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Let’s clarify a few things before I proceed.
What is the Dot Com Bubble?
Investors excessively speculated the brand new Internet, leading to a market bubble that burst and hurt the economy by 2002.
In layman’s terms, investors thought the Internet in the Late 90s/early 2000s was gonna be what the Internet is now in 2021.
They thought that e-commerce in 2000/2001 was gonna be as big as it is today in 2021 or even bigger than that, due to the overhype of the brand new Internet, leading to stocks being overvalued. Especially when these companies weren’t making money, like Pets.com
The stock markets started dipping, and then crashed, it was hurt even more by 9/11 and then recovered, where it then completely crashed in March 2002(the end of the Attitude era coincidentially, notice the Attitude era started during economic boom then ended during economic crash)
For more info and study, please read the Wikipedia page.
How did the Dot Com Bubble effect WCW?
It led to the America Online merger(AOL) with Time Warner leading to AOL-Time Warner.
The Internet hype was huge and AOL was the top internet company, it was the top internet provider of the late 1990’s/early 2000’s providing dial up to millions of users.
Time Warner wanted to get into the Internet market and AOL wanted to reach the cable subscribers, there’s more to it but the fact is that they merged, now typically when a merger happens companies adjust their assets to broaden their portfolio.
Thus they put WCW up for sale, not because it lost money(#1 Meltzer’s claim of 60 million isn’t substantiated and #2 WCW revenue went to other divisons at Turner such as Warner Bros Home Video for Home Video, Turner sports for PPV etc leading to reported losses, meaning they didn’t keep the money earned, it went to other divsions) but because Wrestling, at least back then, wasn’t an upscale brand to have.
Hence why they sold off WCW, YET kept the Atlanta Braves which lost about $100 million dollars and never made money under Time Warner yet they didn’t sell it off. So it wasn’t about money, especially since WCW did make money buy the revenue was allocated to other Turner divisions, WCW TV shows were the highest rated on their networks TNT and TBS, and they were undergoing a merger
Now the overvalue of AOL was to the point where AOL got the power and 55% of the merged company
This poses a problem because while they are a successful Internet company, they have zero credibility and experience in entertainment.
They made Jamie Kellner head of Turner Networks, Turner Broad and in his very first act he cancels WCW programming on both TNT and TBS.
Now, the company is getting sold, so it has nothing to do with money, all they’re gonna do is air the shows whether Bischoff or WWF buy it(WWF can’t buy it because they would air the shows due to Viacom exclusive contract), as WCW Nitro and WCW Thunder were their highest rated shows on TNT and TBS.
The reason is given:
TBS spokesman, Jim Weiss, said: ''Basically we've decided that professional wrestling, in its current incarnation, is not consistent with the upscale brands we've built at TNT and TBS. Therefore, we will not be carrying it.''
Mr. Kellner had no comment.[/QUOTE]
Though TBS and TNT are consistently among the top-rated cable networks, the two networks have been criticized by analysts for lacking a clear identity.
So no matter what Wrestling it was, it was going to be taken off, as they were branding TNT as drama and TBS into comedy, they didn’t see wrestling in its then incarnation(attitude era) matching their upscale brands:
to
Oh...
...then Jamie Kellner messed up Cartoon Network when him being in charge led to creative disagreements with the very person who led to Cartoon Network’s success Betty Cohen. The fact that he creatively disagreed with her when she was there since the start and led them to success, scratch that... the fact that he disagreed with her WHILE they were at their peak shows this guy shouldn’t have held this position, he cancelled TNT and TBS highest rated shows in Nitro and Thunder, then pretty much ruined Cartoon Network.
In conclusion: WCW being apart of a media conglomerate in Time Warner was a problem, as media conglomerates latch on to innovative and profitable business ventures, via acquisitions and mergers.
The internet bubble allowed an upstart internet provider in America Online(AOL) to basically take over(55%) this media conglomerate despite zero credibility and experience in entertainment, leading to WCW being sold due to merger and then cancelled to due to an internet provider company now managing an entertainment company with absolutely zero experience and credibility in the entertainment/media business.
Leading to the sale of WCW and then nonsensical cancellation of WCW television, their highest rated shows/biggest money makers on Turner networks.
Bischoff didn’t want to buy it as it was deemed worthless without TV, the idea of weekly ppv with TNA and having the company as Home Video sales via tape library didn’t exist yet, so he passed.
WWFE, INC bought WCW(well not the actual company if you want to be technical buy the trademark, assets, copyright, certain conetc) and it was put on the shelf.
WWF didn’t beat WCW, WCW didn’t go out of business, WWF bought WCW and didn’t do anything with it, they put it on the shelf just like Mcmahon said he would on his promo the night he announced the sale on Raw.
By the time of the merger, Broadband started taking off so Dial up lost it’s newness hype, which lead to AOL losing its credibility as the decade went on.
AOL-Time Warner ended up losing $99 billion a year later, and it is to this day the worst merger in company history
This isn’t even the full story, it would take pages upon pages to go through this.
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