The following is "Part 2" of a WWE Films "spoof" column. Aspects of "Part 1" were printed in PowerSlam Magazine in 2002. Unfortunately, I am currently unable to find an archive copy of the original column:
WWE Films: Part 2: By Matthew Evans (Originally Posted 07/06/2003)
Long-term readers may recall my column last year, which offered some "potential blockbusters" for WWE Film to consider for production. It was done for a bit of fun (and even graced the letters section of Power Slam Magazine, albeit in edited format), and I enjoyed it doing it so much, that I decided to have another go. I hope all you readers enjoy this second helping of WWE film ideas.
Four Men And A Wrestling Company
Comedy starring HHH, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. The clique’s rise to dominance is shown in great detail, most notably with the infamous "Curtain Call" incident from 1996. All four men hilariously claim that no-one had their career sabotaged during their reign of terror. Also features some "behind the scenes" footage (HHH carrying HBK’s and Nash’s luggage to and from the arena).
A Nightmare On Helmsley Street
Horror starring HHH. The now-retired "Game" manages to enter the dreams of the offspring of talent such as RVD and Jericho, bringing back painful memories of the days when he held their fathers down, while threatening to do the same to them. HHH then begins to knock the youngsters off with his trusty sledgehammer! The only way to avoid certain death is to stay awake, but with Vince McMahon having taken over TV and choosing to air a marathon of A-Train matches, this becomes increasingly difficult.
Hunter VS Honky
Horror starring HHH and The Honky Tonk Man. It’s the ultimate showdown! Many people have forgotten about HHH, so he enters the dreams of The Honky Tonk man and pays him to continue his killing spree. However, Honky’s price is too high, and the two soon come to blows. Will the sledgehammer prevail over the guitar?
Dude, Where’s My Push?
Drama starring Rob Van Dam. RVD wonders why his career has been on a downward spiral since the 2001 Invasion. Maybe a certain large-nosed fellow has the answers.
Host Ship
Horror. A group of unsuspecting wrestling fans find themselves in a truly terrifying situation: Stuck on a ship with several of the worst hosts/presenters/commentators of all time (The Coach, Marc Lloyd, Kevin Kelly, Chris Leary, Todd Pentingale, Michael Cole and Scott Hudson).
Hosts From Mars
Horror sequel to "Host Ship". The hosts have now been banished to Mars, but through satellite technology, threaten to beam their voices and images back to Earth, hoping to bore the human race to death!
The McMahon Family
Documentary about how the wrestling business has largely been dominated by the McMahon’s. Of course, WCW’s 2-year stint as the number one wrestling company is virtually ignored.
McMahon Family Values
A look at how Vince McMahon has exploited everything from war to necrophilia in the name of entertainment. Told in pro-WWE fashion, giving the impression that such tasteless story lines are ok because "it’s just wrestling".
Mr America
Actions adventure starring Hulk Hogan. The fate of humanity lies in the hands of Mr America, but don’t worry, if all else fails, he can always return to the WWE in time for Wrestlemania 20!
Jolly English
Comedy starring William Regal. Regal plays an English spy, who has to uncover the baffling truth as to why the WWE believe England (and the rest of the UK) to be made up of tea-drinking, royalty-praising snobs.
The WWE Christmas Carol
Seasonal musical starring all the WWE Superstars. HHH refuses to put the younger talent over until three ghosts (past, present and future) visit him. The ghost of Christmas past takes him back to "The Curtain Call", the ghost of Christmas present shows him holding down guys like RVD, and the ghost of Christmas future shows him the demise of WWE! HHH breaks down into tears and vows to put the younger guys over, starting with Maven on Christmas Day!
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Right To Censor?: By Matthew Evans (30/08/2002)
Wrestling probably gets censored more than anything else. You know why: It's STILL judged as being kids stuff and not as entertainment aimed at teenagers and young adults. Ever since Steve Austin cut that world-famous "acceptance speech" at King Of The Ring 1996 and the WWE began to develop "Attitude", the company has faced many problems with media watch-dog groups in America (especially the PTC) and various advertisers who decided to pull out of sponsering the programming. ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) caused offence as well, but due to the lack of mainstream exposure the group had, the media (as far as I know) left it alone. (I do know that the group were told to tone down their act when they arrived on TNN in 1999).
Now let's look at the UK situation. WWE (then WWF) made itself a house-hold name in February 1989 when it arrived on Sky TV. Ok, so not many people had it at first, but word soon spread that this Sky thing was a good idea and soon many people were tuning into WWE programming (The WWE hit its first peak in the UK in 1992 when Summerslam took place at Wembley Stadium).
As I didn't have Sky television at this time, I can't tell you how often WWE programming was censored. However, my guess is very little as there was very little to censor back in the "say your prayers, eat your vitamins" days. It's obvious that there are tighter guidelines today, as I remember having Royal Rumble 92' taped for me and seeing Shawn Michaels hurl Marty Janetty through a glass window on The BarberShop in a suprisingly violent tag-team break-up which was shown well before 8 pm (Sky's watershed). It should also be noted that WCW appeared on ITV in 1989 in a late-night/early-morning slot which soon changed to a Sunday afternoon slot when the popularity of American Wrestling in the UK went through the roof (there was little, if anything to edit out there aswell).
However, by 1996 the WWE's act was getting stale with many fans and it was time for a new direction (one that ECW adopted years earlier). This meant bad language and more violence (Mick Foley had a great deal to do with the latter. He arrived on tv as Mankind and had a memorable feud with The Undertaker. We all know his willingless to endure pain, and as the WWE were in need of a new direction, they allowed Mankind to do what he does best). This led to numerous complaints to Sky Sports from concerned parents asking them to re-schedule Raw in a later time-slot. I don't know whether Sky censored it back then either, but I do know that there were things cut in 1998 and 1999, by which time the WWE truly wasn't "kids stuff" anymore.
WCW also returned to our screens (terrestrial, that is) in July 1999 on Channel 5. For the first few months, C5 left that chair-shots intact and would even show Hardcore Matches. But inevitably, the complaints flew in and C5 were forced to censor such scenes.
However, their choice of censorship caused outrage with many fans. Batman-style captions like "Pow!" "Whack!" and "Splat!" were placed over the offending actions (in truth, they did little to disguise the actions, they were just damn annoying). WCW wasn't all that popular with many fans before the C5 deal, and were made even more unpopular by the channel's censoring techniques.
Here's a classic case of wrestling censorship. In December 1999, UK terrestrial channel Channel 4 signed a a contract with the WWE to air Heat and 4 pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, Backlash, Fully Loaded and Armageddon) for two years. C4 began airing the shows in January 2000 and immediately made a mistake by scheduling it at 4pm, a time which would attract young children and their concerned parents and noisy busy-bodies with nothing better to do than complain about it. The first episode was enjoyable, but was featured on 4T which is aimed at kids and was completely LOADED with censorship. For example, at the end of the show, highlights from 1999 were shown; pity that 95 % of it was frozen pictures.
However, the real trouble came when C4 aired Royal Rumble, possibly the WWE's most extreme show ever. Hyped up on a show that was shown at 4pm to children, it's no wonder that parents who weren't familar with the WWE (and C4 bosses) were horrified when they saw the brutal Tables Match be tween The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz, Mae Young go topless during a bikini contest aimed at the mature fan and Triple H and Cactus Jack slaughter each other in a brutal Street Fight. Channel 4 couldn't believe what they'd got themselves into.
Not wanting a similar thing to happen again, C4 put their foot down with Backlash in April, much to the disgust of many UK wrestling fans. Shown on a 50 minute delay (to allow C4 to add in adverts without disrupting a live show, as with RR), C4 digitised the blood on X-Pac's forehead in the opening match, and froze the picture when Trish Stratus went through a table (although they DID show footage of Lita going through a table later on in the show). Needless to say, fans were outraged (there was around 4 pages of complaints in WOW magazine alone).
In July (and from then on), C4 got their act together and showed the PPVs uncut (apart from advert breaks). Soon however, Heat became hidden away in late night slots due to football and cricket coverage. Some weeks it dissapeared altogether.
After receiving complaints from non-fans with nothing better to do than moan (one complaint was about Rikishi threatening to use a sledge-hammer on JR, even though C4 didn't show it), Heat became a permanent late-night fixture. However, the new late showing still didn't stop C4 from editing out chair-shots and the like.
On July 26th 2001, Channel 4 announced that they were to drop WWE programming for good when their deal expired, due to it becoming "increasingly difficult to edit" and its violent scenes and "misgivings over its portrayal of women" (C4 had a problem with the women being used sexually, but they also didn't like them competing in matches against one another either. What did they want?). The deal was said to expire in December (as they signed it in December 99') but it continued on C4 until January. Then C4 pulled the plug on WWE and it's UK terrestrial exposure for good. Many people (myself included, as I had Sky anyway) saw it as a blessing in disguise.
But what about Sky? Well, they began calling the late night shows "WWF Late Night" in January 2000, with a warning before the shows. However, this hasn't stopped them from editing parts that they feel are unsuitable for viewing by anyone (mostly violence towards women). I should also point out that the day-time shows are heavily edited for content and have been for many years, but you probably knew that.
In March 2001, the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) and the ITC (Independant Television Commision) stuck thier oar in and compiled a report on wrestling's effect on society. The report achieved very little, and was more hilarious than informative (they thought there was a tag-team called The Jericho Brothers and that Hardcore matches were called "Power Fights"). It did suceed however in giving wrestling a bad name. (The BBFC also censored ECW: Living Dangerously 2000 on tape: they would have banned it if Delta didn't remove Rhyno goring The Sandman's wife through a table, despite giving the tape an "18" certificate).
They have also made some minor cuts to a few WCW releases. Fortunately, the video editing seems to have ceased now that all the C4 negative press has died down.
Sky still censor WWE from time to time, even pay-per-views on Box Office. Sky claim that they must do this to comply with ITC rules, but those rules don't apply to Box Office programming that you pay to order! I will agree however, that sometimes Sky's censoring is necessary. For example, the Trish Stratus "Bark like a Dog" segment on Raw in March 2001 was humiliating and in poor taste, as was The Island Boyz recent attack on Mae Young and Moolah. But Sky still insist on censoring less offensive material and stronger language.
When you look at what else is on tv, WWE isn't all that bad. But Sky still hasn't got round to our way of thinking, at least not completely. Wrestling is treated differently to everything else, which is why wrestling censorship will always exist.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/research/wrestling_how_do_viewers.doc
Now let's look at the UK situation. WWE (then WWF) made itself a house-hold name in February 1989 when it arrived on Sky TV. Ok, so not many people had it at first, but word soon spread that this Sky thing was a good idea and soon many people were tuning into WWE programming (The WWE hit its first peak in the UK in 1992 when Summerslam took place at Wembley Stadium).
As I didn't have Sky television at this time, I can't tell you how often WWE programming was censored. However, my guess is very little as there was very little to censor back in the "say your prayers, eat your vitamins" days. It's obvious that there are tighter guidelines today, as I remember having Royal Rumble 92' taped for me and seeing Shawn Michaels hurl Marty Janetty through a glass window on The BarberShop in a suprisingly violent tag-team break-up which was shown well before 8 pm (Sky's watershed). It should also be noted that WCW appeared on ITV in 1989 in a late-night/early-morning slot which soon changed to a Sunday afternoon slot when the popularity of American Wrestling in the UK went through the roof (there was little, if anything to edit out there aswell).
However, by 1996 the WWE's act was getting stale with many fans and it was time for a new direction (one that ECW adopted years earlier). This meant bad language and more violence (Mick Foley had a great deal to do with the latter. He arrived on tv as Mankind and had a memorable feud with The Undertaker. We all know his willingless to endure pain, and as the WWE were in need of a new direction, they allowed Mankind to do what he does best). This led to numerous complaints to Sky Sports from concerned parents asking them to re-schedule Raw in a later time-slot. I don't know whether Sky censored it back then either, but I do know that there were things cut in 1998 and 1999, by which time the WWE truly wasn't "kids stuff" anymore.
WCW also returned to our screens (terrestrial, that is) in July 1999 on Channel 5. For the first few months, C5 left that chair-shots intact and would even show Hardcore Matches. But inevitably, the complaints flew in and C5 were forced to censor such scenes.
However, their choice of censorship caused outrage with many fans. Batman-style captions like "Pow!" "Whack!" and "Splat!" were placed over the offending actions (in truth, they did little to disguise the actions, they were just damn annoying). WCW wasn't all that popular with many fans before the C5 deal, and were made even more unpopular by the channel's censoring techniques.
Here's a classic case of wrestling censorship. In December 1999, UK terrestrial channel Channel 4 signed a a contract with the WWE to air Heat and 4 pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, Backlash, Fully Loaded and Armageddon) for two years. C4 began airing the shows in January 2000 and immediately made a mistake by scheduling it at 4pm, a time which would attract young children and their concerned parents and noisy busy-bodies with nothing better to do than complain about it. The first episode was enjoyable, but was featured on 4T which is aimed at kids and was completely LOADED with censorship. For example, at the end of the show, highlights from 1999 were shown; pity that 95 % of it was frozen pictures.
However, the real trouble came when C4 aired Royal Rumble, possibly the WWE's most extreme show ever. Hyped up on a show that was shown at 4pm to children, it's no wonder that parents who weren't familar with the WWE (and C4 bosses) were horrified when they saw the brutal Tables Match be tween The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz, Mae Young go topless during a bikini contest aimed at the mature fan and Triple H and Cactus Jack slaughter each other in a brutal Street Fight. Channel 4 couldn't believe what they'd got themselves into.
Not wanting a similar thing to happen again, C4 put their foot down with Backlash in April, much to the disgust of many UK wrestling fans. Shown on a 50 minute delay (to allow C4 to add in adverts without disrupting a live show, as with RR), C4 digitised the blood on X-Pac's forehead in the opening match, and froze the picture when Trish Stratus went through a table (although they DID show footage of Lita going through a table later on in the show). Needless to say, fans were outraged (there was around 4 pages of complaints in WOW magazine alone).
In July (and from then on), C4 got their act together and showed the PPVs uncut (apart from advert breaks). Soon however, Heat became hidden away in late night slots due to football and cricket coverage. Some weeks it dissapeared altogether.
After receiving complaints from non-fans with nothing better to do than moan (one complaint was about Rikishi threatening to use a sledge-hammer on JR, even though C4 didn't show it), Heat became a permanent late-night fixture. However, the new late showing still didn't stop C4 from editing out chair-shots and the like.
On July 26th 2001, Channel 4 announced that they were to drop WWE programming for good when their deal expired, due to it becoming "increasingly difficult to edit" and its violent scenes and "misgivings over its portrayal of women" (C4 had a problem with the women being used sexually, but they also didn't like them competing in matches against one another either. What did they want?). The deal was said to expire in December (as they signed it in December 99') but it continued on C4 until January. Then C4 pulled the plug on WWE and it's UK terrestrial exposure for good. Many people (myself included, as I had Sky anyway) saw it as a blessing in disguise.
But what about Sky? Well, they began calling the late night shows "WWF Late Night" in January 2000, with a warning before the shows. However, this hasn't stopped them from editing parts that they feel are unsuitable for viewing by anyone (mostly violence towards women). I should also point out that the day-time shows are heavily edited for content and have been for many years, but you probably knew that.
In March 2001, the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) and the ITC (Independant Television Commision) stuck thier oar in and compiled a report on wrestling's effect on society. The report achieved very little, and was more hilarious than informative (they thought there was a tag-team called The Jericho Brothers and that Hardcore matches were called "Power Fights"). It did suceed however in giving wrestling a bad name. (The BBFC also censored ECW: Living Dangerously 2000 on tape: they would have banned it if Delta didn't remove Rhyno goring The Sandman's wife through a table, despite giving the tape an "18" certificate).
They have also made some minor cuts to a few WCW releases. Fortunately, the video editing seems to have ceased now that all the C4 negative press has died down.
Sky still censor WWE from time to time, even pay-per-views on Box Office. Sky claim that they must do this to comply with ITC rules, but those rules don't apply to Box Office programming that you pay to order! I will agree however, that sometimes Sky's censoring is necessary. For example, the Trish Stratus "Bark like a Dog" segment on Raw in March 2001 was humiliating and in poor taste, as was The Island Boyz recent attack on Mae Young and Moolah. But Sky still insist on censoring less offensive material and stronger language.
When you look at what else is on tv, WWE isn't all that bad. But Sky still hasn't got round to our way of thinking, at least not completely. Wrestling is treated differently to everything else, which is why wrestling censorship will always exist.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/research/wrestling_how_do_viewers.doc
Retro Wrestling: WCW Memories (20/07/2008)
For my latest column, I thought I’d reminisce about wrestling’s past; or more specifically my memories of WCW (World Championship Wrestling).
In March 2001, WCW ceased to exist (at least as a stand-alone, competitive entity). It was purchased by Vince McMahon’s WWF (now WWE) and we all know what happened next.
Rather than give you an in-depth history lesson about WCW, I’ve decided to talk about my own personal memories of the group and explain why the group’s demise left a void in the wrestling business that probably won’t be filled again.
As I’ve explained in previous columns, I grew up on American Wrestling (mainly WWF). I was too young to remember the "World Of Sport" heyday and so didn’t have a clue what professional wrestling was until the old WWF collector cards became a schoolyard hit in 1991.
Of course, I collected the cards, rented WWF tapes from video shops and borrowed some off friends. I also began to collect the action figures (my first was Jake "The Snake" Roberts, although I had intended to buy the Ultimate Warrior).
One thing I couldn’t do was watch WWF Wrestling on a regular basis, as I didn’t have Sky TV. However, my luck was in as ITV had decided to "muscle in" (I know, terrible pun) on the wrestling act and had began broadcasting WCW Worldwide in the early hours of Friday morning.
I must admit that I wasn’t impressed with the first show I saw. My Mum taped it for me and when I watched it back the next day I was disappointed to see an endless supply of squash matches (a far cry from the highly competitive bouts I’d seen on my WWF tapes).
Of course, being new to wrestling, I was unaware that most of the TV shows were built around such matches (the WWF was guilty of this as well at the time). I didn’t know that the purpose of TV was to gain interest in the PPV’s and the live events (I didn’t know the WWF ran so many house shows until I began reading Power Slam a few years later).
By 1992, the popularity of the WWF (and wrestling in general) had skyrocketed in the UK. WWF staged sell-out tours all over the UK (except Wales, of course) and even held SummerSlam at Wembley Stadium.
ITV were keen to capitalise on this new "craze" and so began broadcasting WCW Worldwide in the old "World Of Sport" 3PM slot on a Sunday afternoon.
It was at this point that I became a fan of WCW. The "Worldwide" show now had more star power and better matches. I began to really get into the characters and the story lines as well as the matches.
Although I initially saw Sting as some sort of Ultimate Warrior rip-off (I knew about Warrior first), I was soon impressed by his in-ring skills and charisma and he quickly became one of my favourites.
There were other "non-WWF" guys as well like the intimidating Big Van Vader, the flamboyant Johnny B Badd, the exciting Flyin’ Brian Pillman and the arrogant Stunning Steve Austin, all of whom got my attention and kept me tuning in every week.
In 1993, I got to see WCW live and in person at the Cardiff CIA in Wales. Although this wasn’t my first live wrestling event (I had been to the rip-off "tribute" shows, although at the time I thought they were great as I had nothing to compare them to and was just happy to be seeing wrestling), it was my first "Big Event", with a big company like WCW.
I was sat in the front row and I got to see many big names who had only one year prior had worked for the WWF (The Nasty Boys, Ric Flair, Sid Vicious and The British Bulldog). Other ex-WWF Superstars on hand included Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson and the late Ravishing Rick Rude.
It was a great night (Bulldog even gave me the "thumbs up" when he saw the sign that I had made for him).
Unfortunately, some clown at ITV decided that WCW was no longer popular enough to continue airing (even in a late-night slot) and so in late 1994, WCW Worldwide disappeared from my regional ITV channel (it remained on some other regions until 1995).
Now I was stuck as I had no means of watching WCW at all (the piss-poor UK video deal ended in 1993). It did continue to air on the German sports channel DSF, but to get that you still needed Sky.
WCW returned to UK screens in September 1995, when Nitro debuted on TNT (after the Cartoon Netrwork). Still without Sky or Cable, I missed that, too.
In the meantime, I consoled myself by watching old WCW tapes (the few I’d managed to pick up in a service station in 95’) and came to the conclusion that in the early 90’s at least, WCW kicked the WWF’s ass when it came to exciting, high-quality matches (many of them had time limits, which added realism and some of the best in-ring workers at the time were plying their trade there).
I also began reading WCW Magazine, as a means of keeping up with the product. I knew that former WWF stars like Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Earthquake, Brutus Beefcake and Hacksaw Jim Duggan had all "jumped ship" to WCW, and as I had grown up on these guys, I became far more interested in WCW than the WWF.
In mid 1997, I kind of lost touch of the product (it became depressing to read about something that you couldn’t watch). I kept my old videos, but for a time, I felt that I had "grown out of" wrestling.
In 1998, I got the "buzz" again, mainly because it became "cool" to talk about it again in school and also because I thought the WCW Nitro videogame that I had for Christmas was the best thing since sliced bread. Watching the videos on the game got me hooked again and in 1999, we finally got Sky fitted at our new house.
The first WCW Nitro that I saw was spectacular. I head heard about the company’s cruiserweight division but as they say, "seeing is believing". And what I saw, I couldn’t quite frankly believe.
I think one of the guys in the match was Rey Mysterio (prior to his daft unmasking). He and his opponent looked incredible. This was definitely the most athletic and exciting form of wrestling I’d ever witnessed.
Later on in the show, my usual favourites turned up. Hogan was there (now "Hollywood Hogan" and with the NWO), along with Flair (still "styling and profiling") and some new faces (at least to me).
Despite the fact that Nitro opposed Raw evey Friday night in the UK, I would always watch Nitro (and then tape Thunder) and watch WWF highlights on the weekend. This continued even throughout WCW’s woeful times in 1999 and 2000. I really felt more of a connection with WCW than I did with the WWF.
In 2000 I got to witness WCW live 2 more times. It was even better than before (I’m pleased to say that I’ve seen both versions of Sting live and in person).
The first show in London was criticised for being low on star power, even though big names like Godlberg and Sting were genuinely injured. As a true fan, I was more than happy to see Bret Hart make a special appearance to talk about his late brother Owen and for Terry Funk to make his UK debut in a hilarious comedy bout against Dustin Rhodes.
The second show in Birmingham was much better and the atmosphere proved that WCW had a strong UK fan base.
Sadly, the dream ended in March 2001 when WCW crumbled under its own weight and got purchased by the WWF.
I’ll admit that WCW had become difficult to watch in its dying days. A lot of the big names disappeared, either because they could possibly see the writing on the wall, or because they had been pushed aside in the never ending power struggles that took place there every day.
The average fan wasn’t aware of it at the time, but WCW was secretly falling apart, particularly between 1999 and 2001.
Of course, the booking and the "revolving door" of owners and Vice Presidents was to blame. However that wasn’t the half of it.
When Time Warner purchased Turner in 1998, along with it came a bunch of "suits" who knew little about wrestling (and didn’t want to know much more).
The guys in WCW now had to answer to the "suits" at Time Warner and the AOL Time Warner merger in 2001 made things even worse.
The last ever broadcast of WCW Nitro was both sad and surreal. Vince McMahon opened the show, gleefully announcing that he had "bought" his "competition".
We then cut to WCW announcers Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson looking glum-faced and talking about the end of WCW (this was not scripted at all). For the rest of the evening, WCW matches (involving the talent that could be bothered to turn up) were broken up with segments from WWF Raw (which ran head to head with Nitro, just like back in the day) involving Vince and his latest "bit on the side" Trish Stratus (who ironically enough, was approached by WCW prior to her signing her WWF deal in 1999).
It was a night of history and emotion as Booker T became WCW’s final World Champion (well, not really. But WCW purists would like to think so) and Sting and Ric Flair had a great send off match together.
It was a sad time, but there was at least some hope when Shane McMahon showed up on Nitro and announced to a shocked Vince McMahon (who was live over on Raw) that he had "bought WCW" (he hadn’t really. But it worked well as an angle).
At this stage, there was hope (even for the WCW fans who hated the WWF) that Shane could GENUINLEY become WCW owner and run it as a separate entity to the WWF. He could also bring in top WCW guys like Sting and Flair to feud with the WWF guys in a huge wrestling war that would obviously be scripted, but could be pulled off so convincingly that to the naked eye, it would look like a repeat of the "Monday Night War", but on a grander scale.
Sadly, Vince bought his competition, sucked some of the best talent out of it, used its tape library to launch WWE 24/7 and to improve the quality of WWF DVD’s and basically pissed on the legacy and history of WCW by burying it within a few months and making his own company look indestructible.
In hindsight, perhaps that was to be expected. Vince always hated WCW and had conditioned the WWF fans to hate it as well. It was great (and shocking) to see Eric Bischoff get hired in 2002, but just think how much better it would have been had Eric been brought in as "WCW Owner", declaring "war" on WWE again?
WCW receives stick to this day, but a lot of good came out of their existence. Without them, we wouldn’t have had a "Monday Night War", a Cruiserweight Division/ X-Division, The NWO, a "Crow-like" Sting, War Games, monthly PPV’s, a prime time wrestling show that offers PPV-calibre matches and more.
TNA has stepped in and has done a great job of trying to oppose WWE. But with the "glory days" of wrestling and the "wars" now stuck in the past, I can’t see there being another era like the "WCW Era".
That’s why on that day in 2001 when WCW folded, it was not only a sad day for WCW fans, but for wrestling fans in general. It was the end of the "wars" but it was also the end of an era.
In March 2001, WCW ceased to exist (at least as a stand-alone, competitive entity). It was purchased by Vince McMahon’s WWF (now WWE) and we all know what happened next.
Rather than give you an in-depth history lesson about WCW, I’ve decided to talk about my own personal memories of the group and explain why the group’s demise left a void in the wrestling business that probably won’t be filled again.
As I’ve explained in previous columns, I grew up on American Wrestling (mainly WWF). I was too young to remember the "World Of Sport" heyday and so didn’t have a clue what professional wrestling was until the old WWF collector cards became a schoolyard hit in 1991.
Of course, I collected the cards, rented WWF tapes from video shops and borrowed some off friends. I also began to collect the action figures (my first was Jake "The Snake" Roberts, although I had intended to buy the Ultimate Warrior).
One thing I couldn’t do was watch WWF Wrestling on a regular basis, as I didn’t have Sky TV. However, my luck was in as ITV had decided to "muscle in" (I know, terrible pun) on the wrestling act and had began broadcasting WCW Worldwide in the early hours of Friday morning.
I must admit that I wasn’t impressed with the first show I saw. My Mum taped it for me and when I watched it back the next day I was disappointed to see an endless supply of squash matches (a far cry from the highly competitive bouts I’d seen on my WWF tapes).
Of course, being new to wrestling, I was unaware that most of the TV shows were built around such matches (the WWF was guilty of this as well at the time). I didn’t know that the purpose of TV was to gain interest in the PPV’s and the live events (I didn’t know the WWF ran so many house shows until I began reading Power Slam a few years later).
By 1992, the popularity of the WWF (and wrestling in general) had skyrocketed in the UK. WWF staged sell-out tours all over the UK (except Wales, of course) and even held SummerSlam at Wembley Stadium.
ITV were keen to capitalise on this new "craze" and so began broadcasting WCW Worldwide in the old "World Of Sport" 3PM slot on a Sunday afternoon.
It was at this point that I became a fan of WCW. The "Worldwide" show now had more star power and better matches. I began to really get into the characters and the story lines as well as the matches.
Although I initially saw Sting as some sort of Ultimate Warrior rip-off (I knew about Warrior first), I was soon impressed by his in-ring skills and charisma and he quickly became one of my favourites.
There were other "non-WWF" guys as well like the intimidating Big Van Vader, the flamboyant Johnny B Badd, the exciting Flyin’ Brian Pillman and the arrogant Stunning Steve Austin, all of whom got my attention and kept me tuning in every week.
In 1993, I got to see WCW live and in person at the Cardiff CIA in Wales. Although this wasn’t my first live wrestling event (I had been to the rip-off "tribute" shows, although at the time I thought they were great as I had nothing to compare them to and was just happy to be seeing wrestling), it was my first "Big Event", with a big company like WCW.
I was sat in the front row and I got to see many big names who had only one year prior had worked for the WWF (The Nasty Boys, Ric Flair, Sid Vicious and The British Bulldog). Other ex-WWF Superstars on hand included Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson and the late Ravishing Rick Rude.
It was a great night (Bulldog even gave me the "thumbs up" when he saw the sign that I had made for him).
Unfortunately, some clown at ITV decided that WCW was no longer popular enough to continue airing (even in a late-night slot) and so in late 1994, WCW Worldwide disappeared from my regional ITV channel (it remained on some other regions until 1995).
Now I was stuck as I had no means of watching WCW at all (the piss-poor UK video deal ended in 1993). It did continue to air on the German sports channel DSF, but to get that you still needed Sky.
WCW returned to UK screens in September 1995, when Nitro debuted on TNT (after the Cartoon Netrwork). Still without Sky or Cable, I missed that, too.
In the meantime, I consoled myself by watching old WCW tapes (the few I’d managed to pick up in a service station in 95’) and came to the conclusion that in the early 90’s at least, WCW kicked the WWF’s ass when it came to exciting, high-quality matches (many of them had time limits, which added realism and some of the best in-ring workers at the time were plying their trade there).
I also began reading WCW Magazine, as a means of keeping up with the product. I knew that former WWF stars like Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Earthquake, Brutus Beefcake and Hacksaw Jim Duggan had all "jumped ship" to WCW, and as I had grown up on these guys, I became far more interested in WCW than the WWF.
In mid 1997, I kind of lost touch of the product (it became depressing to read about something that you couldn’t watch). I kept my old videos, but for a time, I felt that I had "grown out of" wrestling.
In 1998, I got the "buzz" again, mainly because it became "cool" to talk about it again in school and also because I thought the WCW Nitro videogame that I had for Christmas was the best thing since sliced bread. Watching the videos on the game got me hooked again and in 1999, we finally got Sky fitted at our new house.
The first WCW Nitro that I saw was spectacular. I head heard about the company’s cruiserweight division but as they say, "seeing is believing". And what I saw, I couldn’t quite frankly believe.
I think one of the guys in the match was Rey Mysterio (prior to his daft unmasking). He and his opponent looked incredible. This was definitely the most athletic and exciting form of wrestling I’d ever witnessed.
Later on in the show, my usual favourites turned up. Hogan was there (now "Hollywood Hogan" and with the NWO), along with Flair (still "styling and profiling") and some new faces (at least to me).
Despite the fact that Nitro opposed Raw evey Friday night in the UK, I would always watch Nitro (and then tape Thunder) and watch WWF highlights on the weekend. This continued even throughout WCW’s woeful times in 1999 and 2000. I really felt more of a connection with WCW than I did with the WWF.
In 2000 I got to witness WCW live 2 more times. It was even better than before (I’m pleased to say that I’ve seen both versions of Sting live and in person).
The first show in London was criticised for being low on star power, even though big names like Godlberg and Sting were genuinely injured. As a true fan, I was more than happy to see Bret Hart make a special appearance to talk about his late brother Owen and for Terry Funk to make his UK debut in a hilarious comedy bout against Dustin Rhodes.
The second show in Birmingham was much better and the atmosphere proved that WCW had a strong UK fan base.
Sadly, the dream ended in March 2001 when WCW crumbled under its own weight and got purchased by the WWF.
I’ll admit that WCW had become difficult to watch in its dying days. A lot of the big names disappeared, either because they could possibly see the writing on the wall, or because they had been pushed aside in the never ending power struggles that took place there every day.
The average fan wasn’t aware of it at the time, but WCW was secretly falling apart, particularly between 1999 and 2001.
Of course, the booking and the "revolving door" of owners and Vice Presidents was to blame. However that wasn’t the half of it.
When Time Warner purchased Turner in 1998, along with it came a bunch of "suits" who knew little about wrestling (and didn’t want to know much more).
The guys in WCW now had to answer to the "suits" at Time Warner and the AOL Time Warner merger in 2001 made things even worse.
The last ever broadcast of WCW Nitro was both sad and surreal. Vince McMahon opened the show, gleefully announcing that he had "bought" his "competition".
We then cut to WCW announcers Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson looking glum-faced and talking about the end of WCW (this was not scripted at all). For the rest of the evening, WCW matches (involving the talent that could be bothered to turn up) were broken up with segments from WWF Raw (which ran head to head with Nitro, just like back in the day) involving Vince and his latest "bit on the side" Trish Stratus (who ironically enough, was approached by WCW prior to her signing her WWF deal in 1999).
It was a night of history and emotion as Booker T became WCW’s final World Champion (well, not really. But WCW purists would like to think so) and Sting and Ric Flair had a great send off match together.
It was a sad time, but there was at least some hope when Shane McMahon showed up on Nitro and announced to a shocked Vince McMahon (who was live over on Raw) that he had "bought WCW" (he hadn’t really. But it worked well as an angle).
At this stage, there was hope (even for the WCW fans who hated the WWF) that Shane could GENUINLEY become WCW owner and run it as a separate entity to the WWF. He could also bring in top WCW guys like Sting and Flair to feud with the WWF guys in a huge wrestling war that would obviously be scripted, but could be pulled off so convincingly that to the naked eye, it would look like a repeat of the "Monday Night War", but on a grander scale.
Sadly, Vince bought his competition, sucked some of the best talent out of it, used its tape library to launch WWE 24/7 and to improve the quality of WWF DVD’s and basically pissed on the legacy and history of WCW by burying it within a few months and making his own company look indestructible.
In hindsight, perhaps that was to be expected. Vince always hated WCW and had conditioned the WWF fans to hate it as well. It was great (and shocking) to see Eric Bischoff get hired in 2002, but just think how much better it would have been had Eric been brought in as "WCW Owner", declaring "war" on WWE again?
WCW receives stick to this day, but a lot of good came out of their existence. Without them, we wouldn’t have had a "Monday Night War", a Cruiserweight Division/ X-Division, The NWO, a "Crow-like" Sting, War Games, monthly PPV’s, a prime time wrestling show that offers PPV-calibre matches and more.
TNA has stepped in and has done a great job of trying to oppose WWE. But with the "glory days" of wrestling and the "wars" now stuck in the past, I can’t see there being another era like the "WCW Era".
That’s why on that day in 2001 when WCW folded, it was not only a sad day for WCW fans, but for wrestling fans in general. It was the end of the "wars" but it was also the end of an era.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
WCW UK TV History Part 3
Knock-Out: WCW Nitro At The London Arena Was Broadcast On Bravo
The Bravo Deal
Bravo (a Sky and Cable channel) picked up WCW programming after it was dropped by TCM in September 2000. However, Bravo apparently had no interest in Thunder (this came as a great disappointment to many fans, especially when WCW filmed Thunder in the UK without UK fans having any real means of seeing it on TV). Due to TCM dropping WCW a week earlier than planned, Bravo was 1 week behind with Nitro for the first week. However, they soon caught up and continued to broadcast the show in it's 9pm slot on a Thursday night.
Nitro was later moved to a Friday-night slot, although this proved to be a mistake as there was no way that WCW could compete with the WWF at this point. Bravo continued to show Nitro until WCW went out of business in March 2001. The final Nitro on Bravo actually went fully head-to-head with WWF Raw on Sky Sports (just like in the US, viewers could see Vince McMahon on both broadcasts at the same time).
Channel 5
In July 1999, UK terrestrial broadcaster Channel 5 (now Five) began showing WCW Worldwide on Friday nights at 7pm (wrestling was now experiencing its 2nd "big boom" in the UK). Unlike the WCW Worldwide show that was broadcast by ITV previously, this show was a (not particularly well) edited collection of matches from Nitro and Thunder. The matches were around a month out of date and there was very little story line continuity.
The live commentary was dubbed over by WCW announcers Scott Hudson and Larry Zybysko, who both acted like they were there live in the arena rather than sat in the studio (they also didn't explain why the ring apron would change from "Nitro" to "Thunder" in one show).
In the beginning, Channel 5 were pretty lenient when it came to the content of the show (they would actually air "Hardcore Matches" involving weapons uncut). However, after complaints from some viewers about the violence, C5 censored some of the action with Batman-style "Pow! Whack!" captions. This angered many viewers, who felt that the captions made WCW and wrestling look cartoonish and fake. However, the captions remained until C5 stopped broadcasting the show in July 2001 (WCW went out of business in March, but C5 were so far behind with the footage by this point that they were allowed to broadcast old footage up until the final Nitro until July).
WCW PPV's
In 2000, there were rumours of the UK cable channel "Front Row" being interested in WCW PPV's from America, although no deal was ever signed between the two parties. Despite WCW's success across ITV, TNT and Five, their PPV events were never broadcast in the UK (although they could be seen on a tape delay on the German channel DSF). Even WCW's UK video distribution was poor (a few events were released by Turner Home Entertainment from 1991-1993 and Warner Brothers released some from 1999-2000, although it was nothing like the deal the WWF had with Silver Vision).
WCW UK TV History Part 2
One Of TNT's Logos. The UK Version Of The Channel Was Originally Created For Movies But Began Broadcasting WCW Programming In 1995
A UK version of TNT (Turner Network Television) was launched in 1995, mainly to serve as the home for classic movies. However, on a Friday night at 9pm, the channel would broadcast WCW Nitro (on a 4-day delay from the States) and later WCW Thunder. At the height of the "Monday Night Wars" (which was more like the "Friday Night Wars" here in the UK), many wrestling fans would watch both WCW Nitro and WWF Raw (this was because Raw on Sky Sports didn't start until 10pm, meaning that fans could watch an hour of Nitro before).
TNT was not available on the Sky Digitial platform, which meant that may fans missed out on WCW when they made the switch from analogue to digital. WCW also never beat the WWF in the UK ratings, although that's likely due to the birth of Sky Digital (less viewers for TNT) and the fact that WCW and the WWF never quite went "head to head".
In late 1999, TNT's UK channel changed its image. It dropped movies from its schedule (these could now be seen on the new "TCM" (Turner Classic Movies) and concentrated on imported shows like "The Dukes Of Hazzard", "Freddy's Nightmares" and "The Hitcher".
WCW Nitro and WCW Thunder remained in the schedule, although PPV events were not picked up. In 2000, TNT actually moved Nitro to a Thursday night slot, meaning that fans could now fully see Nitro before Raw (Thunder got moved to the Friday night slot previously occupied by Nitro). TNT also began to show "WCW Replay", which was basically a repeat broadcast of classic Nitro's from 1996.
TNT Closure
Later that year, TNT's UK channel was shut down and was replaced by a night-time version of TCM (TCM operated 24 hours on Sky Digital and digital cable). WCW Nitro and WCW Thunder continued on TCM, but in a 2-hour "wrestling block" on a Friday night. However, in September 2000, TCM dropped WCW entirely, choosing to concentrate soley on films on their 24-hour channel.
For More, See WCW UK TV History Part 3
WCW UK TV History (Not A Column But A Summary Of WCW's UK TV Presence)
WCW Stars Like Sting Brightened Up Many Dreary Sunday Afternoon's In The Early 90's
ITV Night-Time Slot
ITV had previously shown "World Of Sport" (British Wrestling) for 33 years, but in 1989, they famously dropped it after Greg Dyke (who had just taken over the channel and would later go on to run the BBC years later) decided that wrestling (despite its popularity on a Saturday afternoon) didn't fit in with ITV's new image.
WCW (World Championship Wrestling) came in to the equation when ITV saw how popular WWF Wrestling had become on Sky. As the footage ITV showed was several weeks old, it actually worked out cheaper than World of Sport wrestling (which had production costs), although this was not the reason for ITV dropping British Wrestling in the first place.
Beginning in 1989, ITV scheduled WCW into a late-night/early-morning slot. Known as "WCW Worldwide", the show usually featured lesser-known wrestlers (or "jobbers") losing rather easily to the bigger names like Sid Vicious and Lex Luger. Still, the programme attracted a following, and a pretty good one considering the "night owl" time-slot.
Sunday Afternoon Slot
In 1992, WCW Worldwide was promoted to a Sunday afternoon slot (and continued to be broadcast on early Friday morning. The show was repeated on Sunday's). By this point, wrestling was immensley popular in the UK (WWF SummerSlam was held at Wembley Stadium in London, England that year) and ITV were keen to make the most of it.
By this point, the programme had improved as well. Key story lines were now covered every week and big stars like Sting and Ricky Steamboat could be seen in competitive, non-jobber action almost every week. WCW's presence on ITV helped them to do good business when they toured the UK in 1993.
A Move Back To The "Graveyard Slot"
By 1994, WCW had been demoted by to its late-night slot (possibly due to a decline in ratings, although this has never been confirmed). Essentially, WCW was no considered as "filler" material and nothing more. Despite the addition of former WWF talent like Hulk Hogan, Earthquake, Brutus Beefcake and others in 1994, ITV failed to make the most of it and by the end of the year, the programme had been dropped in the Wales/West region (ITV broadcasting was split into regions and some regions would occasionally vary their programming). By 1995, all ITV regions had dropped the show and WCW remained off UK TV for almost a year (although it could be seen on the German sports channel, DSF, which was available through Sky on the analogue signal).
Partial credit: "The Wrestling" By Simon Garfield, Faber & Faber Books, 1996/1997 (For Info On British Wrestling/ World Of Sport ITV History Aswell As Info On ITV's Decision To Choose WCW Over British Wrestling).
For More Info See WCW UK TV History Part 2
TWC Fight! - TWC History Continued
TWC Became "TWC Fight!" In 2006
In 2006, the channel was re-named to "TWC Fight!" By now they had lost "Supercard Sunday", "The Bagpipe Report", FWA Programming and 1PW programming, along with most of what they had originally invested in.
TNA Wrestling
"TWC" originally had TNA programming on a 3-month delay (back when the company did weekly PPV's). When IMPACT! launched in the states, the channel managed to secure the rights to air the show and the PPV events on a 1 week delay.
To get TNA so relatively up-to-date, "TWC" had to sacrifice some of its other programming and cut the budget (hence the loss of "original" programming).
During its time on "TWC", the demand for TNA in the UK grew and in 2006, the channel lost the rights to "Bravo" (the channel that previously carried ECW: Hardcore TV and WCW Nitro), who acquired the rights to broadcast IMPACT! on a 2 day delay and PPV's on a 3 day delay).
"The Fight Network"
In 2008, TWC Fight!" became "The Fight Network". The owners of the Canadian "Fight Network" saved the ailing channel, but sadly, it would be for the last time.
Following the change, the channel's schedule became full with MMA/combat-based programming and less wrestling than ever before. The channel also began airing cheap kung-fu movies at 9PM every week night.
Fight Network Closure
"The Fight Network" ceased transmission on 1st December 2008 at 00:00.
OfCom Controversy & Technical Problems
"TWC"/"TWC Fight!"/ "The Fight Network had its share of problems with broadcast regulator OfCom, even during the "trial" period on "Friendly TV".
"Friendly TV" got into hot water for airing ultra-violent CZW "Death Matches" before the 9PM watershed (apparently trying to avoid any blame by putting a crawler along the bottom of the screen, telling viewers not to "try this at home"). This resulted in complaints being made to Ofcom.
Not learning from the mistakes made by "Friendly TV", "TWC" aired shoot interviews uncut (containing strong language) during the daytime, as well as some very violent "CZW" programming. This again led to complaints being made to OfCom and "TWC" having to make a shame-faced apology to the regulators.
There were also technical issues, especially when it came to airing TNA IMPACT! and TNA PPV's (matches were shown in the wrong order, the colour was dull etc). Although "TWC" rectified these problems as quickly as they could, they continued to happen on an almost weekly basis.
Related Articles:
The Wrestling Channel History (Not An Official Column, But A Summary Of TWC's History)
The "TWC" Logo (2003-2006)
Background
Rumours of a pro wrestling-dedicated channel began to swirl round the Internet and the insider magazines (such as Power Slam) around 2002.
The UK market had always been strong when it came to wrestling. WWE had built up a huge audience back when they were the WWF (WWF programming made its official UK debut when Sky TV was launched in February 1989) and had managed to retain this audience during the "difficult period" (1993-1997) when business was down in the U.S.
With the birth of the "Attitude Era" in 1998, the audience expanded to previously unseen levels (it was the same story in the U.S. and around the world). Even when WWE hit a snag with the U.S. audience in 2001/2002, UK fans remained loyal to the cause.
Even WCW did great business in the UK. To this day, they remain the only wrestling promotion to have one of their main programmes air on two different terrestrial channels in Great Britain (ITV; from 1989-1995 and Channel 5; from 1999-2001).
With all this in mind, it was fair to say that the idea of someone launching a "Wrestling Channel" wasn't unfathomable.
Trial Run On "Friendly TV"
In late 2003, "The Wrestling Channel" received its very own trial run on little-known Sky Digital channel "Friendly TV". The aim of the trial was to demonstrate to the viewing audience just what exactly "TWC" would have to offer once they got the green light to launch (of course, the launch would depend entirely on the success of the trial. A poor trial would mean the very idea would be nixed before it had even officially begun).
A selection of wrestling-related programming was chosen for the trial. This included MLW (Major League Wrestling), CZW (Combat Zone Wrestling), TNA & FWA (Frontier Wrestling Alliance).
The trial ended up being a success, gaining enough viewing figures (for a little-known channel, anyway) that the bosses behind "TWC" were given the green light to officially launch the channel in 2004.
Official Launch
The Wrestling Channel (or "TWC" for short") officially launched in March 2004 (one day after WWE WrestleMania XX). Along with the programming that was previewed during the trial, wresting fans also got to see never-before-seen (in the UK, anyway) shoot interviews, Japanese Wrestling and best of all, "Supercard Sunday".
"Supercard Sunday"
"Supercard Sunday" (originally sponsored by The Sun in the UK) was 4 hours of wrestling action from anywhere in the world. "Supershows" included a huge 3-hour MLW event, a 3PW event, an FWA big show, a New Japan card (featuring Hulk Hogan and Joanie "Chyna" Laurer) and more.
"The Bagpipe Report"
"TWC" also had its own "insider show" ("The Bagpipe Report" hosted by Blake Norton). This weekly broadcast took fans behind the scenes and featured guests such as Alex Shane and Jasmin St Claire.
For More On TWC's History, See The TWC! Fight Article
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