I think we can all agree that it was a conglomerate mesh of factors that really killed WCW. There really is no one single sole entity and I'll never understand why people don't get that.
Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo, Jamie Kellner & Vince McMahon, The Undertaker, Triple H & Shawn Michaels in the wwf/e
It was one of the worst things that ever happened in business. It literally destroyed every company involved. The only one that made it out alive was warner brothers and it's not recovered to where it was.
Ain't it great to hear that the failure of WCW had nothing to do with Bischoff's involvement. Uh-huh. But he's right about the decline of CNN, the Communist News Network as it's well deserved.
Dude they FIRED Ted Turner. Ted started that company. FFS look what half of the name is "AOL". What happened to them? They just imploded simply because broadband internet came out. They could have been Google today.
Read this guy’s book whether he’s blowing smoke or not. I don’t think his presence in the wrestling industry has been bad. He’s done more good than bad for it and at least every other word out of his flipping mouth isn’t bro.!!!!!!!
I think that Bischoff gets a bad wrap. He did well for a while. Yet, corporate suits will be corporate suits, and his only choices were comply or be gone.
He would've bankrupted WCW in a matter of 6-12 months if he took over. Look at Bankrupt Bischoff's life: Bankrupted himself twice, bankrupted every business he ever started (Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, MX Digital, Bischoff Family Brewing) and did a absolute horrendous job in TNA
Not sure storyline-wise but I've heard him express how he started getting limits on how ruthless he was able to make the product. So, I'd imagine he'd want an edgier product to try push the boundaries beyond what WWF was capable of at the time.
To really understand the downfall of WCW, read Guy Evans Nitro book. It provides so much depth that you wont get from a WWE documentary or dirt sheet writers with an agenda.
By April 98 with Austin/Mcmahon feud really firing up after the DX/Austin feud with Mike Tyson ended at WM 14 is where imo WCW lost the war, WWF Austin/McMahon was must see tv I never missed a minute of Raw is War; whereas, the year before 1997 up Until Feb/March 98 I was locked in on Sting/NWO feud, and I was even at Thunder in Birmingham on 2/19/98, 13 yr old me made my mom take me lol, but come Wrestlemania 14 and the Austin/McMahon feud I was sold on WWF and all I’d see when I swapped to TNT was Goldberg winning another 1-2 minute match. Then, at Unforgiven in 98 we got that Taker/Kane match with flames around the ring and then in June of 98 we had Taker/Mankind’s iconic HIAC match at KOTR plus by the later half of 98 not only was Austin still feuding with McMahon but at Survivor Series 1998 Austin/Rock Rivalry picked back up, but this time it would morph into a legendary rivalry that would go until 2003 for Austin’s retirement match, So, I’d say 1998 was far and away WWE’s year unless your were like a giant Goldberg fan
@@gamingwithvulpixanddratini7604 I agree. But WCW was still the show to watch to April 98, and they beat WWE to that point. In April WWE won the first rating in a long time, but it was still close between WWE and WCW under the summer, of 1998 - and WCW also won ratings in all august 98 and half september. WCW got stale under autumn a bit, Hogan retired. The NWO vs Wolfpack feud started to decline. There was only a face NWO and Goldberg and DDP was the only WCW guys left. So the NWO-storyline run out of gas october/november. And in 1999 the WWF was the better product.
The last nitro before Bischoff was fired in Sept 99, he was drawing 4.1 in the ratings while Raw was drawing 4.4. it wasnt that far off.. When Raw was drawing 1.8 in the ratings in 96-97 and getting trashed by wcw, Vince was untouchable. What they did by firing Bischoff, the man that brought them to the dance and bringing in Vince Russo is the equivalent of USA network 'firing' Vince and bringing in Kevin Sullivan to wwf as the boss.
Eric Bishoff gets a lot of hate, but only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. He accomplished great things with WCW that has since never been replicated. There is no bravado and ego in these interviews now. He's already been there and done that !
What Eric describes sounds a lot like what Enron did and it was not perfectly legal. Enron used a corporate entity to hide losses, it's described in the book "Conspiracy of Fools".
No, it's legal if you can justify the transfers. I used to work in this kinda environment and we did this stuff all the time. I once had to figure out what to charge another department what they had to pay for a switch port per month so we can boost our books by taking money from them. The Enron thing isn't legal because it was cross-company, what we did was net 0 for the company but it made a difference for VPs and such for their bonuses and profitability if we spun them out to their own company
@@stephkent2736it sounds like what Peter Lynch called pulling out the flowers to water the weeds. The branch that's deploying capital effectively producing a high ROIC ought to get more capital not less. What Turner Broadcasting was doing was akin to an investor selling Amazon to purchase more Sears.
It's legal, because it's all all under the same umbrella. To shareholders and the government it makes no difference because the total profit and loss to the parent company is the same.
OF "models" and big streamers have started to open LLCs and Corps and "businesses" to "reinvest" (launder) their own incomes from streaming to claim the "losses" at the end of the year in order to pay far less in taxes. 😅.
General Motors and Opel anyone? All the profits from Opel were transferred to the parent company GM, so they could claim Opel is in the red to avoid paying taxes in Germany
Because for 2 years WCW lost so much money with their terrible booking and the wrestling bubble was going to burst by 2001. WWF was good enough that the mainstream audience didn't want to spend their time with another company like WCW or ECW. If WCW was still a great company in 2001, they probably would've still been cancelled by TNT. But they could've found another better network. Since in reality WCW's reputation was damaged, other networks didn't want them
Basically, back then wrestling had become something of a bad kind of entertainment. Just one or two steps above porn. Henceforth, it was very much frowned upon. Most broadcast companies wanted nothing to do with it. When the merge started to happen and Ted Turner got fired, the new owners, Time Warner and AOL, decided they didn't want to keep WCW at all, because they didn't want that kind of entertainment. They couldn't sell so soon, because the company had large profits, so they decided to use legal ways of making WCW lose rivers of money. That was the only way they could end the company. By either having it's value become so low that someone would end up buying it (which VKM did) or by just having it go completely bankrupt and closing it down, firing everyone in the process. Whoever tells you that WCW fall was on Vince Russo, has only listened to Dave Meltzer and can't get their heads out of the gutter. And as for why wrestling as a while was so much frowned upon, we're talking about a time where female wrestlers would have mud fights, cat fights, lingerie or bra and panties fights where the one that ended up baked would lose the match, we would have women straight up being sexuallized on national TV. Remember Sable? Yeah... That was Attitude Era. We don't need to go that far back to still watch a mud fight between divas in WWE. For this reason, most broadcasting companies didn't want to touch wrestling with a 50 feet pole.
Hes not wrong about the AoL/Time merger being the worst in history. It actually is considered the literal worst in history. So, he is at least truthful on that fact.
Hey Omar. Your last comment seemed to be deleted from my original comment. Sorry about that mate. Definitely say something else that TH-cam doesn't delete
WCW wasn't gonna make it anyway. Politics, the attitude era, Vince Russo, wrestlers being me, me, me, not WE, along with higher ups telling Eric how he was gonna run WCW & Jamie Kellner pulling the plug from a TV station standpoint, there was no way Eric was winning this war. Had Eric threatened to leave in 1998, he would've had more leverage & been able to try & win the fight against people above him. Ultimately, Jamie Kellner came in, said you can have everything except TV time, at the time, without TV to air WCW, WCW was done. Jamie Kellner is the man that ultimately gave the death blow to WCW.
Because it isn't 1998 anymore. WWE the NBA and MLB are paid a lot more for their numbers today than WCW was back then for theirs. Times are different, Turk.
@@ProWrestlingJoe WCW didn't have deals with networks, they *were* the network. WCW wasn't paid by TNT/TBS - they were both part of the same company, Turner. They didn't have that huge source of revenue - TV deals - that other promotions have. Rather than be paid, they were allocated time when Ted or those working for him decided to give it to them or take it away.
IMO the advent of DSL is what started the nosedive of AOL Time Warner. Because DSL was the start of 24/7 Internet connectivity for EVERYONE. Prior to that only schools and businesses had that. So when companies like Verizon started providing DSL, it causes AOL's profits to fall cause there was no need to pay for their Internet service when (local phone company) can provide it for far less and have constant connectivity.
He Was Slowly Gaining Momentum Back For WCW. The Nitro Before He Was Fired Drew A 4.1 Rating To WWE 4.4. Time Warner Hired Vince Russo. Time Warner & Vince McMahon Conspiracy. Had Bischoff Been There September 13, 1999, WCW Ratings Would've Increased & WWE Ratings Would Have Dropped.
When Time Warner acquired Turner broadcasting in 1996 corporate executives wanted WCW gone from TNT and TBS sabotaged from within executives of standards and practice slashing WCW budget insisting for family-friendly entertainment eventually Ted Turner no longer had control of his media outlets then in 2000 AOL/Time Warner merger happened came into fruition they wanted WCW gone from cable Television one of the worst mergers in history is AOL/Time Warner
You have to be careful when listening to Bischoff. He loves to pepper every story with indisputable facts to set a baseline that he is telling the truth and can be trusted. After that he starts slipping in the BS. The issues that occured between Eric and Time Warner stem from Eric not approaching his peers with proper decorum or respect. Even in his story he talks about showing up at the office wearing jeans and leather jacket and riding his harley. Walking through the halls with his long scraggly hair. He would go to meetings and come off as arrogant and condescending which in a corporate environment is going to piss people off. Yes he was correct that they saddled more loses on top WCW but at the time this occurred WCW was already on track to lose millions. The additional loses weren't even 5% of WCW was on track to lose all by itself. As one member of the finance team that was sent in to try to stop WCW hemorrhaging had said the spending was out of control. They were paying for flights to every Nitro and Thunder for the entire roster. The downside guarantees which Eric was famous for using had D list wrestlers sitting at home making 75k to 150k. Not to mention the huge pay out to Kiss for the rights to the Demon and a concert that never happened. The payouts to celebrities like Master P and 10 members of his entourage, Dennis Rodman, and others. They even sunk a good bit of money into Hogans fake presidential run. Perhaps Eric isn't responsible for it all but he doesn't get to say well we were under budget and making money and they saddled us with debt line. As always Eric is full of shit.
@@TL2354 No but plenty of people worked for WCW and Time Warner which was the parent company. The spending was rumored till the books were all opened for the AOL Merger which confirmed that Bischoff was throwing out money trying to spark ratings. As for Eric's attitude was shared in interviews as he tended to rub people the wrong way. Harvey Schiller talked about it. If you dig through numerous wrestling books written in the last 28 years they bring it up as well.
Like Eric or not, I can relate to the last part. Nothing is worse at work when you think someone is your friend, but they aren't and they are telling the people above you everything you say. I've learned the hard way more than once NOBODY at work is your friend. Talk about the weather if you have to leave it at that.
I would love to hear the advice from those guys maybe you should have listened to them Eric. Because in August of '98 you were doing the ultimate warrior angle and the other angle was having hulk Hogan cower in fear of Jay Leno. Top quality stuff there buddy
WCW was a dying breed. The storylines were stale. So much of it felt the same, too much focus on the NWO. Everything with the NWO was the same, you KNEW guys would come from the locker room. they needed to keep the NWO with just Hall/Nash/Hogan/Sixx. they did not do enough with the homegrown talent. so many great wrestlers left, Jerico, Eddie, Perry, and so on. Goldberg was a One-Trick Pony, with his win streak. it had to end. he could not do a medium sized match. It was great watching him the first few times, but then you realized he was going against jobbers. The WWE had reinvented itself. Austin, Rock, Jericho, the rest of the Radicals all brought new life to it. It was a vibrant situation while WCW just felt worn and tired.
WCW vs nWo was the evolution in storyline needed but to give nWo Nitro for 2-3 hours solo...Eric wasn't capable. WE'RE TAKING OVVVER but once done so ..then what?
Goldberg is still a One Trick Pony and it showed both back when he first got on WWE and later on when he returned. As for the nWo, although people can partially blame it on them, it's not entirely their fault. It's not like what happened in TNA also happened in WCW.
Pretty much all of that is wrong. WCW made and pushed far more talent during the late 90s than WWE. Just look at what happened after WCW was sold, it wasn't the mid-carders of the WWE who were the stars, it was pretty much all WCW talent. The Rock and Taker are probably the only notable exceptions to that. Stone Cold? Yes, even Austin had a long stint in WCW while he was at his in-ring peak. WCW made legends: Flair, Sting, Luger, Eddie, Rey, Goldberg, Scotty Steiner, Booker T, DDP, Jericho, Giant, and that's just off the top of my head. Before 2007 you could have included Benoit on that list too but as we all know he disqualified himself (to say the very least).
The fact is, wcw still had a strong loyal following. People who had followed the organisation for 20 years, all the history with the NWA..... WWF in 95 and 96 were doing bad. A few bad years isn't the absolute end for these companies. Everyone goes through them, but WCW and WWE were the kind of companies that would bounce back eventually. That's just how wrestling worked.
He's a little behind the times Structuring and interdepartmental allocation are illegal now because when public companies merge regulators typically will Flagg that as potential violations They got away with it at the time
People can say whatever they want about Eric but the one thing that he definitely is, smart, very smart. He knows business and especially a wrestling business like mo one else, well almost like no one else, i think Vince is out of everyone's league..
Narcissistic traits. Its either that or because none of them can admit their own mistakes. If any one of them pointed the finger at themselves, the first one who does it will get piled on by everyone. So they all rather gather sympathy.
That's not true at all, He's been quite humble. Sure he doesn't own up to everything as most business people won't. But in this regard he's speaking facts, try doing a bit of research into it.
@@treetrunk05 But he probably knows more about the inner workings of such a high ranking organisation than you do. Sure you aren't being narcissistic by not doing your research into it?
Wcw was killed by multiple people and factors. The excuses he gave on this video are valid, after the merger the board wanted wcw gone and they did anything and everything to kill it. Sure eric had some part in the death of wcw but nowhere near aol/time warner.
If you watch that nitro when hulk came out for the first time since the nWo, he came out in the red and yellow the crowd was electrified and they were very loud. Watch the hulk Hogan, sting and Goldberg vs Nash, sid and Rick Steiner. It was a great show ender match and the crowd was totally into it.
Nitro still did good ratings up to 2001 How crazy to think that in 2023 but nitro was never going to get to the top again because it’s talent disappeared every month from 1999 Jan to 2001 April
WCW was on its last breath with NWO, they did not know how to develop talent. Look at all the WCW talent that went to WWF at that time, they all became main eventers. WCW/Hogan didnt let anyone shine.
Nitro in 2001 was getting 2+ ratings. For comparison, Raw gets around 1.5s in 2023. So WCW still had a very large audience. WCW was actually on the way up at the end in 2001. In the last couple of months they even signed AJ Styles, who made his mainstream debut with them. Had WCW continued, TNA would never have existed and AJ would've spent all that time in WCW instead.
@@namikstudios & Most CarNNNN, And There Were Future Stars/Main Eventers In Sean O'Haire, Mark Jindak, Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Mike Awesome, Rob Van Dam(Bischoff Was Going To Sign Him) & Batista(Trained At WCW). All Heavyweights. Those Vanilla Midgets Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko & Saturn, When They Left WCW, Nothing Of Value Was Lost. AJ Styles Would've Probably Been A Top Cruiserweight. The Magnificent Seven Storyline Was Going To Continue. Everyone Scott Steiner Hurt Was Going To Return To Feud With The Magnificent Seven-Sting, DDP, Goldberg, Kevin Nash & Hulk Hogan Was Going To Return. Also Randy Savage, Scott Hall & Roddy Piper. Savage, Hall & Piper Could've Been Putting Over New Talent And One Of Them Join Magnificent Seven Maybe Hall. Eric Bischoff Was Going To Come Back And Put The WWE Out Of Business. Too The WWE Were In Need Of New Stars. It's Why They Rushed Invasion & Brought In The NWO. The Only Guys They Had To Make New Stars Of Out Were Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho. The WWE Would've Pushed Them. Before Eric Bischoff Was Fired, He Was Just Starting To Gain Momentum For WCW. Time Warner & Vince McMahon Conspiracy. Time Warner Brought/Vince McMahon Sent Vince Russo To WCW To Destroy The Company. The Ratings For August 30, 1999 Were-Nitro 4.0. Raw 4.4 And September 6, 1999-Nitro 4.1. Raw 4.4. Raw Now Ratings Now Are About 1.0 Or Less. WCW Final Months Viewership Was 3,000,000-4,000,000 Viewers.
Yeah, there is actually a pretty big difference between being "sent home" as Eric was and being fired. Being sent home means getting paid to do nothing until you're either needed again or until your contract expires.
Eric Bischoff got screwed by that merger and he's 100% correct about 80% of his energy going to dealing with internal corporate rubbish rather than creative. That is so taxing and drains all energy that would otherwise be used to better the product. Anyone who's been in a similar messed up situation, where they have unsurmountable odds stacked against them which leadership KNOWS is impossible to overcome, understands that he was SETUP to fail. I've had it happen to me, where a company shoved all its garbage on my plate while everyone else got off easy. It's literally impossible.
So Eric talk about the Hogan red and yellow and---so the AOL Time Warner merger really screwed us. Ok but your breakfast this morning, was it----the AOL Time Warner merger really screwed us.
@@BronzeBullBalls Bret while I was a big fan does make a lot of excuses and comes off really bitter. He is partially to blame about his WCW run. He was emotionally scarred from the screw job and I really think after Owen died his love of wrestling was gone.. So many matches he had in WCW you could see him phoning it in..
Eric, did the merger tell you to book every show so that the final match would result in an interference by one or more of the 140 NWO members? The invasion angle that you lifted from Japan ran out of steam and you ignored fans with your shitty booking. Anytime you feign to take any responsibility, you always throw someone else under the bus
Bischoff made a lot of mistakes but trashing wcw budget and providing utterly useless advice to make themselves look useful and forcing those ideas upon wcw was utterly unacceptable.
Nwo was dead, shit everyone was tired of it by the time Bret got there in lol to many people, to many factions and just over done and dead. It helped lead to the downfall of wcw. You can thank the hulkster for that brother.
@@chadjustice8560 so you are saying the people who saved WCW are the same people who killed WCW? It was the writers fault. Here we are almost 30 years later and I still see NWO shirts at wresting events 🤷♂️
Eric they knew what they were doing when they brought in the new brass they wanted wcw gone like you said they didn’t want wcw in the first place so they planned to sabotage you guys from the inside out and get rid of wcw and they did inner company allocation aka we’re gonna legally fck you🤷🏾♂️🤦🏽♂️
Wait you mean Turner didn't fire him because of the finger poke of doom or because he didn't push the Cruiserweights to the World Title picture? Fucking marks.
This is a big myth that Bischoff likes to use to protect himself in the downfall of WCW... these new executives forced me out and took over the business to mismanage it. Here is the reality: the new executives and owners were bookkeeping and noticed that this wrestling company was a huge financial blackhole. WCW was never profitable...even when they were at their hottest because Eric spent more money that came in their coffers. If WCW was a well oiled, profitable branch of this company, even anti-wrestling executives might be interested in keeping it around. However, it wasn't, so they were even more motivated to get rid of it or cut the funds. There is a reason Vince didn't give million dollar contracts to all his wrestlers because he needed to make a profit... Bischoff was totally incompetent and just handing out cash to anyone and everyone. They felt like they needed to put him on a leash because they did.
@@curthennig9448 Do you have sources on how profitable the company was in those years? Underneath the hood, WCW was horribly mismanaged both creatively and financially... Bischoff was not organized at all. There was no long term booking, no development of new stars (midcarders and jobbers stayed in those roles even though they went to do big things in WWE - WWF.. all the focus stayed on 40 - 50 year old wrestlers to the detriment of new talent) and you hear all kinds of stories like wrestlers no longer active with the company still getting paid years after their termination or not being used. This all happened under Bischoff.... WCW had the one great gimmick: nWo and the Hogan heel turn... and they rode that into the ground. What else did they do?
@@BronzeBullBalls I'm not disagreeing with your comments but in 97 and 98 they had tremendous house show attendance and very good PPV revenue. They also had great ratings on Monday night which is a huge boost to ad revenue. I'd have to dig around to find some accounting numbers for 97 and 98. Even though they skewed toward older wrestlers during that time, most of them still had star power but it did eventually catch up with them.
Love wrestling marks telling the guy who was there what really happened. WCW was profitable in 97 and 98. The merger negotiations stalled a lot of the business end of things, people wanted WCW to die and wanted Ted Turner out. So they did exactly what Eric laid out, Turner execs were complicit in this cause the end justified the means
WCW was losing money every year before Bischoff took over. Ted Turner was the only reason they kept it. So no, the entire thing is because of the merger.
He tells the same story slightly differently for several decades. This lets you know he was nowhere near as creative as he claims to be. Weve already experienced every story, every revelation he has to offer. He was put into a position he didnt really earn , and he was arounnd guys that knew what was "cool". He didnt create shit
That merger did do a lot of damage but it was a perfect storm of terrible decisions. Eric fumbled the Hogan vs Sting feud, then he fumbled the Hogan vs Goldberg match. Also he fumbled the Nash vs Hogan match. Everyone deserves some blame especially Bischoff
Booking expenses against WCW's books was not "screwing over" WCW. WCW's budget comes from the parent and WCW's revenue goes to the parent. This would fool no one if the topic of selling WCW ever came up, which is obviously did later...
WCW 24/7 LVN with MGM GRAND as it's home base. WCW 24/7 CHAMPIONSHIP to coincide with the Las Vegas lifestyle Forget about competing with WWF/E. Some people will NEVVVER BE WWE no matter the SMACKDOWN. WCW FX Be interesting... WCW 24/7 LVN
Who is ultimately responsible for the death of WCW? Let us know in the comments below!
I think we can all agree that it was a conglomerate mesh of factors that really killed WCW. There really is no one single sole entity and I'll never understand why people don't get that.
Jamie Kellner
Eric, He spent like a drunken sailor, paid people millions just to sit at home and was the sole reason they got into the hole they did
Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo, Jamie Kellner & Vince McMahon, The Undertaker, Triple H & Shawn Michaels in the wwf/e
It’s being pretty well researched that Turners mismanagement was the death of WCW.
Lol, googled worst Media Merger ever, Bischoff was spot on. Every article says the same thing as him. Dang.
It was one of the worst things that ever happened in business. It literally destroyed every company involved. The only one that made it out alive was warner brothers and it's not recovered to where it was.
@deadend1041 and now they've done it again with discovery 🤦♂️🤣
Ain't it great to hear that the failure of WCW had nothing to do with Bischoff's involvement. Uh-huh. But he's right about the decline of CNN, the Communist News Network as it's well deserved.
Eric wasn't wrong, I did Google it and AOL/Time Warner was in the first result at #1
Me too
I found multiple sites that all listed it as up there for worst. Damn!
Dude they FIRED Ted Turner. Ted started that company. FFS look what half of the name is "AOL". What happened to them? They just imploded simply because broadband internet came out. They could have been Google today.
@@Turk_2023How could they have been google exactly?
@@Ian-Omega AOL was a huge internet browser in the 90s, the most popular. Had they focused on that instead of tv they would have still been massive.
It’s crazy that 30 years later time warner is still involved in horrible media mergers
Ironically, the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery might go down as a worse merger than AOL/Time Warner
And now, WB and Paramount
The Google machine still has AOL and time Warner the worst still. But I trust the Google machine as much as I trust news stations haha
Read this guy’s book whether he’s blowing smoke or not. I don’t think his presence in the wrestling industry has been bad. He’s done more good than bad for it and at least every other word out of his flipping mouth isn’t bro.!!!!!!!
"NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW" by Guy Evans is a really fascinating read. Highly recommended.
I think that Bischoff gets a bad wrap. He did well for a while. Yet, corporate suits will be corporate suits, and his only choices were comply or be gone.
I paused it and immediately googled "worst media merger" and sure enough he's right.
Very fun video. Eric Bischoff sounds highly educated
I wish someone would of asked him what he would of done to compete with WWE if he got to stay in charge and have all the funds that he had in WCW
He would jammed 15 different NWO colors down our throats and fail miserably
He would've bankrupted WCW in a matter of 6-12 months if he took over. Look at Bankrupt Bischoff's life: Bankrupted himself twice, bankrupted every business he ever started (Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, MX Digital, Bischoff Family Brewing) and did a absolute horrendous job in TNA
Not sure storyline-wise but I've heard him express how he started getting limits on how ruthless he was able to make the product. So, I'd imagine he'd want an edgier product to try push the boundaries beyond what WWF was capable of at the time.
No that's a good question
Buy out all of WWF’s talent. Same as he did in mid 90s.
To really understand the downfall of WCW, read Guy Evans Nitro book. It provides so much depth that you wont get from a WWE documentary or dirt sheet writers with an agenda.
Where can you find this full interview as a podcast? What’s it called please
WCW/NWO 4-life. The best time to be a fan. It was all epic and 94-98 WCW was the better product.
By April 98 with Austin/Mcmahon feud really firing up after the DX/Austin feud with Mike Tyson ended at WM 14 is where imo WCW lost the war, WWF Austin/McMahon was must see tv I never missed a minute of Raw is War; whereas, the year before 1997 up Until Feb/March 98 I was locked in on Sting/NWO feud, and I was even at Thunder in Birmingham on 2/19/98, 13 yr old me made my mom take me lol, but come Wrestlemania 14 and the Austin/McMahon feud I was sold on WWF and all I’d see when I swapped to TNT was Goldberg winning another 1-2 minute match. Then, at Unforgiven in 98 we got that Taker/Kane match with flames around the ring and then in June of 98 we had Taker/Mankind’s iconic HIAC match at KOTR plus by the later half of 98 not only was Austin still feuding with McMahon but at Survivor Series 1998 Austin/Rock Rivalry picked back up, but this time it would morph into a legendary rivalry that would go until 2003 for Austin’s retirement match,
So, I’d say 1998 was far and away WWE’s year unless your were like a giant Goldberg fan
@@gamingwithvulpixanddratini7604 I agree. But WCW was still the show to watch to April 98, and they beat WWE to that point. In April WWE won the first rating in a long time, but it was still close between WWE and WCW under the summer, of 1998 - and WCW also won ratings in all august 98 and half september. WCW got stale under autumn a bit, Hogan retired. The NWO vs Wolfpack feud started to decline. There was only a face NWO and Goldberg and DDP was the only WCW guys left. So the NWO-storyline run out of gas october/november. And in 1999 the WWF was the better product.
The last nitro before Bischoff was fired in Sept 99, he was drawing 4.1 in the ratings while Raw was drawing 4.4. it wasnt that far off.. When Raw was drawing 1.8 in the ratings in 96-97 and getting trashed by wcw, Vince was untouchable. What they did by firing Bischoff, the man that brought them to the dance and bringing in Vince Russo is the equivalent of USA network 'firing' Vince and bringing in Kevin Sullivan to wwf as the boss.
Eric Bishoff gets a lot of hate, but only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. He accomplished great things with WCW that has since never been replicated. There is no bravado and ego in these interviews now. He's already been there and done that !
I Googled "Worst mergers in history". The first 6 results were lists. AOL/Time Warner was on ALL of them. And was #1 on results 1, 2, 3, and 5.
What Eric describes sounds a lot like what Enron did and it was not perfectly legal. Enron used a corporate entity to hide losses, it's described in the book "Conspiracy of Fools".
No, it's legal if you can justify the transfers. I used to work in this kinda environment and we did this stuff all the time. I once had to figure out what to charge another department what they had to pay for a switch port per month so we can boost our books by taking money from them. The Enron thing isn't legal because it was cross-company, what we did was net 0 for the company but it made a difference for VPs and such for their bonuses and profitability if we spun them out to their own company
@@stephkent2736it sounds like what Peter Lynch called pulling out the flowers to water the weeds. The branch that's deploying capital effectively producing a high ROIC ought to get more capital not less. What Turner Broadcasting was doing was akin to an investor selling Amazon to purchase more Sears.
It's legal, because it's all all under the same umbrella. To shareholders and the government it makes no difference because the total profit and loss to the parent company is the same.
OF "models" and big streamers have started to open LLCs and Corps and "businesses" to "reinvest" (launder) their own incomes from streaming to claim the "losses" at the end of the year in order to pay far less in taxes. 😅.
General Motors and Opel anyone? All the profits from Opel were transferred to the parent company GM, so they could claim Opel is in the red to avoid paying taxes in Germany
I just googled the worst media merger, and Eric was right! ❤❤❤
I'm still confused why the new suits didn't want wrestling when it was so successful
Arrogant rich guys looking down on wrestling
Because for 2 years WCW lost so much money with their terrible booking and the wrestling bubble was going to burst by 2001. WWF was good enough that the mainstream audience didn't want to spend their time with another company like WCW or ECW. If WCW was still a great company in 2001, they probably would've still been cancelled by TNT. But they could've found another better network. Since in reality WCW's reputation was damaged, other networks didn't want them
WCW was losing money and ratings by the time the merger was going to happen
Two words: Vince Russo
Basically, back then wrestling had become something of a bad kind of entertainment. Just one or two steps above porn. Henceforth, it was very much frowned upon. Most broadcast companies wanted nothing to do with it. When the merge started to happen and Ted Turner got fired, the new owners, Time Warner and AOL, decided they didn't want to keep WCW at all, because they didn't want that kind of entertainment. They couldn't sell so soon, because the company had large profits, so they decided to use legal ways of making WCW lose rivers of money. That was the only way they could end the company. By either having it's value become so low that someone would end up buying it (which VKM did) or by just having it go completely bankrupt and closing it down, firing everyone in the process. Whoever tells you that WCW fall was on Vince Russo, has only listened to Dave Meltzer and can't get their heads out of the gutter.
And as for why wrestling as a while was so much frowned upon, we're talking about a time where female wrestlers would have mud fights, cat fights, lingerie or bra and panties fights where the one that ended up baked would lose the match, we would have women straight up being sexuallized on national TV. Remember Sable? Yeah... That was Attitude Era. We don't need to go that far back to still watch a mud fight between divas in WWE. For this reason, most broadcasting companies didn't want to touch wrestling with a 50 feet pole.
Hes not wrong about the AoL/Time merger being the worst in history. It actually is considered the literal worst in history. So, he is at least truthful on that fact.
Hey Omar. Your last comment seemed to be deleted from my original comment. Sorry about that mate. Definitely say something else that TH-cam doesn't delete
WCW wasn't gonna make it anyway. Politics, the attitude era, Vince Russo, wrestlers being me, me, me, not WE, along with higher ups telling Eric how he was gonna run WCW & Jamie Kellner pulling the plug from a TV station standpoint, there was no way Eric was winning this war. Had Eric threatened to leave in 1998, he would've had more leverage & been able to try & win the fight against people above him. Ultimately, Jamie Kellner came in, said you can have everything except TV time, at the time, without TV to air WCW, WCW was done. Jamie Kellner is the man that ultimately gave the death blow to WCW.
Hope tony khan is listening. Avoid any old mistakes made by wcw.
@@user-pu3ce3jt7hyou have no idea what you are talking about
If this was true he would be world champion by now. Try a new narative buddy@@user-pu3ce3jt7h
DIDNT WWE JUST LOSE A TV W DEAL WITH FOX????
No they got a 30% increase with the USA network so they left fox who wouldn't
How do you get full versions of these interviews? The website only has podcasts and future ones it looks like. Are they paywalled?
A "desperate" WCW gets better ratings than WWE, the NBA, and MLB today lol.
Because it isn't 1998 anymore. WWE the NBA and MLB are paid a lot more for their numbers today than WCW was back then for theirs. Times are different, Turk.
You're aware viewing habits and technology have changed over the last 20+ years right?
Streaming changed the game in an irreparable way.
@@ProWrestlingJoe WCW didn't have deals with networks, they *were* the network. WCW wasn't paid by TNT/TBS - they were both part of the same company, Turner. They didn't have that huge source of revenue - TV deals - that other promotions have. Rather than be paid, they were allocated time when Ted or those working for him decided to give it to them or take it away.
As sad as it is, ratings means nothing today. The money is out there, on the table thanks to the investors and social media.
I double checked Sep 9th 1999. Indeed it was a Thursday 😅
IMO the advent of DSL is what started the nosedive of AOL Time Warner. Because DSL was the start of 24/7 Internet connectivity for EVERYONE. Prior to that only schools and businesses had that.
So when companies like Verizon started providing DSL, it causes AOL's profits to fall cause there was no need to pay for their Internet service when (local phone company) can provide it for far less and have constant connectivity.
He Was Slowly Gaining Momentum Back For WCW. The Nitro Before He Was Fired Drew A 4.1 Rating To WWE 4.4. Time Warner Hired Vince Russo. Time Warner & Vince McMahon Conspiracy. Had Bischoff Been There September 13, 1999, WCW Ratings Would've Increased & WWE Ratings Would Have Dropped.
I could be wrong, but this man clearly knew what he was doing.
When Time Warner acquired Turner broadcasting in 1996 corporate executives wanted WCW gone from TNT and TBS sabotaged from within executives of standards and practice slashing WCW budget insisting for family-friendly entertainment eventually Ted Turner no longer had control of his media outlets then in 2000 AOL/Time Warner merger happened came into fruition they wanted WCW gone from cable Television one of the worst mergers in history is AOL/Time Warner
You have to be careful when listening to Bischoff. He loves to pepper every story with indisputable facts to set a baseline that he is telling the truth and can be trusted. After that he starts slipping in the BS. The issues that occured between Eric and Time Warner stem from Eric not approaching his peers with proper decorum or respect. Even in his story he talks about showing up at the office wearing jeans and leather jacket and riding his harley. Walking through the halls with his long scraggly hair. He would go to meetings and come off as arrogant and condescending which in a corporate environment is going to piss people off.
Yes he was correct that they saddled more loses on top WCW but at the time this occurred WCW was already on track to lose millions. The additional loses weren't even 5% of WCW was on track to lose all by itself. As one member of the finance team that was sent in to try to stop WCW hemorrhaging had said the spending was out of control. They were paying for flights to every Nitro and Thunder for the entire roster. The downside guarantees which Eric was famous for using had D list wrestlers sitting at home making 75k to 150k. Not to mention the huge pay out to Kiss for the rights to the Demon and a concert that never happened. The payouts to celebrities like Master P and 10 members of his entourage, Dennis Rodman, and others. They even sunk a good bit of money into Hogans fake presidential run. Perhaps Eric isn't responsible for it all but he doesn't get to say well we were under budget and making money and they saddled us with debt line. As always Eric is full of shit.
How do you know? You worked with him back then?
@@TL2354 No but plenty of people worked for WCW and Time Warner which was the parent company. The spending was rumored till the books were all opened for the AOL Merger which confirmed that Bischoff was throwing out money trying to spark ratings. As for Eric's attitude was shared in interviews as he tended to rub people the wrong way. Harvey Schiller talked about it. If you dig through numerous wrestling books written in the last 28 years they bring it up as well.
Vince never shut down wcw. The people who believe it you really should look into it and it won't take long to change your mind.
Like Eric or not, I can relate to the last part. Nothing is worse at work when you think someone is your friend, but they aren't and they are telling the people above you everything you say. I've learned the hard way more than once NOBODY at work is your friend. Talk about the weather if you have to leave it at that.
I would love to hear the advice from those guys maybe you should have listened to them Eric.
Because in August of '98 you were doing the ultimate warrior angle and the other angle was having hulk Hogan cower in fear of Jay Leno.
Top quality stuff there buddy
WCW was a dying breed. The storylines were stale. So much of it felt the same, too much focus on the NWO. Everything with the NWO was the same, you KNEW guys would come from the locker room. they needed to keep the NWO with just Hall/Nash/Hogan/Sixx. they did not do enough with the homegrown talent. so many great wrestlers left, Jerico, Eddie, Perry, and so on. Goldberg was a One-Trick Pony, with his win streak. it had to end. he could not do a medium sized match. It was great watching him the first few times, but then you realized he was going against jobbers.
The WWE had reinvented itself. Austin, Rock, Jericho, the rest of the Radicals all brought new life to it. It was a vibrant situation while WCW just felt worn and tired.
right but thats the time period he's talking about here? It was doing good until early 98 really.
WCW vs nWo was the evolution in storyline needed but to give nWo Nitro for 2-3 hours solo...Eric wasn't capable. WE'RE TAKING OVVVER but once done so ..then what?
Goldberg is still a One Trick Pony and it showed both back when he first got on WWE and later on when he returned.
As for the nWo, although people can partially blame it on them, it's not entirely their fault. It's not like what happened in TNA also happened in WCW.
Pretty much all of that is wrong. WCW made and pushed far more talent during the late 90s than WWE. Just look at what happened after WCW was sold, it wasn't the mid-carders of the WWE who were the stars, it was pretty much all WCW talent. The Rock and Taker are probably the only notable exceptions to that. Stone Cold? Yes, even Austin had a long stint in WCW while he was at his in-ring peak.
WCW made legends: Flair, Sting, Luger, Eddie, Rey, Goldberg, Scotty Steiner, Booker T, DDP, Jericho, Giant, and that's just off the top of my head. Before 2007 you could have included Benoit on that list too but as we all know he disqualified himself (to say the very least).
The fact is, wcw still had a strong loyal following. People who had followed the organisation for 20 years, all the history with the NWA.....
WWF in 95 and 96 were doing bad. A few bad years isn't the absolute end for these companies. Everyone goes through them, but WCW and WWE were the kind of companies that would bounce back eventually. That's just how wrestling worked.
He's a little behind the times
Structuring and interdepartmental allocation are illegal now because when public companies merge regulators typically will Flagg that as potential violations
They got away with it at the time
Best comment
These stories are incredible
I googled it. And it says American online and time Warner 😮
Living outside Atlanta I loved WCW because I could go to so many matches.
People can say whatever they want about Eric but the one thing that he definitely is, smart, very smart. He knows business and especially a wrestling business like mo one else, well almost like no one else, i think Vince is out of everyone's league..
Looking at it now. I wish Bischoff bought WCW.. back then I was a WWE kid and I was too happy to defeat them
The whole thing was such a disaster. Not only destroyed all the media companies and WCW, but drove the Atlanta Braves into a 20 year hole.
Lol every single one of these interviews - all these guys know how to play innocent and victim. It was never their fault for poor decisions/behavior.
Narcissistic traits. Its either that or because none of them can admit their own mistakes. If any one of them pointed the finger at themselves, the first one who does it will get piled on by everyone. So they all rather gather sympathy.
That's not true at all, He's been quite humble. Sure he doesn't own up to everything as most business people won't. But in this regard he's speaking facts, try doing a bit of research into it.
@@treetrunk05 But he probably knows more about the inner workings of such a high ranking organisation than you do. Sure you aren't being narcissistic by not doing your research into it?
Wcw was killed by multiple people and factors. The excuses he gave on this video are valid, after the merger the board wanted wcw gone and they did anything and everything to kill it. Sure eric had some part in the death of wcw but nowhere near aol/time warner.
Oh shut up, he's never said he didn't make mistakes. 🙄
If you watch that nitro when hulk came out for the first time since the nWo, he came out in the red and yellow the crowd was electrified and they were very loud. Watch the hulk Hogan, sting and Goldberg vs Nash, sid and Rick Steiner. It was a great show ender match and the crowd was totally into it.
Nitro still did good ratings up to 2001
How crazy to think that in 2023 but nitro was never going to get to the top again because it’s talent disappeared every month from 1999 Jan to 2001 April
WCW was on its last breath with NWO, they did not know how to develop talent. Look at all the WCW talent that went to WWF at that time, they all became main eventers. WCW/Hogan didnt let anyone shine.
Nitro in 2001 was getting 2+ ratings. For comparison, Raw gets around 1.5s in 2023. So WCW still had a very large audience.
WCW was actually on the way up at the end in 2001. In the last couple of months they even signed AJ Styles, who made his mainstream debut with them. Had WCW continued, TNA would never have existed and AJ would've spent all that time in WCW instead.
@@namikstudios & Most CarNNNN,
And There Were Future Stars/Main Eventers In Sean O'Haire, Mark Jindak, Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Mike Awesome, Rob Van Dam(Bischoff Was Going To Sign Him) & Batista(Trained At WCW). All Heavyweights. Those Vanilla Midgets Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko & Saturn, When They Left WCW, Nothing Of Value Was Lost. AJ Styles Would've Probably Been A Top Cruiserweight. The Magnificent Seven Storyline Was Going To Continue. Everyone Scott Steiner Hurt Was Going To Return To Feud With The Magnificent Seven-Sting, DDP, Goldberg, Kevin Nash & Hulk Hogan Was Going To Return. Also Randy Savage, Scott Hall & Roddy Piper. Savage, Hall & Piper Could've Been Putting Over New Talent And One Of Them Join Magnificent Seven Maybe Hall.
Eric Bischoff Was Going To Come Back And Put The WWE Out Of Business. Too The WWE Were In Need Of New Stars. It's Why They Rushed Invasion & Brought In The NWO. The Only Guys They Had To Make New Stars Of Out Were Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho. The WWE Would've Pushed Them.
Before Eric Bischoff Was Fired, He Was Just Starting To Gain Momentum For WCW. Time Warner & Vince McMahon Conspiracy. Time Warner Brought/Vince McMahon Sent Vince Russo To WCW To Destroy The Company. The Ratings For August 30, 1999 Were-Nitro 4.0. Raw 4.4 And
September 6, 1999-Nitro 4.1. Raw 4.4. Raw Now Ratings Now Are About 1.0 Or Less. WCW Final Months Viewership Was 3,000,000-4,000,000 Viewers.
@@namikstudios WCW probably would have had Styles jobbing out to Buff Bagwell.
98. Was wcw. Last year of having a good product……. 99 to the end 2001. Was dreadful. 👋
I've always wondered how things would've played out if Turner Broadcasting didn't merge with Time Warner
What a surprise. Eric Bischoff assumes no personal responsibility for the decline and fall of WCW. Bischoff is as believable as Hulk Hogan.
Why do people suck up to him
So what did he say that was a lie? You worked with him back then?
Like he said, didnt matter who owned WCW, they didnt want the company regardless.
So basically Harvey did right by Eric and got him paid
Yeah, there is actually a pretty big difference between being "sent home" as Eric was and being fired. Being sent home means getting paid to do nothing until you're either needed again or until your contract expires.
Eric Bischoff got screwed by that merger and he's 100% correct about 80% of his energy going to dealing with internal corporate rubbish rather than creative. That is so taxing and drains all energy that would otherwise be used to better the product. Anyone who's been in a similar messed up situation, where they have unsurmountable odds stacked against them which leadership KNOWS is impossible to overcome, understands that he was SETUP to fail. I've had it happen to me, where a company shoved all its garbage on my plate while everyone else got off easy. It's literally impossible.
December 2, 2023. Just checked and as of November 2022...Aol Time Warner is the worst Merger by approx $150 Million over 2nd worst.
How many more times can he answer these same questions! Enough already!!!
Wrestling interviews in a nutshell 😂
As long as people keep paying him, and more importantly, as long as YOU and I still watch.
It's not Bischoff's fault Time Warner corporate big shots didn't want to be in the wrestling business.
Someone ask him about the show "The Devil's Ride" he and Jason Harvey produced for the Discovery channel..
Why don’t you?
So Eric talk about the Hogan red and yellow and---so the AOL Time Warner merger really screwed us. Ok but your breakfast this morning, was it----the AOL Time Warner merger really screwed us.
He answered the question: it was a desperation move. How much more info do you want about it?
You’re either joking or the dumbest person on Earth.
No........I’d say the merger of WCCW and USWA was worse.
He's talking big business, not wrestling
@@FIXTREME ………Exactly!! Cuz he knows crap about the latter.🤣😂✌️🤘🔥😎
Damn, Bischoff is showing his age.
What did you expect him to look like?
Umm he looks pretty good for almost 70
@@bryanmack4054 Hulk Hogan
@@frozyre7854 so a dehydrated nutsack?
😅😅I love it. "Bitchoff" ain't young no more. 😊😊😊😊 I am sure it's eating him up
So politics sunk WCW. Sad.
The Merger was a bunch of Secretaries trying to run a Construction Company.
That was LITERALLY the first thing that popped up as "Worst Company Merger in History" for me. LMAO
Everytime I hear something about the end of wcw, it sounds like Marvel comics at the high of the extreme age.
He was fired but didnt he come back in 2000 or 01 ????
It was around April 2000.
@@Eddie-lm3jf A shade earlier than that. Somewhere in Feb. 2000 but most didn't know until a few weeks later.
It's true. I looked it up and it is the worst merger 😂
The merger didn’t have any impact. Would not have impacted WCW if the product was good
What else can you tell us about your time working for them back then? We’re all waiting. Thanks!
How’s bishoff looking more like Buff bagwells biological father the older he gets? Like they look more alike every day.
Eric once things really got rolling spent more time being Hogan's buddy than actually running a wrestling company..
He was overspending and WCW never made a profit... the Bret Hart contract was ridiculous and Vince knew it.
@@BronzeBullBalls
Bret while I was a big fan does make a lot of excuses and comes off really bitter. He is partially to blame about his WCW run. He was emotionally scarred from the screw job and I really think after Owen died his love of wrestling was gone.. So many matches he had in WCW you could see him phoning it in..
That’s infuriating. How did Cocking get away with that and how could his wife stand by him?
Eric, did the merger tell you to book every show so that the final match would result in an interference by one or more of the 140 NWO members?
The invasion angle that you lifted from Japan ran out of steam and you ignored fans with your shitty booking. Anytime you feign to take any responsibility, you always throw someone else under the bus
Wcw went out of business because they didn't have tv time the network was going in another direction
It’s silly. It’s like if someone fired Vince when WCW took over in the ratings. Never gave Eric much of a chance to come back in the ratings.
Then went and killed tna after wcw good job👍👍
Bischoff made a lot of mistakes but trashing wcw budget and providing utterly useless advice to make themselves look useful and forcing those ideas upon wcw was utterly unacceptable.
id be like just fire me now so i can turn around and head home
you guys keeping changing title names lol
"CNN is a metaphor. CNN was "the worldwide leader in news." Not anymore". Love him or hate him, Eric Bischoff was spot on when he said that.
I mean part of that is the quality and part of that is stupid politics needing baddies. So, partially right.
No. It's asinine.
And with that he had to deal with Vince Russo
Sounds like Tony khan future.
Bischoff should take the blame for this one
He did. "I told him I was done"
From those interview I started like Eric before I hated him because of Bret effects.
Killing the NWO was the worst move ever for WCW
Nwo was dead, shit everyone was tired of it by the time Bret got there in lol to many people, to many factions and just over done and dead. It helped lead to the downfall of wcw. You can thank the hulkster for that brother.
@@chadjustice8560 so you are saying the people who saved WCW are the same people who killed WCW? It was the writers fault. Here we are almost 30 years later and I still see NWO shirts at wresting events 🤷♂️
This is probably the 1000th time this story has been told.grill him on why he let Hogan run the company
He didn't. Hogan only had creative control over things involving his own character, not the entire company.
Eric they knew what they were doing when they brought in the new brass they wanted wcw gone like you said they didn’t want wcw in the first place so they planned to sabotage you guys from the inside out and get rid of wcw and they did inner company allocation aka we’re gonna legally fck you🤷🏾♂️🤦🏽♂️
Hope aew kicks WWE ass in the Future
dead right comes up as the worst merger ever.
Come on, take ownership. When you have a multi-billon $ media conglomerate funding all the talent he stole, then he was genius?
Wait you mean Turner didn't fire him because of the finger poke of doom or because he didn't push the Cruiserweights to the World Title picture? Fucking marks.
Does every single person on this channel SHOOT? 😂
damn that's messed up what to wcw
Vince created the GAP, not Ted. Lmao
Not anymore!😂
😮
He ran his mouth about the bosses and got himself fired.
Count how many times in this video he makes comparisons of himself to Jesus. I count at minimum 4.
Ironically, VKM killed wcw
This is a big myth that Bischoff likes to use to protect himself in the downfall of WCW... these new executives forced me out and took over the business to mismanage it. Here is the reality: the new executives and owners were bookkeeping and noticed that this wrestling company was a huge financial blackhole. WCW was never profitable...even when they were at their hottest because Eric spent more money that came in their coffers. If WCW was a well oiled, profitable branch of this company, even anti-wrestling executives might be interested in keeping it around. However, it wasn't, so they were even more motivated to get rid of it or cut the funds. There is a reason Vince didn't give million dollar contracts to all his wrestlers because he needed to make a profit... Bischoff was totally incompetent and just handing out cash to anyone and everyone. They felt like they needed to put him on a leash because they did.
97 and 98 were clearly profitable despite big contracts. 2000 was absolutely horrendous and it made pulling the plug in 2001 quite simple.
@@curthennig9448 Do you have sources on how profitable the company was in those years? Underneath the hood, WCW was horribly mismanaged both creatively and financially... Bischoff was not organized at all. There was no long term booking, no development of new stars (midcarders and jobbers stayed in those roles even though they went to do big things in WWE - WWF.. all the focus stayed on 40 - 50 year old wrestlers to the detriment of new talent) and you hear all kinds of stories like wrestlers no longer active with the company still getting paid years after their termination or not being used. This all happened under Bischoff.... WCW had the one great gimmick: nWo and the Hogan heel turn... and they rode that into the ground. What else did they do?
@@BronzeBullBalls I'm not disagreeing with your comments but in 97 and 98 they had tremendous house show attendance and very good PPV revenue. They also had great ratings on Monday night which is a huge boost to ad revenue. I'd have to dig around to find some accounting numbers for 97 and 98. Even though they skewed toward older wrestlers during that time, most of them still had star power but it did eventually catch up with them.
Love wrestling marks telling the guy who was there what really happened. WCW was profitable in 97 and 98. The merger negotiations stalled a lot of the business end of things, people wanted WCW to die and wanted Ted Turner out. So they did exactly what Eric laid out, Turner execs were complicit in this cause the end justified the means
WCW was losing money every year before Bischoff took over. Ted Turner was the only reason they kept it. So no, the entire thing is because of the merger.
He tells the same story slightly differently for several decades. This lets you know he was nowhere near as creative as he claims to be. Weve already experienced every story, every revelation he has to offer. He was put into a position he didnt really earn , and he was arounnd guys that knew what was "cool". He didnt create shit
NWO was his idea and that was peak WCW
That merger did do a lot of damage but it was a perfect storm of terrible decisions. Eric fumbled the Hogan vs Sting feud, then he fumbled the Hogan vs Goldberg match. Also he fumbled the Nash vs Hogan match. Everyone deserves some blame especially Bischoff
The merger did the MOST damage. A few mundane years of bad storylines doesn't kill WCW (it didn't kill WWE when it was doing even worse)
Eric dont know how to be a boss just a friend and let the wrestlers walk all over him
That's what you get for listening to Hogan for years.
Imagine buying a ticket to listen to this? Marks are nuts.
Booking expenses against WCW's books was not "screwing over" WCW. WCW's budget comes from the parent and WCW's revenue goes to the parent. This would fool no one if the topic of selling WCW ever came up, which is obviously did later...
WCW 24/7 LVN with MGM GRAND as it's home base.
WCW 24/7 CHAMPIONSHIP to coincide with the Las Vegas lifestyle
Forget about competing with WWF/E. Some people will NEVVVER BE WWE no matter the SMACKDOWN.
WCW FX
Be interesting...
WCW
24/7
LVN