World Championship Wrestling

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World Championship Wrestling
Details
Acronym	WCW
Established	1988
Folded	March 26, 2001
Style	Professional wrestling, sports entertainment
Location	Atlanta, Georgia
Founder(s)	Ted Turner
Owner(s)	Jim Crockett (1979-1986) Ted Turner (1988-2001) Vince McMahon (2001-Present)
Parent	Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), Inc. (1988 – 1996) Time Warner (1996 – 2001) World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Inc. (2001-present)
Formerly	NWA Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling Georgia Championship Wrestling Jim Crockett Promotions NWA World Championship Wrestling Universal Wrestling Corporation

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001 before being purchased by its former competitor, the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment).^[1][2]

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), run by Jim Crockett Promotions until 1988, when Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting purchased the promotion, renaming it World Championship Wrestling. From 1995 onwards, WCW began to turn the corner economically, largely due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer, the hiring of Hulk Hogan, the introduction of Nitro and the resultant Monday Night Wars, the nWo and other innovative concepts. However, numerous problems led to the company losing its lead. Its fall from grace has been heavily documented within the industry. The promotion was purchased in 2001 by former competitor Vince McMahon and the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early usage of the "World Championship Wrestling" name 1.2 Leadership and booking 1.2.1 Eric Bischoff and later, Vince Russo 1.3 Acquisition by the World Wrestling Federation 2 Overview 3 Final champions 3.1 Under WCW banner 3.2 Under WWE banner 3.2.1 Footnotes 4 WCW in other media 5 Championships and accomplishments 6 WCW programming 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] History

Main article: History of World Championship Wrestling

[edit] Early usage of the "World Championship Wrestling" name

Although the name "World Championship Wrestling" had been used as a brand and television show name by various promotions affiliated with the NWA since 1982, (most notably Georgia Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions) it was not until five years later that an actual NWA-affiliated promotion called World Championship Wrestling appeared on the national scene, under the ownership of media mogul Ted Turner, based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jim Barnett, who had worked for the World Championship Wrestling promotion in Australia, came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle over the NWA Georgia territory. Barnett wound up as the majority owner of the territory, and he wound up using the name for the territory's television program. WCW was voted in 2000 as the worst televised wrestling company in the history of wrestling.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Leadership and booking

While initially the new company was called Universal Wrestling Corporation, very shortly following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" name for the new promotion. The company went through various changes in its leadership and booking during the following years. Some people, like Jim Herd and Kip Frey, were completely lacking in wrestling experience; others, like Bill Watts and Ole Anderson, had extensive wrestling experience, but were so entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion that they were ineffective at building WCW's audience.

[edit] Eric Bischoff and later, Vince Russo

While Eric Bischoff has received much criticism for some of his mishandlings while he acted as WCW Executive Producer (and later, WCW President), Bischoff combined an understanding of wrestling (albeit without as much of a respect for the old Georgia/NWA legacy) with a willingness to make changes that were needed in order to help WCW become more visible in the eyes of the media and advertisers. These changes including moving some television tapings to Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, and signing both main-event performers and young stars from around the world.

Some of the creative freedoms that Bischoff granted main-event level talent, ironically enough, helped to bring the company down, as main-event level talent were less than cooperative in helping rising stars fulfill their potential. Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, a former writer for World Wrestling Entertainment, came on board to become the lead writer of WCW. Russo did not last long in his position, but in April 2000, WCW opted to bring Russo and Bischoff back in hopes that the duo might re-spark interest in WCW.

The two, however, did not get along, and Eric Bischoff left the company after Vince Russo - in the course of an in-ring promo - made comments about Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan) which many felt were derogatory not just to the Hogan character, but to Bollea himself.

[edit] Acquisition by the World Wrestling Federation

As 2000 came to a close, a number of potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company. Ted Turner, however, was still in charge of Time Warner prior to the final merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001 (shortly following the AOL/Time Warner merger), and it appeared that WCW would continue.

However, one of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, World Wrestling Federation began speaking to the new AOL Time Warner about acquiring the WCW brand. Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division, and deemed WCW wrestling to be out of line with their image. As a result, WCW programming was cancelled on both TBS and TNT, leaving Vince McMahon's company, which at the time had an exclusive deal with Viacom, free to acquire the trademarks, video libraries and a few contracts.

One of the truly mind-boggling facts about the sale is that WCW was in litigation, with various lawsuits pending, and AOL Time Warner still had to pay various performers their guaranteed deals, as many had contracts directly with the parent company, and not with WCW. Since McMahon only acquired select assets, the shell that was once WCW became known as Universal Wrestling Corporation once again; its only purpose now, however, was to deal with old contracts and lawsuits.

[edit] Overview

At the outset of WCW's existence, as well as with the promotions that came before it, the company was strongly identified with the Southern style of professional wrestling (or rasslin'), which emphasized athletic in-ring competition over the showmanship and cartoonish characters of the WWE.^[3] This identification persisted into the 1990s, even as the company signed former WWF stars such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. WCW dominated pro wrestling's television ratings from 1996 to 1998 (84 straight weeks) mainly due to its incredibly popular New World Order storyline, but thereafter began to lose heavy ground to the WWF, which had recovered greatly due to its new "Attitude" branding. Repetitive story lines, questionable booking issues, and corporate restrictions eventually led the promotion to begin losing large amounts of money, leading to parent company AOL Time Warner selling the name copyrights and tape library to the WWF for $2.0 million in 2001.

In the late 1980s, WCW based itself regionally, mainly doing all its shows in the Deep South. WCW was the more popular choice among fans in the Deep South in comparison to the WWF. A few years later, WCW slowly started expanding nationally making it a national rival to the WWF, which led to a huge ratings competition between the two promotions. Despite signing big name stars from the WWF, WCW eventually lost out and folded in 2001. The WCW legacy still lives on in WWE, as they have decided to keep the WCW Cruiserweight and U.S. Championship belts. Following the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently referred to as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship and became exclusive to the SmackDown! brand. On September 28, 2007 the Cruiserweight title was vacated, after Hornswoggle was stripped of the championship. After a six-month absence, on March 3, 2008, WWE removed the championship from the active superstars webpage, where originally the title was listed as vacant. Afterwards, the title was removed from the active title list on their title histories webpage, to the defunct championship list, thus, the title was quietly retired. Also when Hulk Hogan returned to WWE, he returned to his traditional red and yellow WWF colors. However, WWE decided to keep the "Hollywood" aspect of the Hogan character. WWE also recolored his ring attire, bringing back the "Hulkamania" red and yellow colors, while keeping the nWo-styled clothes (bandana, long tights, and feather boa) which was given to him by WCW. In 2004, WWE brought back the Great American Bash as one of its annual PPV events.

[edit] Final champions

[edit] Under WCW banner

Championship	Final champion(s)	Date won	Event
WCW World Heavyweight Championship	Booker T	March 26, 2001	Nitro
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship	Booker T	March 18, 2001	Greed
WCW World Tag Team Championship	Natural Born Thrillers (Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire	January 14, 2001	Sin
WCW Cruiserweight Championship	Shane Helms	March 18, 2001	Greed
WCW World Television Championship5	Hacksaw Jim Duggan	February 16, 2000	Thunder
WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship6	The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, Jr.)	March 26, 2001	Nitro
WCW Hardcore Championship7	Meng	January 14, 2001	Sin

[edit] Under WWE banner

Championship	Final champion(s)	Date won	Event
WCW World Heavyweight Championship1	Chris Jericho	December 9, 2001	Vengeance
WCW United States Championship2	Edge	November 12, 2001	Raw
WCW World Tag Team Championship3	Dudley Boyz	October 23, 2001	SmackDown!
WCW Cruiserweight Championship4	Yoshihiro Tajiri	October 22, 2001	Raw

[edit] Footnotes