Death Of WCW (eBook)

'Ted called me up and said, 'Hey, Vince, guess what? I'm in the rasslin' bu siness now ! '' - Vince McMahon, Owne r, World Wrestling Federation 1988-1996: Mr. Turner's Baby Boy While many believed World Championship Wrestling could never die and were stunned in 2001 when it actually did, an even larger group believed the company probably should have died countless times before then, since it had consistently lost so much money. The misconception that WCW was a huge money-loser in its formative years should be dispelled right off the bat. In truth, WCW lost around $6 million per year in the first five years of its existence - not a horrible figure at all, considering what they were giving Turner: four hours of excellent ratings every single week of the year. Some within the Turner organization squawked at the losses, but Ted Turner himself didn't. In fact, Turner was such a cheerleader for the company that when a board of directors suggested shutting WCW down in 1992, he told them that wrestling built the Superstation, and as long as he was in charge, it would always have a home there. He also told them never to bring the idea up again. They didn't. Since Turner was so strongly behind WCW, it seemed that regardless of what happened or how much money the company lost, it would always be around. No matter what, no matter how bad things could get, many within the company were unafraid. This sense of security often led those in charge to bad decisions. They could throw away money, alienate their employees, and even their fans - Ted Turner would always be there to bail them out of a jam. For all the reasons why the company could have and arguably should have died, it did have history on its side. After all, this was a company that had been around almost 100 years . . . or at least that's one of the myths rabid WCW supporters would have you believe. The truth is a bit different. When promoter 'Big' Jim Crockett died in 1973, he passed his assets - including Jim Crockett Promotions, which ran pro-wrestling shows - on to his son, Jim Jr. For decades, the Crocketts, like other National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promoters nationwide, tried to bring prestige to their organization by claiming that their main title, the World Heavyweight Championship, dated back to 1905. Their champ, they claimed, wore a belt with a lineage that could be traced to such turn-of-the-century legends as George Hackenschmidt and Frank A. Gotch. Truth be told, the NWA that helped form WCW has roots in 1905 about as much as the rap group NWA does. The confusion stems from the fact that there were two different NWAs: the turn-of-the-century National Wrestling Association, and the modern-day National Wrestling Alliance. Today's NWA was formed in 1948 by six promoters at a meeting in Waterloo, Iowa. They named Des Moines promoter Pinky George the first president and Kansas City promoter Orville Brown the first champion. Lou Thesz won the title in 1949, then won the National Wrestling Association title in 1950. Because the group controlled all the major titles, the NWA Championship became the most prominent belt in the world for almost forty years. In April of 1984, it was one of three 'big' titles in the U.S., along with the world titles of the AWA, promoted by Verne Gagne, and the WWF, promoted by another junior, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. The original Vince...