What if Vince revived WCW...

[nbieclkl91]

Title says it all folks. The big question here is what if Vincent Kennedy McMahon had revived World Championship Wrestling instead of Extreme Championship Wrestling? I'm talking about is instead of ECW One Night Stand in 2005, what if it was WCW One Night Stand and then eventually the WWE version of WCW?!

1. Would it have worked?
2. Who would they originals be?
3. If it worked, would it still be running today?

I'll answer my own question first.

1. I do think it would work mainly because WCW was very popular and at one point, WWE's biggest competition. I believe if Vince maybe brought Nitro back, they could've ran with it. "WWE Nitro" does have a nice ring to it.

2. The WCW originals who I think would've come back or moved to the show would be...
Eric Bischoff (GM)
Booker T
Chris Benoit (when he was alive)
Chris Jericho
Goldust
Ric Flair
Ron Simmons
Alot of smaller names would've been there at the start just to fill the card for WCW One Night Stand.

3. I do think it would be running today because I think it would've taken Smackdown's place as the number 2 show. Look at it this way...

WCW "invades" WWE again and claims they want their title back (World Heavyweight Title). They start a fued (just like ECW did) culminating in the WCW One Night Stand PPV. Then eventually, Eric Bischoff would've challenged Vince to a winner gets the title match at a ppv (let's say Jericho represents WCW against the World Champ). WCW wins and thus takes the World title back. They then say that because they have the title, they are taking over Smackdown! and thus renaming it, WWE Friday Night Nitro! The name sticks and eventually the fued ends but we are left with RAW and Nitro as the 2 main shows.

This is just an idea but I think it could work. Let me know what you think.

 

[triple_b2k]

Interesting theory but a huge longshot. As you mentioned, WCW was WWE's biggest competition. Vince bought it and buried it pretty quickly. The invasion was pretty poor and went away relatively quickly. It was only done because the fans wanted it. In Vince's eyes, WCW probably stayed around longer than it should have. He probably wanted it dead the day he bought it.

Anyway back on topic, WCW revival could have been fun. Back in the day, it was more about wrestling than WWE's entertainment. Bringing back guys like The Steiner Brothers, Goldberg, DDP, maybe even Vader would be a big seller to some. Bringing ECW back was fun and all, but WCW would have had a bigger draw. I know there must be a lot of WCW fans that turned off wrestling the day Nitro went off the air. Many didn't jump ship to the WWE. Bring back WCW for one night, even prolonging it for another few years would have been way smarter than ECW.

As I said before, Vince wouldn't allow it. He bought out and destroyed his biggest competition. That's something few business men and women can say. Bringing it back even for one night would never happen, and that's sad because that's one of the few PPV's I would think about buying.

 

[nbieclkl91]

Do you find it odd though now that the WCW arena is available as a DLC in svr 2011 and with this years Wrestlemania being in Atlanta, could we possibly see the long awaited Revival of WCW?

 

[realoldskoolfan]

same thing that happened to ECW. he would have made it a Vince version and it would have sucked. kinda like Stan Lee writing Dc Comics characters. just doesn't work.

 

[steven87gill]

Do you find it odd though now that the WCW arena is available as a DLC in svr 2011 and with this years Wrestlemania being in Atlanta, could we possibly see the long awaited Revival of WCW?

It's not out of the realms of possibility, Vince only 'buried' WCW because of the poor reception the Buff Bagwell Booker T match got in Takoma back in 2001, i think he jumped the gun to be honest. And actually before that i think the plan was to revive WCW as a brand presumably taking over one of the weekly shows (WCW raw maybe?)

 

[Kosugi19]

Love the idea. Instead of friday night Smackdown Friday night Nitro!!! Give the show a new look and new feel that show actually needs it.

Definately bring more of the FCW guys on board for the show.

I would definately have Mysterio,Big Show,Booker T,Rhodes,Goldust,

I think this is a brilliant idea sir!

 

[Chris Jericho Markaholic]

1. Yesss Of Courseee And I Think WWE would Have Pushed The Right WCW stars, On A Thursday Or Friday Night Nitro

2.Originals Would Have Been Jericho, Benoit, Booker , Ric Flair,Big Show,Goldust,DDP,NWO, Horsemen, Jarett , Goldberg.

3. Yes Because It Would Have Been A Way Bigger Draw Than ECW And Would Have Kept The Remaining WCW Fanbase Watching

 

[The Wolf]

I had to laugh when I first started to read this post because recently I have been thinking with VKM not wanting to acknowledge TNA what better way to get rid of them with out giving them credit then have Shane "sell" WCW and have the wrestlers who jumped ship start attacking WWE on both shows but more SmackDown for the same reason as above the title. Eventually taking over SmackDown and changing it to Nitro

 

[eezy1]

if it happened it would be a repeat of vins attempt at reviving ECW. theres only 1 way wcw couldve been saved and thats if bischoff and his investors bought it before mcmahon did. it would need to be owned/run by someone with no ties to wwe. come on guys we want REAL rival factions when it comes to wrestling companies.

 

[Tech N9ne]

Anything is possible. They revived ECW and it was quite a different company under McMahon's control. So, it truly made no sense. Except for the lack of talent on ECW, it was basically the exact same as any other WWE Produced show. It would have been a little different if ECW stayed Extreme and was an alternative on Tuesday Nights, compared to the rest of WWE's product.

Sadly, it wasn't though. It was really nothing at all, besides a place for the younger talent, and a spot to put veterans that deserved a push or title but they weren't exactly sure what to do with. Christian, William Regal, etc...

I don't really see how it could be revived. It would basically be WWE but they would be saying, "HEY, this is WCW". A themed HOF or something along those lines would be great. But other than that, I just do NOT see the point.

WCW had the same idea and same purpose as WWE did. There was not anything different about the WCW product that would warrant a resurrection.

 

[TUFFY54]

I don't think it would have worked. The ECW one night stand worked because they were so different. During the Monday Night Wars WWE and WCW were like coke and pepsi. The looked the same. Big arena, good production, and thousands of fans. ECW was small, dirty, and had a small and rabid fan base. I seriously doubt that they could have found 15,000 old WCW fans to fill an arena. Remember, there were only about 1,500 people at the ECW show. Another problem is with the WCW guys you mentioned. Sure, you had Jericho, Flair, Giant, Beniot, and Booker, but they were the same guys that they were in WCW. When an ECW guy went to the big leagues they completely tonned them down. One Night Stand gave the fans to see how great they used to be. In WCW wrestlers case, they were already better and more intense than they used to be in WCW. There would also be problems with getting the big names. Without Sting, Lugar, Nash, Hall, Hogan, Savage, Goldberg, DDP, and guys like Tony Schiavoni and Mike Tenay anouncing, the show would feel like a ripoff. I just don't think it would have worked.

 

[Tha Wolfpac]

Just like ECW it will be something on borrowed time. ECW started of well and felt almost like the original ECW until Vince made it his own and watered it down to be a shadow of its former self. The same would happen to WCW, although very possible Vince wouldn't be able to swallow his ego and market it as an alternative competitive third brand so i see no point in reviving something that died because it became stale, boring and overrated.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

WWe did revive WCW - they just didn't name it as such. Smackdown at one stage was dominated by ex Atlanta boys and it had Flair's World title as well as the US belt and the Cruiserweight Belt (if everyone remembers correctly - the WWF version was the Light Heavyweight Belt). All that was missing was the WCW commentators and when big named WCW alumni came in, they started on the 'A show' Raw.

If I remember correctly (possibly KB/ some of the mods or older fans can help out here), Smackdown was ear marked to be WCW's show. But the Invasion angle ran out of steam so quickly that Vince didn't feel WCW was a strong enough brand name. So, he pretty much went with his plans, he just didn't give a WCW name to Smackdown.