LIVE EVENT - WHO KILLED WCW? FINALE REACTION 

Have to say it was touching seeing Kevin Nash giving props to Bischoff, lets be honest there would be no WCW without Bischoff!

It's crazy that Jaime Kellner died in the past week. Seems poetic that happens when this comes out.

I pray I age like Eric.

When I hear about Jamie Kellner, I just see him as a player on the stage. I'm not impressed with his wealth or his cars. I just knew he killed a lot of joy for a lot of wrestling fans. And when he passed away, all that wealth, he couldn't take it with him. Puts a lot of things into perspective.

Eric you were by far the best Raw GM of all time, you really did a great Job there :D

The timing of Kellner’s passing is wild

Conrad looks like a competition BBQ pitmaster

And yet Dave & Brian are still calling Eric a liar

This may be dumb but this episode had me tearing up a bit. Eric sincerely thank you for all you did, and thank you for trying to buy WCW.

Would be nice to see a Vice documentary on the rise of WCW, we always have content on the downfall, lets just look at the rise.

I was watching Fastlane 2015 today and totally saw Conrad in the front row while Sting was pushing a bat into Triple Hs throat. How many damn live shows has Conrad been in the very front row for?! Im honestly jealous.

WCW deserved at least a chance to survive on another TV network besides TBS/TNT, but the higher ups wanted it to not exist anymore so they sold it to Vince

EZE is the GOAT

You would have to be a true wrestling fan at that time to really know and feel how powerful and impactful that time was for pro wrestling! There was just nothing like it! I had the Monday Night Wars dvd and have watched several videos about the death of WCW and the details of everything that happened still intrigues me. Many factors contributed to the ultimate demise of the company but knowing all the behind the scenes stuff just hits different. It was truly the best time to be a wrestling fan!

Everyone talks about the wrong people when saying who killed WCW. It was Stone Cold Steve Austin.. How was WCW ever meant to compete when he was taking over the world on the other channel. Everyone switched and no one changed back or stopped riding that wave until his heel turn at Wrestlemania 17 at the earliest.

iIs it me or did Booker T come across as the most ill-informed person each week?

Watching that Nitro/Raw 20+ yrs stills baffles me…I watched that historical moment live and knew Wrestling was never going to be same. I hope to be around to watch the final Raw episode on USA and watch the 1st episode on Netflix. Surreal

Eric should call Rock to thank him and to relaunch WCW ASAP

Amazing Episode Fellas

During the final episode when they explain how Eric was in the process to buy WCW and have a live show in Vegas . They talk about the show being televised on Turner Brodcasting . But didnt the Turner execs not want WCW on their progamming..can anyone clarify ?

You guys need to get Steve Borden

i want Eric and Booker T to have a conversation

Newsflash: Russo brought the ratings UP while he was there. You might dislike his creative, but numbers went up. When he left, they dropped again. The same stuff some of you are calling "bad creative" increased viewership. Meanwhile, the stuff you think of as "good creative" aka pure dumb wrestling angles KILLED viewership. It's killing it AEW. It killed in WCW. They fail to mention the episodes that were PURE WRESTLING and they removed the Nitro Girls and draw the worst number in WCW history. (They listened to the dirt sheets, JUST LIKE TODAY and fans tuned out). So diss on Russo all you want, but Judy on a forklift is nowhere near as bad as 3 segment matches stretched through commercial, no stakes, generic wrestler vs generic wrestler. That phase happened during WCW's final stretch and was omitted from the show. It wasn't all finger pokes and forklifts. There was BORING wrestling with ZERO storylines just like today, and fans ran away and the only ones that enjoyed the shows were Meltzers and the purists.

Meltzer and his minions trying to drag Eric thru the mud smh.

Timmy I think Vince Russo killed WCW just with his sheer stupidity

World Championship Wrestling WCW 24/7 4455 Paradise Road Las Vegas, Nevada 89169

Conrad doing his best Michael J. Fox impressions as always.

None of this works for me Brother

Bischoff was the reason they lost the war. But I will no longer say he killed WCW

So Eric experienced what He and Hogan did to Sting?? How Ironic 😂

I hate this show a lot of shit said was a lie but who killed wow eric u did Vince Russo and those tv executives

Eric will never, ever get the credit he deserves. He was the only one to ever achieve success with WCW, the fact under the circumstances he was able to take a brand that was considered less than nothing in the public conciseness and become the leader in its marketplace, let alone best WWE in some business metrics is a monumental achievement. In any other industry he would be celebrated, except for this one where the narrative is controlled by bad faith pseudo 'journalists' like Meltzer and Alverez or by the WWE (Who have a vested interest in putting over their legacy, not WCW). So after the years of BS narrative from BS journalists, Wrestling personalities who had no knowledge of the inner workings of WCW, and WWE, it's nice to see a document that acknowledges, hey this guy did something monumental.... It was more than an 83 week ratings streak, before that streak Eric had dragged WCW from the ashes and after that streak, while the booking was off its peak, lets not act like WCW wasn't creating compelling television (and doing good business) up until he spring of '99. I will be forever grateful for what WCW provided me as a fan in 1995,1996,1997,1998 and the first half of 1999. The truth of the matter is the success of WCW rose and fell depending on the success Hulk Hogan had in WCW, that bears out with every single business metric, so I give Eric a lot of grace in his relationship with Hulk (and certainly in hindsight better booking decisions could have been made)... Quite simply Vince Russo is a complete idiot not wanting/understanding how to utilize the biggest star in wrestling. In 2002 Hulk proved he still had what it took in WWE , somehow Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, and even Verne Gagne could make money with Hulk Hogan, but not Vince Russo, I'm not surprised.

Eric, if you're reading this I just wanted to give you credit for something that I don't think I've ever heard mentioned. Yes, the formation of the nWo was brilliant, the build up, presentation and execution at Bash '96 was all perfection. I just watched 6-8 weeks of Nitro/PPVs and it was even better than I remember. But what you did specifically and uniquely well was you put over Hall and Nash immediately over big, established "WCW" guys. That's part of why Vince's invasion angle didn't work. He didn't want to put over another promotion's incoming talent that might make "his guys" look weak or inferior. Instead you booked Hall and Nash incredibly strong and therefore it elevated not only them but even some of the talent that did the job for them. In my mind, that's a largely overlooked portion of what made the nWo angle work. Great, great booking.

You should see if Sting would give his opinion of "Who killed WCW?" on your podcast.

Watching Eric watch Nash say those closing comments about Eric made me cry with him.

El Dandy Killed WCW - never doubt

Eric Bischoff deserves a lot of credit for turning WCW around in early 90's & and starting up the Mondays Night Wars. Bischoff forced Vince to adapt how the WWF presented its product to an ediger product & giving us the best era in wrestling. Did Bischoff make mistakes? Yes & I am sure he wishes he could have done some things different but Bischoff isnt the only reason why WCW went under. There are many other factors from higher ups in Turner who hated wrestling to the merger of Time Warner & AOL to Hogan having way too much creative control to Vince Russo's awful booking. Adding Thunder did not help WCW. Having Nitro being 3 hours hurt it in the long run. It was better when it was 2 hours.

In the end, it was Ted Turner losing control of his company is why WCW was cancelled and closed. The other reasons didnt help, but in the end their loingtime savior was unable to stop it this time.

Only $4 million. It's a joke. The top talent could have bought it for that much, and it would have found a network within the year. This was a clear conspiracy to make sure WCW wasn't going to come back to life elsewhere.

Eric, this will probably never got back to you but it needs saying. There are so many wrestling fans out there that know what you've done. You changed wcw and wrestling by making change and pioneering the way wrestling shows and storylines are constructed and presented. A lot of us have waited a long time to not only hear an opinion different to the usual stance WWE take as the victors but also to hear what you and wcw did right. It's very touching. Thanks so much man. Hopefully one day someone can dive into all the new things you and wcw did in wrestling that are still being used today from how promos and interviews are filmed, how the show is constructed and shot, the style of storylines and much more. We love you man, thanks for everything. Great to see you get your recognition and some closure, you deserve it

For 20 years my answer to "Who Killed WCW?" has been one name: Jamie Kellner. This 4-part series did NOT change my mind. Very well done documentary series though. Thumbs UP from The Card Shop in Bastrop, Louisiana!

Thank you everything Eric! Between you and Vince, I had such a special experience growing up!

Stu Snyder saying No while nodding Yes when asked if he had pre knowledge on the fusient deal failing was so suss.

nWo 4 life

I like booker t but him on the show was embarrassing.

I can't believe Eric is 69 years old.

Madusa, guy evans, Goldberg, and brad Siegel pretty much in my opinion summed up the fall. It was caused by multiple people and multiple channels. You have the merger and executives who did not like this product representing the turner brand, and you have poor decisions, awful communication, and just compete dog eat dog behavior from the talent that made the final decision from the executives easy. You have guys who could not on their best day sell out a Taco Bell bathroom, but are making a ton of cash and either don’t come to work, file ridiculous harassment and discrimination lawsuits( as if anyone ever tuned in at any point in life in any organization to watch them), people who don’t draw ratings getting first class flights, hotels, and rental cars paid for by the company, and everyone just out for themself and their pockets. Again, the executives wanted wcw gone, but the talent made that a very easy decision.

The WCW reboot under Eric would have been great. It's a shame that Jamie Kellner killed it

That era of Nitro is where I became a wrestling fan. Thank you so much to all involved including David Penzer & Eric Bischoff!

After watching this 4 part series, and listening to everyones perspective whether it be on the documentary or on podcasts. I personally think and have thought since reading Guy Evans book, that WCW was not given enough support at the corporate level once the merger with AOL was even just a twinkle in their eye

It was disappointing the Booker T felt that Eric killed WCW

Shame they couldn't get Kellner. Because the question always was if WCW had higher ratings/ profitability if it had actually mattered. Probably not as Kellner just didn't want it on his channels and the other execs helped him remove it from his channels.

Mt Rushmore of wrestling promoters. Mcmahon, Bischoff, Heyman, Crockett

Love the Fly Fishing story, made me Smile. Your Dad was Smiling Down upon you from Heaven above 💕✝️😊

Dave penzer was the wcw version of howard finkel

After watching the transition from the Bischoff era to the Russo era of WCW, there's no doubt in my mind. Russo came with a purpose, and that was to destroy WCW. That, or he simply had no clue, which is possible. All my opinion, of course.

Remember hearing that name Brad Siegel in regards to a relationship with his Niece and Scott Hall.

I take Booker T's comments with the smallest grain of salt. He did not have a good time towards the end of WCW, he doesn't look back on that time fondly and he attributes perceived grievances to individuals.

Hey Conrad an Eric, serious question, what does it take for a regular nobody like me to sit with Eric at his home at the lake or anywhere infront of a decent fire pit with cooler full of beer an just talk about the good ol days of wrestling? I have followed Eric’s career ever since he walked on the set in AWA as announcer all the way to the end of Eric being tossed in garbage truck on WWE Raw. I think sitting an having cold beer talking in front of a nice warm fire just talking would be an amazing time. The one thing no one ever says about credit to Eric is out of every single wrestling promoter in the country from 80s to 90s til Eric started Nitro not one promoter gave Vinny Mac a run for his money as hard an come so close by meer possible months of putting him out of business. Eric was the only man that has ever done that. Doesn’t matter how he did it cuz if Vince had that chance he had done that to nitro in a heartbeat. Eric Bischoff because of NITRO changed the wrestling world as we know it now. Eric lit a fire under McMahon ass to force him to turn up the heat an do better. When Vince finally did, he blew the ratings off the chart. There’s a lot that Eric has done during that time that he’s not getting much credit for.

Nobody ever talks about the people who stopped watching wrestling after WCW shut down but kept playing WWE video games and recreating the WCW roster and story lines. 😊

What Eric did is turn WCW into the leader rather than the also-ran. It is interesting that people in charge of stuff like television cannot see a bigger picture. Keeping WCW going and rejuvenating it would have been worthwhile as it would have kept the network's unique personality and appeal. The viewers then spill into other offerings that execs want people to watch. Sometimes it is worth it to keep a "less desirable" property going due to the halo effect it brings. It would have been easier to make WCW a success again than to replace it with programing people do not want to watch. It added variety to the channel. Turner may have been a fan, but he also had an understanding of the innate value of something people can easily look down upon. One problem wrestling had/has is it will not attract the first-rate writing talent. At the same time, you just need good writers, not necessarily great, who have a love of the artform to raise it to more successful levels. They need to understand what works and have the ability to be creative without going to outside of the boundaries of what can work in the ring.

I was also a WCW/NWA fan moreso than a WWF fan. Great series and nice to hear all perspectives of what happened. I am curious why Eric didn’t take on supporting TNA after WCW had ended.

It just dawned on me just how critical corporate control was in deciding the fate of WCW. WWE was in the same slump in the late 2000s. Imagine if, for some reason, Vince Mcmahon lost control of his company and the ones who took over decided to shut it down. Who'd people blame? Vince? Bruce? The GMs? Johnny Ace? We'd still be picking apart that story until today.

I like wcw better than wwe

To quote a source that Eric hates, (the Death of WCW by Rd Reynolds and Bryan Alverez) "Say what you will about Russo's overall writing, he writes a hell of an opening chapter" So that puts Russo over Tony Khan.

They merged. Fired Eric. Brought him back without complete control. Sabotaged his purchase of the company. And somehow booker t will still blame Eric

I cried seeing Eric watching nash making his statements and seeing raw emotion in eyes and face of somebody in my young years loved to hate made it hard not to tear up as well 😢

With the things WWE covered up in its history, from steroids to the Ring Boy scandal, to now the Janel Grant saga, it would not surprise me that they would commit SEC violations in killing the Fusient deal.

1:20:08 I would love to see an episode of 83 weeks with Sting as a guest

Eric’s story is so insanely inspiring love to see it portrayed so well at the end there 😭

Someone sent me the the Meltzer/Alvarez response to episode three video. They were still trying to convince everyone that their narrative was right, with Meltzer dropping the names of dead promoters to try and validate his BS.

5 stars, thanks for everything!

Anyone know why we didnt see hogan and sting on this documentary?

That's a slipped disc, eric

The second to the last Monday night Raw on USA before leaving for Netflix call it, Monday Night Nitro

You should've had an endgame for the NWO angle, and a corporate take over from a separate entity

Vince McMahon killed it- he bought it then killed it

Glad to see Eric is finally getting the respect due. He did it, period. It was indeed a great episode.

Jamie Kellner killed WCW - not Hogan, Bischoff, Russo or Nash. Even if WCW had higher ratings than the WWE from 1999 to 2000, Kellner would've still pulled the plug on WCW. His hatred for wrestling was huge.

With a guy like Hogan who is very protective of his spot, you have to pitch the whole story. "You lose the belt at this event and get it back at this event. This is how you fall down, this is how you get up." Trying to reassure delicate egos would be something he needs to learn in his position.

Eric is awesome

A better title would’ve been the Rise and Fall of Bischoff’s WCW. If Vince McMahon invented what modern day pro wrestling/sports entertainment is today, Bischoff re-invented it during the Nitro Era.

When they didn’t let Sting 🦂 beat Hollywood Hogan the correct way a Perfect win and Bret hart should’ve come out to Support Sting Victory instead of Fake screw job thing

I heard Bischoff’s side and I’ve heard Vince’s side and Eric’s side always made the most logical sense to me. At the end of the day if Time Warner wanted WCW,it would’ve stayed because even with WCW at its worst,they still had some of the highest viewing numbers on TNT so the fans were still there.

Eric created the NWO, Goldberg, he brought over Bret Hart, and in the end had a deal to keep WCW going. But they needed a strong Booker who took no shit and instead he turned it over to Nash and let Hogan through his contract control to much. He missed on opportunities of pushing Eddie Guerrero, Benoit, Raven and others. Russo was trash but he pushed Booker T which in the end was the best thing to survive WCW

Eric I have to say I can't stand Russo voice either..I blame him..when I started to changed the channel is when he would come out honestly man what killed wcw is that they got rid of you, he never should put the belt on himself, he barried wcw he didnt know what he was doing that's why Mr McMahon fired him. His voice eats threw my skin I don't see who wants to listen to his voice.

Eric! If you go to your doctor there is a medication that will clear your back pain right up. 👍🏻 It's called diclofenac.

After watching this i lost respect for Booker T

I swear Russo said on his Podcasts years ago so many times say he was always putting the belt on Booker that's what him and everybody wanted and only done the Hulk part to keep him happy and go home but no matter what Booker would be Champion after bash of the beach I dont understand why that story has changed with him and I like Russo

Was disappointed that after the final episodes credits rolled it didn't cut back to Bret Hart saying Goldberg killed WCW after kicking him in the head.

That "conspiracy" theory was garbage. I thought it would be more salacious. No theory in my book.

I was a huge wrestling fan growing up in the 1980s. AWA, WCW, WWF. Flair, Hogan and the Road Warriors were my favorites and I watched whenever possible. But by the late 1980s and early 1990s wrestling had become stale, corny, not very interesting to someone hovering around the 18-24 year old mark. WWF especially was dumb with all the cartoon character non sense. Sure there was the occasional hit: Diesel winning the title of Backlund. But otherwise, with the AWA gone and WCW not on the radar, wrestling had one foot in the non-relevant grave. Then Eric and the NWO came along and it brought me back in. It brought millions in. People don't understand how huge it was! There were 8 and 10 million people watching Nitro at its peak and another 6 or 7 watching Raw! And we talk about 2 million being a big number these days. The bottom line is if it wasn't for EZE and the NWO, wrestling would not be as huge as it still is today. He revolutionized the industry, breathed new life into it, created the cruiser weights, made it cool to be the bad guy, and invented the element of surprise. He deserves the credit and I think this series proved that.

Are you really making a "garden" like you're going to eat what comes from it with creosote soaked railroad ties?

Booker T was over and deserved to be champ but of course Hogan didn't want to put the belt on a black man.

Because of Eric Bischoff - i dedicated myself to training to become a wrestler myself and i have been doing it for now for 7 years. I owe that to Eric. I'm grateful to Eric. Eric deserves waaaaay more credit than some give him. As The Rock said, he's solidified FIRMLY on the Mount Rushmore of wrestling execs. Thank you Eric

eZe 4=Life

Blame Jane Fonda!

You wanted to establish a nWo presence in Japan and Muta and Chono made sense in accomplishing that

Eric should be fine. I did my back the same way at work. Took me a week to recover

god damn love Erics shirt