The twenty-year mark has passed since WWE purchased WCW in a move that changed the industry forever. WWE and WCW competing for over a decade saw fans expecting the two biggest promotions would last forever. Unfortunately, the negative trend of WCW making mistakes and losing money caused WWE to take advantage and truly end the Monday Night Wars.

RELATED: Every Wrestler To Win Both The WWE & WCW Championship

Many interesting tidbits or effects from such a big purchase have come out over after two decades passed by. The entire concept of a wrestling promotion buying the competition will create stories based on the drama involved. Vince McMahon being the one to make said purchase adds the biggest variable possible. Each of the following things about the WWE purchase of WCW shows how fascinating of a story that was.

UPDATE: 2023/10/03 14:30 EST BY DANNY DJELJOSEVIC

It’s tough to imagine a more seismic shift in the world of pro wrestling than what happened on March 26, 2001, when Vince McMahon appeared on the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro to announce that WWE was purchasing WCW. In the years leading up, WCW offered formidable direct competition to WWE’s industry dominance, and in buying the company WWE was pretty much able to reign mostly unchallenged for nearly two decades. But there are numerous aspects of WWE’s purchase that fans have likely forgotten, including not only plans that WCW had, but also what happened after the purchase was public knowledge.

16 Eric Bischoff Was Planning A Reboot PPV At The Time

Ad for the cancelled WCW Big Bang PPV

Before Vince McMahon purchased WCW, Eric Bischoff was working with a company called Fusient Media Ventures to buy WCW, with massive changes coming. Bischoff’s big idea was for the promotion to disappear for a few months and then officially relaunch with a new pay-per-view called The Big Bang. WCW went as far as advertising the event in the penultimate issue of WCW Magazine, and plans were made for weekly tapings at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Cafe and poaching ECW’s now-unemployed commentary team, Joey Styles and Don Callis. Unfortunately, these plans and the Big Bang pay-per-view never came to fruition, and a lack of a TV deal resulted in Fusient pulling out of the deal.

15 Many WCW Talent Was Sent To WWE Developmental

Evan Karagias

Purchasing WCW meant that WWE gained the contracts of loads of wrestlers — more than WWE could actually put on television at once, many of whom weren’t acclimated to WWE’s particular in-ring style. As a result, loads of wrestlers who were staples of WCW television like Evan Karagias, Lash LeRoux, Mike Sanders, and Mark Jindrak were sent to WWE developmental territories like Heartland Wrestling, where they could hone their skills. However, not all of them made it out of developmental to WWE television, while others served as warm bodies during the Invasion storyline.

14 Vince McMahon Fired Jeff Jarrett On Live Television

Jeff Jarrett as WWE Intercontinental Champion

During the Monday Night Wars, Jeff Jarrett ended up jumping back and forth between WWE and WCW multiple times, with each run in each company being surprisingly distinct. In his last run in WWE, he held up Vince McMahon for money while Intercontinental Champion — just before he jumped ship to WCW to become its top champion.

RELATED: Why Jeff Jarrett Held Up Vince McMahon For Money & How He Got Away With It

Clearly Vince McMahon did not forget about this incident. As the purchase was announced on Nitro, on the simultaneous Raw McMahon in a backstage segment named Jarrett as the first person he was firing, which Jarrett thought was just part of an angle. It seems like all was forgiven years later as Jarrett would work for WWE again and be inducted into their Hall Of Fame in 2018.

13 No Network Wanted To Air WCW

Eric Bischoff Raw GM

Practically right up until WWE bought the company, Eric Bischoff was set to take over WCW. However, the heads of TBS and TNT at that time said they were no longer interested in running wrestling on their networks. Remember, streaming services were not a thing back then and Bischoff had zero interest in scrambling to find a network to air WCW, which is why he backed out. WWE on the other was self-owned and ran with distribution contracts. There was a thought early on that they would run WCW as either an online show or Raw or Smackdown would become a haven for WCW. But once the Invasion angle fell flat, that also spelled the end of WCW airing on any network.

12 WWE Didn’t Buy Out Many WCW Contracts

WCW Roster

When the superstars of WCW started coming over, the big guns like the nWo and Sting didn’t come over (thanks to their fat Time Warner contracts which ensured they didn't have to work to get paid), the WWE didn’t absorb any of the contracts for anyone and everyone that did come over.

Related: 9 WCW Wrestlers Who Looked Like A Star (But Were Bad In The Ring)Jim Ross made the trip to Atlanta and set up shop in his hotel room. For several days, he met with all of the WCW talent and made the deals that were made for the WCW roster that did come over.

11 ECW Lived Longer Than WCW

Paul Heyman Faces Off With Eric Bischoff

Paul Heyman might have been owner of the number three wrestling promotion during the nineties. But for what’s it's worth, on paper anyway ECW actually outlived their hated rival. While WCW was sold at the end of March 2001, ECW went under about a week after on April 4th. At least for a little while, perhaps Heyman was able to smile at the small moral victory.

10 Vince Originally Wanted To Keep WCW On TNT

Vince McMahon Buys WCW

Bruce Prichard has used his podcast to share many stories about being Vince McMahon’s right-hand man during important times in WWE history. The WCW purchase was something McMahon discussed with Prichard and others before it became official.

RELATED: 10 Great WCW Gimmicks That Failed: What Went Wrong?

Prichard shared that Vince originally wanted to keep running WCW on TNT since that time slot was valuable. However, he grew more hesitant when Turner executives made it clear they were done with WCW. McMahon eventually did make the purchase since WCW had a tremendous library.

9 Eric Bischoff's Group Tried To Buy Before WWE Did

Eric Bischoff WCW

The importance of Eric Bischoff to WCW saw him trying to keep the company going when it became clear that it was being sold soon. Bischoff had a group that seemed keen to his concept of resetting the product.

There were even plans for a PPV later that year titled The Big Bang, but Bischoff didn’t realize that Vince McMahon was in talks as well. WWE purchased WCW when Bischoff was still trying to get his group to make the sale and continue WCW under his leadership.

8 Vince McMahon Bought WCW For Extremely Cheap

Shane McMahon WCW

The price that WWE paid to buy WCW is one of the most shocking things about the story looking back. WCW was losing so much money that the AOL Time Warner organization just wanted to get rid of it and sold to Vince McMahon for a low price.

The trademarks and name/property of WCW was sold to Vince for just $2.5 million. Another $1.7 million was spent to own the WCW library, making it a massive steal. To compare it to current-day wrestling, Tony Khan spent much more on Ring of Honor since streaming services and on-demand content are more valued.

7 Came During Build For WrestleMania 17

TLC WrestleMania 17

WWE ended up having one of the greatest weeks in history when starting it off with the purchase of WCW and ending it with WrestleMania 17. Most longtime fans still name WrestleMania 17 as the greatest WrestleMania in WWE history.

That made it more shocking that Vince purchased WCW the week of the event. WCW wasn’t referenced much on that event since they had a deep card with stories and great importance already in play. Some fans felt WCW was lost in the shuffle due to that timing.

6 WWE Picked All Final WCW Champions

Booker T WCW

The end of WCW featured WWE producing the final episode of Nitro to ensure that they had the right champions if they restarted the company. Booker T winning the WCW Championship from Scott Steiner and Shane Helms winning the Cruiserweight Championship showed that WWE had strong interest in them.

Bruce Prichard and Shane McMahon ran the show with the booking decisions made while keeping their future plans in mind. Names that would not be around or that had heat for past WWE runs did not get booked to win.

5 Every Top WCW Star Had To Make Contract Decision

Sting Goldberg Hulk Hogan

The AOL/Time Warner side of the sale saw many top WCW stars still under massive contracts. Names like Hulk Hogan, Sting, Ric Flair, Goldberg and Kevin Nash all remained under contract to keep earning a big check without doing any work.

RELATED: 5 WCW Wrestlers Who Peaked Early In Their Runs (And 5 Who Peaked Late)

A few stars like Booker T, Buff Bagwell and Diamond Dallas Page chose to give up that deal and work for WWE during the Invasion feud. Every wrestler with a big contract had to make this decision with some having different priorities than others.

4 Johnny Ace Was Hired To Lead WCW Side

Johnny Ace

John Laurinaitis started his backstage role at the end of WCW when hired to join the creative and producer team. WWE kept Laurinaitis on the payroll when buying WCW and gave him an important position backstage.

The stressful position of having to manage the WCW roster and relay information back and forth with the WWE side. Vince McMahon was impressed enough to make Laurinaitis a major part of WWE afterwards as he replaced Jim Ross as the head of talent relations.

3 Nitro Wasn't The Final WCW Show Aired

WCW Commentary Team

Everyone remembers the final Nitro as the last time WCW was on the air, but that wasn’t the case. WCW still had another syndicated show left to run with Worldwide airing on March 31, 2001 after that infamous episode of Nitro.

The pre-recorded show featured broadcaster Scott Hudson hosting a show looking at highlights of the best of WCW. A Last Man Standing match and classic War Games match were each shown to spotlight the best of WCW, even though it no longer existed.

2 Paul Heyman Tried To Talk Vince Out Of Buying WCW

Paul Heyman Promo Vince McMahon

Paul Heyman joined WWE after ending ECW just a few weeks before WWE purchased WCW. Bruce Prichard revealed that Vince McMahon asked Heyman for his input as an intelligent mind who ran a promotion outside WWE.

Heyman apparently told Vince that WCW was a dead brand, and he shouldn’t waste his money. Prichard claimed that Heyman was hyping up ECW as a more valuable brand and was likely trying to boost it by talking WCW down.

1 WCW Vs WWE WrestleMania Card Was The Plan

Goldberg Steve Austin

The purchase of WCW instantly saw Vince McMahon planning to continue it as a show under the WWE banner. Bruce Prichard and Jim Ross both revealed that the hope was for WCW to have one weekly show with WWE keeping the other moving forward.

WrestleMania was meant to become the annual show where the top WWE stars would battle the WCW wrestlers on the biggest card of the year. McMahon lost all faith after a bad test match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell. WCW didn’t make it to the end to end of the year as a brand, let alone to the next WrestleMania.