Professional wrestling – or sports entertainment as it has recently been called – has been a part of American culture since the late 19th century. Many of the traveling carnivals would have wrestlers challenge members of the audience to a match, which the audience member would win. He, of course, was a plant. As was the next "contestant." They would do this a few times to get the real patrons – or "marks" – worked up into a frenzy so they would put down serious money to watch the next match. This time, the contestant would be an actual member of the audience, and the wrestler would crush him and the carnival made some more money for its coffers. It was part of the "carny" life, and could be relatively profitable to the performers. After a few days in Podunk, USA, they'd move on to Smalltown, USA and use the same ruse. As long as they kept moving, not many caught on.
Eventually, pro wrestling became a huge business, with territories in Los Angeles, Memphis, St. Louis, Buffalo, Dallas, New York, North Carolina, and beyond, all becoming profitable for many decades. Then, in 1984, Vince McMahon, son of Vincent McMahon, who ran the New York wrestling business, swooped in and changed the course of mat history. Young McMahon bought out his father, and soon put most of the territories out of business. He would take his WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) programming and send it to television stations throughout the country, often paying for the airtime. Well, after signing territory stars such as Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, Bruno Sammartino and many others, the WWWF – (later the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) and now the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) – was the wrestling company. The idea of a Wrestlemania – the Super Bowl of wrestling – put it over the top. And without much competition, the WWF saturated the country with its brand of wrestling and became the number one sports entertainment company in the world.
Competition did come along in the late 1990s when the Ted Turner-financed WCW (World Championship Wrestling) began to steal stars from the WWF – Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash – and put them with WCW greats such as Ric Flair and Sting. This led to the famous "Monday Night Wars" which saw WCW nearly put WWE out of business, finishing ahead of McMahon's product for more than 80 consecutive weeks. It put the WWF on the verge of bankruptcy, but the rise of superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock (current movie star Dwayne Johnson) Mick Foley and Triple H put the WWF on the right side of the ledger and put WCW in the sports entertainment morgue.
McMahon eventually bought out Turner for literally pennies on the dollar of what WCW had been worth only 24 months before the 2001 sale. However, it wasn't only the cultivation of new stars by the WWF that led to WCW's demise. Some of it was financial mismanagement by company president Eric Bischoff, who laid out astronomical sums of money to lure away Hogan, Bret "The Hitman" Hart and the rest. Some of it was poor internal planning for the future, a failure by Bischoff and others to develop young performers into future stars. They rode Hogan and the others until they couldn't ride them anymore. Meanwhile, young talents such as Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were leaving for the WWF and helping put the fork in WCW. But the biggest problem can be summed up in two words: Vince Russo.
Russo was with the WWF during its rise back to the top, writing shows and taking as much credit for the success it had as McMahon, Austin or the Rock. The only difference is that they actually deserved credit. He latched onto their stars and used the luster to facilitate his jump to WCW. Which he proceeded to kill.I'm not saying Russo doesn't deserve any credit for the comeback in the Monday Night Wars. He just doesn't deserve as much credit as he thinks he does.
Anyone who knows anything about the WWF knows that McMahon had the first and last say. (Still does) So, even if Russo had an idea, it had to be approved by Vinnie Mac. Secondly, there were other writers, so unless they were just sitting around collecting a paycheck, they had something to do with it as well. Third, we never heard about Russo's lousy ideas which McMahon changed or overruled. So, "creative genius" is a phrase that probably shouldn't be in the same sentence as the words "Vince Russo." Especially when you consider his murder of WCW.
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