WCW Reborn...2009
In the fall of 2008, WWE was faced with it's biggest challenge and that was a hostile takeover by billionaire, Mark Cuban.a life-long wrestling fan, was looking for new programs to go along with his HDFights on his new HDNEt channel. Vince McMahon, in a last effort to save his beloved WWE offered a proposal to stop the takeover instead. Vince gave Cuban the option to take the contract of any tweleve WWE's superstars who have never won a WWE or World Heavyweight championship. This would give Cuban a strong base of well-known stars to start the promotion. Cuban liked the idea but made a counter-offer to the WWE Chairman that would allow him to use the WCW name and licensed names associated with the brand, he would let Vince keep the precious WCW video library. Vince agreed to the deal instead of taking the chance of losing everything.
Mark Cuban quickly established his brain trust, hiring former ROH head booker,Gabe Sabolsky and shockingly wrestling journalist, Dave Metzler to organize the talent roster and run the shows. The two went to work scouting wrestlers from WWE, TNA and all over the world.Cuban added his own flair for making news by signing a famous fighter from outside the pro wrestling world but hired respected veteran Dean Malenko to train him.WCW built what they wanted an exciting roster filled with people who hadn't yet reached the top of the business but who would do anything to get there.
The three also decided they wanted this promotion to be more fan and wrestling friendly. They decided to broadcast the two WCW weekly shows out of Dallas, Texas to save costs and for less traveling for the talent. The two shows will be an hour long each as Nitro will air at 9pm on Tuesday nights and Thunder will be on Thursday nights at 9pm, both on HDNet. They then planned a North American Eight Week Summer Tour to help create a fan base as well as two week tours of Japan and Europe in the winter months. Cuban also decided to host only four pay per views and to show 8 Supercards on cable. The four pay per view shows were announced as Starrcade (January, Dallas), SuperBrawl (April, Chicago), Great American Bash (the finale of the Summer Tour in July, Atlanta) and Halloween Havoc (October, Los Angeles). The "free" supercards will be hailed as various "Clash of the Champions" in non-ppv months to come from various cities (Houston, Charlotte, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, Tokoyo, and London).
The hirings were finalized and it was announced that the WCW would make it's comeback on June 2, 2009. The official WCW roster was posted on it's website today and quickly fans were excited by the young,international flavored roster and the announcement of the promotion's titles.
Mark Cuban quickly established his brain trust, hiring former ROH head booker,Gabe Sabolsky and shockingly wrestling journalist, Dave Metzler to organize the talent roster and run the shows. The two went to work scouting wrestlers from WWE, TNA and all over the world.Cuban added his own flair for making news by signing a famous fighter from outside the pro wrestling world but hired respected veteran Dean Malenko to train him.WCW built what they wanted an exciting roster filled with people who hadn't yet reached the top of the business but who would do anything to get there.
The three also decided they wanted this promotion to be more fan and wrestling friendly. They decided to broadcast the two WCW weekly shows out of Dallas, Texas to save costs and for less traveling for the talent. The two shows will be an hour long each as Nitro will air at 9pm on Tuesday nights and Thunder will be on Thursday nights at 9pm, both on HDNet. They then planned a North American Eight Week Summer Tour to help create a fan base as well as two week tours of Japan and Europe in the winter months. Cuban also decided to host only four pay per views and to show 8 Supercards on cable. The four pay per view shows were announced as Starrcade (January, Dallas), SuperBrawl (April, Chicago), Great American Bash (the finale of the Summer Tour in July, Atlanta) and Halloween Havoc (October, Los Angeles). The "free" supercards will be hailed as various "Clash of the Champions" in non-ppv months to come from various cities (Houston, Charlotte, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, Tokoyo, and London).
The hirings were finalized and it was announced that the WCW would make it's comeback on June 2, 2009. The official WCW roster was posted on it's website today and quickly fans were excited by the young,international flavored roster and the announcement of the promotion's titles.
WCW INFO
Titles & Contenders
WCW World Heavweight Title-TBD
WCW United States Title-TBD
WCW Television Title-TBD
WCW World Tag Team Titles-TBD
Roster
"The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Tito Ortiz
Montell Vontavious Porter
Mr. Kennedy
Santino Morella
Johnny Nitro
"Hot Stuff" Shawn Hernandez
"The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson
The Great Muta
Mistico
"The All American" Jake Hager
Hiroshi Tanahashi
"The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels
"The Jamaician Senstaion" Kofi Kingston
"Carribbean Cool" Carlito Colon
"The Natural" Ted Dibiase Jr.
Alex Shelley
Chris Sabin
Tyler Black
Homicide
Evan "Air" Bourne
Low Ki
"The Miz" Mike Mizanin
Nigel McGuinness
Sir William Regal
"Marvelous" Mark Jindrak
"The Golden Standard" Shelton Benjamin
Kenny Omega
Colt Cabana
Teddy Hart
"Maple Leaf Muscle" Petey Williams
Mike Quackenbush
Erick Stevens
Rene Dupree
Daniel Puder
CIMA
KENTA
Prine Devitt
Other On-Air Talent
Joey Styles-play by play
"Mr. Wrestling" Steve Corino-color
Ric Flair-General Manager
Disco Inferno-interviewer/ring announcer
"Mean" Gene Okerlund-backstage interviewer
Larry Sweeney-manager
Armando Estrada-manager
Ted Dibiase Sr.-manager
Shelly Martinez-valet
Angelina Love-valet
Lacey Von Erich-valet
Ashley Massaro-valet
Sylvester Terkay-bodyguard
(This is my first BTB, so hopefully I will catch on quickly, my older brother (LAURINAITIS33) is doing this and thought I would like doing this while I stayed with him this summer.)