2nd and Final Part!
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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. Booker T wins the WCW Championship from Scott Steiner,the night after the event on Nitro. WCW's Xtreme PPV was the nail in the coffin for WWF,not even Wrestlemania X7[17] was enough to help them.
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-orented 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 Devision.
In April 2001,WCW renames their April PPV,Spring Stampede,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 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 his 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 unlikely)
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. 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.
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Extra!
And now here's the secret(the not-so-secret) way WCW Won the war:
- WCW policy forbid strong backstage politics. So the chances of getting screwed were minimal.
- Stripping creative control from Hollywood Hogan before Starrcade '97.That's how Sting won Cleanly.
- Killing off the nWo early in '98. A lot of people were getting sick of them.
- Creating memorable and exciting feuds.
- WCW screwed itself further when it hired Vince Russo.Well in this Alt.Reality...Russo Is Never Hired!
- Lucha Libre (mexican wrestling) and Puroresu (japanese wrestling) are given a stage...and are pushed.
- The WCW Properly reestablishes it's Women's Division(complete with championship and tag championship).
- Eric Bischoff is forced by Turner Broadcasting to spend their money wisely.
- Making Bret Hart a Horseman and Making the Main Event at Starcade '98 Goldberg vs Sting for the WCW World Championship.
- Giving the Fans ECW-style Hardcore Wrestling in '99.
- Cutting their Roster to 150 wrestlers. Saving them money.
- Cutting down Their C-Show,WCW Saturday Night to 1 Hour and getting rid of the lesser shows.
- Giving Puroresu and Lucha-Libre their own hour on Nitro[the 2nd hour]. Giving American fans more exposure to those styles.
- Giving Bret Hart the respect and recognition he rightfully deserves.
- Negative attack ads on The WWF starting in late '99.
- Having great backstage morale.
- Not giving full creative control to Wrestlers..this includes Kevin Sullivan And (especially) Kevin Nash.
- Not insulting the fans intelligence.
- No Fingerpoke of Doom.
- Pushing deserving talent..especially Deserving Young Talent.
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And That's how WCW Won the Monday Night War. I hope you enjoyed this trip into an Alternate Reality...I sure did. We now must return to Our Universe.
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