Eli Roth Almost Produced A Weekly WCW Cartoon
'South Park meets Nitro' almost happened.
Hostel and Cabin Fever director Eli Roth was very nearly famous in pro wrestling circles before hitting it big in Hollywood. The movie buff, who also co-produced that 2017 Baywatch reboot, pitched a cartoon series in 1999 that'd piggyback on WCW's success.
Seriously.
Eric Bischoff said on one episode of his '83 Weeks' podcast that Eli was certain his light-hearted animated show about wrestling fans from Boston would be a smash hit. The cartoon was going to be called 'Chowda Heads' and would air between segments on WCW's weekly Nitro show.
The unfortunate thing for Roth was that Bischoff was mentally fried by the time he made his pitch, and the cartoon series never happened. Turner management weren't exactly high on the idea anyway, so there's a chance it would've been scrapped even if Bisch was on board.
Roth's vision for the animation style was going to capitalise on the raging success of South Park. Instead of going off on adult-themed adventures like Cartman and the gang, his characters would extol WCW's product and attend live events.
WCW could've done with anyone, even cartoon characters, buying tickets by late-1999.