What would of happened to WCW if Bischoff bought it?

[michael.foulds]

Now, most of us know that the only reason WWE bought WCW was because Bischoff's consortium backed out at the last minute.

So my title for this thread is pretty self explanatory, what would of happened if Bischoff bought WCW? Do you think the Monday Night Wars would still be happening? Do you think they would of closed down anyway? Which wrestlers do you think they'd have?

Personally, I think Bischoff could of saved them. If he got rid of Russo that is. The end of WCW was one of the best things for Russo as it turned him Christian and made him think things through if I remember correctly. With Russo gone, Bischoff could of brought all the stars that weren't being used back to the roster, like Goldberg, Sting, Flair and Hogan. He could of turned WCW around but I don't know for how long because without Ted Turner's backing, they couldn't offer these big money contracts anymore, so I think the stars would of eventually left for the WWE anyway, which would of eventually seen the death of WCW. So I think WCW would of lasted longer, but only extended its life by a year or 2, not a substantial time.

Your thoughts?

Edit: Should be have happened not of happened my bad

 

[Layne1976]

Somehow the promotion would have lasted on a much smaller scale. They would have lost a huge portion of their television coverage (No Monday Nitro, Thunder, etc.) and would have to take whatever television contract would be offered to them. There would have been less touring and WCW would be taped from a single location.

In other words, it would have become the business model for TNA.

 

[MrHashasheen]

In other words, it would have become the business model for TNA.

Correction, it would have been TNA on Fox circa 2004. They still had Worldwide, and getting deal with a network was still on the table. As for their roster, here's what I know:

Goldberg
Kevin Nash
Booker T
Scott Steiner
Rick Steiner
Buff Bagwell
Lex Luger
Bam Bam Bigelow
Jeff Jarrett
Ric Flair
Sting
Diamond Dallas Page
Mike Awesome
Sean O' Haire
Chuck Palumbo
Shawn Stasiak
Chris Kanyon
Lance Storm
Dustin Rhodes
Shane Helms
Shannon Moore
Jamie Noble
Billy Kidman
Rey Mysterio Jr.
Prime Time Elix Skipper
Ice Train
Kid Romeo
EZ Money
The Cat
Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Big Vito
Mr. Above Average Mike Sanders
Disco Inferno
Alex Wright
Devon Storm
Mark Jindrak
Konnan
Animal
Hugh Morrus
The Wall
Kronik
Alan Funk
Evan Karagias

Plus the following were either working spots or close to inking permanent deals -

Kid Kash
AJ Styles
Air Paris
Rob Van Dam
Tommy Dreamer
Steve Corino
Christopher Daniels
Michael Modest

That's a pretty decent roster, isn't it?

If WCW had decent booking, they might have lasted until this very day. But they didn't, and wouldn't under Eric Bischoff. He would have blown the Fusient Media money and killed WCW after two, three years.

 

[amyshpyrate]

I think they would have found a tv spot, they were still getting decent ratings towards the end. However, I thought I read somewhere that alot of the bigger stars contracts were with aol-time warner and not with wcw. So I don't know if that would have effected the roster at all. If wcw wasn't owned by aol-timewarner, some wrestlers wouldn't have to work with the company if they didn't want to. However, alot of the wrestlers were loyal to wcw, so they probably would have come along, however you never know.....

 

[FlairFan2003]

Well, without Ted Turner's backing, would Fusient Media have been able to pay any money ? Goldberg was MIA because he was sick of the product at this point, same with Sting. Hogan and Nash were always about making money, if they couldn't get paid what they wanted they wouldn't have worked, especially Hogan, back then his name still meant somethig as in in ring draw, he wouldn't have damaged that working with a roster of unknowns and mid carders while being paid far less money.

At that point without those guys you're down to DDP, Booker T, Steiner, and Flair as your main event caliber stars, and quite frankly you're stretching it by saying DDP and Booker are in that category. Steiner was a toxic explosion waiting to happen, no one can say if he would have stayed or tried to bolt for WWE, especially since he didn't get along with McMahon. Flair wouldn't have worked for Bischoff again, and Bischoff probably wouldn't have wanted him anyway. That leaves DDP and Booker as the most reliable name guys you could count on who might be willing to take a pay cut and work their butt off for you. I don't like the odds.

Chances are they wouldn't have lasted more than a year. Plus, while Bischoff had some cosiderable success when in charge of booking, most of his best stories were taken from others (The NWO story was already playing out in Japan, Flair/Vader was based on the popularity of George Foreman's heavyweight title quest in boxing and benefited from another aging athleet, Joe Montana, returning to his sport after a near two year absence and nearly winning another title). Bischoff got a lot of mileage out of major stars created and made successful by either Jim Crockett JR (Flair, Sting, Luger, Steiners) and Vince McMahon (Hogan, Savage, Hall, Nash, Henning). Other than Goldberg it's hard to think of anyone who achieved superstar status BY working for Bischoff, not before. That leads me to believe that he would have failed quickly if he had bought WCW.

 

[WhatchaGonna Do]

First of all michael, it "What woudl HAVE happened", not "of". OK, the teacher in me is done! LOL I think Easy E would have somehow found a way of destroying WCW. He had ONE idea and that's it. After the NWO angle (and he screwed that up, too!), he had nothing new in the way of ideas, except trying to shock us with the laest WWF/E addition to WCW. Eric is extremely overrated!

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

After reading Bischoff's book, it seems he wanted the deal to go through, and the collapse of the deal wasnt down to him personally.

I think WCW would have survived but on a much smaller scale out of necessity. It would have rented 1 location and produced 1 TV show a week from there. It would not be a competitive rival for WWE, but I do believe that Bisch could have kept it running successfully and maybe by now WCW could have risen again and become a credible challenger to WWE once more.

Alot of the roster would probably have deserted to WWE though, due to financial reason, but with alot of the young talent WCW had at the time, and the loyal wrestlers like Booker T, DDP, Flair and Sting, I think they would have kept a few marquee names and then signed up alot of the young talent on long term deals to produce the next generation of stars like O'Haire, Kidman, Rey, Palumbo and Shannon Moore

 

[mulkeymania]

im not so sure bischoff even thinks of the concept of younger stars--just look at WCW having chris benoit,eddie guerrero,rey mysterio,chris jericho,etc and he screwed that up and it folded even with turners money and IMO the biggest blame lays on bischoffs shoulders. its also amazing when you think of the wrestling minds he had at his disposal like bobby heenan,mike tenay,dusty rhodes,ric flair,arn anderson,etc and was too proud or arrogant to use them when that was also another benefit as well as the youngsters he had.

 

[realoldskoolfan]

agree with above poster. Bischoff has no clue about the wrestling side of the industry. hes a great businessman and marketer, but knows nothing about wrestling. he has always hung on Hogans coat tails, which probaly isn't the best horse to hook your cart up too. look at whats going on in TNA now. the guy is a one trick pony, and hes beaten that pony to death. the young talent would have left and he would have had an old, aging roster that was past its prime.