In the latest episode of “What Happened When,” Schiavone was talking about the debut of “WCW Thunder” in 1998, Schiavone hopes that both wrestling promotions and television networks have learned some lessons in the years between. On the latest episode of “What Happened When,” Schiavone was talking about how WCW Nitro ended up being three hours long and how this decision doomed the company.
It was TBS who called ‘Thunder,’ Schiavone said, “Eric [Bischoff] said it was a bad call. Nobody wanted ‘Thunder,’ which is why I know I am right again. It’s for this reason that WCW would never have succeeded. You cannot have a television company controlling a wrestling company with no experience running one. WCW went down because it was owned by a television company.”
Conrad Thompson, Schiavone’s co-host, spoke of Vince McMahon’s plans to sell WWE to media conglomerates such as Disney and Comcast, which could buy the company.
“I don’t work for the WWE, so I don’t know [if a sale to a television company would work],” Schiavone said. The AEW announcer doesn’t think it’s a good idea even for WWE. “You can’t just be another cog in the wheel so to speak like we were, can’t be another WCW/Atlanta Braves/[Atlanta] Thrashers/CNN/TBS/TNT like we were. You’ve got to be your own entity.”
In addition to television networks, WWE is courting UFC parent-company Endeavor as well as Formula 1 Racing parent-company Liberty Media.
