Who Killed WCW? 10 Things Learned
Vice made a documentary titled "Who Killed WCW?" This four-episode series initially prompted me to consider an episode-by-episode analysis of new insights. However, much of the content covered familiar territory. Nonetheless, several takeaways enhance my viewing experience, affirming it as a well-crafted documentary.
There are a lot of people that were interviewed in this. A notable person not interviewed is Hulk Hogan and Thank God he wasn't. Nobody would believe a single word that man would say. It would have been wasted air time to have Hulk on with how much of a liar he is. This is the same man who once claimed that he partied with John Belushi in 1986 after WrestleMania 2. Belushi died in 1982, Hulk is full of it.
This documentary didn't cover too much new ground, but it did give us a nice insight into the Rise and fall of WCW. At one point this company was on top of the world and number 1 in the pro wrestling business.
10. How WCW Got The Monday Nighttime Slot
In the beginning, WCW was trying to figure out the best time slot for their TV time. What immediately came to mind was on the TNT channel on Monday night.
In 1995, Eric Bischoff needed to get approval from the top people including Ted Turner. The interesting fact is that Bischoff never had a 1 on 1 meeting with Turner and always had somebody he trusted with him at the meetings. Ted was interested and asked What it would take for WCW to compete with WWE. Well, Bischoff responded with "They are on prime-time Monday Night coast to coast, and we can’t be competitive with that.”. Ted agreed and immediately gave the slots to go head-to-head with WWE.
Some of the suits including Brad Siegel are not happy with this business move. Brad Siegel was the president of Turner Entertainment through WCW's tenure. Siegel always comes across as bitter in every interview and has a distance for pro wrestling. Siegel hated that Ted put WCW on the premium cable network. He felt it would be a bad look to something he built but lost the debate to Turner.
9. The Starrcade 1997 Fiasco
This is the event many fans believe was the first nail in the coffin for WCW. Starrcade 1997 was a big event as the company was going to put Sting over. After all, it was a long-term booking storyline that lasted 18 months.
Sting was going to beat Hulk Hogan for the title on the show and was a starting sign of weakness for the nWo. Here is where the problem starts, Hulk Hogan has creative control on his contract. He pulled the "that doesn't work for me, brother" and the match had to be changed. Especially the finish of the match.
This was not mentioned in the documentary, but Hulk changed it because he didn't like how Sting looked. When discussing the match Hogan stated Sting did not look right because he didn't work out and he didn't have a proper Tan to be world champion. When he saw him, Hogan said "Not today brother. Not today." That's right no tan is what made Hulk Hogan not want to do it. Eric Bischoff agreed and the plans started changing. Here is the funny part, sting was in a bodysuit that covered most of his body. Why the heck is no tan a problem when his body is covered? Even Conrad Thompson who is the co-host of Bischoff's podcast was not happy with the fact that this was changed over a tan.
Eric claims that the new plan was to have. The ref does a fast count and tries to screw Sting, where Bret Hart would come out and say nobody is getting screwed. The problem was that didn’t happen thanks to the ref doing a fast count.
Eric claims it was a miscommunication from the ref, but he's full of it. This was not mentioned as well, but the ref Nick Patrick publicly claimed that "One came up to me and told me to fast count to give him some heat and give him an out, while the other said, 'Don't fast count it. Just keep it nice and slow." Hogan told him to count the pins slower instead and did it due to his creative control. Yet Hogan wants to claim that he never used the creative control clause once in WCW. Yeah, and the weather for tomorrow is cloudy with a chance of meatballs.
Bret thought it was a lame ending even if the count was fast. Even Diamond Dallas Page thought the ending was nonsense too and that they messed it up.
Bischoff notes the crowd reacted to the original plan of how they wanted to initially from the beginning. However, in time fans hated it due to the finish making less sense. Bischoff complains that he shouldn't get it any and for it, as it's all Sting's fault for being "unenergized".
8. The Rise Of Goldberg And The Jealousy That Followed Him
The series then gets to the topic of Goldberg. Goldberg is the best homegrown star that WCW ever booked. Even Brad Siegel who hated WCW loved everything about Goldberg.
The documentary got Goldberg to speak and he talks about his background before wrestling. It was never his dream to be a pro wrestler, he wanted to be an NFL player. He was an 11th-round draft pick and was mainly a practice squad player. He did play games with the Atlanta Falcons, but he had a torn abdomen in 1994 and was let go. Goldberg did not know what he wanted to do with his life and decided to give wrestling a try.
A fascinating fact not mentioned in the documentary was that he was a selection in the 1995 expansion draft. This was when the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers were entering the league. The Carolina Panthers selected him with one of their last picks. He never played a game in Carolina as he was pursuing pro wrestling, but it's cool to know Goldberg was the draft choice in an NFL expansion draft.
A big reason Goldberg got over was thanks to the creative mind of the late great Kevin Sullivan. Sullivan was interviewed in this documentary but was obviously in poor health. Sullivan had the idea to give Goldberg the black boots and tights as he wanted to make him Mike Tyson in the 80s. Just dominate every week and the crowd loved every second of it.
The problem was there was jealousy in the locker room. A big person who was jealous was Kevin Nash. Kevin Nash was not a fan of him at all and hated his lack of skills. Konnan explains the hatred that the locker room didn't believe he paid his dues and had no passion for the business.
7. The Suits Behind The Scenes Wanted WCW To Target Kids And Families
It was mentioned earlier how Brad Siegel hated WCW, well the new corporate structure wasn't fans of it either. In 1998 WWE was getting into the Attitude Era and it was super vulgar with their product. In seeing this WCW wanted to go in the opposite direction and target kids and families. Two main talking heads involved in the documentary that were those suits were Brad Siegel and Stu Snyder. Snyder at the time was the VP of Turner Home Entertainments.
Bret notes that Vince was happy to go to the lewd level when Turner did not want to. It hurt their business not embarrassing it. It was a heavily frustrating time for Bischoff who constantly fought back against the suits. He hated being told to do what was done by Standards and Practices.
The fight took a toll on Eric and he admits that he became a negative person. He was a malcontent then and he's still one today, things just never change. With Bischoff going against departments it was getting him notably stressed out and the one guy to help out was Kevin Nash. How did he help out, by taking the booking duties while Eric got re-energized and back on his feet? Which just sounds like a brilliant idea and Bischoff was all in on it as he had confidence in Kevin's Instincts. Kevin Nash getting that control resulted in the nonsense way Goldberg lost his streak.
6. Bret Hart And Bill Goldberg Share Similar Opinions on Vince Russo
It is commonly known that both Bret Hart and Bill Goldberg hate each other in real life. After all, Goldberg is the one who ended his career with that botched superkick. Here is something cool, they both share an opinion on one man, Vince Russo - one of the main culprits that contributed to the fall of WCW when he was the head of creative. Not a lot of people liked Russo in the industry and Bret Hart is known to not say pleasant things about him. In the documentary, Bret called Russo an idiot. Even Bill Goldberg had much worse words for him. He called Russo a "S*** Stain" and a terrible person. What a heartwarming message. Despite the hatred these guys have, at least they share one thing in common.
5. Even David Arquette Thought It Was Stupid To Put The World Title On Him
The Documentary then talks about the Ready To Rumble saga of WCW. Ready to Rumble was a movie made in 2000 that was one last-ditch effort to help WCW in the ratings. One of the main actors in the movie was David Arquette. While in the creative room, Tony Schiavone introduced the idea of putting the title on David Arquette and helping get the movie more popular. Vince Russo heard that and immediately said, let's do it.
A lot of people laughed at that idea from Booker T. and DDP. They knew it was a terrible idea from the get-go and guess who also hated the idea. Yes, the man himself, David Arquette. He hated the idea and quoted saying "You can't do that."
Unfortunately, he had no choice, and he was booked to win the championship on an episode of WCW Thunder. He pinned Eric Bischoff to become the main WCW champion, and it brought so much backlash from the fans and the wrestlers in the locker room. When Arquette went to the back he was in shock and a little excited, until he talked to Booker T. He asked Booker how many times he had been champion. Well, that made it awkward as Booker said zero-time and David's Tone being champion was more negative.
4. Vince Russo's Hilarious Claim Why He Booked Himself
Vince Russo in 2000 made another brilliant decision to start booking himself to be the main star in the company. It's very strange that he would do this as he was only brought in to be a writer and lead creative. Vince Russo talks about the reason why he booked himself on the show. Russo was quoted saying "As far as being an on-air character, I thought I was better than 80% of the roster". It's comments like this that are why not a lot of fans and people in the locker room don't respect Vince Russo. He was better than 80% of the roster, the ego this man has is a load of insanity.
3. The Impact Of The AOL And Time Warner Merger
The AOL and Time Warner Merger is often regarded as one of the worst mergers in the history of business. A big issue is that the .com was exploding and it heavily affected AOL and financially hurt Time Warner. What was something owned by Time Warner at the time? WCW. The company was bleeding money and cuts had to be made. Brad Siegel got his wish on Warner not needing a wrestling company that was losing money, so they lost WCW for sale.
2. WCW Was Almost Sold For More Money
WCW was on the market and Eric Bischoff wanted to buy WCW for himself. He got Fusient Media to help fund the money to buy it and it was at around 62 million dollars to buy the company. Eric already had plans of what to do with WCW when they got the rights to it and was ready to start a PPV called The Big Bang.
The problem was Time Warner was super dysfunctional. Brad Siegel called him to find a buyer for WCW and of course, Bischoff recommended the owners of Fusient Media Ventures. A deal was almost reached until Jamie Kellner became the CEO of Turner Broadcasting. He wanted nothing to do with WCW and wanted to sell it as fast as he could. Instead of the 62 million dollar bid for WCW, Kellner decided to sell WCW for 4.2 million dollars to Vince McMahon in the WWE because it was quicker. It's no wonder the AOL and Time Warner deal became a disaster when these were the type of moves made.
What The Talking Heads Believed Killed WCW
At the end of the documentary, the producers ask the question of the documentary. Who killed WCW? Konnan claims that it was the top guys who held the mid-card down and the suits. Brad Siegel claims WCW killed itself as it didn't function as a team. I wonder whose fault that was when one side hates promotion as a whole. That's why Kevin Nash blames Siegel, especially for killing WCW.
Diamond Dallas Page and Madusa claim it was Turner Sports as a whole that killed it. Booker blames those with the checkbooks and Eric Bischoff as a whole. Bret Hart also blames Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo for killing WCW, which is not a surprise. Vince Russo believes that a business decision alone killed it not creativity.
Out of the bunch, Goldberg says it right and blames a ton of people who contributed, and it wasn't one person. Goldberg always comes across like an idiot, but he legit says the smartest thing in this documentary as many people are to blame for WCW's demise.
My Thoughts On the Documentary
This was a really great documentary on WCW. This talked about the Rise and fall of a company at one point was on top of the world and beating WCW.
As for my answer on Who Killed WCW, I have 4 pillars. They are Hulk Hogan, Brad Siegel, Vince Russo, and the AOL/Time Warner Merger. Goldberg said it best, It was not one person or thing that killed it, multiple things did.
A lot of the talking heads in this episode were great. I'm not a Konnan guy at all and he comes across like a moron in his podcast. At least he is not as bad as his piece of work co-host Disco Inferno. In this documentary, he came across as great and collected. Same as Eric Bischoff and while the dude is an absolute malcontent in real life. In this episode, he was a really solid talking head.
Brad Siegel doesn't come across as great in this episode at all. Especially as it's clear he sabotaged WCW and he hated pro wrestling was getting the feature over other TNT products. Vince Russo also rubbed me the wrong way when he claimed he was 80% better than everyone in WCW.
It's always a big What if with WCW now. What if Eric Bischoff managed to get WCW sold to Fusient Media? Could WCW still be a thing today or would it have failed? Would TNA even be a thing as when WCW died, that helped boost TNA to begin? Unfortunately, the answer to those questions will never be answered. One thing that can be agreed upon is that WCW dying really impacted the business and there has not been this level of competition again since AEW became a real competitor to WWE.
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