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Posted By	Discussion Topic: WWF buys WCW
hellspawn warrior G.O.O.F.B.A.H.G.S. Brinstar Invasion Team	posted on 03-23-2001 @ 1:02 AM
Psychopath Registered: Oct. 00	From the Pro Wrestling Torch www.pwtorch.com Officials from the WWF and WCW met until the early a.m. hours this morning finalizing a "short form" agreement for the WWF to purchase WCW. Several sources say as of early this morning, paperwork was signed that will lead to the WWF owning WCW as of a pending target closing date. No official statement has been made yet. The agreement is smaller in scope than some had been anticipating. Sources say the agreement involves the name WCW, the tape library, and only a handful of wrestlers (fewer than a dozen) and not one name making more than $1 million per year. Time Warner will continue to own the contracts of the big-money talent. They will likely offer them buyouts on their contracts, giving them a chance at a lump sum of money (less than their total due over the entire course of their contract) with the opportunity to then also work for the WWF - if the WWF is interested in their services. Ric Flair is the biggest name the WWF is interested in acquiring as part of the deal since he, more than anyone else, represents WCW and his contract is for less than $1 million per year. One source lists Chuck Palumbo, Sean O'Haire, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Shane Helms, and Miss Hancock as some of the performers the WWF was interested in acquiring as part of the deal. It sounds as if the WWF refuses as part of its acquisition to take on contracts that would upset the balance they have with their current highly paid talent on incentive-based contracts with downside guarantees. That said, top WWF management understands and values the potential of Goldberg, but are determined that if they acquire his services it will be through means other than taking on his estimated $3 million per year guaranteed contract for the next three-plus years. Big name talent with guaranteed contracts will be Time Warner's problem, not the WWF''s. The WWF does want to operate WCW as a separate promotion, as previously reported here and as confirmed by Vince McMahon today on the radio. Getting a prime time clearance on TNN for WCW may not be a shoe in, though. A Saturday late afternoon/early evening slot may be more likely, or WCW may simply take over the WWF Superstars Sunday morning timeslot. The WWF's acquisition of WCW legally may be no more secure at this point than when Fusient announced the purchase of WCW last January, so the WWF may be gun shy to announce the deal until every detail is worked out. Since the WWF is a public company, what it paid for WCW will become public knowledge through financial statements if not first through press releases. The true enemy of creativity is good taste- Greg Hughes This message was edited by hellspawn warrior on 3-23-01 @ 1:04 AM
TeenWeek what's a status?	posted on 03-23-2001 @ 8:47 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00	Another update From wrestlingunleashed.com News Headline: The official announcement of the WWF purchase of WCW could come as early as today and the basic agreement was already agreed upon yesterday between both parties. There have been discussions within the WWF about how the purchase will be handled, and while nothing is completely official, the basic idea is to run it as a separate company for a year or so and then start working some cross promotional programs. It appears they plan on running a storyline that will put Shane McMahon in charge of WCW. The majority of the current WCW crew will be offered a position and there is a chance they will also add some ECW wrestlers that have yet to be introduced to the WCW roster. It is not expected that many of the bigger stars in WCW will be offered positions. WWF will be buying roughly two-dozen existing WCW contracts, all of which are said to be wrestlers that have 90-day cycles built into their deal. The idea is they will take them, and renegotiate the deals to fit into the terms and pay scale they want them at. In order to alleviate the idea that since the WCW labeled wrestlers will be working less dates than the WWF wrestlers, the pay scale on the WCW side has to be less than on the WWF side. There is no start date for a TNN show, but the working idea seems to be a show on the Network, which would likely be taped on Wednesday, but none of that is definite at this time. Of the contracts that are going to be purchased, none are high dollar deals, although many of the high dollar talent are being looked at to be the key players in this new WCW. The wrestlers who are not going to be brought in are wrestlers who either have had a previous problem with Vince McMahon or the WWF from the past. These wrestlers may be ones with bad dressing room reputations, since the WWF is desperately looking to clean up the WCW dressing room. If there is a major surprise, it is that they appear to be very cold toward acquiring Scott Steiner, for all the reasons one would imagine. The wrestlers, whose contracts are not being purchased, will have to be paid by Time Warner for the duration. Time Warner will likely cycle out some of the talent who have cycles in their deals, and that are not used. In the case of the bigger name stars that don't have cycles, they'll have to work out some form of a buy-out provision. There may be a case, in the case of some of the higher paid WCW talent such as Bill Goldberg, Booker T and DDP, who are believed to be very strong forces in a WWF owned WCW brand, where Time Warner would still pay a portion of their salary. While this is not the definite plan for the big buyout, the working idea is very strongly along the lines of presenting the product identical to that of WWF. This may be the plan as opposed to running it as a different identity with a higher workrate, more acrobatic based, more Southern style psychology, more realism based or more violent based or any other difference from WWF that they can dream up. There may be more of an emphasis on smaller men, if only because the most talented wrestlers in WCW and some of the more valuable wrestlers in ECW that haven't debuted all fit into that category. Teens, making the world a better place to live in.
King f-tard	posted on 03-23-2001 @ 8:52 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Feb. 01	I think its gonna be a fun couple of months. Official driver of the Tart Cart (Helmets are in the back) Kindly adopted by Ronreddog
back to you randy	posted on 03-23-2001 @ 10:50 AM
Hanger-On Registered: Feb. 01	hopefully know we can have like some cross promotion type stuff like the rock vs booker t or scott steiner vs triple h and other kool matches beware of my dragon if u can ever see my damm sig pick
gosoxcsucker	posted on 03-23-2001 @ 11:21 AM
Psychopath Registered: Oct. 00	I heard that vince had this to say when he arrived at wcw headquaters: ALL YOUR FEDERATION ARE BELONG TO US!!!
Francine Banger	posted on 03-23-2001 @ 11:38 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Dec. 00	I think Vince speaks better English than that. This message was edited by Francine Banger on 3-23-01 @ 5:54 PM

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