This is just a factual recap of the events that took place upto the downfall of WCW and the reasons it crumbled, without going into wrestler politics, just the sale side of things. I took this from the 'Death of WCW Book' so I don't take credit for the writings of this. I just took parts out of the book that were relevant to the thread.
In early October, the first serious rumors about WCW being sold began to make the rounds. There had been plenty of speculation in the past that Time Warner might be interested in selling, and that Bischoff was doing what ever he could to get investors together to make an offer. It was even rumored that offers had been made, but both sides were far apart on numbers.
October 23 in Little Rock, Arkansas, the first Nitro back after the Australian tour was the first date mentioned as to weather a sale would occur. The story was that Bischoff and Mandalay were teaming up to make a purchase. As it turned out, the day came and went and no sale was announced.
Rumors of the company’s “impending sale” grew hotter as October wore on. In fact, things got so far out of hand that Brad Siegel told Terry Taylor to meet with the boys on October 8 to discuss it. Taylor basically said that four companies were interested in purchasing WCW: in addition to Bischoff’s group, there were three others in Japan, France and Germany. None of the latter three were specified, although months earlier, rumors had spread that one of Japan’s major wrestling organizations (either New Japan, All Japan or NOAH) was interested in buying, though it was never clear which. Taylor said there was no guarantee the company would be sold, but they were entertaining various offers.
Another name that popped up that week was Vince McMahon, but by the end of 2000 it appeared that McMahon had decided to pass on the deal entirely.
WCW January 2001
Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin struck a $183 billion deal with America Online’s Steve Case to merge the two companies into what they believed would be the ultimate super power. Turner ended up with 3 percent of the new company’s stock and mostly figurehead job as Vice Chairman. Suddenly, his days of spending millions at will on frivolities like professional wrestling were finished. In his place were boards of directors, financial analysts and CEOs looking at the bottom line. These men were going to do something that no one had: make WCW financially responsible for its actions.
With the company losing money at an astronomical rate, it didn’t take long for AOL-Time Warner to conclude WCW was in a hopeless proposition. Therefore, a shocking decision was made: the company was to be sold.
And for the first time ever, there wasn’t a damn thing Ted Turner could do about it.
WCW February 2001
A new adversary entered the fray, and it was an adversary that nobody in the wrestling world had heard of. This man, however would single handedly change the entire course of pro-wrestling history. His name was Jaime Kellner, and he was the new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Turner Broadcasting Systems. In Kellner’s very first week on the job he simply ruled that all wrestling programming was to be cancelled on TBA and TNT.
No more Nitro, no more Thunder… Nothing.
This no doubt led Bischoff to this articulate conclusion: OH FUCK. OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK…
WCW March 2001
WCW was bought out by Vincent Kennedy McMahon and it was decided that March 26th 2001, WCW’s Spring Breakout edition of Nitro from Panama City Beach, Florida would be the last WCW event held.
Credit to:
The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez
