Joined
·
444 Posts
THE CONCEPT
The time is Mid 1999. The WWF finally has the advantage in the "Monday Night Wars" and is now outscoring WCW in revenue and ratings. In this BTB the wrestling world is shocked as WCW comes to the brink of collapse, before being salvaged and returning to the main stage as a reformed company. In this BTB the WCW, although failing, has not yet had the disastrous heel turns of Sting or Goldberg.It hasn't had Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko quit to join the WWF. Tt hasn't had David Arquette or Vince Russo become WCW champion, in fact it hasn't had Vince Russo and his disastrous booking at all.
THE STORY
Mid 1999, newly released figures reveal WCW is losing money. At the same time Ted Turner Turner Broadcasting Division appoints a new CEO. Unfortunately for WCW the new leader of the Division and his comrades doesn't see WCW fitting into his plans. The new leadership doesn't see pro wrestling fitting in with it's new image, and believes WCW to be on a downward spiral, a bottomless pit for their money. After much deliberating, complex behind the scenes deliberating and politicking, Turner Broadcasting Division decides to offload WCW while it can still get a good price. Word quickly spreads through the wrestling world that WCW is for sale.
WWF Owner Vince McMahon becomes the instant favourite to buy out his competition, but management accept none of his bids. In a rush to offload the company, and the story takes another twist. On July 11, two nights after Bash at the Beach and one night after the last Nitro on TNT, WCW is sold to an anonymous syndicate of wealthy investers, right under Vince McMahon's nose. The consortium is headed by a super rich Russian investor Alexei Ivanov. His face and name quickly circulate around the wrestling world, and fans get excited at the prospect of new investment and new faces in the stale looking company.
Roddy Piper
Buff Bagwell
Lash LeRoux
Brad Armstrong
Violent J
Shaggy 2 Dope
Jim Duggan
Shane Douglas
Sean O Haire
Chuck Palumbo
ROAD TO STARRCADE SUMMARY
And so we now come off a Starrcade which surpassed expectation. Bret Hart became WCW champion by winning a tournament for the vacant title, during the match Randy Savage, who had been champion before the company went on hiatus, interfered and hit both Hart and his opponent Sid Vicious with his own “Big Gold Belt”. This set up for a title unification match at Mayhem, won by Hart. Hulk Hogan, now a baby face made a return as the number one contender for Hart’s WCW title, setting up for a match billed as Icon v Icon at Starrcade. In the end, Hart won cleanly, making Hogan tap in the middle of the ring to the sharpshooter. Jeff Jarrett beat Perry Saturn to win the TV title, but just 2 weeks before Starrcade Konnan won the title after interference from DDP. DDP would beat Jarrett at Starrcade. Since the return of WCW Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero have renewed their rivalry. As Mysterio beat Guerrero at Mayhem he got more and more frustrated at being out outshone by Rey, and at Starrcade both men put their career on the line in a match Eddie would win, using the ropes as leverage to pin Rey and end his career.
The tag team Kronik capped off their impressive run in WCW with a big win over the Outsiders, while Chris Benoit retained the US title he won at Havoc by beating Scott Steiner in an excellent match. In October the West Texas ******** turned babyface as they began feuding with the Outsiders, Curt Hennig didn’t have an interest in continuing with the group however, and abandoned his former partners to align with Ric Flair. At Starrcade Flair and Hennig beat the popular Windhams to win the tag titles. Sting versus Randy Savage was highly hyped as the 2 Icons clashed, and in the end Sting won with a surprise rollup on Savage, ending a decent match which was albeit probably too long. Since the return of WCW Goldberg had appeared more aggressive and keen to fight than ever, going unbeaten all the way up to Starrcade, where he took on “The Millenium Man” Sid Vicious who himself had been on a formidable run. At Starrcade Goldberg defeated Sid in a brutal Street Fight.
And so here we are, the night after WCW’s biggest event of the year, Hart is still world champion, Goldberg is seeming more unstoppable, Hennig and Flair are tag champions, Mysterio has been forced to retire and Chris Benoit’s impressive US title reign is ongoing. Join us Monday night for the next episode of Nitro, it’s sure to be a thriller!
The time is Mid 1999. The WWF finally has the advantage in the "Monday Night Wars" and is now outscoring WCW in revenue and ratings. In this BTB the wrestling world is shocked as WCW comes to the brink of collapse, before being salvaged and returning to the main stage as a reformed company. In this BTB the WCW, although failing, has not yet had the disastrous heel turns of Sting or Goldberg.It hasn't had Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko quit to join the WWF. Tt hasn't had David Arquette or Vince Russo become WCW champion, in fact it hasn't had Vince Russo and his disastrous booking at all.
THE STORY
Mid 1999, newly released figures reveal WCW is losing money. At the same time Ted Turner Turner Broadcasting Division appoints a new CEO. Unfortunately for WCW the new leader of the Division and his comrades doesn't see WCW fitting into his plans. The new leadership doesn't see pro wrestling fitting in with it's new image, and believes WCW to be on a downward spiral, a bottomless pit for their money. After much deliberating, complex behind the scenes deliberating and politicking, Turner Broadcasting Division decides to offload WCW while it can still get a good price. Word quickly spreads through the wrestling world that WCW is for sale.
WWF Owner Vince McMahon becomes the instant favourite to buy out his competition, but management accept none of his bids. In a rush to offload the company, and the story takes another twist. On July 11, two nights after Bash at the Beach and one night after the last Nitro on TNT, WCW is sold to an anonymous syndicate of wealthy investers, right under Vince McMahon's nose. The consortium is headed by a super rich Russian investor Alexei Ivanov. His face and name quickly circulate around the wrestling world, and fans get excited at the prospect of new investment and new faces in the stale looking company.
After the last Nitro and WCW is offloaded it is also loses both of it's TV contracts with Turner Broadcasting. WCW is now paying over $30 million in wages and has no tv contract, meaning no competition for the WWF on Monday's. It seems WCW really has hit rock bottom, the war is finally lost, and there will surely be no recovering from weeks off the television. In the meantime a committee is appointed to decide on who will become the new booker of WCW and lead it forward in the future. In the end, it decides that a 3 man committee will do the job. The committee consists of a representative from the Russian led consortium to oversee operations, head booker Jim Cornette, Eric Bischoff who will have a lead rolein production, and Kevin Sullivan who will have a smaller booking role. Weeks go by with much behind the scenes deliberation and planning, and a tv deal is finally reached with the USA Network. WCW receives a 2 hour slot for Monday Nitro. As it will debut mid September there will be no September Pay Per View, and in it's hiatus it has also missed it's August PPV Road Wild. The first PPV on WCW's return will be Halloween Havoc. All championships will be vacated, with new champions crowned at Halloween Havoc, and a big tournament will be held to crown a new WCW champion, culminating at Havoc. Tag Team Kronik is brought up from development, and the mainly unpopular decision was taken to scrap the Cruiserweight division. A number of wrestlers are released, including:
Roddy Piper
Buff Bagwell
Lash LeRoux
Brad Armstrong
Violent J
Shaggy 2 Dope
Jim Duggan
Shane Douglas
Sean O Haire
Chuck Palumbo
ROAD TO STARRCADE SUMMARY
Where we are now
And so we now come off a Starrcade which surpassed expectation. Bret Hart became WCW champion by winning a tournament for the vacant title, during the match Randy Savage, who had been champion before the company went on hiatus, interfered and hit both Hart and his opponent Sid Vicious with his own “Big Gold Belt”. This set up for a title unification match at Mayhem, won by Hart. Hulk Hogan, now a baby face made a return as the number one contender for Hart’s WCW title, setting up for a match billed as Icon v Icon at Starrcade. In the end, Hart won cleanly, making Hogan tap in the middle of the ring to the sharpshooter. Jeff Jarrett beat Perry Saturn to win the TV title, but just 2 weeks before Starrcade Konnan won the title after interference from DDP. DDP would beat Jarrett at Starrcade. Since the return of WCW Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero have renewed their rivalry. As Mysterio beat Guerrero at Mayhem he got more and more frustrated at being out outshone by Rey, and at Starrcade both men put their career on the line in a match Eddie would win, using the ropes as leverage to pin Rey and end his career.
The tag team Kronik capped off their impressive run in WCW with a big win over the Outsiders, while Chris Benoit retained the US title he won at Havoc by beating Scott Steiner in an excellent match. In October the West Texas ******** turned babyface as they began feuding with the Outsiders, Curt Hennig didn’t have an interest in continuing with the group however, and abandoned his former partners to align with Ric Flair. At Starrcade Flair and Hennig beat the popular Windhams to win the tag titles. Sting versus Randy Savage was highly hyped as the 2 Icons clashed, and in the end Sting won with a surprise rollup on Savage, ending a decent match which was albeit probably too long. Since the return of WCW Goldberg had appeared more aggressive and keen to fight than ever, going unbeaten all the way up to Starrcade, where he took on “The Millenium Man” Sid Vicious who himself had been on a formidable run. At Starrcade Goldberg defeated Sid in a brutal Street Fight.
And so here we are, the night after WCW’s biggest event of the year, Hart is still world champion, Goldberg is seeming more unstoppable, Hennig and Flair are tag champions, Mysterio has been forced to retire and Chris Benoit’s impressive US title reign is ongoing. Join us Monday night for the next episode of Nitro, it’s sure to be a thriller!
