|
Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Apr 22, 2013 8:15:31 GMT -5
Tape Libraries - Unless you had a distribution company that was targeted at the correct fan base, these are practically worthless. Unless you are a filthy rich wrestling fan who just wants to watch them. Also, we were still a year or so away from the entertainment business realizing what DVDs could do as far as the home video market goes. So, Vince was about the only one that really could do anything with the tapes. Pretty much this. I can't help but feel that Ted Turner would have bought the trademarks and tape library for himself had he any clue how much money could be made down the line. He kept a lot of the music, if I remember correctly, because people have known the value of a song for a long time.
|
|
Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
Posts: 28,961
|
Post by Sephiroth on Apr 22, 2013 8:23:43 GMT -5
I might add that AOL/Time Warner were just plain wanted to be rid of WCW. Few execs at Time Warner ever really liked having a wrestling company in their empire, even if it was making huge money in the 90's; most of them wouldn't even publicly acknowledge WCW's existence and tried multiple times to convince Turner to unload it. After the AOL deal they just finally had the opportunity with Ted no longer being in charge, and the perfect reason with WCW being a black hole. They probably would have taken even less just to be rid of it.
|
|
|
Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Apr 22, 2013 8:35:23 GMT -5
I might add that AOL/Time Warner were just plain wanted to be rid of WCW. Few execs at Time Warner ever really liked having a wrestling company in their empire, even if it was making huge money in the 90's; most of them wouldn't even publicly acknowledge WCW's existence and tried multiple times to convince Turner to unload it. After the AOL deal they just finally had the opportunity with Ted no longer being in charge, and the perfect reason with WCW being a black hole. They probably would have taken even less just to be rid of it. That's probably the same reason none of the networks would have bought it even if the sale hadn't happened so quickly. I can't imagine a company like Viacom or NBC having any different results trying to actually produce their own wrestling company.
|
|
|
Post by Father Dougal McGuire on Apr 22, 2013 9:21:26 GMT -5
Long story short, after Ted Turner, WCW's biggest backer, was let go by Time Warner/AOL, Time Warner/AOL wanted to get rid of WCW as soon as possible since it was hemorrhaging money.
|
|
|
Post by aaronslip on Apr 22, 2013 16:42:02 GMT -5
This whole tapes being worthless thing... not buying it. I wonder how much WCW comps would have made over the last decade if WWE didn't own the right...
|
|
thecrusherwi
El Dandy
the Financially Responsible Man
Brawl For All
Posts: 7,659
|
Post by thecrusherwi on Apr 22, 2013 21:48:44 GMT -5
This whole tapes being worthless thing... not buying it. I wonder how much WCW comps would have made over the last decade if WWE didn't own the right... Yeah they're worth a lot if you have the hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours to put into editing, packaging and distributing those comps to the correct market. WWE was the only one that had all that in place. They're the ones with the built in market. And they could pair it with their own WWE footage. Imagine doing any of the most successful WCW DVDs that WWE has released without any WWE footage or access to interviews with any WWE talent. Oh yeah, and unless you bought the trademarks too, you have to pay royalties on every copy you actually sell. It's hard to see how any company other than WWE could've made any money on WCW's assets.
|
|
|
Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Apr 22, 2013 22:09:44 GMT -5
This whole tapes being worthless thing... not buying it. I wonder how much WCW comps would have made over the last decade if WWE didn't own the right... And again, this is 2001. VHS players are still way more commonplace than DVDs, which are still in their infancy, and the first compilations were still about a year away from being produced. In particular, it was the Ultimate Ric Flair Collection that really revolutionized the multi-disc set, and that didn't come until November 2003. Yeah, there was money to be made off the tape library, but almost nobody knew that at the time and had the hindsight, resources, and logistics to do so.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2013 22:40:04 GMT -5
I have to agree with what has already been said. Sadly.
In 2001 both WCW and ECW died, so who else was there to really step in?
|
|
|
Post by steamboat1 on Apr 22, 2013 22:41:09 GMT -5
I might add that AOL/Time Warner were just plain wanted to be rid of WCW. Few execs at Time Warner ever really liked having a wrestling company in their empire, even if it was making huge money in the 90's; most of them wouldn't even publicly acknowledge WCW's existence and tried multiple times to convince Turner to unload it. After the AOL deal they just finally had the opportunity with Ted no longer being in charge, and the perfect reason with WCW being a black hole. They probably would have taken even less just to be rid of it. This is very true. AOL for their portfolio desperately wanted a money pit off of their books and were willing to take a one time hit to do it. Bischoff had his group in place and had actually met with the entire WCW locker room about their futures and had agreed to buy the company in January. AOL never committed to the TV spots being part of the deal, the only thing Bischoff and his group were purchasing was the intellectual properties of WCW. This was a big back breaker for the investment group and Bischoff would scramble for the next 2 months to try to find a channel to carry WCW. However an executive by the name of Brad Seigal knew this would be a deal breaker for any potential investor. You often hear wrestlers say "if I knew what they were selling it for I would have bought it." Brad Seigal knew that the only person that would buy WCW would be somebody that already has a TV distributor and knew this was his chance to make his mark in a new company. Seigal then contacts Vince and sets up what essentially is a backdoor deal with Vince along the lines of "Ok this is what Bischoff is willing to pay, if the Bischoff thing falls through which I think it will, what can I sell this thing to you for." Basically, Seigal did it do make himself look like the initiator of the whole sale, as opposed to the work with Bischoff of Bill Busch and the rest of the WCW reps that would keep their jobs with AOL after the company was sold. Seigal knew that if he had a deal in place when the Bischoff team falls through, that he would get all the credit for the quick sale of the asset. Turns out in early March, Bischoff's thing falls through, Vince is the only investor with a deal that can be made as Vince was the only person that knew that Bischoff's team might pull out, Vince buys WCW and Brad Seigal looks like an astute business man in the eyes of his new employer at AOL. Basically, insider trading at its finest.
|
|
|
Post by Citizen Snips Has Left on Apr 23, 2013 6:32:54 GMT -5
Who else was going to buy WCW as the only thing of value there was the tape library. Chris Jericho said if he knew the price was that low, he would have bid on it. Not sure what he would have done with it, though. Best of Ralphus, I imagine.
|
|
SOR
Unicron
Posts: 2,611
|
Post by SOR on Apr 23, 2013 7:25:29 GMT -5
Who else was going to buy WCW as the only thing of value there was the tape library. Chris Jericho said if he knew the price was that low, he would have bid on it. Not sure what he would have done with it, though. Best of Ralphus, I imagine. He was joking, However Ric Flair wrote in his book that he would of seriously considered buying WCW.
|
|
|
Post by crowwreak was WRONG on Apr 23, 2013 11:42:10 GMT -5
For perspective, Floyd Mayweather's pointless appearance was worth 5 WCWs
|
|
nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
Posts: 5,725
|
Post by nisidhe on Apr 23, 2013 13:49:27 GMT -5
Wasn't this also around the time that AOL was merging with TimeWarner? I could see how both companies would have wanted to be rid of the deadwood in the run-up to the merger. Some here have mentioned that WCW turned a profit during its peak years but Reynolds and Alvarez's book _The Death of WCW_ disputes that.
Most companies would have a problem with dumping any subsidiary that was making a profit, regardless of the activity or the sources of revenue. I could see TimeWarner not wanting to sully their holdings with a wrasslin' company, but I doubt they'd drop one making WWE's profit figures. WCW was dropped primarily because it was and always had been a money pit under the TimeWarner umbrella.
|
|