World Championship Wrestling 2000. Need I say more? A company once primed to take over the wrestling world, established from the glory days of the NWA, to dominate the ratings with the emergence of the NWO and a television show formatted like no wrestling program before it (Nitro). Now here we stand well into the last quarter of the year 2000, coming off the most tumultuous month within the most tumultuous year in the company's history. In April, Kevin Sullivan was relieved of his booking duties, and placed at the helm was the unlikely alliance of Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo. Initially there was some hope, with the early times of The Millionaires Club vs. The New Blood showing promise. Dramas continued to bring the company down though, with Scott Hall falling out with management, Bret Hart was to find out that he’d be forced to medically retire, and Hulk Hogan had quit due to issues with Russo. Bischoff had also seemingly disappeared, his partnership with Russo not panning out to his liking.
At the beginning of October, WCW attempted to hit a relatively fresh market in Australia, touring and taping television for two weeks. The shows were deemed a success in terms of ticket sales, but the idea wasn’t sustainable. Poor creative direction and egos continued to cause further friction in the locker room. An increasingly erratic Scott Steiner was sent home, Kimberly Page had filed a complaint with human resources, Sonny Oono and Hardbody Harrison filed a racial discrimination lawsuit, and Juventud Guerrera nearly overdosed on a mix of ecstasy and crystal meth. Juvi’s extracurricular activity led to a scene with police at a Brisbane hotel, leading to his release from the company.
Having complete control with Bischoff sent home, Russo made some terrible decisions. These included putting himself over, getting himself involved in the in ring action, and awarding himself the WCW Championship. Not only did this lead to the lowest ratings for WCW programming in nearly five years, but it also led to him personally suffering a severe concussion. Although based on some of his booking decisions, one has to wonder if the concussion was already there. Anyway, the powers that be realized enough was enough, and they pulled the plug on Vince Russo.
It was a hell of a ride and a short one, but after Halloween Havoc the previous evening, on the morning of October 30th, 2000, Russo was officially released from his duties as head writer for WCW.
With a wealth of industry knowledge still on the books, a decision was made to turn to some of the old heads and in essence the past, to help fix the mistakes of the present, and improve in the future. Not only that but Ted Turner decided that business decisions would be further monitored by employees in his office. Things like talent signings and purchases, resulting in heavy expenditure would need to be approved by them.
The new booking committee consisted of Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes, Ed Ferrara, Mike Tenay, Paul Orndorff and Terry Taylor. The first decision that the group made, somewhat of a reboot. They understood that it may hurt for the next episode of Nitro, but it’s expected to do wonders for the immediate future.
Tonight’s episode of Nitro required a complete rewrite, with scripts and storylines getting a complete overhaul. Everything coming out of Halloween Havoc would be restructured to suit the new booking committee’s aim, and not Russo’s. Communications were sent to WCW wrestlers of the changes immediately, with rather mixed results. Some of the timings may have been a coincidence, some directly related, but below are some of the immediate results:
Mike Sanders
Rey Mysterio
Shannon Moore
The Wall
Vampiro
Brian Knobbs
Kendall Windham
Kwee Wee
Lash LeRoux
Paisley
Prince Iaukea
Reno
Scotty Riggs
Shawn Stasiak
Symphony
The KISS Demon Dale Toroborg
The Maestro
Tygress
The new era of WCW begins tonight on the October 30th edition of Nitro…
Roster post to follow whenever I decide to write it…
At the beginning of October, WCW attempted to hit a relatively fresh market in Australia, touring and taping television for two weeks. The shows were deemed a success in terms of ticket sales, but the idea wasn’t sustainable. Poor creative direction and egos continued to cause further friction in the locker room. An increasingly erratic Scott Steiner was sent home, Kimberly Page had filed a complaint with human resources, Sonny Oono and Hardbody Harrison filed a racial discrimination lawsuit, and Juventud Guerrera nearly overdosed on a mix of ecstasy and crystal meth. Juvi’s extracurricular activity led to a scene with police at a Brisbane hotel, leading to his release from the company.
Having complete control with Bischoff sent home, Russo made some terrible decisions. These included putting himself over, getting himself involved in the in ring action, and awarding himself the WCW Championship. Not only did this lead to the lowest ratings for WCW programming in nearly five years, but it also led to him personally suffering a severe concussion. Although based on some of his booking decisions, one has to wonder if the concussion was already there. Anyway, the powers that be realized enough was enough, and they pulled the plug on Vince Russo.
It was a hell of a ride and a short one, but after Halloween Havoc the previous evening, on the morning of October 30th, 2000, Russo was officially released from his duties as head writer for WCW.
With a wealth of industry knowledge still on the books, a decision was made to turn to some of the old heads and in essence the past, to help fix the mistakes of the present, and improve in the future. Not only that but Ted Turner decided that business decisions would be further monitored by employees in his office. Things like talent signings and purchases, resulting in heavy expenditure would need to be approved by them.
The new booking committee consisted of Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes, Ed Ferrara, Mike Tenay, Paul Orndorff and Terry Taylor. The first decision that the group made, somewhat of a reboot. They understood that it may hurt for the next episode of Nitro, but it’s expected to do wonders for the immediate future.
Tonight’s episode of Nitro required a complete rewrite, with scripts and storylines getting a complete overhaul. Everything coming out of Halloween Havoc would be restructured to suit the new booking committee’s aim, and not Russo’s. Communications were sent to WCW wrestlers of the changes immediately, with rather mixed results. Some of the timings may have been a coincidence, some directly related, but below are some of the immediate results:
- Bret Hart officially retired via the Calgary Sun this morning
- The following wrestlers requested and were granted release:
Mike Sanders
Rey Mysterio
Shannon Moore
The Wall
Vampiro
- Realizing more roster decisions needed to be made for the company to be sustainable, the new booking committee decided to forcefully release the following
Brian Knobbs
Kendall Windham
Kwee Wee
Lash LeRoux
Paisley
Prince Iaukea
Reno
Scotty Riggs
Shawn Stasiak
Symphony
The KISS Demon Dale Toroborg
The Maestro
Tygress
The new era of WCW begins tonight on the October 30th edition of Nitro…
Roster post to follow whenever I decide to write it…
