Vince McMahon and Ideas From Other Promotions

[CM Steel]

Vince McMahon's WWE is the last wrestling promotion standing after the era's of the WWF, WCW, and ECW in the 1990's. Coming out of the era of AWA and NWA Wrestling in the 1980's. But now that the WWE has right to the WCW & ECW names. What's else can they do to make money and other things off of the culture of both deceased company's?

Vince McMahon made a good profit off ECW with the "One Night Stand" pay per views. As well as the ECW brand. But what about WCW? Could we see a WCW brand in the future? And what about a "Wargames" PPV in the works? Old School wrestling fans have been dying for that match to return! But will Vince let it? Years ago Triple H supposeily had a "father-son" talk with Vince McMahon backstage at a WWE show about bringing back Wargames. But Vince said no because he saw it as more of a WCW idea. But that didn't stop Vince from profitting from ECW ONS PPV idea. What's wrong with Wargames in the WWE?

 

[MoRtAnDaD]

I think that this topic has been discussed many times, anyway, clearly we wont see a WCW brand never (wont say ever) again. WCW was the biggest enemy WWF/E had, and once you bury your enemy you surely wont bring it back to life again.

At most, maybe we could see a wcw themed ppv or sort, but not a come back of WCW, not even something like the ECW brand (which i must say the first couple of month was great).

 

[J.J.]

WWE has used many of WCWs ideas. Elimination Chamber was inspired by Wargames. The Great American bash is a non-WWE PPV that was used in WCW, I saw the event live in Charlotte growing up in the 80s and it was a JCP event back then.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Even though WWE won the ratings war, WCW was still the biggest enemy they have ever faced. WWE owns the rights to everything WCW ever did, but I think the reason we do not see much of anything in WCW being kept alive is because Vince wants it to stay dead. The company has been gone since 2001 but even after 10 and a half years, Vince likely still sees it as a bad thing to acknowledge his enemy's accomplishments despite owning the rights to it. They did have the patriotic Great American Bash (bring it back, please!) PPV theme, and the World Championship was based off the WCW Championship's design. Then there's the United States Championship. I would like to see more WCW concepts return. Wargames and Halloween Havoc could be cool, it will never happen though. Vince made that clear unfortunately and it might never happen as long as he is alive. Maybe after Trips takes over? Patience, everyone. Patience.

 

[rokuma]

I'd like to see a WCW themed PPV, but only if we could have some of the big WCW stars there...for example: Sting, Goldberg, original nWo (Hall, Nash, Hogan), appearance by Luger (not sure if he can wrestle or not after his injuries), DDP, Flair, Malenko, Jericho, even Raven, Saturn, Kidman, Mysterio, Booker T (actually Harlem Heat in general...best tag team in WCW ever IMO), the Steiners, Vader, Juventud (and more of the cruiserweight stars)...that's the only way I'd like to see a WCW themed PPV.

If WCW were ever going to be revived, I have two scenarios I would like to see...1) I wish Bischoff would lead a group to buy the rights and relaunch it as a separate entity. Granted, this would NEVER happen, but it would be the most riveting launch of a wrestling promotion ever. I mean, who wouldn't tune in to the first edition of Monday Nitro after 10 years? Who would be on there? Could it succeed?

2) A completely separate WWE brand (and by separate, I mean NEVER interacting with the WWE or Raw brand like Smackdown does). Have WCW Saturday Night or Nitro on Fridays...but have a completely different booking team, different roster (maybe of unproven guys and some aging stars?), a different set, a different ring (the smaller, stiff cabled WCW ring ala TNA's current 4 sided ring), bring in Tony Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes as the "voices" of WCW (since they already were), different titles, and an edgier product. I think it could work...as long as they didn't dilute it like WWECW.

 

[Larry]

What's else can they do to make money and other things off of the culture of both deceased company's?

Unfortunately without reviving the WCW or ECW brand(which they did and failed) they have done much of what there is to do by releasing the DVD's about each company, using "Great American Bash", the U.S. title which was originally a WCW belt as well as the WHC belt, and keeping stars from WCW and ECW and making stars of them that either jumped ship back in the day or were acquired when both companies folded. Outside of bringing back more WCW themed PPV's, releasing DVD's on specific WCW or ECW wrestlers, reviving merchandise for them, or bringing back other belts like the Cruiserweight title which originally was in WCW, or bringing back the Television Title, I don't see what else could be done.

But that didn't stop Vince from profitting from ECW ONS PPV idea. What's wrong with Wargames in the WWE?

One Night Stand was a way for Vince to cash in on some nostalgia for ECW without making WWE look bad or diminish it because he "Allowed It" and held the keys to it. It also didn't present anything that the WWE has never brought to the table. You asked "What's wrong with Wargames in WWE?" Well I can tell you. Royal Rumble, that's what. Wargames was a response to that and one that brought about a grander event technically than Vince McMahon has ever conceived which is exactly why it has never seen the light of day. Vince doesn't want to come out and say "Here's Wargames, sure wish I would have thought of that, but since I didn't and now I own the WCW material, here it is." That will likely never happen.

Vince will never admit in that fashion that someone ever had an idea better than his own. I would figure the only reason he allowed Great American Bash was because he liked the name and thought it would be a good shot at WCW since he owns everything WCW, and it wouldn't be a bigger event than what he had thought of, he would be making it a bigger event than they had(at least in his mind).

 

[MikeyBobby]

The one and only glaring thing that they could (realistically) do is bring back War Games. It doesn't matter that it originated in WCW. It's just a bad ass concept match and now that WWE PPV's are theme-driven it seems like a great time to bring it back. Maybe they could repackage some of the no-name PPV's with WCW names from the past that older fans would identify with.

Other than that, I don't see what they can possibly do. WCW has been dead for 10 years. The WCW performers are too old for anything. Hell, the memory of WCW is too far gone to do anything with. Really, at this point all there is to do is exploit the video library on DVD, On Demand, whatever, and that's been done already for the most part.

As far as ECW, WWE & TNA have killed it and dug it up so many times that I never want to hear those three letters that meant so much dragged through the mud again.

 

[Workrate]

These conversations are always funny because they paint it like the WWE stole everything from WCW, when in fact, both sides borrowed from one another the whole time. The nWo was obviously the thing that tilted momentum, but if it weren't for the star power of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash -- fostered in the WWE -- it never would have happened.

WCW also borrowed a lot from ECW (as did the WWE). The bottom line is that every company took from a cauldron of different ideas that other companies had bred.

 

[RicoLen]

As far as ideas from other companies are concerned I would love to see World World 3 again. I loved seeing 3 rings side by side by side and 60 men duking it out at once. The only problem though is that WW3 was the answer to WWF's Royal Rumble. But I think it'd be pretty cool to see a WW3 match instead of Royal Rumble one year.

 

[RKO920]

One Night Stand was a way for Vince to cash in on some nostalgia for ECW without making WWE look bad or diminish it because he "Allowed It" and held the keys to it. It also didn't present anything that the WWE has never brought to the table. You asked "What's wrong with Wargames in WWE?" Well I can tell you. Royal Rumble, that's what. Wargames was a response to that and one that brought about a grander event technically than Vince McMahon has ever conceived which is exactly why it has never seen the light of day. Vince doesn't want to come out and say "Here's Wargames, sure wish I would have thought of that, but since I didn't and now I own the WCW material, here it is." That will likely never happen. .

I think you're confusing your PPV's here...Wargames would be a response to the Survivor Series while World War 3 would be like the Royal Rumble

So if Wargames were to be brought back it would have to be at the Survivor Series, this year would have been a perfect chance to bring it back if they had gone with the original main event. Could have had Nash be in Johnny Ace's ear about the main event and it could have gone from a traditional 5 on 5 match to War Games with Nash, Miz, Truth and 2 others vs Triple H, Rock, Cena and again 2 others.

 

[EastCoastFan]

I don't think we'll see it. Supposedly, Vince had planned on re-launching WCW after he bought them in 2001, but after Booker T and Buff Bagwell stunk up the ring, any chance of a re-launch died.

As for War Games, according to Chris Jericho's book, Triple H tried to talk Vince into doing it and he didn't want to. That's how they wound up with the Elimination Chamber. However, you could probably have a War Games match inside of that cage instead of the "two rings wrapped in steel".

 

[Y2J1245]

I think a WCW "movement" would be more likely than an entirely new brand, let alone a show. Unfortunately, the best way I see it happening has had it's time come and go.

It could have been cool maybe 3-5 years ago, if the older WCW guys said they had enough of the WWE and they were going to reform WCW regardless of what Vince McMahon said. They could have taken younger guys with them but it just seems like a hard sell now with such little WCW talent still around.

 

[J.J.]

Even though WWE won the ratings war, WCW was still the biggest enemy they have ever faced. WWE owns the rights to everything WCW ever did, but I think the reason we do not see much of anything in WCW being kept alive is because Vince wants it to stay dead. The company has been gone since 2001 but even after 10 and a half years, Vince likely still sees it as a bad thing to acknowledge his enemy's accomplishments despite owning the rights to it.

Take a look at the HOF. You think a good amount of those names gained fame in WWE? Funk brothers, Flair, Greg Valentine, Harley Race, ect. Those were big names before coming to WWE and they had a large regional following. Many wrestled under the NWA/JCP/WCW banner and were successful. So many wrestlers that wrestled under those HOFers are etched in WCW's history.