulk Hogan in January 1999. It was during Nitro of which the federation had made of it very largely promotion as being the match revenge of StarrCade between Nash and Goldberg. And result, the arena was with closed counters, with more than 40.000 spectators and of the million throughout the world in front of their television sets hoping for good progress of this match revenge. During all the evening, the advertisers made the promotion of this match as being " the largest match of the history of our sport" and said that " not like the others, we have a truth Hand-vent ". But a storyline put Goldberg on side at the profit of Hollywood Hogan. World Heavyweight Championship changait with hands when Hogan put Nash at ground with only one finger and thus to beat it for the account of three, which damaged its credibility and also the value of the title. This also damaged the company which had not proposed the poster including one broad publicity was made, which was perceived as being a manner easy to fill an arena with this scale. It was as in the same edition of Nitro as Tony Schiavone announced while making fun the victory for title WWF Hardcore of Mick Foley, which very largely turned over the audiences in favor of the WWF for this evening.

Always in 1998, The Ultimate Warrior, old a star of the WWF, was recruited by Eric Bischoff to compete with Hogan (both have already summers with the poster of WrestleMania VI). Their meeting which proceeded in Haloween Havoc in October 1998 passed quasi unperceived, and Warrior left the WCW thereafter. He insisted at the time of his passage for the development of expensive requests like the installation of a trap door for his entry on the boxing ring, which will wound heavily the British Bulldog, handicapping it with life.

Moreover, the WCW did not expose enough its young talents, in spite of the fact of having genuine stars rising like Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Billy Kidman, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Raven, Booker T or Rey Mysterio. They all were almost far away from the hand-vents, and this decision not to put its young people added ahead to " the Era Attitude" WWF, will cause the loss of the WCW definitively.

Eric Bischoff was thanked by Turner the September 10th 2000 following all these drifts, also including/understanding one as of his last ideas which will have been the return of an rock group of the years 1970, KIS in shows WCW, and a storyline putting in scene the rappor Master P and The No Limit Soldiers during two weeks, but also the organization in a concert of KIS the December 31st 1999.

Another fact which will undoubtedly cause the loss of the WCW, and which passed unperceived, is that with Nitro share, the arenas which the WCW chose for its statement were too small in terms of capacity. Even if the WCW had an abundance of superstars, this aspect were largely neglected by the direction. Of memory, the WCW organized its best matches in buildings with a very poor capacity. For example very waited confrontation between Randy Savage and Ric Flair with the Great American Bash 1995 proceeded with the Hara Arena of Dayton in the Ohio with a capacity of only 6.000 places. Similar, the match of championship of the World between Sting and Giant at the time of Slamboree 1996, which was held with the Riverside Centroplex of Baton-Rouge in Louisiana with a capacity of only 8.000 places. He had said himself that if the WCW had chosen arenas with greater capacity for its matches of pay per view, it would have piled up much more money.

End of the WCW

Bischoff was immediately replaced by the former script writer as a chief of the WWF Vince Russo and its assistant ED Ferrara. They were the creators of " the Era Attitude" with the WWF, being really brains of this operation. The WCW offered very lucrative contracts to them to engage them in October 1999 to try to start again the WCW and to slow down the dash of success of the WWF. Russo and Ferrara tried to give more exposure to the young talents, with the detriment of the old ones like Hogan and Flair. However, Russo had never succeeded in creating the same intrigue and same success that it had produced when it worked with Vince McMahon.

Russo and Ferrara fought near their leaders to obtain the approval of new ideas like the matches " Piñata one has Pole" implying Mexican fighters. Later in 1999, Russo and Ferrara gave again life with the nWo, this time with Jeff Jarett and Bret Hart with the poster. They parodied then the commentator of the WWF Jim Ross of the name of " Oklahoma" , what played Ferrara (making fun of the paralysis of Jim Ross to the facies caused by the disease of Beautiful). Continued for the federation in December 1999 pitches, when Bret Hart was victim of a Concussion (which will put a term at its career) with the hands of Goldberg who was victim one week earlier of a fracture of the hand at the time of a storyline by breaking a pane of limousine. Russo itself ended up appearing on the screen, the manner of Doctor Mad in Inspecteur Gadget and of George Steinbrenner of Seinfeld . Only its hands were visible, and it was seen only back, sitted in a chair and giving his orders to the all-in wrestlers for the evening.

Russo and Ferrara were just suspended three months later when the rumor circulated that they projected to make former fighter of UFC Tank Abott, the champion of the WCW (Abott, in spite of its talents of combatant, did not have much experiment in wrestling and did not return in the heart of the fans). Kevin Sullivan, which had been script writer several years before, thus replaced the duet by interim. The new team of script writers tried to alleviate démoralisement all-in wrestlers and fans by making to Chris Benoit the champion of the WCW at the time of the statement Souled Out in January 2000. However, because of the personal problems between this last and Sullivan (the woman of Sullivan left it for Benoit), " The Rabbid Wolverine" and several other fighters asked to be released their contracts at the time of meeting before statement (because of the lack of exposure which theirs are dûent and with their different that they also have with Sullivan), Benoit thus returned the belt the shortly after his success and left the WCW. He joined the WWF while bringing in his luggage of other as much frustrated friends than him like Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko. The four quickly became popular with the WWF under the name " The Radicalz ".

The February 11th 2000, of the all-in wrestlers of colors, Bobby Walker, Harrison Norris and their manager Japanese Sony Onoo, carried felt sorry for Racial discrimination towards the WCW, affirming that it is because of their origins which they do not have the exposure that they deserve, and that they had of the gimmicks shocking in addition to the fact of being underpaid. Certain people thought that these loads retained against the WCW (making a bad reputation for the company, which had had already this bad image of racism for a few years), were responsible for the victory of the all-in wrestler of color Booker T for the championship of the World later in the year, but also of the nomination of his/her brother Stevie Ray at the post of commentator.

In April 2000, the audiences were always in Bern and continued to drop, Russo and Bischoff carried out their return to the WCW then. They launched a new formed faction of young talents (which was named the New Blood ) and especially which faced the Millionnaires Club which included/understood the stars oldest and the most paid federation like Hogan, Sting or Diamond Dallas Page. In spite of a good start, the storyline degenerated quickly to still give again a simple copy of the nWo, with the heels of the nWo which recruited New Blood and the faces of the WCW which joined the Millionaires Club. In addition to this, it y' had storylines discussed and not very orthodoxe. That included the moment when the actor David Arquette gained the championship of the World to promote the exit of film over the WCW, Ready to Rumble; where Russo which itself gained the title in September 2000 (Russo, like Arquette, was not a trained all-in wrestler); but still a heel turn of Goldberg in June 2000 which was completely missed and withdrew credibility to him; the declarations sharp the Russo one towards Hogan at the time of the Bash At the Beach 2000 which involved the departure of this last and an attack in justice of its share against Russo for Diffamation (the complaint was withdrawn in 2002). Bischoff was once again thanked in July 2000, and Russo the WCW left at the end of the year, leaving the reins to Terry Taylor.

When the Time Warner repurchased the immense empire of Turner in 1996, it bought blow the WCW. Ted Turner which was a large fan of fight, always wanted that wrestling is diffused on its network (these programs which enabled him to create its first tele chain, WTBS, the WCW was the modern incarnation of what it had diffused on this chain at the time), without to pay attention on the financial position of the company, Time Warner did not see the things in the same way, in particular when it had proven that the WCW had a deficit ranging between 12 and 17 million $. However, Turner remained the majority shareholder of the organization and thus the WCW remained protected. When AOL amalgamated with Time Warner in 2000, Turner was obliged to yield its own empire. The news AOL Time Warner could thus cut the vivres with the WCW, in which they saw only one financial drain.

Later in 2000, Eric Bischoff helped of a private group of funds Fusient Media Ventures, tried to repurchase the WCW but desisted when he saw that the federation was not diffused any more on the network TV of Turner directed then by Jamie Kellner. Without exposures TV, the WCW was not interesting any more for Fusient whose purchase offer had value only if the WCW remained programmed on the network of Turner.

The March 23rd 2001, the WCW was repurchased entirely with its video registered trademarks and its catalog by the World Wrestling Entertainment of Vince McMahon.

Acquisition by World Wrestling Federation

Triumphing McMahon opened the last edition of WCW Monday Nitro into simultaneous with RAW the March 26th 2001. The US champion Booker-T beat the world champion, Scott Steiner, to become the last WCW World Heavyweight Champion, in addition to being the US last Heavyweight Champion. Sting against Ric Flair (gained by Sting) was the most nostalgic moment and last match of this emission, finishing affectionately with an accodance between the two.

When Vince arrived at RAW after the match Sting/Flair and declared the victory over the WCW, his/her son Shane McMahon appeared with Nitro , affirming that it was him which had bought the WCW. Well-sure, that formed part only of the storyline of the WWF which was going to have Shane as leader of the Invasion of the WCW with the WWF, which lasted of March to November 2001 and went marked the end of the WCW. In spite of to have tried to make WCW a division of the WWF Saturday evening (the emission which held place was finally WWF Excess and then WWE Velocity), the WWF made only organized matches under name WCW at the time of RAW and SmackDown!.

When the WWF bought the WCW in March 2001, several stars of the WCW, including Flair, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, and Sting had large contracts with AOL Time Warner which the WWF did not want to take again. Blow the WCW was not perceived as powerful during its invasion of the WWF which had not obtained discounted success owing to the fact that they did not have these stars there. However, all these fighters ended up engaging with the WWF except for Sting, after the invasion.

One can notice that the WCW under-utilized exceptional the roster that it had. It only tried to recreate the magic around these matches which made the history and the success of the WWF, like Hogan/Warrior or Hogan/Savage. They had not carried out many matches " either; face" against " face" except for a Goldberg against DDP (which remarkably was successful). It is also to stress that with the roster that they had, they could create matches of dreams which never were seen with the WWF, like Hogan/Bret Hart, Warrior/Bret, Flair/Warrior, Luger/Savage etc Adding the insult to faintness, the WCW had bad timings, short stories and a lack of rigor in the work of the script writers in certain competitions, which caused a great damage with the WCW at one paramount time where they could not be allowed to make errors. The Savage-Bret competition when this last became a novel member of the nWo, was an good idea which was not exploited long enough. The Hogan-Nash confrontation could be organized at the time of a statement and would have brought back million $, with a good script instead of this match of Nitro which will remain negatively in the memories like the " Fingerpoke off Doom". Many talents of the WCW had anything else to make only remain in the shade of Hogan and Nash through the nWo, or others took their opportunities in the matches of second zones.

List last champions of the WCW

Here the list of the last champions of the WCW when the company was acquired by WWE

See too

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