What If... WWE Never Bought Out WCW?

[MisterRob]

What If... WWE Never Bought Out WCW? "what if" is in the name of the thread. If there was or is some sort of limitation to the "what if". i am sincerely
sorry.

This threads "what if" is based off the REALITY of the situation WCW was in when WWE bought them out. If WWE didn't buy them out, they still would've been in that same REALITY, not a make believe world where their financial problems and business problems were magically gone or different. That's the point. The thread is a what if, but its still based on the reality of what could've been possible giving the situation.. and the situation was WCW had no chance to survive as the promotion they WERE, keep a television contract, etc.

 

[twisterwrw929]

If Vince McMahon never bought WCW, AOL/Time Warner would have still gotten rid of it some how. They still would have pulled WCW Nitro and Thunder off of TNT and TBS. I think Eric Bischoff would have come back with Fuscient Media or another company and made another offer to buy WCW and I think it would have worked.

From there... who knows what would have happened. Obviously like some of you have said here I don't think wrestlers like DDP, Booker T, Steiner, Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Flair, Mysterio, etc. would have jumped to the WWF. I think Bischoff would have found another channel to put WCW on quite easily since really back in 2001 wrestling was still very popular and he could have probably gotten on the USA Network which would have been huge.

Eric Bischoff would have then probably gone through with his original idea (like he wrote in his book) and WCW would have been off the air for a while with a relaunch date booked. He would have probably gone through this his plan to build an arena in Las Vegas (WCW was always big there for some reason) and hold all TV tapings and most PPVs there while they re-establish the WCW brand. I'm not sure who would have re-signed with Bischoff's new WCW. I'm sure he could have probably gotten Hogan, Hall, Nash, Sting, Flair, DDP, Jarrett, Piper and others. I think he also learned from his booking mistakes and would have gone back to booking WCW like he did when they were on top (from '96-'98) which would have meant to build a new cruiserweight division. I think we would have seen more wrestlers from Japan, Mexico, etc. come to WCW. The new WCW would have probably been built around Goldberg, Scott Steiner, and Booker T with Jeff Jarrett, Vampiro, Rey Mysterio, Kidman, Konnan all getting pushed. I think Hogan, Flair, Sting, Luger, Hall, Nash and DDP would have still been used a lot but not as much as they had been before with Bischoff. I don't think any of them (besides Hogan and maybe Sting) would have had more runs with the title.

I believe there is a chance that WCW could have went on at least a little longer if Bischoff bought the company and then found a tv deal. But then he would have had another problem would be the salaries of the wrestlers. Bischoff was able to get a lot of the guys he had because of Ted Turner's money, so for how long would he be able to keep the guys he had before it was too much money for him. I'm sure Bischoff could have also partnered up with someone to own the company, and maybe that would help pay for some of the ridiculous salaries, but chances are it still wouldn't come close to what Ted Turner had. So I believe after a while that he would have lost most of his top guys, and it would be nearly impossible to compete with the WWE who was already had higher ratings and more fans at that point.

 

[therealbrandonhoward]

Well, we can go on with the technicalities of why WCW was bought out in the first place...but I want to try to create a hypothetical situation...an alternative if you will.

Instead of AOL/Time Warner selling to Vince McMahon, what if Bischoff got a group of people together...instead of a corporation...to help fund WCW? Fact is, WCW was cutting costs at it's last legs...hence why it was bad TV. No one cared anymore.

Here's a scenario:

1) Bischoff gets a group together with a lot of money behind it, someone like Mark Cuban or the Maloof bros. for example. They all decide it's a worthy investment to try to reinvent WCW. Cuban and the Maloof's give Bischoff full creative control, make him head of WCW, with Cuban and the Maloof's as chairmen.

2) They renegotiate contracts. The main reason for the downfall of WCW was the stupid contracts of people like Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan. NO GUARANTEED MONEY. In reality, signing someone like Hulk Hogan could be farfetched...because he'd demand too much and make the program stale. I mean, he'd never put anyone over. Keep mainstays like Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Sting, Ric Flair, Booker T, Jeff Jarrett, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and most of the cruiserweights and then get rid of the big contracts. Want writing? Have Fererra, Russo, and try to snag a few from WWF/E.

3) Go on hiatus. Make the final show into a 'season finale' and take off for a few months to resurface in the fall. See, that would make WCW's impact more awesome because people would be tired of WWE's programming and want something new and fresh. WCW would have that momentum and would have to have interesting storylines and angles to keep people hooked.

4) Sign a huge free agent. During the off season, someone's contract could be coming up. We'll say...Kurt Angle...for arguments sake. Fact is, Angle was HUGE back in 2001, 2002. Landing Angle would be huge...or any of the major WWF/E players to 'shake things up'. Simple as that.

5) Branching out. Like the WWE...if the WCW was able to do other things besides wrestling, like...producing reality TV shows...it'd make the WCW able to go public on the NYSE. It doesn't have to be WCW Inc., just call it something else and WCW would be a part of that entity. A second source of income would be great to help pay for contracts and enable the WCW to continue in arenas across the country.

6) Find a headquarters. WWE's out of Stamford, Conn... a rather wealthy part of the country. Bischoff, Cuban, and the Maloof's should build studios in Las Vegas. Have a corporate building with studios for wrestling and other things. It would make things more professional if there was a place to have meetings instead of at the arena when something goes bad.

7) Hope and pray. With some reasonable financial backing, and some great competition, the WWE and WCW wars would be off the chain.

It'd challenge each entity to be more creative and more entertaining. Let the people choose. It still may end up the same way, but at least it'd be more entertaining than what we have now.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Yeah I agree that they could have worked out deals with some of those guys. I think Hogan especially. With Bischoff actually in charge this time and him having the final say so I would have liked to see what he could have done with Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara since it was Vince McMahon who really helped them. I think Bischoff could have probably done the same and took their real good ideas and make them work like the Powers that Be and the New Blood.

But yeah if Bischoff were to have bought WCW and found a TV deal he would have really had to make it a point to push the new guys. Goldberg, Booker T, Vampiro, Jarrett, etc. would have to be the wrestlers they built around.

 

[AngryGrandpa]

I think if WWE never bought WCW we'd still be where we are right now... Bischoff claims that had he bought WCW when it was offered everything would be different.. But common Bischoff.. You're the reason it had to be sold in the first place..

Do you really think with a MILLIONAIRE backing it now, that it's going to show success? No.... Because all he did was push the old guys...

Like TNA is doing now..

but that's off topic..

I think if WWE would have avoided the purchase...Then the only thing different, would be there woulda been no invasion, no mcmahon vs mcmahon at mania 17 and of course..No wcw inclusions on wwe 24/7 and dvd releases lol