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WCW Cruiserweight Tag

World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW Inc.) was a privately held American professional wrestling promotion currently owned by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a subsidiary.[1] Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting purchased the promotion, renaming it "World Championship Wrestling". Turner, and later Time Warner, owned WCW until 2001 when it was purchased by its primary Roy Hibbert Mens Jersey competitor, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now known as WWE.[2][3]

Starting in 1995 WCW improved their economic stability, largely due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer, the hiring of Hulk Hogan, the introduction of Nitro and the resultant Monday Night Wars, the New World Order and other innovative concepts. However, numerous problems led to the company losing its lead. Its fall from grace and the various factors leading up to it have been heavily documented within the industry.

The name "World Championship Wrestling" was first used as a brand and television show in 1982. Jim Barnett, who had worked for the World Championship Wrestling promotion in Australia, came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle over the NWA Georgia territory.[4] Barnett wound up as the majority owner of the territory, and he wound up using the name for the territory's television program in 1982. The brand eventually passed on to Jim Crockett Promotions.

However, it was not until November 21, 1988 that an actual NWA affiliated promotion called World Championship Wrestling appeared on the national scene, under the ownership of media mogul Ted Turner, based in Atlanta, Georgia. While initially the new company was called Universal Wrestling Corporation, very shortly following Evan Turner Mens Jersey the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" name for the new promotion.

Leadership and booking

The company went through various changes in its leadership and booking during the following years. Some people, like Jim Herd and Kip Frey, were completely lacking in wrestling experience; others, like Bill Watts, Ole Anderson, and Dusty Rhodes had extensive wrestling experience, but were so entrenched in the old territorial methods of promotion that they were ineffective at building WCW's audience.

While Eric Bischoff has received much criticism for some of his mishandling while he acted as WCW Executive Producer (and later, WCW President), he combined an understanding of wrestling with a willingness to make changes that were needed in order to help WCW become more visible in the eyes of the media and advertisers. These changes including moving some television tapings to Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, and signing both main event performers and young stars from around the world.

Some of the creative freedoms that Bischoff granted main event level talent helped to bring the company down, as main event level talent were less than cooperative in helping rising stars fulfill their potential, a staple of the industry. Russo did not last long in his position, but in April 2000, WCW opted to bring Russo and Bischoff back in hopes that the duo might re spark interest in WCW. The two, however, did not get along well and Bischoff soon left the company.

WCW Roy Hibbert Pink Jersey in other media

From 2000 to 2001, Monster Jam had a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers' names. These include nWo (2000), Sting (2000 2001), Nitro Machine (2000 currently Inferno), Madusa (2000 present) and Goldberg (2000 currently Maximum Destruction). The first to go was nWo, which only ran for a season. Next, all but Goldberg, Nitro, and Madusa were retired after the WCW sponsorship was lost. Nitro then became Flashfire, then was converted into Inferno. Madusa has stayed as the same name ever since it was created, because it is driven by former WCW superstar Madusa. As for Goldberg, it was changed to Team Meents in 2002, then into Maximum Destruction, which debuted in 2003 and continues to compete in the series.

WCW also had a presence in NASCAR from the mid 1990s to 2000, sponsoring the 29 team in the Busch Grand National Series full time and the 9 Melling Racing team in the Winston Cup Series part time. In 1996, Kyle Petty's 49 car in the Busch Grand National series was sponsored by the nWo. Then, Wally Dallenbach, Jr. sponsored WCW driving for Galaxy Motorsports for a couple races.

Acquisition by the World Wrestling Federation

As 2000 came to a close, a number of potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company. Ted Turner, however, was still in charge of Time Warner prior to the final merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001 (shortly following the AOL/Time Warner merger), and officialbasketballstore.com/evan-turner-jersey it appeared that WCW would continue.

One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out, however, leaving Fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, the World Wrestling Federation began speaking to the new AOL Time Warner about acquiring the WCW brand. Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division, and deemed WCW wrestling to be out of line with their image. As a result, WCW programming was canceled on both TBS and TNT, leaving Vince McMahon's company, which at the time had an exclusive deal with Viacom, free to acquire the trademarks, video libraries and a few contracts.

During the sale, WCW was in litigation, with various lawsuits pending, and AOL Time Warner still had to pay various performers their guaranteed deals, as many had contracts directly with the parent company, and not with WCW. WCW dominated pro wrestling's television ratings from 1996 to 1998 (84 straight weeks) mainly due to its incredibly popular New World Order storyline, but thereafter began to lose heavy ground to the WWF, which had recovered greatly due to its new "Attitude" branding. Shortly after the purchase, Vince McMahon purchased the entire tape library for an additional $1.7 million, bringing the final tally of World Championship Wrestling's sale to $4.2 million.

WCW started out as a regional promotion in the late 1980s focusing mainly in the Deep South. It started growing nationally a few years later, which led to its rivalry with the WWF. Even though WCW folded in 2001, its legacy lived on in the WWF. The WWF kept the WCW United States Championship, the , the WCW World Tag Team Championship, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Eventually, the titles were unified into their WWF counterparts. In 2003, now known as the WWE, the company resurrected the United States title to be competed for exclusively on SmackDown. When Hulk Hogan came back to the WWE, the WWE kept his Hollywood nickname. In 2004, the WWE brought back the Great American Bash pay per view and also in 2009, released Starrcade: The Essential Collection as a three disc DVD set. WWE released a documentary showing highlights from WCW Nitro's history, The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro, hosted by Diamond Dallas Page.

WCW was a main focus in the WWE '12 game released by THQ in 2011.

WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship

The title was established under WCW in March 2001 but was retired after the WCW's purchase by the WWF.

WCW Light Heavyweight Championship

WCW International World Heavyweight Championship

The second world title of WCW. It was established in 1993 under WCW and was defended until 1994, when it was unified with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.