Vinces Alternate Universe.

[TheBadGuy92]

I was recently thinking about a way the WWE could have transitioned into the PG era and still have kept the hardcore fans and IWC happy (for the most part). Back when Vince bought WCW, they did the angle with Shane buying it out from under him and everyone always questioned to why didnt they let Shane run his dads own competition??

I was thinking IF they did let Shane run it they could have just revamped WCW and kept the WWEs "Attitude Era" alive in the TV-14 WCW while Vince and the WWE could still have done their brand split (Since acquiring ECW as well) and could have had a couple stars from WCW jump over and such, but in their at the time new PG environment.

I see it as win-win. You cater to all fans, Since Vince owned both he could have had stars jump shows/brands to still set up the dream matchups everyone wanted to see.

I know this isnt detailed as can be and probably has a bunch of holes im missing, I just wanted to get the thought out there while it was still fresh in the head and im super excited and curious to see what the rest of you IWC can add to the thread with your own ideas, add ons, storylines, characters in the new WCW.

One idea i really liked was John Cena jumping to the TV-14 WCW and FINALLY turning heel and reforming the NWO. John Cena would bring Randy Orton to join, Nash would come back in a manager role and get an NXT upstart like Graves if he wasnt injured/retired. (Fantasy booking 101)

 

[Mudlup50]

But when did they go PG? 2006? They bought WCW in what like 2001-2002? So for 4 years it'd just be another brand...yet they already had Smackdown. So they'd have 3 brands? Or would Smackdown still be Raw Lite? Or would they get rid of Smackdown? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm just trying to think of the flaws of it.

Granted it does seem like a nice idea. I'd love to have a PG Raw and a TV 14 show some other day of the week. I already don't watch Smackdown so it'd be nice to have a show that actually appeals more to me. On the flip side though, it would probably be pretty bad. I could imagine WWE writers screwing up TV 14. Could you imagine a world where they ruin TV 14

 

[TheBadGuy92]

Could you imagine a world where they ruin TV 14

That hit me right in the feels.

But There would still be Raw and Smackdown. WCW would be its own company with one show (Like TNA) they have their own superstars, storylines and titles.

And yeah Smackdown lite. haha.

 

[mcfly2012]

Finally. A question I have asked for years and got its overdue time on here. Not only should Shane be allowed to run WCW back then I also believe Shane would be where HHH is right now on the cusp of running the whole company when Vince is no longer there.

 

[TheBadGuy92]

Finally. A question I have asked for years and got its overdue time on here. Not only should Shane be allowed to run WCW back then I also believe Shane would be where HHH is right now on the cusp of running the whole company when Vince is no longer there.

Could you imagine HHH running WWE and Shance running this version of WCW and Vince having his own Wrestling wars between his son and son-inlaw. They could do stuff like Survivor Series 5 on 5 WWE vs. WCW team HHH vs . team Shane, or just do it one night a year and bring back the Bragging Rights PPV.

 

[Slash-LN]

Internet answer: Vince's ego would never allow that.

Realistic answer: It's quite possible that they didn't want to put the time and effort into finding a new network to air WCW on. Plus a pay per view provider to pick up another set of shows to pick up. It's quite possible they didn't want to pump a bunch of money into a separate brand that most likely the die hard WCW fans that left in the end wouldn't want to stick with a McMahon in charge of.

 

[Cereal Killer]

One reason they're PG is because of the benefit of the company, not because of a particular brand. If one brand was PG and the other were to be TV-14, the company still has that edgy element therefore losing advertisers and sponsors. That there is one of the reasons for the switch. Not only do you have a larger fan base but also a range of people willing to advertise and sponser a family friendly product. Sure, they have shows like Total Divas which are TV-14, but if one of their main products represented edgy content, I'm sure that'd put people off.

 

[FromGlasgow]

I would loved to have seen WCW keep their own seperate brand and had their own show once Vince bought it, Which I thought was the original plan as long as it was kept seperatre with different writers, different wrestlers in different arenas and not just a watered down version of the WWE with the same stuff different day. Looking back maybe have brung in a couple of bigger names like Flair, Goldberg, Sting, Steiner, Hall, Nash or Bischoff etc and not just DDP, Booker T, Mark Jindrak and Billy Kidman, They had plenty of talent at this time to add to the new WCW as ECW had also went out of business around the same time so some guys from there and plus a lot of up and coming new wrestlers such as Cena, Orton, Batista and Lesnar would have filled out the new WCW company quite well.

 

[Mudlup50]

Looking back maybe have brung in a couple of bigger names like Flair, Goldberg, Sting, Steiner, Hall, Nash or Bischoff etc and not just DDP, Booker T, Mark Jindrak and Billy Kidman.

From my understanding of the events the superstars who didn't come over immediately from WCW were milking the money they had left from WCW? Or something like that, I highly doubt Vinces WCW would keep these guys from taking the "paid vacation."

Also don't take that as negative, I'm not criticizing them at all, I'm just saying what I had heard

 

[crazy_lou]

this is not a bad idea. i always thought wwf attitude was much more suiting, and wcw in general was more family friendly. in fact this might have been the plan from the beginning. however, while we may dream, heres a few reasons why I'm pretty sure it didnt happen:

first remember that the reason wcw was up for sale was because it had just had all its programming canceled on turner tv. ted turner was always a big supporter of rasslin', but when the aol time warner merger happened he didn't have as much say. the network execs hated (and still do) wacky russo and his antics and wanted wrestling in general, not just wcw, off their stations. and during the sale, other companies were in the bidding for wcw, but when they realized tv time would have been impossible to secure under the WCW banner simply because its product and ratings had been shitty for such a long time (1999-2001)(looking back WWE, and TNA, programming have been shitty for an even longer time). once tv was out of the question, no other companies had use for wcw without accompanying tv time. thats when WWF and vince swept in because they already had a company and could use the talent, tape library, ect.

now people may say that vince could have used his push to get a wwf backed WCW show, but also keep in mind this was at the worst part of the car wreck that was the XFL, which was getting historically bad ratings at the time on primetime nbc network tv, not even cable. so vince rep was already suffering in the tv world, and even when he purchased wcw, still nobody wanted to touch the WCW product. its a shame really because wcw was such a storied company for so long, its amazing to see how quickly the name became toxic.

 

[sMark]

Vince could register 2 companies at the time, 1 - WWF, 2 - WCW, 1 will be for public more family friendly stuff and sponsors, second for hardcore wrestling fans &things he wanted to do.
The only problem i see here - WCW didn't have enough starpower left in it. Booker T was on Benoit like level and DDP was killed by his feud with Taker, they needed someone like Goldberg or Sting (or better - both of them) to return first.
I think RAW 2002-2003 was their version of WCW pretty much, and it was nowhere near SD at the time.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

This would have been a good idea in theory. But the major problems here were as follows; WCW's established main eventers (many of whom had stopped trying in 1999) were tied in to long term contracts directly with Turner. They were not willing to drop their asking prices and accept a buy out (DDP and Booker T the notable exceptions). WCW no longer had a strong roster, and the credible workers that existed were harmed by Russo's booking in the last year of WCW. When they got to WWF; the WCW brand was weak already because of the aforementioned reasons. Additionally, WWF had spent 6 years of a hostile campaign via the media; WWF magazine, WWF.com, dirtsheets, tv shows, radio shows, WWF Hotline, trashing WCW; the WWF fans would have taken a while to adapt to them being a threat; especially with mostly jobbers and mid carders.

Furthermore, WCW no longer had a TV deal.

In hindsight; what WWF should have done is had Rock turn on Stone Cold and had Shane McMahon run in at WM 17. Rock could have said he was leaving to help Shane start WCW off; then returned at Summerslam 2001 as the WCW representative. Unfortunately, the overkill of booking around WM17 clouded the water; and made everything so hard to keep up with.

Therefore, whoever ran WCW would have had a nightmare. WCW and WWF would have both had to be ran by different leaders with different agendas; both re-established; before it could have led to a promotion war.

In many ways; WCW's demise was to the detriment of everyone who worked in or was a fan of pro wrestling.

 

[bioshock]

PG wasn't an issue in 2001, it wasn't really an issue until Benoit died, and all the head trauma was found, they then pretty well banned all blood and hardcore wrestling in WWE. Then followed all the deals with companies that wanted WWE to be Pg. Like Mattel.

 

[whoopin' ass]

My understanding was that originally Vince wanted to run WCW as a separate company but ran into issues getting a time slot for it which is why they started having WCW matches on wwe tv. Supposedly Vince thought those matches were horrible, that the guys needed to he retrained and that was the end of that. He also couldn't switch one of the existing shows over as deals had been made and no one was going to trade a wwe show for a WCW show. I believe this is pretty accurate but also fed into Vince's ego as once he had trouble getting a show, he could say he was right all along and close down WCW.

As for your idea, it is interesting but I don't know if things would really be any different than they are today. Even if they ran as a seperate organization than Raw/Smackdown, it would still be all wwe Inc. so they probably would have gone PG too. Just look at their version of ECW. Honestly, I don't know if Vince could have run the 2 companies seperately as they needed to be and I don't know if he would have let Shane actually run WCW. And if they were run as 2 different organizations, would guys want to jump over? If Cena was the top dog in wwe, would he want to go join a worn out faction like nWo? The ideas are great and in an alternate universe it would have happened but I think it was never destined to happen.

 

[waylonmercy]

Vince could register 2 companies at the time, 1 - WWF, 2 - WCW, 1 will be for public more family friendly stuff and sponsors, second for hardcore wrestling fans &things he wanted to do.
The only problem i see here - WCW didn't have enough starpower left in it. Booker T was on Benoit like level and DDP was killed by his feud with Taker, they needed someone like Goldberg or Sting (or better - both of them) to return first.
I think RAW 2002-2003 was their version of WCW pretty much, and it was nowhere near SD at the time.

The biggest reason why it wouldn't make sense to run WWE and WCW as two separate companies. WCW with the roster that they had was bleeding tens of millions of dollars. There was no value in WCW with the exception of the tape library which at the time probably wasn't even worth the $10,000,000 i believe they paid for it. Today it makes sense since its great content which bridges a lot of the talent that did join WWE with their past. It allows us to see DVD's of great talent that spent time in WCW. Imagine doing a "Best of Ric Flair" DVD with no WCW content because someone else owned it. It's a lot easier to omit small time companies and re-write history than it is to ignore WCW. Also WCW did not have a lot going for it product wise. nWo was long past it climax and reforming it would not have the same nostalgia, as the wrestling community for the most part would be well aware that WWE owns WCW and the "renegade" nWo "outsiders" faction would never come off the way it did when it first happened. Atleast back when Hall and Nash joined WCW, the Internet was a needle in a haystack whereas the Internet is the haystack.

But let us imagine that WCW became a completely separate entity and say Shane McMahon and Stephanie were operating WCW as the heads of the company. Back then the developmental territories was not operating as efficiently as it is now. It would hurt the product when you split up all the developmental talent and I would imagine you would have to start up another developmental territory since you want them to run as separate entities.

I think the biggest killer in it all is Vince McMahon's ego. God forbid, WCW makes a huge comeback and becomes a bigger draw than WWE to the point where WCW is "the" show to watch for wrestling fans. I just don't see Vince McMahon being the least bit okay with that and it would haunt him.

 

[Mark Henrys Sandwich]

99% of wrestling fans would love to see JR back in some capacity and even if just commentary even if it's just RAW once a week, I'm sure he could handle and would take 5 days of work a month.

That's what they want and I'm sure he wouldn't eat much in to the budget but yet none of that matters to him.

I mean do we really need JBL on Raw AND Smackdown every week, give me a proper wrestling psychologist like Scott Hall, Jake Roberts or Dusty Rhodes.

You have the Rhodes brothers and yet they never bother to bring in Dusty to add to it, Nattie has been there forever not even a cameo with her from Jim, when she is in a title match have him in the front row to add to the emotion.

Nikki is heel, John is babyface yet we're all idiots who aren't allowed to see an interaction between them two even though it is thrown in our face every week on E! not that I watch it.

Remember they originally brought Lesnar back without Heyman, they were forced even though they didn't want him, yet he got over with all the diehard fans and has been since he has been back, we would never have see him otherwise if it wasn't for Brock insisting.