What if Ted Turner bought WWE in 1997?

[kevin]

In 1997 Vince and the WWE were struggling financially, and were desperately short on superstars: Bret Hart was leaving, Shawn, Austin Taker wrestled sporidacally due to injuries and throwing hissy fits (Shawn).... the Rock was still working his way up the ranks, which didnt leave much else to push.















In a nutshell Vince was short on superstars, whilst WCW was thriving with the NWO, and its veteran talent drawing in big bucks and huge ratings.































Things were so bad for Vince at this point, that he was actually considering downsizing to become a North Eastern promotion.















As we all know, Vince recovered and bought out the imploding WCW just 4 years later.... but at this point it was Vince who was brought to his knees....































SO if the tables were turned in 1997, Vince was declared bankrupt and Ted Turner snapped up WWF.... what would have happened??































Would Turner handle the reigns to Eric Bischoff? or someone else?















Would Vince have found employment with his old foes? (like Vince employed Bischoff in 2002)...















Would they have kept WWE as a seperate company? combined the roster with WCW? or simply kill the WWE off?































Could they have brought in more WWE guys as an extension to the NWO storyline? would the likes of Shawn, Taker, Austin have had any hope in upseating the WCW veterans at the top of trhe mountain?































Would the WCW product have gotten stale with the acquisition (just like WWE became once it acquired WCW and ECW).... and how would the product look today?

[Justinian G]

Of course, all we can do is speculate. 1997 was the all-time lowest year in terms of revenue for the World Wrestling Federation, before or since. Ted Turner SHOULD have made an offer to buy out WWF at the time. I doubt that Vince McMahon would have sold the company, though. He hated Ted Turner with a passion, ever since Turner entered the wrestling business and began competing with him. I think Vince would have preferred to run WWF into the ground before selling the company.































But, if WCW had purchased WWF, I imagine that they would have incorporated the WWF wrestlers into the storylines...making it a WWF vs. WCW rivalry (like WWF did right after they bought WCW in 2001).

[JackJack?]

Interesting thought. However I feel that Vince will never and would never have sold WWE. I just don't ever see that happening and I think he would rather have his company be worthless and still his than have it sold to his enemy competitors.































If it did somehow happen, I think WCW would have been good as they would have acquired a lot of WWE superstars and put on some great matches and feuds (e.g. Goldberg vs Stone Cold, Sting vs Undertaker). Vince most likely would have started up his own promotion again, similar to TNA and by now they would most likely be near equal to WCW.































WCW would definitely have gotten stale after a while, similar to WWE has now with no proper competition. It is also possible that they could have shut down too. They still would have had the same problems and wrestlers with giant egos that led to their downfall regardless of whether or not they bought WWE.

[wwewwewwewwe]

ya

[SuicidalKAZ]

no doubt there would have been a WWF invasion, we would have seen alot of great matches that we missed out on due to Vince's ego, eg Sting vs HHH, Goldberg vs Undertaker, Hogan vs Stone Cold etc etc etc































I would hope that WCW wouldnt bury WWE stars like Vince does to any guy not born in WWE. I think if this had happened the wrestling world would have been much better off, however Abyss, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe probably wouldnt have been