World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling | ||
Formerly |
| |
Company type |
| |
Industry | Professional wrestling | |
Predecessor | ||
Founded | October 11, 1988[1] | |
Founder | Ted Turner | |
Defunct |
| |
Fate | Deactivated and renamed by Parent |
|
Website | WCW Wrestling (archived) WCW on WWE.com |
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American
For all of its existence, WCW was one of the two top professional wrestling promotions in the United States alongside the
Beginning in 1999, WCW endured significant losses in ratings and revenue due to creative missteps and suffered from the fallout from the 2001 merger of America Online (AOL) and Turner Broadcasting parent Time Warner (later WarnerMedia, now known as Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)). Soon thereafter, WCW was shut down, and the WWF purchased select WCW assets in 2001, including its video library, intellectual property (including the WCW name and championships), and some wrestler contracts.[8][9] The corporate subsidiary, which was retained to deal with legal obligations and reverted to the Universal Wrestling Corporation name, officially became defunct in 2017. Its headquarters were located in Smyrna, Georgia.[10]
History
1982 to 1993: Origins, creation, and NWA membership
"World Championship Wrestling" was a television show produced by Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) since 1982. Jim Barnett (who had briefly owned the Australian promotion of that name) came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle for control of GCW.[11] Barnett ultimately became majority owner of the promotion, and began using his previous promotion's name for GCW's weekly Saturday television program in 1982. Following the events that became known as Black Saturday, in which GCW and its television program briefly came under the ownership of the WWF, the promotion was eventually purchased by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the promoter of the Mid-Atlantic territory immediately north of Georgia.
Influential wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its sister publications thereafter habitually referred to JCP as "World Championship Wrestling", "WCW" and most commonly "the World Championship area" and continued to do so until early 1988 when it began referring to the company solely as the NWA, reasoning that "it has become apparent that the NWA and the World Championship area are one and the same."[12][13]
By late 1988, JCP was financially struggling after further territory acquisitions. Ted Turner, the namesake principal owner of Turner Broadcasting, formed a new subsidiary in October 1988 to acquire most of the assets of JCP. The acquisition was completed on November 2, 1988. While initially the subsidiary was incorporated as the "Universal Wrestling Corporation", following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" as the name for the promotion.[14]
In late Summer/early Autumn 1993, a behind-the-scenes dispute between WCW and the NWA Board of Directors over who had the right to authorize
1993 to 1996: Eric Bischoff takes charge; launch of WCW Monday Nitro
In February 1993 former commentator
In 1995, during a face-to-face meeting with Ted Turner, Bischoff was able to convince Turner that in order for WCW to become competitive with the WWF, WCW would require an equivalent to WWF's new flagship cable show
1996 to 1998: WCW's exponential growth; Nitro defeats Raw for 83 weeks
WCW Monday Nitro proved a success for the company, which was immediately able to create a television audience of an equivalent size to WWF Raw. Between September 1995 and May 1996, Nitro and Raw regularly traded victories in the battle for the largest television audience. However in June 1996, Nitro would begin a streak of 83 constructive victories over Raw, initially sparked by the start of the
The start of the nWo angle, which immediately proved immensely popular and intriguing to wrestling fans, was part of a wider shift in the WCW presentation still being pursued by Eric Bischoff.[26] As part of his overhaul of WCW, Bischoff wanted to grow WCW's audience amongst 18 to 35-year-olds.[27] To that end, he alongside WCW's booker Kevin Sullivan began grounding WCW characters and storylines more in reality, utilising real names and darker themes in contrast to the more cartoon-like presentation which had dominated wrestling in the 1980s and early 1990s.[28] An example of this shift in tone was seen in the transformation of top WCW star Sting over the course of 1996 following the start of the nWo angle, whose persona shifted from a colorful and cheerful clean-cut babyface to a dark, depressed and brooding antihero inspired by the 1994 film The Crow.[14][29][note 2] Another major innovation occurring concurrently in WCW was the introduction of the Cruiserweight division, which saw the introduction of smaller, more agile and more athletic wrestlers performing fast-paced, high-flying dangerous matches on WCW shows.[30] This added another unique element to WCW shows that helped propel their surging popularity.
The combination of a more adult-orientated presentation, live and unedited television, more reality-based storylines, new top-level talent, new and intriguing characters, and more varied in-ring action saw WCW's fortunes dramatic shift; the company went from struggling financially as late as 1995 to generating $55,000,000 in profit in 1998.
1998 to 2001: Leadership changes; collapse and eventual demise
1996 and 1997 had been banner years for WCW, with profits and popularity soaring. 1998 saw profits continue to rise. However, maintaining the quality of the shows became difficult, particularly after WCW's owners Time Warner ordered the creation of a second live cable WCW program
Concurrently to WCW beginning to struggle under the weight of its own momentum, the WWF began to turn the corner on its own reforms. Having been caught flatfooted by the total reconfiguration of WCW and the success of Nitro in 1996 and 1997, by 1998 the WWF was building its own momentum. Taking most of the innovations WCW had implemented and reapplying them to their own presentation, WWF began its "Attitude Era". Building around newly emerging stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, as well as WWF promoter Vince McMahon becoming a major on-screen character himself, the WWF finally ended Nitro's 83 weeks of ratings victories on April 27, 1998. For the next four months, Nitro and Raw would trade wins until October 26, 1998, when Nitro scored its last-ever ratings victory over Raw. The combined pressure of the WWF seizing back the ratings lead as well as WCW's own internal problem caused tension amongst both the on-screen talent and management.
By November 1998 Kevin Nash had become head booker of WCW, overseeing the creative direction of both Nitro and Thunder.[36][37] Nash's tenure was fraught with unpopular decisions, such as the move that saw the popular undefeated streak of WCW Champion Goldberg ended by Nash himself, who then became champion, only for Nash to then lay down for Hollywood Hogan and reform a reunited nWo in the widely panned "Fingerpoke of Doom" angle.[38][14][39][40][41]
Bischoff removed from power; Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera arrive
By September 1999, the rapidly declining ratings of Nitro (now half that of Raw), drastic dropoff in revenue,
The tenure of Russo and Ferrera at the creative helm of WCW was short-lived; by March 2000 the pair had been suspended from their positions as their provocative and edgy angles caused constant protest from AOL Time Warner executives.
Mounting frustrations amongst the talent resulted in many leaving WCW for the WWF; The Giant and Chris Jericho were the first major talent to "jump" to the WWF in 1999, but they were soon followed by many others. Chris Benoit (WCW World Champion at the time), Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn, who performed together on WCW television as "The Revolution", all collectively walked out of WCW and over to the WWF in January 2000, an incident which resulted in a number of firings amongst WCW management.[47] With shakeups to WCW management becoming more and more frequent, the WCW talent began to lose any sense of leadership or direction, which in turn caused them to form bickering political cliques amongst themselves.
Bischoff and Russo collaboration
In April 2000, WCW attempted to resolve its creative issues by asking Eric Bischoff to return but work alongside Vince Russo as a duo.
2001: Sale to the World Wrestling Federation
In 2000, several potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company. Ted Turner, however, did not hold influence over Time Warner before the final merger of America Online (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.[52] One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out after AOL Time Warner refused to allow WCW to continue airing on its networks, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around.
In the meantime,
The cancellation of WCW programming left the WWF free to acquire the key assets of WCW through its new subsidiary W. Acquisition Company, which was renamed WCW Inc. afterwards.[8][9] AOL Time Warner sold the rights to the World Championship Wrestling name, branding, championships, and all other remaining assets aside from the talent roster and video library to WWF for $2.5 million in March 2001.[56] Shortly afterwards WWF paid an additional $1.8 million to cover costs to AOL Time Warner in the negotiations, bringing the final tally of WCW's sale to $4.3 million.[57] AOL Time Warner maintained its subsidiary, which reverted to its original legal name of Universal Wrestling Corporation, to deal with legal obligations and liabilities not acquired by the WWF.[10] The UWC was listed as a subsidiary of Time Warner until 2017, when it was merged into Turner Broadcasting System.[58][59]
Some of the WCW wrestlers joined the WWE immediately and participated in the The Invasion (professional wrestling) storyline which lasted until the end of 2001, however many of WCW's top stars had contracts with AOL Time Warner rather than WCW itself, and most choose to sit out the length of their contracts rather than breaking them in order to work for the WWF.[60] Most would eventually find their way to WWE, although Sting remained a notable exception for almost a decade and a half.[60]
Many other WCW wrestlers moved to World Wrestling All-Stars and then Total Nonstop Action Wrestling which both started after the end of WCW.
Features
Cruiserweight division
In the spring of 1996, WCW introduced its "Cruiserweight division", a segmented portion of the roster featuring smaller, faster and more agile wrestlers that contrasted starkly, both visually and stylistically, with their heavyweight counterparts. I think the cruiserweight division and the talent represented therein probably had as much to do with the success of Nitro as the nWo storyline and Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash. I don’t think people recognize it. The talent in that division not only helped Nitro consistently defeat WWE...that talent forced WWE, as much as the nWo, to change the way they were presenting the product.[62]
The Cruiserweight division would continue to directly influence North American wrestling for many decades. Following the acquisition of WCW by WWF/WWE in 2001, WWE revived the Cruiserweight division in 2002 to be a feature of its
Legacy
Part of a series on |
Professional wrestling |
---|
WCW was extremely influential within professional wrestling in the 1990s and several elements innovated and introduced by WCW would continue to be used in professional wrestling decades after its closure.
Short-term legacy
In the immediate aftermath of WWF's purchase of WCW, a significant portion of WCW's active roster was integrated into the WWF. These former WCW talents would be used as part of a "WCW vs WWF" storyline that ran in the WWF throughout 2001. The storyline began proper at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view, which received 775,000 buys and became one of the highest-grossing wrestling pay-per-views of all time.[64] Although WWF was able to recruit many of those on the WCW roster at the time of the purchase, it was unable to secure the use of most of its top-level stars, as they were signed to long-term contracts with AOL-Time Warner rather than WCW.[60] As such, these stars could remain inactive but still continue to be paid, and were not incentivized to join WWF until those contracts expired. It would not be until 2002 onwards that headline WCW stars such as Goldberg or Scott Steiner would join the company.[60] At the No Way Out pay-per-view in February 2002, WWE began their own version of the new World order centered around Hogan, Nash and Hall, but later incorporating former WCW stars the Giant (now known as the Big Show) and Booker T as well as WWE talent such as Shawn Michaels.
Throughout the early 2000s, many former WCW headliners found it difficult to integrate into WWE, as there continued to be legitimate tensions between the two groups. Former WCW performers such as Diamond Dallas Page (who had accepted a WWF contract in 2001) were perceived to be intentionally poorly used as part of a "victory lap" by WWF.[60] In turn, this dissuaded some WCW stars from trusting WWE; for example, Sting choose to remain out of WWE until 2014,[60] and even when he did join, WWE was criticised using Sting to perform yet another victory lap at WrestleMania 31.[65]
After the closure of WCW, several new professional wrestling promotions would launch featuring former talent associated with WCW. The most prominent of these,
Long-term legacy
Throughout the 2000s, WWE would incorporate elements into their shows formerly associated with WCW. Former WCW Championships such as the
WWE has since released various WCW documentaries, anthologies, and compilations, including The Rise and Fall of WCW,[67] and a three volume series hosted by Diamond Dallas Page called The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro.[68] WCW's library content would be made available with the launch of WWE Network in 2014.
WWE would revive several of WCW's events, including Great American Bash in 2004, Starrcade in 2017 and Halloween Havoc in 2020. Also in 2017, WWE held its first annual NXT WarGames event for its NXT brand, with that's year's event featuring the first WarGames match since the September 4, 2000, episode of Nitro.
In 2019, new promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) formed a partnership with WarnerMedia to air their flagship show, AEW Dynamite, on TNT, returning professional wrestling to the network for the first time since WCW's closure. On January 5, 2022, Dynamite moved to TNT's sibling network, TBS, marking the first time TBS has aired wrestling programming since the March 21, 2001, episode of WCW Thunder.[69] TNT has also broadcast AEW's second show, AEW Rampage, since August 13, 2021, and added another AEW show with the June 17, 2023, debut of AEW Collision.
In 2020, AEW revived WCW's
Championships
Championship | Notes |
---|---|
NWA Western States Heritage Championship | A National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) championship intended for mid-card wrestlers. It was created under Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in 1987 and used in WCW until it was retired in 1989. |
NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|
The world title of the NWA. It was defended within WCW from 1988 until 1993.
|
NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship | The title was established under the Chicago territory of the NWA in 1955 and defended within WCW from 1988 to 1989. |
NWA World Tag Team Championship | The world tag team title of the NWA. It was defended within WCW from 1992 through 1993.
|
WCW Cruiserweight Championship
|
The title was established under WCW in 1996 and would continue to be used after WCW's purchase by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) until March 2008, when it was retired as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. |
WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship | The title was established on March 18, 2001, but was retired eight days later after WCW's purchase by the WWF. |
WCW Light Heavyweight Championship | The title was established in 1991 and was defended until September 1992, when the title was retired. |
WCW Hardcore Championship | The title was established in 1999 and was defended until January 2001, when Meng jumped to the WWF as champion. The title was retired later that year due to WCW being bought by the WWF. |
WCW International World Heavyweight Championship | The secondary world title of WCW. It was established in 1993 under WCW International, a fictitious subsidiary of WCW, and was defended until 1994 when it was unified with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. |
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship | The second highest ranked title used in WCW. It was established in 1975 under JCP and would continue to be used after WCW's purchase by the WWF until November 2001, when it was unified with the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Under WWE, the title was revived as the WWE United States Championship in 2003. |
WCW United States Tag Team Championship
|
The title was established in 1986 under JCP and was defended within WCW until July 1992, when the title was retired. |
WCW Women's Championship | The title was established under WCW in 1996 and was defended in Gaea Japan until 1998 when the title was retired. |
WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship | The title was established in 1997 but was retired the following year. |
WCW World Heavyweight Championship | The primary world title of WCW. It was established in 1991 under WCW and would continue to be used after WCW's purchase by the WWF until December 2001, when it was unified with the WWF Championship. |
WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship | The title was established in February 1991 and defended until December 1991, when it was retired. |
WCW World Tag Team Championship | The world tag team title of WCW. It was established in 1975 under JCP and would continue to be used after WCW's purchase by the WWF until November 2001, when it was unified with the WWF Tag Team Championship. |
WCW World Television Championship | The title was established in 1974 under JCP and was defended within WCW until April 2000, when the title was retired. |
Programming
Program | Start date | End date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
WCW Pro | January 11, 1958 | September 27, 1998 | Also known as WCW Pro Wrestling, NWA Pro Wrestling, and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling |
WCW Saturday Night | December 25, 1971 | August 19, 2000 | Also known as WCW Saturday Morning, World Championship Wrestling, and Georgia Championship Wrestling |
Best of World Championship Wrestling | 1973 | 1987 | Also known as Best of Championship Wrestling |
WCW WorldWide | 1975 | April 1, 2001 | Also known as WCW World Wide Wrestling, NWA World Wide Wrestling, and World Wide Wrestling |
WCW Clash of the Champions | March 27, 1988 | August 21, 1997 | Also known as NWA Clash of the Champions |
WCW Main Event | January 21, 1988 | January 3, 1998 | Also known as NWA Main Event |
WCW Power Hour | June 23, 1989 | March 5, 1994 | Also known as NWA Power Hour |
WCW All Nighter | March 6, 1994 | January 10, 1995 | |
WCW Prime | February 6, 1995 | 1997 | |
WCW Monday Nitro | September 4, 1995 | March 26, 2001 | |
WCW Thunder | January 8, 1998 | March 21, 2001 |
In other media
From 2000 to 2001,
WCW also had a presence in
Several WCW video games were made in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, including WCW Wrestling, WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling, WCW vs. the World, WCW vs. nWo: World Tour, WCW/nWo Revenge and WCW Mayhem.
Notes
- ^ In Controversy Creates Cash (2006), Bischoff claims that WCW lost approximately $10,000,000 in 1993[19]
- ^ Although Sting's shift to the "Crow" inspired character was part of the overall direction by Eric Bischoff, the specific idea that Sting should adopt the dark avenging character was generated by Scott Hall after seeing the film.[29]
- ^ Having made $55,000,000 in profits in 1998, by the final quarter of 1999 it was apparent to both Bischoff and Time Warner management that WCW would lose at least $5,000,000 that year.[31]
- ^ On the December 23, 1999, live episode of Thunder, WCW shot an angle in which Goldberg chased after members of the nWo backstage, who attempted to escape in a limousine. Goldberg proceeded to punch through the glass window of the limousine as an improvised part of the segment. The glass was real and as it shattered it cut Goldberg's arm deeply, severing an artery. After the segment, Goldberg was rushed to a local hospital and at one point his arm might have to be amputated. Eventually, the wound was closed with 40 stitches but it took 5 months for Goldberg to recover from the injury.[49]
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- ^ Atlanta Business JournalJune 28, 1999 Archived May 29, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
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Monday night is that one time during the week when I can forget that I'm the president of WCW, that I've got 150 employees to worry about.
- ISBN 978-0446408905.
[Bischoff] constantly trumpeted to anybody who would listen that Hogan and the nWo were the sole reason why WCW had pulled ahead of WWF in the ratings war. He never stopped to think that another reason may have been the hard work of the leprosy-afflicted cruiserweights.
- ^ "Sting". WWE.com. WWE. 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
- ISBN 978-1438146461.
The cruiserweight division had become the most exciting aspect of WCW.
- ISBN 978-1466876620.
WWE was looking to start a new cruiserweight division like the one that was popular in WCW.
- ^ a b Green, Jordan (December 14, 2005). "I was famous for getting beat up': The glorious and tragic story of Carolina wrasslin". YES! Weekly.
- ^ ISBN 0-609-60690-5.
- ^ ISSN 1043-7576.
The light heavyweight division, like WCW's cruiserweight division, can be a rousing success
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- ^ Ratings Analysis, Pro Wrestling Illustrated May 1988
- ^ "NWA and WWF gain momentum - Is Wrestling Headed Towards A Two Party System?" Pro Wrestling Illustrated October 1987. Article contains copious examples of references to Jim Crockett Promotions as "World Championship Wrestling"/"WCW"/"the World Championship area".
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- ^ Bischoff 2006, p. 83.
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- ^ Bischoff 2006, p. 103.
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- ^ Bischoff 2006, p. 142.
- ^ a b Bischoff 2006, p. 151.
- ^ a b Raimondi, Marc (December 9, 2019). "WWE to honor nWo with Hall of Fame induction". ESPN. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
- ^ Raimondi, Marc (March 14, 2022). "Wrestling legend, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall dies at 63". ESPN. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
Bolstered by the buzz created by the nWo, WCW beat WWF in the head-to-head cable television ratings for 83 weeks straight, something that would have been unheard of just a year earlier.
- ^ Post and Courier. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
- ^ Bischoff 2006, p. 166.
- ^ Bischoff 2006, p. 203.
- ^ a b Bischoff 2006, p. 237.
- ^ Bischoff 2006, p. 200.
- ^ Post and Courier. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
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- ^ a b Bischoff 2006, p. 271.
- ^ Eric Bischoff. "nWo Wolfpace". 83 weeks (Podcast). Retrieved October 20, 2023.
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- ^ Pollock, John (December 27, 2021). "Bill Goldberg's streak ends at WCW Starrcade 1998". POST Wrestling. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
WCW ended 1998 by ending the undefeated streak of Bill Goldberg. It was on this date that Goldberg was pinned by Kevin Nash in the main event of Starrcade at the MCI Center in Washington, ending Goldberg's streak and reign as company champion. The decision was heavily criticized, both the decision to end it and the tactic of having Goldberg hit with a cattle prod by Scott Hall to set up the jackknife powerbomb by Nash for the victory.
- ^ "Hulk Hogan's fifth WCW Championship reign". WWE. Archived from the original on July 23, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
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- ^ Bischoff 2006, p. 305.
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- ^ Dave Meltzer (October 11, 1999). "Oct 11, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Vince Russo leaves WWF for WCW, WWF Rebellion". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
- ^ "Vince Russo On Biggest Misconceptions About Him, Origin of The Attitude Era, Who WWE Writers Write For Today". January 7, 2018. Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
- ^ Thompson, AD (April 24, 2023). "POST NEWS UPDATE: Chavo Guerrero Jr. recalls Eddie asking if he wanted to make jump to WWF/E with The Radicalz". POST Wrestling. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
- ^ a b Wonsover, Michael (November 9, 2018). "David Arquette, with return to pro wrestling, finds joy, acceptance and rush of energy". ESPN. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
- ^ a b Dave Meltzer (January 3, 2000). "January 3, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Goldberg injured after car window stunt goes wrong, tons of news". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
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- ^ Eric Bischoff (March 14, 2020). "Eric Bischoff shoots on why WCW was so bad in 2000". 83 Weeks (Podcast). Archived from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023.}}
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Sting was a mainstay of WCW when the rival company tangled with the WWF in a 1990s blood feud for ratings. Most of the biggest WCW stars didn't come to WWF when McMahon bought out his rivals in 2001. That's because the biggest stars were under contract with WCW's parent company, AOL/Time-Warner, and McMahon had no interest in paying their exorbitant salaries. Likewise, the wrestlers weren't inclined to quit and lose the remaining money on their contracts so they could join the WWF. Eventually, as their contracts ended, most of WCW's big names turned up for a run in WWE. By then, McMahon owned a functional monopoly on big-time professional wrestling, and performers like Kevin Nash and Ric Flair and Goldberg were happy to make nice with WWE and put their legacies in Vince's powerful hands.
- ^ a b c d Willis, Matt (September 29, 2016). "WCWs cruiserweight division featured some of the biggest future WWE stars during its peak in the 90s". ESPN. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
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The point of the X-Division was to showcase the high flying, fast-paced style of wrestling which had become very popular due to WCW's cruiserweights in the 1990s which is why I immediately fell in love with the division.
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The point of the X-Division was to showcase the high flying, fast-paced style of wrestling which had become very popular due to WCW's cruiserweights in the 1990's
- ^ Ross, Jim (May 3, 2009). "J.R.'s Place". J.R.'s Barbq. Archived from the original on July 19, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
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Works cited
- ISBN 1-4165-2729-X.