Tom Zenk on WCW purchase and still unanswered questions

Guest commentary – Tom Zenk 

Something just doesn’t add up about the WCW sale 

Remember back just a year ago when WCW was valued at $600 million? (WOL, 1/19/01). 

10 months later, the company was sold to WWF for $4.5 million - a half-billion write-off for AOL Time Warner shareholders. 

The conventional wisdom says that low sale price resulted from Jamie Kellner’s decision to cancel WCW programming on TBS and TNT. 

But all the evidence is that Time Warner cancelled the shows and lowered the price precisely to allow for a quick WWF buy-out. 

In effect, Time Warner told WWF they would never sell to Bischoff and that WWF could have WCW on their own terms. 

Fast forward to Vince, on the RAW/WCW simulcast, bragging about Ted Turner "begging him to take WCW" off his hands. According to Snyder, for that to happen, "one major obstacle had to be shot down - WCW programming had to be dropped from TNT and TBS due to our exclusive agreement with Viacom". So Time Warner did exactly what WWF requested – they dropped WCW programing and effectively wrote off WCW’s remaining value - to fast track a sale to Vince. 

The story gets weirder still - Time Warner kept coming back to Titan Towers even after Vince had decisively blown them off. Remember when Siegel flew to New York to meet with VKM and left the meeting furious at Vince’s bad behaviour. After that, negotiations continued, at Time Warner’s request, though this time between Brad Siegel and WWF’s Stu Snyder. According to Linda McMahon - "Stu was really able to craft and to negotiate this deal and put it forward. He had prior relationships with Turner. He was there for several years and knew Brad Siegel very well, and I believe it was that relationship that helped cement this deal and negotiate the particulars." 

Blown off by McMahon, and Time Warner still kept coming back? Why? 

A couple of scenarios fit the available information. Here’s one - 

WCW ‘s situation was so awful - financially, legally, scandalwise, whatever - that (a) Time Warner had NO CHOICE but to get rid of WCW - and fast! (b) Fusient, after due diligence, still wanted WCW, and put in a last minute bid of $48.3 million, just days before the sale to WWF (c) someone in Time Warner became so concerned at some aspect of the Bischoff deal they decided to block it (d) while discussions with Bischoff’s group ‘continued’, Siegel contacted WWF to revive negotiations (e) Vince and Snyder, playing hardball, used the ‘Viacom obligation’ to get the TBS and TNT shows cancelled (f) with WCW now stripped of its remaining value, WWF closed the deal. 

But that still leaves two central questions unanswered – 

(1) Why did Kellner and Siegel need WCW off their hands QUICK – and AT ANY PRICE? 
(2) Why did Time Warner decide they’d never sell to Bischoff’s group ($48.3 million) and settled instead for a paltry $4.5million from WWF? 

Just after the WCW sale was announced, Dennis McAlpine, a media analyst with New York City's Auerbach, Pollak & Richardson was asked “Did WWF buy WCW to get rid of it and to put it to death, or did they buy it as an ongoing business?" 

"My guess is the former," McAlpine said. “The WWF brought over the rising, young wrestling stars from the WCW years ago. The problem now is that (WCW) only has aging [or green] wrestlers. Are any of those people going to add to the WWF?" 

I guess we’ve got our answer from Vince. 

But we’ve still to hear from Seigel and Bischoff what their gimmick was.