After Time Warner merged with AOL, Ted Turner's control over WCW was considerably reduced, and the newly merged company announced a complete lack of interest in professional wrestling as a whole, and decided to sell WCW in its entirety.

A court battle decided that WCW could not continue to use the letters NWA to describe or promote the belt, but it did possess a right to the physical title belt and its historical lineage by a goodwill agreement between prior boards of directors and WCW ( and its prior incarnation Jim Crockett Promotions ).

After the sale of WCW to the then rival WWF, Hart and a close consortium of wrestlers and investors decided to create a wrestling organization — the Xcitement Wrestling Federation ( XWF )— that would replace WCW as well as take wrestling back to early 1990s style of fun, family-oriented entertainment with minimal story lines and more solid wrestling.

Despite zero crowd reaction and leaving the announcers speechless, WCW decided to continue with the feud.

With rumors that the WCW wanted to take the Diamond Studd away from Page, he decided to take the advice of Magnum T. A.

WCW decided to air the Goldberg versus DDP title bout in its entirety on the October 26 edition of Nitro, which proved immensely popular in the ratings and resulted in a ratings win for Nitro over Raw — the last win Nitro would ever have.

WCW heard of this, and decided not to rehire him.

At that point Ric Flair had possession of the " regular " WCW World Title and it was decided that the two titles would be unified.

The company then decided to establish the WCW Women's Championship, but Madusa lost to Akira Hokuto in the finals of the tournament to crown the first champion on December 29 at Starrcade.

He eventually decided to become a wrestler and teamed with his father in his debut match at WCW / nWo Souled Out on January 17, 1999.

At that time, with a change in the WCW management, as well as troupe leadership ( Kimberly left the Nitro Girls ), Byrne decided it was time to move on.

Callous decided to go on his own for a while but failed in a challenge to WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger.

WCW decided to work Hogan's and Savage's old real life feud into the storyline, going as far as having Hogan state that if Savage is going to accuse him of his divorce from Elizabeth, then he " doesn't need someone as ungrateful as ' The Macho Man ' as a friend.

So, they decided to bring back former WCW president Eric Bischoff and former WWF head of creative Vince Russo, putting them together to run WCW.

They were trained together by Paul Orndorff and WCW management decided to push them immediately.

So, they decided to bring back former WCW president Eric Bischoff and former head of creativity Vince Russo, putting them together to run WCW with the thought that they could keep each other's failures in check.

During his time working for World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) in the United States Japanese wrestler Último Dragón decided to open up a wrestling school in Naucalpan, Mexico to give Japanese hopefuls the chance to learn the Mexican lucha libre style like Dragón had.

On the June 28 edition of WWF SmackDown !, it was decided that Fully Loaded was to be changed to Invasion, and would feature matches between WWF and WCW.

* December 9-Chris Jericho becomes first to unify World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) and the World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) Championships hence becoming first undisputed Champion.

Later, The Dudleys beat the Hardy Boyz in a cage match at Survivor Series in 2001 to unify the WWF and WCW Tag Team Championships.

In addition, two title unification matches were signed-the WCW World Tag Team Championship and the WWF Tag Team Championship were to be unified in a match between the Dudley Boyz and the Hardy Boyz, while Edge and Test would meet in a match to unify Edge's WCW United States Championship with Test's WWF Intercontinental Championship.

It was also on this night that several titles were unified ; Edge defeated Test to unify the WCW United States Championship and the Intercontinental Championship, while The Dudley Boyz beat The Hardy Boyz in a Steel Cage match to unify the WCW Tag Team Titles with the WWF Tag Team Titles.

At Survivor Series 2001, the then-current WCW Tag Team Champions, the Dudley Boyz, defeated the then-current WWF Tag Team Champions, the Hardy Boyz, to unify the WCW and WWF Tag Team Championships.

Currently, the largest professional wrestling company worldwide is the United States-based World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ), which bought over many smaller regional companies in the late twentieth century, as well as its primary competitors in early 2001, World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) and Extreme Championship Wrestling ( ECW ).

He helped reinvent interest in professional wrestling when he owned one of the most popular wrestling companies of the middle to late 1990s known as World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ).

TNT used World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) to attract a broader audience.

In 1988, Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions which he renamed World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) which became the main competitor to Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ).

This helped drive many WWF wrestlers to its only major competition, World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), between 1994 and 1997.

The two programs would trade wins in the ensuing ratings competition until mid-1996, when WCW began a nearly two-year domination that was largely fueled by the introduction of the New World Order, a stable led by former WWF performers Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash.

Starting in 1995, TNT was also the home of WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of the now defunct World Championship Wrestling, once regularly the highest rated weekly program on cable.

* Sid Eudy aka Sid Vicious or Sid Justice – former four-time World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion ( WWE, WCW )

* Buff Bagwell-Professional wrestler, five-time WCW World Tag Team Champion

He wrestled there under the ring names 1 – 2 – 3 Kid and X-Pac off and on from 1993 – 2002, World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) under the ring name Syxx, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ( TNA ) under the ring name Syxx-Pac and also under his real name.

He continued using the 1 – 2 – 3 Kid name until his departure for World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) in 1996.

During the fall of 1997, the nWo invoked " Wolfpac Rules " and named Syxx as a replacement for the injured Kevin Nash as part of the Outsiders with Scott Hall in defending the WCW World Tag Team Championship.

*" Mr. Perfect " Curt Hennig ( 1958 – 2003 )-Former professional wrestling champion with American Wrestling Association ( AWA ), National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA ), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ( TNA ), World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), and World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ).

* Eric Bischoff-Wrestling personality and former President of WCW ( World Championship Wrestling )

This included nine World Heavyweight Championships ( the WWF / E Championship seven times and the WCW / World Championship ( 2 times )< sup > 1 </ sup >

World Championship Wrestling, Inc. ( WCW Inc .) was a privately held American professional wrestling promotion currently owned by World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) as a subsidiary.

Turner, and later Time-Warner, owned WCW until 2001 when it was purchased by its primary competitor, the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ), now known as WWE.

From 1995 onwards, WCW began to become more economically stable, largely due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer, the hiring of Hulk Hogan, the introduction of Nitro and the resultant Monday Night Wars, the New World Order and other innovative concepts.

Once Bischoff was relieved of his duties in 1999, Vince Russo, a former writer for World Wrestling Federation, came on board to become the lead writer of WCW.

In the meantime, the World Wrestling Federation began speaking to the new AOL Time Warner about acquiring the WCW brand.