the american wrestling promotion that existed from 1988 to present . for the australian wrestling promotion see world championship wrestling australia . wcw redirects here . for other uses see wcw disambiguation . world championship wrestling type 1988 1996 private subsidiary of turner broadcasting system 1996 public subsidiary of time warner division turner industry professional wrestling sports entertainment predecessor georgia championship wrestling jim crockett promotions founded october 11 1988 1 founder jim crockett ted turner headquarters one centennial tower atlanta georgia 30303 united states area served worldwide products television internet merchandise and wwe network . parent turner broadcasting system 1988 1996 time warner 1996 present website wcw at wwe.com world championship wrestling inc. wcw is a american professional wrestling promotion based in atlanta georgia . it began as a regional mid atlantic u.s. national wrestling alliance nwa affiliated territory promotion jim crockett promotions until november 1988 when ted turner through his turner broadcasting system business bought the promotion whose struggle to compete with vince mcmahon s world wrestling entertainment then wwf now wwe had left it near bankruptcy . immediately after the buyout the business was renamed the universal wrestling corporation uwc and consisted of crockett s business assets ; however it was soon renamed again world championship wrestling the title of the promotion s weekly tv series which had aired on tbs for many years prior . in the mid 1990s wcw dramatically improved its economic performance largely due to the promotion of eric bischoff to executive producer to guide the overall direction of the on screen product ; the strategy of hiring former wwf main eventers ; the introduction of the monday nitro series on cable tv and the resultant monday night wars with the wwf s monday night raw ; the successful creative and marketing execution of the new world order nwo brand stable of wrestlers ; and other innovative concepts . wcw also had a successful cruiserweight division an acrobatic faster paced lucha libre inspired style of wrestling . 2 3 4 5 wcw eclipsed the wwf in popularity throughout the united states for much of the latter 1990s . however numerous financial and creative missteps led to the company losing its lead over the wwf . turner and later time warner owned wcw until 2001 when selected assets were purchased by the wwf . 6 7 since 2001 wcw images and video footage have been widely distributed in wwe owned media . two separate subsidiary companies exist as successors to wcw . wcw inc. is the wwe subsidiary established in delaware in late 2000 initially as w. acquisition company which holds the rights to the wcw video library and other intellectual property . 8 the former wcw entity which retained liabilities not acquired by wwe was renamed back to the universal wrestling corporation ; 9 it is still listed as a subsidiary of time warner . 10 contents 1 history 1.1 name 1.2 leadership and booking 1.3 wcw in other media 1.4 sale to wwf e inc. 2 legacy 3 championships 4 programming 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit main article history of world championship wrestling name edit the name world championship wrestling was first used as a brand and television show title in 1982 . jim barnett who had worked for the world championship wrestling promotion in australia came to atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle over georgia championship wrestling . 11 barnett ultimately became majority owner of the promotion and began using his previous employer s name for his new promotion s television program in 1982 . the promotion was eventually purchased by jim crockett promotions . however it was not until november 2 1988 12 that an actual national wrestling alliance nwa affiliated promotion called world championship wrestling appeared on the national scene . this entity was under the ownership of media mogul and cable tv pioneer ted turner based in atlanta georgia . while initially the new company was called universal wrestling corporation launched october 11 1988 very shortly following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar world championship wrestling tv show name as the brand name for this new promotion . leadership and booking edit wcw went through various changes in business and creative leadership during its existence . some figures like jim herd and kip frey were mere tv executives completely lacking in wrestling promotion experience ; others like bill watts ole anderson and dusty rhodes had extensive experience in the business but were so entrenched in the outdated territory ways of operating which their respective careers had thrived under that they were ineffective at growing wcw s largely regional audience into a national and international one as vince mcmahon had successfully done with the wwf . while eric bischoff has received much criticism for some mistakes in judgment as executive producer and later wcw president he combined an understanding of wrestling largely gained as a staffer with verne gagne s american wrestling association with a willingness to make the changes needed to raise wcw s profile with mainstream media its target audience and especially tv advertisers . these changes including moving some television tapings from atlanta to disney mgm studios in orlando florida and signing a mix of veteran u.s. main event performers and younger stars from promotions around the world e.g. rey mysterio jr. . some of the creative freedoms that bischoff granted main event level talent hurt the promotion as such performers were less than cooperative in making stars out of the young performers even though doing so known in the industry as doing what s best for the business instead of for just yourself has been a staple of the industry world wide since its inception . once bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999 vince russo a former senior storyline writer for the wwf came aboard as lead writer of all of wcw s storylines . although russo would not last long in this role departing for the first time in january 2000 wcw opted to bring russo and bischoff back in april 2000 in hopes that the duo might re spark flagging fan interest in wcw . the two however did not get along well and bischoff soon resigned from the sinking company . it was only a few months later that russo would also depart after suffering from a concussion at the hands of bill goldberg although he remained under contract for the rest of wcw s existence . following russo s departure creative was handled by a booking committee which included johnny ace and terry taylor . wcw in other media edit from 2000 to 2001 monster jam had a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers names . these include nwo 2000 sting 2000 2001 nitro machine 2000 present ; currently inferno madusa 2000 present and goldberg 2000 present ; currently maximum destruction . the first to go was nwo which only ran for a season . next all but goldberg nitro and madusa were retired after the wcw sponsorship was lost . nitro then became flashfire then was converted into inferno . madusa has stayed the same since it s creation because it is driven by former wcw wrestler debra miceli known in wcw by her ring name of madusa . as for goldberg it was changed to team meents in 2002 then into maximum destruction which debuted in 2003 and continues to compete in the series . wcw also had a presence in nascar from the mid 1990s to 2000 sponsoring the 29 team in the busch grand national series full time and the 9 melling racing team in the winston cup series part time . in 1996 kyle petty s 49 car in the busch grand national series was sponsored by the nwo and wally dallenbach jr. briefly drove a wcw sponsored for galaxy motorsports . sale to wwf e inc. edit as 2000 came to a close a number of potential buyers for wcw were rumored to show interest in the company . ted turner however still had a position of influence at time warner prior to the final merger of aol and time warner in 2001 and most offers were rejected . eric bischoff working with fusient media ventures made a bid to acquire the company in january 2001 13 shortly following the aol time warner merger and it appeared that wcw would continue . one of the primary backers in the wcw deal backed out however leaving fusient to take that offer off the table while it attempted to bring a new deal around . in the meantime the world wrestling federation founded w. acquisition company in late 2000 and began speaking to the new aol time warner about acquiring the wcw brand . jamie kellner was handed control over the turner broadcasting division and deemed wcw along with turner sports as a whole to be out of line with its image . as a result wcw programming was canceled on tbs and tnt leaving vince mcmahon s company which at the time had an exclusive deal with viacom free to acquire the trademarks video libraries and a few contracts of world championship wrestling through its new subsidiary w. acquisition company and was renamed to wcw inc. afterwards . during the sale wcw was in litigation with various lawsuits pending and aol time warner still had to pay various performers their guaranteed deals as many had contracts directly with the parent company and not with wcw . since wcw inc. had acquired select assets the company that was once world championship wrestling was reverted to universal wrestling corporation once again ; its only purpose now however was to deal with old contracts and lawsuits . legacy edit at the outset of wcw s existence as well as that of its predecessors the company was strongly identified with the southern style of professional wrestling i.e. rasslin which emphasized athletic and competitive in ring performances over the showmanship and cartoon like characterizations of the wwf . 14 this identity persisted into the 1990s even as the company signed stars who their audience had only ever known as wwf only stars e.g. hulk hogan randy savage . wcw dominated pro wrestling s television ratings from mid 1996 to 1998 in the u.s. i.e. for 84 straight weeks mainly due to its incredibly popular new world order storyline ; but thereafter began to lose heavy ground to the wwf which had successfully rebounded from the wcw threat with its edgy antihero driven attitude re branding . stale story lines ; unimpressive pay per view main event performances ; a policy of vastly overpaying all headliners and even many middle tier performers exorbitant guaranteed salaries ; questionable booking decisions ; plus eventual and sudden spending restrictions imposed by corporate parent time warner combined to eventually lead wcw to start operating at a quickly ballooning loss instead of a profit . as a result aol time warner sold the copyrights to wcw s name to the wwf for 2.5 million in 2001 . shortly after the purchase vince mcmahon purchased the entire wcw videotape library for an additional 1.7 million bringing the final tally of world championship wrestling s sale to 4.2 million . wcw started out as a regional promotion in the late 1980s focusing mainly on the deep south . it started growing nationally a few years later which led to its rivalry with the wwf the major wrestling company left in north america after almost single handedly wiping out the old regional territory system it was born from . even though wcw folded in 2001 its legacy lived on in the wwf . the wwf initially kept the wcw united states championship the wcw cruiserweight championship the wcw world tag team championship and even the wcw world heavyweight championship active . eventually the titles were unified into their respective wwf counterparts . in 2003 now known as