An Eric Bischoff question
 

Did he buy WcW before it folded?

He tried to but his investors fell through because it didn't come with TV. Vince scooped it up as Bischoff was looking for new investors.

From late 2000 he was part of a group called Fusient that were interested in purchasing WCW. It looked likely that they would be successful but the AOL/Time Warner Merger having been finalised led to a situation where Ted Turner could no longer save WCW from those who saw wrestling as low brow or not catering to the right demographics. This even if WCW programming was still amongst the highest rated shows on the networks it was shown on. Time Warner executives had tried to remove WCW from programming in the past but were always blocked by Ted Turner. With the merger, Turner lost this power and WCW could be cancelled.

Prior to this the Fusient group which Bischoff was part of had a signed letter of intent to purchase the group. They did have to withdraw their original offer when WWF enquired about purchasing WCW as part of a settlement they had where they would have a right to bid on WCW if the company was ever to be liquidated. WWF had to withdraw when Viacom voiced concerns of WWF programming being shown on competitng networks when they had an exclusive deal with WWF. When WWF withdrew, the Fusient group signed another letter of intent.

They backed out when WCW programming was set to be cancelled. With no TV, WCW was worthless to the company. The TV cancellation also unlocked the door for WWF to move in because there was no competing WCW/WWF TV deal to break the terms of their exclusive deal with Viacom.

Bischoff was close and if he could have completed the takeover, stayed on AOL/Time Warner programming for a short while longer he has mentioned that other networks were interested in WCW programming, it could have continued operating.

Thank you friends.

That was one thing I never found out. What exactly was that settlement from that gave WWE the right to to bid?

It was part of the WWF lawsuit where it felt that WCW were implying that Nash and Hall were from the WWF invading and that Scott Hall's character was too similar to Razor Ramon.

Ah, okay. Makes sense. Didn't know they sued over that.

:y:

Was the lawsuit before or after the parody Nash and Hall characters WWF did and then ended up not working since crowd didn't care ?

Hah, heel Jim Ross introducing them. I remember that. Epic fail. :D

I just remember Todd Pettengill's stupid face on WWF Mania when he started shouting 'Razon Ramon & Diesel back in the WWF!'.

Hated that stupid face.

Didn't Vince buy WCW for some ridiculously small amount of money? Like $2 million?

$6 and some pocket lint I believe.

I think it was Jericho who said had he known what Vince was paying, he would have bought it himself, with money he personally had in the bank.

Just think, WCW could have been purchased by a consortium of wrestling fans if it was that cheap.

It wouldn't have mattered if Jericho had the money since WWE had 1st rights to bid on WCW. Only person who could outbid Vince didn't want anything to do with wrestling after the AOL merger, Ted Turner.

5 million
very cheap

i heard that jeff jarrett offered 25 mil

that would have been so cool

Whatever WWE paid for WCW back then I don't know exactly, its pretty obvious that it was an extremely small amount of money. WWE made a killing on that deal, especially with the rights to the WCW video library. There are some really dumb fucks leading AOL/Time Warner.