World Championship Wrestling
| Acronym | WCW |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1988 |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Style | Professional wrestling, Sports entertainment |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Founder(s) | Ted Turner |
| Owner(s) | Ted Turner (1988-2001) Vince McMahon (2001-Present) |
| Parent | Turner Broadcasting System (1988–1996) Time Warner (1996–2001) World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (2001-Present) |
| Formerly | NWA Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling Georgia Championship Wrestling Jim Crockett Promotions NWA World Championship Wrestling Universal Wrestling Corporation World Championship Wrestling |
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting purchased the promotion, renaming it "World Championship Wrestling". Turner, and later Time-Warner, owned WCW until 2001, when it was purchased by its former competitor, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) (now World Wrestling Entertainment).[1][2]
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 New World Order 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-WWF.
Contents |
History
Early usage of the 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 November 21, 1988 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.[3] Barnett wound up as the majority owner of the territory, and he wound up using the name for the territory's television program in 1982.
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, Ole Anderson, and Dusty Rhodes had extensive wrestling experience, but were so entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion that they were ineffective at building WCW's audience.
Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo
While Eric Bischoff has received much criticism for some of his mishandling while he acted as WCW Executive Producer (and later, WCW President), Bischoff combined an understanding of wrestling 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 helped to bring the company down, as main-event level talent were less than cooperative in helping rising stars fulfill their potential, a staple of the industry. Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, a former writer for World Wrestling Federation, 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 well and Bischoff soon left the company.
WCW in other media
From 2000 to late 2001, Monster Jam had a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers' names. These include nWo (2000), Sting (2000-2001), Nitro Machine (2000-Currently Inferno), Madusa (2000-Present) and Goldberg (2000-2001). The first to go was nWo, which only ran for a season. Next, all but Goldberg, Nitro, and Madusa were retired after the WCW sponsorship was lost. Nitro then became Flashfire, then was converted into Inferno. Madusa has stayed as the same name ever since it was created, because it is driven by former WCW superstar Madusa. As for Goldberg, it was changed to Team Meents in 2002, then into Maximum Destruction, which debuted in 2003 and continues to compete in the series.
Bankruptcy and 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.
One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out, however, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, the 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 canceled 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.
During the sale, 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 Vince McMahon only acquired select assets, the company 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.
WCW under the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
WCW wrestlers who were under contract at the time of bankruptcy were brought into the WWE under the "Invasion" storyline in 2001. WCW Championships and belts were brought into use under WWE programming both on Raw and Smackdown by wrestlers who were champions at the time of WCW's closure, including the WCW United States Championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, the WCW World Tag Team Championship, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. ECW also joined the storyline siding with WCW. Former ECW owner Paul Heyman stood as an on-screen factor in the ECW/WCW coalition as an announcer.
The Invasion storyline saw the talent roster divided by one under WCW and another under WWF. A feud between the 2 brands commenced with Stone Cold Steve Austin leading WCW/ECW and The Rock leading the WWF. The feud reached it's climax at Survivor Series 2001, with the WWF defeating WCW in a traditional Survivor Series 10 man tag team elimination match, with The Rock pinning Austin. McMahon would commence to come out to the crowd and raise his arms in celebration.
By early 2002, having inherited the WCW talent roster and struggling to accommodate what was now a double-sized WWF talent roster, the WWF created a Raw brand and a Smackdown brand, each having their own talent, title belts and schedules, not collaborating with each other. In a surprise move, McMahon put personal and business emotions aside and hired Eric Bischoff as on-screen General Manager of Raw, and backstage as a contributor to storylines and creative ideas.
Over the next decade, the now re-named WWE (due to a lawsuit by the World Wildlife Fund), lost their marketing rights to the WWF video library. The WCW video library however was often used to market WCW legends in their own biography DVDs, and was eventually included it within WWE DVDs of various kinds, notably being included in WWE confidential episodes detailing WCW wrestlers past and present as well as the rise and downfall of the company, as well as The Monday Night Wars DVD detailing both companies competitive times. In 2003, the company resurrected the United States title to be competed for exclusively on SmackDown. When Hulk Hogan came back to the WWE, the WWE kept his Hollywood nickname. In 2004, the WWE brought back the The Great American Bash pay-per-view and also in 2009, released Starrcade: The Essential Collection as a three-disc DVD set.
In 2010, following on from the DVD "The Rise and Fall of ECW," the WWE released "The Rise and Fall of WCW." [4] Interviews from WCW legends such as Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Jim Crockett, Bill Goldberg and many of those responsible for running both the NWA and WCW were included, as well as archive footage interviews from Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Eric Bischoff, detailing what led to the companies successes and failures. Whilst the WWE copyrighted the footage to themselves with the scratch logo, interview namestraps were marketed under WCW branding.
Legacy
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 WWF.[5] 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 to the WWF for $2.5 million in 2001. Shortly after the purchase, Vince McMahon purchased the entire tape library for an additional $1.7 million, bringing the final tally of World Championship Wrestling's sale to $4.2 million.
Championships and programming
Championships
| Championship | Notes |
|---|---|
| NWA World Heavyweight Championship | The world title of the National Wrestling Alliance. It was defended within WCW from 1988 until 1993. |
| NWA World Tag Team Championship | The world tag team title of the National Wrestling Alliance. It was defended within WCW from 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 WWF until March 2008, when it was retired as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. |
| WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship | The title was established under WCW in March 2001 but was retired after the WCW's purchase by the WWF. |
| WCW Light Heavyweight Championship | The title was established under WCW in 1991 and was defended until September 1992, when the title was retired. |
| WCW Hardcore Championship | The title was established under WCW in 1999 and was defended until March 2001, when the title was retired. |
| WCW International World Heavyweight Championship | The second world title of WCW. It was established in 1993 under 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 NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. Under World Wrestling Entertainment, the title remains active as the WWE United States Championship. |
| WCW United States Tag Team Championship | The title was established in 1986 under NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling 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 until 1997, when the title was retired. |
| WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship | The title was established under WCW in 1997 but was retired later that 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 derived from the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship of NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and was defended within WCW until 1991, when the title was retired. |
| WCW World Tag Team Championship | The world tag team title of the WCW. It was established in 1975 under NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and would continue to be used after WCW's purchase by the WWF until November 2001. |
| WCW World Television Championship | The title was established in 1974 under NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and was defended within WCW until April 2000, when the title was retired. |
Programming
| Programming | Notes |
|---|---|
| WCW Monday Nitro | (1995–2001) |
| WCW Thunder | (1998–2001) |
| WCW Saturday Night | (1971– 2000) Also known as WCW Saturday Morning, Georgia Championship Wrestling, and World Championship Wrestling. |
| World Championship Wrestling: Sunday Edition | (1973–1987) |
| WCW WorldWide | (1975–2001) Also known as World Wide Wrestling. |
| WCW Pro | (1985–1998) Also known as NWA Pro Wrestling and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. |
| WCW Main Event | (1989–1998) Also known as NWA Main Event. |
| WCW Power Hour | (1989–1994) Also known as NWA Power Hour. |
| WCW Prime | (1995–1997) |
| WCW Clash of the Champions | (1988-1997) Also known as NWA Clash of Champions. |
See also
- History of World Championship Wrestling
- Jim Crockett Promotions
- Monday Night Wars
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- List of WCW pay-per-view events
- List of World Championship Wrestling alumni
- The Alliance (professional wrestling)
- New World Order (professional wrestling)
- Nitro Girls
References
- ↑ Green, Jordan (2005-12-14). "I was famous for getting beat up': The glorious and tragic story of Carolina wrasslin". YES! Weekly. http://www.georgesouth.com/press/051214_YESweekly.htm.
- ↑ Assael, Shaun; Mooneyham, Mike (2002-07-16). Sex, Lies and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation. Crown Publishers. pp. 252. ISBN 0-609-60690-5.
- ↑ Ghosts of Wrestling Past
- ↑ Ross, Jim (2009-05-03). "J.R.'s Place". J.R.'s Barbq. http://www.jrsbarbq.com/jrs-qa/wwe/hey-jr-i-was-just-wondering-do-you-know-when-rise-and-fall-wcw-coming-out-and-what-do-you. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
- ↑ Assael, Shaun; Mooneyham, Mike (2002-07-16). Sex, Lies and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. Crown Publishers. pp. 61. ISBN 0-609-60690-5.
External links
- WWE.com's WCW World Heavyweight Championship History
- WCW Title Histories
- Mid-Atlantic Gateway - The Website of Record on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling History
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