Book It: WWE Purchases WCW
August 30, 2016
Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new edition of “Book It” I'm your magical author friend Kyle Robinson coming back to venture back into the rabbit hole through some of the history of pro wrestling. Today actually marks the first of 3 part post where we venture through the infamous invasion angle. But before an invasion there has to be a purchase, and that's where we start today. WWES’ purchase of WCW in 2001.
August 30, 2016
Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new edition of “Book It” I'm your magical author friend Kyle Robinson coming back to venture back into the rabbit hole through some of the history of pro wrestling. Today actually marks the first of 3 part post where we venture through the infamous invasion angle. But before an invasion there has to be a purchase, and that's where we start today. WWES’ purchase of WCW in 2001.
As most people know, WWE purchased WCW in very public fashion by simulcasting Raw and Nitro. It was unprecedented for the time and threw all of the sports entertainment world into a tailspin. By the end of the night WWE had purchased the company and a storyline was set in place that would carry forward on Monday Night Raw.
At the end of the night, it was very much clear the WWE was now alone atop the sports entertainment mountain. But, what if things had went a little differently on that fateful night in 2001? I don't mean WWE doesn't buy out the company, or that WCW doesn't close the doors but what if there was a few more secrets kept from the fans? I mean this was long before the rise of Internet everywhere so keeping it a secret for a few more years would have definitely been possible. But if they would have went that route how would they have went about it? I have a couple of options in mind here.
The first option would be to have secretly kept WCW afloat through financial backing. Now, there are a few people that I think would have had an issue working for Vince McMahon but at the end of the day most of them would have been all over the idea of working for the WWE Payroll because there’s no doubt that there’s power in the WWE.
The second option would be to bring in a third party figurehead, the first person that came to my mind was Paul Hayman. He was one of those people who could easily carry the company as a figure head. He’s one of the brightest minds in the business and I think that he would have been great as a lead in the WCW Camp.
The third option, (and I just thought of this as I wrote the second option) is that you could have Eric Bischoff running the show on WCW. This would have kept up the continued Idea of competition, and given Eric a chance to stretch his wings on the creative side while still being a bit limited to a filter like Vince McMahon.
Regardless of how you look at it, there were some definite advantages to keeping WCW open as a running company. The biggest one was keeping the competitive element alive and hopefully keeping WWE ratings up. Either way, what came after the initial purchase of WCW was the influx of brand new talent. With that talent WWE went about implementing the invasion storyline that would see a combined alliance of ECW and WCW (Both, of WWE’s newly purchased properties) That’s where next weeks’ post begins, with the invasion angle that everyone seemed to hate so much.
Until next week, be sure to Like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, Join my Mailing List, until next week, this is Kyle Robinson picking up the pen and closing the book on this chapter.
At the end of the night, it was very much clear the WWE was now alone atop the sports entertainment mountain. But, what if things had went a little differently on that fateful night in 2001? I don't mean WWE doesn't buy out the company, or that WCW doesn't close the doors but what if there was a few more secrets kept from the fans? I mean this was long before the rise of Internet everywhere so keeping it a secret for a few more years would have definitely been possible. But if they would have went that route how would they have went about it? I have a couple of options in mind here.
The first option would be to have secretly kept WCW afloat through financial backing. Now, there are a few people that I think would have had an issue working for Vince McMahon but at the end of the day most of them would have been all over the idea of working for the WWE Payroll because there’s no doubt that there’s power in the WWE.
The second option would be to bring in a third party figurehead, the first person that came to my mind was Paul Hayman. He was one of those people who could easily carry the company as a figure head. He’s one of the brightest minds in the business and I think that he would have been great as a lead in the WCW Camp.
The third option, (and I just thought of this as I wrote the second option) is that you could have Eric Bischoff running the show on WCW. This would have kept up the continued Idea of competition, and given Eric a chance to stretch his wings on the creative side while still being a bit limited to a filter like Vince McMahon.
Regardless of how you look at it, there were some definite advantages to keeping WCW open as a running company. The biggest one was keeping the competitive element alive and hopefully keeping WWE ratings up. Either way, what came after the initial purchase of WCW was the influx of brand new talent. With that talent WWE went about implementing the invasion storyline that would see a combined alliance of ECW and WCW (Both, of WWE’s newly purchased properties) That’s where next weeks’ post begins, with the invasion angle that everyone seemed to hate so much.
Until next week, be sure to Like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, Join my Mailing List, until next week, this is Kyle Robinson picking up the pen and closing the book on this chapter.
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