A look back at Early WCW.

[czar76]

In 1988 Ted Turner and company took majority control of WCW leading to full control by 1990. After this a string of "leaders" were brought in starting with Jim Herd and ending with Bischoff( I say ending with Bischoff because he held the job the longest.) After Bischoff the rest is history. We all know how WCW ended and everyone has an opinion of how that could have been prevented.
What I would like to know is what are ur thoughts on the leadership in the early days. I have heard stories that the job was offered to everyone from Larry Matysik(St. Louis wrestling) to a member of the production crew who worked for Crockett.
Who do u think could have taken WCW to bigger and better things early on? Considering the roster and creative in those days all the company really needed was good leadership.
Thoughts?

[One to Remember]

I never understood what Ted Turner's deal was with wrestling. I dont get why he didnt personally own it if he had the money to buy it.. When he took over JCP or Mid Atlantic or w/e he should had just kept the leaders WCW had then and just made them subordinate to him. Instead he had WCW absorbed by a huge corperation he ran then had it subran by people who had nothing to do with wrestling. They should had stuck with a Crockette in the early years i think.

[FlairFan2003]

Turner didnt personally run day to day operations of most of his Turner Enterprises or Turner Broadcasting operations. Like every other company, he put people he trusted in place to handle day to day operations. Turner initially wanted to keep the wrestling company active because it brought in huge numbers for his cable network.

Unfortunately for wrestling fans Turner often promoted staff from other parts of his organization who did not understand the appeal of wrestling or have any knowledge of the wrestlers on the roster. 1989 actually went fairly well thanks to Sting's continued rise in popularity and some short term but very succesful guest stints by Terry Funk & Ricky Steamboat. Jim Herd, Turner's 1st choice to run the company, initially relied heavily on Jim Ross & Jim Cornette, two guys with a pretty good sense of promoting wrestling on TV & how to use the talent on hand. As time went by Herd starting making more decissions on his own and a revolving door of bookers & writers came through, making stories non sensical. Early on in Herd's tenure a bad habit of poor talent evaluation became standard, lasting in many ways through the Bischoff era. Herd's tenure heavily promoted Sid Justice (twice, he was hired & fired by WWE in between, though Herd was pretty much gone by the time he returned), they signed and promptly failed to utilize, soon releasing Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, & Triple H. Herd also wanted to create a hunchback tag team dressed in bells who couldnt be pinned due to the hunchback and he wanted to re name Ric Flair as Spartacus, changing him into a Roman Gladiator gimmick.

The succession of guys, particularly Ole Anderson, all seemed outdated in their story ideas and struggled to create any new stars. Even Bischoff relied heavily on guys who previously became main event stars either working for Jim Crockett (Flair, Luger, Sting, Arn Anderson) & Vince McMahon (Hogan, Savgage, Hall, Nash). Bischoff did come up with maybe the biggest angle/story of the decade with The NWO vs WCW feud (although he was copying an angle from New Japan).

As far as good memories of early WCW 89-93, Steve Austin did some great work, as did Rick Rude & Sting. Ric Flair's feud vs Vader & Harley Race was a classic, and his last series of matches vs Steamboat produced some of the best matches at the main event level in either company (that was actually in 94). Brian Pillman became a legit star during this time. Also, early era WCW did give us the 1st African American World Champion in a major promotion with Ron Simmons.

[Peoples_Champ]

I was a fan of early WCW. I couldn't get into the storylines but the in-ring action was very entertaining. I remember Dusty always talking about winners getting to the "pay winda." While I was a young, impressionable kid, I thought this meant that the losers don't get paid. It made me sympathize with the jobbers who, again in my mind, were fighting week in and week out just to win one match, taking on all comers, from the best to the worst, just for one measly paycheque, to feed their kids back home, 500 miles away....

As foolish as that imagery was, I never got that perception from WWF wrestling. Over there, I wanted the biggest man to win (Hogan, Warrior). If WCW made storylines that appealed to me, I would have started to buy in more.

[Defekt]

Originally Posted by One to Remember

I never understood what Ted Turner's deal was with wrestling. I dont get why he didnt personally own it if he had the money to buy it.. When he took over JCP or Mid Atlantic or w/e he should had just kept the leaders WCW had then and just made them subordinate to him. Instead he had WCW absorbed by a huge corperation he ran then had it subran by people who had nothing to do with wrestling. They should had stuck with a Crockette in the early years i think.

Ted Turner was the head of a multi-billion dollar company that owned numerous TV networks and Sports Teams. Overseeing a small, unprofitable wrestling company would have been a waste of his time.

From what I've read Crockette mismanaged his company into Bankruptcy, which is how Turner came to own it in the first place. Not exactly who you'd want in charge.

I think all things considered, WCW need someone like Bischoff to take it to new places.

The old school wrestling promoters who ran the company prior to Bischoff kept the promotion in the dark ages.

Bischoff had experience in the wrestling business, but was primarily a corporate guy. Before NWO and the Monday Night Wars explosion, Bischoff largely turned the company around just by cutting costs.

An old school wrestling promoter would have balked at cancelling all live events, or shooting multiple weeks of TV on a sound stage at Disney. But trimming the fat that way allowed WCW to finally make a profit, and start turning things around.