WCW Buys WWF

The Monday Night Wars. Considered by many to be the Golden Era of Professional Wrestling. It was the period of mainstream televised American professional wrestling from September 4th, 1995, to March 26th, 2001. During this time, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) Monday Night Raw went head-to-head with World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Monday Nitro in a battle for Nielsen ratings each week.

The rating war was part of a larger overall struggle between the two companies, originating in personal animosity between WWF owner Vince McMahon and then-owner of WCW, Ted Turner. The rivalry between the companies steadily escalated throughout the 1990s to include the use of cutthroat tactics and the defections of employees between the two companies. While WCW was the dominant company for much of the mid-1990s, a variety of factors coalesced to turn the tide in the WWF's favor at the end of the decade, including a radical rebranding of their formerly family-friendly product to highly sexualized and violent shows geared towards older teens and adults. WCW ultimately ran into financial difficulties as a result of the amount of money they had promised wrestlers during a hiring binge in the early and middle part of the decade, which had been aimed at acquiring large portions of the WWF's talent roster. Despite efforts to salvage itself, it was ultimately sold to Vince McMahon on March 23rd, 2001, ending the Monday Night Wars in the favor of WWF.

With the end of the feud between the two companies, no other company has ever emerged as a viable competitor to WWE dominance in the market, and the buying of WCW would change the course of the entire industry of professional wrestling.

Yet what if Ted Turner’s WCW was the winner of the Monday Night Wars? Instead of WrestleMania being the biggest event of the Wrestling Year, it’s Starrcade. Where wrestling fans in the United States turn their TVs on Monday Nights to TNT to watch Nitro instead of USA to watch Raw. Where Eric Bischoff, is considered the Master Mind who decided the course of professional wrestling heading into the New Millennium.

And What happens to ECW, TNA, Ring of Honor, and the men and women who would make wrestling their career?