Chris Jericho and Dave Meltzer Discuss Turner Wanting Vince McMahon To Buy and Run WCW As Separate Company in 2000, Vince’s Attempt to Sell Spike TV On The Idea

– Speaking on this week’s Talk Is Jericho, Chris Jericho and The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer spoke on the sale of WCW in 2001. The two recalled the interesting period of time when Turner wanted Vince McMahon to not only buy WCW, but to run the company and continue to air WCW programming on Turner’s channels (Nitro on TNT, Thunder on TBS, etc). So McMahon would then run both WWE and WCW as separate companies. The deal ended up falling apart though when TNN (later Spike TV) refused to allow McMahon to produce wrestling programming for another channel since they had an exclusive deal with him regarding wrestling.

Meltzer on parties attempting to buy WCW in late ’99/early 2000, including Vince McMahon: “Even in ’99 and early 2000 when they were losing money, there were people who came in and wanting to buy the company for like $75 million, which doesn’t sound like a lot today, but then was a lot of money. And they still were turning them down as late as like — I would say early 2000. By early 2000, the losses were so high, they wanted to sell. Even though ratings had dropped greatly since the peak of only a couple years earlier, the ratings were still good enough, and it was primetime, and primetime ratings benefitted the station, but they didn’t want to lose the money. So the idea is, we’ll sell the wrestling company to somebody. They can run it. We’ll keep the TV and we’ll keep the ratings, but we won’t have all those expenses and all those headaches of wrestling. So that was kind of like the idea. Eventually, the guy that they talked to is Vince McMahon, and Vince McMahon had just signed a contract with Spike TV [originally TNN in 2000] because he’d been on the USA Network forever and ever.”

Meltzer on the previous WCW deal to have Vince McMahon control and run the company never took off: “At the time, Vince McMahon was getting for Raw — and this was when Raw was doing those incredible numbers because this is 2000 now when this is going on. So, Raw is at its peak doing these ridiculous numbers, and he was getting $5.5 million a year from USA Network. That was his number. And Spike comes in and goes, ‘We’ll give you $28 million.’ So Vince is like, ‘Geez. $28 million just to produce TV? We used to do TV for free and just tried to make money on our house shows.’ So it was a big change for Vince, but one of the deals to get it signed was to get exclusivity on the station. So he could not produce any wrestling and put it on any other station but Spike TV over the next five years.”

“So then this deal comes, but the problem is they [Turner] want Vince to run it. The idea that Vince can control both companies, he can manipulate them. He can do the storylines between them. Actually, from a TBS standpoint, it sounds great. From a Vince standpoint, it’s unbelievable, right? You’ve got both companies. You can do a feud. You can not do a feud. You can do your own jumps, you know what I mean? It’s like, ‘Oh, Steve Austin gets mad at WWF and jumps to WCW.’ You can create your own wrestling world. It’s awesome. The only problem was he’d signed that exclusivity with Spike. He went to Spike and pitches them and goes like, ‘This is the greatest thing ever. We’re gonna have stuff on TBS. We’re gonna have stuff on Spike. It makes both brands more valuable because we’re in complete control of the wrestling world. We’ve got every major talent in the world under contract practically.’ And Spike goes, ‘No. You signed an exclusivity with us. You can’t do it.’ So, Vince is now out of the running. He can’t buy them because TBS wants the programming, so he’s out.”

Meltzer on how the Bischoff/Fusient deal fell apart, WCW got cancelled, and Vince McMahon and WWE bought it at a fire sale price in 2001: “So Bischoff with Fusient comes in. Jerry Jarrett’s in there. And there were other people in there. The were several people in there who were pitching stuff. For whatever reason, they make the deal with Bischoff and Fusient. They made the deal. They have the press conference in early 2001. And I remember they announced the sale of WCW to Fusient, which Bischoff was the key creative guy behind. And it was like, okay, wrestling’s going to continue on these stations, and Eric’s gonna be back in charge. And Eric, to his credit, I thought that Eric had — whether he would’ve been successful or not, and no one will ever know — I think he understood why it went down. He was already making changes, and he knew what he was going to do and cutting the budget way down where, even if it lost money, it wasn’t going to be losing $62 million.”

“Then a couple weeks later — this is one thing I remember. I was talking to somebody in WWF, and this is like within 2-3 days after this announcement. And I knew it wasn’t for sale. And the TBS people were saying, ‘We did have this press conference. The ink isn’t signed. It’s not signed, but we are selling. But yes, it’s not a signed deal.’ And part of the deal was that they would still have wrestling on the stations. That would be the thing. But right after, someone from WWE calls and goes, ‘They’re not gonna get the company.’ And I go, ‘Really?’ And it’s like, ‘I can’t tell you more. They’re not gonna get the company.’ The President of WWF at the time was not Vince or Linda. It was Stu Snyder, who had worked at TBS. I think the person who told me said, ‘Stu knows everything.’ So, Stu Snyder was the guy. Then, I didn’t really think much of it. Then one day, wrestling was cancelled on TBS and TNT. So now, Eric’s contract [and situation with Fusient is like], ‘What are we buying now? With no television, it’s completely worthless.’ So, there’s nothing you could do. So Eric had two weeks where he either could make a major television deal, or Vince McMahon’s getting the thing at a fire sale price because they [Turner] were gonna sell. They gave Eric that time, ‘If you get that deal and you still want it, you can have it.’ It was impossible.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.