As we all know, In March of 2001, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was bought by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/WWE). And since then, WCW's Legacy lives on within the WWE.
But what if...What If, destiny did NOT favor The McMahons? What if Another Company Swooped in and bought WCW instead, completely blindsiding McMahon and the WWF? And that company is..
The Walt Disney Company!!!!
This is The What If Scenario, Where The House of Mouse bought The WCW in 2001. And unlike my other 2 What-If Scenarios, This one has 3 Endings.
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Chapter 1 - An Altered Destiny
Note: The Following Events Are an Aternative Reality version of Actual Events. Please remember this when reading. Thank You.
In 2001, WCW's President, Brad Segal has just ended all WCW shows on The Turner Networks, as a result, Fucient Media Ventures backed out of financing Eric Bischoff's plan to buy the company.
Enter Vince McMahon, who was prepared to purchase WCW and merge it into the WWF, However, he got completely blindsided by Michael Eisner and Disney, who beat McMahon to the punch and purchased WCW.
For the Big Contracts of the Top Stars, Disney successfully haggled for a better deal. So, The Big Names don't get paid as much as they were under Turner, though they Are treated with respect and dignity.
Anyway, McMahon was furious, but decided to bide his time, seeing Disney as a strong business rival, but one who may fail at the Wrestling Business. He addresses the buyout on the night of the purchase on RAW in March of 2001.
It's worth noting that with Disney's Eisner now in charge, instead of WWF's McMahon, Jeff Jarrett never gets fired, thus TNA Wrestling never exists...at least, not at This point in time anyway.
The Shocking News of Disney's purchase of WCW spread. Some were excited by the news, others were skeptical, other were angry. But no matter what the attitude, The Walt Disney Company now owned The #2 Wrestling Company in the World.
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Chapter 2 - Disney's WCW
Before anything Truly begins at Disney's WCW, The House of Mouse lays out some Ground Rules for the Superstars and Creative.
1 - No Strong Profanities. Anyone using such Language On-Air will not only be Censored, but will Also be Fined up to $100. Minor curses can be used without issue though
2 - If You Gotta Bleed, Bleed Naturally. No Blading Allowed! Blading will cost a $1,000 fine.
3 - No Sexual Stuff during Work Hours. Doing so will cost a $2,000 fine. Romance is fine though.
4 - Any Lady (or Dude) who goes into Adult Media (like posing for adult magazines), Will Be Suspended for 60 Days.
5 - No Narcotics, Smoking, or Heavy Drinking on Company Time. A fine of $500 will be levied against those who do. Light Drinking is fine. In addition, Narco Users Must attend Mandatory Drug Rehab, failure to do so will lead to a 60 Day Suspension
And 6 - No Unauthorized Rowdy Stuff Backstage. Those involved will be fined $500 each.
The Rules received mixed reactions from the Wrestlers and Creative themselves. Some like Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner despised them While others like Sting and Jeff Jarrett thought they were fair.
Anyway, now that the Rules have been established. Time to find out What Disney will be doing to the Shows.
First is Monday Nitro. Nitro will air exclusively on ESPN on Monday Nights at 8pm. To cater to the ESPN Audience, who view Professional Wrestling as Fake and Dumb, Eisner and Disney would make Nitro a More Serious and More Mature Show that focuses mostly on the In-Ring Product. Nitro will remain a 2-Hour Show.
Next is Thunder. Thunder will be moved to Saturday Afternoons at 1pm on ABC and will be a Fun Family Show, in contrast to Monday Nitro on ESPN. Thunder will have Family Friendly Weekly Stories, but still deliver on the In-Ring Action. To save on the budget, Disney will scale back Thunder from 2 Hours to 1-Hour.
And Finally there's WorldWide, which will be a 1 Hour Recap Show. Like it always has been.
And Now, The Roster. The Roster itself will be split between the 2 Main Shows. Top Stars like Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, Booker T, Scott Steiner, DDP, and Goldberg, As well as Mid-Tier Talent like Rey Mysterio Jr., Konnan, Buff Bagwell, Dustin Rhodes, Stevie Ray, Ernest Miller, and Curt Hennig will be Exclusive to Nitro.
While the Low-Tier Talent will be Relegated to Thunder. So they'll need to adapt to a more Family Friendly Programing.
As for the Commentary Teams - Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson would be the Color Commentators for Nitro. And doing Commentary for for Thunder will be Mike Taney and Mark Madden. And Mike Taney and Scott Hudson would host Worldwide.
Next is the Various Divisions. Disney would cut 2 divisions - The Hardcore and Cruiserweight Tag. While reviving the Women's division. And, speaking of, that division will just be Pure Wrestling, no Sexual Crap, No Fluff, just Talented Women Wrestlers Battling in the Ring.
The Cruiserweight Division would be Exclusive to Thunder, while the Womens Division would be Nitro Only.
To save Money, The Pay Per Views would be cut down to just 6 a Year and most will have a "Big Sports" feel. Disney would also have Starcade rival the Super Bowl in terms of Excitement, Pomp, Ceremony, and Anticipation. Disney's Starcade would also have Musical Performances and Special Guests. A bigger specticle than when Turner owed it.
Whether or not the first WCW PPV under Disney would've been "The Big Bang" is unknown. Same goes for keeping Eric Bischoff. Or even rehiring Hulk Hogan for that matter.
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Chapter 3 - What's Happenin' In The WWF?!
With WCW Still in play as a Rival, this time owned by a Bigger Company than Turner, Vince McMahon and the WWF are forced to bring his A-Game to Every Show (TV, House,and PPV). Meaning, they Can't afford to slack off, as they kinda did in Our Reality. So, The WWF gains more ratings and fans, because of this.
The buyout was even constantly made fun of on-air by WWF's Commentators and Superstars.
Now, what about the 2001 Invasion? does That still happen now that WCW is still alive and Still a rival? The answer is - Yup! The Invasion Still happens, only it's WWF v. ECW, instead of WWF v. a WCW/ECW Alliance. Also, the Invasion plays out almost exactly like it did in Our Reality.
So, despite Disney buying WCW in this Alt-Reality, The WWF Still buys ECW. So, yeah...
Anyway, the ECW Team at Survivor Series is the same as Our Universe's Alliance Team, except Tommy Dreamer replaces Booker T. And like in Our Reality, Team WWF Wins.
After that, everything happens as it did in Our Reality, except the WWF keeps pushing out their A-Game, thus keeping their product in strong condition.
And so, The Monday Night Wars Continue..
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Chapter 4 - Fortunes and Failures
When news of Disney's Buyout of WCW spread, there were mixed emotions among the Wrestling Fandom.
Some became scared, some were sceptical, while others were pissed. And then there was the "At Least They Can't Get Any Worse" crowd.
There were also a small amount of vocal fans that were excited.
But no one were as thrilled as the WWF fans were. See, if Disney was a success, then The WWF would need to bring their A-Game all of the time, thus giving the Fans a consistantly good product. And if Disney Failed - Then Victory for The WWF!
A Win-Win for the WWF Fandom.
Reguardless of these attitudes, with Disney at the helm, WCW found a fresh creative energy.
Now, what they would've done is unclear, but it's likely that a bit of the Disney Brand would've been infused into the Product.
Fears and frustration within the WCW's fandom subsided as they witnessed the Product first hand. Though a handful of fans were still upset, so they permanently jumped ship to the WWF.
Disney's WCW grossed $2 - 3 Million per PPV and garnered 2 Million+ in ratings each week for their shows. All thanks to the Creative, as well as the In-Ring Product and Star Power.
With TV Ratings good and PPV Buyouts great, Disney was very pleased with WCW and it's Wrestlers.
With Monday Nitro doing great on ESPN, the Monday Night Wars heat up. And Wrestling fans were eating good.
But...not Everything was a Magical Dream. Due to Disney's New Rules, an exodeus took place, where many WCW Wrestlers jumped ship to the WWF, starting in Late-2001/Early-2002.
The first was "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, who simply recieved a better offer from Vince McMahon. So he resigned from WCW and returned to the WWF in Late-November.
"Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner was the next, feeling like he was "being censored by the Mouse: Then in 2002, The Outsiders, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, turned in their Resignation Papers and 2 Months Later, returned to the WWF, alongside Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
Others followed, most joined the WWF, while a small handfull joined the Independent Wrestling Circuit.
But, it wasn't Just the New Rules that were the reason for the ship jumping. There was also the Budget Cuts, which began in Mid-2002, where Disney cut some of the WCW Talent who they considered to be "Not That Essential".
Overall, Sting and Jeff Jarrett were the Only 2 Main Event Wrestlers that stayed with Disney.
Disney soon found itself lacking in Superstar Power and many of the guys (and gals) they brought in just Couldn't Go The Distance and flopped as Main Event Stars.
While Nitro's ratings were at a Consistant 2 - 2.5 Million, Thunder wasn't so lucky.
While Numbers were great in the beginning, starting in 2002, they consistantly took a dive.
In 2001, Thunder was at 2 Million, then by 2002, ratings dropped to 1 Million. And in 2003, Thunder's ratings were at 500,000. Then at 100,000 in 2004. 50,000 in 2005, and finally at 10,000 in 2006.
These low ratings forced Disney to can Thunder in Mid-3006.
And while WCW Thunder was sinking, it's Rival Show, WWF Smackdown! grew even more popular.
Back to the Budget Cuts. The Roster wasn't the Only thing effected... the Shows were too.
Starting in 2003, Disney cut production costs for it's TV Shows. Then, in 2005, cuts to the Cruiserweight Division happened. And in 2006, Disney canned that division entirely once Thunder was Canceled.
Then In 2007, Disney makes cuts to the Womens Division. In 2008, the Women's Division is scrapped.
Thanks to the WWF constantly bringing their A-Game to the Masses, they garnered Even More Ratings for their Shows and Bigger Buyouts from their PPVs.
While Nitro's ratings were constantly at 2 - 2.5 Million, RAW's was at 3 - 4 Million. WWF was once again beating WCW in the Monday Night Wars.
Many fans saw WCW as fun, but not as cool as the WWF (the WWE starting in 2002). So, by 2004/2005, many Wrestling Fans abandoned WCW and became Full-Time WWF/WWE fans.
Then it Finally happened, in 2007, Nitro's ratings declined thanks to some Fans permanently switching to RAW.
Nitro went from 2.5 Million Viewes to 1 Million by 2007. And by 2008, to save money, Disney cut Nitro from 2-Hours to 1-Hour.
But that wasn't all. There were also Internal Issues between Disney and the WCW People, which included Wrestlers and the Creative.
The Creative wanted to push things the way WWF/WWE was, but Disney wouldn't give. As for the Wrestlers, even though their pay was good, their schedule was good, and their benefits were good, they wanted more creative freedom and a big pay raise.
Again, Disney initially refused, but a compromise was made and so was a deal. The Wrestlers all were granted creative freedom, as long as they follow Disney's rules. And they managed to get a small pay raise, not the big ones that they were hoping for.
Those Wrestlers who were fed up with Disney's rules, jumped ship to the WWF/WWE or to an Indy Promotion.
As for the Creative? They got jack and some even left the company. Though the ones that stayed got monthly bonus'.
Then in 2009, With a Lower Budget, Wrestlers who begrudgingly had to follow Disney's Rules, Low Ratings, and Lack of Strong Star Power (besides Sting and Jarrett), Disney's WCW began struggling.
And finally in 2010....
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Chapter 5 - The Split Path
In 2010, 1 of 3 Things Happen.
1 - Disney finds a way to save WCW and it thrives for another decade, and thus, The Monday Night Wars Continue...for a while longer, at least.
2 - Disney fails to save WCW in the long term and is forced to shut it down. Vince McMahon convinces Bob Iger to sell WCW to the WWE. And so he does. This scenario leads to Jeff Jerrett and Sting leaving to form TNA Wrestling in 2011/2012.
And 3 - Bob Iger gets tired of Professional Wrestling and just simply sells WCW to Vince McMahon and the WWE. Jeff Jarrett and Sting don't go to the WWE in this scenario either, instead, they form TNA Wrestling in 2011/2012.
The latter 2 scenarios are the most likely to happen in this Alt-Reality. Either way, these 2 scenarios see the Monday Night Wars Finally end.
As for Why Double J and the Stinger don't join The WWE? Well, Vince McMahon Did offer them lucrative contracts, but they refused on the grounds that they had plans on continuing WCW's Legacy elsewhere.
Anyway, In scenario 2 and 3, the WWE gets a 2nd invasion storyline in 2010, this time it's WWE vs.WCW and things play out much better than how it did in Our Reality back in 2001. That's because, most of WCW's Key Players managed to take part.
Sidenote - Once TNA Wrestling is Formed the company does Not Engage in a 2nd Monday Night War with the WWE, instead opting to air their Show on Saturday Nights.
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And there ya have it - A Reality where Disney bought WCW in 2001, instead of the WWF. It's Interesting to say the least.
So, until next time, Punch Nazis, Kick Commies, Resist Modern Attitudes, and Stay Gold.
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