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The show was Robin Hood which was bad, but that angle that night was epic and ya’ll know it. The Adventure of Briscoe County Jr was cool to me as a youngun but I haven’t rewatched it. Ned Blessing INSANE to me as a youngun lol but I haven’t rewatched it either. 

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On 3/7/2021 at 3:24 AM, AxB said:

So why do (some) Americans pronounce it as if the i in Robin is silent? Ro-BIN. Like Robbing, without the g. Robin Hood, not Rob'n'hood.

I will get back to you on this just as soon as I work out how Craig and Greg rhyme.

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10 hours ago, Morganti said:

Random What If.

The Curtain Call lead to HHH losing his push and KoTR win in 1996... what if they don't do the Curtain Call, OR Vince is fine with it and doesn't punish HHH, which means no Austin 3:16 promo...does WCW win the War but then get killed by AOL Time Warner anyway?

Completely plausable, but that would have been a rather miserable way to end both companies. Now, what would have risen from the ashes, however, could have been interesting. But without the boom (initiated by NWO and) furthered by Austin's rise to the top the audience may never reached the level that would sustain national promotion if those two fall. Very intriguing, nonetheless.

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Related to that, what if Bischoff never gets the idea to have Hall and Nash “invade” WCW and just brings them in as two new guys? I think there’s a lot of fallout there. Really, the boom starts with the Hogan turn. If that doesn’t happen, maybe WCW doesn’t blow up like they did. If they don’t start beating Vince, he doesn’t try anything new. We probably don’t get Austin, heel Hart, DX, etc. 

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A Hogan turn w/o Nash & Hall as NWO would have made a big splash in the wrestling world that would not carry over to the mainstream/crossover/new viewers, I think. Hogan turning rulebreaker = memorable but business as usual (unless a hot babyface gets made), but Hogan joining the NWO is bigger news, and he adds to/rides the cool heel vibe that was Hall + Nash + NWO. It also gave the group HH's booking autocracy, as opposed to it just being used on himself. "Hogan as top heel the company was built around, squashing guest babyfaces" would actually have been much worse that the "Hogan as top babyface, defeating every heel and faction like it's 1984 and you are still 9 and he still had a convex hairline" that WCW was feeding everyone for the previous couple decades years.

- RAF

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Going back to the time Travel Matches 2008 Bound For Glory Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett. Pretty good match until the Russo booked fuck finish, Jarrett is a pretty good opponent for Angle as he reigns in some of Kurts excesses (he probably would be a good opponent for Kenny Omega as well for this reason). But Kurt was starting to break down and Jeff was somewhat retired.  96-97 Jarrett vs 2002 - 2004 Angle would be great

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WCW was making money in 4th gear as far back as 1994 wasn’t it? Obviously that wasn’t going to last forever unlessssssss........the whole business as usual thing mentioned above happens. It would then get interesting IMO. Maybe Benoit, Eddie and company make it to the top sooner than later when Hogan quits.

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I think they sell less t-shirts without the 3:16 promo, but not much else changes. He didn't really blow up until the fall and feud with Bret. And since Bret handpicked him for that role, I think it still goes roughly the same.

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On 3/22/2021 at 11:53 PM, BloodyChamp said:

WCW was making money in 4th gear as far back as 1994 wasn’t it? Obviously that wasn’t going to last forever unlessssssss........the whole business as usual thing mentioned above happens. It would then get interesting IMO. Maybe Benoit, Eddie and company make it to the top sooner than later when Hogan quits.

According to Bischoff, 1995 was the first year WCW made any type of profit under Turner ownership. I believe the non-Bischoff consensus has been that it wasn't until 1995 or 1996, so they definitely weren't profitable in 1994.

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3 hours ago, Petey said:

According to Bischoff, 1995 was the first year WCW made any type of profit under Turner ownership. I believe the non-Bischoff consensus has been that it wasn't until 1995 or 1996, so they definitely weren't profitable in 1994.

Yeah, Hogan vs Flair at BatB'94 apparently did a huge buyrate compared to previous PPV's, but that's not to say that 1994 was a profitable year for them overall. Which is too bad, because the first half of the year was amazing, quality-wise!

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I'm pretty sure it was 1995 when they first turned a profit because Bischoff on his podcast told a story about betting one of the Turner execs that they would turn a profit that year. Like a dollar or ten dollar bet.

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. I wonder if they would have made a profit in the early years if Turner execs didn’t monkey around with the accounting, so WCW got PPV revenue on their books instead of Turner H9me Entertainment.

Edited by odessasteps
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39 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

. I wonder if they would have made a profit in the early years if Turner execs didn’t monkey around with the accounting, so WCW got PPV revenue on their books instead of Turner H9me Entertainment.

And didn't they not get money for producing the highest rated programs on TBS? I'm sure their balance sheet would've looked alot better of they were paid market value.

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Well either way they were making money before the (re)jumpstart so my what if could still happen. Also there’s the accounting stuff which has been talked about here before yes. So who knows. Some of those accountants probably still don’t know wtf all that mess was let alone Eric Bischoff.

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5 hours ago, Infinit said:

And didn't they not get money for producing the highest rated programs on TBS? I'm sure their balance sheet would've looked alot better of they were paid market value.

WCW had good ratings on TBS but they weren’t getting ad revenue that equaled those ratings, ads for Goody’s headache powder & limited time offer 800 number products don’t bring in the cash. Now what wrestling did was boost the overall rating of TBS, which allowed them to have higher base rates for the entire channel. 
 

Running house shows in big arenas that only drew 1,000 to 5,000 people is a money pit, that had to be one of the biggest factors they were always in the red. 

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1 hour ago, Mister TV said:

WCW had good ratings on TBS but they weren’t getting ad revenue that equaled those ratings, ads for Goody’s headache powder & limited time offer 800 number products don’t bring in the cash. Now what wrestling did was boost the overall rating of TBS, which allowed them to have higher base rates for the entire channel. 
 

Running house shows in big arenas that only drew 1,000 to 5,000 people is a money pit, that had to be one of the biggest factors they were always in the red. 

True...but look at WWF/E's tv contracts over the years with their not the most favorable advertisers. I'm sure if WCW got paid a fair market rate for their TV by Turner and they weren't victims of the shady THE accounting of PPV revenue @odessastepsbrought up, they probably would have been closer to the black. 

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1 hour ago, HumanChessgame said:

I don't feel like looking back through the whole thread to see if this has been covered yet, but what does WCW look like if Bischoff peaks as a commentator and never gets any sort of administrative or booking input?

I don't know if we would've had the Monday Night Wars at that level. I'm sure you would've had a better overall booker but I'm not sure if you. Wouldve had as much international flavor or a Cruiserweight division.

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10 hours ago, Infinit said:

True...but look at WWF/E's tv contracts over the years with their not the most favorable advertisers. I'm sure if WCW got paid a fair market rate for their TV by Turner and they weren't victims of the shady THE accounting of PPV revenue @odessastepsbrought up, they probably would have been closer to the black. 

The whole "shady accounting" things seems like an excuse, was it one of the many reasons WCW was always in the red? Sure, but there were numerous other factors that put them in that position that no one ever seems to talk about. WCW had massive operating costs(house shows, talent, staff, and so on), I can't see ppv revenue(which was split with cables companies) and ad revenue being enough to put the company into the black. On ad revenue, remember not only did WCW have "low rent" ad buyers, the overall cost of ad time on cable until say 1996ish was low, both companies were "right place right time" when their ratings peaked at the same time the rates peaked.

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