10 Things We Learned From WWE Untold: WCW's Big Bang

7. Brian Bedol’s Influence

Brian Bedol founded the Classic Sports Network, and he was also the dude Eric Bischoff called to discuss putting together a deal to purchase WCW from Turner. The pair thrashed out a package in the summer of 2000 that'd see Bedol become CEO of a relaunched company. Talks got pretty serious fast.

One of the eye-opening terms Bedol outlines in the doc is a 10-year agreement with Turner that would've secured the Wednesday night prime time TV slot on TBS. That belonged to WCW's Thunder program, and both Bisch and Bedol were keen to secure it for as long as possible. Further (and this is genius), they convinced Turner to fulfil all remaining talent contracts as part of the deal until they were due to run out.

Turning his attention to a venue WCW could use to shoot product, Bedol entered into a handshake agreement with The Hard Rock folks in Las Vegas. Things were moving swiftly, and it all looked promising. Now, all he and Bischoff had to do was make an offer to buy WCW as a company.