Ted Turner = Hall of Famer??

[CCIV]

#1. Vince and the WWE seem to be rebuilding bridges constantly over the past 10 years or so.

#2. As Bischoff would say Controversy Creates Cash so why not tell the McMahon vs Turner story and capitalize on possibly the most viewers in history having access to the Monday Night Wars on the WWE network.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Yeah, but why would he ever accept. If you approached Ted Turner, long since retired from his involvement in wrestling, and asked him to show up for two WWE events so he can get a ring a a tepid responce from fans, how would he respond?

 

[Ubermensch]

There is zero chance Ted Turner would be remotely interested in attending the Hall of Fame. Turner was definitely an eccentric mogul but as most accounts can attest, he had a passive interest in wrestling. When you own CNN, WCW isn't exactly on your priority list. This is why he basically started divvying out blank checks to Bischoff. How many times did you see him on WCW TV?

 

[CCIV]

"Yeah, but why would he ever accept."

Money, publicity, something to do at an old age. Vince is old, Turner is old so lets make some money and put a final chapter to our legacy in wrestling and where we started and why we are who we are today. It's good for business. It's clearly the reality based storyline the WWE may be looking for.


"There is zero chance Ted Turner would be remotely interested in attending the Hall of Fame."

I completely disagree. The man clearly had a passion for wrestling if u know his history. And certain things wouldn't exist today without Ted Turner.

 

[CCIV]

People have asked for reality based stories so just imagine how real a McMahon vs Turner storyline could be. You have almost everyone available to play their part. Hogan, Flair, Goldberg, Sting, Booker T, Jericho, Big Show and on and on. Stephanie and McMahon family get involved and base their emotions on how their family was almost put out of business. The stories are endless. Obviously you use the appropriate performers to be the talkers for Turner but you use his likeness for possibly 3 appearances at the least the rest are Prerecorded videos, tweets, archive footage. The whole story has already been written just edit it and present it to us. Build the interest and then let the WWE Network shows and footage fill in the blanks and allow people to relive the rivalry. Long shot you get Bischoff. But I want the story mainly Turner vs Mcmahon. NWA, Georgia South, WCW, TNT vs WWWF, WWF, WWE. Give us a history lesson with today's writers and performers. You do it before they die.

Let's say you start this story with a real closed door "Hall of Fame discussion" at WWE headquarters and Vince reportedly storms out. The Internet reports state that Ted Turners name was thrown on the table by more than a few people in the meeting and Vince wasn't having any of it. The story makes its may to us we build it and then they mention it on tv and continue to build it using comments from current and past Turner employees I mentioned earlier and footage. Today's youth learns who he is, the older audience relives a bit of the past and we get entertained. His induction being the final page of the story.

 

[boozinjedi]

Points were well made on BOTH sides of this topic,

When Turner got hold of NWA then turned it to WCW,HE definitely upped the game.

Especially leading to the Monday Night Wars,Would Ted ever show up to accept...doubtful,BUT Is he worthy or deserving??...Certainly!!

 

[Slbrey]

He can go into the hall of fame but there's a lot of people who need to go before him...Eric B for example is more deserving of it before Ted Turner.

 

[Messiah]

Why would you quote somebody Eric Bischoff said?

Those are your 2 reasons why Turner should be in the HOF? You'll have to do better than that. Under no circumstances should Ted Turner be in the WWE Hall of Fame. He doesn't deserve it.

 

[CCIV]

I think you, Messiah, are thinking the WWE Hall of Fame is all about the WWE. At this point in history the WWE needs to realize they are the end all be all of everything wrestling and they have the duty to tell that history and honor it. The WWE is no different than the NFL and MLB, they are the top dogs of their genre and they celebrate all of that genres history. MLB doesn't ignore Ichiros Japanese league accomplishments, it's all baseball. Turner was wrestling at one point and an important part.

 

[Ubermensch]

His interest in wrestling was still just $$$.

At one time, Turner's empire had the Atlanta Braves, and the Atlanta Hawks. He owned CNN, the first 24-7 News network. TNT had the rights to Nascar and the NBA at one point. Turner revitalized Atlanta, and the Buffalo population. He also hungout with Vladamir Putin.

Knowing that despite losing much of his holdings during the Time Warner merger, he is still extremely wealthy; probably more so than Vince, I don't see him doing much with the WWE or Vince. The WCW product, while it did grow big, was a small part of his media empire.

 

[CCIV]

I do know Turner fought tooth and nail to keep wrestling alive on his channels and if he didn't do that there would be no WCW , Monday Night War, NWO , Live Wrestling Show, and so on. I'm no Turner groupie but so far the negatives are quite fickle.

 

[SharpShooter083]

I think If anything WWE will induct Eric Bischoff into the HOF as he was the creative behind WCW's big boom period, Turner was just the resource provider (not downplaying that at all, but still). Since were on the topic of WCW and the HOF I wouldn't mind seeing Tony Schiavone inducted as he was a top commentator for not only WCW/NWA but WWE in the late 80's.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Bischoff is a very good call, even for the HOF this year, Bill Watts is in there, Dusty is in there, that's two of WCW's major bookers/backstage managers so Bischoff makes some sense, particularly as he "bit the bullet" and became a talent for the WWE.

Turner is interesting, I can't personally see Vince ever doing it, he's never been that "magnanamous" in victory, would Vince honor his "bitter foe" in that way, or would "Billionaire Ted" even accept it after the stick he took over the years?

I think there are more deserving cases, if they ever do a WCW specific class then yes, but when so many guys are waiting for their spot, Ted to me would be a waste of a slot.

 

[thebarber]

not before Vince McMahon himself, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette, Jerry Jarrett, Dutch Mantell and other actual wrestlnig related guys who were the brains behind alot of the booking in the 80s 90s and 2000s.
Ted Turner owned a conglomerate that televised wrestling, next Dick Ebersol will be in the HOF

 

[LODemolition]

He has no business in the WWE Hall of Fame for 2 reasons.

1. He never worked for WWE. I'm of the opinion that if you never worked for WWE in any capacity (as a wrestler or otherwise), you belong in the company's HOF. The only man I can think of who deserves an exception would be Sting.

2. He never knew a damn thing about wrestling, so the thought of inducting him into a wrestling hall of fame is downright laughable to me. He contributed the funds and that's where his involvement began and ended in the world of pro wrestling.

 

[The Boss]

Turner certainly doesn't need the money nor would he care for a HOF ring. The only way I can think he MIGHT be interested would be if WWE did a biography on Turner's career in wrestling starting from his airing of GCW on TBS, his purchase of JCP and changing it to WCW. Showcase the people he brought in that built WCW into the monster that nearly destroyed WWE and how the company only went under because of the AOL/Time-Warner merger. In short paint him as a wrestling savior. Maybe (MAYBE) if WWE took on such a project then Turner might co-operate.

 

[The Boss]

I'm of the opinion that if you never worked for WWE in any capacity (as a wrestler or otherwise), you belong in the company's HOF. The only man I can think of who deserves an exception would be Sting.

I must disagree. As the biggest and most visible wrestling company in the world WWE has a responsibility to represent all of pro wrestling. Otherwise how would greats like Verne Gagne, Gorgeous George and Abdullah the Butcher would have never been recognized. Furthermore older pre WWE greats like Frank Gotch, Lou Thez and Ed "Strangler" Lewis also need recognition. Hopefully one day WWE will see fit to induct these men as well.

 

[enviousdominous]

I think it all depends on how it's presented to the viewer. Sometimes people like a good history lesson if it throws a lot of aesthetics at them. The obvious problem, if Vince is willing to do this, is in whether or not Ted would revisit the nightmare that was being a play-maker in the pro-wrestling world.

I think that it would be good if this happens, and that they need to take the same approach that they did in gradually getting Bruno to appear. Build it up for a year, release a DVD halfway through to the next Wrestlemania that's basically a documentary on the struggles Vince and Ted faced. Recognize that pro-wrestling today is better for the chaos that ensued when both companies were firing from all pistons to try to out-do each other in the ratings game. Lessons have been learned and in the end they both managed to put on one hell of a show for the fans.

Have Vince induct Ted Turner, have Vince introduce Ted as the only man who ever came close to beating Vince at his own game. An honor in and of itself.

I'm also of the opinion that if you do Ted, you might as well make it a night of rivals.

Make this the one where Eric Bischoff is inducted, have his son induct him.

Make this the one where Jeff Jarrett is inducted, have his dad induct him.

Make this the one where Paul Heyman is inducted, have Brock induct him.

Make this the one where Ole Anderson is inducted, have Arn induct him.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Ted Turner is not a HOF'er. His actual involvement with the wrestling product was practically nothing. He sold the whole wrestling show and timeslot to Vince McMahon, he wanted nothing to do it, he did however recognize Vince's money. The only reason McMahon & WWE got kicked off TBS was because of the massive revolt fans and the low ratings for the WWE product vs the Georgia Championship Wrestling/NWA shows they had replaced. Turner putting the NWA back on was simply a business decision.

As for purchasing the main stays of the NWA from Jim Crockett Jr was because it was still drawing good ratings for the network. Yes, TBS would have to start forking over the money for the TV production but at the same time a TV network pays rights to air movies and TV shows and if you produce your own product you pay production costs. That said, once Turner purchased the company it was run into the ground. Turner never wanted to be involved in daily operations nor did he understand how to write storylines for a wrestling show, so he put a wide variety of Turner employees, most of them with no wrestling experience whatsoever, in charge. Jim Ross' take on these days in WCW is a must read for any wrestling fan (he worked there at this time), as is Ric Flair's take. The company saw massive declines in popularity and a steady drop in ratings post 1990 after an initial bump early in 1989. They releases of Flair, LOD, & Lex Luger nearly crippled the company. Three years into Turner's ownership his WCW was a tiny shell of what it had been as the NWA in the mid 80s under Crockett.

Turner deserves some credit for promoting Eric Bischoff (ironically with support from Flair, who campaigned for someone with a new vision and fresh ideas vs the Turner's usual formula of putting non wrestling Turner executives in charge or hiring older bookers from the 70s who's ideas and storylines were by now stale and recycled). Bischoff, with help from Flair, recruited Hogan & Savage, giving WCW much more star power along with Sting than WWE had at the time. Bischoff also was the one who saw the NWO storyline being played out in Japan and brought it back to the US, recruiting Nash & Hall to join as the "Invaders". People forget that WCW and Nitro often beat WWE in the ratings BEFORE the NWO angle kicked off, their product as a whole was better in the undercard and had more top draws at the top of the card. The NWO angle just created more separation between the two companies, kicking off the best period the company ever had under Turner's ownership, rivaling how red hot the show was in the mid 80s during the Crockett years.

Flair & Hogan are already in the HOF, for much more than just their contributions to mid 90s WCW, and deservedly so. Savage certainly belongs, hopefully whatever issues have precluded his enshrinement will be settled soon. You can make an argument for Bischoff, although he has some major flaws in terms of producing original angles and stars (his most successful angles were the NWO from Japan and re hashing Flair's WWE feuds vs Savage & Hogan) as well as his inability to maintain positive working relationships with talent he didn't get along with, to the detriment of the show. Turner however, did nothing other than hiring Bischoff that did anything to help WCW, to promote them, if anything his ownership nearly killed them before their mid 90s revival. He was an unabashed wrestling fan, but his contributions to the industry are no where near HOF worthy.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Originally Posted by LODemolition View Post

"I'm of the opinion that if you never worked for WWE in any capacity (as a wrestler or otherwise), you belong in the company's HOF. The only man I can think of who deserves an exception would be Sting. "

Clearly you are in the minority - Vince has tried for years to make his HOF something special, a reflection of the industry as a whole in the US, which is why The Von Erichs, The FreeBirds, The Four Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes, Nick Bockwinkle, etc have all be enshrined in recent years. Certainly given their popularity and contributions every one of those is a legit addition.

Vince also isn't stupid. If his HOF was simply a WWE Only model it would be mocked and criticized by fans for ignoring huge aspects of the industry, plus how many WWE only wrestlers could he induct that fans wouldn't howl and scream at as being unworthy compared to the Bockwinkles & Von Erichs of the world ?? Vince wants his HOF to have legitimacy, not just be a joke, and he wants it to make money, which if it's WWE Only it wont.

 

[Redrum]

I think he deserves it and i think Vince/HHH would be open to doing it. The real question is would ted want to show up for it and do it. Ted is very fickle when it comes to stuff and his decision would be a coin flip of a guess at best. Without his backing we never get WCW that we knew in the 90's. So there is a good chance we never see a monday night wars or NWO. If that were the case we prob dont get the attitude era and the butterfly effect only spirals out of control from there. Who is to know how wrestling would look today with out ted throwing his hat in the ring. He may not of been the brains of the booking but said booking wouldn't have had the platform to show off without ted and that's a fact jack.( Sorry had to steal a duck dynasty quote)