WCW Monday Nitro 1999

Question
QUESTION: Hi Joe I have many questions for you about WCW Monday Nitro in 1999. First off was Ted Turner still the basic owner of World Championship Wrestling throughout all of 1999, and what to your knowledge was he doing in being able to keep WCW alive in 1999? I know Ted was loosing control of WCW in 1999 because he was trying to keep all of his other Cable Networks alive. My main question for you about Turner owning WCW in 1999 is was he still giving Eric Bischoff the money to hire wrestlers like Sid Vicious and was he giving Bischoff the money for there new Nitro set? Secondly and most importantly how was Eric Bischoff still getting solid ratings since WCW still had very high ratings in 1999 and very high revenues in 1999 even though the WWF beat them every single Monday Night from early January until late December 1999? Lastly even though Time Warner's Standards And Practices regulated everything WCW and Eric Bischoff did on Nitro, Thunder, and Pay Per Views how did Eric Bischoff get away with things like a woman on Nitro pouring poop on Randy Savage, Scott Steiner and Diamond Dallas Page getting into a fistfight over Kimberly and then Scott Steiner throwing her out of a moving car because I know for a fact that these episodes on Nitro were done before September-10-1999 when Eric Bischoff was fired. Thank You:Aaron Wake

ANSWER: Well to be honest, WCW was a nightmare of an issue. This is why when AOL bought Time Warner, they let them go. Sure, they could have taken them in and hire great people to run it. But they sold it because they didn't understand it at all.

Yes, in 1999 Turner still owned it.

He wasn't having to do much during this time because he was making great money with Castle Rock and TNT. Of course TBS was there too and getting hot.

But WCW was still getting nice ratings. Sure, they lost to WWE a lot, but they averaged then what WWE does today for Nitro and they made nice ratings for Thunder too.

Still though, they didn't know how to run a program but the fans stayed loyal and watched a lot, Thunder got a ratings boost during this time as well. SmackDown was making waves, but as a new show, it didn't go anywhere quick, but it did move faster than Thunder did because it was on regular, public TV. Which meant you didn't have to be a cable owner.

Nowadays, over 70% of all people have a form of satellite or cable. Over a decade ago in 1999, the number was around half of this. Obviously being on cable wasn't a major thing. But they still got ratings in well, and they were good for cable.

During the 90s, cable saw a boom and wrestling caught on. At the end of the 90s, they cooled off some.

WCW suffered but so did WWE.

How Bischoff was able to get solid money was because he made good money from commercial ads and because Turner still was over a billion dollars in profit, especially with his films from Castle Rock.

This on top of Warner Bros. getting in nice cash too. Remember, he was the majority owner of Time Warner.

So, Turner had money to give Bischoff.

Ratings wise, the company still had Hogan and other top guys. Even though Bret Hart retired in 99, he wrestled some then, so they had him, and then Goldberg and top guys. So, having them helped with ratings.

Keep in mind that just because you lose in ratings to the competition, you can still get good money in too. So, they were fine there. Revenue was actually high because of the names in the company. More people at the time knew of WCW's top names than WWE's!! We knew Stone Cold and The Rock, but then who else?

WCW had Hogan, Nash, Hall, Goldberg, DDP, Booker T, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, etc. I mean, people knew the name and bought the merchandise

EB got away with many things because he was the only guy Turner felt could do the job. They tried old school guys and even past names, but none could connect with the audience and wrestlers like Bischoff. So, Turner thought in bringing him in that things would get better and he was right. They were never more profitable than with Eric Bischoff.

Turner knew even though EB would do some stupid stuff and allow many dumb things, he couldn't let him go because of his success and knowledge that nothing better was out there.

Hope I covered everything, if I missed something or if you have any more questions, then let me know



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Joe I was wondering if you could please tell me where you got this information on WCW and Turner and Bischoff in 1999 because I have not one but two very well worn copies of Eric Bischoff's book Controversy Creates Cash from 2006 and the only thing Eric Bischoff said about WCW in 1999 was that Turner was loosing power but how do you know for a solid fact that Ted Turner was the majority owner of World Champiosghip Wrestling and Time Warner? Thank You:Aaron Wake

Answer
Turner made all the decisions, and he merged his company which had more profit than that of his mergie.

So he had majority power. Now, in 1999 there was a beginning of the loss of money, which in turn got Turner in hot water. He owned majority, so therefore owned WCW outright. This was why he could put them on TNT, since he owned that too!

Basically back then, Turner was the cable giant and there was none better. When you own Castle Rock, TNA, TBS, and Warner Bros. you are doing pretty well dang it! lol

Then add in that WCW was making money for them in the mid-90s. However at the end of the 90s, the loss of money from multiple areas led to many indecisions with Turner. But the only way out of the hole was if Turner and Time Warner merged with AOL who at the time, had millions just lying around to buy up anything they wanted, including a cable corporation up for sale that had a potential for major cash.

I know it's a solid fact that Turner owned majority, because he claimed this and was literally the guy calling all the shots. But like I said, at the end of the 90s, it was more so a power loss in that people didn't trust where he was going since everything being done was losing money seemingly.

Also, I interviewed Scott Hudson who was a commentater back then. We spoke about many things in WCW, including Turner