Kevin Nash on WHY Turner Executives killed WCW

[@bigvanpapi]

Supposedly Jamie Kellner just passed away a few days ago aka The guy that canceled WCW on Turner.

[@jvarriale1]

Yea that’s why they used his photo in the thumbnail on this video

[@p.d.stanhope7088]

Siegel is very typical of upper management in any Fortune 500 company. It's the classic Peter Principle - if you perform well in your job, you will likely be promoted to the next level of your organization's hierarchy. As you continue to rise up the ladder until you reach the point where you can no longer perform well. He was assigned to job that he knew nothing about but he was so high up in the Turner org that it was beneath him to learn WHY pro-wrestling was VERY profitable under Bischoff. He had a hands off approach and let it self destruct and then move onto the next division or go to another company based on his seniority.

[@juice-k]

Exactly correct. I also have observed cases where an exec gets moved to a less relevant org because of their avg or poor performance. They get moved from a critical org to one that needs an exec, but it's not financially significant to the company. Org is sort of a holding pen to get the exec to leave.

[@TehBuzz]

Was WCW profitable? I’m sure I read somewhere it literally turned an annual profit once in Bischoffs whole period with the company?

[@ducklife420]

@@TehBuzz the way the accounting was done WCW could never be profitable. their ad revenue went to Turner broadcasting. their ppv revenue also went to another company yet expenses were taken out that had nothing to do with wrestling

[@p.d.stanhope7088]

@@TehBuzz Those 2 years (NWO) it was making roughly $200 Million a year with little to no licensing fees. Just imagine if WCW charged at least 40-50% in licensing, they could have really made WWE run for its money in the final stretch after 2000. The problem with Bischoff was that he became a character and didn't mind the company & the company's politics behind the scenes. Those daggers were sharp and plenty. If AOL-Time-Warner still wanted to get rid of wrestling, that could have given Bischoff the incentive to successfully sell it to an investment group and ECW was going out of business in 2000 and losing their TV slot on TNN. Of course, this is all a hypothetical. 😁

[@matthewsmith5374]

Some blame goes to Siegel and it would’ve helped if he believed in the product but when it was doing good he would at least talk it up or defend its existence to shareholders. I would sooner blame Eric as he was in charge of the actual show/production/creative/talent etc. Eric and later Russo were responsible for the things that made the show bad, made it too expensive with talents contracts, pyro, stunts and blowing up cars which allowed upper management to no stop supporting it. Even if they always planned to kill it once it started losing money and ratings it was the wrestling management (Eric and Russo) that made corporate managements decision to kill it an easy one.

[@easter_sunday]

"This is expensive to produce, and no one is watching."

[@markk7731]

Like this clip on You Tube. LOL!

[@binaryian3673]

Sounds like AEW

[@bobross3864]

When I hit that powerbomb, I’m over as fuck

[@MURD3RWAVE]

I got to say Kev, He made the best point when he showed the tablet and said who killed WCW. Without question. The mark arguments about booking was irrelevant. The company did not want wrestling. These corporate shills killed it. Even if things started to turn around it still would have been sold. Sooner or later. Everything was irrelevant because the last shills in charge wanted it gone not a single clue about the business.

[@donovanbradford8231]

Very correct that was the early impression I got from the Nitro book early on when I read it was the meeting of TNT hearing they now had WCW and the network head's jaw hit the floor he was so upset. The fact the networks that had WCW didn't want it was a clear sign, no way it's gonna be safe. I also believe that because it was those network heads that were telling AOL, who had the 51 majority at the time to sell WCW to Vince who bought for just a few million. The Turner/Time Warner/ AOL would have made more money selling it to Bischoff and his investors, but Turnee excs knew we sell it to WWF it's gone for good.

[@jamiewalsh9184]

@@donovanbradford8231 Youre an idiot. Stop repeating nash's thoughts. If WCW continued to make money and draw ratings the executives would have kept the ball rolling because MONEY!! WCW from 1999 onward was dog shit and it was because of the booking, the booking was terrible and rarely made sense. No adult is going to watch that. Nash wont say this because HE WAS BOOKING

[@jimbowlan5804]

@donovanbradford8231 Bischoffs money man pulled out when aol decided to take it off tv completely they had to sell to Vince since bischoffs didn’t have anyone else in mind

[@josephsuarez8178]

That's it man 💯 And that's Kinda Sad ..b.cuz Turrner was all 4 It.. And never Never had the Back Up.. Soo Ofcourse it's going to DIE

[@spiffy8576]

Born in 1981, grew up watching both NWA/WCW and WWF. Never really saw one as inferior to the other, I just generally liked the one where my favorite wrestlers were in at the given time. Brian Pillman, Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior.

[@danman1789]

I had heard about the whole corporate espionage conspiracy angle before, but my god. I'm pretty convinced that's what happened. Siegel found the way out: set up a deal with my buddy, companies gone, and it's off our TV.

[@Gvvm15]

That finger poke sure didn’t help.

[@takerdust]

it wasn't that big of a deal. The constant run-ins and sloppy angles going on Nitro/Thunder week after week for months after that did more damage.

[@Gvvm15]

@@takerdust Kevin Nash is that you?

[@epsteinsnecktie8690]

Bingo. They still dont get the Nwo civil war (That the finger poke ruined) was wayy more over than Goldberg vs Hogan. Half the crowd hated both Goldberg and Hogan alike.

[@BigDic-qz8su]

​@@Gvvm15it eas trash before that.

[@joshhefner8179]

Dustin Rhodes even said the Seven character was his idea and shot the videos but standards and practices killed it and thats why he came out and did the promo saying it sucked.

[@realbuda]

I heard the reason wcw went down was because of the executives wanted nothing to do with wrestling on the TV station TBS forcing turner to sell quickly and that's when Vince McMahon jumped on it , if Eric bishoff was able to buy wcw it probably would be still up and running today

[@donovanbradford8231]

Agreed the deal to WWF made no sense business wise the company would have made more money selling to Eric and his investors.

[@jonmccormick8683]

WcW would have been big on any network. WcW needed to leave TBS/TNT/TCM to get that ad revenue money.

[@realbuda]

@@jonmccormick8683 true but Ted Turner didn't have time to sell the company to anyone except Vince cause he was the only person last minute that could buy the Company, if you ever heard Eric bishoff talk about it he was kinda pissed that he didn't have what the asking price was . I think Eric could have been a really good owner/ boss to work for .

[@Finfection]

@@realbuda Ted Turner didn't sell it. AOL/TimeWarner did. And Bischoff already had a done deal to buy the company. While AOL/TW were going to no longer own the company and no longer incur the costs of producing it, they were still going to air it on their networks as part of the deal. What happened was that AOL/TW took away their television timeslots on TNT and TBS which ruined the deal that was already made with Eric and his investors. Then AOL/TW, the same company that took away the timeslots mind you, turned around and sold it to Vince for much, much cheaper than they were going to sell to Eric for. It's all really fishy. Why sell it for much cheaper and lose out on that money while also losing out on all the potential ad revenue that would have came with airing the program?

[@jeffreyfurtado3681]

Eric Bischoff had a deal together with Fusient Media for around $68 million dollars to give WCW a reboot out of LAS VEGAS with a new headquarters around Hard Rock CAFE. They even had almost $750k in Attorney contracts set. New AOL, Time Warner Execs led by Jamie Kellner pulled the plugs and decided they would not give the TIme SLots on TNT and TBS in 2001. Fusient and Eric Bischoff had very little time to establish T.V. contracts and the decided to not buy the company.

[@travissmith6380]

Love Nash, but this Dude had the book for some of WCW's worst stuff and has been quoted MANY times saying sht like " Didnt care, My check was the same" Or " Still got paid, what do i care", but he cant just say what Konan said which is the Boys didnt do themselves any favors. Top of that list being Hulk and Nash

[@joshhefner8179]

I remember Flair beat Jeff for the title then Russo stripped Flair because they said he had a heart attack so Jeff got the belt back and Kevin won it from Jeff and handed back to Flair so thats how Flair won his 16th championship.

[@GutturalReef]

What nobody followed up on was, the mid card guys weren't being used in WCW because they weren't seen as top guys. They leave, go up north, and what happens? Vinny Mac sees what Vinny Ru-Ru saw and made them top guys! And Diesel gets butt hurt because they're great workers and they only thing Diesel is good at is being 6'10'', so he's no longer special. Therefore, wrestling is dead, because guys who can actually WORK and WRESTLE in the WRESTLING BUSINESS are doing something he can't, so that makes it unbelievable, unrelatable, and dead.

[@poppy87]

The press release announcing the sale of WCW to WWF was released the Friday before the last Nitro on both of their websites.

[@Calvillo818]

“You say that like it’s a bad thing”

[@jordanviens4696]

Not sure if anyone was aware that Jamie Kellner passed away last Friday.

[@TheKevinNewsom]

Guy Evan's Nitro does not place the blame on Nash at all. That honor goes to Time Warner and AOL/TW.

[@mattnoah8309]

I could of swore Nash did not have a problem with the Turner executives

[@epsteinsnecktie8690]

Are they both gonna just ignore the fact that Nash never gaf about being a Pro wrestler? You dont give a man with ZERO passion for the product the book or the strap. It was always a joke to him.

[@dmanentertament125]

That was Goldberg not Kevin Nash

[@MichaelSpikes-pv6kl]

Excellent video

[@takerdust]

does Sean still have heat with Konnan about no-showing and keeping the deposit years ago?

[@robertstraw9881]

What’s with the editing of this clip?

[@drue_tube9357]

Sean sprinkling in some casual racism 🫥

[@DattNinjaa]

That was odd

[@ad206]

8:11 A little Kayfabe Commentaries lore reference for the long time fans, lol.

[@emanc93]

Whats the backstor6?

[@ad206]

@emanc93 From what I remember, I think it's that Konaan took a deposit from Sean for like $500 and never showed up for the interview.

[@CrunkKrow]

Hate to say this but Sean has turned into Nash's yes man echo chamber co host who comes off like he's on auto pilot all the time. Amazing interviewer but not a great co Host.

[@KClouisville]

I think Nash is kind of making it that way though. Anytime he tries to get some nuance in on a point or make a counterpoint he gets a pained and exhausted reply from Nash that invariably doesn't go anywhere. Sometimes getting Nash to expound on something is like pulling teeth.

[@MichaelThomas-ll1hw]

I mean by the last months of WCW it was unfathomable to NOT want to drive a dagger through the bloated lifeless corpse that wcw became. When WCW was hot it was second to none, but when it sucked it made the 3 stooges look like the Vietnam war

[@markk7731]

I love listening to Nash talking about giving people raises when he doesn't have the power to do that. So delusional.

[@poppy87]

He got a lot of wrestlers represented by Barry Bloom, and since Nash and Hall had favored nations clauses, they got raised whenever others got paid more.

[@zeek3580]

Wcw was gonna die either way. I mean they talk about ratings. Most of us just watched it as a pre-show for the real show which was wwf raw is war.

[@timhart910]

Not 1 thing killed wcw. Kevin is a part of the many reasons wcw died.

[@vincentprice9156]

Before the Nwo, WcW sucked.. After Nwo went away, WcW sucked again.

[@johnm5889]

This fucking editor killed WCW🤣

[@thanatos425]

Kevin dont take this the wrong way but I think there needed to be an ultimate end to the NWO. I look back at the first appearance of Scott Hall on WCW and you two really had a draw id say and did but im talking from someone who may have watched it the first time. The team gimmicks were kinda dull or just not good...the wolf pac, the outsiders...and the attires wernt all that though maybe it seemed cool it should have just been Hall and Nash for awhile and though NWO was an interesting idea it had nothing to do with the storyline of WWF vs WCW wrestlers...I think that alternate reality would have been more interesting I think but what im getting at is this NWO thing though it was cool it really stalled. You guys wernt even thinking about an end or whether it would be ended. You guys were gonna go over at WrestleMania x8 like what? You lost me there but you guys became real marks no offense. And what Eric should have done with Bret is have him, Goldberg, Sting and some others actually end the NWO...also the gangster entrances and the drinking you guys did also had nothing to do with the " invasion angel " which I really think the concept of what you guys started was lost in the confusion. Financially WCWs downfall was due to the Merger but the spirit of WCW was ultimately ended by the NWO, you guys, nobody wants to get the blame but you guys were running and booking the show, cant really blame the suits for that. But its the past now, its done, its over with, just live your life and know you had a heck of a run.

[@timomajere]

We all know by now that when Kev and Scott showed up and started draining the coffers in WCW, it caused a floodgate for the other performers to make demands. Sorry, Kev.. YOU and Scott were why WCW went down. You let Hogan jump in, the worst leech in the industry, and he even took over the New world Organization so much, HE uses their own music as his personal theme now. You can say whatever you like these days, but actions speak louder than words and we ALL can see who did what and how it turned out afterwards.

[@purpurahaze9179]

@timomajere I don't think Ted Turner really cared about losing money over wrestling

[@timomajere]

@@purpurahaze9179 He did. Hence Eric being so under the pressure for years. Just have to ask him and find out. heck, hes done tonnes of podcasts stating he messed up a lot because he was under so much pressure he couldn't think straight sometimes.

[@maxpuppy96]

Turner was the reason WCW failed, bad hires not knowing anything about the wrestling business was a formula for disaster. Your going to head to head with Vince McMahon in the wrestling business? Good luck with that one.

[@TravisBrady-wn8fr]

Democrats killed WCW. That and Hulk Rogan

[@b0om3r1]

Ho Kogan

[@vanzammerz]

At this point. Who cares. What’s done is done. It’s nice to watch for nostalgia. The finger pointing is hilarious

[@McMahonHater]

04:53 He is just.... sooooooo... homophobic 😄😅🏳️‍🌈LOL.