Ted Turner, the media tycoon who once owned WCW has passed away. He was 87-years-old.
Turner created an empire that was unrivaled at the time.
Over the years he owned and established:
The Turner Broadcasting System
CNN
TBS
TNT
Cartoon Network
Turner Classic Movies
He later bought:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Hawks
He also was the creator of the Goodwill Games. He reshaped the television landscape in the United States, especially when it comes to nation-wide and 24-hour broadcasting. In 1996, he sold Turner Broadcasting and his networks to Time Warner. He is in the Television Hall of Fame, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Communication due to his contributions to the television industry and news reporting. He was also Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1991.
As far as his wrestling legacy goes, Turner bought Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988 and rebranded it World Championship Wrestling (WCW). As the owner and broadcaster of WCW, Turner was part of the Monday Night Wars and his professional and personal rivalry with Vince McMahon became the stuff of legend.
Reportedly, Turner called Vince McMahon when he bought WCW.
“Vince, I’m in the wrestling business,” he announced.
“That’s nice, Ted. I’m in the entertainment business,” McMahon responded.
Turner posed a serious threat to McMahon because he had very deep pockets, owned his own television empire and was very influential in the media, political and the entertainment world.
In the nineties, Turner and WCW became a great alternative for fans and wrestlers alike. Turner began signing away top WWE stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage and others with offers McMahon couldn’t compete with.
Once WCW Executive VP Eric Bischoff and Turner created Monday Night Nitro, the Monday Night Wars ignited with both promotions at war with one another. Turned and Bischoff took advantage of the fact that Nitro was live and Raw was taped at the time to spoil results so fans would watch Nitro instead. When the nWo storyline was introduced Nitro defeated Raw in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks (1 year, 7 months, and 1 week.).
During that time, WWE created a character named “Billionaire Ted” to mock Turner. He was used in angles and skits portraying him as outdated and surrounding himself with “stale” talent like “The Huckster” (Hulk Hogan) and “The Nacho Man” (Randy Savage). The actor who played Billionaire Ted was James Flaherty. WCW didn’t respond to the attacks.
On Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1999, McMahon said this about Turner: “My mom once said if you cannot say anything nice about someone don’t say anything at all so all I will say about Ted (Turner) is he is a son of a bitch other than that he’s probably not a bad guy. I don’t like him at all. I cannot stand the son of a bitch!”. When O’Brien mentioned Turner has an action figure, McMahon said: “I can imagine. He takes lithium all day long.” “That’s a law suit!” O’Brien quipped.
Turner and Bischoff’s WCW was geared towards a more mature audience while McMahon and WWE continued to create cartoonish personas like The Goon, a hockey player, Bastian Booger and others. WCW’s change in tone and approach would motivate McMahon and the WWE to create and fight back with The Attitude Era and such characters as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock and DX who pushed the boundaries of good taste and broadcasting regulations, rules. It was also one of the most popular and successful WWE eras of all time.
WCW would remain as Turner’s gem, passion project even when it was losing ratings and money. That all changed though when Turner Broadcasting merged with AOL/Time Warner in 2001. The corporate regime viewed WCW as a massive liability and drain on the company. They sold WCW to WWE for $4.2 million, a fraction of what it was formerly worth.
