Considered a form of sports entertainment, professional wrestling has been a staple in U.S. culture since the late 19th century. From its roots as a carnival attraction to its current status as a multi-billion dollar industry, the sport has evolved into a type of performance art that features a blend of athleticism, storytelling, psychology, heroism, and theater. Like greater society, pro wrestling has reinvented itself at various points of its existence based on changes in consumer behavior and social norms. In the 1990s, The Monday Night War was a pivotal turning point and involved two rival wrestling promotions engaged in a ruthless cable television ratings battle for supremacy. During the past six months, two newly created television series examined pro wrestling’s The Monday Night War and discussed various leadership decisions during an unprecedented time period in the industry’s history. The cinematic nostalgia brought to mind a defunct company that once presented a legitimate challenge to the current global leader in sports entertainment.
Vince McMahon and WWE
In September 2024, Netflix released a six-part miniseries on former wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, a visionary businessman and controversial figure in the world of sports entertainment. The Mr. McMahon miniseries focuses on his life story, personality traits, rise to power, and fall from grace. McMahon’s legacy is complicated. For forty years, he was the CEO and chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), a company he purchased from his father in 1982. From a business perspective, McMahon built WWE into a successful publicly traded company and global enterprise that is estimated to be worth $8.37 billion. On the other hand, he is currently involved in an investigation and faces serious charges of misconduct, which caused him to initially step back from his leadership role in 2022 and officially resign from the company this past January. The bottom line is WWE has dominated sports entertainment without serious opposition since the 1990s.
WCW’s Challenge
Three months prior to the debut of Mr. McMahon, Vice Studios Canada and Seven Bucks Productions concluded a four-part miniseries co-produced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson called Who Killed WCW? World Championship Wrestling (WCW), originally called Jim Crockett Promotions, was a rival company purchased and rebranded by entrepreneur and CNN founder Ted Turner in 1988. In 1995, WCW decided to launch a new television show called Monday Nitro, which competed head-to-head on primetime with WWE’s Monday Night Raw. Although television ratings are still an important success indicator today, they had increased value before the rise of streaming services. As a result of some brash and creative ideas employed by former executive producer Eric Bischoff, WCW became a competitive threat to WWE’s reign. Between 1996 and 1998, WCW Monday Nitro claimed 83 straight victories in their weekly Nielson ratings clash with WWE Monday Night Raw. By 1999, WWE reasserted their dominance due to several effective business strategies and WCW was not able to respond. Subsequently, WCW was purchased by Vince McMahon in 2001.
Many businesspeople argue that competition brings out the best in companies and facilitates creativity, innovation, and performance. For instance, The Cola Wars represented a longstanding rivalry between Coke and Pepsi that forced the two popular soft drink companies to push their creative boundaries in order to gain competitive advantage. The late 1990s was an interesting time in pro wrestling as the industry experienced immense popularity during The Monday Night War. WWE and WCW engaged in a weekly creative feud with both companies vying to win over the interest of fans. WCW’s ability to challenge WWE was particularly impressive considering the company had never turned a profit until 1995.
From a business standpoint, there are valuable leadership lessons that can be drawn from fierce competition. One of Eric Bischoff’s goals was to make WCW programming different from their counterparts.
Here are some strategies that contributed to WCW’s two year dominance in television ratings from 1996-98:
Decide to go live: WWE’s Monday Night Raw was prerecorded, while WCW made the decision to broadcast Monday Nitro live in 1995. Live programming offers an element of surprise and unpredictability. Also, there is a degree of authenticity with a live telecast compared with pre-recorded programming. WCW used the tactical advantage to announce the results of their competitor’s matches before WWE Monday Night Raw aired, an unethical gesture that provided an advantage early on in the war. However, this approach would later backfire towards the end of the war.
Capture a new audience: In the mid 1990s, WWE primarily catered to a pre-teen and an adolescent audience and offered cartoonish characters. WCW decided to target the 18-34 male demographic segment with their programming. At the time, reality based television was just beginning to gain popularity. This change provided a new and fresh presentation of the product. Several wrestling fans embraced the change, while the WWE took some time to adapt.
Acquire Key Free Agents: WCW was able to recruit well-known free agents by offering competitive salaries and guaranteed contracts. Major stars like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash developed popular characters in the WWE before they left to join WCW for more favorable agreements. WWE classified their performers as independent contractors and did not offer guaranteed contracts. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, and Lex Luger were just a few other big stars who changed promotions.
Support work-life balance: During this time period, the wrestling business was a grind for its employees. WWE performers worked all year around and constantly traveled from town-to-town. Alternatively, WCW offered talent ample time off within their contract negotiations. The favorable schedule appealed to performers and provided an opportunity for them to spend extra time with their families. Conversely, WWE performers would work significantly more house shows and events per year.
Present Compelling Storylines: Often discussed in his 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff developed a formula of success with storytelling he called SARSA, which is an acronym that stands for Story, Action, Reality, Surprise, and Anticipation. In mid-1996, Bischoff applied SARSA to television and hit on a big idea that would pay dividends for WCW. As previously mentioned, wrestlers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had recently left WWE and discreetly signed with its rival promotion. WCW positioned the two established stars as invaders from WWE. Known as the New World Order (NWO) storyline, Hall and Nash teamed up with legend Hulk Hogan to form a wrestling faction that became trendy and cool, even though the three performers were considered villains, which industry insiders refer to as heels. WCW showed patience and spent over a year building up a feud between the NWO faction and their main company star Sting, who became an antihero character and crowd favorite.
Introduce International Talent: WCW introduced international talent to its wrestling audience, which was well received. The opening matches on WCW Monday Nitro typically featured Lucha Libre style wrestlers from Mexico (such as Rey Mysterio Jr.) within WCW’s cruiser weight division. Japanese wrestlers (such as Masahiro Chono) were also introduced and used in various storylines, including as members of the NWO. The influx of international talent was a brilliant move and ahead of its time.
Crossover into Pop Culture: In 1997 and 1998, the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz competed in consecutive NBA Finals and captured a record television audience. The Bulls were one of the most popular sports teams worldwide and their star power forward Dennis Rodman decided to join WCW in 1997. Rodman was not just another basketball player. His unique persona and enormous popularly made him a pop culture icon. WCW further capitalized by signing Utah Jazz star power forward Karl Malone. In the summer of 1998, Rodman teamed with Hulk Hogan against Malone and Diamond Dallas Page in a tag-team match. This gave WCW massive media exposure.
Ending to the War
The downfall and eventual demise of WCW was swift and unexpected. There were a combination of actions that facilitated the end to The Monday Night War. WWE proved to be resilient and reclaimed their place on top of the industry during what is commonly referred to as The Attitude Era. During this time period, WWE committed to a more salacious and edgier product. The provocative turn was not in everyone’s taste, but led to record breaking television ratings for WWE Monday Night Raw aka Raw is War. WCW was unable to counter because Monday Nitro was broadcasted on TNT, a family friendly television network. In 1998, WCW launched another television program called Thursday Thunder, which resulted in financial mismanagement and product saturation. WCW lacked direction and steady leadership by 1999. After losing several top stars to its chief competitor, WWE was able to create newer and younger stars. Conversely, WCW stood complacent and continued to feature older talent on their programs.
Although WCW was consistently losing The Monday Night War to WWE, Ted Turner had long been an advocate for wrestling and supported its inclusion on his networks. However, AOL and Time Warner completed one of the biggest media mergers in history and purchased Turner Broadcasting in 2000. The merger diluted Ted Turner’s ownership and reduced his control over WCW. As WCW continued to lose the weekly ratings battle, the conglomerate sold the company to WWE just over a year after its merger for only $2.5 million dollars, a staggering low figure.
WCW may be a distance memory, but the company’s impact on the pro wrestling industry cannot be understated. From 1996 to 1998, they implemented several effective leadership strategies that allowed them to dominate sports entertainment.