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Post by Natural Born Farmer on Dec 28, 2017 21:38:34 GMT -5
Of all the times Nitro lost in the ratings to what was on USA the most humiliating one came on February 14, 2000 when Nitro lost not to Raw, but to the Westminster Dog Show Way too lazy to look into this, but USA pre-empted Raw for the dog show every year. I can’t imagine them doing such unless there was a sizeable audience for it, so maybe that particular L isnt’t really one?
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Dec 28, 2017 22:47:45 GMT -5
The whole Scott Hall legacy. The man gets into all kinds of shit due to his drug and alcohol issues-and WCW sends him home with pay, effectively sending him on a paid vacation. Whatever else we can say, no way that would fly in today’s WWE. Well according to Nash wcw let them go to the ring while they were drunk. During Spring Break when Kevin did the cannonball on the pool to escape from the Giant, you can tell both Nash and Hall were f***ed up.
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Urethra Franklin
King Koopa
When Toronto sports teams lose, Alison Brie is sad
Posts: 11,075
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Post by Urethra Franklin on Dec 28, 2017 23:33:50 GMT -5
The whole Scott Hall legacy. The man gets into all kinds of shit due to his drug and alcohol issues-and WCW sends him home with pay, effectively sending him on a paid vacation. Whatever else we can say, no way that would fly in today’s WWE. Well according to Nash wcw let them go to the ring while they were drunk. During Spring Break when Kevin did the cannonball on the pool to escape from the Giant, you can tell both Nash and Hall were f***ed up. To say nothing of the tastelessness that was turning Hall’s very real substance abuse problem into a dumb angle.
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Honeybear Lyder
ALF
It's called a title match, dammit! I'll fire your ass, dammit! Get me a snowcone, dammit!
Posts: 1,151
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Post by Honeybear Lyder on Dec 29, 2017 2:56:37 GMT -5
They had an angle where a bunch of hired actors playing lawyers served Goldberg with some papers in the ring, and Goldberg speared them in return. Those guys being unfamiliar with wrestling, didn't sell the spears and instead just rolled out of the ring and ran to the back. At the creative meeting before that show Bobby Heenan specifically asked to have someone instruct the actors to sell. He was ignored.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Dec 29, 2017 3:25:18 GMT -5
They had an angle where a bunch of hired actors playing lawyers served Goldberg with some papers in the ring, and Goldberg speared them in return. Those guys being unfamiliar with wrestling, didn't sell the spears and instead just rolled out of the ring and ran to the back. At the creative meeting before that show Bobby Heenan specifically asked to have someone instruct the actors to sell. He was ignored. This is wcw probably nobody bothered to tell Goldberg that they were not wrestlers. Mike Graham was a piece of shit. He was an agent and pulled a knife on Perry Saturn. WCW never even suspended him. Graham also was the agent who told Barry Darsow and Dustin Runnels to bleed during the king of the road match, both guys were fired for bleeding. The Ultimate Warrior Saga. Eric Bischoff wasted millions of dollars that the company never got back in getting Hogan his victory back against Warrior. The highlights included, putting a trap door on the ring and never telling anyone, Davey Boy Smith was badly injured because of it. Vince Russo and minorities. The head writer of your company gives an interview burying foreign wrestlers causing wcw millions and millions. WCW never even suspended Russo.
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Post by Joe Neglia on Dec 29, 2017 4:01:12 GMT -5
I’ll always dispute the Jericho receipt story as having any meaning. I was high enough in retail I can tell you I had the power to tell the computer what the receipt should say. I could make the receipt say a purchase of carrots said “Hulk Hogan figure”. Hogan isn’t getting that cash. At a store level, it means nothing. Yep. Doesn't matter which figure it was or what it was ringing up as - toy stores buy by case, not individual character selection, and they purchase their lot outright. And the cases are pre-determined by the manufacturer to have a certain amount of each figure within (aka why some figures get short-packed, etc). There are no royalties to report back to WCW. The entire purchase was made at the wholesale/manufacturer level and any sort of business regarding which wrestlers get paid for however many figures of them is determined by those purchases higher-up than the single customer level.
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Post by Baby, it’s Jes outside on Dec 29, 2017 4:48:15 GMT -5
Doug Dillinger, head of security.
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Dec 29, 2017 5:05:25 GMT -5
Of all the times Nitro lost in the ratings to what was on USA the most humiliating one came on February 14, 2000 when Nitro lost not to Raw, but to the Westminster Dog Show Way too lazy to look into this, but USA pre-empted Raw for the dog show every year. I can’t imagine them doing such unless there was a sizeable audience for it, so maybe that particular L isnt’t really one? The dog show has a decent audience, but Raw always drew higher ratings. However, the ad rates for the dog show were significantly higher so USA Network made more money airing the dog show every February. (and this continues to be a big issue with wrestling to this day) Losing to the dog show was a first for Nitro, and when you consider that USA was giving up higher ratings for the ad revenue, it tells you how little ad revenue Nitro, a show losing to said dog show, was generating for Turner (and this was after Nitro's ad revenue had a third slashed off due to dropping the third hour). This is the sort of thing that becomes instrumental in WCW's death when the ownership of Time Warner shifts away from Turner.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2017 5:36:18 GMT -5
the third hour of Nitro and adding Thunder spread create really thin
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2017 9:57:32 GMT -5
Around 1999 and 2000 there were like 90 wrestlers signed and probably less than a third were actually used. And from what I understand, during the nWo years at least they'd all be at Nitros - in case they wanted to do a giant WCW/nWo brawl. I'd always gotten the impression that WCW would pay something for wrestlers' travel because whenever I used to hear about "WCW money problems" this was almost always used as a prime example...
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,260
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 29, 2017 10:17:08 GMT -5
Shannon Moore explained the airplane tickets thing in one of his shoots.
WCW would pay for airfare for a good percentage of the roster each week. The guys that knew they weren't being used would either cash in the tickets or get them changed and use the free airfare to go on vacation.
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Post by JTG Fan on Dec 29, 2017 10:23:17 GMT -5
Budget issues. Around 1999 and 2000 there were like 90 wrestlers signed and probably less than a third were actually used. Russo also according to Gene Okerlund f***ed up their budget by ordering vehicles to be destroyed and explosions that had no rhyme or reason. One of the things that truly shocks me is how they hired Russo not only to write TV but essentially left him in charge of making these huge budgetary decisions. His desire to have Nitro go back to two hour show because it was more creatively satisfying caused them to take a huge hit in lost advertising when they made that move. And it's mind boggling that a division of AOL/Time Warner would let this goof make decisions like that.
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Post by evilone on Dec 29, 2017 10:27:06 GMT -5
Shannon Moore explained the airplane tickets thing in one of his shoots. WCW would pay for airfare for a good percentage of the roster each week. The guys that knew they weren't being used would either cash in the tickets or get them changed and use the free airfare to go on vacation. I don't see nothing wrong with that. You can call it mismanagement or good will or some cash on the side. That certainly is not one of the reason why they went broke. Also saying how wrestler x is useless and should have been fired but remained on the roster is easy to say when you are on the outside. But inside they are all one giant click who take care of each other, so if a person x plans the budget and his buddy y is out of the job or being miserably paid of course they gonna go and pull some strings.
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Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻
Crow T. Robot
Knew what the hell that thing was supposed to be
Peace Love and Nothing But
Posts: 41,799
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻 on Dec 29, 2017 10:53:06 GMT -5
Chris Jericho receiving a FedEx envelope from WCW in the mail that literally had nothing in it. They also mailed him royalty cheques for $0 and 37 cents respectively once. He said s stamp costs 42 cents, what’s the point?
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Post by Alice Syndrome on Dec 29, 2017 11:11:50 GMT -5
I’ll always dispute the Jericho receipt story as having any meaning. I was high enough in retail I can tell you I had the power to tell the computer what the receipt should say. I could make the receipt say a purchase of carrots said “Hulk Hogan figure”. Hogan isn’t getting that cash. At a store level, it means nothing. Yep. Doesn't matter which figure it was or what it was ringing up as - toy stores buy by case, not individual character selection, and they purchase their lot outright. And the cases are pre-determined by the manufacturer to have a certain amount of each figure within (aka why some figures get short-packed, etc). There are no royalties to report back to WCW. The entire purchase was made at the wholesale/manufacturer level and any sort of business regarding which wrestlers get paid for however many figures of them is determined by those purchases higher-up than the single customer level. Yeah, even now the same thing applies with WWE figures. I worked at a retail warehouse over Christmas a few years back, and the pick sheets always just said "WWE Action Figure". Of course this meant that my co-workers were on a mission to give people as many midcarders as humanly possible...
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Post by Alice Syndrome on Dec 29, 2017 11:21:45 GMT -5
I'd say WCW's worst trait at the timee in terms of money was hiring people just so WWE and ECW couldn't have them. Yeah, Raven did well, but were they ever going to do anything with Whipwreck, Sandman etc?
Hell, they even hired Kimona Wanalaya. What exactly were they going to do with her?
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Dec 29, 2017 12:48:01 GMT -5
Shannon Moore explained the airplane tickets thing in one of his shoots. WCW would pay for airfare for a good percentage of the roster each week. The guys that knew they weren't being used would either cash in the tickets or get them changed and use the free airfare to go on vacation. I don't see nothing wrong with that. You can call it mismanagement or good will or some cash on the side. That certainly is not one of the reason why they went broke. Also saying how wrestler x is useless and should have been fired but remained on the roster is easy to say when you are on the outside. But inside they are all one giant click who take care of each other, so if a person x plans the budget and his buddy y is out of the job or being miserably paid of course they gonna go and pull some strings. What are you talking about? It's not good will it's them being f***ing idiots that begged the wrestlers to f*** them over. The ticket scam had existed since the company started and it was never fixed. You never hear the wwe being that stupid to give tickets to people they won't book, it's called being good at your job and wcw never understood that concept. It wasn't the main reason they went out of business but when you add it to other stuff that's why they lost more than sixty million dollars at one point. Also who cares if you want to take care of your friends? Wrestling is a business and has a budget. Yeah Jim Ross had friends who were in bad financial situations, but he was also in charge of a budget and Vince would approve every signing. Vince inspired fear and respect and nobody was gonna f*** him over to hire more of his buddies. WCW had 90 guys under contract thats not being a good friend that's wcw being f***ing idiots.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,260
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 29, 2017 12:53:32 GMT -5
Shannon Moore explained the airplane tickets thing in one of his shoots. WCW would pay for airfare for a good percentage of the roster each week. The guys that knew they weren't being used would either cash in the tickets or get them changed and use the free airfare to go on vacation. I don't see nothing wrong with that. You can call it mismanagement or good will or some cash on the side. That certainly is not one of the reason why they went broke. Also saying how wrestler x is useless and should have been fired but remained on the roster is easy to say when you are on the outside. But inside they are all one giant click who take care of each other, so if a person x plans the budget and his buddy y is out of the job or being miserably paid of course they gonna go and pull some strings. The reason WCW went under was cause AOL/Time Warner didn't want wrestling on their tv channels. Anyone that has looked into the matter knows this is the reason. Sure WCW was mismanaged. But they had been that way since at least 86.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Dec 29, 2017 12:58:50 GMT -5
Budget issues. Around 1999 and 2000 there were like 90 wrestlers signed and probably less than a third were actually used. Russo also according to Gene Okerlund f***ed up their budget by ordering vehicles to be destroyed and explosions that had no rhyme or reason. One of the things that truly shocks me is how they hired Russo not only to write TV but essentially left him in charge of making these huge budgetary decisions. His desire to have Nitro go back to two hour show because it was more creatively satisfying caused them to take a huge hit in lost advertising when they made that move. And it's mind boggling that a division of AOL/Time Warner would let this goof make decisions like that. Cornette has a great line, "the biggest tragedy in wrestling? Just add suits" The Turner executives never cared about wcw or really understood how wrestling worked. They just thought ok this guy was the main writer that turned around wwf, let's get him. They didn't know that behind Russo there was an editor in Vince McMahon who went through each idea and told him what was gonna work and what they could afford. Without McMahon, Russo went wild with spending. Bret Hart drove a monster truck without a rhyme or reason, they destroyed a car for the Sid and Goldberg feud. Renting a forklift for Judy Bagwell... The executives at Turner were only concerned about CNN, TNT, TBS, ans the Braves, wcw was so low on the totem pole and that's how they got away with being a dumpster fire and a money pit.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Dec 29, 2017 13:00:47 GMT -5
I don't see nothing wrong with that. You can call it mismanagement or good will or some cash on the side. That certainly is not one of the reason why they went broke. Also saying how wrestler x is useless and should have been fired but remained on the roster is easy to say when you are on the outside. But inside they are all one giant click who take care of each other, so if a person x plans the budget and his buddy y is out of the job or being miserably paid of course they gonna go and pull some strings. The reason WCW went under was cause AOL/Time Warner didn't want wrestling on their tv channels. Anyone that has looked into the matter knows this is the reason. Sure WCW was mismanaged. But they had been that way since at least 86. Who would want a product that was losing them sixty million a year? It got cancelled because it wasn't profitable.
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