World Championship Wrestling

World Championship Wrestling, better known as WCW, was a powerhouse in American professional wrestling from 1988 to 2001. Media mogul Ted Turner bought the assets of Jim Crockett Promotions, a key National Wrestling Alliance territory, and launched WCW under his Turner Broadcasting System. For over a decade, it stood as the WWF's biggest rival, and for a stretch in the mid-1990s, it actually beat Vince McMahon's company in the ratings war.

Under the guidance of Eric Bischoff, who took over as executive producer in 1993, WCW shifted to more reality-based storylines and snatched up former WWF stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Kevin Nash. The promotion also built a reputation for its cruiserweight division, featuring high-flying, lucha-inspired wrestlers like Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero. In 1995, WCW launched Monday Nitro, a live weekly show that directly competed with WWF's Monday Night Raw, sparking the famous Monday Night War. From 1996 to 1998, Nitro beat Raw in the ratings for 83 straight weeks.

But the tide turned in 1999. Creative missteps and the WWF's rise in popularity led to a sharp decline in ratings and revenue. The 2001 merger of AOL and Time Warner, which owned Turner, sealed WCW's fate. The company was sold to the WWF, which snapped up its video library, intellectual property, and select contracts. The corporate shell lingered until 2017, but WCW's impact on wrestling remains a hot topic among fans and historians. [edit]