User:WCW Network18

World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion, historically based in Atlanta, Georgia. It began as a regional (mid-Atlantic U.S.), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)-affiliated "territory" promotion, Jim Crockett Promotions, until November 1988, when Ted Turner (through his Turner Broadcasting System business) bought the promotion, whose struggle to compete with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) had left it near bankruptcy. Immediately after the buyout, the business was renamed the Universal Wrestling Corporation (UWC) and consisted of Crockett's business assets not picked up by World Wrestling Federation Entertainment. In its early years, WCW was buoyed by established NWA performers such as Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes, along with emerging stars like Lex Luger, and Sting, who would go on to be dubbed "The Franchise of WCW".[3]

In the mid-1990s, WCW dramatically improved its economic performance, largely due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer; the hiring of renowned WWF stars Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall); the introduction of the Monday Nitro series on cable TV, and the resultant Monday Night Wars with the WWF's Monday Night Raw; the creative and marketing execution of the New World Order