Who Killed WCW? 1x4

1. WCW is about to dominate the globe

2. with professional wrestling.

3. 10 million people in the United States were

4. zeroed in on professional wrestling.

5. We were the number one cable rated show.

6. For almost two years. Mind blowing.

7. And, when something gets too big, too fast,

8. shit's gonna hit the fan at some point, and it did.

9. Little by little, we just fell.

10. We already knew that we were running thin.

11. It is so good to be king.

12. He cared more about ratings than

13. he cared about advertising dollars.

14. It was a shit show.

15. Vince Russo was just another idiot.

16. He was there to lead to our ultimate demise.

17. Kiss my ass!

18. I was done. It was over.

19. I could'nt care less.

20. No doubt in my mind Bischoff

21. was responsible for a little of this.

22. Another nail in the coffin of a company that was

23. rapidly dying at that time.

24. I don't control that shit. I go out and I do my job.

25. My check didn't change.

26. It was the easiest money I ever made in my career.

27. Like, they got what?

28. Hey!

29. When guys got those kind of agendas,

30. thinking about themselves, that's pretty much

31. when the ship started to go down.

32. This is some fucked up shit.

33. You ain't in Kansas anymore.

34. You cannot sweep this under the rug!

35. I don't understand what he's doing.

36. The real reason men commit lies...

37. Grid going out!

38. It is at an end.

39. It didn't feel like a family anymore.

40. It felt like everybody was out for themselves,

41. and it seemed like the blood was in the water and

42. the sharks were coming to get it.

43. I think everybody just didn't know

44. what was happening.

45. We were still hearing the rumors that

46. we were just gonna shut the doors.

47. So, I think at that point everybody was just really...

48. unsettled.

49. It's easy to lose sight of how lucky we are

50. to be part of this. Hopefully, it ain't over.

51. WCW wrestling is so important to me, and there's just...

52. that one guy at Turner, I think just

53. doesn't think wrestling's cool or whatever,

54. so he's gonna ruin it for millions of people.

55. I think Turner finally started looking into the

56. books and said, "We gotta pull the plug on this."

57. No matter how much Ted Turner loved this business

58. and wanted to, you know, keep it afloat,

59. you start looking at the books at that time and

60. seeing how much money we were spending,

61. I can only imagine how much money went out the window.

62. Oh, my god.

63. After Brad brought me back to kind of oversee Russo,

64. it was apparent to me that things were more

65. dysfunctional within Turner Broadcasting and

66. in the relationship between Turner and WCW

67. than they had ever been.

68. And I'm not talking about what was going on on television,

69. or how much money they were making or losing.

70. I'm just talking about the relationship.

71. Time Warner is a company of winning brands and

72. winning people, and so is AOL.

73. For this merger- just like when we put

74. Turner Broadcasting into Time Warner

75. it made the company much, much stronger.

76. And I think we're all committed to

77. making this thing work.

78. AOL was absolutely ubiquitous at that time

79. in terms of in the public consciousness

80. the company introduced many people to

81. the concept of logging on to the internet

82. for the very first time.

83. [Ad] I've been on America Online two months,

84. and it's really been a revelation for me.

85. You've Got Mail!

86. This is at the time where a lot of the new internet

87. dotcom businesses were receiving wild overvaluations

88. based on promises of future growth.

89. If you looked at the assets, besides furniture-

90. - they have a subscription list,

91. and that's the people who subscribe to AOL.

92. AOL's leadership in the early part of 1999 also were

93. keenly aware of this reality as well.

94. So, one option that was considered was to merge with

95. a media and entertainment conglomerate,

96. which was Time Warner.

97. The combined company, which will be called

98. AOL Time Warner gives each partner what it now lacks.

99. What ended up happening is that AOL shareholders

100. would receive 55% of the new company,

101. and Time Warner 45%.

102. Now, my dad's never been online on his own.

103. Never touched a computer, never owned a cell phone,

104. never used an ATM. Right? He's old school.

105. So, I think it was a whole generation gap lost on

106. AOL's going to buy this giant company with nothing,

107. where the older investment guys are like,

108. "Well, you can't turn it down.

109. Hundreds of dollars a share, this is gonna be awesome.

110. We're all gonna make a billion dollars,"

111. but nobody would stand up and go,

112. "This is a Ponzi scheme, man," right?

113. This is, this is all gonna fall apart.

114. The Blockbuster deal still needs regulatory approval,

115. and a nod from Time Warner and AOL shareholders.

116. AOL had serious, serious issues.

117. You know, WCW got caught up in that also.

118. And essentially you could say it was collateral damage.

119. Wrestling has become fun, crazy entertainment.

120. It is, it's an alternative.

121. It doesn't define our network.

122. It's one night a week.

123. It's a hit every Monday night.

124. But it wasn't anymore.

125. Because it was broken and I had to fix it,

126. I was a physical presence there.

127. I was in there trying to do whatever I can do

128. to get it back on track.

129. Big mistake!

130. What a bunch of fucking boobs.

131. It was so bad!

132. I really felt like, okay, stake in our heart.

133. It was a chaotic shit show and a blur.

134. And, I said, "I'm about to get the hell out of here

135. because I've had it."

136. You had to look out for yourself.

137. I just felt like Brad didn't

138. know anything about wrestling.

139. I mean, he knew about the corporate side,

140. but he wasn't a wrestling person.

141. He wasn't somebody that was gonna try to

142. help save the company.

143. It was like going through the motions.

144. To be completely honest, I couldn't fix it.

145. And the red kept getting redder.

146. And the ratings kept falling, and falling, and falling.

147. In addition, WCW drove away its paid audience.

148. Look at the difference in buy rate between the

149. uncensored Pay Per View in March of 1999 and the

150. same event just 12 months later in March of 2000.

151. They basically put on the exact same main event.

152. Hogan-Flair two years in a row.

153. Hold onto your hats!

154. 1, 2, 3!

155. In March of '99, the uncensored Pay Per View

156. enticed some 325,000 viewers

157. to purchase the event,

158. but just 12 months later, only 60,000 people were

159. willing to purchase the 2000 version of

160. WCW Uncensored.

161. That represents a drop of 81%.

162. The narrative, it was at the end of 2000.

163. WCW had losses of around $62 million.

164. That's the narrative.

165. And I think that there probably is a grain of truth

166. to that, but what people don't understand...

167. is the why.

168. Professional wrestling is very different

169. when you're a company like Time Warner AOL.

170. A lot of answering to shareholders that have

171. expectations on a monthly and quarterly basis.

172. I think there was a lot of debt from other divisions in

173. the company that could be allocated- legally-

174. but allocated as losses against WCW because everybody

175. knew it was gonna be written off as a loss anyway.

176. The bullshit internal transfers that people

177. tried to park all their trash on our books while,

178. while we were getting hurt.

179. It was clear to me at that point that

180. Turner Broadcasting didn't want

181. anything to do with WCW,

182. and I said to Brad, specifically, I said,

183. "Brad, why don't you let me explore selling WCW

184. while it still has some value?"

185. Because, the velocity at which WCW was

186. losing ground at that particular time

187. was pretty dramatic.

188. Brad kind of chuckled at me, and he said, "Eric,

189. you know this company. We don't sell anything.

190. We buy things." So I just let it go.

191. Fast forward...

192. Good evening.

193. Today we announce that the Federal Communications

194. Commission has approved the merger of America Online

195. and Time Warner Inc.

196. So the merger was announced on January 11th 2000.

197. Finalized on January 11th 2001.

198. There had actually been a lot of financial experts

199. who had been predicting the imminent demise

200. of AOL for quite some time.

201. Keep in mind that throughout the year 2000

202. a number of significant things happened.

203. We had the dotcom recession, right,

204. we had a number of these internet companies that were

205. going to be the darlings of the future that went

206. belly up, which affected AOL in a serious way.

207. Its stock price dropped by 50%,

208. which of course creates a huge pressure to look

209. closely at which divisions are profitable and

210. which are registering huge losses.

211. That put WCW even more in the crosshairs.

212. There were a lot of executives

213. at very senior levels.

214. The only person standing in front of them was Ted Turner.

215. The merger happens.

216. Ted becomes Vice Chairman.

217. You know, he was excited about that at first.

218. And you know, you have an office in New York,

219. you know, "I've made it." Well, no,

220. your name made it, your businesses made it.

221. But they didn't want even want to hear

222. at the board meetings from him.

223. Ted Turner was no longer a challenge.

224. Ted Turner was regulated to the corner and didn't have

225. a voice or vote in his own company.

226. You know, Ted is no longer in a position to have

227. control over WCW and its affairs.

228. I remember saying, y ou know, with Time Warner,

229. is it that important to own a wrestling company

230. that's losing money, bleeding massively,

231. has lost money every year of its existence except for

232. one or two years- is that really

233. what Time Warner needs to own?

234. I don't think we need this.

235. Brad Siegel, take one.

236. Mark.

237. I get a phone call from Brad.

238. And he said, "So, let me ask you, Eric,

239. a couple months ago you brought up the idea of

240. selling WCW. Do you think you could find a buyer?"

241. And I immediately said, "Sure." I had no idea,

242. I'd never done anything like that before.

243. But I assured him that I could find someone

244. who had the resources to buy it.

245. I said, "Do you want me to put a deal together?

246. You want me to try to put some people together?"

247. And he goes, "See what you got."

248. I went to a guy by the name of Peter Guber.

249. Peter Guber at that point of time owned a company

250. called Mandalay Sports and Entertainment.

251. He's a very, very, very well established Hollywood guy.

252. And he said, "Look, I'm not interested in investing,

253. in buying WCW,

254. but I think I know some people who may."

255. And he put me in touch with Brian Bedol and

256. Steve Greenberg, who owned a company called

257. Fusient Media Ventures.

258. Fusient Media Ventures had created the

259. Classic Sports Network,

260. which became ESPN Sports Classic.

261. Brian and Steve understood media.

262. They had great connections in New York, on Wall Street.

263. And, we hit it off, and started the process.

264. I called Brad back, said, "Okay, I got the investment."

265. Fusient Media funded the initial round

266. with 5 million of their own,

267. and then went out and raised $62 million in the market,

268. so I felt like I was capable with the financial resources

269. and the right partners with me,

270. there was potential for WCW.

271. They professional wrestling genre

272. as a whole is indestructible.

273. It's just a matter of the company being

274. in the right hands.

275. Eric was invested in

276. trying to keep WCW alive and moving.

277. So, it was very exciting when the opportunity

278. came up to buy it.

279. And it wasn't surprising that he went 100% all in

280. and just gave it all he had.

281. We had come up with a loose plan of what we were

282. going to do once the deal was consummated.

283. For example, went out to Las Vegas.

284. We met with the Hard Rock and they were planning on

285. building a entertainment theater on top of one of

286. their parking garages that would hold about 3500 people.

287. So, we started to negotiate the opportunity for kind of a

288. full-time location, producing our shows in front of a

289. live audience in Las Vegas every Monday night.

290. And one of the initial thoughts we had is

291. let's bring WCW back with this Pay Per View

292. called The Big Bang.

293. So, on January 11th 2001,

294. it appears that Fusient Media Ventures

295. has purchased the company.

296. The figure that was reported at the time of the

297. apparent sale to Fusient was $67 million.

298. You know, there's a lot of exuberance about,

299. once again, this being now the turning point.

300. Now we've got the new owners in play,

301. now Eric Bischoff's back in his position,

302. this is where we're off to the races.

303. The new goal is 100 weeks in a row,

304. and that's kind of what's in the future for WCW.

305. Oh, I was excited. I thought, you know,

306. okay, great, this is gonna open a new door.

307. We're gonna continue to go on like we are.

308. I think we were gonna see a, a smarter,

309. newer, more refreshed version of Eric.

310. He looked really gung ho to make this work.

311. Turner Broadcasting guaranteed us our time slot

312. on Monday night and Thursday night.

313. So, our job was then to produce the show,

314. find the advertisers, and turn the show profitable.

315. I remember that being part of the deal,

316. and I liked that as part of the deal.

317. Knowing that you've got that slot,

318. then being able to calculate what the advertising value

319. of that's gonna be...

320. is critical.

321. So, it was a fait accompli as far as we were concerned.

322. And we were scheduled to close that deal.

323. On the March the 6th,

324. Jamie Kellner is announced as the

325. new CEO of Turner Broadcasting.

326. Jamie Kellner is someone whose reputation certainly

327. preceeded him in the television business.

328. He is credited with having a huge influence over the

329. growth of the Fox Network, and then actually becoming

330. a founding partner of the WB Network.

331. And, upon being appointed to the role,

332. his initial comments to the press were that-

333. I'm paraphrasing- "This is a great company,

334. full of great people.

335. I'm gonna try not to mess things up.

336. I'm going to tweak it."

337. Jamie Kellner was one of the best television executives

338. in the business, but Jamie hated wrestling.

339. He hated it, you know. He hated it, didn't get it.

340. Didn't want anything to do with it.

341. It was a pain in the ass,

342. and we were losing so much money all the time

343. that I think- I made the suggestion to sell WCW.

344. I don't know if it came from me,

345. or somebody suggested and I latched on to it,

346. and Jamie was like,

347. "Yep, get rid of this as fast as you can.

348. I don't want anything to do with it."

349. March 16th, Brad Siegel sends out a memo advising

350. WCW employees there's going to a period of hiatus.

351. Then just a few days later...

352. Actually, there's not gonna be a hiatus,

353. but the programming is being canceled after a

354. 29-year run on the Turner Networks.

355. And that leads us to an episode of Monday Nitro

356. in the midst of all of this chaos that has to occur

357. in Gainesville, Florida that Monday evening.

358. Many of you may know that for the past six months

359. I've been working with a group of people

360. whose goal it was, and is,

361. to acquire World Championship Wrestling.

362. But recently we've hit a couple road blocks

363. that may be in fact brick falls.

364. And, while it is still in my power,

365. I want to do something befitting what could be

366. very well the last night of wrestling

367. on the Turner Networks.

368. That being said, I'll see you all in Panama City

369. next Monday night, the Night of Champions.

370. Incredible!

371. We're just getting ready to close,

372. and I got a call from Brian Bedol,

373. and Brian said, "Eric, it's done."

374. I said, "Congratulations, Brian!"

375. He said, "No, you don't understand. It's done.

376. The deal is over. It's off the table."

377. We were rounding third heading for home

378. and there was no warning whatsoever.

379. It came completely out of the blue.

380. Jamie Kellner, he was the head dog.

381. And he looked at the WCW deal,

382. and contemplated us having at least a couple of years

383. of two hours of prime time on Monday night,

384. two hours of prime time on Thursday night,

385. and Kellner didn't want that beachfront property

386. to be dedicated to wrestling content.

387. He wanted that prime time schedule

388. for other programming.

389. The cold, hard truth is that WCW was

390. completely reliant on television.

391. So much so in fact that Eric Bischoff

392. famously quipped that without television the

393. company was worth 20 bucks, if anything.

394. So, at that point, when you take the

395. television distribution off the table, you're taking

396. 90% of the revenue out of the equation.

397. The deal was not worth it to us.

398. It effectively killed the deal.

399. I was devastated.

400. What am I doing here?

401. Stu Snyder.

402. Ready, go. Action.

403. Growing up, I loved wrestling.

404. I lived in New York.

405. I remember going to Madison Square Garden once a month.

406. Bruno Sammartino.

407. Ivan Putski, Gorilla Monsoon,

408. George "The Animal" Steele.

409. I can go on. I enjoyed it, I loved it.

410. It's a core element of my childhood.

411. I joined Turner Broadcasting in 1993.

412. My responsibility was to come on board and head up

413. the unit called Turner Home Entertainment.

414. And then, I left, did a few other things,

415. including becoming the president and

416. chief operating officer of WWF Entertainment.

417. The first thing I was looking to do was to

418. keep growing the core business.

419. To look for new opportunities for the company.

420. I continued to read about what was happening at WCW.

421. I kept reading about the behind the scenes angst

422. going on there.

423. The ratings weren't improving.

424. What's gonna happen here?

425. Are they gonna stick with this?

426. Are they not gonna stick with it?

427. And then what I recall is picking up the phone,

428. and calling Brad and, you know,

429. just checking in first of all,

430. 'cause we've known each other for a long, long time.

431. I keep reading about this stuff. Are you okay?

432. And, you know, he'd share with me some of

433. the angst he was going through.

434. I may have said something to the effect of, "Hey, look,

435. if there's ever a reason to have a conversation,

436. I think we might be interested."

437. We were aware that there was another player.

438. It didn't factor into anything.

439. I didn't know their deal,

440. I didn't know what they were offering.

441. Knew nothing.

442. Internally at WWF, we had made a decision,

443. we thought if we could do a transaction to acquire WCW,

444. we were going to work really hard to get that done.

445. On Friday March 23rd,

446. the WWF announces the unthinkable,

447. that it has purchased its competition, WCW.

448. On March 26th, 2001,

449. the final episode of WCW Nitro is

450. broadcast live from Panama City Beach, Florida.

451. What is this for?

452. Last two days, oh.

453. It's great.

454. Get the fuck out of here.

455. Do you know anything? What's going on tonight?

456. - Holy shit. - What is that all about?

457. Panama City, Florida.

458. Wow, that's big time, brother.

459. Here we go, in 5...

460. 4...

461. You had Vince McMahon starting the show, on camera.

462. It's hard to overstate just how shocking

463. that was at the time.

464. Imagine that.

465. Me, Vince McMahon.

466. Imagine that.

467. Here I am on WCW television.

468. How can that happen?

469. Well, there's only way.

470. You see, it was just a matter of time before

471. I, Vince McMahon,

472. bought my competition.

473. That's right.

474. I own...

475. WCW.

476. Therefore, in its final broadcast,

477. tonight on TNT,

478. I have the opportunity to address-

479. What is the fate of WCW?

480. Because the fate...

481. the very fate of WCW...

482. is in my hands.

483. We thought we were coming to work like a regular day.

484. And no one knew until that night.

485. No one knew.

486. We saw Vince come up on the tron.

487. No matter how you look at it, at that point,

488. you know, no matter how it's spread...

489. they win the war.

490. When WWE acquired WCW,

491. it felt like the end of an era.

492. It sucked.

493. The 800-pound gorilla of the room had won.

494. Had no idea what Vince would do with it.

495. I didn't know if it was more advantageous for him to

496. buy it and keep it afloat,

497. and then have the competition.

498. Or destroy it.

499. So, the fear of the unknown is pretty, pretty heavy.

500. There was a lot sadness and a lot of uncertainty.

501. Who they were gonna hire, who they were gonna cut.

502. We don't really know what's going on.

503. People are happy and sad at the same time.

504. They don't know why.

505. I don't think you want my real feelings about it,

506. 'cause it ain't pretty.

507. It was very emotional.

508. I remember Dusty was there,

509. so I was sticking pretty close to him.

510. There were WWF signs up,

511. which was really weird.

512. You know, 'cause there's always signs like on the

513. dressing room doors, you know, wherever,

514. and you were seeing "WWF".

515. I mean, it felt like a slap.

516. I remember Shane McMahon coming in and,

517. and he had like a little brief meeting with everybody.

518. And we get told that the company's been sold to

519. the WWE, and tonight,

520. everybody's gonna find out about it.

521. And a lot of guys were like, "Oh, my god."

522. As I was seeing, you know,

523. the wrestlers and performers backstage...

524. you know, shoulders might have been slumped

525. before they walked through the curtain,

526. but then when they walked through,

527. it's back to business as normal.

528. And then when they came back after their match,

529. or segment, or whatever, it's back to...

530. "What's going on? What's gonna happen?"

531. Let's not lose sight of the fact this is the last Nitro

532. on the Turner Network, and we're going out with a bang!

533. Scott Steiner and I, we, ah, had a conversation.

534. And Scott goes, "Bro, you know,

535. what do you think they're gonna do, man?

536. What do you think they're gonna do?"

537. And I look at Scott, and I go, "Bro,

538. we was auditioning that night."

539. Booker T, the cover!

540. Oh! And he nailed it!

541. Everyone was working that night,

542. so we went out and we rocked it.

543. And 1, 2- could it be it? Yes, it is! Yeah!

544. Booker T!

545. I didn't know I was gonna win the world title that night,

546. but then when I did find that out, I go,

547. "Oh, yeah, man. I got a chip in the game.

548. They got eyes on me," you know, so I was, ah...

549. I was really excited.

550. I was probably perhaps one of the only guys

551. that was excited though.

552. I mean, it was sad, you know.

553. It was, it wasn't even sad, it was pathetic.

554. Because fucking people actually showed up.

555. "Hey! You guys want to be on the Titanic?"

556. Nah. Good.

557. I'll sit and watch the fucking thing sink

558. from my fucking house.

559. I didn't watch it as it happened live.

560. I feel bad for the talent that were there.

561. I feel bad for the production staff that were there

562. that didn't see it coming, had no idea

563. what their futures were going to be.

564. It's a big life change, but as far as the brand, itself,

565. I walked away from it. I no longer cared.

566. It's gonna be an emotional thing.

567. You see a lot of production guys,

568. a lot of people with cameras taking pictures of the guys

569. and, to me, I look at it as the day you left college,

570. and guys you might not see again.

571. But this is a tight-knit group of guys we have.

572. Like one of the camera guys, and what a sweetheart guy.

573. He'd been working for the company for 27 years.

574. All of those people...

575. lost their livelihood.

576. And that's why I say fuck you, Jamie Kellner.

577. I was concerned about a lot of people that

578. just couldn't walk into a job so easily.

579. Our jobs are so different.

580. It's not a factory.

581. We don't do the same thing every day.

582. We're a combination of a circus and the army.

583. And, to get that good at it, we had to have

584. the right people in the right places.

585. And, the way you got to that point was

586. the trust of one another.

587. And now you can't do it together anymore.

588. Everybody was in a bad space. You know,

589. a lot of them didn't know what they were gonna do.

590. But, there is a time, you know, you gotta...

591. you know, you gotta let it go.

592. But in this business, it's a little bit different.

593. What was really weird to me,

594. this multimillion dollar company

595. was sold to WWE for like nothing.

596. I'm not saying that there was anything

597. spooky kooky going on there.

598. But, I have my suspicions.

599. I own WCW! I own the WWF!

600. And you will treat me with respect!

601. When you think about the final purchase price,

602. we're talking about a company that at its peak

603. was generating in the neighborhood of $200 million

604. a year, and a huge part of pop culture,

605. that gets sold for a little over 4 million bucks.

606. I always thought that,

607. when I heard the price of what they paid for WCW,

608. it was an inside job of some sort.

609. Somebody filled their pockets by making that deal

610. for cheaply as it was.

611. Maybe there's an envelope...

612. pushed across the desk.

613. Maybe you got influence with the guy that's selling it.

614. Look, there's some murky circumstances.

615. Stu Snyder was an executive at Turner Broadcasting, and,

616. oh, by the way, Stu Snyder, after the fact just

617. happens to land a plum executive role with WWE.

618. Oh, my god, that's, that's Bob Ryder!

619. That's Bob Ryder from WCW.com!

620. Bob, run! Run!

621. Bob Ryder, he was one of the hosts on shows

622. that were broadcast over WCW.com.

623. So, in the summer following the

624. sale of WCW being purchased by the WWF,

625. Bob Ryder puts out a widely disseminated post online,

626. essentially alleging that there had been

627. a conspiracy at play.

628. Bob Ryder, he was a good man,

629. and a good friend.

630. And I know that Bob had written about a theory that

631. Brad Siegel helped facilitate the actual sale to WWE

632. by convincing Jamie Kellner to take the

633. distribution of programming out of the deal.

634. Bob's theory was Brad Siegel really didn't want WCW

635. as a part of the Turner portfolio,

636. and this was Brad Siegel's way of

637. using Jamie Kellner to kill the deal.

638. The conspiracy theory is really something like

639. out of a wrestling storyline, essentially.

640. There was a plot initiated by Brad Siegel and

641. Stu Snyder to clear the path for it to have

642. a quick sale to the WWF.

643. Stu Snyder at that time was the president of the WWF,

644. he had previously worked at Turner Broadcasting,

645. had a relationship with Brad Siegel.

646. And so, the allegation was that

647. there were covert talks between the two,

648. and the primary piece of evidence was the fact

649. that WCW was sold for 4.3 million bucks.

650. I don't know that that's true.

651. It is a conspiracy theory.

652. Unfortunately, there are enough questions,

653. and questionable relationships,

654. that lend interest in a conspiracy like that.

655. No. Well, first of all, it was-

656. I mean, we'd known each other our entire careers.

657. I mean, the fact that Stu Snyder

658. was running WWE and was

659. a likely buyer for WCW

660. is purely coincidence.

661. No.

662. It's as simple as that.

663. My understanding is that Brad reported up to Jamie Kellner,

664. and that Jamie made the decision, said,

665. "I don't want it on our, on our air," and canceled it.

666. If you think about how serious these

667. particular allegations are, and the fact that

668. they would lead to potential FCC violations

669. and have serious professional and

670. personal consequences for all people involved,

671. it's quite the audacious plot,

672. given the high profile nature of the people that

673. we're talking about and, what they stood to lose if,

674. eventually, they would be convicted

675. essentially of corporate espionage.

676. I'm not saying I'm 100% convinced that Stu Snyder

677. was part of an orchestration to make sure WCW

678. got sold for nickels on the dollar.

679. I'm not suggesting that I know that.

680. I just lean in that direction because

681. I don't believe in the number of coincidences

682. that surround this entire situation.

683. I'm just not buying it.

684. I understand... gossip.

685. I understand rumor.

686. But, it's easy to sit on the sidelines and

687. not really understand the economics of the businesses

688. to say what something is worth.

689. If there was a deal out there worth $60 million,

690. I can guarantee you as I'm sitting here today,

691. the Turner executives would have made a deal.

692. We wanted to sell it.

693. When we sold it, that's what it was worth.

694. My regret is that when the ratings started to plummet,

695. we could not find the right story,

696. the right players in that story to turn it around.

697. You know, that's a big regret of mine.

698. We weren't successful.

699. Sometimes that happens.

700. You can't always be successful.

701. I feel a responsibility for it because

702. I clearly was not the person to do it.

703. I didn't know the business and

704. the story well enough to, to write it myself.

705. I'm not a writer.

706. So, yeah, I'm really sad about that,

707. and regret it wasn't a different outcome.

708. In my opinion,

709. without a strong advocate...

710. who really believed in the business,

711. it would have been tough to exist there,

712. with everything else,

713. their challenges as a company.

714. But that world had passed.

715. Ted was that person who was its chief advocate.

716. In the new AOL Time Warner,

717. without that person,

718. I don't know how it succeeds there.

719. And, for good or for worse, the one thing that

720. all the talent knew,

721. they knew where the buck stopped at WWF.

722. It was Vince.

723. You were either in line or you were out.

724. That's how Vince ran that place.

725. That place was a different story,

726. a different time, different era.

727. So, unless you had somebody like that who can go,

728. "This is the way it's gonna run and I have the support of

729. corporate to leave it alone and let me do my thing,"

730. I think it would have been challenging.

731. It's been proven that it was challenging.

732. we weren't looking at all

733. to buy something and kill it.

734. This brand is still good.

735. It's still relevant, to an audience.

736. We're gonna figure out, how do we keep it alive?

737. And maybe over time it comes back

738. as a separate show.

739. In my head, I saw this great rivalry that

740. was under one roof.

741. First of all, it all started with the famous

742. Shane McMahon showing up on WCW, on Nitro.

743. And proclaiming, you know, the storyline of, basically,

744. Vince was gonna buy WCW, but—

745. he snagged it out from him.

746. That's right!

747. I now own WCW!

748. I remember sitting down in my hotel room and

749. writing down all the wrestlers who I had hoped to wrestle-

750. Goldberg, Sting, Savage.

751. Everybody in the NWO. It's like, I remember

752. writing everybody down and going to Vince,

753. and saying, "Hey, this might be a good idea.

754. What about this guy, and this guy, and this guy,

755. and this guy? Let's bring them in."

756. There was so much speculation as to how,

757. how it would all work.

758. What people don't realize is that when

759. WWE acquired WCW,

760. the assets of WCW, the contracts

761. weren't really part of the equation.

762. It wasn't like all of the talent that was

763. under contract automatically came to WWF.

764. At least not the big names that mattered.

765. Some of those people had quite a bit of time left

766. on their contracts and they were gonna get paid anyway.

767. I knew that at the time guys were getting 50 cents

768. on the dollar on their existing contracts.

769. That was not happening with me.

770. I'm not gonna give in. I'm not gonna do it.

771. So, if I had to sit out for three years,

772. I sat out for three years.

773. Not everybody wanted to go to work for WWE.

774. You didn't have Sting, you didn't have Lex Luger,

775. you didn't have Goldberg.

776. What do you really have?

777. I still had like over a year left on my contract.

778. They offered me a 50% buyout,

779. and, ah, go to work or just, you know,

780. sit at home for the next year.

781. I said, "Nah, man," I said,

782. "You know, out of sight, out of mind," you know.

783. I remember Ric Flair said a long time ago,

784. "Time off is your worst enemy." You know,

785. so I was like, let's get-

786. take the 50% buyout and let's go to work.

787. Wait a minute! What the hell?

788. Ah! Booker T!

789. He's the WW... WCW champion!

790. Back then it was a test.

791. Let's throw these guys out here,

792. see how good they really are

793. compared to the WWE guys.

794. Shane and I decided to join forces.

795. Oh, the invasion storyline was supposed to be

796. the best that WCW had to offer versus

797. the best that WWE had to offer.

798. But, we were in no shape to actually be able to really,

799. really pull off an invasion mainly just because

800. we did not have enough star power to

801. really, really get that thing off the ground.

802. And they never really did a WCW-WWE feud correctly,

803. and I think that was a big mistake by Vince McMahon.

804. I think he could've done some really cool match-ups

805. and some really cool things.

806. - Hey, yo.

807. They were gonna write

808. the history that they wanted to create,

809. and no matter how you looked at it,

810. we were the confederate soldiers going to work for

811. the union, and if you thought that you were

812. gonna go over one of their top guys, bullshit.

813. They brought us in under the guise of,

814. "this isn't gonna work twice".

815. I looked at Scott, I said,

816. "We're gone, we're done, we're dead."

817. I get to have the wonderful experience

818. to watch my friend, who now has been

819. sober for 11 months,

820. go downstairs and just start pounding drinks.

821. And he's like, "Fuck it."

822. You talk about a miserable day in my life?

823. When it's the WCW, there was no room in

824. New York City for a company like WCW.

825. That's just the way I felt about it.

826. When the WWE won the war,

827. not only did they want to win the war,

828. but they wanted to bury their opposition

829. and they wanted to plant the flag.

830. And that's what they needed to do more than anything

831. to really solidify winning that war,

832. planting that flag.

833. Yeah, they had to be in, you know,

834. a dominant position to do that, yeah.

835. We're back live here, ladies and gentlemen.

836. This crowd is still buzzing.

837. Here comes Mr. McMahon back.

838. He promised to name the new general manager of Raw.

839. 2002, Vince McMahon called me,

840. and while Vince was speaking, I had already

841. made up my mind that this is my opportunity.

842. Allow me to introduce you to

843. the new general manager of Raw.

844. His name is Eric Bischoff!

845. I'm not gonna say that everybody in WWE

846. was happy to see me show up,

847. but the people that mattered

848. could not have made me feel more at home.

849. I like Eric a lot, we're good buddies.

850. Known him for a very long time.

851. And, he has his bust on the Mount Rushmore of

852. professional wrestling executives.

853. Everything that went wrong-

854. the Fusient sale falling through,

855. the fact that the narrative is,

856. "Eric Bischoff cratered WCW"-

857. I had an opportunity to write the last chapter

858. of my story.

859. Wait a minute...

860. What? What the...?

861. What the hell is going on? What is this?

862. You know, I had been with WWE for a few years as that

863. general manager character and

864. everything was going great, and I remember getting

865. the phone call from Stephanie McMahon,

866. who was head of creative at that point.

867. She goes, "Eric, I don't want you

868. to take this the wrong way.

869. You've done a great job.

870. But we're gonna go in a different direction."

871. Eric Bischoff

872. has abused his power for too long.

873. John Cena was going to hit me with his finish and

874. drag me out of the ring, and John Cena was

875. gonna throw me in the back of a garbage truck,

876. and I was gonna be hauled out of the arena.

877. And I very seldom questioned creative,

878. but I went to Vince, and said,

879. "It doesn't make any sense for John Cena to do it.

880. It makes more sense for you to do it."

881. And I thought, if I'm gonna do this,

882. I'm gonna have fun doing it.

883. I'm gonna make this fun for me.

884. And I did, and I had a blast.

885. And I got to live a dream and rewrite my own chapter,

886. and I loved it, every minute of it.

887. There's not a second of it that I regret.

888. Ooh.

889. Who killed WCW?

890. I think it was Turner corporate.

891. And, some of the people within the booking committees.

892. AOL Time Warner. The executives,

893. they were embarrassed by goofy wrestling.

894. The guys in Turner that didn't want us and

895. didn't like us, and the top guys not letting

896. the mid-card guys interact with them.

897. WCW killed itself.

898. The cast of characters

899. that was WCW, killed WCW.

900. It didn't function as a team any longer.

901. It functioned as a bunch of self-seeking individuals.

902. I've never see anybody that was that high up

903. in the food chain take less responsibility.

904. This is what killed WCW.

905. They were fighting within themselves.

906. They were eating their own. The wolves.

907. Who killed WCW? That's easy.

908. Turner Sports.

909. It would have to be the person with the check book.

910. It would have to be Eric Bischoff.

911. Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff- two guys that had

912. zero knowledge about how to run wrestling,

913. and they put themselves in a position to

914. tell people like me what to do.

915. And, that's what killed WCW.

916. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna give myself-

917. - A round of applause for that!

918. Yes, thank you.

919. Bro, they took such a drop from where they were

920. to where it was when it was sold,

921. and so much money lost.

922. I don't think anybody could have done anything.

923. So, I would say a business decision killed WCW.

924. I don't think one person could have killed WCW

925. by any stretch of the imagination.

926. There were a shitload of people

927. who contributed to its downfall.

928. I think it's a collection of factors,

929. a number of reasons that explain its demise.

930. There's plenty of blame to go around,

931. but I think ultimately it was inevitable that it was,

932. it was going to fall apart.

933. A good buddy of mine, he's one of my best friends-

934. Downtown Bruno- when I first started,

935. I said, "Bruno, give me some advice."

936. He said, "You're gonna hear a voice one day,

937. and that voice is gonna say,

938. 'Go on home, the big run's over'."

939. WCW as an entity, they heard that voice.

940. And the big run was over, and it was fucking awesome.

941. Wow, man! What a run!

942. It was always about the performances for me.

943. It was always about the fans.

944. We were rock stars.

945. Everywhere we went was packed.

946. DDP!

947. The whole WCW experience was a hell of a ride.

948. Period.

949. Let us remember the lessons,

950. learned in stride, to build a fairer and

951. more equitable future for wrestling.

952. We've done over 350 or 60 some odd Nitros.

953. You know, a lot of these people are like,

954. are like family to me.

955. It was a good ride, it was fun.

956. You were like a big family even though

957. you're a dysfunctional family.

958. You may not get along with everybody,

959. but you're still gonna be there when it comes to it.

960. It was the greatest job.

961. They let us be as creative as we wanted to be.

962. The first time I realized WCW was big was

963. my very first show when I debuted.

964. There was a palpable energy.

965. You could feel the crowd.

966. There's something special and something different

967. about a wrestling fan.

968. It just blew my mind to see

969. what a big deal WCW really was.

970. He's got him up!

971. Those were some great times.

972. Terrific times.

973. And it came to an abrupt end like that.

974. But hey man, all good things come to an end.

975. I still think that, you know, when it comes down to it,

976. WCW is Eric's creation.

977. Any success they had was with Eric.

978. There's nobody on this planet that can

979. look in the mirror and say,

980. "I beat Vince McMahon

981. at professional wrestling

982. for 83 weeks."

983. It's a pretty fucking huge accomplishment.

984. Cool.

985. Time fucks with your head, you know.

986. It's...

987. it becomes distorted.

988. My memory is more

989. like a series of photographs.

990. There's bits, and pieces, and moments

991. that stand out in my mind, but...

992. as time goes on, they kind of just

993. all blur together.

994. When I look back at my time during WCW-

995. the journey, the ups, the downs-

996. the ride all along the way was a rush.

997. We were the #1 wrestling company on television

998. in the world. Very proud of that.

999. I was able to experience and achieve things

1000. that nobody thought possible.

1001. And I wouldn't have had any of this

1002. if it wasn't professional wrestling,

1003. so I'm grateful for every minute of it-

1004. the good, the bad, everything in between.

1005. Very lucky.