Well, ladies and gentlemen, it has finally happened. After two years of mediocre shows and lackluster ratings, Turner Broadcasting is pulling the plug on the World Championship Wrestling shows. Both Nitro and Thunder will no longer be seen on Turner stations (TNT and TBS) after next week.
That’s not the only piece of bad news for WCW. Fusient Media Ventures had agreed that they would buy WCW only if Turner continued to run the two WCW programs. Now that Turner is dumping the promotion, WCW may be going out of business. Turner spokespersons state that there are many buyers waiting in the wings to purchase WCW, including the WWF.
I can understand why Ted Turner would want to kill WCW programming on his channels, but I do have a big problem with it. I know that WWF hasn’t had much competition as of late, but what competition it had was good for WWF. In fact, it was the huge popularity of WCW a few years back that made WWF the powerhouse it is today. I’m just hoping that WWF doesn’t get stagnant and stale without the competition of WCW.
And I am sorry to see WCW go as well. I know that I harp on how much WCW sucks in my reports, but I still watch it. I may not have anything very good to say about it, but I still enjoy some of the aspects that set WCW apart from WWF.
WCW has some amazing talent, especially in the tag team and cruiserweight divisions. I always love to see these guys wrestle because I know that I will enjoy at least 90 percent of them. The Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship was a great idea, and I would have loved to see it become more.
Of course, don’t count WCW out just yet. There is still a good chance that they will be back sometime down the road. There are plenty of stations that would run the shows. We may be seeing the “season finale,” which was billed by Bischoff as a “night of champions,” next week on Nitro, but I’m sure that the finale will be more like a hiatus, and WCW will reemerge on the WB or something.
Now for some good news.
Wrestlemania 17 (or X-Seven) is coming up on April Fools Day, and I am very excited about the card so far. Currently three titles will be up for grabs in the Super Bowl of professional wrestling, including The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin for the world title. This marks the second time the two faces will compete in the main event of Wrestlemania since Hulk Hogan took on The Ultimate Warrior back in Wrestlemania VI. Test will also defend his European title against Eddie Guerrero, and Ivory will defend her women’s title against Chyna.
There will be more matches scheduled, one of which will hopefully be a tag titles match between The Dudleys, Hardys, and Edge & Christian. Maybe we’ll see another tables, ladders, and chairs match.
In short, Wrestlemania X-Seven will be the PPV to watch in April (and with WCW goin’ bye-bye for a while, there may not be any more wrestling PPVs in April).
The Panuniversal Wrestling Federation hasn’t been in the sand for a while due to illness two weeks ago and Spring Break last week. And judging by the weather this week, the PWF may not be in the sand this week. Hopefully the weather will dry up a bit Wednesday and allow the wrestlers of WCU to take each other apart in dryness. We really need an indoor venue.
The New Violent Society has had some internal strife despite holding the heavyweight, lightweight, and hardcore titles. The self-proclaimed commissioner, Pure Talent, has ruffled a few feathers among his VS buddies.
Servo Says: “Please join us next Monday for our season finale,” Tony Schiavone stated last Monday. I didn’t know wrestling had seasons.
