Meltzer accurately predicts how the WCW Invasion storyline would go in WWE, right after WCW's cancellation announcement.

Dave Meltzer is wrong. The intelligent folks here at r/SquaredCircle informed me today that Kevin Nash killed WCW. At first I challenged this assertion with the following...

Wrestling fans live in the wrestling world & forget that there is a whole other world out there that controls the wrestling business.

The $360 Billion (£221 Billion) merger, announced on 10th January 2000 between AOL and Time Warner, is widely viewed as one of the most significant failure of corporate activity in modern times. The merger's collapse was a result not only of the bursting of the dot-com bubble but also of the failings by AOL Time Warner management to ever actually integrate the two companies.

Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner on 16th October 1996 & it made Ted Turner a rich man but he was not diversified which is where AOL came in. AOL also came in because of the dot-com boom. The boom hit, then it burst. The burst of the dot-com bubble hurt the growth and profitability which in turned dragged down the combined company's performance and stock price.

After the merger took place, Ted Turner was still a large stockholder, but not a majority owner. He still was in charge of day-to-day operations of the Turner channels and WCW, but Time Warner had majority ownership over it, so basically any major decisions had to be approved by them. That's why Turner gradually began losing power, and WCW started to fail. Turner still supported wrestling, but Time Warner didn't.

Jamie Kellner was chairman and chief executive officer of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a division of Time Warner which includes TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network. Kellner took over the post in 2001. He got rid of World Championship Wrestling in March 2001 because in his opinion it didn't fit in with the corporate culture of the company. Despite a downturn in ratings (WCW's ratings were still higher than most programming on TNT and TBS at the time).

WCW was sold to Vince McMahon of the WWF for a sum of $2.5 million (to acquire certain assets including 24 talent contacts, trademarks, logos and video library) plus $1.8 Million in legal costs. Despite interest from former WCW president Eric Bischoff (through Fusient Media Ventures) who were still interested in buying it and turning it around and were offering ten times as much money.

Basically Jamie Kellner not only cancelled the number one show on TNT & TBS, he sold a library of tapes thirty years old that was worth a fortune in free programming for $2.5 million & allowed Vince McMahon to have a monopoly of the professional wrestling business. With the McMahon having no competition, wrestlers have no alternative but to work for whatever pay they are offered. Under whatever safe or unsafe conditions, on whatever schedule they are given with no benefits. Also with McMahon controlling the wrestling industry for now, everyone is less likely to stand up to him or contradict him even if they think it’s for his own good furthermore can how can McMahon keep his drive without the challenge of WCW pushing him to stay sharp.

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers, MLB’s Atlanta Braves and operating rights to Philips Arena were eventually all sold also because the company went belly up.

Part of the reason WCW was losing money was due to the infrastructure of the company e.g. WCW didn't get any revenue from any TV they produced they were only given a budget which was cut when Thunder was added. When Eric Bischoff attempted to generate more revenue through a deal with NBC in late 98 the deal fell through because of the higher ups telling him how to run the company. All the other operating companies under Time Warner such as CNN each had the there own accounting but WCW didn't. WCW fell under "other" category & the higher ups started allocating WCW's revenue to other areas.

To cut a long story short the Turner/Time Warner organization absolutely did not want WCW to succeed. They did everything they could, from early 1998, to lay the groundwork for WCW’s failure, so they could get WCW off the books. They couldn’t do that when Ted Turner was in firm control, but they did when his grip had slipped. They couldn’t attack WCW directly, either. They had to play the corporate game. Eric Bischoff explains it way better than I ever could in his book.

Even if WCW made $50 million in profit in 2000 what is that to the guys involved in a $360 billion merger? chump change. They hated pro wrestling & when they had the opportunity to get rid of it they did. Even when WCW was majorly successful they were embarrassed to be involved in pro wrestling.

"Years before the end of WCW, I gone to a very exclusive high ranking meeting with the all the executives of Time Warner & the advertising people where all the money exchanged hands, & I was there sort of as a the conversation piece at the event. I remember thinking to myself as they went through all the long range projections for TNT & TBS that there was not one mention of pro wrestling even though I was there. I went home & I remember telling my wife that I don't think they are going to keep pro wrestling." Lex Luger (Inside The Ropes - 18th August 2012)

...however despite not being informed by anybody how Kevin Nash killed WCW I gathered due to the amount of downvotes I received that I must be wrong. I am a smarter pro wrestling fan for discovering r/SquaredCircle & I would like to thank you all for imparting your wisdom on me.

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