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.
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