In spring 2001, new chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting Systems Jamie Kellner took over and took a long, hard look at the company hed been given to shepherd into the 21st century proper. One glaring thing stood out to him: World Championship wrestling. Estimates have the company losing $62 million in 2000 due to massive overspending and no corresponding increase in revenue to compensate. Fans had tuned out in droves due to WCWs ridiculous brand of professional wrestling nonsense, with pay-per-view buyrates and live attendance figures in the toilet and the television ratings not far behind. But there was more of an issue involved than simply their financial losses. Remember, this is multinational corporate politics were talking about. $62million was a lot to WCW, and would have been enough to sink the WWF a year or so earlier: it was a drop in the ocean to Ted Turner, and it was a drop in the ocean to Time Warner. No, Kellner was intend on rebranding Turner Broadcastings television networks. He came from Fox and from the WB, and had made his name on programming for the female 18-34 demographic. It was a television truism that advertisers didnt want their commercials running on pro wrestling programming, no matter what the ratings were like: it was considered low rent, low brow just low. Vince McMahon had found the same problem to be the case, even in the boom times, and the issue continues to this day. A week into his new job, Kellner simply cancelled all WCW programming completely. No more Nitro, no more Thunder: and without a viable television show, the promotion was torpedoed, dead in the water. At that time, Eric Bischoff had put together a concern with a definite shot at buying WCW from Turner Broadcasting and attempting to save it from self-destruction: without a TV deal, the finances behind his offer fell apart like wet cake. There you have it. Creatively screwed into the ground, haemorrhaging money left right and centre, without a decent fanbase or executive support and having no television deal of any kind, WCW was easy prey for the insultingly low offer WWF made for it in April 2001. The rest is history. Vince McMahon bought out his dying rival and set about cheerfully, vindictively destroying what was left, throwing the pieces to his son to play with. Do you have an opinion on what killed WCW? Let us know all about it in the comments!
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
