History of World Championship Wrestling
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2022) |
Predecessor | Georgia Championship Wrestling Jim Crockett Promotions |
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Website | WCW on WWE.com |
In the 1990s, WCW, along with the
Years prior to the Turner purchase (1980s)
Georgia Championship Wrestling and Black Saturday (1982–1984)
Although the "World Championship Wrestling" brand name was used by promoter
After founding his own company, Titan Sports Inc. in 1980, in 1982, Vincent K. McMahon purchased his father's Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) and merged it into Titan Sports Inc. Under his leadership, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) became the top promotion in North America, and GCW devised the name "World Championship Wrestling" in an effort to compete.[citation needed]
In 1982, GCW changed the name of its Georgia Championship Wrestling television show to World Championship Wrestling since it was already starting to run shows in "neutral" territories such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.[citation needed] These efforts helped to keep GCW competitive against Vincent K. McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation, as both promotions had secured television deals and the WWF was trying to become a national, as opposed to regional, entity. McMahon had purchased his father’s company, Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), a pro-wrestling territory operating mainly in the Northeast and merged it with his own company, Titan Sports Inc. The WWF would leave the National Wrestling Alliance and create the show WWF All American Wrestling for the USA Network.
On April 9, 1984, the Brisco brothers sold their shares in GCW, including their Saturday evening slot on WTBS, to Vince McMahon.
Jim Crockett Promotions moves to TBS (1985–1986)
Under pressure from Turner, in March of 1985 McMahon sold his TBS time slot and the "World Championship Wrestling" name to
In 1986, Jim Crockett Promotions held
Going national (1987–1988)
In 1987, JCP would enter into an agreement to control Championship Wrestling from Florida, and Universal Wrestling Federation (which covered Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana; by this time, the UWF had split from the NWA); this helped elevate Crockett to a third tenure as NWA President. The Florida and Mid-South territories (along with those companies' rosters of wrestlers) were absorbed into WCW. Jim Crockett Promotions now owned NWA St. Louis, the Universal Wrestling Federation, Mid-Atlantic, Central States Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Georgia and Championship Wrestling from Florida as well.[11]
Between the purchasing of several NWA territories, World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas leaving the NWA in 1986[12] (and later merging with Jerry Jarrett's Continental Wrestling Association in Memphis to create a new promotion, the United States Wrestling Association),[13] JCP was the last NWA member with national television exposure, which at this point in time made JCP de facto synonymous with the NWA. Although JCP and the NWA were still two separate legal entities, with Crockett as NWA President, Jim Crockett Promotions was allowed to use the NWA brand for promoting.
With the large amount of capital needed to take a wrestling promotion on a national tour, the various territorial acquisitions had drained JCP's coffers.
In January 1988, JCP promoted Bunkhouse Stampede, and McMahon counter-programmed with the first Royal Rumble on USA Network. Both NWA events achieved low buyrates and the decision to hold these events in Chicago and New York alienated the Crockett's main fanbase in the Carolinas, hampering their drawing power for arena shows in the Southeast.[16]
Dusty Rhodes as booker and collapse (1988)
In 1984, Crockett had signed
Founding and first years under Ted Turner (1988–1992)
Jim Crockett Promotions was purchased outright by Turner on October 11, 1988. Originally incorporated by TBS as the Universal Wrestling Corporation, Turner promised fans that WCW would maintain the athlete-oriented style of the NWA. The sale was completed on November 2, 1988, with a television taping of NWA World Championship Wrestling that very same date in WCW's hometown of Atlanta.[19]
1989 proved to be a turnaround year for WCW, with Ric Flair as both World Champion and head booker. Flair would bring in
Under Ole, WCW began to gradually incorporate much of the gimmicks for which the WWF was better known. These stunts included a cross-promotional appearance of RoboCop at Capital Combat in May 1990,[22] the Chamber of Horrors gimmick, and the Black Scorpion storyline.[23] House shows would drop to record lows as Ole continuously pushed older wrestlers who were loyal to him.[21] Behind the scenes, WCW was becoming more autonomous and slowly started separating itself from the NWA. They would officially split from the NWA in January 1991, and began to recognize its own WCW World Heavyweight Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship.
Both WCW and the NWA recognized Ric Flair as their World Heavyweight Champion throughout most of the first half of 1991.
Meanwhile, the WCW's product fell into a decline in 1991 and 1992 under the presidency of the Herd. Ric Flair, who had conflicts with Herd, once stated that Herd "knew nothing about wrestling, other than the fact that the station he ran had a hot show" (referring to the once-popular show
Herd was fired in January 1992 and was succeeded by Kip Allen Frey. Frey's tenure running WCW was brief, and he would be replaced later in the year by
Final split with the National Wrestling Alliance (1993)
During the period that WCW operated with its own World Heavyweight Championship, while also recognizing the NWA's world title, Flair left the WWF on good terms and returned to WCW, regaining the NWA title from
Eric Bischoff era (1993–1998)
First year under Bischoff (1993)
In February 1993, former commentator Eric Bischoff was appointed as Executive Vice President of WCW. Bischoff impressed Turner's top brass with his non-confrontational tactics and business savvy.[34] Jim Ross, upset that a man who once answered to him was now his supervisor, requested and received a release from TBS executive Bill Shaw (after suggestion from Bischoff) and ended up in the WWF.[35] Meanwhile, Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson were still in full creative control at this point, and WCW continued its decline under their watch.[36]
The infamous "Lost in Cleveland" storyline began when Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) first wrestled Big Van Vader on April 6, 1993. Foley and Vader wanted an intense match, so they agreed that Vader would hit Cactus with a series of heavy blows to the face.[37] WCW edited the match heavily because it was against their policies to show the heavy bleeding that resulted.[37] Foley suffered a broken nose, a dislocated jaw and needed twenty-seven stitches, but won the match via countout.[37] Because the title did not change hands on a countout, WCW booked a rematch. Foley, however, wanted some time off to be with his newborn daughter and get surgery to repair a knee injury. As a result, in the rematch with Vader on April 23, Vader removed the protective mats at ringside and power-bombed Cactus onto the exposed concrete floor, causing a legitimate concussion and causing Foley to temporarily lose sensation in his left foot and hand.[38] While Foley was away, the angle saw Cactus Jack's absence was explained with him being was institutionalized, escaped, and developed amnesia.[39] Foley had wanted the injury storyline to be very serious and generate genuine sympathy for him before his return. In response to the comedy vignettes that WCW produced, Foley jokes in his autobiography that they were the brainchild of WCW executives, who regarded a surefire moneymaking feud as a problem that needed to be solved.[40]
On July 6, 1993, WCW began the aforementioned Disney Tapings. In order to save money, the promotion rented out a studio located at the
In 1993,
Early competition with the World Wrestling Federation (1994–1996)
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Beginning in 1994, Bischoff aggressively recruited high-profile former stars from WWF, such as
WCW's first major pay-per-view event for Hogan's was Bash at the Beach, saw the former WWF mainstay defeat Ric Flair for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. During their time in WWF from 1991 to 1992, a feud was teased between them, but a match originally planned for WrestleMania VIII never came to fruition. WCW's event drew a high buyrate due to mainstream intrigue and hype. In December 1994, Savage would make his WCW debut; and in 1995, a new pay-per-view event called Uncensored was created and WCW would also revive The Great American Bash, which had not aired since 1992.
In a mid-1995 meeting, Turner asked Bischoff how WCW could compete with McMahon's WWF. Bischoff, not expecting Turner to comply, said that the only way would be a prime-time slot on a weekday night, possibly up against the WWF's flagship show, Monday Night Raw. Turner granted him a live hour on TNT every Monday night. The new weekly show, WCW Monday Nitro, debuted on September 4, 1995, live from the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota,[45][46] in a timeslot that specifically overlapped with Raw.[47] Bischoff himself was initially the host, alongside Bobby Heenan and ex-NFL star Steve "Mongo" McMichael. The initial broadcast of Nitro featured the surprise return of Lex Luger (who had been in the WWF since 1993) to the WCW audience.[48] Because Nitro was live at the time, premiering major stars on the show would signal to the fans the amount of excitement the broadcasts would contain. Luger himself had come off a successful run in the WWF, and became one of the company's top stars.[49] Luger had been employed with the WWF as recently as a week before his Nitro appearance, he had wrestled on a house show for the WWF in Halifax, Nova Scotia the night before his appearance on Nitro. The significance of this event would lead to the beginning of a period that would be known as the "Monday Night War".
Nitro was successful enough that it was expanded to two live hours in May 1996, and later three in February 1998. Early on, Bischoff would give away Raw results on Nitro, as Raw, unlike Nitro, was then mostly taped in advance.
New World Order and ratings dominance (1996–1998)
On Memorial Day 1996,
The WWF would later file a lawsuit, alleging that the nWo storyline implied that Hall and Nash were invaders sent by Vince McMahon to destroy WCW. The WWF also claimed Scott Hall acted in a manner too similar to the Razor Ramon character which was owned by the WWF. At The Great American Bash, Nash confirmed on camera that the Outsiders were not employed by the WWF. Despite this, the lawsuit dragged out for several years before being settled out of court. One of the settlement's terms was the right for the WWF to bid on WCW's properties, should they ever be up for liquidation.
Eventually, the Outsiders announced the forthcoming appearance of a third member. At Bash at the Beach 1996, Hall and Nash were scheduled to team with their mystery partner against Lex Luger, Randy Savage and Sting. Hulk Hogan came to the ring in the climax of the match and leg dropped Savage, revealing himself to be the Outsiders' third man. Giving an interview with Okerlund directly after the match, Hogan claimed the reason for the turn was that he was tired of fans that had turned on him. Hogan referred to himself and the Outsiders as a "new world organization of wrestling". The New World Order (nWo) would subsequently begin feuds with wrestlers loyal to WCW.[53] According to Bischoff, the original plan was to have Sting be revealed as the third man rather than Hogan. Hogan convinced Bischoff to make him the third man instead, with the reasoning that the third man needed to have WWF name value, much like Hall and Nash did, and because of Hogan's success as the face of the WWF in the 1980s and early 1990s. Hogan's heel turn marked the first time in over 15 years that he portrayed a villainous character.
With most of the WCW roster over in Japan, the nWo took over the September 23, 1996, episode of Nitro, including the broadcast booth and the ring announcer's role. Largely due to the nWo angle, Nitro would go on to beat Raw for 84 consecutive weeks in the ratings.
Road to Starrcade 1997 and subsequent controversy (1997)
In 1997, the nWo began feuding with the revived
Retrospective reviewers considered 1997 to be WCW's peak year,[55] however, Starrcade was heavily criticized and created much controversy for not having a clean finish to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match. A recently introduced Bret Hart, who had refereed the preceding match between Bischoff and Larry Zbyszko for control of Nitro, alleged that referee Nick Patrick had performed a fast count on Sting and wanted to "make things right". Hart insisted that the match continue with himself as referee, in order to prevent Sting from being "screwed" like Hart had legitimately been at the 1997 Survivor Series the month prior; an incident that came at the end of his run with the WWF.[56] Bischoff himself would admit in his memoir Controversy Creates Cash, the count looked like a normal count, and replays of the three-count on later shows had the video sped up to hide this. Because of this, Starrcade has also been seen by critics as the beginning of WCW's downfall.
According to Bret Hart, WCW failed to capitalize on his talent and momentum, and had no idea how to properly utilize him. Bischoff contends that the Montreal Screwjob "...had taken his toll on him," in his autobiography. "It was all he talked about... constantly."
Decline (1998–2000)
Start of the decline (1998–1999)
1998 saw WCW slide into a period of creative decline, leading to a loss of viewership. The company was criticized for their overuse of celebrities in pay-per-view matches, such as
WCW was well known for having popular, young midcard stars; such as Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Raven, Billy Kidman, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Perry Saturn, Booker T, and Rey Mysterio. They were also credited for their cruiserweight division featuring high-flying stars from Mexico and Japan, where the style of wrestling was popularized. In spite of this, WCW did not promote its younger stars to the top slots (a charge admitted by Bischoff) and were kept away from the main event scene, yet WCW's top-level stars had no motivation to perform due to their long-term contracts. Out of the younger talent listed, many of its stars would become main event-level world champions in the WWF/E several years later after WCW's demise.
Talents were reportedly signed to keep them from appearing on WWF television. Bischoff recruited former WWF star The Ultimate Warrior to feud with Hogan and capitalize on the Hogan/Warrior match at WrestleMania VI. Their October 1998 rematch at Halloween Havoc was considered as one of the worst matches in pay-per-view history, and, interest soon dissipated after several unrealistic segments involving the two were aired on WCW programming.[61] Warrior also insisted on elaborate and costly apparatuses, such as a trapdoor in the ring which badly injured The British Bulldog when he landed on it awkwardly earlier in the event. Warrior would disappear from WCW programming shortly afterwards.[62]
Ex-NFL player Bill Goldberg was portrayed as an invincible monster with a long winning streak of squash matches. One of Nitro's rating wins was on July 6, 1998, when Goldberg's defeated Hulk Hogan to win the WCW world title at Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Despite strong ratings, the decision to air the Goldberg-Hogan title match on television, rather than pay-per-view, was scrutinized.[63]
The September 14, 1998 episode of Nitro would also drew strong ratings due to Ric Flair's return to WCW to reform the
According to Bischoff's autobiography
At Starrcade, Kevin Nash, who was appointed WCW's head booker, set himself up to defeat Goldberg for the world title. In the climax, Scott Hall ran in and tased Goldberg with a cattle prod, enabling Nash to pick up the win, end Goldberg's streak, and become the champion. The main event finish was universally panned by critics. On the January 4, 1999, episode of Nitro, a Starrcade rematch between Nash and Goldberg was booked. However, Goldberg was kayfabe arrested by the police for stalking Miss Elizabeth and was replaced by the returning Hogan, who had been absent from WCW for several months prior after he claimed to retire from professional wrestling. Prior to the match, play-by-play announcer Tony Schiavone, under direction from Bischoff, revealed that Mick Foley, portraying his "Mankind" character, would be win the WWF Championship on a taped edition of Raw, sarcastically saying "huh, that's gonna put some butts in the seats". Foley had worked for WCW but left in 1994 after deciding Bischoff would never give him a prominent role in the company. Nielsen ratings indicated that over 300,000 households changed the channel to watch Foley's victory.[66][67]
The Nitro main event saw Hogan poke Nash in the chest. Nash
By late 1999, WCW began losing around $5 million a month as attendance, pay-per-view buys and ratings were down significantly. Failed angles and gimmicks during this time included a
KISS had collaborated with WCW to promote The Demon, a gimmick created in the band's image originally portrayed by
Vince Russo era (1999–2000)
Bischoff was replaced by then-WCW Vice President of Strategic Planning Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President. Busch would bring in former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara.[76] Russo and Ferrera presented themselves as the brains behind the "Attitude Era", and were offered them lucrative contracts to come to WCW in October 1999. Russo and Ferrara tried to replicate the same writing format (known as "Crash TV") they had used in the WWF, but at a more accelerated pace, and would also push the younger talents to phase out aging stars.
Russo and Ferrara struggled to gain approval for some of their ideas from WCW management, such as a "
In December 1999, Bret Hart suffered a career-ending concussion during a match with Goldberg.[79] Goldberg himself would slice open a major artery in his forearm less than a week later, while punching through a limousine window in Salisbury, Maryland, as part of a storyline that was written by Russo.[80] Russo and Ferrara were suspended three months later amid rumors that they wanted to make former UFC fighter Tank Abbott the WCW World Heavyweight Champion.[81] Abbott, despite his legitimate fighting background, had little wrestling experience and had failed to connect with WCW audiences.[82] Kevin Sullivan, who had been on and off as a booker over the course of several years, was appointed as the new head writer in the interim.
The new writing team attempted to appease fans by having Chris Benoit win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Souled Out in January 2000.[83] However, Benoit was among a group of wrestlers who expressed their intent to leave the company prior to the show because Sullivan was not particularly fond of them. Benoit, in particular, had a personal grievance with Sullivan dating back several months as a storyline with the two that involved Benoit winning the services of Sullivan's manager, Woman (Sullivan's then-wife Nancy), led to an extramarital affair that resulted in a real life relationship developing between Benoit and Woman. Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn among several others, voiced their grievances to Busch, who initially agreed to take Sullivan off Nitro and Thunder, only to turn around and tell them they were all being sent home except Benoit. In retaliation, Benoit handed the belt back after winning it and he, along with Guerrero, Malenko, and Saturn, signed with the WWF the next day; becoming popularly known as "The Radicalz". As a result, Busch was fired as Senior Vice President and replaced by Turner programming executive Brad Siegel.
On February 11, 2000, 12 wrestlers, including
Final year (2000–2001)
Continued decline (2000–2001)
In April 2000, with ratings hitting new lows, Russo and Bischoff were reinstated by WCW. In another attempt to get WCW's creative product turned around, they decided to "reboot" WCW into a more modern, streamlined company. All angles taking place at the time were immediately dropped and all championships were vacated.
The first major storyline to take place following the reboot saw Bischoff and Russo form an on-screen union that stood up for the younger talent in the company (which they dubbed
Although neither was a trained wrestler, both Russo and actor David Arquette each won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, the latter in order to promote the film Ready to Rumble. Arquette was vehemently against winning the championship, believing that fans, like himself, would detest a non-wrestler winning the title as neither looked physically capable of defeating actual wrestlers in a match. In WWE's The Rise and Fall of WCW documentary, Jim Ross said that Arquette winning the championship was a "farce" and an "embarrassment", and David Crockett, the brother of Jim Crockett Jr. who worked as one of WCW's backstage producers, said that WCW might as well "throw [the title] in the trash can".[90][91][92]
Goldberg turned heel for the first time in his career at The Great American Bash, but his subsequent feud with Kevin Nash, and a failed attempt to duplicate his original streak, greatly diminished Goldberg's drawing power.
Vince Russo had many behind-the-scenes conflicts with Hulk Hogan as he still believed that Hogan's time in the spotlight was over. Hogan was viewed as "
Infuriated by Russo's actions, which conflicted with his intentions for Bash, Bischoff departed once more in July 2000. At the New Blood Rising pay-per-view on August 13, an injured Goldberg walked out of a triple threat elimination contest against Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner, violating the script of the match, and leaving Steiner to wrestle and lose to Nash by himself. Goldberg then swore at Russo on his way back to the dressing room on-camera. As a result of Goldberg's actions, the storyline was changed to a rivalry between Steiner and Goldberg, culminating in a match at Fall Brawl in September 2000, which Steiner won. Immediately afterward, Russo informed Goldberg that if he ever lost another match, he would be released from his WCW contract. However, this was an opportunity for Goldberg to heal from previous injuries and Russo was gone from the promotion entirely by late 2000, leaving former All Japan Pro Wrestling star Johnny Ace to replace him.[95] During this time, a short-lived crossover feud began involving stars of WCW and Battle Dome.
At the
Attempted Bischoff/Fusient purchase (2001)
Acquisition by the WWF and aftermath (2001–2017)
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. through its subsidiary, WCW, Inc. WCW's intangible properties were purchased for $3 million.[105] Most of the main event-level stars including Ric Flair, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, and Sting were contracted directly to parent company AOL Time Warner instead of WCW, and thus AOL Time Warner was forced to continue to pay many of the wrestlers for years.[106] The company's legal name reverted to Universal Wrestling Corporation; it would remain listed as a subsidiary of Time Warner until December 16, 2017, when it was merged into Turner Broadcasting System.
There were many aborted attempts to run WCW-branded events (including a proposed Saturday night timeslot that later evolved into
In 2004,
On December 16, 2017, the Universal Wrestling Corporation, the remaining remnant of WCW, merged into Turner Broadcasting System.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-609-60690-5.
- Auletta, Ken (2004-09-30). Media Man: Ted Turner's Improbable Empire. W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05168-4.
- Bischoff, Eric; Roberts, Jeremy (2006-10-17). Controversy Creates Ca$h. World Wrestling Entertainment. ISBN 1-4165-2729-X.
- Evans, Guy (2018-07-06). NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW. WCWNitroBook.com. ISBN 978-0692139172.
- Foley, Mick (2001-07-01). Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-714508-X.
- Foley, Mick (2000-10-16). Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-710738-2.
- Lawler, Jerry (2002-12-17). It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes. World Wrestling Entertainment. ISBN 0-7434-5768-4.
- Reynolds, R.D.; Alvarez, Bryan (2004-11-01). The Death of WCW. ECW Press. ISBN 1-55022-661-4.
- Reynolds, R.D.; Baer, Randy (2004-10-01). WrestleCrap: True Stories of the World's Maddest Wrestlers. Blake Publishing. ISBN 1-84454-071-5.
- The Monday Night War - WWE RAW vs. WCW Nitro, (2004), World Wrestling Entertainment, ASIN B0001CCXCA.
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- ISBN 0-609-60690-5.
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