In the years leading up to the acquisition,
World Championship Wrestling was on its dying legs. The hiring of
Vince Russo from the
WWF had been a poor decision, and the financial and managerial turmoil of the promotion was no secret to both the wrestlers and their fans. In light of this,
Eric Bischoff returned at the end of 2000 in an advisory role to help steer the sinking ship straight.
Learning from his mistakes in the years before, Bischoff and WCW would employ a numerous amount of scouts across the independent wrestling scene to sign potential future stars worth developing. Jerry Jarrett was also hired in the Winter of 2000 to head the new developmental territory based in Orlando, Florida -
"Total Nonstop Action", or
"TNA" for short. During this time, instrumental young talent in
AJ Styles, American Dragon, CM Punk, Samoa Joe and several others would blaze the TNA trail for all those who would follow after.
"The Phenomenal One" AJ Styles in particular held the fort strong with a near year-long reign as the first
TNA World Champion, establishing himself in a particularly entertaining rivalry with former tag team partner
Air Paris.
It was difficult not to see a change in the product by the dawn of 2001, as
WCW began to choose simplicity in favor of unnecessary extravagance to both save money and the viewers patience. Gimmick matches were now extremely rare, the talent was getting younger and large events were actually entertaining for the first time in years. Though the writing and production value was less than it had been during WCW's prime, most diehard fans were still quite pleased with this bold, new direction with which they were taking. Yet despite all of this success, the promotion was still having trouble turning a voluminous profit, and with the sudden merger of
AOL-TimeWarner, things were beginning to look bleak for the immediate future.
Enter
Mark Cuban, a Dallas, Texas billionaire who made his fortune through the dot.com bubble of the 90's, and had always been a longtime closeted wrestling fan. Cuban, along with his company 2929 Entertainment, purchased the rights to WCW in the Spring of 2001 with the idea of renewing Nitro and starting a new show on Cuban's scheduled television network:
HDNet.
By June of that year, HDNet was operational and debuted WCW's new show
"Friday Night Voltage" to positive reviews.
Nitro itself, though not retained by
TNT, was given a new contract to TNN, which would eventually become Spike TV. The debut of former
UFC Champion and
WWF Intercontinental Champion Ken Shamrock drew some of the best ratings the show had seen in years, and the news continued to get better, as Cuban was able to secure contracts with one of the WWF's best tag teams -
Edge & Christian, now known as
"Adam Hardcastle & Christian Cage" -- but better known now as
"The Flash Mob". Within just a few months of their arrival, they would defeat
Kronik in a retirement match for the
WCW Tag Team Championship, just weeks before Bryan Clarke and Brian Lee left for the
WWF.
As if he couldn't do any better, Mark had also looked to the crumbling
ECW promotion where he managed to secure a friendship and mutual respect with
Paul Heyman, a seasoned former manager who had always historically been one of WCW's harshest critics. Despite having done commentary at
Wrestlemania and working with
Vince McMahon, Paul had grown tired of being stifled in his creativity within the company and took relish in the thought of being given a second chance to build something great again. Along with Paul came incredible talent like
Rob Van Dam, a young
Steve Corino and the mysterious green mist of
Yoshihiro Tajiri. Heyman can also be attributed to the talent found within the indy wrestling scene. The legend himself would only sign with Cuban and WCW on one condition though --
FIRE Eric Bischoff.
Bischoff was obviously beyond disgruntled, having helped save the very company he had poured his heart and soul into for years, only to be swiftly cast away like a once great ship now reduced to a piece of driftwood floating in a vast and endless ocean of despair. After taking some personal time to recoup, Eric turned his eye to other artistic mediums outside of the wrestling world, as well as furthering his time and focus on being a good father.
On September 11th of 2001, tragedy struck -- the Twin Towers fell in an act of terrorism that changed both the USA and the world itself forever in the near blink of an eye. The former POTUS
Bill Clinton himself stood before a mourning crowd of fans as he, owner Mark Cuban and the entire
WCW roster took time to open the next week's episode of
Nitro with a serious tone. A moment of silence honoring the men and women of the NYPD and local fire department and all those who perished in the tragedy was then held before the beginning of one of the show's most iconic episodes.
In the months leading up to this event, something strange was happening: the
WCW fans were actually growing tired of
Goldberg and his act. For years, it had been the same old tired cliches; squash matches, 'round the corner beatdowns, a spear here, a spear there, a spear everywhere, brotherrr:
"WHO'S NEXT!?!?" -- Yet the real problems and frustration grew when Bill was given far too much time on the microphone, highlighting his weakness for dialogue and likeability pitted against
"The World's Most Dangerous Man" Ken Shamrock. Shamrock had quickly risen to fan favorite status after debuting just months prior, eventually becoming
WCW United States Champion and proving match-in and match-out that he was worthy of challenging for Goldberg's World Title.
At
Starrcade (2001), it all came to a head; some fans chanted
"Let's Go Goldberg!", yet most of them yelled
"Goldberg Sucks!" and it was obvious that this was beginning to get inside the head of the champion. Despite avoiding the Ankle Lock early on and connecting with both the Jackhammer and Spear,
Ken Shamrock still managed to kick out before the count-of-three. Growing desperate, Goldberg whipped Shamrock into the corner for a corner spear attempt, but Shamrock dodged and took advantage by this time getting the Ankle Lock in on Goldberg. The World Champion instead refused to tap and then it happened:
Paul Heyman running from the back --slides the steel chair into the ring -- chairshot to Shamrock's head -- disqualification -- Goldberg turns heel and the city of Philadelphia erupted with flavorful combinations of hatred, vile and disbelief. The once face of the company had now turned his back on any idea of dignity, now only consumed with selfishly appeasing himself, his boss and the company.
By the end of the calendar year, it was apparent that
Paul Heyman (a turned heel himself by both action and association,) was now the instrument from which
Goldberg would use to voice his frustrations, while Goldberg's half of this symbiotic working relationship was to act as Heyman's personal wrecking ball. Unable to accept Goldberg as their hero, Heyman often reminded the fans that they were in fact to blame for this new monster….
"The blood of his career is on YOUR HANDS!!!!!"
-- Paul Heyman
