Could Eric Bissoff have saved WcW?

[Martyn]

Could Bischoff have saved WCW?

I got idea for this question from the Monday night wars, when WCW were falling under Russo and they offered Bischoff his job back to try and get them back up there with WWE, and Bischoff offered to buy WCW off Ted Turner, (we all knew that he sold to vince instead) but if he had sold to Bischoff instead, do you think they would have still fallen or do you think Bischoff could have fixed the mess they were in and turned it around and brought the company back to number one in the ratings if he had the T.V time , or at least been toe to toe like they were, or do you think they would have gone bust anyway?

["The Tie-Dye Dream" Ricky Cool]

Hmmmmmm.

I Don't think they would have become No 1 again but I think Bischoff might just have been about able to fix the mess to were at least they stood in a very comfortable and ressonably close second place.

WCW had to me at least got them selves sorted after the Russo mess and had a good storyline going with CEO Ric Flair and his "Magnificent 7 Elite" group vs The rest of WCW.

But Time Warner did not want to sell TV Rights to WCW.

I know Bischoff gets a lot of the blame (and rightly so he should not have allowed the talant he brought in such creative controle in there contracts) for WCW's dimmise BUT Time Warner must also shoulder a huge ammount of responsability.

They wanted rid of the finachial burdun of trying to run WCW but they didn't want to losse the TV Rights to it, but they also were nt going to show it on there air space untill it was compation for WWE Again.

So when Bischoff ruffused to go along with this rather then sell everything about WCW to him and his consortium they cut there own throuts and ende up seeling to Vince for something liek a pound.

[Wrestling Chick]

Ricky, you said everything I was thinkin'. Bischoff could've undoubtedly saved WCW from its death, but I don't think they'd have become number one again right off the bat. WWE was just goin' too strong at the time. It probably would've taken Bischoff *years* to turn around the mess that WCW was in the late-1990s/early-2000s. However, if he had been sold *all* of WCW (TV rights and all), we would definitely still be in the upper part o' the roller coaster phases that the wrestling industry goes through on a regular basis.

[Iceman]

Never knew Bischoff wanted to buy WCW and Ted turned him down for Vince? Bad Teddy, what were you thinking selling out your company to the competitor when you could of made some money if you wanted out of the Wrestling business by selling it to Bischoff instead and keeping WCW alive. Granted Vince probably offered more, but why make Wrestling a Monopoly. Ted basically gave up or sold out it sounds like. What's up with dat?

I watched and enjoyed WCW up until the last day and watched it over WWE until the last day.

Wish Bischoff would of bought it then it still would of been alive with all the talent they had. There still would be Monday Night Wars. (Funny thing is I bought that DVD a month ago and still haven't had the chance to watch it yet, lol)

["The Tie-Dye Dream" Ricky Cool]

It wasn't Ted Turner.

It was Time Warner AOL who sold out. Towards the end Ted lost control of WCW in fact quite a bit of his own company after Turner Network merged with Time Warner.

and if the rummors are true Vince only paid something like $1 Or about $100 for all of WCW besides the TV Rights.

So Time Warner did NOT cover there losses with WCW.

And Ted Tunrner never wanted out of The Wrestling buissnes he's been trying to start his own promtion ever since WCW Died.

[Wrestling Chick]

admin said:

(Funny thing is I bought that DVD a month ago and still haven't had the chance to watch it yet, lol)

That's why you didn't know Eric Bischoff was lookin' to buy WCW... If he had, tho, a lot of the "What If" questions we're asking today would certainly have been answered.

[Iceman]

Thanks Ricky, didn't know all that. Lol, I know Wrestling Chick, one day I'll watch that DVD too, lol.

So then my next question is why did Time Warner want to sell WCW? They had to make a profit from it? And to only sell it for $100 or a Taco ($1)? What's the point? And why not sell it to Bischoff then. Unless Time Warner hated wrestling so much they sold it to Vince because he promised to fold in when he bought it?

["The Tie-Dye Dream" Ricky Cool]

The problem was that WCW was losseing money.

Time Wanner wanted the finachal burdon of the actual running maitnece and paying wages off there hands.

BUT

They still wanted to broadcast it. However they were not going to broadcast it untill it started to improve.

And there for had droped it from the scedual indefinatly.

Bischoff argued that to improve you need to know if the wider audiance the TV audiances is likeing the product.

But Time Warner would not have it and basicaly refused to sell him the TV Rights to alow him to broadcast on any other station.

[Martyn]

Its like they Bisshoff stated " without the T.V time the company would only be worth 1$ iff the show isnt been aired then nobodys going to see it"

But if it had of been sold to bisshoff with the T.V slot included with a good network to air the show then i think he could of turned it around and as long as he carried on bringing and stealing new talent from other promotions, and it might not have got back to no.1 in the ratings war But it would definitly still be competing with wwe

[simoneaton]

Would have Bishoof been able to support it though finanical I mean the company where in $40 million worth of debt I dont see them being able to buy it from AOL, get ride of the debt and then keep paying everyone for long it would have probably meant keeping them on life support for a couple of more years and bringing the WCW name down even further than it was going

[Scott Joyce]

He coulda done better than Russo although had Bischoff bought WCW IMO Flair would have left for the WWE anyway due to him and Bischoffs attitudes towards each other and the fact Flair slapped him upside the head because Flair felt slighted by EB.

["The Tie-Dye Dream" Ricky Cool]

In responce to simon eaton's question as to weather Bishoff could have supported WCW Finachialy it should be pointed out that it wasn't Bishoff on his own who was attepting to buy WCW.

It was a Consortun lead by Eric Bishoff who were negochiating with WCW with some of the consortum mebers rummord to be pretty good for the money to back Bishoff up. So I would imagin they weould have been able to keep WCW aflot finachialy.

[simoneaton]

Fair enough anyone know who else was working with Bischoff

[Alpha Clash]

Vince bought WCW for a song. How little? Try 8 million and Time Warner would keep all wrestlers under Time Warner contract so Vince didn't have to pay for Sting, Goldberg, Hall, Nash...etc. As for could have Bischoff saved it. I think Eric said it best himself on the Monday Night Wars DVD. Time Warner would sell WCW to Eric put they wouldn't give him TV time. No national exposure = no money. Eric backed out and Vince swooped in. It's too bad that it happened. Wrestling has been circling the drain ever since.

[Project Runaway]

WCW would of died away if Eric Bischoff did buy the company long with the investors if they got the TV timeslot. To rebuild a once great wrestling company would of taken years just to redo all the mess that Ed Ferrera and Vince Russo left while Bischoff was away. Eric could of tried to relaunch WCW but I think that WWE would of bought WCW anyway because they were losing money.