The day wrestling changed forever.

[Jacjac]

I wasn't as big into knowing what was happening behind the scenes as I am now so I knew little or nothing about what was going on. I remember watching Sting and Flair in tears in the middle of the ring. Before that the mood throughout the evening was very sad and solomn.

I truly was the night wrestling, not just changed but, died. WCW had a lot of great wrestlers. The good thing was that it took away the power from Hall and Nash, well Kevin Nash. Now we have all of this talent who could have been stars fall off the page.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by WolfNyte

When it was put up for Sale Bishoff immediately wanted to buy it, speculation was that is why he ran it into the red to begin with. He could buy it for a lower price than if it was a money maker. However, his investors pulled out once seeing the books of past performance and all he had was Jason hervey<sp>, Hogan and himself as money men. He knew they could not afford the costs so he backed out as well. This was after trying to gain more investors and failing.

Not quite. Eric Bischoffs money men who were to be majority owners were Brian Bedol and business partner Stephen Greenberg. These gentlemen were worth several hundred million dollars and big time players. Men who offered and had a deal to purchase WCW for $60 million dollars.

Fusient backed out for a time after Time Warner locked them out of the negotiations to move WCW to either Fox or CBS and let both deals falling through the cracks before recently promoted Jamie Kellner announced he was ending all WCW programming and flat out refused to let it continue airing until another deal was found.

Where it gets shady and isn't often covered by the internet is Bischoff went back to Fox and CBS and salvaged the deals, Fusient and their offer was on the table once again. Instead of accepting the $60 million dollars for WCW Jamie Kellner unloaded it to McMahon for peanuts. More on that in a minute.

The interesting thing about it all was that it wasn't even down to those two companies, there was actually several. Randy Savage who banked his money attempted to jump on the deal just to acquire the tape library.

Jerry Jarrett also had set up a group of investors and was attempting to negotiate with Time Warner to purchase WCW. Granted he was mostly a dreamer, not able to offer anywhere close to what Fusient was offering(yet more than the WWF bought it for.)

Back to Jamie Kellner(Brad Siegel, too) killing off the TV, attempting to kill TV deals with Fox and CBS to move the product, essentially doing everything in his power to kill WCW for good while unloading it for $56 million dollars LESS than the best offer and $21 million LESS than the offer Jerry Jarrett could make.

Well see his College roommate/fellow frat brother/best friend Stuart Snyder was recently made the COO of the WWF at that time. Funny enough 6 months after the deal of the century for Vince's competition was made Snyder was fired from the WWF. It's not hard to figure out what went on with that whole deal(especially considering McMahons past during the territory days) and which Time Warner exec got a sweetheart under the table check from Vince McMahon.

Originally Posted by WolfNyte

Vince saved the History of WCW/NWA and thats a fact.

It's a nice fantasy, but unfortunately has no basis in reality. Without Vince being Vince the WCW and its tape library would still exist as a company. Vince didn't save shit, he played the same back room politics he played with the various territories and killed WCW and their NWA history.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by EastCoastFan

From everything I heard, Vince had planned on reviving WCW but after that God-awful match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell, there was no chance. In fact, they needed to bring in ECW just to salvage it. Years later, the people at WrestleCrap pointed out that if they had waited ONE WEEK, the relaunch would have taken place in Atlanta, GA - WCW's hometown, where they would have gotten a MUCH better crowd response. Kind of makes you wonder just how Vince really felt about the WCW brand.

It was all talk from the start. McMahon had no intentions of keeping WCW as a product and couldn't even if he wanted to. His TV deal with Viacom prevented him from having a wrestling product on any networks not associated with them and at the time their networks were UPN, TNN, CMT and MTV. TNN, UPN and MTV already had WWF programming leaving CMT.

It was talk in an attempt to get WCW fans to tune into his show in anticipation of the brand that never was to be. He spent a weeks salary to buy it, humiliate it and kill it off, that was the intention all along.

[midgensa]

This was THE BIGGEST day in modern wrestling history.

It changed everything and really has pushed us to where we are today.

Being an avid Internet wrestling guy at the time I knew of the purchase already ... so I knew what the night would be all about. But I was still COMPLETELY shocked when Shane McMahon came out on Nitro and it was absolutely fantasticly done.

I always think back on that day knowing that Sting and McMahon were in the same arena for a lengthy period of time and both performing on air. I would love to have been in that locker room.

[Mikey Stormrage's Third Nipple]

I was 12 years old when this happend. I absolutely couldn't believe that Shane McMahon was on WCW! I was running around my house screaming "Holy Shit"!!! I wish that Wrestling had more Holy Shit moments like this. The emotion that i felt as a fan that night was real and genuine. I miss stuff like that.

[HBsam31]

I read it on wrestlezone earlier that day, but I didn't truly believe it until I saw it. I couldn't help but rub it in my two friend's faces that were diehard WCW fans. It wasn't until later that I realized I missed having WCW to flip over to, but that day I thought it was the coolest thing ever to see it go down.

[Peoples_Champ]

I was reflective on that day. I wasn't happy about it because I knew what it meant, that the legacy and history of a company would one day be forgotten. I also didn't celebrate because I knew that only competition made WWF try some of their outrageous stuff that excited everyone. There was no more incentive to innovate and improve.

As well, I was worried about what I was going to watch when WWF programming pissed me off. At least if I was upset with what WWF had, I could just change the channel to their competitors. Not any more.

In the end, I took more of a life lesson from that day. If you fail to compete, you're going to fail. It inspired me to do better in life and I would never have gotten into university if I hadn't taken these words to heart.

It was a sad day, but an interesting one as well.

[vampireblade]

I remember this day all to well growing up it was WCW and nothing else for me because well it was special they had actual shows here in Chattanooga not just house shows but WCW Saturday Night, WCW Nitro and even a few ppvs. The fact that they came here so often made me a big fan and on that night it was like a stab to the heart i was watching the last episode of arguably the greatest wrestling promotion of all time