On the bright side, Kevin, you seem to have a pretty stable job now, and it doesn't seem to be something you dislike at all. Plus, even if it was only for a short period, you got to live out a dream of yours.

It really wasn't much of a surprise that the WWF won the Monday Night Wars. The WWf had the members of the clique who were more creative and more knowlegeable about the business in Shawn Michaels and Triple H. Proof of that was that the WWF was able to make main event stars out of WCW mid-carders like Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Mick Foley. WCW also made a huge mistake by hiring Vince Russo as their booker. He was a decent idea guy, he just didn't know how to make cohesive storylines out of those ideas, and needed someone like Vince McMahon supervising him and letting Russo know when an idea was a bad idea. I can think of only one guy who was worse as a head booker. That would be David McLane of GLOW and WOW fame.

As much as Vince get credit for a lot of what goes on in wrestling, it was actually the NWA/WCW that was the trend setter. Vince broke the old territories with national television, but the other promotions had better wrestling products.

Always appreciate that moment, Kevin... It is priceless!

Very thoughtful---and an interesting insider's account of the end of direct conflict in the Monday Night Wars. The surrender and capitulation of WCW, with the accompanying human cost that perhaps many fans don't take the time to think about.
Of course, we still have the wrestlers from that era attempting to relive past glory by usurping their respective company's on-air time---but that's another issue, and an expected fallout of any way-metaphorical or literal.
I mostly just wanted to say that I enjoyed this post, and that I thank you for sharing something that provides for the reader a personal historical context to a very interesting time in wrestling that still reverberates today.

I was never a fan of WCW/Nitro and generally considered it to always be an inferior product but there in no denying the competition was good for business. Pro Wrestling nose dived in popularity after that IMO

wow its a nice post !

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Kev. Now, on to more important things. I was shocked by the ending to Smackdown, Friday night. I was totally expecting Teddy Long to come out and say something like since Christian had now defeated DelRio two times in a row, he was the new number one contender. And, while he couldn't remove DelRio from the title match, he could add Christian, therefore, making it a three way. However, that never happened, but you already know that! Meanwhile, Christian is still on the outside, looking in at WrestleMania!

Yes, you lost your dream job. But thankfully for us, you ended up finding your true purpose in life by writing the best wrestling column, period.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Thanks for the kind words.

Well written Eck, and your loss was our gain. Well except for your Raven loving, but I always get past that! Seriously though, you are a very talented journalist!

Happy (!?) Anniversary. As a wrestling fan, even one who was much more of a WWF/WWE fan than WCW, the end of Nitro and WCW was surreal and bittersweet. I can only imagine how it felt for an insider like yourself. To lose a dream job like that must have been really tough. But like others have said, their loss is Baltimore's gain! The blog is great and keep up the good work!

Even with great sadness at the end of WCW, from an outsider's perspective, it felt more like putting a dying animal out of it's suffering and misery. I always wondered what the "insiders" at WCW thought about the last days and months of WCW, and I'd love to hear what you thought, if you saw it coming. Obviously, you didn't want to lose your job, but as a wrestling fan, did people even think it deserved to survive? It is quite possible WCW, if given time and new direction may have somehow survived and flourished all-over-again, but it sure didn't feel like it. It's hard to recall a worse 2 year stretch for a mainstream wrestling promotion than WCW had from mid'99ish-to-march2001. Coupled with the fact those were some of WWF/E's best years it just felt like it had permanently ruined the WCW brand and company's future prospects.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Trust me, I and other WCW employees knew the product was bad. When I interviewed Jim Cornette last year, he remarked how most people in TNA roll their eyes at Vince Russo behind his back. We were all doing the same thing 10 years ago. I always believed -- perhaps naively -- that WCW could turn things around with a new people in charge of creative.

I pitched to my boss that I should become our paper's WWE/NBA/UFC blogger. All it would require was for them to pay for all the PPVs and NBA TV, and send me to Wrestlemania, the NBA finals and a major UFC event. It was declined. Does the Baltimore Sun pay for all your PPVs?

As much as people love to pull out the "its WCW all over again..." schtick when something is terrible on WWE or TNA, it really isn't true. I agree that WCW and the stuff they did on Nitro is what set the bar for the era that we miss so much now. For all the old guys hogging the main event, that first hour of Nitro was the best wrestling you'd see on TV. Two things primarily led to the demise of WCW...

1. Ted Turner/AOL. The new regime did not value the WCW product, despite its ratings success. I actually know someone who worked closely with Ted in a non wrestling venture, and he said Turner definitely underestimated how much he'd miss being the head honcho competing with the other networks and in a big way, Vince.

2. The "savior" Vince Russo. The damage he did, and in such a short time frame alienated not only some of the company's most valuable contributors but I don't think it can be understated how many fans were driven away by the David Arquette stuff. This was also the rise to booking power for guys like Jarrett who would spend years trying to book themselves into Hogan/Austin/Rock status thinking they could just force it. Personally as well after Russo rose to power, he took the "real life" stuff that was once very refreshing & exciting and really just took away the suspension of disbelief by airing entirely too much dirty laundry and stuff that emphasized the contrived/staged aspect of the product, which he continues today in TNA.

I know it was cool to be actually working for a real promotion, but eventually, I bet you would of tired of writing kayfabe fluff pieces about why Sting and Flair didn't like each other. Or how DID Scott Steiner get so big?
This format is much better, because it allows you to write like an adult and articulate why you (and by extension us) care for it.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Actually, I took the magazine in a new direction while I was there. We did a lot of out of character stuff. Some of the old-timers hated it, but at that time, wrestling was open about being entertainment and I didn't think we should insult anyone's intelligence. One of the thing I did in every issue was an in-depth Q&A that were much like the interviews I do here.

I sure do miss those feuds Raw and Nitro that was when wrestling was at its best during the Attitude era Tony Shivony still lives in Georgia he is on radio in Atlanta .

I remember that show having a lot of good wrestling. I remember a match for the newly created cruiserweight tag title involving Rey Mysterio and Konnan. Forgot who they was the other team. The Sting/Flair match wasn't up to the high standard that they had set years before, but it was an appropriate swan song. I think the only bad match involved Bam Bam Bigelow (I think) with a dumb finish that assumed that the WWE was going to carry the storyline (and the wrestlers involved) over to Raw.

RESPONSE FROM KE: It was Mysterio and Billy Kidman, and they wrestled Elix Skipper and Kid romeo.

It's sad looking back as a WWF fan i was laughing at WCW now looking at what Vince has done to wrestling i look back longing for a WCW to kick him in the ar$e and make he get back to wrestling not gimmicks that suck and jobber to the stars who are bearly passable in the ring and suck on the mike (Wate of spaCe-na / pizz) as champion.
O what a death nail the end of WCW was. TNA have the better product and wrestlers but WWE has brain washed kids to think there trip is wrestling and this will end up finally killing all wrestling yes even ROH

Very few people get to work their dream job, and I know that you are grateful for that experience. And now you have the best wrestling blog on the net. Hopefully you will get a paying gig in the wrestling business again.

As much as it hurt the business not to have a WCW in the mix, I can't imagine a happy ending had Bischoff managed to secure his deal. In my view, the 'brilliant' thinking he and Hogan brought to TNA would've only sullied WCW further before it's eventual demise.

Kev also just wanted to mention, last week I watched Bret Hart's "Wrestling WIth Shadows" for the first time since it came out and there was one scene early on that I think captured the essence of Vince Russo perfectly. There is a scene early on where Bret & Anvil are running thru some stuff Anvil should hit on the mic during what I assume was a promo they were shooting in a bit. Out of no where comes Vince Russo who just starts standing with them and doing a terrible job of making it look like he was naturally just there, it was so obvious he was trying to get on camera, just standing there like he was working with Hart on something but Hart never came close to even acknowledging him. I never noticed it then because I likely had no clue who Russo even was at the time, but it was just pre-attitude era and you could just see what was awaiting us, a self important ladder climber that would use being in the right place at the right time as a lift to power.

There is no new info, no fresh perspective. What was the point of this article? It seems like a copy and paste job off wikipedia.

Wcw from about the mid to late 90's had the absolute best characters and story lines. Goldberg, kevin nash, hogan, scott hall, sting, ddp. It should still be around! But because of poor management it ended.

Mcmahon and wwe absolutely suck now. Its all a joke all they do is run their mouths and have really really crappy characters. Wrestling is over and im sad to say it. I will always miss The good days of Wcw

Hey Kevin, was Russo around that night? If he was, I'm curious as to what his state of mind was. I would think that just about the first thing McMahon would do after buying WCW was get rid of Russo.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Russo wasn't there. He had been at home for months claiming that he had post-concussion syndrome after taking a bump from Goldberg.

Boy, was I a WCW fanatic back in the day... as a viewer, I was sad to see it come to the end, as I knew the landscape was going to change forever, though now there are definitely times I wish it was still around. Buuuuut on to the present...

I forget how I stumbled on to your blog, it was about a year ago I think, I'm sure I was looking for something TNA related.. I am so glad I did, because you do a fantastic job and write some of the most insightful, non-biased reviews and articles around. Hands down the best wrestling blog on the internet. You even got me interested in WWE again! A definite daily read! Keep up the good work, Kev!

The competition between WCW and the WWE was ultimately beneficial for fans because it improved the quality of the product on both ends.

Endless squash matches with stars vs. enhancement talents were replaced by a great deal of house show quality work, on TV each week, at both companies. And in the case of the WWE, and now TNA, that appears to be a lasting legacy.

I watched WCW 1994-1999, and a little bit from 1999-2001. I'm glad I've been able to see the shows from 2000 on Youtube (MrWCW2000 has every Nitro, Thunder, and PPV up through July on his channel and is going in order so he has a few more months to go). I was surprised to see an article on pwinsider.com about this column, but keep up the good work! I love reading this column!

I'm always amazed to see the people who come out and say "WCW was ready to be put down" because the exact same thing could be said about the WWE product not only currently, but repeatedly over the last decade since WCW's demise. WCW was never ready to be put down and arguably, creatively was on a pretty good uptick when WCW closed it's doors.

The real story is what the heck was going on internally at AOL/TW to make them cancel one of their highest rated shows. It made no sense whatsoever. Selling WCW? Sure... Okay I get that.

But the fact that they canceled WCW programming, is mind boggling. Then in doing so, they sold the property to WWE for pennies.

Meanwhile, just days prior, WCW was worth close to $100 million and they had a buyer. Incredible really. I suspect given that one of the men responsible for pulling the plug on WCW and selling it to WWE for pennies, was an old friend of Linda McMahon, had a lot to do with it. Backdoor, probably illegal, schenanigans.

Par for the course, given the subjects though. Too bad. At least TNA has been able to fill a fair amount of the void, all the while establishing stronger international TV deals and avoiding most of the major WCW mistakes. Despite what halfbaked WWE marks may think otherwise.

WCW most certainly was ready to be put down. It's quite simple: if you make money, then business is good; if you lose money by the ten million, then business is bad. As for ratings, Nitro's numbers from back then would be strong in today's market, but by the standards of a decade ago, they were pretty weak. Eric Bischoff tried to strike a deal with other networks, but all of them turned him down. Thus, Fusient Media Ventures, whose investment Bischoff was counting on, dismissed WCW as a lost cause and pulled out, leaving the company with very little other than a very low price tag. Bischoff himself has explained that the company wasn't worth anything without a TV deal. That, not a conspriacy, was why WWE was able to purchase WCW at a clearance-bin price.

I love your work mate. In fact, I often use your blog to validate my arguments during heated wrestling debates with friends. For example, "But Kevin Eck also thinks Sheamus is a mid carder" or "Well Eck reckons Christian should get a Main Event run as well." Keep it coming brother.

Russo was out for months claiming he had post concussion syndrome? Hah. How could you tell? The man was already a dizzy loon.

Seriously though I think he gave everyone around him post concussion syndrome because from what I hear he has always and continues to make everyone around him sick.

Just had to weigh back in on this one, as it produced some interesting thoughts by fellow commenters.
I know Mr. Eck is a student of wrestling history, and that a majority of the more modern audience are more casual or young enough that the era of the Monday Night Wars was their first exposure.
I started watching back in the late seventies and early eighties, so maybe I can shed a little light for some of the folks who get stuck on arguments of WCW's status circa 1999-2001.
The real point is that the fall of WCW was also the fall of any viable competition for McMahon and WWE. This has NOT been a good thing for wrestling itself, and has definitely not been a good thing for the future of the sport and the existence of opportunities either for performers, or for talented writers like Mr. Eck, (although obviously he is luckier than most, and has established himself as one of the most highly regarded online wrestling sources).
WCW, which in earlier amalgamations and names included most of the major stars of the NWA, AWA and others, was around before 1996. While Hogan and McMahon were blowing up wrestling as a more mainstream sensation in the eighties and into the early nineties, WCW and its affiliates were the ultra-cool Underground that the "real" fans regarded as having the superior talent. When Hogan wore the yellow and red and was actually a legitimate wrestler, the WWE was on the major networks, but would make those who complain about their current "PG" status think that John Cena was Lenny Bruce.
The blood and guts and edginess were in the Underground. There were the Road Warriors---probably at the time THE coolest of almost anyone---Ric Flair in his struttin' prime---The Horsemen featuring Arn and Ole Anderson--Sting, when he was the underground's answer to Hogan and always considered way cooler---The Rock and Roll Express-(Who WWE/F would actually later rip off the style and image of for the "Rockers"-the team that spawned HBK)---the Fabulous Freebirds-(tag teams were considered tag teams then, and not a luanching pad for solo careers-and there is nothing today to compare to it besides the Motor City Machine Guns or Beer Money)---and on and on.
Such was the success of all of what would become WCW as a competitor---that without comparable ratings because they had less opportunity to BE on TV---they still were crawling up WWE's a@@. There were kids who if they couldn't get a Southern cable station or antenna-based affiliate with static-filled transmission to see the Underground in person--they would instead follow them in the pages of PWI and other magazines-because just to see a picture of Sting or the Road Warriors or Ric Flair or let-us-not-forget-Cactus Jack, was to know that they were somehow way cooler-(especially in the shots where they were covered with blood from their obviously epic battles)-than the WWF. Well except for Roddy Piper-who these same fans always hoped would whip the crap out of Hogan and make him go away-because Hogan-if you were alive and paying attention at the time-drew the same kind of heat as John Cena does now. NOT everyone ran wild, although Vince was making his first foray into using media to make us think so and get the children to play along like a horde following the Pied Piper-(fast forward to Cena).
McMahon finally payed attention-and hired away the Road Warriors-(as LOD)-Flair, Arn Anderson, and even the Steiner Brothers. But their unique magic wasn't the same under his rules, except of course for Flair, who could strut and profile anywhere, but was even at that point, twenty years ago, starting to show signs of wear.
WCW saw that McMahon's interest in their wrestlers and his accompanying snatching away of some meant that they had a chance-if they could make enough money to keep their own wrestlers and likewise steals some of his. The competition began in earnest a few years before Nitro So they stopped being the Underground and played Vince's game. Despite that they lost some of their own magic along the way, for awhile they overtook him. And then it all ended-ironically at least partially because of one monkeywrench, (Russo), that had been McMachon's to begin with.
What happened when WCW died is not important in terms of whether WCW as a single entity deserved it or not. What was important is that McMahon now had no competitors. There is a reason why there are laws against this for most industries. Now McMahon rewrites wrestling history. Now McMahon puts a guy on a pedestal and calls him a star, and the audience believes, because they have never seen anything else--so this guy must be a star--(look at how many lists of the greatest of "all time" that Cena makes-I'm speaking from a lifetime of watching wrestling--he's not a bad guy and he's a hard worker-but most of his percieved status is only because McMahon basically insisted that he was a star-it is not organic in the way that the older wrestlers came to prominence).
Even TNA, the only distant second today, constantly sabotages their product by attempting to compete on McMahon's terms-which is really why they fail, besides the involvement of certain bitter losers of the Monday Night Wars.
The old WCW, the old NWA, the old AWA, etc., the foundation upon which that company which folded in 2001 was built-never cared about competing on McMahon's terms. They let him have his NBC specials and Hulkamania-while Terry Funk and Cactus Jack brutalized each other in a Texas Death Match, or the Midnight Express and the Road Warriors fought on a scaffold high above the cement floor, or Ric Flair got away with promos that McMahon at that point never would have dreamed of allowing on his family program.
The WWE/F Attitide era was McMahon benefitting from competition as much as WCW had---it was mostly an update of the eighties in the underground where blood, high-risk matches and edgy material were the norm.
At the end of the day, we're lucky enough to have a writer who suffered from the lack of opportunity and diversity that comees from competition come back stronger than he was then as our talented Baltimore Sun wrestling analyst. But a lot of folks weren't so lucky.
And whether many of us know it or not, we're not so lucky either as fans. Wrestling is stagnant, and has been since the competition died. As marks, we look for the best we can find in a Miz or an Anderson...but if we're really honest with ourselves...it isn't quite the same. Something was lost to all of us in the end of the War.

Holy Smokes! a reference to GLOW. Man I havent thought of that in years. Iam a bit older than some of you folks, but I used to love watching NWA shows out of Georgia on TV54. As a kid growing up in Baltimore during the 70's we always had great shows at the civic center too. (Chief Jay Strongbow and Ivan Putski got lots of love in the day.)

Monday Nitro and WCW for that matter was the very best wrestling program for 5 years.84 to 92ish belonged to the WWF,but 94-99 WCW was the place. I mean the talent roster was a whos who in pro wrestling. I watch the old Nitros on WWE classics all the time. I hope one day TNA can present pro wrestling like WCW did in this era. Thanks for the fond memorys Kev.

Bobby, There's a wikipedia page about Eck working for WCW?

Christopher, So let me get this straight...WCW's ratings which were higher during a period with less channels and a higher concentrated audience were weak for the time? So by your logic at that time it was basically meaningless to win the ratings battle because even though that meant you were the most watched program during your time slot it is somehow irrelevant because in some unexplainable way no one was watching you?

Thus, Fusient Media Ventures, whose investment Bischoff was counting on, dismissed WCW as a lost cause and pulled out, leaving the company with very little other than a very low price tag. Bischoff himself has explained that the company wasn't worth anything without a TV deal. That, not a conspriacy, was why WWE was able to purchase WCW at a clearance-bin price.

Posted by: Christopher | March 28, 2011 12:49 AM

It was worthless without a TV deal? So Bischoff and his investors were smart for not purchasing a wrestling promotion for an inflated price that did not include its two most valuable assets which were primetime 2-3 hour slots on two nights key to the male 18-34 demographic? And Vince could care less since his goal was to put his competition out of business before a network like USA could enter the mix and try to get back at him? No kidding.

Christopher I think the price value Vince bought WCW was more indicative of how little AOL thought of their wrestling product which had begun a ratings decline when they came on board. I think anyone that actually saw value in it would have either kept the TV slots in place or waited until the buyer had an agreement with a broadcaster in place before selling for a higher rate. They just wanted to be done with it as it did not fit the mold of what they planned with the Turner brand.

MechanicalBull, WCW Nitro was indeed cable television's number one-show in 1997. Now fast-forward four years. Was it still cable's number one-show in 2001? No. Nitro hovered around a rating of 2.0, which would be a good number for a present-day Smackdown or Impact, but not so good for its time. As I said previously, Eric Bischoff couldn't find another network for WCW programming. Why do think that was? Had the company still been drawing its butt-kicking numbers from years past, would networks not have been falling over themselves in order get its product on their airwaves? They weren't interested because WCW wasn't the draw it used to be.

MechanicalBull, WCW Nitro was indeed cable television's number one-show in 1997. Now fast-forward four years. Was it still cable's number one-show in 2001? No. Nitro hovered around a rating of 2.0, which would be a good number for a present-day Smackdown or Impact, but not so good for its time. As I said previously, Eric Bischoff couldn't find another network for WCW programming. Why do think that was? Had the company still been drawing its butt-kicking numbers from years past, would networks not have been falling over themselves in order get its product on their airwaves? They weren't interested because WCW wasn't the draw it used to be.

Posted by: Christopher | March 28, 2011 6:20 PM

Why would another network give them a time slot when they were still at the time owned by a competing network? You also never answered Bull's question because you stated that the great numbers they were getting back then would be considered weak today, you never mentioned anything about how the ratings were down at the time of the end.

Sorry, I mistyped. You said the #1 rating numbers they had a decade ago were weak by the standards of that time, and now you're backtracking to say you meant the ratings when they went out of business. Either way you're wrong, they didn't get sold because the ratings sucked they were sold because Ted Turner was out and the new Turner group didn't want the WCW product period. How exactly was Easy E's group supposed to to get a new TV partner in the fold in the timeframe between the new corporate group telling him the price did not include the TV time and Vince buying it up to fold it, which was like 2 days.

Christopher as someone that was working with TBS at the time this all went down I wanted to take a moment to point out a couple of things. At no point were the ratings of Nitro or Thunder cited as a reason for the sale of the WCW product. This was asked, MANY times, by company employees at various seminars & conference calls why a product that was still bringing in ad revenue which kept people who had nothing to do with putting on a wrestling show employed. They were looking to end their association with professional wrestling. The people that championed WCW had long been gone anyway and when Mr. Turner was phased out from his role as CEO the last supporter pretty much fell. There had been Turner execs who wanted to get rid of WCW even during the "kick butt" period you mentioned. Absolutely no one at the new AOL/Time Warner wanted to keep the association with professional wrestling which they deemed low brow. The new TNT in fact wanted that out of the way in the event they had a chance at bringing Monday Night Football to TNT when ABC's deal expired.

On to the second point about there being "no takers" for WCW as far as networks. How exactly was Bichoff going to broker a TV deal for a company he did not own? What cable or network entity in their right minds would even sit down at the table to negotiate such a deal with a man who was "thinking" about buying the product from one of the most powerful media conglomerates in the country whom they would essentially be leveraged against? What happened was that Bichoff told them it would be a waste of money at the price they were asking which did not include TV time. Very quickly, and I think people forget just how quickly the deal came together, the WWF smelling blood in the water made the deal Bichoff didn't like because they had absolutely no interest in using anything but the WCW name & history. Think about it, let's say a new parent company somehow purchased YUM Foods but decided for whatever reason they did not want to maintain the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. Then lets say someone from the Sanders family perhaps or another longtime KFC executive wanted to buy the company but the new YUM Corp told them they would get the logo and the recipe but none of the locations would be included. The prospective buyer obviously concludes that for THAT price a deal that does not include locations is a bad business decision and leaves the table, perhaps hoping for a chance at a lower offer figuring they could start from the ground up with a reputable brand name & famous recipe. However very quickly Popeyes swoops in and makes the same deal not caring at all about the locations but just putting their main competitor out of business and being able to hock Col. Sanders chicken at theirs'.

The ratings were undeniably lower than they were at Nito's peak, but this had absolutely nothing to do with the end of WCW. Had the merger never happened and Mr. Turner hadn't gotten paid a fortune to go home & retire they'd have still been fighting WWF for ratings even if they had to face the same uphill fight Vince McMahon himself had to fight. He was just gone, and with him went anyone at "Turner" that wanted anything to do with his beloved "wrasslin". I mean what if Vince hadn't jumped in and taken the problem off their hands? Their best bet at that point would have absolutely gone back to the table with Eric or another group and the other party likely would have been in position to negotiate some sort of transition period deal that included a TV slot, that might not necessarily been Monday night from 8-11, or a window to negotiate a new TV contract. Vince however didn't pass on the chance to bury his competition and the rest was definitely history. Think about it, if the WCW product was that worthless that no one wanted it why did he even bother? He could have waited it out and still bought the name & library much cheaper than he paid, if there were honestly "no takers" in the TV world. Why bid against yourself?

@DumbSmark Finally... somebody who "gets it". Excellent post. I would just like to add that another reason for the demise of WCW was the situation with Ted Turner and AOL/Time Warner.

Ted Turner was loyal to wrestling because the ratings from Georgia Championship Wrestling and Braves baseball on TBS turned a small uhf station into the superstation and built his empire. The Monday night wars were an up and down battle with peaks and valleys on both sides. Raw was king then Nitro roared back and dominated for over two years. Russo helped sink them further once they were behind but I have no doubt the the pendulem would have eventually swung back in WCW's favor with changes and new leadership as it had before.

The monkey wrench came when Turner was forced out of controlling intrest in his own company. Turner backed and protected Wrestling on his stations because he knew what wrestling had done for him and could do again given the right chance and circumstances. Once Turner was forced out the powers that be in Aol/Time Warner viewed wrestling as lowbrow entertainment much in the same way that the people at UPN decided they didn't want to be associated with wrestling and had outgrown it regardless of the ratings. While part of the Turner family if WCW had an off year it didn't matter because the Braves or CNN or TBS and other parts of the corporation picked up the slack and it was all good. Kind of like if the ABC news division lost money the entertainment division made enough to compensate and the company as a whole made money. Once AOL/Time Warner took over they demanded every division carry it's weight every year and always show not only profit but growth. Once Turner's support was gone the tv time was taken away and WCW was doomed because without the tv deal the value dropped.

I say all that to just make the point that it's not acurate to think as Vince has spun it that he destroyed WCW and put them out of business. The truth has more to do with Turner losing control to AOL/Time Warner than anything Vince did in the way of the Monday night wars.

I just wanted to add this to your excellent post which does a great job of capturing the heart and soul of what was going on in the wrestling biz back then for fans young enough to maybe remember but not old enough to know what was really going on at the time.

Did you ever meet "Sarge" at the PowerPlant?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Briefly, yes.

"To this day it still amazes me that WCW Nitro – the show that ignited the wrestling boom in the late ’90s and re-defined what a prime time wrestling program looked like – ended up being a casualty of the Monday Night War."

what u said, so true, like I have chills now and almost crying, so true

Mayor Jenkins, I have not backtracked at all. The sentence in question from my first post was "As for ratings, Nitro's numbers from back then would be strong in today's market, but by the standards of a decade ago, they were pretty weak." Apparently, "back then" was too imprecise, but I assure you that I meant 2001, not 1997.

Also, I readily believe that the AOL/Time Warner board wanted to disassociate itself from professional wrestling. Now imagine that you were Ted Turner or anyone else who didn't want this to happen. You wouldn't be able to make a persuasive case to keep around a company which had just lost sixty-million dollars in one calender year and seen its paying customers head elsewhere. If the company were still making money by the ten million, you would at least have a point. Would a solid product and sound financial management have saved WCW from getting turfed? Perhaps not. However, the company had dug itself into such a deep hole, both artistically and financially, that the question was moot. As I said in the first sentence of my initial post, WCW most certainly was ready to be put down.

@ Matt Mayhem

Thanks for the thumbs up, and I enjoyed your post as well. The loss of Turner as a supporter was definitely the wrench in the gears on the business side.
I wonder if there is sort of an almost philosophical link with what you outlined concerning the ways the business side was handled with how wrestling changed on-air during the Wars due to the creative depts. It seems that a preoccupation with material business interests with no real emotional connection with the product being produced is an element both the executives who did not see any worth to keeping WCW around as an addition to their assets portfolio---and on the other side a "creative" dept. headed by the likes of Russo and Bischoff and others who attempted to treat wrestling as an "asset" or a "product" in the first place is not only a common denominator , but indicative of a larger failing that goes far beyond wrestling.
Wrestling is what it IS, (or perhaps what it was now), a form of entertainment...a larger than life morality play with big characters and big conflicts. It seems to me that the appeal that this has held to people for thousands of years at this point-whether it was a Greek play or a Mozart opera or Sting vs. the Four Horsemen, is a basic human urge and need. Whether it is sold or not does not affect its almost archetypical function as a social cathartic. It's lesser function as a "product" in the modern capitalistic sense is somewhat subsequent to its true nature.
The problem in what I was talking about, and the business side that you outlined, seems to be the same.
To wit; there are those who attempt to reverse the order--and say that first wrestling is a product-undifferentiated from any other product, since all products have one essential function-to make money---which then determines how its entertainment must be presented and manipulated to cater to its status as an undifferentiated product...which of course is not only backwards---but eventually takes out of wrestling everything that made it wrestling in the first place, since the focus is no longer on what wrestling IS first, followed by the realization of a smarter entrepreneur that its value as a "product" will not only come after that, but will be determined by its quality thereof. If it is good, then people will pay to see it---or if the modern financial system collapsed tomorrow, they would still come to see it anyway. When it's done well, it is something humans have needed and still do need.
That's why I mentioned McMahon---it wasn't so much as a mark commenting on what he claimed about the deal on-air---it was more, for how clever he sometimes is in real life--that he revealed his capitulation to the above problematic paradigm---and he seems to have failed to realize that picking up WCW for a short lived "Invasion" angle that is of course a capitalistic focus on short term ratings and profits--("product" first)---has been bad even for himself in the long term---that seems to be the real legacy of the War-both sides started treating wrestling as "product" instead of wrestling, which if it is done well, can be sold as a product subsequent to its being done well, which might sound similar to some, but is obvious upon reflection are two very different things.
Anyway...Before we get into Plato's concept of the ideal thing or the inherent lack of long-term continuity to modern capitalistic practices, I'll quit here. Take care.

Christopher whatever man, you said what you said you can spin it how you want.

dumbsmark agree with you. I also think this mistake realization was put on full display when he initiated the "brand extension" and so desperately tried to create a rivalry between Raw & Smackdown. He seems to have quietly fazed that out. Still shows how much business he must have noticed lost by not having a legitimate rival to his Raw product.