WI Russo stays with WWF

As title says what would be the ramifications if Russo doesn't jump ship to WCW in '99? It's widely accepted that Russo's "creative" booking worsened WCW's fall, if not one of the leading causes. So if he stays with WWF would WCW be able to last? Or was WCW destined to fail without Russo?
 
Russo may have sped up the process but there were a lot of factors that went in to WCW's demise. One of the biggest was that the only executive that approved of the company was Ted Turner. When he was in charge, the WCW execs could always go to him but when he lost his position due to mergers with Time Warner and then AOL they lost their biggest supporter. The other network executives loved the fact that they had the number one program on cable TV but despised the fact that is a wrestling program. If it had been a Hollywood show they'd have been all for it. WCW might have been able to last a few more years than it did but ultimately it would have gone out of business because the ones calling the shots would have killed it at the first opportunity.
 
Russo may have sped up the process but there were a lot of factors that went in to WCW's demise. One of the biggest was that the only executive that approved of the company was Ted Turner. When he was in charge, the WCW execs could always go to him but when he lost his position due to mergers with Time Warner and then AOL they lost their biggest supporter. The other network executives loved the fact that they had the number one program on cable TV but despised the fact that is a wrestling program. If it had been a Hollywood show they'd have been all for it. WCW might have been able to last a few more years than it did but ultimately it would have gone out of business because the ones calling the shots would have killed it at the first opportunity.
True, but WCW was technically an independent entity. It was owned by Turner and existed as part of his company, but it had it's own business side as well. So if they found someone that could book them out of the hole they had dug and got them up from the low 3s (where they were when Russo came in) to even the mid-4s by the time the sale went through they could have found someone to back the company and put them on tv. So even if TBS or TNT canceled them they could go to Fox or ESPN and say "hey we got this hot product that gets ratings and has for years give us a few hours a week". The real issue would be finding someone that could pull them out of the hole.
 
Perhaps Turner could have bought ECW when it was being liquidated. That would a) bring in a bunch of talent and an angle to freshen up the nWo gimmick, b) given WCW a bigger tape library which makes it more attractive to potential buyers and c) brought Heyman into the fold. Whether Heyman could (or would be allowed to) create some 'Smackdown 6' style magic is up for debate, but hindsight tells us he had a better shot than Russo.

The other side of this question is equally interesting: what happens to Crash TV in the PG era? WWE didn't seem to skip a beat without Russo, but would things have gone differently in 2000-2001 if he was still around?
 
It's highly unlikely that WCW would have bought ECW since Vince had first option on it due to the amount of money he had given to ECW over the years he was the lead creditor by a mile. Also Russo's creative genius was a little overblown he was smart and he did have a big hand in helping WWE beat WCW in the ratings he also had a boss in Vince McMahon who could curb some of his more wild ideas in WCW he had no buffer so WCW might be better in the shorter term without the insanity of Vince Russo they won't blow money on celebrity appearances and that stupidity of David Arquette winning the WCW Title that kinda turned off the few die hard fans they had left. Also if I remember rightly when Russo came in Bischoff was on sabbatical or suspended or something I can't remember exactly if Russo doesn't go who do they bring in to run the company? Dusty, Jim Cornette or god forbid Bill Watts.
 
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