2001!
In Early January 2001,AOL and Time Warner
merge and the new company decides to Keep WCW around since the company
is still making money. Also,Owen Hart and Rick Steiner feud for the US
Championship. The Booker T/Scott Steiner war re-ignites. WCW Thunder
gets cut down to 1 Hour. WCW introduces a new PPV,WCW Blizzard[replacing
wcw souled out].WCW's TV and PPV ratings continue to beat WWF's.
In
Febuary of 2001,WCW replaces SuperBrawl with,Melee.Melee is dedicated
to Multi-Man Championship Matches[usually a 3-way,4-way,and/or 5-way
brawls.] where the Champ puts his/her/their title/titles on the line
against the next contenders for the title/titles.
In
Early March,WCW announces Xtreme,it's latest PPV and replacement for
Uncensored.The event is dedicated to Hardcore matches. WCW's Xtreme PPV was the nail in the coffin for WWF,not even
Wrestlemania X7[17] was enough to help them. In Mid-March, Booker T wins the
WCW Championship from Scott Steiner on Nitro.
In
Mid-Late March of 2001,The WWF files for bankruptcy and is forced to cut
costs in a major way. They fire workers,simplify the look of their
shows and shorten their shows to 1 hour. Try as they might,WWF fails to
defeat WCW. Even when they air adult-oriented content,they fail. By
Mid-April,The WWF loses the Monday Night War. In Late March,ECW shuts
down,due to financial difficulties..never to be seen again. By
Mid-April,Paul Haymen is hired by WCW to be a manager in the Hardcore
Division.
In April 2001,WCW renames their April
PPV,Spring Stampede,to Storm. In Mid-April 2001,WCW officially wins the
Monday Night Wars. On that edition of Nitro,Eric Bischoff delivers an
emotional in-ring speech. Ted Turner makes an Appearance.He is treated
like God. The celebrations continue through out the show. They also
constantly rub their victory in Vince McMahon's face. Over at the
WWF,It's the (likely) final episode of RAW/War Zone and Vince McMahon is
pissed..very pissed.The WWF fans are annoyed as well. Vince opens up his
show with a depressing message and talks about it at the end of the
show in the ring.
From here WWF goes in one of 3
directions:
1 - Because of the adult content,WWF programming is forced
into a more appropriate timeslot. And because of WWF's Monday Night
failure,Vince McMahon is forced to move RAW to another day and time.
2 -
They simply disappear,either for a great while or forever.
or 3 - WWF
is sold to Turner Broadcasting/AOL-Time Warner. (this one seems less likely)
Either way, WCW wins the Monday Night War.
Now
that we know about WWF's fate[s]. What about WCW? Well,throughout the
rest of the year,WCW gains more talent from ECW and WWF. They also gain
fresh young talent too.
WCW renames the rest of their PPV's as well. Slamboree
becomes Femmes[a ppv dedicated to women's wrestling],Great American Bash
became Americana,Bash at The Beach became Heat,Road Wild became
Rally,Fall Brawl:War Games became Hellzone,Halloween Havoc became
Grave,and World War 3 became Pandemonium. Starrcade kept it's name.
WCW
became the face of American Wrestling and is well respected and admired
World Wide. How long the company survives after this is anyone's guess.
=================================================
Next up,the Finale.
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