The Dot Com bubble killed WCW

[RLStern]

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.

 

[Chris]

He's the reason why Cartoon Network started falling off too?

 

[Deezy]

Told yall Kellner was the woat.

But it was obviously the fingerpoke of doom and viagra on a pole that killed WCW

 

[Kross Rhodes]

I’ve been saying Kellner is the Antichrist for years.

In basically posted a truncated version of this in the dumb things thread, but glad to see it expanded on.

That said, Gerald Levin is the bigger idiot. This is a man that was ceo of the largest media conglomerate ever and not only thinks it’s wise to merge with a risky dot com, but he give aol operational control of the new AOL Time Warner despite having more market share and aol never having run a large media and sports empire.

Levin is gone by 2003 and so is 99 billion dollars.

Time Warner spins off aol in 2009 and then sells it.

But please tell me about how wrestling angles killed WCW and how it lost $60 million despite a good chunk of that being reallocated debt from other divisions.

 

[RLStern]

I’ve been saying Kellner is the Antichrist for years.

In basically posted a truncated version of this in the dumb things thread, but glad to see it expanded on.

That said, Gerald Levin is the bigger idiot. This is a man that was ceo of the largest media conglomerate ever and not only thinks it’s wise to merge with a risky dot com, but he give aol operational control of the new AOL Time Warner despite having more market share and aol never having run a large media and sports empire.

Levin is gone by 2003 and so is 99 billion dollars.

Time Warner spins off aol in 2009 and then sells it.

But please tell me about how wrestling angles killed WCW and how it lost $60 million despite a good chunk of that being reallocated debt from other divisions.

He got played.... and I don’t know how.

I simply don’t see how people didn’t see the internet as a bubble/overvalued, AOL probably knew it was a bubble and that’s why they were desperate to merge with a big company(supposedly wasn’t just Time Warner in 1999, they just happened to meet)

There’s gotta be something more to this... I simply can’t believe Levin was this dense to give a dot com company 55% with zero proof of stability in their own field and zero credibility in anything other than internet.

I knew about WCW revenue being given to other divisions, but they were given other divisions DEBTS.... is this in the WCW Nitro book? It makes sense.

 

[Sky]

He's the reason why Cartoon Network started falling off too?

He certainly did a number on Kids' WB, killing off Animaniacs, Freakazoid, and the Batman/Superman animated series, and causing Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain to exist

 

[Deezy]

Jamie Kellner ruined more childhoods than the Catholic Church.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

I don't think Kellner is the reason CN started dropping off the face of the earth. CN was still (and I remember this folks) fucking awesome even after Kellner left in 2003 and stayed awesome right until 2007, when that fucking moron Stuart Snyder was hired (after the great Jim Samples retired after the Mooninite Bomb Scare) as President of Cartoon Network and he introduced the awful CN Real block in 2009, and killed off most of the popular shows of the era. Thank god he was fired in 2014, but his successors haven't been able to do much.

 

[RLStern]

I don't think Kellner is the reason CN started dropping off the face of the earth. CN was still (and I remember this folks) fucking awesome even after Kellner left in 2003 and stayed awesome right until 2007, when that fucking moron Stuart Snyder was hired (after the great Jim Samples retired after the Mooninite Bomb Scare) as President of Cartoon Network and he introduced the awful CN Real block in 2009, and killed off most of the popular shows of the era. Thank god he was fired in 2014, but his successors haven't been able to do much.

Cartoon Network was a channel that had classic cartoons, then in 1999 they added original new cartoons.

1999-2001/2002 they peak having both, then in 2002 or 2003 they make classics exclusive to Boomerang, which not everyone had. 2004 they reboot.

That ruined the channel.

 

[Deezy]

Peaked with space ghost.

 

[Sabretooth]

I mean I hate Cartoon Network now too and the classic CN was one of the best parts of my childhood BUT you can’t expect those shows to be around forever. They had to create new shows. The new shows are trash lol but maybe that’s just the adult in me talking.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Cartoon Network was a channel that had classic cartoons, then in 1999 they added original new cartoons.

1999-2001/2002 they peak having both, then in 2002 or 2003 they make classics exclusive to Boomerang, which not everyone had. 2004 they reboot.

That ruined the channel.

Bruh, 2003-2007 still had Billy and Mandy, Foster's Home, Ed Edd & Eddy, Class of 3000 (An underrated show, come at me fellas), and Chowder, while still airing re-runs of classic cartoons such as Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab, etc. I lived through all of that; it was all still there. They were simply in adjusted time-slots. Plus 2005 was probably the Zenith of Adult Swim with Family Guy at its peak, Futurama, The Venture Bros. second season, The Boondock's first season, ATHF still going on, Robot Chicken, Harvey Birdman; fucking Toonami was still a thing.

Cartoon Network was still going strong. In June of 2005, Cartoon Network was still by far the most watched dedicated cartoon channel, far outstripping Nickelodeon.

What killed the channel was the lack of new quality shows and, again, that fucking idiot Stuart Snyder.

 

[Deezy]

You listed more reruns and syndicated shows than original content....was it actually still that good?

 

[RLStern]

I mean I hate Cartoon Network now too and the classic CN was one of the best parts of my childhood BUT you can’t expect those shows to be around forever. They had to create new shows. The new shows are trash lol but maybe that’s just the adult in me talking.

Classic cartoons was always one of the main draws of Cartoon Network. The new cartoons were over from 99-01, but that’s it. The new cartoons after no and now they didn’t have classics anymore, not everyone had boomerang.

Bruh, 2003-2007 still had Billy and Mandy, Foster's Home, Ed Edd & Eddy, Class of 3000 (An underrated show, come at me fellas), and Chowder, while still airing re-runs of classic cartoons such as Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab, etc. I lived through all of that; it was all still there. They were simply in adjusted time-slots. Plus 2005 was probably the Zenith of Adult Swim with Family Guy at its peak, Futurama, The Venture Bros. second season, The Boondock's first season, ATHF still going on, Robot Chicken, Harvey Birdman; fucking Toonami was still a thing.

Cartoon Network was still going strong. In June of 2005, Cartoon Network was still by far the most watched dedicated cartoon channel, far outstripping Nickelodeon.

What killed the channel was the lack of new quality shows and, again, that fucking idiot Stuart Snyder.

2003-2007 I wasn’t watching Cartoon Network anymore and those new shows were irrelevant compared to the new shows from 97-02, now WITHOUT the classic cartoons.

And stop, from 2001 and on Spongebob surpassed Rugrats and nothing CN produced was anywhere close, PLUS they always had live action draws, and doubled it in the early 2000s(prior to this we only had All That, Kenna & Kel, & Amanda show) with Double Dare 2000, Taina, Brothers Garcia, then Drake & Josh, Ned’s etc in mid 2000s.

It was a wrap for CN, all they had to do is produce new mainstream content like they did in 97-02, while airing classics like they always did, but they cancelled classics to make them boomerang exclusive and started producing quiet frankly weird & niche cartoons.

It shows Jamie Kellner didn’t have a clue, he ruined multiple channels, cancelling the highest rated shows on TNT and TBS is horrible business no matter how anyone tries to spin it.