The curtain falls on WCW as the cast and crew gather to produce one last episode of Nitro, and the dust settles on the fallout of the worst corporate merger of all time.
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00:00WCW is about to dominate the globe in professional wrestling.
00:0810 million people in the United States were zeroed in on professional wrestling.
00:13We were the number one cable rated show.
00:15For almost two years, mind-blowing.
00:18And when something gets too big too fast, shit's gonna hit the fan at some point, and it did.
00:23Little by little, we just fell.
00:26We already knew that we were running thin.
00:29It is so good to be king.
00:32He cared more about ratings than he cared about advertising dollars.
00:35It was a shit show.
00:38Vince Russo was just another idiot.
00:41He was there to lead to our ultimate demise.
00:43Kiss my ass!
00:45I was done. It was over. I could have cared less.
00:49No doubt in my mind, Bischoff was responsible for a little of this.
00:53Another nail in the coffin of a company that was rapidly dying at that time.
00:57I don't control that shit. I go out and I do my job.
01:01My check didn't change.
01:03It was the easiest money I ever made in my career.
01:05Like, they got what?
01:07When guys got those kind of agendas, thinking about themselves, that's pretty much when the ship started to go down.
01:13This is some fucked up shit.
01:16You ain't in Kansas anymore.
01:18You cannot sweep this under the rug.
01:22This is a fucking television show.
01:24The real reason men come in lies.
01:51I believe WCW has come to an end.
01:54It is at an end.
01:56It didn't feel like a family anymore.
01:58It felt like everybody was out for themselves and it seemed like the blood was in the water and the sharks were coming to get it.
02:05I think everybody just didn't know what was happening.
02:08We were still hearing the rumors that we were just going to shut the doors.
02:11So I think at that point everybody was just really unsettled.
02:16It's easy to lose sight of how lucky we are to be a part of this.
02:18Hopefully it ain't over.
02:20WCW wrestling is so important to me.
02:22There's just that one guy, Turner, I think just doesn't think wrestling is cool and whatever.
02:28It's on the road for millions of people.
02:30I think Turner finally started looking into the books and said, we got to pull the plug on this.
02:35No matter how much Ted Turner loved this business and wanted to keep it afloat,
02:41you start looking at the books at that time and seeing how much money we were spending.
02:46I can only imagine how much money went out the window.
02:48Oh my God.
02:51After Brad brought me back to oversee Russo,
02:54it was apparent to me that things were more dysfunctional within Turner Broadcasting
02:59and the relationship between Turner and WCW than they had ever been.
03:03I'm not talking about what was going on in television or how much money they were making or losing.
03:07I'm just talking about the relationship.
03:11Time Warner is a company of winning brands and winning people
03:15and so is AOL for this merger.
03:18Just like when we put Turner Broadcasting into Time Warner,
03:21it made the company much, much stronger.
03:23And I think we're all committed to making this thing work.
03:26AOL was absolutely ubiquitous at that time in terms of in the public consciousness.
03:31The company introduced many people to the concept of logging onto the internet for the very first time.
03:37I've been on America Online two months and it's really been a revelation for me.
03:42You got mail!
03:45This was at the time where a lot of the new internet.com businesses
03:50were receiving wild overvaluations based on promises of future growth.
03:55If you looked at the assets besides furniture,
03:59they have a subscription list and that's the people who subscribe to AOL.
04:05AOL's leadership in the early part of 1999 also were keenly aware of this reality as well.
04:11So one option that was considered was to merge with a media and entertainment conglomerate,
04:16which was Time Warner.
04:18The combined company, which will be called AOL Time Warner,
04:21gives each partner what it now lacks.
04:23What ended up happening is that AOL shareholders would receive 55% of the new company
04:30and Time Warner 45%.
04:33Now, my dad's never been online in his life.
04:36Never touched a computer, never owned a cell phone, never used an ATM.
04:39He's old school.
04:40So I think there was a whole generation gap loss on AOL's going to buy this giant company with nothing
04:49where the older investment guys are like, well, you can't turn it down.
04:52It's hundreds of dollars a share.
04:54This is going to be awesome.
04:55We're only going to make a billion dollars.
04:57But nobody would stand up and go, this is a Ponzi scheme, man.
05:01This is all going to fall apart.
05:03The Blockbuster deal still needs regulatory approval and a nod from Time Warner and AOL shareholders.
05:09AOL had serious, serious issues.
05:12WCW got caught up in that also.
05:16In a sense, you could say it was collateral damage.
05:19Wrestling has become fun, crazy entertainment.
05:23It's an alternative.
05:25It doesn't define our network.
05:27It's one night a week.
05:28It's a hit every Monday night, but it wasn't anymore.
05:31Because it was broken and I had to fix it, I was a physical presence there.
05:35I was in there trying to do whatever I can do to get it back on track.
05:40Big mistake!
05:42What a bunch of fucking boobs.
05:45It was so bad.
05:47I really felt like, OK, stake in our heart.
05:50It was a chaotic shit show and a blur.
05:53And I said, I'm about to get the hell out of here because I've had it.
05:57You had to look out for yourself.
05:59I just felt like Brad didn't know anything about wrestling.
06:03I mean, he knew about the corporate side, but he wasn't a wrestling person.
06:06He wasn't somebody that was going to try to help save the company.
06:10It was like going through the motions.
06:12To be completely honest, I couldn't fix it.
06:15And the red kept getting redder.
06:17And the ratings kept falling and falling and falling.
06:19In addition, WCW drove away its paying audience.
06:22A look at the difference in buy rate
06:24between the uncensored pay-per-view in March of 1999
06:28and the same event just 12 months later in March of 2000.
06:31They basically put on the exact same main event,
06:34Hogan Flair, two years in a row.
06:36Hold onto your hats!
06:37One, two, three!
06:39In March of 1999, the uncensored pay-per-view enticed
06:43some 325,000 viewers to purchase the event.
06:46But just 12 months later, only 60,000 people
06:50were willing to purchase the 2000 version of WCW Uncensored.
06:54That represents a drop of 81%.
07:00The narrative is at the end of 2000,
07:03WCW had losses of around $62 million.
07:06That's the narrative.
07:07And I think that there probably is a grain of truth to that.
07:10But what people don't understand is the why.
07:15Professional wrestling is very different
07:17when you're a company like Time Warner AOL.
07:20A lot of answering to shareholders
07:22that have expectations on a monthly and quarterly basis.
07:27I think there was a lot of debt
07:29from other divisions in the company
07:31that could be allocated legally,
07:34but allocated as losses against WCW
07:36because everybody knew it was going to be written off as a loss anyway.
07:40The bullshit internal transfers
07:42that people tried to park all their trash on our books
07:45while we were getting hurt.
07:47It was clear to me at that point
07:50that Turner Broadcasting didn't want anything to do with WCW.
07:54And I said to Brad specifically,
07:56I said, Brad, why don't you let me explore selling WCW
08:02while it still has some value?
08:04Because the velocity at which WCW was losing round
08:09at that particular time was pretty dramatic.
08:12Brad kind of chuckled at me and he said,
08:15Eric, you know this company, we don't sell anything, we buy things.
08:20So I just let it go.
08:22Fast forward.
08:24Good evening.
08:26Today we announce that the Federal Communications Commission
08:29has approved the merger of America Online and Time Warner Inc.
08:34So the merger was announced on January 11, 2000,
08:38finalized on January 11, 2001.
08:41There had actually been a lot of financial experts
08:44who had been predicting the imminent demise of AOL for quite some time.
08:48Keep in mind that throughout the year 2000,
08:52a number of significant things happened.
08:54We had the dot-com recession.
08:56We had a number of these internet companies
08:59that were going to be the darlings of the future
09:01that went belly up, which affected AOL in a serious way.
09:05Its stock price dropped by 50%,
09:07which of course creates a huge pressure
09:10to look closely at which divisions are profitable
09:13and which are registering huge losses.
09:16That put WCW even more in the crosshairs.
09:18There were a lot of executives at very senior levels.
09:22The only person standing in front of them was Ted Turner.
09:26The merger happens.
09:28Ted becomes vice chairman.
09:30You know, he was excited about that person.
09:32You know, you have an office in New York, you know.
09:34I've made it.
09:36Well, no, your name made it.
09:38Your businesses made it.
09:40They didn't want to even hear at the board meetings from him.
09:43Ted Turner was no longer a challenge.
09:45Ted Turner was regulated to the corner
09:47and didn't have a voice or vote in his own company.
09:50You know, Ted is no longer in a position
09:52to have control over WCW and its affairs.
09:56I remember saying, you know, we're Time Warner.
10:00Is it that important to own a wrestling company
10:03that's losing money, bleeding massively,
10:06that has lost money every year of its existence
10:08except for one or two years?
10:10Is that really what Time Warner needs to own?
10:14I don't think we need this.
10:24I get a phone call from Brad.
10:26He said, so let me ask you, Eric.
10:28A couple months ago, you brought up the idea of selling WCW.
10:31Do you think you could find a buyer?
10:33And I immediately said, sure.
10:35I had no idea. I'd never done anything like that before.
10:37But I assured him that I could find someone
10:39who had the resources to buy it.
10:41I said, do you want me to put a deal together?
10:43You want me to try to put some people together?
10:45And he goes, see what you got.
10:47I went to a guy by the name of Peter Goober.
10:49Peter Goober, at that point in time,
10:51owned a company called Mandalay Sports & Entertainment.
10:53He's a very, very, very well-established Hollywood guy.
10:56And he said, look, I'm not interested in investing
10:58and buying WCW, but I think I know some people who may.
11:02And he put me in touch with Brian Badal and Steve Greenberg,
11:05who owned a company called Fusion Media Ventures.
11:07Fusion Media Ventures had created the Classic Sports Network,
11:11which became ESPN Sports Classic.
11:14Brian and Steve understood media.
11:16They had great connections in New York on Wall Street.
11:19And we hit it off and started the process.
11:22I called Brad back, said, okay, I got the investment.
11:25Fusion Media funded the initial round with $5 million of their own
11:29and then went out and raised $62 million in the market.
11:33I felt like I was capable with the financial resources
11:36and the right partners with me, that there was potential for WCW.
11:39The professional wrestling genre as a whole is indestructible.
11:43It's just a matter of the company being in the right hands.
11:47Eric was invested in trying to keep WCW alive and moving.
11:53So it was very exciting when the opportunity came up to buy it.
11:58And it wasn't surprising that he went 100% all-in
12:03and just gave it all he had.
12:05We had come up with a loose plan of what we were going to do
12:10once the deal was consummated.
12:11For example, went out to Las Vegas.
12:13We met with Hard Rock, and they were planning on building
12:16a entertainment theater on top of one of their parking garages
12:19that would hold about 3,500 people.
12:21So we started to negotiate the opportunity for kind of a full-time location,
12:25producing our shows in front of a live audience in Las Vegas
12:28every Monday night.
12:29And one of the initial thoughts we had is,
12:31let's bring WCW back with this pay-per-view called the Big Bang.
12:38So on January 11, 2001, it appears that Fusiant Media Ventures
12:44has purchased the company.
12:45The figure that was reported at the time of the apparent sale to Fusiant
12:49was $67 million.
12:51You know, there's a lot of exuberance about, once again,
12:54this being now the turning point.
12:56Now we've got the new owners in play, now Eric Bischoff's back in his position.
12:59This is where we're off to the races.
13:01The new goal is 100 weeks in a row, and that's kind of what's in the future
13:04for WCW.
13:05We always looked at this as a partnership between us and Eric.
13:10You know, we certainly aren't buying this because we think it should just
13:15stay number two.
13:17We won't be satisfied until this thing is number one again,
13:21and our goal this time is 100 weeks, not 96 weeks in a row.
13:25I was excited.
13:26I thought, you know, okay, great, this is going to open a new door.
13:29We're going to continue to go on like we are.
13:31I think we were going to see a smarter, newer, more refreshed version of Eric.
13:36He looked really gung-ho to make this work.
13:39Turner Broadcasting guaranteed us our time slot on Monday night
13:43and Thursday night.
13:44So our job was then to produce the show, find the advertisers,
13:47and turn the show profitable.
13:49I remember that being part of the deal, and I like that as part of the deal.
13:53Knowing that you've got that slot, then being able to calculate what the
13:57advertising value of that's going to be is critical.
14:01So it was a fait accompli as far as we were concerned,
14:05and we were scheduled to close that deal.
14:09On March 6th, Jamie Kellner is announced as the new CEO of Turner Broadcasting.
14:14Jamie Kellner is someone whose reputation certainly preceded him
14:17in the television business.
14:18He's credited with having a huge influence over the growth of the Fox network
14:23and then actually becoming a founding partner of the WB network.
14:27And upon being appointed to the role, his initial comments to the press were that,
14:33I'm paraphrasing, this is a great company full of great people.
14:37I'm going to try not to mess things up.
14:38I'm going to tweak it.
14:40Jamie Kellner was one of the best television executives in the business,
14:44but Jamie hated wrestling.
14:46He hated it.
14:47You know, he hated it, didn't get it, didn't want anything to do with it.
14:51It was a pain in the ass, and we were losing so much money all the time
14:56that I think I made the suggestion to sell WCW.
15:00I don't know if it came from me or somebody suggested it and I latched on to it,
15:04and Jamie was like, yep, get rid of this as fast as you can.
15:07I don't want anything to do with it.
15:09March 16th, Brad Siegel sends out a memo advising WCW employees
15:15there's going to be a period of hiatus.
15:17Then just a few days later, actually there's not going to be a hiatus,
15:22but the programming is being canceled after a 29-year run on the Turner Networks.
15:27And that leads us to an episode of Monday Nitro in the midst of all of this chaos
15:32that has to occur in Gainesville, Florida that Monday evening.
15:37Many of you may know that for the past six months I've been working with a group of people
15:41whose goal it was, and is, to acquire World Championship Wrestling.
15:45But recently we've hit a couple roadblocks that may be, in fact, brick walls.
15:51And while it is still in my power, I want to do something befitting
15:56what could be, very well, the last night of wrestling on the Turner Networks.
16:03That being said, I'll see you all in Panama City next Monday night, the Night of Champions.
16:09Incredible!
16:13We were just getting ready to close, and I got a call from Brian Badal.
16:17And Brian said, Eric, it's done.
16:20I said, congratulations, Brian.
16:22He said, no, you don't understand. It's done.
16:24The deal is over. It's off the table.
16:28We were rounding third, heading for home, and there was no warning whatsoever.
16:33It came completely out of the blue.
16:35Jamie Kellner, he was the head dog.
16:38And he looked at the WCW deal and contemplated us having at least a couple years
16:43of two hours of primetime on Monday night, two hours of primetime on Thursday night.
16:48And Kellner didn't want that beachfront property to be dedicated to wrestling content.
16:53He wanted that primetime schedule for other programming.
16:56The cold, hard truth is that WCW was completely reliant on television.
17:01So much so, in fact, that Eric Bischoff famously quipped that without television,
17:06the company was worth 20 bucks, if anything.
17:09So at that point, when you take the television distribution off the table,
17:13you're taking 90% of the revenue out of the equation.
17:16The deal was not worth it to us. It effectively killed the deal.
17:21I was devastated.
17:26What am I doing here?
17:28Stu, Snyder, ready, go. Action.
17:32Growing up, I loved wrestling.
17:35I lived in New York, so I remember going to Madison Square Garden once a month.
17:40Bruno Sammartino, Ivan Putzky, Gorilla Monsoon, George the Animal Steel.
17:45I can go on. I enjoyed it. I loved it. It's a core element of my childhood.
17:50I joined Turner Broadcasting in 1993.
17:53My responsibility was to come on board and head up a unit called Turner Home Entertainment.
17:59And then I left, did a few other things,
18:02including becoming the president and chief operating officer of WWF Entertainment.
18:08The first thing I was looking to do was to keep growing the core business,
18:12to look for new opportunities for the company.
18:15I continued to read about what was happening at WCW.
18:18I kept reading about the behind-the-scenes angst going on there.
18:22Things weren't improving. What's going to happen here?
18:25Are they going to stick with this? Are they not going to stick with it?
18:28And what I recall is picking up the phone and calling Brad,
18:32and, you know, just checking in, first of all,
18:34because we've known each other for a long, long time.
18:37Keep reading about this stuff. Are you OK?
18:39And, you know, he'd share with me some of the angst he was going through.
18:43I may have said something to the effect of,
18:45hey, look, if there's ever a reason to have a conversation,
18:48I think we might be interested.
18:50We were aware that there was another player.
18:52It didn't factor into anything. I didn't know their deal.
18:55I didn't know what they were offering. I knew nothing.
18:58Internally at WWF, we had made a decision and thought
19:01if we could do a transaction to acquire WCW,
19:05we were going to work really hard to get that done.
19:09On Friday, March 23rd, the WWF announces the unthinkable,
19:13that it has purchased its competition, WCW.
19:21On March 26th, 2001, the final episode of WCW Nitro
19:26is broadcast live from Panama City Beach, Florida.
19:29Oh, what is this for?
19:31We're doing a little documentary on the last day of the Nitro.
19:33The last day of the Nitro.
19:35The last day of the Nitro.
19:55Get the fuck out of here.
19:57Do you know anything that's going on tonight?
19:59Brother, I have a poor man right here in my back pocket.
20:02Holy shit.
20:03What is that all about?
20:08Panama City, Florida. Vince McMahon vignette.
20:11Wow. That's big time, brother.
20:13Here we go, in five, four...
20:19You had Vince McMahon starting the show on camera.
20:23It's hard to overstate just how shocking that was at the time.
20:27Imagine that.
20:29Me, Vince McMahon.
20:33Imagine that.
20:35Here I am on WCW television.
20:39How can that happen?
20:42Well, there's only one way.
20:44You see, it was just a matter of time
20:46before I, Vince McMahon, bought my competition.
20:52That's right.
20:53I own WCW.
20:57Therefore, in its final broadcast tonight on TNT,
21:02I have the opportunity to address
21:04what is the fate of WCW.
21:08Because the fate,
21:11the very fate,
21:13of WCW
21:16is in my hands.
21:21We thought we were coming to work like a regular day.
21:23No one knew until that night.
21:26No one knew.
21:29We saw Vince come up on the trot.
21:31No matter how you look at it at that point,
21:33no matter how it spread,
21:36they win the war.
21:37When WWE acquired WCW,
21:40it felt like the end of an era.
21:43It sucked.
21:44The 800-pound gorilla of the room had won.
21:47Had no idea what Vince would do with it.
21:49I didn't know if it was more advantageous for him
21:52to buy it and keep it afloat
21:55and then have the competition
21:58or destroy it.
22:00So the fear of the unknown is pretty heavy.
22:04There was a lot of sadness and a lot of uncertainty
22:07who they were going to hire, who they were going to cut.
22:11We don't really know what's going on.
22:12People are happy and sad at the same time.
22:14They don't know why.
22:16I don't think you want my real feelings about it
22:18because they ain't pretty.
22:19It was very emotional.
22:21I remember Dusty was there,
22:22so I was sticking pretty close to him.
22:25There were WWF signs up,
22:27which was really weird.
22:29You know, because there's always signs
22:30like on the dressing room doors,
22:31you know, wherever,
22:32and you were seeing WWF.
22:33I mean, it felt like a slap.
22:36I remember Shane McMahon coming in
22:38and he had like a little brief meeting with everybody.
22:40And we get told the company's been sold to the WWE.
22:44And tonight, everybody's going to find out about it.
22:47And a lot of guys were like,
22:48oh my God.
22:50As I was seeing, you know,
22:51the wrestlers and performers backstage,
22:54you know, shoulders might have been slumped
22:56before they walked through the curtain.
22:57But then when they walked through,
22:59it's back to business as normal.
23:01And then when they came back after their match
23:03or segment or whatever,
23:04it's back to what's going on,
23:06what's going to happen.
23:07Let's not lose sight of the fact
23:09this is the last Nitro on the Turner Network
23:11and we're going out with the bag.
23:13Scott Steiner and I, we had a conversation
23:16and Scott goes,
23:17you know, what do you think they're going to do, man?
23:19What do you think they're going to do?
23:20And I look at Scott and I go, bro,
23:22who's auditioning that night?
23:30Everyone was working that night.
23:31So we went out and we rocked it.
23:40I didn't know I was going to win the world title that night.
23:42But then when I did find that out,
23:44I go, oh yeah, man.
23:46I got a chip in the game.
23:47They got eyes on me.
23:49You know, so I was really excited.
23:54I was probably perhaps one of the only guys
23:56that was excited, though.
23:59I mean, it was sad, you know?
24:01It wasn't even sad, it was pathetic.
24:03Why?
24:04Because fucking people actually showed up.
24:07Hey, you guys want to be on the Titanic?
24:11Nah.
24:12Good.
24:13Good.
24:15I'll sit and watch the fucking thing sink from my fucking house.
24:19I didn't watch it as it happened live.
24:21I feel bad for the talent that were there.
24:23I feel bad for the production staff that were there
24:25that didn't see it coming,
24:26had no idea what their futures were going to be.
24:29It's a big life change.
24:30But as far as the brand itself,
24:33I walked away from it.
24:35I no longer cared.
24:36It's going to be an emotional thing.
24:38You see a lot of production guys,
24:39a lot of people, cameras taking pictures of the guys.
24:41And to me, I look at it as the day you left college
24:44and guys you might not see again.
24:46But this is a Titanic group of guys we have.
24:49It's like one of the camera guys and one of the sweetheart guys,
24:52he'd been working for the company for 27 years.
24:55All of those people lost their livelihood.
25:00And that's why I say, fuck you, Jamie Kilner.
25:04I was concerned about a lot of people
25:06that just couldn't walk into a job so easily.
25:08Our jobs are so different.
25:10It's not a factory.
25:12We don't do the same thing every day.
25:14We're a combination of a circus and an army.
25:17And to get that good at it,
25:19we had to have the right people in the right places.
25:21And the way you got to that point was the trust of one another.
25:34Then now you can't do it together anymore.
25:38Everybody was in a bad space.
25:41A lot of them didn't know what they were going to do.
25:43But there was a time, you know, you got to let it go.
25:47But in this business, it's a little bit different.
25:51What was really weird to me,
25:53this multimillion-dollar company was sold to WWE for like nothing.
25:59I'm not saying that there was anything spooky-kooky going on there,
26:03but I have my suspicions.
26:09I own WCW!
26:12I own the WWF!
26:14And you will treat me with respect!
26:22When you think about the final purchase price,
26:25we're talking about a company that at its peak
26:27was generating in the neighborhood of $200 million a year
26:31and a huge part of pop culture
26:34that gets sold for a little over $4 million.
26:36I always thought that when I heard the price of what they paid for WCW
26:39it was an inside job of some sort.
26:43Somebody filled their pockets by making that deal,
26:45for as cheaply as it was.
26:47Maybe there's an envelope pushed across the desk.
26:51Maybe you got influence with the guy that's selling it.
26:55Look, there's some murky circumstances.
26:58Stu Snyder was an executive at Turner Broadcasting.
27:01Oh, by the way, Stu Snyder, after the fact,
27:04just happens to land a plum executive role with WWE.
27:08Oh, my God, that's Bob Ryder!
27:10That's Bob Ryder from WCW.com!
27:13Bob, run! Run!
27:15Bob Ryder, he was one of the hosts
27:18on shows that were broadcast over WCW.com.
27:21So in the summer following the sale of WCW
27:25being purchased by the WWF,
27:27Bob Ryder puts out a widely disseminated post online,
27:32essentially alleging that there had been a conspiracy at play.
27:35Bob Ryder, he was a good man and a good friend.
27:38And I know that Bob had written about a theory
27:41that Brad Siegel helped facilitate the actual sale to WWE
27:47by convincing Jamie Kellner
27:49to take the distribution of programming out of the deal.
27:54Bob's theory was Brad Siegel really didn't want WCW
27:58as a part of the Turner portfolio
28:00and this was Brad Siegel's way of using Jamie Kellner to kill the deal.
28:06The conspiracy theory was really something like
28:09out of a wrestling storyline, essentially.
28:11There was a plot initiated by Brad Siegel and Stu Snyder
28:15to clear the path for it to have a quick sale to the WWF.
28:20Stu Snyder at that time was the president of the WWF.
28:23He had previously worked at Turner Broadcasting,
28:25had a relationship with Brad Siegel.
28:28And so the allegation was that there were covert talks between the two
28:33and the primary piece of evidence was the fact that
28:36WCW was sold for $4.3 million.
28:39I don't know that that's true.
28:41It is a conspiracy theory.
28:43Unfortunately, there are enough questions
28:46and questionable relationships
28:48that lend interest in a conspiracy like that.
28:52Because you were friends with Stu Snyder,
28:55it was a way to ensure the WWF would have an advantage to the sale.
29:00No.
29:01Well, first of all, we'd known each other our entire careers.
29:06I mean, the fact that Stu Snyder was running WWE
29:10and was a likely buyer for WCW
29:14is purely coincidence.
29:17Did you have any advanced knowledge
29:19that the Fusion deal was going to fall through?
29:22No.
29:24It's as simple as that.
29:26My understanding is that Brad reported up to Jamie Kellner
29:30and that Jamie made the decision to say,
29:33I don't want it on our end and cancelled it.
29:36If you think about how serious these particular allegations are
29:39and the fact that they would lead to potential SEC violations
29:43and have serious professional and personal consequences
29:46for all people involved,
29:48it's quite the audacious plot
29:50given the high-profile nature of the people that we're talking about
29:53and what they stood to lose
29:55if eventually they would be convicted essentially of corporate espionage.
30:00I'm not saying I'm 100% convinced
30:02that Stu Snyder was part of an orchestration
30:06to make sure WCW got sold for nickels on the dollar.
30:11I'm not suggesting that I know that.
30:13I just lean in that direction
30:15because I don't believe in the number of coincidences
30:18that surround this entire situation.
30:20I'm just not buying it.
30:22I understand gossip.
30:24I understand rumor.
30:26But it's easy to sit on the sidelines
30:29and not really understand the economics of the businesses
30:32to say what something is worth.
30:34If there was a deal out there worth $60 million,
30:38I can guarantee you as I'm sitting here today,
30:41the Turner executives would have made a deal.
30:44We wanted to sell it.
30:46When we sold it, that's what it was worth.
30:48My regret is that when the ratings started to plummet,
30:52we could not find the right story,
30:55the right players in that story,
30:58to turn it around.
31:00That's a big regret of mine.
31:02We weren't successful.
31:03Sometimes that happens.
31:05You can't always be successful.
31:07I feel a responsibility for it
31:09because I clearly was not the person to do it.
31:12I didn't know the business and the story
31:16well enough to write it myself.
31:18I'm not a writer.
31:19So, yeah, I'm really sad about that
31:21and regret it wasn't a different outcome.
31:24Could anything have been done to save WCW?
31:28In my opinion,
31:30without a strong advocate
31:33who really believed in the business,
31:36it would have been tough to exist there
31:38with everything else, their challenges as a company.
31:42But that world had passed.
31:44As that person who was its chief advocate
31:47in the new AOL time warner,
31:49without that person,
31:50I don't know how it succeeds there.
31:52And for good or for worse,
31:54the one thing that all the talent knew,
31:56they knew where the buck stopped at WWF.
31:59It was Vince.
32:00You were either in line or you were out.
32:03That's how Vince ran that place.
32:05That place was a different story,
32:07a different time, different era.
32:08So unless you had somebody like that
32:10who could go,
32:11this is the way it's going to run
32:12and I have the support of corporate
32:14to leave it alone and let me do my thing,
32:17I think it would have been challenging.
32:19It's been proven that it was challenging.
32:30Let me be clear.
32:31We weren't looking at all
32:33to buy something and kill it.
32:35This brand is still good.
32:37It's still relevant to an audience.
32:39We're going to figure out
32:41how do we keep it alive?
32:42And maybe over time,
32:44it comes back as a separate show.
32:47In my head, I saw this great rivalry
32:49that was under one roof.
32:53First of all, it all started
32:54with the famous Shane McMahon
32:56showing up on WCW on Nitro
32:59and proclaiming, you know,
33:01the storyline of basically
33:03Vince was going to buy WCW,
33:05but he snagged it out from it.
33:07That's right.
33:10I now own WCW.
33:14I remember sitting down in my hotel room
33:16and writing down all the wrestlers
33:18who I had hoped to wrestle.
33:20Goldberg, Sting, Savage,
33:22everybody in the NWO.
33:24I remember writing everybody down
33:25and going to Vince and saying,
33:27hey, this might be a good idea.
33:28What about this guy and this guy
33:29and this guy and this guy?
33:30Let's bring them in.
33:31There was so much speculation
33:33as to how it would all work.
33:35What people don't realize is that
33:36when WWE acquired WCW,
33:38the assets of WCW,
33:40the contracts weren't really
33:41part of the equation.
33:42It wasn't like all of the talent
33:44that was under contract
33:45automatically came to WWF.
33:48At least not the big names
33:49that mattered.
33:50Some of those people had
33:52quite a bit of time left
33:53under contracts,
33:54and they were going to get paid anyway.
33:55I knew that at the time,
33:56guys were getting 50 cents
33:57on the dollar
33:58on their existing contracts,
33:59and that was not happening with me.
34:02I'm not going to give in.
34:03I'm not going to do it.
34:04So if I had to sit out
34:05for three years,
34:06I sat out for three years.
34:07Not everybody wanted
34:08to go to work for WWE.
34:10You didn't have Sting.
34:11You didn't have Lex Luger.
34:13You didn't have Goldberg.
34:15What do you really have?
34:17I still had like over a year
34:19left on my contract.
34:21They offered me a 50% buyout
34:23and go to work,
34:25or just sit at home
34:26for the next year.
34:28I said, nah, man.
34:29I said, out of sight,
34:30out of mind.
34:32I remember Ric Flair
34:33saying a long time ago,
34:34time off is your worst enemy.
34:37So I was like,
34:38let's take the 50% buyout
34:40and let's go to work.
34:42Where is he?
34:43What the hell?
34:47But it's he.
34:48He's the WWE,
34:50WCW champion.
34:52Back then, it was a test.
34:54Let's throw these guys out here
34:55and see how good they really are
34:56compared to the WWE guys.
35:00Shane and I decided
35:01to join forces.
35:04The invasion storyline
35:05was supposed to be
35:06the best that WCW
35:08had to offer
35:09versus the best
35:11that WWE had to offer,
35:12but we were in no shape
35:14to actually be able
35:15to really, really pull off
35:16an invasion angle
35:17just because we did not
35:19have enough star power
35:20to really, really get
35:21that thing off the ground.
35:23They never really did
35:24a WCW, WWE feud correctly,
35:27and I think that was
35:28a big mistake by Vince McMahon.
35:30I think he could have done
35:31some really cool matchups
35:33and some really cool things.
35:35Hey, yo.
35:39They were gonna write
35:41the history that they
35:42wanted to create,
35:43and no matter how
35:44you looked at it,
35:45we were the Confederate soldiers
35:47going to work for the Union,
35:49and if you thought
35:50that you were gonna go over
35:51one of their top guys,
35:53bullshit.
35:54They brought us in
35:56under the guise of
35:57this isn't gonna work twice.
35:59I looked at Scott,
36:00I said, we're gone.
36:01We're done, we're dead.
36:04I get to have
36:05the wonderful experience
36:07to watch my friend
36:08who now has been sober
36:10for 11 months
36:12go downstairs
36:13and just start pounding drinks,
36:15and he's like, fuck it.
36:17You talking about
36:18a miserable day in my life?
36:22The way they said,
36:23WCW, there was no room
36:26in New York City
36:28for a company like WCW.
36:30That's just the way
36:31I felt about it.
36:32When the WWE won the war,
36:34not only did they want
36:35to win the war,
36:36but they wanted to bury
36:38the opposition,
36:39and they wanted
36:40to plant the flag,
36:42and that's what they needed
36:44to do more than anything
36:45to really solidify
36:47winning that war,
36:49planting that flag.
36:51Yeah, they had to be
36:52in a dominant position
36:53to do that, yeah.
36:56We're back live here,
36:57ladies and gentlemen.
36:58This crowd is still buzzing.
37:00Well, here comes
37:01Mr. McMahon back.
37:02He promised to name
37:03the new general manager
37:04of Raw.
37:06In 2002,
37:07Vince McMahon called me,
37:08and while Vince was speaking,
37:10I had already made up my mind
37:12that this is my opportunity.
37:14Allow me to introduce you
37:15to the new general manager
37:17of Raw.
37:18His name is
37:20Eric Bishop!
37:23I'm not going to say
37:24that everybody in WWE
37:26was happy to see me show up,
37:28but the people that mattered
37:29could not have made me
37:30feel more at home.
37:32I like Eric a lot.
37:33We're good buddies.
37:34I've known him
37:35for a very long time,
37:36and he has his bust
37:37on the Mount Rushmore
37:39of professional
37:40wrestling executives.
37:41Everything that went wrong,
37:43the fusion sale
37:44falling through,
37:45the fact that the narrative
37:47is Eric Bishop,
37:49creator of WCW.
37:51I had an opportunity
37:52to write the last chapter
37:53of my story.
37:54Wait a minute!
37:55What?
37:56What the hell's going on?
37:58What is this?
37:59You know, I had been
38:00with WWE for a few years
38:01as that general manager
38:02character,
38:03and everything was going great.
38:04And I remember getting
38:05a phone call from
38:06Stephanie McMahon,
38:07who was head of creative
38:08at that point.
38:09She goes,
38:10Eric, I don't want you
38:11to take this the wrong way.
38:12You've done a great job,
38:13but we're going to go
38:14in a different direction.
38:15Eric Bishop
38:16has abused his power
38:17for too long.
38:18John Cena was going to
38:20hit me with his finish
38:21and then drag me out
38:22of the ring,
38:23and John Cena was going
38:24to throw me in the back
38:25of a garbage truck,
38:26and I was going to be
38:27hauled out of the arena.
38:28And I very seldom
38:29questioned creative.
38:31But I went to Vince
38:32and said,
38:33it doesn't make any sense
38:34for John Cena to do it.
38:35It makes more sense
38:36for you to do it.
38:37And I thought,
38:38if I'm going to do this,
38:39I'm going to have fun doing it.
38:40I'm going to make this
38:41fun for me.
38:42And I did.
38:43And I had a blast.
38:44And I got to live a dream
38:46and rewrite my own chapter.
38:47And I loved it,
38:48every minute of it.
38:49There's not a second of it
38:50that I regret.
38:51I regret.
38:59Who killed WCW?
39:00Ooh.
39:01Ha ha ha ha.
39:03Who killed WCW?
39:06I think it was
39:07Turner Corporate.
39:09And some of the people
39:10within the booking committees.
39:12AOL, Time Warner,
39:13the executives,
39:14they were embarrassed
39:15by Goofy Wrestling.
39:18The guys in Turner
39:19that didn't want us
39:20and didn't like us.
39:21And the top guys
39:23not letting the mid-card guys
39:25interact with them.
39:27WCW killed itself.
39:29The cast of characters
39:31that was WCW killed WCW.
39:34It didn't function as a team
39:36any longer.
39:37It functioned
39:38as a bunch of
39:39self-seeking individuals.
39:41I've never seen anybody
39:43that was that high up
39:45in the food chain
39:47take less responsibility
39:49This is what killed WCW.
39:52They were fighting
39:53within themselves.
39:54They were eating their own.
39:55The Wolves.
39:56Who killed WCW?
39:57That's easy.
39:58Turner Sports.
40:00It would have to be
40:01the person with the checkbook.
40:03It would have to be
40:04Eric Bischoff.
40:05Vince Russo,
40:06Eric Bischoff,
40:07two guys that had
40:08zero knowledge
40:09about how to run wrestling.
40:11And they put themselves
40:12in a position
40:13to tell people like me
40:14what to do.
40:16And that's what
40:17killed WCW.
40:19As a matter of fact,
40:20I'm going to give myself
40:21a round of applause
40:23for that.
40:24Yes, thank you.
40:25Bro, they took
40:26such a drop
40:27from where they were
40:29to where it was
40:30when it was sold
40:31and so much money lost.
40:33I don't think anybody
40:34could have done anything.
40:36So I would say
40:37a business decision
40:39killed WCW.
40:41I don't think one person
40:42could have killed WCW
40:43by any stretch of the imagination.
40:45There were a shitload of people
40:46who contributed
40:47to its downfall.
40:49I think it's a collection
40:50of factors,
40:51a number of reasons
40:52that explain its demise.
40:53There's plenty of blame
40:54to go around,
40:55but I think ultimately
40:56it was inevitable
40:57that it was going
40:58to fall apart.
41:01A good buddy of mine,
41:02he's one of my best friends,
41:03downtown Bruno.
41:04When I first started,
41:05I said,
41:06Bruno, give me some advice.
41:07He said,
41:08you're going to hear
41:09a voice one day,
41:10and that voice
41:11is going to say,
41:12go on home,
41:13the big run's over.
41:15WCW as an entity,
41:16they heard that voice.
41:18And the big run was over,
41:19and it was fucking awesome.
41:25Wow, man,
41:26what a run.
41:27It was always about
41:28the performances for me.
41:29It was always about the fans.
41:32We were rock stars.
41:34Everywhere we went,
41:35it was packed.
41:38The whole WCW experience
41:40was a hell of a ride,
41:41period.
41:43Let us remember
41:44the lessons
41:45learned and strived
41:46to build a fairer
41:48and more equitable
41:49future for wrestling.
41:51We've done over
41:52350 or 60-some-odd nitros,
41:54and a lot of these people
41:55are like family to me.
41:57It was a good ride.
41:58It was fun.
41:59You were like a big family,
42:00even though you're
42:01a dysfunctional family.
42:02You may not get along
42:03with everybody,
42:04but you're still going to
42:05be there when it comes to it.
42:07It was the greatest job.
42:08They let us be as creative
42:09as we wanted to be.
42:11The first time I realized
42:12WCW was big
42:14was my very first show
42:15when I debuted.
42:17There was a palpable energy.
42:19You could feel the crowd.
42:21There's something special
42:23and something different
42:24about a wrestling fan.
42:26It just blew my mind
42:27to see what a big deal
42:29WCW really was.
42:31He's got him up!
42:33Those were some great times.
42:35Terrific times.
42:36And it came to an abrupt
42:37end like that.
42:38But, hey man,
42:39all good things come to an end.
42:43I still think that, you know,
42:44when it comes down to it,
42:46WCW is Eric's creation.
42:48Any success they had
42:49was with Eric.
42:51There's nobody on this planet
42:52that can look in the mirror
42:54and say,
42:55I beat Vince McMahon
42:58at professional wrestling
43:00for 83 weeks.
43:03It's a pretty fucking
43:04huge accomplishment.
43:09Cool.
43:12Time fucks with your head,
43:13you know.
43:15It becomes distorted.
43:17My memory is more
43:19like a series of photographs.
43:21There's bits and pieces
43:23and moments that stand out
43:24in my mind.
43:25But as time goes on,
43:27they kind of just all
43:28blur together.
43:29When I look back at my time
43:30during WCW,
43:31the journey,
43:32the ups,
43:33the downs,
43:34the ride all along the way
43:35was a rush.
43:36We were the number one
43:37wrestling company on television
43:38in the world.
43:39Very proud of that.
43:40I was able to experience
43:43and achieve things
43:44that nobody thought possible.
43:46And I wouldn't have had
43:47any of this
43:48if it wasn't
43:49professional wrestling.
43:50So I'm grateful for
43:51every minute of it.
43:52The good, the bad,
43:53everything in between.
43:54Very lucky.