10 Ridiculous Decisions That Killed WCW

2. Mergers, Takeovers And Other Corporate Shenanigans

In 1995/1996, Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner to create a monolithic enterprise, becoming the largest media group in the world. Turner were the owners of WCW as well as the networks €“ TNT and TBS €“ that broadcast WCW€™s television programming, and Ted Turner, the maverick billionaire who bankrolled the promotion, was the single biggest supporter of WCW and what they represented in the marketplace: a viable, competitive, even more successful rival to Vince McMahon€™s WWF. McMahon and Turner had some bad blood dating back to McMahon€™s acquisition of many of his rival territories in the mid-1980s. Both men had reputations for being idiosyncratic forward thinking innovators, as well as egotistical blowhards: the difference was that Turner was worth in the region of $8 billion, and Vince McMahon€™s fortune at the time amounted to a tiny fraction of that amount. Turner also loved the wrestling. Wrestling had given his networks a shot in the arm just when they needed it most, and he felt obligated to return the favour, hence his purchase of WCW and continued support in the face of overwhelming financial losses. When in early 2001 Time Warner merged with AOL, Turner would find himself left with a figurehead post, and no actual power. The lion of Turner Broadcasting would be neutered. For years, he€™d been hiding the losses suffered by WCW by spreading them around the far more profitable arms of his businesses, but he wouldn€™t be there any longer to extend a protective arm around WCW and the money pit it had become. Fresh, unsympathetic eyes took a long look at the WCW as a product, as a brand and as a business, and they did not like what they saw€