“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)
Verne Gagne opened up the recently received telegram from one Terry Bollea on December 15th, 1983. The message was clear, and to the point; “I’m not coming back”.
When Gagne took it as a joke he realized after receiving the second telegram with those 4 simple yet harsh words, Gagne knew that he had lost one of his biggest superstars. Did he kick himself for refusing to give Hulk Hogan the AWA heavyweight title? Would he regret keeping Nick Bockwinkel, two decades older than Hogan in the spotlight with screw job finish after screw job finish to the very point where Bollea stopped believing that the day of becoming AWA world heavyweight champion would ever come? Gagne would also think back of the meeting he had with Vincent McMahon Jr. he would later remark that the irises of his eyes reminded him of “hollow point bullets”. He never really thought about why Vince McMahon was asking so many questions on how the AWA was run. He could kick himself again for that. He mistook McMahon for “Vinnie’s kid” and not the cutthroat businessman that Vince Kennedy McMahon would mould himself into. Vince McMahon had talked his way into a meeting with the same guy who would air “Wrestling at the Chase” (the AWA) and convinced him that he would put on a better show, with more ratings and that would easily set up more money for the television station. McMahon had opened this relationship behind Gagne’s back and before Verne knew it, it was too late. Around the same time Gagne would receive these telegrams, McMahon was at the Tenderloin Room at the Chase hotel talking to the owner of this television station when he confidently told him, “I’m going to sign Hulk Hogan, I’m going to take over the world”.
This is isn’t to dwell on whether if Verne Gagne would have given Hulk Hogan the AWA heavyweight title that could have tweaked the history of wrestling as we know it but to show Vince McMahon’s’ only real opposition besides the NWA. Since 1963 to 2005 the WWWF/E has had one common enemy and opponent. The NWA. Every single time in one form or another the NWA would be in competition with the Titan Towers. In 1962 “The Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers was the NWA world heavyweight champion. He was credited for being one of the vital wrestlers to the NWA’s success. As Rogers worked in the northeast more and more run by Vincent James Mcmahon they decided that much like a recent extinct promotion that they needed to “break away” from the NWA. Lou Thesz was brought out of retirement to take on Rogers on January 24, 1963. Thesz was happy to take the NWA world title into good hands. He hated Vince McMahon Sr. and how he ran his territory, he worked with thieves and dishonest people. Thesz happily won the NWA heavyweight title, and Vince McMahon took Rogers and ran. He formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation. One could say that the first WWWF champion was never actually crowned in a match because Buddy Rogers was crowned the first WWWF champion in a “phantom” tournament in Rio de Janeiro. It never happened. McMahon had the draw to become a semi-established promotion and on May 17th, 1963 an old, and heart problematic Buddy Rogers lost the WWF world title to Bruno Sammartino in 48 seconds. Sammartino would reign for 8 years as WWWF champion and McMahon Sr. had the promotion to compete with the NWA. His son would later pick away at Verne Gagne’s AWA and take half of his talent to the WWF. His father never knew how much competition lay ahead for his son.
Few people know that Vince McMahon actually worked under Ted Turner for many years, in fact he even produced what would in a sense become WCW. He eventually took over Georgia Championship Wrestling and to no one in the south’s surprise, it flopped. The rating on TBS went from a 6.9 to a 5.3 and eventually he would give it up. McMahon didn’t need it. He discovered a wonderful venture called “Pay-Per-View”. In risk of failing and what he had deemed “Wrestlemania” to possibly become a flop, McMahon went through with this idea. The numbers were not huge, but enough to get the ball rolling. Wrestlemania 3 ended up with a 10.2 buyrate and the WWF was quickly becoming the only show in town. Of course Bill Watts and the GCW still had a show, in 1983 they would actually have the first “Starrcade” which was really the first PPV ever, even though it was only offered to 3 closed circuit theatres in 3 states and 15,000 made the trip to see it in person. After Wrestlemania hit Watts and Jim Crockett decided to put on Starrcade 87’. Big numbers were projected as this would be on PPV, unchallenged by the WWF…That is until McMahon decided that on the very same night, he would put on a show called “Survivor Series”. Crockett was crushed. McMahon had won another battle in wrestling supremacy over the NWA territory. The WWF hit its boom period with Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage and eventually Bret Hart. McMahon would slowly watch his buyrates drop though, as the WWF reached into the early and mid-nineties…From afar though, a young writer by the name of Vince Russo waited….
Vince Russo sat on the lower level of the Titan Towers, below the “big shots”, Bruce Pritchard, Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco as he wrote his weekly articles for WWF magazine. He had a love for wrestling but in reality hated the product. He hated the lack of storylines, the horribly made gimmicks, the predictability of faces and heels. The fact that every week the WWF would insult the fans intelligence. He would even submit his own “storyline ideas” into his article which McMahon himself rarely read. After a meeting with Russo surprisingly involved, McMahon took a current issue of WWF magazine and slammed it on the desk and exclaimed “this is what we need to do!” or something to that extent. Russo took the compliment and the eyes from the seats in the “wrestling bubble” that were gazing a hole in him. The WWF had lost touch with the public. The “wrestling bubble” being the inside writers, bookers, sometimes wrestlers. No outside influences into the wrestling bubble…ever. Ever wonder why the WWE won’t even look at your storylines? It’s because you are NOT in the wrestling bubble. To them they always write gold no matter what the current opinion of the audience is. Simple as that. You could have the storyline of the century that would guarantee a 20.9 PPV buyrate and pitch it to Vince McMahon himself, the words would go in one ear and out the other. Meanwhile Russo was catching on to a few products…WCW and ECW. Not surprisingly two bi-products of the NWA. As the WWF ratings plummeted to at one point a dismal 1.5 and WCW’s ratings were picking up, Russo admired what WCW was doing with their product. From the presentation and buzz that WCW created this pushed Russo to further submit his ideas over and over again until eventually he did make the writing team. Russo would get his shot. Eventually quickly boosting the WWF’s ratings into the 2.0’s. He would need help though…”The Kliq incident” helped in more ways than people realize. The night Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Triple H and Shawn Michaels broke kayfabe during their last night in the ring together as Hall and Nash would leave for WCW. Vince Russo could never understand why McMahon never let Steve Austin talk. Am I jumping subject? Not really. Austin’s ECW promos were some of the best in the business, and Russo knew this, he was crushed when McMahon threw “The Ringmaster” gimmick on him as he had Ted DiBiase do all of the talking for him…Few people may realize that it would all pay off. Russo watched as The King of the Ring winner was crowned for 1996. It was originally set to be Triple H. The Kliq incident got Triple H punished, constant jobs to many wrestlers over a span of time and it cost him the KOTR crown as well. Instead Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated the born again Christian Jake the Snake Roberts in less than 5 minutes and uttered these famous words: “I don’t want to hear anymore biblical bullshit, because Austin 3:16 said I just whipped your ass!” The rest is history even though McMahon himself didn’t even get the “Austin 3:16” quote at first. It was Vince Russo who told an up and coming Rock still in the Nation of Domination to start referring to himself in third person. The rest is history. The storylines got racier, the action was hotter, and slowly the WWF would make its way back into the ratings but still behind WCW…Russo was delivered a secret weapon…
ECW.
Consider this, the two head writers of the WWF during the “attitude era” were so influenced by ECW, that you could say it changed wrestling. Not convinced? Besides the fact that Vince Russo would tell McMahon to have more “ECW-like storylines” he had a new writer with him by the name of Ed Ferarra. Ed enjoyed a short stint as a wrestler on the California Indy scene and had a job as a comedy writer for various shows before coming to the WWF. Ed ordered Primestar, a satellite company strictly to get ECW which only aired on the east coast. Ed Ferrara was huge on ECW. What did ECW accomplish? More violence, better wrestling, realistic storylines. Nobody can disagree that ECW didn’t have the best wrestling in possibly the world at this time. The style of the matches from Benoit to Taz to Shane Douglas and the lucha libres, were not matched by anything in the United States. The racy storylines and attitude were taboo to the wrestling business; we were shown kayfabe broken in front of our very eyes by Paul Heyman himself and even our first glimpse into the “shoot interview”. ECW did NOT insult the fans intelligence. The WWF were putting on predictable, much choreographed matches with nothing behind them. Heels acted like traditional heels, faces acted like traditional faces. ECW delivered the “realistic” product that you watched during the late 90’s in the WWF. Vince Russo made it a point to carry a more realistic product. He wanted personality to the wrestlers, not the simple “face or heel” scenario. This is where Vince McMahon’s “shades of grey-new direction” speech originated. Was this ever a problem for the WWF?
No.
It’s true that McMahon helped out ECW financially. Why? It was a breeding ground for the WWF. Very indirectly, but we all know Vince McMahon. He kept ECW in check. He never gave them the money to do heavy promoting, to buy bigger stages, bigger venues, no McMahon just made sure that the promotion ran so they could “influence” the talented WWF writing duo. ECW with no money and bills to pay died in early 2001. Well, it never really died. I don’t see a tribute show to AWA or WCW, or even XPW. Nope. ECW; just face it, it changed wrestling. Not all credit goes to ECW though. Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H were 3 of the hardest workers in the business. The supporting cast of The Godfather, Val Venis, Mark Henry, and of course Sable didn’t hurt either. ECW set the course for what wrestling was to become, but it was the WWF talent that kept the ball rolling, they ran with it and soon enough McMahon had one more obstacle in its way. ECW was never a problem and Vince knew this, perhaps it was better this way. WCW though would not shake easy.
Eric Bischoff once told his boys that the WWF would be dead in “6 months”…It wasn’t that easy. Bischoff banked on Hogan and Nash and Hall to carry his product. The problem with this was a thing called “guaranteed contracts”. Now this states that no matter how poorly a worker performs, how low his merchandise sells were, or how low the PPV buyrate was, he would be paid the same. The top dogs in WCW had this and especially Hulk Hogan, would cling to the main event. The egos grew from all sides, eventually WCW would lose talent to the WWF including Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho whom Hogan himself kept down for many years. Ric Flair grew tired of the way WCW was being run and no-showed many times to the point where Bischoff threatened to sue. WCW was handing out PPV quality matches on Nitro just to stay a bit ahead in the ratings war while the WWF were keeping audiences captivated. There is no need to go in detail to the history of WCW, there are books and DVD’s to look at for that, but in short, WCW “blew up”. I’m using the insider terminology when a worker is so pumped up and exerts so much energy in his entrance or the opening moments of the match, he quickly tires out early in the match. Just watch an Ultimate Warrior match and you’ll get the hint.
Finally on April 13th, 1998, Nitro’s 83 win streak came to an end. Bischoff even told the boys backstage about how he would sue Ric Flair for not showing up and fire his ass and this actually stunned the boys. Flair was a legend even in the WCW locker-room. Flair was a no-show that night in his hometown, and nobody was happy. It was a testament to WCW’s near future. It got worse. It continued for 14 weeks until they finally banked on Hulk Hogan vs. Goldberg where Goldberg won the WCW world title. They had finally won a night. It was short lived, on December 29th, 1998 Raw had previously been taped and it was being shown the same time as Nitro. McMahon did live voice-overs though and took advantage of this. He had Ross announce on air that Nash was going to lay down to Hulk Hogan that night as word of the infamous finish leaked on the internet. The lazy and unsatisfying “poke” that Hogan would give Nash to become new WCW champion. Quickly Bischoff fired back knowing the results of Raw already he told Tony Schiavone to let the WCW audience know that Mick Foley was about to win the WWF title from the Rock. Who won between two wrestlers who would take dose after dose of steroids to keep their dying figure, to keep their dying main event spot and work the laziest, half-assed match in wrestling history? Or two wrestlers who were two of the hardest workers in the business, two upcoming fan favorites that put on a great match? Raw won that nights rating with Mick Foley defeating the The Rock for the WWF title. WCW was nearing its end.
By 2001 Vince McMahon had won his battle with the NWA yet again. He bought out WCW and then in selfish celebrated fashion, he made a mockery of WCW and most of its acquired wrestlers. He deserved it though. In 20 years McMahon has put up with the AWA, and the NWA in different forms. Not counting the battles with the PTC, the 1994 steroids trial, the deaths of Brian Pillman and Owen Hart, the Montreal incident and a bad investment into the XFL. McMahon is the king of wrestling right now. He has been for a few years now. We have seen some of the craziest Monday nights ever, from castrations to necrophilia. Personal jabs at the enemies promotions and their wrestlers, live results given out over the air of the enemy to the point where Bischoff even challenged McMahon to a real fight. One has to ask though, what’s next? Has this all been done? Is this it? Right now Vince sits comfortably back to what his product was in the mid-80’s only with a small dose of what Vince Russo and ECW left behind. Will history repeat itself? Vince McMahon will sit comfortably on Sunday to watch ECW’s “One Night Stand”; he will salivate at the projected PPV buyrate, and further his quest for money from Extreme Championship Wrestling. He maybe will pay homage to his own victory and the part ECW played in it in his own personal thoughts. This battle still rages on though…McMahon should not rest so easily just yet…
NWA-TNA is embarking on its 3 year anniversary. “The future of professional wrestling” as they claim. Well…they’re right. In a wrestling world where everything has been done, the one thing yet to be center stage is…wrestling. We have seen crazy Monday nights driven around shock, sex, blood, and “attitude”. What about the wrestling? In a weird way TNA holds the ghosts of WCW and ECW along with them. The “southern” feel to TNA may set some people back but will edge on former WCW fans. The X-Division has picked up where ECW left off, delivering fast paced matches with moves of which few WWE fans have ever seen. They are represented with two wrestlers that could be considered two of the best in the world right now in A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels. Just like ECW, they bloom new stars like Monty Brown, Abyss, Chris Sabin, Michael Shane and many others. When viewers tune in on June 20th, and for my own damn sake I hope that June 20th is still the projected date of the first Impact on WGN, head to head with Vince McMahon’s RAW, I can’t help to think that once again, A McMahon will do battle with the NWA. For TNA quality always wins over quantity, and with any luck for every wrestling fan in the world, NWA-TNA will make an Impact. Pulling themselves from the trenches, surviving for 3 years, they will attack. Another battle will soon start, the Monday Night War, has not yet ended.
-Joseph Bachman
NOTE: This article covered so much ground I recommend reading any of the material in more depth. Even to do a simple search on Google for anything in this article will give you a novels worth of information. There are many stories to be told in the world of professional wrestling, I simply told one.
