July 2, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: King of the Ring review, Raw/WCW, more
With the business at a crossroads, Vince McMahon made the ultimate ballsy move. Starting in just a few weeks, unless plans change, and they do on a daily basis, Raw on TNN will be renamed “WCW Raw.”
TNN officially got the word on 6/22, although McMahon had the basic ideas formulated many weeks ago of having one existing prime time show be labeled with the WCW brand and the other be a WWF brand. McMahon’s feelings were that WWF vs. WCW will have to be promoted as both being equals to be able to create a separate entity and drive the same type of successful revenue streams when it comes to merchandising, licensing, ticket selling and PPV as the WWF. As negotiations fell through for the original 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. time slot on Saturday nights on TNN, McMahon said he felt that even if those negotiations hadn’t fallen through, that if WCW was given that time slot, it would immediately establish them as a secondary company.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.