At their PEAK, what was bigger competition to WWE...ECW, TNA, NWA or AEW

[CEO of Morgan Industries]

Pre-Nitro NWA/JCP. Vince didn't ever try to counter-program any of the other companies that you listed, but he threatened not to allow PPV providers to carry WrestleMania if they also carried Starrcade. He created the Royal Rumble as a free-TV special to combat Bunkhouse Stampede's buy rates.

 

[satam55]

Brehs was Starrcade/The Great American Bash ever a threat to WrestleMania/Royal Rumble/King of the Ring/Summer Slam/Survivor Series?

 

[Notorious 1 E.Y.E.]

It was wcw untill ted turner got tired of it

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Wasn’t pre-Nitro WCW a dumpster fire financially for most of that period of time? Or am I recalling WWE’s revisionist history of the company?

 

[FunkDoc1112]

No. They never were lol. TNA popped a 2 maybe once. that was it. They hovered around 1 million though, and AEW never gets that. Ever.

TNA's average rating in 07-09 was usually in the 1.0-1.2 range which translated to about 1.4-1.6 million viewers in that era. And that's pretty close to what Raw does now. But like StatUS just said, 2024 WWE sells out arenas and stadiums worldwide, gets billions of dollars in TV deals and sponsorships, and has stars all over mainstream TV while TNA operated out of a theme park and was largely a punchline to the public consciousness if they knew it at all.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Wasn’t pre-Nitro WCW a dumpster fire financially for most of that period of time? Or am I recalling WWE’s revisionist history of the company?

JCP dd well in the mid-80s but Jim Crockett ran them into the ground overspending to go national, and Dusty started losing his touch as a booker in 87/88 and killing towns with nonstop Dusty finishes...so by 89 they were in such bad shape that Turner had to buy them. And they were a consistent money loser although some of that was the way Turner divvied up the numbers.