20 Biggest Myths WWE Tells About Its History
3. WCW Was Killed By Bad Booking
The Myth: WCW’s incompetence rendered their product unsalvageable and left the company on death’s door.
The Truth: WCW had a spectacularly poor couple of years leading up to their purchase by WWE. The once-dominant company was hemorrhaging money to the tune of $5 million per month by the end of 1999, with PPV buyrates and TV ratings plummeting to match.
However, the situation was hardly hopeless.
Greed, WCW’s final PPV, ran a .10 buyrate, which translates to something like 50,000 total purchases. For comparison’s sake, only one show in TNA’s history (Bound For Glory 2006) was that successful, and that company still continues to limp along a decade later.
Further, while the final Nitros sported low ratings for the time, they aren't too much worse than today’s Raw ratings.
WCW, with competent booking and a little luck, could have rebuilt their fanbase. Wrestling was still hot enough, and they still had a fantastic television deal.
That's why the true nail in the coffin wasn't driven in by the bookers, but by AOL/Time Warner. The architects of that merger wanted a more upscale feel to their television properties, and decided to yank Nitro from primetime.
Without the ability to keep eyes on the product, WCW truly was dead in the water.