#wcw #docuseries #whokilledwcw #documentary
Related Keywords:
Who Killed WCW?: Episode 3
New Blood
who killed wcw s01e03
Who killed wcw dailymotion season 1
Who killed wcw dailymotion season 3
Who Killed WCW dailymotion Episode 2
Who Killed WCW dailymotion Episode 3
Who killed WCW dailymotion Episode 4
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion full episode
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion season 1
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion part 3
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion part 4
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion part 2
Who killed wcw episodes list
Who killed wcw episodes youtube
Who killed wcw episodes free
Who Killed WCW episodes Vice
Who killed wcw streaming free
Who killed wcw streaming hulu
Who killed wcw watch online free
Who Killed WCW Watch online Episode 2
Who killed wcw watch online episode 1
Who killed wcw where to watch free
Who Killed WCW where to watch UK
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood reddit
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood full episode youtube
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood full episode
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood dailymotion
who killed wcw episode 2
who killed wcw?
who killed wcw documentary
vice tv
vince russo
watch who killed wcw
ted turner wcw
where to watch who killed wcw
ted turner
who killed wcw episode 4
Related Keywords:
Who Killed WCW?: Episode 3
New Blood
who killed wcw s01e03
Who killed wcw dailymotion season 1
Who killed wcw dailymotion season 3
Who Killed WCW dailymotion Episode 2
Who Killed WCW dailymotion Episode 3
Who killed WCW dailymotion Episode 4
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion full episode
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion season 1
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion part 3
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion part 4
Who killed wcw episode 3 dailymotion part 2
Who killed wcw episodes list
Who killed wcw episodes youtube
Who killed wcw episodes free
Who Killed WCW episodes Vice
Who killed wcw streaming free
Who killed wcw streaming hulu
Who killed wcw watch online free
Who Killed WCW Watch online Episode 2
Who killed wcw watch online episode 1
Who killed wcw where to watch free
Who Killed WCW where to watch UK
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood reddit
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood full episode youtube
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood full episode
Who killed wcw episode 3 new blood dailymotion
who killed wcw episode 2
who killed wcw?
who killed wcw documentary
vice tv
vince russo
watch who killed wcw
ted turner wcw
where to watch who killed wcw
ted turner
who killed wcw episode 4
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00I had no idea how big it was going to be.
00:13I didn't know what the NWO was about to become.
00:17That leg drop was WCW's liftoff into the future.
00:20If you want surprises, this is where you come.
00:24Our show is live, and you never know what's going to happen here.
00:28We were the number one cable-rated show forever.
00:30The NWO!
00:32We already knew that we were running thin.
00:35And I think it showed.
00:37Did I like it?
00:38Fuck no.
00:40Bro, 40,000 people, and that's what you're giving them?
00:43You can't pretend that people weren't mad.
00:47Idiots everywhere.
00:48It's just mind-boggling.
00:52Whenever you're leading a night and now you're not leading a night,
00:55there's reason for concern.
00:57WCW is literally unraveling here.
00:59My wife, she looked at me like, what are you doing here?
01:02And I said, I got fired.
01:04Before our very eyes, it's falling apart.
01:06Ted Turner hired idiots to run a billion-dollar company,
01:09and that was his mistake.
01:12You cannot sweep this on the rug.
01:14This is a fucking television show.
01:17The real reason men commit lies.
01:19A lot of changes, ladies and gentlemen,
01:21at World Championship Wrestling over the last 36 hours.
01:27WCW was one of many things that I was responsible for.
01:33And it was the thing that I liked the least.
01:36Eric is not there anymore.
01:39You know, he was the glue that held it together.
01:43I was running it at this point.
01:44I didn't want to run it, and I wanted somebody to run it for me.
01:49And a little bit different...
01:50And Bill Bush was the guy who was sort of in place
01:54as an interim when Eric was no longer there.
01:57And he was the acting COO, in a sense.
02:01About a month after Eric had departed,
02:04Bill Bush makes his first major move.
02:07He's the CEO of WCW.
02:10He's running the day-to-day operations of the company,
02:12which is securing the services of the WWF's creative team.
02:17Bush, and he called me and said,
02:19we've made the best hiring decision ever.
02:24He said, we hired Vince Russo.
02:26Bischoff was gone, and I heard Bill Bush tell me
02:29they had to bring Vince Russo in.
02:30He supposedly was some kind of genius,
02:34and now we've lured him from the company.
02:37When Vince Russo made the jump to WCW to run that entire ship,
02:42I remember thinking, good for him, great.
02:46This is the world of professional wrestling.
02:48This shit happens all the time.
02:51But I was excited when I heard Vince was coming in.
02:56Good, finally, like, something new here.
02:59I was like, I'm gonna be a part of this.
03:02I was like, I'm gonna be a part of this.
03:04I was like, I'm gonna be a part of this.
03:06Something new here.
03:09I heard that he was a genius.
03:12Why would Vince Russo want to leave the WWF and come here?
03:19I had a degree in journalism, and I
03:22started freelancing for the WWF magazine,
03:25where I started writing maybe about two articles a month.
03:30I would sit in while they were writing the television,
03:33and it was so bad that I started
03:35writing my own angles in the magazine that
03:37had nothing to do with the TV show.
03:40And I get a call from Vince McMahon's assistant.
03:43Vince wants to see you up in his office immediately.
03:47It wasn't even 9 o'clock yet.
03:49He had the WWE Raw magazine in his hand
03:53and said, this is what our television show needs to be.
03:59I was absolutely shocked.
04:02It got to the point where I was the head writer of the show.
04:06Then I got to work with Ed Ferrara, who was
04:09a bona fide television writer.
04:12If you were flipping the channel over to WCW,
04:16what were they doing that was different?
04:18Just, it was real.
04:21It was real.
04:21You believed it.
04:24There was a sense of danger.
04:27Like, you almost had to watch it because you didn't know what
04:31they were going to do next.
04:33I was definitely influenced by what WCW was doing at the time,
04:37without a shadow of a doubt.
04:39We were head to head.
04:41And you had a lot of people switching back and forth,
04:44back and forth, back and forth.
04:46So the idea is, you do not give them the opportunity
04:50to change that channel.
04:52Because once they change that channel,
04:54if something good is happening on Nitro,
04:57they're never coming back to your show.
05:00It's hard to argue with the objective data, which
05:03show that the WWF actually enjoyed
05:06a tripling of its revenues.
05:07The television ratings went from being
05:09anemic to skyrocketing to levels people didn't think of before.
05:14The company was selling out arenas left and right.
05:16And Vince Russo was the head writer of the WWF
05:20during that time frame.
05:23Vince McMahon was starting another show, SmackDown.
05:26And he had pushed me creatively beyond my limits.
05:31I had three small kids.
05:33I wasn't seeing them at all.
05:34I honestly believe I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
05:40He just expected Ed and I to write a second show,
05:43never offered any more money.
05:45And bro, it's like I was building such a close, tight,
05:51bond relationship with Vince that I started asking myself
05:55the question, does this guy care about me
05:59as much as I do about him?
06:01Or am I the cash cow that's writing his show?
06:03I was so burnt out.
06:05I broke down and I cried in Vince's office, OK?
06:09And right then and there, I went right to my office
06:12and called my WCW connection.
06:16He made the decision, what's best for him and his family.
06:19And he went after an opportunity to go down to WCW
06:22and you're handed the entire book.
06:24Write the story.
06:26There was an awful lot of enthusiasm at that time
06:28that this could be what's needed to give WCW the shot
06:32in the arm that it needed.
06:33It's a brand new Monday Night Raw.
06:36I looked at WCW as a great challenge.
06:39And what I saw here was I saw a whole breed
06:42of a new blood that was stuck somewhere in the middle
06:46because for whatever reason, they couldn't
06:48break that establishment.
06:50And listen, man, the day I walked into that locker room,
06:53I had every bit of Carter coming up to me.
06:56I had never met them before, bro.
06:57I'm talking about like the Milankos, Benoits,
07:03and the Conan, Coventudes, and all these great people.
07:09Man, those guys, the Rey Mysterios, Ultimo Dragons,
07:14all those Lucha guys that came in,
07:16they're pushing each other to be the best,
07:18pushing me to another level.
07:20We gonna turn this mother out.
07:23There wasn't anybody better in terms of ring skills
07:28than the mid-Carters.
07:29So, you know, I think that there's
07:31more talent there than people gave them credit for.
07:34And I remember locking eyes with Hogan the first time.
07:42You got to understand, when you're a New Yorker,
07:44there's like a sixth sense.
07:46Like, you just know, he did not trust me, bro,
07:50as far as he could throw me.
07:52And he was not going to believe one word that I said.
07:55And I'm going to come out and say it,
07:56and I've never said this publicly before.
07:58No doubt in my mind, Bischoff was responsible
08:01for a little of this.
08:03I am partially responsible for costing Eric his job.
08:06Eric is gone, but Eric's boys, the people
08:10that he took care of and made rich,
08:12were not in tune with what Russo wanted.
08:15Don't wake a sleeping giant.
08:16I was always a fan of Vince's.
08:19I just told him, like, you ain't in Kansas anymore.
08:24Like, this ain't WWE.
08:25And one, two, three, count that, man.
08:28This is some fucked up shit.
08:30Go, man!
08:32Go, man!
08:33I had an absolute great plan.
08:35And if you go back and watch the first three months,
08:37you'll see it.
08:39And at that time, Jerry Springer was so hot.
08:44So we always had that on in the background.
08:48And what was Jerry Springer?
08:50It was controversy with characters and storyline.
08:54That's what the show was.
08:57And basically, that's what we needed to do.
09:00Miss Russo's program, everything was quick.
09:03Boom, boom, boom, boom.
09:06I tried to stay positive.
09:07I was very hopeful.
09:08But it definitely was a shift from a more laid
09:11back sort of atmosphere.
09:13And it's more electrified and louder,
09:15faster, that sort of thing.
09:19It definitely was a shift.
09:21I know the numbers.
09:23The numbers are on the internet.
09:26And in those three months, the numbers went up slightly.
09:31But they went up.
09:33To me, it wasn't about wrestling at that point.
09:36It was lots of TNA.
09:37Woo!
09:39All right!
09:40He took us in a direction that even corporate didn't like.
09:45Watch it, Billy.
09:47This is family hour.
09:48It had a little positive effect on the ratings, but not much.
09:51Certainly made it not advertiser friendly.
09:56My job was to make this show the absolute best
10:03that I thought it could be.
10:05And to make this show to not just please wrestling fans,
10:10but to be appealing to an entire wrestling audience.
10:14His thing was like, we already have a wrestling audience.
10:16Let's get the audience that isn't watching wrestling.
10:19But bro, if you're a casual fan and you're watching
10:22Judy Bagwell on a pole match, why
10:26would you want to watch that, or a piñata match, or whatever?
10:30He's got the piñata!
10:33This is not WCW.
10:36This is a comedy act.
10:38You can't make sure that you hit meatballs,
10:40and we're going to do it all over again.
10:42I don't think it was for the fans.
10:44It seemed like, you know, he was entertaining himself.
10:47Hey, boys!
10:48Hey, boys!
10:49Hey, boss!
10:50Hey, boss!
10:51Can you help me out of this, Kevin?
10:54Vince Russo was just another idiot.
10:57He's a shit stain.
10:59And I always thought in the back of my mind
11:01that he was there to lead to our ultimate demise.
11:04When does our journey begin?
11:07On the seventh night.
11:09May be a good theory that Vince Russo had decent success at WWE
11:14because Vince McMahon was there to figure out what was good
11:17and keep that and throw away what was bad.
11:24And then Vince Russo comes in, and he
11:27doesn't have that buffer.
11:29He doesn't have that person telling him no.
11:31Never do that!
11:33The whole group of people in the office
11:36thought he had gone too far down the road,
11:40away from what WCW was.
11:43Listen, man, the one thing I really started noticing
11:47was every time I turned around, J.J. Dillon and Kevin Sullivan
11:52were having sidebars.
11:53And as soon as I looked at them, boom, now the politics
11:57are rearing their ugly head.
11:58So Bush calls me into his office.
12:01He said, Vince, we're going to go in a different direction.
12:04We're going to go more into a committee,
12:07and we want you to be part of a committee.
12:10And bro, without missing a beat, I said, Bill, I got a contract.
12:16The contract states that I am head of creative.
12:19I am not interested in any of your committees.
12:23I said, so I am going to go home,
12:26and you guys can figure out how you're going to pay me.
12:29And that was the end of it.
12:31And I went home, and they continued to pay me.
12:35Who took over for you then in creative?
12:37Sullivan.
12:39I just thought it was such a complete change.
12:43When he first left, I said, we got to get back to wrestling.
12:47Benoit, Perry Saturn, D'Amolenko, Eddie Guerrero.
12:51When those guys showed up at TV, and I wasn't there,
12:56the undercard, they went absolutely ballistic.
13:00Because they knew.
13:01They went to work one day, and Vince isn't here.
13:04They knew.
13:06They knew what had happened.
13:08They were such an intricate part of the show,
13:13but they weren't Nash, Hall, Hogan, Macho Man.
13:18They could have been, but they weren't.
13:23So in an effort to try to make it up to those guys
13:27and calm everybody down, Sullivan
13:29made the decision to put the belt on Benoit.
13:31Let's get this thing on as a kid.
13:33I remember at that TV taping, they asked for their release.
13:37And Bill Bush said, yes, you can go.
13:39Not realizing exactly where they were going.
13:42It was a Monday night, sitting in the restaurant,
13:44having dinner with my wife.
13:46And on the screens, I could see that Monday Night Raw was on.
13:50And I see Eddie, Dean, and Chris, and Perry Saturn.
13:53I thought, wow, WCW, heavy hit, rock bottom.
13:56If those guys are jumping ship, it's inevitable.
13:59Hey, wait, no!
14:00The Radicals are taking Titanus down!
14:02And I said to my wife, knowing Turner the way I do,
14:08how much you want to bet they're going to call me
14:11and ask me to come back?
14:2015 days after Chris Benoit wins the WCW World Heavyweight
14:24title, he appears on Monday Night Raw in the front row
14:28with the heart of the WCW midcard, Eddie Guerrero,
14:31Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn.
14:34Keep in mind that those defections
14:36have been happening the other way for the longest time.
14:38Well, now the opposite is happening.
14:40But it's especially damaging to WCW
14:43because these are characters and these
14:46are wrestlers who have their best years ahead of them.
14:49It was a big deal.
14:50When those four guys walked out, ooh,
14:53a silent hush heard around the world.
14:58You knew that was big.
15:00You knew that was a big move.
15:02I think the office was like, fuck those guys.
15:05You know, we don't need them.
15:06And I was like, bro, if they would
15:08have let Eddie and Benoit and all these people
15:12do programs as the guys on top, we might still be in business.
15:18The ratings plummeted after I left.
15:20Sullivan's in charge.
15:22Boom, we hit rock bottom again.
15:25All the decisions went through me.
15:27And I think somebody suggested bringing Eric back.
15:30Since my relationship with Eric was always good
15:34and we had a successful formula that was working when
15:37we were working together on it, so I
15:39think the idea of bringing Eric back,
15:41be involved as either a consultant or whatever he was,
15:45seemed like a good idea at the time.
15:48So I went back to Brad, said, OK, here's the deal.
15:50Write me a new contract.
15:51I don't want to be an employee because you guys are crazier
15:54now than you were when I left.
15:55I'll report to you, nobody else.
15:59That was my deal.
16:00And they took it.
16:01And Brad said, do you think, would you mind,
16:05before we make a decision, meet with Vince Rousseau
16:08and decide if you think you can work with him?
16:12I never thought it would work, but Brad Siegel said to me,
16:16here's what he said.
16:18I want you to work with Eric Bishop.
16:22Brad Siegel never said to me at any time, Eric is your boss.
16:27Eric is in charge with you.
16:29Eric has the final say.
16:30So I don't know what he had to say to get Eric aboard.
16:33I have no idea.
16:35My job was to oversee Vince.
16:37That's what I was hired to do by Brad Siegel.
16:39My job definition was overseeing Vince Rousseau
16:42and the creative process.
16:43You know, my memories of exactly what happened
16:46were really sketchy.
16:47But if Eric came back, I had to approve it.
16:51Look, I have a pretty strong opinion
16:53about Vince professionally.
16:55But as a person, he's a charming guy.
16:58And I thought, I can make this work.
17:01What?
17:04No way.
17:06Vince Rousseau and I have been working together
17:10No way.
17:11Vince Rousseau and I have more in common than anybody knows.
17:17When I got back to WCW, in many respects, it was worse.
17:21Kimberly's got him in the plain clothes.
17:24Number 69.
17:24Oh, the stomp.
17:26Two points.
17:27I'm going to show you just a couple of clips.
17:29You're going to be watching it, and then just
17:31any commentary, reactions, memories, stories,
17:34anything that comes to mind.
17:35What was your thoughts on this?
17:37But Kevin, I've got to ask you a question.
17:39How many brain cells have you burnt over the years, Kevin?
17:44I remember when they were trying to drop that blood on me.
17:47They missed like 19 times.
17:49Now what?
17:50Oh!
17:54You know what?
17:56Take that clip and show it after the finger poke of doom.
18:03And then you tell me what killed WCW.
18:10Look at my face.
18:12Like, oh, you've got to be kidding me.
18:15The new blood strikes again.
18:16The new blood's simple.
18:19And Nash is walking slowly, drenched in the red.
18:23Kevin Nash in pursuit.
18:25This was a monthly doing, that they did something.
18:31Rousseau running out of the building.
18:32The company was in worse shape than it was when I left.
18:35They are getting to their limousine.
18:37There was no hope.
18:38Get that damn camera out of here.
18:41The only way I knew how to turn that around
18:44was to kind of force a creative reset.
18:47And that reset involved the Millionaire's Club,
18:52which was the established top level talent,
18:56versus the young up and coming, the Young Guns.
19:00It's kind of a classic story.
19:02The Millionaire's Club fighting for their very careers.
19:05Bro, that was inspired by what has been going
19:09on in wrestling from day one.
19:11From day one, that's the wrestling business.
19:15And I'm a firm believer that if you're
19:17going to create a story, try to create one that's
19:20based on some sense of reality.
19:23The Millionaire's Club at WCW were the top guys
19:26that were making all the money.
19:28OK, the Hogans, the Savages, the Flares, the Lugers,
19:34you know, Sting fell in that category.
19:36The new blood were the hungry, younger guys
19:41that were making a fraction of their salary
19:44because they were being held down by the Millionaire's Club.
19:49So now they were going to have their day in court.
19:51Hey, Terry, the Bolster Hogan, maybe, maybe you haven't
19:57paid attention around here.
19:59A lot of tension at that time because, you know,
20:03the changing of the guard, that stuff was real, too.
20:06You know, the stuff with Hogan and the older guys,
20:10you know, those guys didn't want to give up their spots.
20:13Yeah, like, we're making money?
20:14Yeah, because we earned our spot, you know?
20:17And bottom line is now we're finally making money.
20:20When Hogan said, you know, he's getting older,
20:22but everybody's in that damn locker room
20:24is getting older, too.
20:27Well, yeah, Hulk Hogan's getting older,
20:29and so is every other damn wrestler in the back, too.
20:32Day by day.
20:33That was a real statement.
20:35That's someone who doesn't want to let it go, man.
20:40I get it, I understand it, but for me, you know, nah.
20:45Always went as far as my talent could take me, not my politics.
20:51I knew there were going to be politics.
20:53I just never thought there were going
20:55to be politics to this extent.
20:58Bro, even with all these things, yes,
21:01I am going to go into this to win.
21:03I'm not going to go to work and go through the motions
21:06and just waste my time.
21:08I literally am still going to do every single thing I possibly
21:14can do to bring those ratings back up.
21:19Ready to Rumble was a major motion picture
21:22that they were going to do.
21:24David Arquette was going to be the star,
21:26and there were going to be multiple WCW wrestlers in it.
21:30I like wrestling.
21:31Are you going to be a wrestler?
21:34You got trouble wrestling your wee-wee out of your trousers
21:38to take a leak.
21:39It's not that I have trouble.
21:42I never really had an interest in becoming
21:45a professional wrestler, except for the fact
21:48that when I was a kid and I'd look up at them,
21:50and I'd be like, oh, which would be so great to be the champion.
21:55You know, it just, but I never really thought of myself
22:00as a wrestler.
22:01The steel cage.
22:02Steel cage, done!
22:03But part of the storyline in Ready to Rumble
22:05is that my character Gordy becomes
22:07a wrestler at the end of it.
22:09And I think that was part of the germ of the idea
22:11in bringing me into WCW so that we could sort of
22:15have fun with those worlds.
22:18So we have our production meeting,
22:19and the match is Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff against DDP,
22:24and David Arquette.
22:26We have a regular production meeting.
22:28Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
22:28Everybody leaves.
22:30I'm literally there by myself, and Tony Schiavone comes over.
22:35And Tony says, Vince, do you mind if I pitch you something?
22:37I said, Tony, absolutely.
22:39And I got the, what if David Arquette wins that match
22:45and becomes WCW heavyweight champion?
22:48I call everybody back in.
22:51Guys, Tony, pitch me this idea.
22:55What do you think?
22:57Bro, 100% of the people were for it.
23:00I don't remember how the idea generated.
23:03We've done other things to help promote movies
23:05and specific television shows in the past.
23:08This was a rather elaborate way to promote the movie,
23:13but I didn't see the harm in it.
23:15I just laughed out loud.
23:16And oh, yeah, right, so what are we doing?
23:20And Eric goes, that's what we're doing.
23:24I go, no, we're not.
23:26He goes, yes, we are.
23:27I go, bro, come on.
23:28Stop fucking with me.
23:29We're not going to do that.
23:31I go, that's not a good idea.
23:33I was like, that's a terrible idea.
23:36You can't do that.
23:42Who can score the pitfall here?
23:44Spear by Arquette.
23:46Oh, Jared's got the belt.
23:48Jared getting one, two, three.
23:49What?
23:50What?
23:53What is happening?
23:54What's going on here?
23:56David Arquette won the world title.
23:58Got this huge reaction when they made me the champion.
24:02You know, people throwing stuff and spitting on you
24:05and calling me the worst thing in the world.
24:06But it really hit me when I was in the locker room
24:12and Booker T was there.
24:13And he was getting ready.
24:18He goes, Booker, man, this is so great, man.
24:20I'm the world champion.
24:21I'm the world champion.
24:22You know, and he goes, how many times
24:24have you been champ, Booker?
24:27He's like, I never won it, you know?
24:29And then he goes, his mood totally changed.
24:36And I was like, oh, whoa, OK.
24:40That like, that hit me.
24:41So.
24:43It was hard to see that.
24:44You know, you do have these guys who pretty much have given
24:48their lives for this sport.
24:51And then you have a Hollywood actor,
24:53even though it's David Arquette, who we know and love,
24:55come in and win that title.
24:58Yeah, that's a hard thing.
25:02I would say it was just another nail
25:04in the coffin of a company that was rapidly dying at that time.
25:09I thought it was a bad idea putting
25:11the World Heavyweight Championship on David Arquette.
25:15I mean, movie star or not, it's just not a good play.
25:18And when you do something like this,
25:20you go, OK, where do we go from here?
25:22More people were pissed at this actor that had never
25:24paid his dues, because that's a big thing, paying your dues,
25:27right?
25:28Was a world champion.
25:29And Vince's rebuttal to that was,
25:32it got eyes on the product.
25:33I don't know how well it did in the ratings.
25:35But I go, yeah, but it got people
25:37talking for the wrong reasons.
25:39I don't think that was a good idea.
25:41Bro, I'll never forget.
25:42The next morning after that, I get up.
25:44I go downstairs to the front desk.
25:46What's on the front cover of the USA Today?
25:48That would have never, ever happened in a million years.
25:53And at that time, that's what we are after.
25:57And again, bro, I'm going to say it.
25:59I write a television show.
26:02If you think about the importance of the world's
26:05title in wrestling, yes, it's predetermined.
26:08But it does carry with it a huge amount of value.
26:11And I think fans perceive this as another attempt
26:14to get the interest back in one day,
26:17rather than building for the future.
26:18The wrestling audience didn't appreciate it.
26:21In the eyes of the hardcore wrestling fan,
26:24and I'm not dismissing them.
26:25I don't mean it derisively.
26:27But the really passionate wrestling fan
26:30felt that it really made a mockery of the title,
26:34to use that title in that way.
26:37I didn't feel that way in that moment.
26:39I was looking at the bigger opportunity
26:42and felt like we could sustain a couple of weeks of bad press.
26:46I think Eric put himself in a position
26:48to where he stopped calling the shots
26:51and just started being a part of the shots that
26:53were being called.
26:55And I think that was perhaps the biggest problem.
26:58It is what it is.
26:59I didn't stop it.
27:00Let's put it that way.
27:02I supported it.
27:04And I participated, for God's sake.
27:05Hey, the world heavyweight champion.
27:07Hey, hey, hey.
27:10I would do the same thing today, bro.
27:12Without blinking an eye, I would do the same exact thing today.
27:15To this day, do you understand the anger around making
27:18Arquette the champion or not?
27:20Quite frankly, I could care less.
27:23Arquette goes out there the next day.
27:25He doesn't want the championship.
27:27Whoa, bro.
27:30We followed that up in the storyline.
27:32What did he have it, bro, for like a week?
27:34Hey, you could have got killed out there.
27:36Listen, hey, this has all been a big fluke.
27:38It's been a whole lot of fun.
27:39But I don't deserve to be the world heavyweight champion.
27:42And he went out on the next day, and he goes, man,
27:44I shouldn't have the title.
27:45People like Booker T shouldn't have the title.
27:48Tonight, I'm going to relinquish the belt and give up the title.
27:54I don't deserve it.
27:55How about that?
27:56These guys deserve it.
27:58Maybe Booker T deserves it, but I don't deserve it.
28:02You know, I was like, wow, you know?
28:04So he might have been my biggest cheerleader, you know?
28:06He might have been the spark that lit the flame.
28:09I started at the bottom of that company.
28:12And I had seen these guys on television.
28:14And now I'm in the same locker room with them
28:17and competing with them at the highest level.
28:21I was doing something that I had never imagined or dreamt
28:24of doing in a million years.
28:27I knew Booker was going to be a big star.
28:29When he was putting on Reese Payton one time,
28:32and he was doing GI bro, he said, I'm here.
28:36And I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.
28:39And eventually, I'm going to get there.
28:41And I'm like, you know what, bro?
28:42You're right.
28:43You are.
28:43I said, you got the best attitude ever.
28:46Thinking about winning the world title for me
28:48in this company is something that I never
28:51had thought about.
28:52When I first came in this company, it was a click.
28:54It was a good old boy click, you know?
28:56If you weren't in the good old boy click,
28:57you only went to a certain level, you know?
29:00Why do you say that you don't think you ever, like,
29:02never thought it was possible to win the world championship?
29:05Because I was black, to be honest.
29:08I knew how good I was.
29:10There was a doubt in my mind.
29:14But you still wonder if that company would be willing
29:17to accept a black champion.
29:22He was beloved.
29:23Everybody loved him.
29:25He was so easy to work with.
29:27He paid his dues.
29:29Booker, like, had completely thrown in the towel.
29:32Booker, like, had completely thrown in the towel of ever
29:36thinking he was going to be a champion,
29:39because he knew the political game.
29:41Everybody's fighting for the same spot.
29:45And especially, bro, when you're on top,
29:49you got everybody gunning for you.
29:53So when Hulk was on top, yes, did he
29:57do everything he possibly could to secure that spot?
30:02Bro, 1,000%.
30:11Halloween Havoc, 99, I think was the last time Hogan appeared.
30:15Of course, I was sent home in September of 99.
30:17Hogan stuck around because he was obligated and advertised.
30:21But without me there, Hogan really
30:25wasn't too interested in working in any way,
30:28shape, or form with Russo.
30:31So when I came back to work with Russo,
30:35it certainly made it a lot easier.
30:37Eric is now treating me as I'm below him.
30:43And I had had enough.
30:45So I called Brad Siegel.
30:49And I said, Brad, if you want to make Eric head of creative,
30:55freaking make him head of creative.
30:57And, bro, Brad Siegel said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Vince.
31:02I want you to write creative.
31:05Bro, two days later was Bass at the Beach.
31:08Bass at the Beach 2000 was really
31:10the culmination point of the tension between Russo
31:13and what he wanted to do, me and what
31:16I was willing to do in the role I was in,
31:18and what Hogan was willing to do,
31:20given that he had creative control.
31:22I will say this up front without a shadow of a doubt.
31:26If there was no Eric Bischoff, I
31:29would have had a great relationship with Hulk Hogan.
31:32And I don't think there ever would have been an issue.
31:36Hulk and I have a good idea of what we want
31:38to do with his participation.
31:40He and I are on the same page.
31:42And Hulk Hogan has creative control.
31:43So that's pretty much the end of any dispute or conversation,
31:46right?
31:48But at the same time, Vince Russo
31:49had his ideas of what he wanted to do.
31:52And what he was able to do was take the original idea of Hulk
31:56and I's, which was create some kind of scenario
31:59where Hulk gets so frustrated or disgusted or pissed off,
32:02he grabs the belt and walks out of the building,
32:06presumably never to be seen again.
32:09That was the plan.
32:11I'm saying to myself, bro, no.
32:13You're not walking out of here with the belt.
32:17Now what?
32:18I don't know.
32:19Who's laying down in this one?
32:20What Vince Russo did was jump in the middle part of our plan
32:24and decide that once Eric and Hulk left the building, which
32:27we did according to script, our script,
32:30Vince Russo jumped into the ring live
32:33and went into business for himself
32:35and implemented his own idea.
32:37Hey, let me tell you who doesn't give a shit
32:42about this company, that goddamn politician Hulk Hogan.
32:47I remember looking around, talking
32:48with some of the other Nitro girls,
32:50like, is this what's supposed to be happening?
32:54Like, what's going on?
32:55Is this written?
32:56What is going on?
32:57Hulk Hogan tonight wants to play his creative control card.
33:04Holy shit.
33:06This is, he's shooting, you know, he's talking for real.
33:09This is not a work.
33:11But one thing I do want to point out,
33:12as much as this was a work and everybody was, you know,
33:17in on it, when I talk about reality,
33:20I really am this pissed off.
33:23Hogan got his belt and he went the hell home.
33:26And I promise everybody or else I'll go in the goddamn grave.
33:31You will never see that piece of shit again.
33:33I didn't know that was coming.
33:35And that promo, to me, felt as real as it possibly
33:39could be as far as two people having a venomous animosity
33:44towards each other.
33:46The point of this promo was not to run Hogan down.
33:49The point of it was, we need Booker to win the belt.
33:54And I need to make sense of why this match is happening.
33:58For the WCW title, two deserving guys, Jarrett and Booker,
34:05will compete for the WCW.
34:08And they'll tear this goddamn house down.
34:10I found out about 10 minutes before I had to wrestle.
34:13Y'all came up with a surprise for me.
34:15I really don't know what's going on.
34:16Vince made the decision.
34:18Cutting that promo before I had to go out, man,
34:21I had so much energy.
34:23Opportunity has knocked, and I will be damned
34:25if I don't answer that door.
34:27I am going to do what I have to do tonight
34:29to take that gold home, take it around my waist,
34:31and take it into the next millennium.
34:33Can you dig that, Jim?
34:34I can.
34:35Tony, back to you.
34:37I was ready to become the world champ.
34:38I remember before the bell rang, I jumped up so high.
34:41You know, just because I was like, let's get this there.
34:45You know?
34:46Out!
34:47He's about to fall.
34:48Fuck him.
34:49Fuck him.
34:50I'm not breathing.
34:51Two, three!
34:52Yeah!
34:54Booker D's the champ.
34:55Booker D's the champ.
34:56Booker D's the champ.
34:57Booker D's the champ.
34:59Booker D's the champ.
35:01Booker D's the champ.
35:03Booker D's the champ.
35:04Booker D's the champ.
35:06It took somebody like Vince Russo, somebody that was outside the box to push them to make
35:18a decision and then, you know, check their clutches for a second.
35:25I was totally out of the loop as far as what was going on with Vince Russo and Hulk Hogan
35:35and Eric Bischoff.
35:37Bro, the next day on the internet, everybody bought this hook line in St. Petersburg.
35:43And bro, what you got over and over and over again was finally somebody put Hulk Hogan
35:50in his place.
35:51Hulk is at home and he's reading this and he's seething and his ego is kicking in because
35:59now it looks like this jackass Vince Russo got one over on Hulk Hogan.
36:05That's why this company's in the damn shape it's in because of bullshit like this.
36:12My phone's just nonstop vibrating.
36:14Hulk's phone's blowing up.
36:16And now we're starting to hear bits and pieces from different people about what Russo did.
36:21And we're looking at each other like this can't possibly be true.
36:25Hulk Hogan, who is contractually entitled to have final say over creative, and yet he
36:31throws all of that out the window and goes into business for himself, tears the script
36:34up and says, no, I'm going to do it my way instead.
36:37We couldn't believe that that happened.
36:39As far as Hulk was concerned, he's done.
36:42There's going to be a lawsuit.
36:44As far as I'm concerned, I'm done.
36:47Regardless of who did what and who says what, let's just look at it from the most important
36:52person in the equation, which is the people paying money to come and see the shows, buying
36:56the pay-per-view, showing up to the live events.
36:58Why would I buy into the idea that the next pay-per-view is going to be the biggest event
37:03ever, or the next match is going to be unbelievable, when it seems like every time they hype something
37:06up, some nonsense like this happens.
37:09Ultimately, I think what this represented was the blowing up of this new creative team
37:14that many had predicted was inevitable.
37:16And unfortunately, it played out, not behind the scenes, but in front of everyone to see.
37:21You could talk about angles and storylines and this and that.
37:24The fact that I was in a position to be able to do the right thing, Booker T becoming the
37:30champion and a man finally getting what he deserved and getting through all that red
37:37tape and all the BS was far and away my greatest moment.
37:42Russo's stunt made it impossible for me to, A, trust Vince Russo, or really the judgment
37:48of anybody else, including Brad Siegel.
37:51Brad had a choice.
37:52He could have sent Russo home following Bash at the Beach, but he didn't.
37:59Eric and Hogan were partners in what they wanted to do with WCW, and I was trying to
38:05do whatever I can do to get it back on track.
38:12I came back to the guys behind that curtain that give a shit about this company.
38:17Post-Bash at the Beach, now we have another creative shakeup.
38:21Eric goes home.
38:22Hulk is never to be seen on WCW TV again.
38:24And for the next three months, we have Vince Russo and a booking committee mapping out
38:28WCW storylines.
38:30So much had happened.
38:31There had been so many attempted restarts and reboots and changes of direction that
38:37the entire promotion was sort of in the state of shell shock.
38:41Once the bleeding started, it was a consistent deterioration of WCW's business.
38:50Everything was very spontaneous in the moment.
38:52That's what gets me excited now.
38:58He was doing a lot of segments with himself involved.
39:03He was brought in to be a writer, and then he'd write himself into the show, and write
39:09himself as one of the main characters in the show.
39:12This is my show, this is my house, and these are my people.
39:17I'm just going to be 1,000% completely honest with you.
39:22As far as an on-air character, I felt that I was better than 80% of that roster.
39:28They put so much pressure on me, bro, that I made the mistake of saying, you know what?
39:35F it.
39:36If you want ratings, I will go out there and get ratings myself.
39:40I almost get killed, bro.
39:43I almost got killed.
39:52What I'm looking for tonight is ratings.
39:55Big ratings.
39:56And we're going to deliver, you son of a bitch.
39:59Like, to this day, people think that's who I am.
40:02That's why so many people dislike me, hate me, who don't know me, because they think
40:08I'm my character.
40:10Knock it off, man.
40:11Know your place.
40:12He put the belt on himself.
40:14He became champion somehow, which I just thought was kind of self-serving.
40:19I can't even imagine, you know, what brought that on, except for Childhood Dream, that
40:25every one of us have had.
40:27So I get Vince doing it.
40:29I don't think it was a good idea, but I get it.
40:32And he had a lot of heat, you know, internal and external.
40:38Bro, listen, I never thought I was a wrestler.
40:41Again, this is a television show.
40:45All I'm trying to do is entertain an audience.
40:51Bro, I should have never gotten in the ring.
40:53I was really concerned about my health.
40:56They were hurting me on purpose.
40:59First of all, with Goldberg, he's supposed to spear me into the entranceway.
41:04And I told him ten times, bro, I got a concussion.
41:09Like, just please work me to the entranceway.
41:13What does he do, bro?
41:15He spears me right into the iron rail.
41:21Come on, man.
41:22Like, no question about it.
41:24If I wanted to intentionally hurt him, he'd be underground right now.
41:28And anyone who doesn't believe that doesn't know anything about me.
41:32Do you think Bill was purposely trying to hurt you?
41:34I think so, without a doubt.
41:36Without a doubt.
41:37And that was it.
41:38That spear, that was the one that put me away.
41:41That was it.
41:42Why am I putting my health on the line
41:45when obviously nobody gives a crap about this company?
41:49Russo!
41:50I'm here, and I'm waiting, Vince.
41:53The last show that Vince Russo is credited to have written
41:57is the October 2nd, 2000 edition of Monday Nitro.
42:01He gives an interview the next day on WCW Live
42:05lamenting everything that was going on in the company.
42:07And then he's gone from the picture after that point.
42:10This is Russo in 2000, baby.
42:12Hulk Hogan, I don't give a damn.
42:15You think I care about Eric Bischoff?
42:19I could give a damn.
42:21Ratings 2.7, 1.7, .7, I don't care.
42:27Vince Russo losing his job next week, I don't give a damn.
42:34When I see this and I see that guy there,
42:36it really reminds me of how much I hate the business.
42:39I mean, I'm going to be honest with you.
42:41There's a lot of people that don't like me saying that.
42:45That's the fact of the matter.
42:47It really brings me back to the damage,
42:51emotionally, that this business did to me.
42:56That's absolute truth, God-honest truth.
43:00And then those same politics exist today.
43:04What is the fate of WCW?
43:08We're talking about a company that at its peak
43:10was generating in the neighborhood of $200 million a year
43:13and a huge part of pop culture.
43:16It's a hit every Monday night, but it wasn't anymore.
43:19It was so bad, the bickering, the infighting.
43:24We're Time Warner.
43:25Is it that important to own a wrestling company
43:28that's losing money, bleeding massively?
43:31I'll sit and watch the fucking thing sink from my fucking house.
43:34It didn't feel like a family anymore.
43:36You had to look out for yourself.
43:38What's going to happen here?
43:39Are they going to stick with this?
43:40Are they not going to stick with it?
43:42I said, Brad, why don't you let me explore selling WCW
43:47while it still has some value?
43:50Rick, going out!
43:52We thought we were coming to work like a regular day.
43:54Do you know anything?
43:55And no one knew until that night.
43:57Because the fate of WCW is in my hands.