Why wcw was sold

Heck, they even went so far as to start a faction of an nWo type of spinoff - the Latino World Order.

But that's not all WCW tried. And it was a complete disaster. The man who Eric Bischoff had cut the deal with, Mexican wrestling promoter Paco Alonso had backed out of the deal just before the first taping of the show and made a headache for WCW. This was war however and both companies needed all hands on deck to win the battle for ratings supremacy. But this massive roster could bite you in the ass if you were the idiotic Neanderthal in charge of travel for WCW.

Get this; despite only using maybe wrestlers per show, the promotion would purchase plane tickets for the ENTIRE roster. Yes, since WCW had literally hundreds of wrestlers under contract, the company would buy tickets for dozens of wrestlers who would never use them. This finally stopped in , one of the only smart decisions they made that year.

Who is that child that with his arms stretched out in the middle of the ring? Why it's Rey Mysterio of course. For some reason, Eric Bischoff thought that Rey Mysterio was more marketable without his superhero outfit than with it. This of course cut all his merchandise sales tremendously as his masks could no longer be sold. This likely cost hundreds of thousands dollars in merchandise sales and caused all kinds of problems for Mysterio's reputation in Mexico.

Mike Awesome may not have the same name cache as some other ECW performers, but in his time he was a big deal to the promotion and held their World Championship in late up until spring Correction; they did nothing of value with him. Despite paying a six figure settlement to ECW just to get Awesome out of his contract, Awesome was brought to WCW and given a pair of gimmicks that cannot by any stretch of the imagination be designed to draw money. Wow, that settlement was worth it. The UFC wasn't always the global powerhouse it is now.

It used to be just an underground cult league that was considered too low brow by the mainstream sports world. It should be noted Abbott had absolutely zero pro wrestling experience before being signed to this massive deal. Sure he was a somewhat charismatic personality and had a reputation for being a tough man, so naturally the company put him in a comedy angle with boy band stable Three Count near the end of his run. The school took just about anyone if they looked the part, as they needed new stars big time.

So, indy wrestlers and athletes from all over went in to the school hoping for a WCW career. A lot of the time, WCW execs or wrestlers would see someone they felt could be big, and would hire them, and send them to the Plant. Some just showed up, those who weren't scouted and hired, and had to pay to train there. Goldberg, who was probably the most popular graduate, said he blamed his short career on the Power Plant, saying: "I don't think it was a priority to protect your opponent.

He said that because the new stars like himself who came in were careless in the ring and had to be carried by other stars. The Giant, who we know now as The Big Show, said in his recent DVD release, that the Power Plant taught him basic skills, but he realized that he had to be carried in matches.

But the thing was, it was OK at that point. They didn't care. When he arrived in WWE, he said it was a complete , he had to actually know how to wrestle. He was put on the rise quickly in WCW because they needed to develop stars for the future. This is why we went from seeing former big stars, to random guys no one ever heard of, winning all sorts of titles. This is the about the same time Sting got a gimmick change, Booker T got bigger and Rey Mysterio made his impact. EB wanted the Cruiserweight division to be big, so, he went out and hired guys from around the world to add International flair.

People such as Jushin Liger made his mark during this time. So, neither really lost a lot back then. But, it was the competition that made these two companies do crazy things.

While the NWO was great at the time, even those internally thought it lasted 6 months too long. Bischoff then saw contract after contract expiring. So, he kept asking for money to re-sign these men and women.

Creative plans were being pitched for top-tier, contracted competitors like Goldberg. A president and CEO were in place and they had fresh ideas for how to right the ship. In fact, a new battle was about to begin, and The Big Bang marked the opening shot.

What went wrong? The answer was clear from the very beginning. They knew plenty about how to brand a sports property to great success. It never progressed to the point of making an offer, but we got very close. But major changes needed to be made to the brand with the pending marriage between WCW and Fusient. The couple even had a honeymoon spot picked out.

No longer under the Turner umbrella, aside from the TV shows continuing to appear on Turner networks, the Atlanta-based promotion was heading west. That played a major part in a move to Vegas. That was very true with WCW.

We knew we were having a problem. In early , mere days before WrestleMania 17, Vince McMahon took the wrestling world by surprise when he announced that he had bought off his competition. Over the next several years, Vince kept on bringing in former WCW stars to his company.

Regarded as an underrated Cruiserweight by many fans, La Parka is best known for his incredibly unique outfit that resembled a skeleton. Even though he had some quality matches in WCW, La Parka never managed to win the Cruiserweight title during his stint in the company. He was given the nickname of "Chairman of the Board" because of him using chairs in his matches and during his entrances as well.

He remained active on the independent scene though, and also had stints in AAA.