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- Podcast series from Wonderly explores the growth of WWF (now WWE) and its rivalry with WCW
Nothing say America more than pro wrestling.
But it is also a microcosm of wider business also, as evidenced by Wonderly’s Business Wars: WWF vs WCW podcast series.
The Beginning
Starting with Vince McMahon Jr. in 1979 and the creation of the Titan Sports vehicle which came to own the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
We’re treated to nuggets like McMahon buying out his father, Vince Sr. for control of the company, with threats that if he missed one balloon payment he would lose the company – back to his father.
Key Info:
- Seven episode series
- Features fictionalised re-enactments throughout (including Vince McMahon)
The exploration of the early years are fascinating to listen to. McMahon’s boundless ambition to take the WWF national is evident throughout.
He astutely aligns himself with TV networks with large audience numbers, while also jumping into the then-novel concept of pay-per-view (PPV) TV. He even came up with the idea of Wrestlemania while holidaying during this period.
Not only this, McMahon realises the huge value that personalities like Hulk Hogan can make in the mainstream consumers’ mind. He whips up an incredible merchanising operation to cash in on the Hulkster’s popularity which is still standing today. Plus, crucially, he makes wrestling a family, PG-led operation, again maximising the products appeal.
In the first episode you just feel admiration for McMahon and how he took a small regional business and make it much, much more.
But soon, like any runaway success story, dark clouds loom over Vince and the WWF. Before Ted Turner’s rival WCW overtook WWF, the organisation faced a far more serious issue.
“Hulk: Bulk From A Bottle?”
By 1991 the WWF is engulfed in a damaging steroids scandal, with the front page of USA Today asking: “Hulk: Bulk From A Bottle?”.
Even now, the story seems like something out of a trash novel. In December 1991, George T. Zahorian, a urologist, was sentenced to a three year prison term for selling steroids to professional wrestlers.
Zahorian’s case rips open the PG image of wrestlers like Hulk Hogan (famous for lines like “Say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong”).
The fledgling WCW, which should be making hay during this disaster completely implodes as “Nature Boy” Ric Flair leaves the organisation for WWF… With the World Championship belt.
Even more embarrassingly Bill Watts is appointed Executive Vice President in 1992 to resuscitate it – not before allegedly urinating in the CNN car park before his first meeting with wrestlers for his new role. By 1993, he is already gone, replaced by the irrepressible Eric Bischoff.
Meanwhile, we see McMahon’s insatiable flair for coming up with new concepts. Despite his organisation tanking by 1992 and beset with problems, he comes up with the idea of Monday wrestling, in a new format of RAW. It’s first episode pulls in over two million people. Yet things were falling apart – staffers had to bring in their own pens to work to cut down on costs. Not to mention McMahon being on trial for the steroids scandal.
Vince isn’t a stranger to launching risky products, such as the XFL 1.0 and then again more recently with the XFL 2.0 – with both ventures failing.
His decision to pitch into Disney to tape WCW at their studios is a masterstroke, along with the coup of tempting Ric Flair and the Hulkster and Randy “Macho Man” Savage to WCW.
By 1995, WWF is on life support, despite McMahon being found not guilty in the steroids case, with WCW going primetime on the TV network TNT – the turbo boost that it needed to take WWF’s dominance down.
Monday Night Wars – Nitro vs Raw
A theme that springs up is that competition does rise to the occasion, especially in the form of younger, motivated professionals, like Bischoff.
As the saying goes, competition breeds innovation.
The Monday timeslot runs at the same time as RAW, but is crucially live, not pre-taped (like RAW) and also appeals to young people (18+), with more realistic storylines.
Nitro launches with a big bang – WWF stars suddenly appear on the show – something that never had happened before.
Other tactics include ruining the pre-taped RAWs by revealing the results. On live TV during Nitro.
Incredible tactic. Underhanded? Maybe. But it is a genius move.
Not only this, the move to edgier action – New World Order and Hogan’s heel turn (i.e. bad guy) to Hollywood Hogan – pulls in huge audiences.
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Enter the one, the only, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Discarded by Bischoff by fax, Austin bounces into the WWF as “The Ringmaster” but soon he removes the shackles of this lame gimmick to become Stone Cold.
Incredibly, McMahon was unsure of Austin’s star power due to his anti-hero character (up to that point a wrestler was either good or bad, there was no grey in between).
To take on WCW, McMahon ditched the PG content – memorably with Brian Pillman pulling a gun on Austin and Pillman dropping an f-bomb during the live segment.
Ratings jump after the Pillman segment and McMahon sense this is the new direction for his organisation. By 1997, unthinkable before this, McMahon brings Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) onto WWF programming.
The move is, again, brilliant. It gives WWF credibility with hardcore wrestling fans while creating a manufactured rivalry between the two federations.
As much as McMahon comes across as a genius (especially in the early days and also in how he combated WCW) he came within inches of making the wrong call, such as debating whether to push Austin to be the star of the organisation.
What also bubbles throughout the podcast is the issue of luck.
Time Warner’s merger with Turner broadcasting is one of those moments. In October 1996, the merger was approved by shareholders. Thus, Turner’s support for WCW ebbs away, while pay and employee freezes are implemented. Despite WCW deciding to launch WCW Thunder – their second weekly broadcast show.
Vince lucks out again with Bonnie Hammer, a studio executive, who helps to frame the Attitude Era (her advice? Deeper characters that appeal to a male audience.
I thought it should be male soap opera
Bonnie Hammer, USA TV Network Executive
Controversy Sells
McMahon ramps up the controversy to insane levels, including:
- Interviewing Brian Pillman’s wife hours after he died
- Screwing Brett Hart during the “Montreal Screwjob“
- McMahon announces that he is getting rid of PG content for good with the Attitude Era
- Wrestler Val Venis, who is a part time wrestler / adult entertainment performer is castrated
- Baiting Bischoff
Not only this, McMahon’s genius is on display once more with his idea to become a wrestling character, following the Montreal Screwjob.
The Austin / McMahon feud puts to bed WCW’s ratings win over the WWF which had continued for eighteen months.
Yet, Bischoff’s luck runs out at an especially bad time, when Terri Tingle, head of Standards and Practices with Turner Time Warner took control of the content WCW could air.
Not only did Tingle tell me what jokes I could use, she proceeded to
Eric Bischoff, Controversy Creates Cash
tell me that from that point forward, I was to give her all of the
scripts for my shows two or three weeks in advance so that she
would have time to review them prior to their airing.
By 1999, it is, effectively game over. WWF has all the younger, better stars (The Rock, Steve Austin) and a new broadcast show, Smackdown, on network TV station UPN. The first weekly episode sees 4.2 million tune in. By contrast, WCW Thunder managed less than 2 million viewers.
Not only this, Vince IPOs the company – making it at a stroke a billion dollar enterprise, soon after it is purchasing WCW’s IP for a platry $4.3 million.
Business is business and WCW had been beaten by McMahon’s WWF.
Verdict:
This is a deep, brilliantly structured podcast that clearly had a huge amount of work put into it. The details are incredible (such as the Bill Watts’ carpark toilet break mentioned above).
It rips along at a great pace, listen to it, you won’t be disappointed.
