SteelCitySoldier
TSC Fantasy Football Champion 2016
I have never read or heard about this so if it's common knowledge I apologize
For those that have watched to lots of shoot interviews both by RF Video/Kayfabe commentaries and the various radio shows/podcasts all over the internet, you may remember Kevin Sullivan and Jim Cornette (who were on both sides of the exchange of WCW) mentioning on different occasions that there was a 'man on the inside' that sabotaged WCW on behalf of the WWF and that made the deal possible for WWF to purchase the company so quickly and so efficiently.
WWF's end of fiscal 2001 report (released 7/28) notes that all of the intellectual properties and assets of WCW including the trade name, tape library and other intangible assets were sold by AOL- Time Warner for a staggeringly low $2.5 million.
This is despite an offer from Bischoff/Fusient Media Group for $48.3 million, just days prior to the sale to WWF.
The Fusient offer included a $5 million deposit - so, even if the deal had collapsed, TBS would have picked up double what they've now got from Vince. Moreover, Fusient had agreed to take over every contract - relieving AOL-Time Warner of more than $15 million in salary payouts.
Instead, as thing now stand, Time Warner will be paying Goldberg more in one year than all the money they got from the sale of WCW.
Brad Siegel, who was in-charge of WCW and the sale of the company, was friends with Stu Snyder, WWF's President and COO from 2000-2001. They both worked together previously at Turner and Stu Snyder is currently the President of Turner Broadcasting Company after returning to the company years after he left the WWF. Both of them were in-charge of negotiating the sale of WCW to the WWF.
Keep in mind, at the time of WCW's cancellation, WCW Monday Nitro was STILL the highest rated weekly show on TNT (and with that, ANY network owned by the company).
The following quotes are from Bob Ryder (Former WCW Employee and current Director Talent Bookings & Travel for TNA Wrestling) via 1wrestletalk.com on July 30th 2001...
"While Fusient was still at the negotiating table [and negotiating in good faith], Siegel was contacting his friend Stu Snyder at the WWF to figure out what needed to be done to make sure the WWF got the deal." According to Ryder, Siegel and " Stu Snyder (the top WWF exec who brokered the deal) were friends and co-workers when Snyder worked with Time Warner. It is widely believed that Siegel offered the job of WCW President to Snyder near the end of the Busch era, but that Snyder turned it down and went to work with the WWF."
"When it became obvious that the only way the WWF could get back in the hunt to buy WCW would be if the shows were cancelled...that's exactly what Siegel made sure happened."
"Siegel sabotaged his own company by convincing Kellner to cancel the shows. He did that AFTER he made a call to Stu Snyder and found out the only way he could make a deal with the WWF was to cancel the shows." "Once the shows were cancelled, that narrowed the potential buyers to one."
"There were at least four offers from people who were willing to pay much more than the WWF paid..... A group headed by former WCW exec Jay Hassman had tried several times to be included in the bidding, and they were ignored repeatedly."
Now while all this is shady, it's also illegal. Because AOL Time Warner was a public company, this could be considered sabotage and could have been investigated by the SEC. Brad Siegel could have gone to jail if there was an investigation and all this was true.
The nub of Ryder's argument is that whatever Siegel's reasons for getting rid of WCW to WWF - "Siegel's actions weren't in the best interest of stockhoders..."
"How stupid do you have to be not to realize that it's a better business decision to take an offer of say $20 million with $5 million paid upfront in cash as opposed to a deal totalling $2.5 million that leaves you liable for $15 million in salary to people who will be sitting home taking paychecks for three years?"
"The way Brad Siegel handled the company was at best inept leadership. At worst it was criminal."
Also keep in mind, AOL Time Warner was in chaos at the time. Time Warner/Turner just completed a 'merger' that had AOL purchase them (though it was branded as a merger) when AOL had less profit and less assets all because Time Warner's CEO Jerry Levin wanted in on the internet boom and was practically tricked into accepting the sale of Time Wanrer (CNBC named him as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time"). That merger widely ridiculed as theworst deal in history. The merger led to Jamie Kellner being named head of Turner Networks.
So when people blame AOL Time Warner's merger for WCW's desmise, they aren't kidding. Warner Bros merger with Time/Turner was a big deal too because it put new people in-charge that didn't have a relationship with Bischoff, making the entire company bigger with oversight over it's properties, thus the push for them to go more family friendly when the WWF was murdering them with mature programming.
Regardless, one of the interested buyers of WCW was apparently Jerry Jarrett (who eventually started TNA).
WCW gave Jerry Jarrett all the information he needed to make a bid but Jarrett was stonewalled by WCW. Ryder claims it wasn't Bischoff who did the stone walling.
"Early in the year, before Busch left...Jarrett was brought in to meet with Siegel. Several things were talked about, and Jarrett let Siegel know that he would be interested in buying the company if it ever ended up being put up for sale. When it became obvious that the company was going to be sold, several groups started trying to put deals together. ....Jarrett received virtually every important financial document needed to put his deal together, and still has those documents. My conversations with Jarrett were always along the lines of his wanting to make sure the company was bought by someone other than Vince McMahon.He [Jarrett] was stonewalled...but ultimately it was in favor of Vince McMahon, not Eric Bischoff. When Siegel pulled the trigger on the deal, he ended up blowing everyone else out of the water so McMahon was the only one who could buy it. Jarrett was being represented by one of the top investment bankers in the country, and Siegel refused to return his calls. (Bob Ryder Tuesday, July 31, 2001 - 07:39 pm)
Source for Bob Ryder quotes
So you may ask; why this isn't mentioned more often? Well it's because statements like this are pretty heavy accusations. Those in-the-know have moved on. Nothing can be done about it now.
How do we know that this true? We don't but Brad Siegel and Stu Snyder were friends and were in-charge of negotiating the deal with both parties. Most of what is said above is fact. The amount WCW was sold for. The amount Fuscient was offering. It didn't make much sense from AOL Time Warner's perspective to begin with if you just go by the facts.
TLDR: There is substantial evidence that Brad Siegel, head of WCW in 2001, purposely sabotaged World Championship Wrestling (including getting the time slots cancelled) in order to sell it to his friend (Stu Snyder) on behalf of the WWF and did so in a way to avoid several potential buyers who were willing to offer much more. All this was illegal and Brad Siegel could have gone to jail if the exchange was investigated and he was ruled guilty for it.
For those that have watched to lots of shoot interviews both by RF Video/Kayfabe commentaries and the various radio shows/podcasts all over the internet, you may remember Kevin Sullivan and Jim Cornette (who were on both sides of the exchange of WCW) mentioning on different occasions that there was a 'man on the inside' that sabotaged WCW on behalf of the WWF and that made the deal possible for WWF to purchase the company so quickly and so efficiently.
WWF's end of fiscal 2001 report (released 7/28) notes that all of the intellectual properties and assets of WCW including the trade name, tape library and other intangible assets were sold by AOL- Time Warner for a staggeringly low $2.5 million.
This is despite an offer from Bischoff/Fusient Media Group for $48.3 million, just days prior to the sale to WWF.
The Fusient offer included a $5 million deposit - so, even if the deal had collapsed, TBS would have picked up double what they've now got from Vince. Moreover, Fusient had agreed to take over every contract - relieving AOL-Time Warner of more than $15 million in salary payouts.
Instead, as thing now stand, Time Warner will be paying Goldberg more in one year than all the money they got from the sale of WCW.
Brad Siegel, who was in-charge of WCW and the sale of the company, was friends with Stu Snyder, WWF's President and COO from 2000-2001. They both worked together previously at Turner and Stu Snyder is currently the President of Turner Broadcasting Company after returning to the company years after he left the WWF. Both of them were in-charge of negotiating the sale of WCW to the WWF.
Keep in mind, at the time of WCW's cancellation, WCW Monday Nitro was STILL the highest rated weekly show on TNT (and with that, ANY network owned by the company).
The following quotes are from Bob Ryder (Former WCW Employee and current Director Talent Bookings & Travel for TNA Wrestling) via 1wrestletalk.com on July 30th 2001...
"While Fusient was still at the negotiating table [and negotiating in good faith], Siegel was contacting his friend Stu Snyder at the WWF to figure out what needed to be done to make sure the WWF got the deal." According to Ryder, Siegel and " Stu Snyder (the top WWF exec who brokered the deal) were friends and co-workers when Snyder worked with Time Warner. It is widely believed that Siegel offered the job of WCW President to Snyder near the end of the Busch era, but that Snyder turned it down and went to work with the WWF."
"When it became obvious that the only way the WWF could get back in the hunt to buy WCW would be if the shows were cancelled...that's exactly what Siegel made sure happened."
"Siegel sabotaged his own company by convincing Kellner to cancel the shows. He did that AFTER he made a call to Stu Snyder and found out the only way he could make a deal with the WWF was to cancel the shows." "Once the shows were cancelled, that narrowed the potential buyers to one."
"There were at least four offers from people who were willing to pay much more than the WWF paid..... A group headed by former WCW exec Jay Hassman had tried several times to be included in the bidding, and they were ignored repeatedly."
Now while all this is shady, it's also illegal. Because AOL Time Warner was a public company, this could be considered sabotage and could have been investigated by the SEC. Brad Siegel could have gone to jail if there was an investigation and all this was true.
The nub of Ryder's argument is that whatever Siegel's reasons for getting rid of WCW to WWF - "Siegel's actions weren't in the best interest of stockhoders..."
"How stupid do you have to be not to realize that it's a better business decision to take an offer of say $20 million with $5 million paid upfront in cash as opposed to a deal totalling $2.5 million that leaves you liable for $15 million in salary to people who will be sitting home taking paychecks for three years?"
"The way Brad Siegel handled the company was at best inept leadership. At worst it was criminal."
Also keep in mind, AOL Time Warner was in chaos at the time. Time Warner/Turner just completed a 'merger' that had AOL purchase them (though it was branded as a merger) when AOL had less profit and less assets all because Time Warner's CEO Jerry Levin wanted in on the internet boom and was practically tricked into accepting the sale of Time Wanrer (CNBC named him as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time"). That merger widely ridiculed as theworst deal in history. The merger led to Jamie Kellner being named head of Turner Networks.
So when people blame AOL Time Warner's merger for WCW's desmise, they aren't kidding. Warner Bros merger with Time/Turner was a big deal too because it put new people in-charge that didn't have a relationship with Bischoff, making the entire company bigger with oversight over it's properties, thus the push for them to go more family friendly when the WWF was murdering them with mature programming.
Regardless, one of the interested buyers of WCW was apparently Jerry Jarrett (who eventually started TNA).
WCW gave Jerry Jarrett all the information he needed to make a bid but Jarrett was stonewalled by WCW. Ryder claims it wasn't Bischoff who did the stone walling.
"Early in the year, before Busch left...Jarrett was brought in to meet with Siegel. Several things were talked about, and Jarrett let Siegel know that he would be interested in buying the company if it ever ended up being put up for sale. When it became obvious that the company was going to be sold, several groups started trying to put deals together. ....Jarrett received virtually every important financial document needed to put his deal together, and still has those documents. My conversations with Jarrett were always along the lines of his wanting to make sure the company was bought by someone other than Vince McMahon.He [Jarrett] was stonewalled...but ultimately it was in favor of Vince McMahon, not Eric Bischoff. When Siegel pulled the trigger on the deal, he ended up blowing everyone else out of the water so McMahon was the only one who could buy it. Jarrett was being represented by one of the top investment bankers in the country, and Siegel refused to return his calls. (Bob Ryder Tuesday, July 31, 2001 - 07:39 pm)
Source for Bob Ryder quotes
So you may ask; why this isn't mentioned more often? Well it's because statements like this are pretty heavy accusations. Those in-the-know have moved on. Nothing can be done about it now.
How do we know that this true? We don't but Brad Siegel and Stu Snyder were friends and were in-charge of negotiating the deal with both parties. Most of what is said above is fact. The amount WCW was sold for. The amount Fuscient was offering. It didn't make much sense from AOL Time Warner's perspective to begin with if you just go by the facts.
TLDR: There is substantial evidence that Brad Siegel, head of WCW in 2001, purposely sabotaged World Championship Wrestling (including getting the time slots cancelled) in order to sell it to his friend (Stu Snyder) on behalf of the WWF and did so in a way to avoid several potential buyers who were willing to offer much more. All this was illegal and Brad Siegel could have gone to jail if the exchange was investigated and he was ruled guilty for it.
