Walking Upon a Different Path – a wrestling timeline

Which Television Station would have a rebooted WCW Nitro?

  • SpikeTV

    Votes: 2 28.6%
  • FX

    Votes: 3 42.9%
  • TNT

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • USA Network

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Other (please leave a comment on your opinion below)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • In a shallow grave (none)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .
A Friendly Dose of Competition – a alt wrestling timeline


“if the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.” – William Blake

Introduced – hello ,there are many what ifs in wrestling, what if the Montreal Screwjob was a work or never happen, what if Hulk Hogan never went to WCW, what if WWE never build their empire in the mid 2010’s and probably the most important what if Santino Marella won the 2011 royal rumble?, I’m joking about the last one but the question remains the same, with wrestling what if it’s a domino effect on the industry, I been wanting to do a wrestling timeline for a while but the last one was failed, a Lex Luger what if, it was my fault for the reason i didn’t have hart in the project and wanted to write some political timeline (plus it was poorly plan), however, I have came to realise that I’m not that good at writing political timelines, I have a look at the different situations where the industry change but than I thought why not just do one big timeline instead of little ones which had the same outcome, with that out of the way let’s get to it, hope you enjoy.

Prologue- a guide for modern wrestling


The Big Four of America Wrestling

(Article from J. W. Washington in the Guardian 2022)

I’ve been a fan of wrestling all my life from the days when my mother used to tell me story’s of Big Daddy to the more modern indie style of wrestling which seems to be popular with the fans, I’m not gonna bored you with tales of how’d I got into wrestling for one I don’t remember and two as a Brit it’s my duty to be as intolerable to the Americans as possible while drinking my cup of tea, just kidding I don’t drink theft and it’s hard to ignore the fact that many of the biggest wrestling companies in the western world are American,so with the news of a sudden buyout offer from the mouse I figured it would be more beneficial for a guide to the world of wrestling and how much it’s change over the years.


WWE – The largest and most well known Wrestling company in North America or maybe in the world today is the WWE (formerly known as the WWF) and the momentum hasn’t seem to slow down at the moment, throughout the years the WWE had its ups and downs of the wrestling world with a battle between it’s identity and the charging landscape of the industry, it’s a miracle of the wrestling gods that the McMahon’s still have a firm grip on the wrestling with their empire, some have argued that the WWEs empire has been a long road to the modern era, after the victory over WCW during the Monday nights wars in early the 2000’s the company saw great growth during the period of time, however, with no rival on Monday nights anymore the company saw the roster as a problem since the tops guys such as Rock and Austin wouldn’t be carrying the company anytime soon with the Rock with Hollywood and Austin with his neck injury (and the way he felt that he wasn’t being used properly) McMahon felt a change needed to happen, this new era after the much acclaimed Attention Era which saw the company popularity of the late 90s which saw the company beating their rival had faded and this new era would focus on the newer talent, this new era was dub the Ruthless Aggressive era and depending on the person you ask was a much needed change or the downturn of the company.

The modern day WWE is a different story from what it was a years ago one would imagine that the company would be unrecognisable from today’s product, the reason behind the charges were simply because of the times, the popularity of indie wrestling had unexpectedly took the wrestling community, the rise of indie wrestling with a mainstream use of the internet can’t be ignored by the fact that now many of wrestling fans now can see a new style and wanted more, the ‘war’ between WWE and WCW for the indie scene of the mid 2010s saw a new wave of style and the new wrestler, the new wrestler wasn’t the type of value which Vince saw, the days of big men battling over the title was gone for a newer style of wrestling which saw the everyday man as a wrestler and storylines more of a history of the wrestler than the story around the title, Vince couldn’t ignore the fact that wrestling has changed and the battle for the indies as the internet called it between WWE and WCW.

Vince McMahon wouldn’t stay long as a result of the new charges of the industry, many started to believe that Vince wasn’t able to run the company anymore and Vince admitted himself on the Joe Rogan Podcast and said “I wasn’t in the best mind space at the time, I saw the company whose try to put me out of business was on the rise again, I cannot do another Attention Era when the political climate has changed and I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume that it would work, I thought about the Monday night wars and how we crush them in ratings but again that was a different time both for us and the media”, Vince would also say “It’s the one regret I have is not completely destroying that company, putting out of business like they were doing to me, I should’ve brought it but I didn’t and I’m the one with that shadow over my head, I was so headstrong about not letting themselves get a leg up on me that’s it’s prison my mind”. Vince would retire from wrestling in 2016 after WrestleMania 32 and his daughter Stephanie took the momentum.

I’m not sure if the WWE has gotten better after Vince retirement but it’s seems as the company has been doing better than before, the modern day WWE is a good place to start as a wrestling fan for its simple but effective in drawing the viewers in, it’s more of a soap opera than a wrestling show but in a weird way it’s works, the diversity of styles of the wrestling is a positive one for the company to showcase more of their talent, if I was to put in simple terms it would be “the company has changed but the philosophy remains the same”.


WCW – the second biggest wrestling company in North America is the southern based WCW which is own by Warner Bros. Discovery, WCW has been a point of contention for the many faces of which the company had, from the beginning WCW was a more adult wrestling company than its child fantasy up north, with tales of eating vitamins and saying prays WCW had a much more realistic factor to it which still can be seen today, it is a known fact that with creatively comes consverily and that conversly becomes the catalyst for a new era, this new era of WCW would change the foundation of the company and of the wrestling world.


Following the aftermath of the Monday nights war saw many of people wondering what’s next for WCW and it wouldn’t be long until the evolution of the company began, it was a slow and steady growth of WCW in the rebirth era with trying to win back the fans they once had, luckily for them the rebirth era work wonders and without any worries from their rival the company saw a growth rate of both viewership and revenue, many believe that this large growth of WCW in the mid 2000’s was the philosophy of going back to their roots as a wrestling company not the retirement home show for The (redacted) and theirs buddy’s, this ‘new generation’ saw wrestlers such as (redacted) and (redacted) as house home names, it also help that in the (redacted) era saw a much needed return to traditional but with a newer philosophy, one that would bring a new wave in wrestling mainstream.

Today if you watched WCW it’s a more positive attitude from the show from the 90s when there was a glass ceiling for the main event and if you weren’t a “NWO Guy” then there’s was no chance of evolved to the main event, today’s main event is seen as a result of (redacted) booking policy and the much younger guys benefited from the new regime in WCW, another positive is that WCW doesn’t shy away from the partnership between them and New Japan Pro Wrestling, the partnership between the two wrestling companies is a good value for both since its inabilities the talents from each company’s to be able to be seen, with the more recent partnership between NJPW and Stardom one can only imagine of the matches and the card for the most imperative event of the year.

ECW – one called the land of extreme for its brutality of matches,is now the land of the indies where most of the wrestlers came from, ECW had a rough start at the beginning of the millennium with a television deal with TNN which seems as the network was going to cut ECW in favour for the WWF, Paul Heyman made one last offer to the network, “invest in us and you will be rewarded” we’re the famous words which saved ECW from going into bankruptcy, the network decided that it would be best if they had their own wrestling show if the WWF deal went through or at the very least were a bagging chip in negotiations, the investment in ECW would proven to have been payed off after the higher rating the show was getting, plus it’s wasn’t bad for having two popular wrestling shows on the network, Raw for Monday’s and ECW for Friday’s ,it was also at the dawn of the millennium where the philosophy of ECW began changing.

Paul Heyman was a sort of revolutionary leader when it comes to wrestling, a man which has a vision for the future and a trendily for talent it was only a matter of time for ECW to change, the philosophy of the new ECW was about the new wave of wrestling coming from within North American,this new style of wrestling would be dub as indie wrestling which combines the strong styles of Japan mixed with the high flying offence from Mexico’s luchadors wrestling, the differences between this new wave of violence and intimidation by the past would be seen as a rebirth of sort for ECW.

The partnership between the WWF and ECW wouldn’t be strained by the Network both shared, in fact the relationship only grew by the ratings war on the same network, with the WWF being on Mondays it was seen as a challenge for Heyman to have the better product to justify the show exited for staying on the TNN network, plus with the company’s shares of revenue in his pockets it had to work.

ECW was the secondary highest rated show on the network with the WWF in first, the company saw ECW as a well just investment in bring the viewership for the TNN network (later to be known as Spike), which helped them when the WWE decision to jump back to the USA Network, the ECW became the highest viewed show when the WWE went off.

Overtime the wrestling company began to change in forums of it’s staunchly in the wrestling world, once viewed as a “bingo hall mud show” was now seen as a “indie heaven” for not only the talent but the whole wrestling community began to see ECW in a different light, just as how they captured the counter culture in the early wrestling hardcore scene of the mid 90s, the company began to capture the rebellious nature of the youth movement in the late 2010’s.

ECW can be found on the showtime network on Friday nights and they do special YouTube streams, ECW has revolutionised the wrestling industry in terms of the newer styles of wrestling which has shown and the creative storylines which has evolved from the gratic tales from Hulkamaina to the more complex storylines which has been an fanbase.


NWA Impact – The NWA survival of the modern day landscape is a mystery to many for the company was nearly dead by the 2000’s, lucky with a firm backing by the Jarrett’s and one Dixie Carter the NWA saw a relived in both in terms of viewership and a new direction, the NWA is a more traditional wrestling show with a edgy attention to it, you can watch the NWA shows on the Paramount plus streaming service or the Showtime network if you more old school, the partnership between the Jarrett’s and the NWA proved to be a positive one at first but as time went on “the NWA demanded more than they were worth” quoted Jeff Jarrett on the matter, the Jarrett’s seeing no another option was to buy the NWA for a unknown amount to keep the promotion with them.

During the early 2010s the NWA was in trouble with the network Spike for their wanted head booker Vince Russo gone from the company,their were negotiations with the network to keep Russo but in the end it was decided that letting Russo gone was the best option since both the fans and the network will it, Russo was replaced by (redacted) as head writer and funny enough the product improve.

The philosophy of the NWA is a mixture of traditionalism and post modernism since the Jarrett’s took over and as a result of the difference between the philosophy the show can be difficult to follow, this philosophy ended in 2015 when Billy from the SP took over with a turn from post modernism to a much more traditional wrestling philosophy than the elements of the Russo/Jarrett era which was gotten rid of.

Billy Corgan brought the company from the Jarrett’s in 2015 when Spike at the time was going to cut NWA off for Jeffery gold scream, as a result of embarrassment for the scream Jeff Jarrett felt that he shouldn’t have ownership of the company anymore and offer to sell the company to Paramount for five million, Billy Corgan came in and brought the company himself with half of the shares going to Paramount, Corgan was named the President of the NWA and a new beginning of the Corgan began with the firing of Dixie Carter.

The Corgan era is seen as a mix beg from the fans prospective, on the one hand the company had the ten ponds of gold storyline which brought a much needed mainstream attention to the company, on the other hand the company has been on the downturn with booking and talent recently with the two biggest wrestling companies taking talent from them.

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The Eric Bischoff interview

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This past week saw a interesting sit down interview with former president of WCW Eric Bischoff on the Lex Fridman Podcast, the interview saw a great deal of topics from the beginning of the rise of WCW, the industry at the whole and how’s does it feel knowing that he and Ted Tuner are the only men who went to war with Vince McMahon wrestling empire and survived, go watch it if you are interested but here are a few transcript from the more interesting topics.

Lex : “now Eric how do you feel knowing that you did the impossible, you stood your ground against Vince McMahon and told him that you can’t have us.”

Eric : “well it’s a great feeling to have until the precko bear has been poke, I mean sure we didn’t win the war against McMahon’s but we did surely hold our ground against them.”

Lex : “during your leadership as head of WCW, were there any regrets about that time you wish you could change?”

Eric : “absolutely there’s too many to count, I think an long term mistake was bring in the (redacted), sure they help with creative and boost rating but at the time I felt that the way we did it could have been better, I wonder if thing were different from what I did what’s the future may have been.”

Lex : “do you offered wonder what would have be different?”

Eric : “no because it’s a toxic mindset past a certain point, sure I wonder what if but it’s doesn’t mean that I regret the decisions I made, if I did I wouldn’t be able to understand the mistakes I’ve made and learn from them.”

Lex : “I remember reading that one of your biggest wishes was to be able to have signed Hulk Hogan, is that’s true and why didn’t work out.”

Eric : “while yes I do wish that we were able to get Hogan but simply put Hogan went Hollywood man, plus from the meeting I had that he remains loyal to Vince.”

Lex : “let’s talk about you departure from the company, the first question is why were you let go and second how does it make you feel?”

Eric : “I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t take it well as I should’ve, I felt betrayed by the same company that I managed to help survived, but now I completely understand why I was let go.”

Lex : “care to tell us?”

Eric : “I had too many problems to keep up with, plus I had been with the company for 12 years at that point and the people at Tuner through it would be best if I was let go of.”

Lex : “do you feel any hated for the decision?”

Eric : “not anymore no.”

You can found the full podcast on Lex Fridman YouTube channel.
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Icos notes : sorry for the redacteds but I didn't want to show my hand too early for you to get spoiler now, I would like to explain how the story is going to work, I decided that it would be best if I made this an out of order type of storytelling, for one that I'll don't have to be limited with the creative freedom,secondary i think it's the best way to tackle a big project like this, I hope you enjoy this timeline and have yourselves a very nice day.
 
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A very interesting premise. I like how each company has their own identity. WWE is the market leader who can draw in the casuals/beginners. WCW has shaken off it's past and enjoys a strong partnership with NJPW. ECW is the super indie it was destined to be. And NWA is a homage to the business past (like it is under Corgan irl).

Not gonna lie, the idea of Vince willingly stepping down is almost beyond my suspension of disbelief.

I like how you incorporated so much of TNA/Impact's actual history into the story just having them make smarter choices. Hope Corgan brings in someone to help him because judging by the NWA today, he really shouldn't have total control.

Look forward to following this.
 
How WCW Survival and The Big Bang (WCW in 2001)

“Once, there was an explosion, a bang which gave rise to life as we know it. And than than came the next explosion.”

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The following is a selection within Eric Bischoff book “Controversy Creates Cash” from 2010.

“I made the offer to Tuner in October 2000 to buy WCW from him, there’s were some scared of the AOL merger earlier that year but luckily for us it’s didn’t happen, I feared that if WCW couldn’t be saved under Tuner than I thought it would have been cancelled due to the amount of profits we lost, I wanted to at least buy the company from Tuner so that Vince McMahon couldn’t have both the video library and have total control over the wrestling industry, I felt that if I brought WCW from Ted Tuner there’s a least a chance of us getting the viewers back, me and Tuner had back and forth conversation about me pushing the company, near Christmas Tuner called me into his office in order of finishing the deal, he was looking out the window as I came, “sit down Eric I want a word with about the future of WCW”, I nervously sit down from across the table while he turned his chair to face me, “Eric I may not know nothing about how to run a wrestling promotion but I know how to run a business, it’s a pain in the ass at first but overtime hopefully it would become easier, I’m going been honest Eric I don’t see how WCW can bouncing back from the past few years”, I spoke up “well sir I firmly believe that the chances that we can improve the product are overall a more possibility than selling it to the WWF, if we play our cards right we can see a return to the stability of the viewership”, Tuner look at me with doubtful eyes than he asked “what are you going to do Eric?” The seriousness of the question took me back a little, I was prepared for the question of course but I wasn’t ready to convince the owner of the company which has owned the majority of the product since 1988,for a second I remembered the time when I was a salesman selling products in my early career, I thought if I did it once than I do it again but this was a much higher garble, the place where Eric Bischoff became a household name in America, the man who dreaded to go to war with Vince McMahon the once believed owner of America wrestling, this was my legacy on the line and I couldn’t afford to have Vince McMahon ruined the whole business just because he was the crown emperor, I told Tuner “I have a plan to evolved WCW into a much bigger product than it’s actually is, I have a idea but unfortunately we gotten reboot the whole show sir.” Tuner looked at me and ask “what about me where does Tuner Broadcasting stand in all this?” I answered “well sir I was looking forward to kept having a good relationship with Tuner but I have to ask two things”, Tuner nods “I want to cancel Thunder and Monday Nitro date to be chance, it’s clear that if Nitro stays on Mondays the viewership will drip even further and WCW won’t have a chance to reboot, so I ask for a new date”.

After a while Tuner stood up and agreed with me “you have a point, I’ll see what I can do with the times slon, but you still haven’t answered my question where’s does Tuner stands in all of this?” I through quickly on my feet “25% of the investment in order of the television licensing agreement.” Tuner nods and with a smile shook my hand “you have a deal Mr. Bischoff, the only question remains is are you ready to run your own company?”, I respond “yes sir I am prepared to run WCW on my own.”, “good than there’s one more matter at hand than, how much is WCW worth it for the reboot?”, I wonder if this was the breaking point all that, just to shut down all that we’ve agree upon, “I have talked with a group of investors and we are willing to buy WCW for 70 million sir.”

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The Big Bang (2001) review
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“Hey everyone Brian Zane here for another retro reviews, this time I will be reviewing WCW the Big Bang from 2001, this was a Parton request by Ico and in his words “the good folks at the wrestling discussion thread on Alternative History.com”, thanks guys.”

“A little background first at were WCW is at the moment, in January earlier that year it was announced that Eric Bischoff and Fusient Media had brought WCW from the Tuner network for a least 70 billion but the reports are mysterious on the right amount, the deal was finalist on the 26th of March which was the final episode of Monday Nitro, the company has been through a rough time to put to simply and Bischoff hoped that the reboot would chance WCW fortune, while doing some research on the background of the show I found some interesting accounts from the booking competition, Bischoff has said that he wanted to go back to the days before Hogan came into the company and wanted to focus on the wrestling and younger talent, while some have reported that many were suspected of Bischoff intentions of bring Hogan in one more time, you might be wondering how could’ve Bischoff brought Hulk Hogan back if the company just started?, I mean could you imagine Hogan working for a hotdog and a handshake, Bischoff said that he and Ted Tuner made a deal before WCW was brought, it is unknown to what’s the deal between the men were but it is amused by the wrestling observer that there’s were some deal with the Time Warner contacts with the much bigger stars, Bischoff didn’t have to pay for Hogan if he wanted too, it was cover by the Warner contact, Bischoff has stated that he and Tuner never made such a deal, he’s only deal with Tuner was finding a new time slon for Nitro, With all that out of the way let’s get into the show.”


“The show comes to us live from the Hard Rock Café in Las Vegas with our commenters today are Don Callis and Joey Styles, wait what happened to the old commentary term, where’s Tony?, well Bischoff through with the reboot of WCW he needed a new commentary term, believe me folks I was shocked when I heard Styles voice on a WCW show, the term does do a good job of keeping the viewers information about the future of company and are a good term as a whole, the show opens up with the Cruiserweight’s match for the cruiserweight title, the champion Shane Helms will defend against Jimmy Yang, the two have a fantastic opener for the new beginnings of WCW and you can see that the men were given time, the match ends when Yang missed a moonshot Helms took advantage of the situation and rolled Kidman up for the three, I would give three stars.”

“Before we get our next match Eric Bischoff comes out to announce that the return of Nitro will be this Wednesday at 7pm on TNT, he also announced that there’s will be a women’s tournament to crown a new WCW Women’s Champion, before he could finished a woman comes out to comfort Bischoff, the crowd goes wild when it’s the former WWFs Chyna now known now as Joanie Lee is here at WCW, Joanie cuts a really good promo where’s she let out her fustian to Bischoff for letting the women down the past few years and that unlucky a certain company whose treat women as whores, WCW could’ve been a revolutionary force in the wrestling world but Bischoff threw it all away for his ego couldn’t handle the fact that the women were better than the main event has beings, be honest is she wrong?, Bischoff bites back “were your little boyfriend, having a good time with the bosses daughter I bet”, after the comment Joanie low blows Bischoff and hits him with her finisher, after that she’s look at the women’s title pick it up and leaves.

The next match is for the WCW tag term titles, the champions the Natural Born Thrillers will be against the Filthy Animals in order to unify the tag term champions, again really good match here with high flying offence from both terms, the finished of the match is the Filthy Animals trying to hit a double term move on Sean O’Haire than seemly out of nowhere Chuck with the big boot to Rey and O’Haire bomb with the win, fun fact this is the last match of Rey has without his mask on.”

"Now a very strange interview with Dustin Rhodes about his match in the finals of the Television Championship tournament, he's said that his daddy wishes he could've been here today but he will make him proud when he wins the Television Championship a title he never won before, after we have a four way match for the number one contender and a shoot at the Crusierweight Championship on the first ever Wednesday Nitro, we have Elix Skipper, Christopher Daniels,Kid Kash and Shamnon Moore all battle for a chance for the gold, the match itself is great showing off these young talented wrestlers in a well deserved showcase, it's chaos from the start with people flying around, bodies were jumping all over the place in and outside the ring, the finished comes when Daniels hits his moonsault on Moore but Skipper pulled him out throws him into the steel stair and picks up the win, again I can't say enough good things about this match so far the PPV is good.

“Now a backstage promo from Booker T, Booker isn’t worried about his match later tonight with Scott Steiner since he defeated him before he can do it again, up next is the finals of the World Television Championship tournament, wait I hear you ask there’s was a tournament for the return of the Television Championship, why yes there was one, there’s a bit of confusion about the tournament so here’s the facts, during the down period of the reboot the guys were out of a job for a month, so Bischoff ran some house shows that would bring in money for one and secondary keep the guys happy with the distance from the long break, from what I read there wasn’t many of them and the tournament seemed to be a put together at the last minute, a new champion will be crown tonight but who will it be, it’s Lance Storm against Dustin Rhdoes, it’s a pretty confusing start with the fans not knowing who to cheer for but after a while it’s clear that’s Storm is the heel of the match, it’s a good match for the two and it’s ends when Dustin got a little cocky and Storm hits the super kick on him for the three and new Television Champion Lance Storm, Storms gaps a mic and says “American television isn’t good enough to be a title, I will christen this championship the Canadian Television Championship.” Before Storms leaves a hooded man with a chair rushed into the ring, throws the chair at Storm but Storm catches the chair before we see the Van Terminal, the man takes his hood off to a loud pop from the audience, the man is Rob Van Dam and he doesn’t look to happy, he’s look at Storm before doing his taunt and leaves.”

“Goldberg does a interview saying that it’s doesn’t matter what regime Goldberg is under for he is unstoppable,Next is a tag term match between air strike and KronK, the two have a good match here showing us the skills a early Styles had, Air Strike surprising won the match. Diamond Dallas Paige is getting interview next, Dallas said that he is hopeful that the fans will still be behind him and he wishes for a title shot, before leaving RVD walks into Dallas and welcomes him with a handshake, when asked about what’s does Dallas think of RVD, he’s said that while his find Van Dam impressive he doesn’t like Robs attention, he has to make a name for himself first before going around with his attention, RVD smiles and says thanks for the advice before Dallas walks off not shaking Robs hand. And look at that Dallas match is next.”

“Diamond Dallas Paige face the “franchise” Shane Douglas next, the two have a physical match in and out of the ring, the finished comes when Dallas accidentally close line the ref and Douglas in turn low blows Paige,Paige counters the franchise in to a Dimond Cutter but is too weak to cover Douglas, RVD runs out and hits Paige with a five star flog slash before walking away, Douglus cover Paige for the win, interview time with Buff Bagwell saying that he and Lex are unstoppable in the WCW and when Lexs finally retires Oldberg later on tonight the two will celebrate, speaking of Buff his match is next against Stevie Ray, honestly the most boring match on the card but luckily for us it’s a quick match, Begwell wins, Chris Kanyon interview backstage about this finals match with Mike Awesome, Kanyon says that many of the greatest wrestlers have won this title over the years, he hopes to continue that legacy of greats, the finals of the United States Championship tournament is up next, Chris Kanyon and Mike Awesome have a pretty great match against each other, Awesome puts Kanyon away with the Awsome bomb throw a table at one point but the story of the match is that Kanyon won’t give up, no matter how many times Awesome puts Kanyon downs Kanyon will always found a way to get back into the match, the finished sees Mike Awesome trying to do a Awesome bomb to Kanyon but Kanyon slips away from Awesome and hits an Buck Shot to became the US Champion.”

“ it’s Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Nash in a interview next, Jarrett’s said that he and Nash are the kings of wrestling and that Sting will be a easy walk for him, it’s Jeff Jarrett vs Sting in a good match with Jarrett picking up the victory,up next is Goldberg facing Lex Luger in a loser leave the company match, it’s not a very long match with Goldberg winning, Ric Flair is next to be interview on his match against Kevin Nash, when question about how’s Flair going to win the match Flair said that he will target Nash legs for a giant isn’t as good with a bad leg, it’s the semi main event with Ric Flair facing Kevin Nash, the match is good but nothing worth riding home about with a disappointment ending, Flair wins with a count out victory over Nash when the giant couldn’t get back into the ring on time, before the main event we have a Scott Steiner promo with Scott promising that the world title will be back around his waist at the end of tonight, Scott has been watching Booker T matches over the past month in order for the same mistake won’t be happening again, the main event of the first WCW age is the champion Booker T facing Scott Steiner in a rematch from the last nitro, it’s a great main event with both men giving their all, the story of the match is that both men wants to win the title by any means necessary, the finished is Scott Steiner getting more angry as the match goes on and would be his downfall, as he runs at Booker T into a bookend to end the match, Booker has a post match interview where he said that WCW isn’t going anywhere and that he will carry the company into the next decade, pretty good main event with a emotional promo at the end.”

“Did I enjoy the PPV?, yeah it’s a pretty fun show from start to end showing off their much younger talents, there’s a few matches which didn’t live up to the hype but overall for the reboot WCW it’s a pretty good show, I’ll rate it a A+ just fir the history alone and if,you’re a WCW fan it’s a much watch.”

WCW The Big Bang match card (2001)

1. Shane Helms (C) defeated Jimmy Yang for remain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
2. The Natural Born Thrillers defeated The Filthy Animals for the Tag Term Championship
3. Elix Skipper defeated Christopher Daniels, Kid Kash and Shamnon Moore.
4. Lance Storm defeated Dustin Rhodes In the finals of the World Television Championship tournament.
5. Air Strike defeated KronK
6. Shane Douglus defeated Diamond Dallas Paige
7. Buff Bagwell defeated Stevie Ray
8. Chris Kanyon defeated Mike Awesome In the finals of the United States Championship tournament
9. Jeff Jarrett defeated Sting
10. Goldberg defeated Lex Luger in the loser leaves the company match
11. Ric Flair defeated Kevin Nash
12. Booker T defeated Scott Steiner to remain the WCW World Heavyweight Champion

Authors note : I'm not that good with business or the financial markets (plus I find it quite boring) but I can explain what happened, so the AOL - Time Warner does still happen but with a different outcome instead of the takeover by AOL the dotcom bubble burst while negotiations between the two companies happened, I also have the meeting between the two bosses happened at a later date, in our timeline they met in China during the 30th anniversary of the country but in my timeline the timewaner guy falls ill so he couldn't make it, this only effort the Television deal since when AOL had the takeover they cancelled the television deal which killed WCW, Tuner still sells it because of the financial hole it is plus he lost interest. I maybe will change somethings or completely rewrite the whole thing since I'm not happy with it, I'll see tomorrow about my feelings towards it are.

I found a really good article about the Eric Bischoff plan for WCW : https://wcwworldwide.com/2016/03/fusient-media-eric-bischoff-wow-interview/.
 
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A quick & clean story of how Bichon convinced Turner to sell WCW. Just what it needed to be.

As a fan of Wrestling with Wregret, I think you did a good job capturing Zane's voice. A couple of minor points though. First I think you forgot to put the Cruiserweight fatal four way in the main review. Second, in the match itself you have Storm facing Shawn Stasiak but in the rundown his opponent is Dustin Rhodes. Also, and this one's a real nitpick but I believe you meant that The Big Bang will be Rey's final matches without his mask.

Still a great followup. Looking forward to seeing what WWE did without the Invasion angle.
 
A quick & clean story of how Bichon convinced Turner to sell WCW. Just what it needed to be.

As a fan of Wrestling with Wregret, I think you did a good job capturing Zane's voice. A couple of minor points though. First I think you forgot to put the Cruiserweight fatal four way in the main review. Second, in the match itself you have Storm facing Shawn Stasiak but in the rundown his opponent is Dustin Rhodes. Also, and this one's a real nitpick but I believe you meant that The Big Bang will be Rey's final matches without his mask.

Still a great followup. Looking forward to seeing what WWE did without the Invasion angle.
Thanks man I believe that I have corrected the mistakes that were in, I apologise for them.
 
The Wrestling Effect

“Battle not with monsters,lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.

A Word of Warning
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Stone Cold Steve Austin shaking hands with the "Devil Himself" before stunning Vince McMahon

“Vince wasn’t scared of the revival of WCW in fact he welcomed it, he told me that if the bastards couldn’t go out quietly that he would play ball for now until Bischoff makes the same mistake again, of course that didn’t happen which must have eaten Vince for the past couple of years.” – Jim Ross

The WWF saw great growth in 2001 which has been a great success of the McMahon’s wrestling empire, the company crowning achievement of this year was WrestleMania 17 which by all accounts both expected sales and viewership, but yet as great as the year was for the WWF wasn’t without it’s controversies, if the WWF were the Roman Empire in this case the best example would be that the Crisis of the Third Century is around the corner, or for a more simpler example think of the Lyndon Johnson’s administration and the beginnings of the Vietnam War, you might be wondering why do I believed that the WWF might suffer from stagnation within the next year, well to put it simply there are two main factors of which the company has to address before the fall of the McMahon empire begins, the first being that they need to take their competition more seriously, well yes the WWF did win the Monday Night Wars that means nothing if they don’t have anything to show for, the friendly relations between them and Paul Heymans ECW I could also see backfiring on Vince, in short order of time for many wrestlers might be wonder about leaving the WWF for a better deal in the near future, I know there’s been rumours of Vince’s wanting to buy the company but with WCW still operating perhaps McMahon simply want to keep ECW afloat in order for more competitive.

The ending of WrestleMania 17 saw many confused with Steve Austin turning heel, now mind you he did stunner Vince after shaking his hand but that leaves fans with a uncomfortable realise, are the fans supposed to cheer for Vince and booed Austin?, the next night would confirm that Austin had turned heel with a promo saying “I don’t recall being label a dammed hero to you people,after I was out all I heard was rocky this and rocky that, you didn’t show me the respect that I deserve, if there any WWF superstars in the back whose has a problem with old Stone Cold come out and say something you son of a bitch.”This new attitude of Austin is known as the “Lone Wolf” grimick where Austin would be more violence in his methods of keeping the title on him, some might say that it was a throwback to his early days of the Stone Cold character but after watching both many times there is a clear differences between the two,this new version of Stone Cold is an desperate man who would do anything for the victory, if a heel Austin at the helm the WWF found that they had a problem now that the rock left for Hollywood, who was going to be the top baby face?,there were many candidates for the role until the rock returns in the summer, the safety bet was for both Kane and The Undertaker chasing after Austin in the meantime the company would be focuses on their own talent.

After the Big Bang which saw WCW rebooted many in the WWF viewed it as not worth continuing the rivalry between them and WCW, a common opinion on the reboot was that the same mistake were going occurred with Bischoff still at the helm, instead of what many people had believed that McMahon was going to buy some timewaner contacts for the biggest stars he didn’t as McMahon defended his decision on the Howard Stern Show “it’s not worth the time and money for me to buyout some contacts in hopes to make that profit back, if I wanted to buy contacts I would of brought the company.”


The WWE 2002 Review.
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"Get the F Out"

“Some are born to be stars and some unfortunately are not” – Vince McMahon comments about the firings of talented.

The WWE in 2002 saw a great deal of changes from it’s wrestling style which has been a beneficial for the company since the overall standard has been risen from the competition, to a more in house type of production of talent which may have been the future of the company, the beginning of the year saw the return of Ric Flair who was announced as co owner of the WWF with Vince McMahon, the reign of Jericho continue with the celebration of the champion successful New Year but the unthinkable has just happened, negotiations between the two biggest rival of the wrestling world has began talks of the NWO coming to the WWF,we didn’t know at the time who was jumping ship to the WWF, the announcement came after the Royal Rumble that the original three members of the NWO Hogan, Nash and Hall were all going to the WWF, many wonder why the others members didn’t went with them with one of them saying “I haven’t forgotten how Vince fired me.” The deal was that the WWE would pay for the license to have the NWO but not fully owned by them, there hasn’t been much details of the deal with had been said that the cost of the NWO license was more cause Bischoff wanted to see what he could get out of Vince pockets, unfortunately the WWE version of the NWO didn’t last long and had ended in the summer that year, Bischoff made the comment regarding the news “I’m not surprised”.

2002 saw the company changed its name for a panda had been waiting for a lawsuit filed against them in hopes that they would, the company also saw its biggest star Steve Austin walked out on them for the cause was burned out and being unhappy with creative, the WWE would respond by mocking Austin for his betrayed by walking out on them, in fact we saw many stars in 2002 being let go from the company past and present, Ric Flair was let go after the disaster that was the plane ride from hell, during which the company began focusing on newer stars for it was believed at the time that Vince was worried about the talent leaving his company for WCW since the name change benefited from a distance from the main rival, this new era of the WWE was dub the ruthless aggression by John Cena who was a newer face at the time, again 2002 was a great year for the company financially but there was a problem with both the creative and the roster, with WCW rebooting the company there were many wrestlers let go and went the WWE which created a overblown roster for Vince McMahon, there’s a theory that Vince wanted to create both Raw and Smackdown into their own brand with newer championships and focuses more on newer guys but nothing has been confirmed that Vince wanted to go through with the idea which unfortunately ended up as a rumour that has created a life on its own on the Internet wrestling community.

The bloated roster didn’t help much better as the program felt lost during the early days of the WWE rebrand, it was only a matter of time before people were let go off, the only question was who?, on one hand you have the future stars of the company while in the other hand the WCW “rejected” whose only there for a paycheque,we may never know what happened during negotiations with Vince and the talent which led to the “Winter Massacre” of 2002 where seemly most of the talent were let go of the contacts with the WWE, Vince commented that “there was nothing to do with them, I couldn’t convince myself that having a bloated roster was good for the company, so unfortunately some people were let go.” Governor Jesse Ventura made the incident national wide for calling for a wrestling union in America, one of the wrestlers let go said “I didn’t think that I was going to let like that, they spend years of training these guys just to let them go, at least there’s more opportunities for us but it’s still upsetting to think about the promised that were made.” The head of talent relations Jim Ross also commented on the situation “it’s a shame that we fail these guys, I’m sure that they’re going to be fine with finding employment in the business,again it’s just a shame that we couldn’t have able to used them properly.” WCW President Eric Bischoff has yet to make a comment about their rival situation but be a sure that we can expect to see new faces apparently in WCW, with Steve Austin walking out of the company and this mass layoff one has to wonder if McMahon’s wrestling empire isn’t the giant as its was one, only time will tell.
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I was only 8 years old when the Invasion started so I don't remember much of WWE before then but I think you're right that they'd struggle without the influx of guys from WCW and ECW coming in.

"Some are born to be stars and some unfortunately are not" is such a dick thing to say..... and that's why I know Vince would.
 
I was only 8 years old when the Invasion started so I don't remember much of WWE before then but I think you're right that they'd struggle without the influx of guys from WCW and ECW coming in.

"Some are born to be stars and some unfortunately are not" is such a dick thing to say..... and that's why I know Vince would.
I was only 4 when the invasion happend. I actually got into wrestling thanks to 2 Saturday morning cartoons on kids wb and foxbox, Mucha lucha and ultimate muscle. I first saw real pro wrestling renting a video game wrestlemania 19 on GameCube at blockbuster, then I friend of my mom gave me a recording of royal rumble 2003, and then I think I finally got into wwe just after wrestlemania 20 with Benoit and Guerrero as the champions at the time.
 
Aye up lads I got a question for you all, would you mind if I went back to change the position that WCW was in before Bischoff buys it?, just wondering if you would like a different timeline in this world.
 
The New Business Model

With a new era comes a new business model for the company, WCW had to change in order to survive in the wrestling world and without Ted Tuners money behind them,they wouldn't be able to compete against the WWF, WCW had to find a way to win back the fans who made WCW once a household name in America, while the company was on hideous to plan for their reboot Eric Bischoff had a meeting with both the creative and business leaders in the company, everyone knew that WCW couldn't keep up with the WWF in terms of television production, the plan was to focus on the three hour Wednesday Nitro in the meantime the PPV had to be cut in half, once a monthly PPV which has been a success in the past but with a limited budget for the rest of the year, it was decided that the PPVs would have two months apart from each other in order to create build up to a big blowoff to hopefully get back fans, here's the plan for 2001. :

May - The Big Bang

July - The Great America Bash

October - Halloween Havoc

December - Starrcade

The plan was also to bring back the Clash of Champions shows that would build apron on the empty space for the mouths without PPVs, Tuner had requested that the Saturday Night show to be brought back in order for the TBS wrestling audience that the network wanted, WCW Saturday Night would be brought back in the summer of 2001 which saw the return of the program to its older status as a main show, Saturday Night would help WCW with the international market for the British broadcasting company ITV picked up WCW Saturday Night in the hopes of bringing the old school wrestling fans back.

In 2002 WCW would change both the PPVS schedule for a more easier to work around the shows, here is the updated version of the WCW schedule for PPVs which has been the same schedule for the last 20 years. There's has been talks about returning to the 12 mouths PPVs schedule but fears of oversaturated both the talent and creative has been a driving factor of not returning from the six PPVS a year. :

February - Super Brawl

April - Spring Stampede

June - The Great America Bash

August - Bash at the Beach

September - War Games (only for special occasions)

October - Halloween Havoc

December - Starrcade

There are some Super Shows with NJPW which WCW have been involved in but the regularly schedule between the two companies have limited them in hopes that the PPV would be yearly, the partnership with Stardom saw the company join the super shows as well in recent years. the last WCW/NJPW/Stardom Super Show was in June of 2022 which saw great success.

Nowadays WCW has two main shows which are Wednesday Nitro and Saturday Night with a live stream show Worldwide which unlike the other two showcase the younger talent and some have called it a developmental show, Worldwide can be seen on YouTube, Clash of the Champions is rumoured to be a streaming event instead of the original television special, HBO Max hasn't comment on the matter but the transfer of the show could be beneficial for WCW.
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If I can make a suggestion for Clashes:

March: Founders day slam (the founding of Jim Crockett Promotions). Happens in Greensboro.
September: Nitro Anniversary show. Always booked in the Mall of America.
November: Black Friday Brawl.
 
I like the idea of WCW hosting bi-monthly PPV's. Competing against the Rumble and Mania was never going to be successful. Also World War 3 tended to be a jumbled mess so skipping November makes sense.

Nice to see Saturday Night getting some love again. My earliest memories of WCW involve sitting down with the family every Saturday at 6:05 eastern standard time. Also like Worldwide being used to give the younger stars a platform. Putting it up on YouTube ensures people can see them without any hassle.

If I can make a suggestion for Clashes:

March: Founders day slam (the founding of Jim Crockett Promotions). Happens in Greensboro.
September: Nitro Anniversary show. Always booked in the Mall of America.
November: Black Friday Brawl.
These are some good ideas. For myself I suggest naming the January offering something like New Year's Bash. Another thing you could do is dedicate one to the old WCW concept of BattleBowl where the winner gets a World Title shot.

Can't wait to see how ECW & the NWA are coming along.
 
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Hey fellas I regret to inform you that most of my work has been delete for Word has been a piece of shit lately, not letting me edited or actually writing down anything, I made the decision to not cancelled this timeline but I want to do a some sort of a prequel (aka going back to fix WCW), I have a idea I want to explore with the idea, before I go thought I have a question.

Which one could be a perfect television station for a rebooted WCW Nitro SpikeTV or FX?
 
I vote for Spike. Both because they had plenty experience with wrestling irl, hosting both WWE & TNA over a 14 year period, but FX is always been a movie channel as far as I can remember so wrestling there feels strange.
 
I vote for Spike. Both because they had plenty experience with wrestling irl, hosting both WWE & TNA over a 14 year period, but FX is always been a movie channel as far as I can remember so wrestling there feels strange.
Cheers I forgot to make a poll lol silly me.
 
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