World Championship Wrestling

[rant]

 

[rant]

WCW Greed
March 18th 2001
Live from The Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida


*Before the opening contest, Jerry “The King” Lawler made his WCW debut and joined Tony Schiavone on commentary, seemingly replacing Scott Hudson.
| Jason Jett defeated Kwee Wee by pinfall.

| Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo defeated Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio Jr to become the first ever Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions.

| Shawn Stasiak w/Stacy Keibler defeated Bam Bam Bigelow by pinfall.

| Team Canada (Lance Storm and Mike Awesome) defeated Hugh Morris and Konnan in a Tag Team Match.
*Per the stipulation of the match, Hugh Morris was fired from WCW.


| Shane Helms defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. by pinfall to win the Cruiserweight Championship.

| Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo defeated Totally Buffed (Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger) to retain the WCW Tag Team Championship.
*In what Tony Schiavone on commentary called “one of the most dominant performances in recent memory” as the match only lasted 54 Seconds.

| Ernest “The Cat” Miller defeated Kanyon by pinfall.
*After the match, Kanyon attacked Miller but was chased off by M.I Smooth.

| Booker T defeated Rick Steiner by pinfall to win the WCW United States Championship.
*”The Outlaw” BG James made his WCW debut and cost Rick Steiner the match, Booker T seemed aggravated that someone got involved.

*In the Magnificent Seven lockeroom, Buff Bagwell is found out cold following an attack.

| Dusty Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes defeated Jeff Jarrett and Ric Flair in a Tag Team Match.
*Following the match, Dustin Rhodes held Jeff Jarrett in the corner and Dusty delivered a Stink Face.

| Scott Steiner defeated Diamond Dallas Page via referee stoppage to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
*The Match was No DQ. DDP was knocked unconscious by a steel pipe to the head by Midajah while trying to fight off the three of the Magnificent Seven (Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner, Lex Luger). Steiner then locked in the Steiner Recliner and the ref called the match.​

 

[The ScapeDubb]

SO FUCKING HYPE. Give it to me, rant. Give it to me!

(I'm pretty excited about this).

 

[Deco90]

I like the sound of this, Rant. Good luck man! I'll be following

 

[rant]

Monday March 19 2001

After months of back and forth Fusient Media Ventures, an integrated media company that invests in high-potential, branded media properties, has officially acquired World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc). The news of a potential purchase by Fusient was first reported on January 11th of this year. Following the acquisition, Turner Broadcasting still retains a minority share in WCW business as well as long term programming rights.

The hold up appeared to be that Eric Bischoff(newly named president of WCW following the acquisition) wanted the WCW product to “go dark” for a couple of months before relaunching in late summer. TBS Inc. refused to hold WCW’s spot on the network that long without any product, and much of Fusient’s interest was based on the fact that there would be tv rights. After a lengthy back and forth, Bischoff agreed to the terms of not taking a break from programming.

In one of Bischoff’s first moves as president, he moved Dusty Rhodes back to being one of the heads of creative, Dusty was a creative mainstay in WCW’s early years, and also brought in former CEO of ECW Paul Heyman to co head creative with Rhodes. Heyman is known as being the driving force behind ECW in the later half of the 90s. ECW has recently closed its doors and word was that the WWF was looking to sign Heyman.

Speaking of Heyman, word is that since the closing of ECW he has been helping in contract negotiations between several members of the ECW roster to get them into WCW. Some have already debuted, including Jason Jett(formerly known as EZ Money) and Kid Kash. A few more names are said to be debuting in WCW soon, but one of the mainstays in ECW, Rob Van Dam, has apparently chosen to sign a massive contact with WWF instead.

On the subject of debuts, this past Sunday at Greed the wrestling world saw two people make the jump to WCW. “The Outlaw” BG James (formerly known as Road Dogg in WWF), and Jerry “The King Lawler. Both men recently left WWF on bad terms and were looking to make the jump as quick as possible. BG James apparently showed up at the arena for Greed as a guest and looked to get some face time with Eric Bischoff. Bischoff was intrigued by the idea of surprising the crowd, that without even signing a contact he sent James out to the ring to make an appearance. James signed a contact early this morning. Jerry Lawler left WWF following the firing of his wife Stacy Carter (known in WWF as The Kat). Part of Lawler’s deal apparently got Carter a role within WCW as well.

Jerry Lawler joining the commentary team on Sunday will be a permanent thing going forward. Bischoff wants the weekly product to be different so moving forward Tony Schiavone will stop doing double duty and will only be on Monday Nitro with Lawler, while the commentary team on Thunder will be Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson.

Finally, the stipulation for the tag team match between the team of Hugh Morris and Konnan against Team Canada (Lance Storm and Mike Awesome) wasn’t announced until right before the match. The stipulation (Hugh Morris being fired should they lose) was added last minute after Bischoff made the decision to move Morris to be a trainer at the WCW Power Plant.​

 

[BattleTank]

Fuck yeah, Rant! I love me some WCW from this time period so I will be most certainly following. Best of luck with this, brother!

 

[rant]

Roster

CHAMPIONS

World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner
United States Championship Booker T
WCW Tag Team Champions Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo
Cruiserweight Champion Shane Helms
Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions The Primetime Playboys (Kid Romeo and Elix Skipper)

SINGLES COMPETITORS

Alex Wright
Animal
Bam Bam Bigelow
BG James
Booker T
Buff Bagwell
Dustin Rhodes
Ernest “The Cat” Miller
Jeff Jarrett
Kanyon
Kevin Nash (Injured)
Konnan
Lex Luger
Mark Jindrak
MI Smooth
Reno
Rick Steiner
Scott Steiner
Shawn Stasiak
Sting (Injured)

CRUISERWEIGHT DIVISION

Chavo Guerrero
Jason Jett
Jamie Knoble
Kid Kash
Kwee Wee
Lash LeRoux
Shane Helms


CRUISERWEIGHT TAG TEAM DIVISION

3 Count (Evan Karagias and Shannon Moore)
Air Raid (Air Paris and AJ Styles)
The Boogie Knights (Disco Inferno and Mike Sanders)
The Filthy Animals (Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman)
The Jung Dragons (Yang and Kaz Hayashi)
The Primetime Playboys (Kid Romeo and Elix Skipper)

TAG TEAM DIVISION

The Magnificent Seven (Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, Ric Flair, Animal, Buff Bagwell, and Lex Luger)

Kronik (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark)
Team Canada (Lance Storm and Mike Awesome)
The Mamalukes (Big Vito and Johnny “The Bull” Stamboli)
The Natural Born Thrillers (Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo)


ON-AIR PERSONALITIES

Tony Schiavone (Nitro Commentator)
Jerry Lawler (Nitro Commentator)
Mike Tenay (Thunder Commentator)
Scott Hudson (Thunder Commentator)

Jeremy Borash (Backstage Interviewer)

Midajah (Valet for Scott Steiner)
Ric Flair (Manager for The Magnificent Seven/Occasional Wrestler)
Stacy Kiebler (Valet for Shawn Stasiak)

​

 

[DTP]

I’m very exciting to see what we have here. As you may know full well, I’ve done my fair share of research into this period in professional wrestling history. I actually began following the WWF for the first time in May 2001, so this era will always hold a very special place in my heart.

I’ve seen many WCW 2001 diaries come and go. I’ve seen Fusient Media take WCW to Hard Rock Cafe, and I’ve seen multiple unique iterations of an InVasion angle done right. So with that said, I am very invested in the unique direction you will take. The news bulletin was a nice prologue, though I’m not too certain about bringing in Paul Heyman to serve as a co-creative with Dusty Rhodes. Given the immense history between WCW and ECW, I don’t think Heyman at this stage would have been caught dead near this venture. I like the inclusion of certain talents from ECW, and I like Kid Kash coming in. Guy had heaps of potential as ECW’s doors closed. Rob Van Dam was practically all theirs by the end, so this isn’t a bad shout. I’m reluctant to the idea that a guy like Road Dogg post-rehabilitation would do much good for WCW long-term, but for a short-term buzz he might be of use. The last thing we want is a predecessor to TNA. I do think there is an argument for Stacy Carter to be more than a nepotistic hire, and Jerry Lawler is no doubt fresh off his post-WWF release.

I’m curious what the situation is surrounding Turner Broadcasting and the future of WCW programming, since it was known that Monday Nitro and Thunder were definitely getting the boot at this time.

Hopeful to see more from this in the near future, but I like what I’m seeing so far.