World Championship Wrestling

"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 authorise NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship title changes ultimately resulted in WCW and NWA formally splitting and WCW becoming a clearly distinct, standalone wrestling promotion separate from any other.[14][15]

The logo of WCW Monday Nitro, which debuted on September 4, 1995 and quickly became the focal point of the promotion

In February 1993 former commentator Eric Bischoff was appointed as Executive Producer of WCW,[16][17] and by 1994 he had been promoted once again to Senior Vice President,[18] a position which gave Bischoff both creative and financial control of WCW. At this point, the promotion was struggling financially[note 1] and was widely perceived within the wrestling industry to be at a low ebb. To counter this, Bischoff felt that WCW was in need of radical reform; to this end, Bischoff sought to modernise WCW and move its image away from that of a Southern-based "rasslin" company. To achieve this, Bischoff increased WCW's production values, avoided unprofitable house shows, increased the number of WCW PPVs (which were profitable), decreased the number of Southern accents on commentary, and began recruiting top stars away from the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).[20] This led to marque names such as Hulk Hogan and "The Macho Man" Randy Savage joining WCW's ranks and helping to supplement its business.[21][22]

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 WWF RAW, which aired on the USA Network.[23] The meeting led to Turner greenlighting the creation of WCW Monday Nitro, which would air on TNT on the same day and in the same time slot as RAW.[23] Nitro would debut on September 4, 1995, and directly lead into the Monday Night Wars era of professional wrestling, in which WCW Nitro and WWF RAW would fiercely compete to beat each other in the Nielson ratings each and every week. The struggle between the two promotions, each one attempting to produce the best television show possible each week, would eventually led to an explosion in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and in hindsight is widely considered a golden era.

Kevin Nash

"Hollywood" Hulk Hogan

Scott Hall

The creation of the New World Order stable was a pivotal movement in WCW History and coincided with WCW Nitro overtaking WWF RAW in the Nielsen ratings

• "Surfer" Sting
• pre-1996

• "Crow" Sting
• 1996 onwards

As part of the tonal shifts that occurred in WCW under Eric Bischoff, performers such as Sting dramatically altered their personas

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 WCW regularly traded victories in the battle for the largest television audience. However in June 1996, WCW Nitro would begin an unbroken streak of 83 constructive victories over WWF RAW, initially sparked by the start of the New World Order (nWo) storyline.[24][25] The start of the nWo angle saw former WWF talent Scott Hall and Kevin Nash unexpectedly leave WWF RAW to come to Monday Nitro on consecutive episodes, and each time insinuate that they were there on behalf of the WWF to fight a proxy war.[14][24] They also alleged that they would soon be joined by a third major figure; this "third man" was eventually revealed to be Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1996. A major advantage WCW Nitro initially had over WWF RAW was that Nitro was live-to-air, while RAW was taped in advance and aired days later. Nitro's live atmosphere enhanced segments such as the Hall and Nash debuts as it gave the show an unscripted, "anything can happen at any time" feeling to the television audience.

The start of the nWo angle, which immediately proved immensely popular and intriguing to wrestling fans,[26] was part of a wider shift in the WCW presentation still being pursued by Eric Bischoff. 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[28] 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 90s. 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 colourful 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.[31] December 1997's Starrcade Pay-Per-View event became the highest-grossing PPV of all time for the company, thanks in large part to the show being billed as the culmination of a year-and-a-half feud between Sting and "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan.[14][32][33]

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 WCW Thunder, to air on Thursdays on TBS starting on January 8, 1998.[14][34] as well as ordering a third hour to be added to Nitro's runtime.[34] Nonetheless, the creation of new major headline babyface stars such as Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg were causes for optimism, making the company initially less dependent on the nWo storyline for ratings. However, beginning in Spring 1998, WCW began an angle which saw the nWo split into rival factions, the heel nWo Hollywood (centered around "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan) and the face nWo Wolfpac (consisting of stars such as Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger and Konnan). Speaking in hindsight in 2023, Eric Bischoff has said the angle was rushed, ill-conceived and had no long-term direction.[35] By this point, many critics began to argue that WCW was now completely overreliant on the nWo storyline and unable to pivot to a new grand concept. Additionally, beginning in the summer of 1998, Bischoff has claimed that Time Warner management began to increasingly micromanage WCW and meddle in its presentation. Executives at Time Warner began to increasingly advocate that WCW should pivot to more a "family-friendly" orientation, and drop the reforms that turned around the company's fortunes.[26]

Concurrently to WCW beginning to struggle under the weight of its own momentum, 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 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, WWF finally ended WCW 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 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,[38] only for Nash to then lay down for Hollywood Hogan and reform a reunited nWo in the widely panned "Fingerpoke of Doom" angle.[14][39][40][41]

The WCW logo used between 1999 and 2001

By September 1999, the rapidly declining ratings of WCW Nitro (now half that of WWF RAW), drastic dropoff in revenue[31][note 3] and the increasing antagonism between Eric Bischoff and Time Warner executives prompted the head of Turner Sports, Harvey Schiller, to relieve Bischoff of his position.[14][31][42] Almost immediately Schiller found a duo to replace Bischoff; former head writers for WWF RAW Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera.[14][43] Russo had just weeks prior walked off the job at WWF after a dispute with Vince McMahon over work hours, and Ed Ferrera soon followed.[43][44] Russo and Ferrera were heralded at the time as the main drivers in the turnaround at WWF over the previous two years with their writing philosophy of "Crash TV",[43] a presentation style that emphasised Soap opera style storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments, frequent heel/face turns, an increased amount of female representation on the show, expanded storyline depth, frequent title changes, and a greater focus on developing mid-card talent.[45]

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. AOL and Time Warner had merged in January of 2000 and, according to Bischoff and Russo, their eagerness to tone down WCW had only grown more intense because of this.[46]

Mounting frustrations amongst the talent resulted in many leaving WCW for 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 WWF in January 2000,[47] an incident which resulted in a number of firings amongst WCW management. 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.

In April 2000, WCW attempted to resolve its creative issues by asking Eric Bischoff to return but work alongside Vince Russo as a duo.[14] The pairing was not cohesive and frequently chaffed over the direction of the company. Creatively, the year 2000 saw WCW attempt numerous publicity stunts to gain traction, such as making actor David Arquette (who then had no professional wrestling experience) the WCW World champion.[48] These moves only served to push traditional wrestling fans away from WCW.[48] By July 2000 Bischoff had walked off the job. Events such as Hollywood Hogan seemingly quitting the company live on PPV at Bash at the Beach 2000 only seemed to further a sense that the company was spiralling out of control.[14]

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.[49] 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, Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division, and deemed WCW, along with Turner Sports as a whole, to be out of line with its image and saying that it "would not be favorable enough to get the "right" advertisers to buy airtime" (even though Thunder was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time). As a result, WCW programming was cancelled on TBS and TNT.[50][51] Another factor in Kellner's decision to cancel all WCW programming was the terms of the company's purchase deal with Fusient, which included giving Fusient control over time slots on TNT and TBS even if those slots did not air WCW programming. WCW's losses were then written off via purchase accounting.[52]

The cancellation of WCW programming left the WWF free to acquire the trademarks, video libraries, and some contracts of WCW through its new subsidiary W. Acquisition Company, which was renamed WCW Inc. afterwards.[8][9] 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 WWF.[10] The UWC was listed as a subsidiary of Time Warner until 2017, when it was merged into Turner Broadcasting System.[53][54]

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.[55] Shortly afterwards WWF paid an additional $1.7 million to cover costs to AOL-Time Warner in the negotiations, bringing the final tally of WCW's sale to $4.3 million.[56]

As a majority of WCW's top stars had contracts with AOL-Time Warner rather than WCW itself, most choose to sit out the length of their contracts rather than breaking them in order to work with WWF.[57] Most would eventually find their way to WWE, although Sting remained a notable exception for almost a decade and a half.[57]

5 time WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio

4 time WCW Cruiserweight Champion Chris Jericho

The WCW Cruiserweight division is widely credited with highlighting and benefiting a generation of smaller-sized, high-flying agile wrestlers in an era when "big men" were the norm. It produced long-lasting stars such as Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho

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.[58] Although weight categories were not a new concept in wrestling or even WCW, the WCW Cruiserweight Division was quickly able to form a unique and popular identity by integrating and mixing wrestlers from all around the world and from vastly different wrestling styles, particularly Mexican Luchadores such as Rey Misterio Jr., Psychosis, and Juventud Guerrera, but also Japanese "Super Juniors" such as Último Dragón. North American wrestlers, such as Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit, who had travelled abroad to Mexico and Japan earlier in their careers and learnt the local styles were also able to thrive in the division.[58] The division as a whole became a showcase of a fast-paced, aerial and athletic style of wrestling which became highly influential in both the short and long term in the industry.[58] Eric Bischoff has credited with the division as becoming a defining feature of Monday Nitro that was as fundamental to the late 1990s popularity of WCW as the New World Order faction:

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.[59]

— Eric Bischoff, speaking in 2020

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 Smackdown brand, with the WWE Cruiserweight Championship being deemed by the promotion to be the direct lineal successor to the WCW title. Simultaneously, the newly formed Total Nonstop Action wrestling promotion heavily featured their X Division, which did not limit participants by weight but rather by style. Nonetheless, the X-Division was considered a direct spiritual successor to the style developed in the WCW Cruiserweight division and would go on to become influential in its own right.[60] WWE and TNA/Impact have continued to experiment and use the Cruiserweight/X-Division concept on and off throughout the 2000s and 2010s and into the 2020s.[58]

• Eric Bischoff (2006). Controversy Creates Cash. Pocket Books. ISBN 1-4165-2729-X.