A What-If

[DarkLordFett]

We all know that WWE purchased WCW when it was put up on the block. AOL didn't want to be associated with wrestling. Watching the 'Rise and Fall of WCW' Jericho said that if he'd known how much AOL-Time Warner was asking, he probably would have bought it himself.

Vince shows up via satellite on the last episode of Nitro to announce the purchase. However, Shane was there. Announced that while McMahon was the last name on the contract, Vince wasn't the first name. He had bought Nitro out from under Vince. Kayfabe, of course.

So: What if WCW was allowed to keep going and Shane was the new "owner". Make it look like Shane really had bought it. They could have restructured some outrageous contracts and demands. Trimmed some fat. Started making money again. It's no secret that Russo ran an unsteady ship. With the McMahon's at the helm, Russo gone, WCW could have become compelling to watch again. Keep the two separate. Different management for each. Vince runs WWE, Shane runs WCW.

Even though they would be competing with themselves, there would be that element of competition between the two brands. WWE is still WWE. WCW is still WCW. Maybe run an invasion here or there. But there would still be unique brands, unlike the Raw/Smackdown "brand extension". Keep up the rivalry between the guys 'up North' and those 'down South'.

I know it wouldn't last forever. Or hell, maybe Shane really would break off from WWE and take WCW with him. What might the landscape of wrestling look like now?

 

[Brewski]

Interesting premise but I could never imagine that working. WCW's TV contracts was done so WWE would have to work something out probably making USA(or was it TNN then still?) unhappy. WWE wouldn't have been able to bring over the wrestlers logically and it would have just been a big mess. It's sad that WCW died but theres no way WWE could have kept them going. It would have made more sense to keep ECW alive and just keep it as a drastically different product. Maybe show that way late on some network if they could and keep a low budget. Could have been interesting for a while.

 

[Steve-O-Matt]

Well it's an idea, but here's the thing... They did that. SmackDown! and RAW were the two brands to compete. But I have always wondered though... What would it have been like if over that time, the three brands they had were WWE Raw, WCW Nitro and ECW Wrestling... That's what I've always wondered. They could have called it the Titan Sports Trio or TST or something.

Imagine it, 3 parts of the company independently being run by different people, Vince could have kept on Paul-E and Eric to run their show and it would of left a less bitter taste in their mouths. And of course, we would know the roles. ECW would have been the hardcore side, just like it was when it re-debuted, before it turned into a glorified WWE Superstars and WCW and WWE could have been the Raw and Smackdown, I think the titles could be organised like this though.

WCW:
World Heavyweight Championship
World Crusierweight Championship
World Women's Championship

WWE:
WWE Championship
WWE Intercontinental Championsip
(All 'other' titles, including RR winner, Mr. MitB and King of the Ring)

ECW:
ECW Championship
Tag Team Championship
ECW Hardcore Championship

As you can see, I'm very organised. I have the weight-class titles in WCW, the WWE 'classic' titles in the WWE and the obvious titles in ECW with the tag team titles.

Also, you might wanna edit your title, people on here hate it when titles are vague and unclear, change it to something that says WHAT the thread is about.

 

[AJ1981]

The original plan in 2001 was to run WCW as a separate company. The then WWF planned on creating a saturday night WCW show and had even gone as far as booking the arenas and searching for a TV deal to broadcast it. However the whole thing ended when the WWF booked a WCW World title bout on Raw between Booker T and Buff Bagwell. Neither man knew how to wrestle a WWF/E style match and when Vince McMahon saw how badly the match turned out he decided nobody from WCW knew what they were doing a it couldn't exist as a separate company. Chris Jericho talks about it in his second autobiography. He suggests if Booker T had faced someone like Lance Storm that night maybe things would have turned out differently

 

[Rabbid Wolverine]

I always thought Vince should have bought WCW and sold it to another person, make a few bucks and have bragging rights for stomping turner out of business.

Vince would not be associated with the old ECW because one of those goofs (cough NewJack cough Raven cough) crossed the line, it would be vinces name who got into trouble.

Theres nothing that they could have really done to save WCW except sell it to a completely different person, Shane "owning" it would really never work because in the end you knew where the money was going.

 

[justtxyank]

The original plan in 2001 was to run WCW as a separate company. The then WWF planned on creating a saturday night WCW show and had even gone as far as booking the arenas and searching for a TV deal to broadcast it. However the whole thing ended when the WWF booked a WCW World title bout on Raw between Booker T and Buff Bagwell. Neither man knew how to wrestle a WWF/E style match and when Vince McMahon saw how badly the match turned out he decided nobody from WCW knew what they were doing a it couldn't exist as a separate company. Chris Jericho talks about it in his second autobiography. He suggests if Booker T had faced someone like Lance Storm that night maybe things would have turned out differently

This isn't exactly true. The reason WCW didn't end up on tv as it's own show is because no one would agree to put it on the air. Nobody wanted wrestling at the time. Vince couldn't find a network for a WCW show and he wasn't going to be allowed by the network to take WWF stars off of Smackdown to make it WCW.

 

[King Patrick Star]

Let’s say Steve-O-Matt’s idea was reality and the WWE didn’t do the Invasion angle the way they did. I would have the Championships as follows.

WWF
WWF Championship
WWF Intercontinental Championship
WWF European Championship
WWF Tag Team Championship
WWF Women’s Championship

WCW
WCW Championship (no need for unbranded Titles)
WCW United States Championship
WCW Television Championship
WCW Tag Team Championship
WCW Women’s Championship

ECW
ECW Championship
ECW Hardcore Championship (for Storyline purposes, I propose a unification match between the WWF Hardcore Champion and the WCW Hardcore Champion, who ends up being Rhino, who then rechristens the Title as the ECW Hardcore Championship)
ECW Television Championship
ECW Tag Team Championship
ECW Women’s Championship (Vixen’s Championship, perhaps??)

There you have it. 3 separate “entities”, 3 separate World Titles, 3 separate Mid-Card Titles, 3 separate Lower-Card Titles, 3 separate Tag Team Titles, and 3 separate Women’s Titles. I say give them 3 PPVs each, making SummerSlam the only Big 4 PPV exclusive to the WWF, and have all 3 brands appear at Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and WrestleMania.

This idea could have worked, but in retrospect, it could only work if Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman were running WCW and ECW. Instead we got Raw, Smackdown, and WWECW, and we all know how that went.

 

[Sinabite]

if they had ran them independently, vince would have died 6 years ago from a heart attack

 

[HBsam31]

Interesting premise but I could never imagine that working. WCW's TV contracts was done so WWE would have to work something out probably making USA(or was it TNN then still?) unhappy. WWE wouldn't have been able to bring over the wrestlers logically and it would have just been a big mess. It's sad that WCW died but theres no way WWE could have kept them going. It would have made more sense to keep ECW alive and just keep it as a drastically different product. Maybe show that way late on some network if they could and keep a low budget. Could have been interesting for a while.

This right here. I think it would have been cool to try it, but with the lack of a TV time slot, and the fact that they did try to do this with Raw and Smackdown it just wouldn't have worked. We would have known that Vince owned WCW, and I just don't think we would have bought it as a separate brand. I mean we never bought Raw and Smackdown as separate brands so why would we buy a Vince owned WCW as a separate brand. I would have loved if WCW remained intact for a few more years, and I like what the OP suggested, but I still think it would have been a Vince inspired WCW which in my book would not have worked for the fans of WCW.

 

[DarkLordFett]

The original plan in 2001 was to run WCW as a separate company. The then WWF planned on creating a saturday night WCW show and had even gone as far as booking the arenas and searching for a TV deal to broadcast it. However the whole thing ended when the WWF booked a WCW World title bout on Raw between Booker T and Buff Bagwell. Neither man knew how to wrestle a WWF/E style match and when Vince McMahon saw how badly the match turned out he decided nobody from WCW knew what they were doing a it couldn't exist as a separate company. Chris Jericho talks about it in his second autobiography. He suggests if Booker T had faced someone like Lance Storm that night maybe things would have turned out differently

This isn't exactly true. The reason WCW didn't end up on tv as it's own show is because no one would agree to put it on the air. Nobody wanted wrestling at the time. Vince couldn't find a network for a WCW show and he wasn't going to be allowed by the network to take WWF stars off of Smackdown to make it WCW.

I didn't know they were trying to do that. Personally, I would tend to think that people didn't get on board as they had a WCW title match between a decent top level guy and Bagwell. Buff was fun to watch in the way you do puppies rolling around. He was comedic. Okay skill in the ring, not bad on the mic.I always felt he was better as part of a tag team. But that's my opinion. Lance Storm would have been a good option. Not sure who else was left. Sting probably would have left, not wanting to wrestle in a WWE product. Who knows.

 

[AJ1981]

I didn't know they were trying to do that. Personally, I would tend to think that people didn't get on board as they had a WCW title match between a decent top level guy and Bagwell. Buff was fun to watch in the way you do puppies rolling around. He was comedic. Okay skill in the ring, not bad on the mic.I always felt he was better as part of a tag team. But that's my opinion. Lance Storm would have been a good option. Not sure who else was left. Sting probably would have left, not wanting to wrestle in a WWE product. Who knows.

The main problem the WWF faced at the time was that none of the WCW main event talent were part of the deal. For about $2.5 million McMahon bought the rights, video library and 24 undercard wrestler contracts. Although many of the WCW main event guys Hogan, Flair, Nash, Hall, Goldberg etc would end up in WWF/E at the time they were under guaranteed contracts from Time Warner. They had the choice to either accept buyouts (that were less than the contracts worth) or sit out their deals and as they were on mega money most did, except DDP who lost about half his guaranteed money to go to the WWF to be 'Taker's stalker. AOL/Time Warner did try to negotiate with them to accept buyouts because they wanted them off the books. Without the top guys a seperate WCW had little chance of succeeding

 

[justtxyank]

I didn't know they were trying to do that. Personally, I would tend to think that people didn't get on board as they had a WCW title match between a decent top level guy and Bagwell. Buff was fun to watch in the way you do puppies rolling around. He was comedic. Okay skill in the ring, not bad on the mic.I always felt he was better as part of a tag team. But that's my opinion. Lance Storm would have been a good option. Not sure who else was left. Sting probably would have left, not wanting to wrestle in a WWE product. Who knows.

That match didn't happen until July or so. Vince had already failed to find a tv slot for WCW by then .

 

[TheHorndogSays]

Ok, first of I agree with the above poster who mentioned that Vince originally wanted to treat WCW as a separate program but didn't like Bagwell's style. However for the sake of arguing, I'll play along with the "what if?" scenario. My first issue with it is that the majority of WCWs main eventers did not come along initially. DDP, Hogan, Nash, Flair, Sting, Goldberg all originally nixed the idea of coming over hence why Austin had to "turn" on WWE to give the alliance some actual star power. Would Austin had to go to WCW under your scenario? Who would WCWs main event players be? In my opinion, for this to work several top WWE guys would eventually have to go to WCW in which case it isn't ANY different from the brand extension other than the names of the programs. Plus let's be honest, by this point WCWs name was TRASH. It had been completely run into the ground over the past 3 years. However my largest issue with the concept is that THE FANS had been wanting WWE vs WCW for YEARS. Look at DX invading Nitro as a top moment of Raw. It would have made no sense to have Vince acquire WCW then run it completely separate from WWE when the fans wanted the war for so long