"I now own WCW." - Shane McMahon, WCW Monday Nitro, March 26, 2001.
That quote was from the final Monday Nitro that aired in March 2001. A quick recap. WCW was up for sale and Vince McMahon bought WCW. In the world of "kayfabe", Shane McMahon was the one who actually "bought" WCW. That led to something that was unheard of. The WWE was going to face its competitor for many years, WCW. What started out as something that was going to be groundbreaking ended with a whimper. A lot of people have pointed to Vince McMahon as the reason why WCW brand failed. "His ego was too big", "He had to prove WWE was surperior" etc. I've heard them all. But I really dont think it was Vince's fault. I will try to explain why.
When WCW was sold, it was in shambles. Just google anything about WCW or read any books about them and you will see WCW was in total chaos when they shut down. Nobody was going to there live events and the PPV buyrates were poor. Now according to Wikipedia, so take it for what its worth, Starrcade, the event that started in 1983, and was "the event", drew 6,596 for its 2000 event at the MCI Center in Washington D.C. 6,600 people for there biggest event. Can you imagine if WrestleMania drew 6,600 people? Actually, all you have to do is add another zero and you have a WrestleMania type attendance.
So WCW with all its turmoil that had been affecting that company for 2 yrs. prior to Starrcade 2000 (Ric Flair being fired, The NWO constantly coming back, backwards booking, Goldberg streak ending, Kiss Demon, Kiss/Clint Black/Megadeth performing, lack of top stars, Vince Russo, The Powers that Be etc.) continued to suffer. I mean if you watch WCW in early 2001 compared to the heyday of 1997 was like night and day. Its so depressing even after WCW has been gone for 10 yrs. So with WCW not a priority for TBS (thanks a lot Jamie Kellner), WCW was cancelled. No more shows on TBS or TNT. Without the tv, what would become of WCW? Enter Vince McMahon. He bought WCW right before WrestleMania 17. Even though in storyline Shane McMahon bought WCW, Vince McMahon must have been a cheshire cat knowing, like he said "I bought my competition".
So what went wrong that everybody blamed Vince. Lets look at this. If you remember Vince gave the final quarter of Raw to Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell and it bombed. Call it ring rust or whatever but Booker and Bagwell didnt look right. Thats not Vince's fault. Second, when wrestling fans think of WCW, they think of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Lex Luger, DDP, Booker T, Scott Steiner etc. With all due respect to Booker T and DDP, who I respect and I like personally, they couldnt carry the WCW brand. You needed the guys I mentioned to compete. Imagine Austin vs. Hogan? Rock vs. Goldberg? Nash vs. Angle? Goldberg vs. Angle? Flair vs. Rock? Flair vs. Austin? Now, some of these matches (Rock/Goldberg, Flair/Austin) did take place but imagine if it happened if it was at Invasion or Summerslam 2001? My point of all this is that its not Vince's fault. Dont you think Vince would have wanted to sign Goldberg, Flair, Steiner, The NWO etc. earlier? Of course he would.
Then the argument of "Vince made the WCW roster inferior." I dont by that for one reason. WCW was so bad at the end, could any hardcore wrestling fan tell you who the WCW Tag Team Champions were? Do you think they knew who The Natural Born Thrillers were? Kwee Wee? Thats not Vince's fault either. I just think you can blame Vince McMahon because WCW was booked poorly at the end. It wasnt like Vince was writing for both WWE AND WCW. So what was Vince going to do? In a perfect world, I think Vince and the rest of the WWE Universe would've wanted UnderTaker/Goldberg, Rock/Flair, Austin/Steiner etc. but what are you going to do? I mean he had to use what he had. Its like seeing the NY Yankees play and A-Rod, Teixiera, Jeter, Cano are out of the lineup. Yes, they replace those 4 guys and yes, its the Yankees on the field but its not the same. Samething with WCW. The WCW brand was there but it wasnt the guys that wrestling fans were used to.
In closing, Vince McMahon may be at fault for a lot of things but I dont think he killed WCW or the WCW brand. Sadly, because of politics, mismanagment, lack of top stars etc. WCW went up for sale and Vince McMahon bought it. Unfortunely, WCW was already over.
