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109-608: Borash was involved in the now defunct World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling All-Stars promotions . His most recent title was being a member of the TNA Wrestling broadcast team, as well as a backstage interviewer and member of the Impact creative team. He has also been the host of Impact Wrestling online content such as TNA Today in 2012 and TNA Xplosion in the UK on Challenge TV from 2011–2017. Jeremy Borash

218-454: A "family-friendly" orientation, and drop the reforms that turned around the company's fortunes. Concurrently to WCW beginning to struggle under the weight of its own momentum, the WWF began to turn the corner on its own reforms. Having been caught flatfooted by the total reconfiguration of WCW and the success of Nitro in 1996 and 1997, by 1998 the WWF was building its own momentum. Taking most of

327-583: A 16-year hiatus with the arrival of the San Francisco Bulls the following fall. To accommodate the new team its ownership spent $ 2 million on renovating the team locker rooms, upgrading the concession stands, food improvements and installing new widescreen HD monitors to observe gameplay, installing a new ice system (as the old ammonia-based system that was in place for the Seals, Shamrocks, Sharks & Spiders had since become outdated and illegal) and

436-536: A New York radio consultant directed the station to name his on-air persona "Flash Borash." Borash soon found redemption months later, as he helped launch the syndicated Ruth Koscielak Show , and as co-host, was back on the very station group he was fired from months earlier through the show's midwest syndication. Borash returned to a radio show format as host of the Impact Wrestling Podcast with TNA Knockout Christy Hemme . While working weekdays on

545-484: A botched move at Starrcade 1999 , followed just days later by Goldberg very seriously injuring himself during an angle on Thunder , and Hollywood Hogan seemingly quitting the company live on PPV at Bash at the Beach 2000 only seemed to further a sense that the company was spiralling out of control. By July 2000 Bischoff had walked off the job. In 2000, several potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in

654-570: A duo. The pairing was not cohesive and frequently chafed over the direction of the company. Creatively, the year 2000 saw WCW attempt numerous publicity stunts to gain traction, such as making actor David Arquette (who then had no professional wrestling experience) the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. These moves only served to push traditional wrestling fans away from WCW. Events such as Goldberg forcing WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart into retirement following

763-623: A landslide. The Republicans came back eight years later for the 1964 Republican National Convention , at which Barry Goldwater was nominated for president and William Miller was nominated for vice president. They lost to Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey , also in a landslide. The Cow Palace is officially the 1-A District Agricultural Association, a State agency of the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Division of Fairs and Expositions. It has extensive stable and barn facilities for animal events, which are used for

872-586: A laptop and video camera, set out to make a documentary on ECW , the organization Borash credits for rekindling his childhood love for professional wrestling. Forever Hardcore led to Borash co-promoting Hardcore Homecoming , a reunion of ECW wrestlers in Philadelphia's famed Alhambra Arena , the place where it all started. The Hardcore Homecoming event held the record for the largest gate of any independent show in United States wrestling history. It

981-471: A low ebb. To counter this, Bischoff felt that WCW was in need of radical reform; to this end, Bischoff sought to modernise WCW and move its image away from that of a Southern-based " rasslin " company. To achieve this, Bischoff increased WCW's production values, avoided unprofitable house shows , increased the number of WCW pay-per-views (PPVs, which were profitable), decreased the number of Southern accents on commentary, and began recruiting top stars away from

1090-683: A memorable episode where Borash was attacked by Goldberg while driving Russo in his own pope-mobile vehicle at the Cow Palace in San Francisco . After the WWF purchased WCW in March 2001, Borash met Australian concert promoter Andrew McManus and together they launched the World Wrestling All-Stars organization. Later that year, Borash left for Australia and worked out of the offices of McManus at Surfers Paradise on

1199-422: A new custom-made wraparound LED video scoreboard with its game presentation system and ten sets of Custom Piston speakers from Claire Brothers Audio formerly used by AC/DC. The center hung video board has a 360° view for game presentation and full timekeeping and statistics. The new Colosseo Cube scoreboard – made by Colosseo USA – was custom built in order to agree with some of the weight bearing limitations for

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1308-578: A notable exception for almost a decade and a half. After the Invasion storyline concluded, the WWF divided the roster into two brands which was originally intended to revive WCW under the WWF umbrella but was instead divided into Raw and SmackDown! brands, named after two WWF's top programs at the time. Many other WCW wrestlers moved to the World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) or the XWF and then Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) which all started after

1417-693: A part of the 205 Live broadcast team with Tom Phillips . Borash has been credited by WWE COO Triple H as a true innovator, and was chosen as the director for the Undertaker's "Boneyard Match", which headlined Wrestlemania 36 and was voted 2020 WWE Match of the Year. Borash's current title in WWE is Senior Director of Content and Development working directly with Shawn Michaels on the NXT brand. While working for TNA, Borash took up video editing and producing, and with only

1526-618: A position at the age of 19 as a program director/morning show host at KOOL 92 FM in Fort Dodge, Iowa . His popular Borash in the Morning show featured a wide variety of entertainment, including such acts as actually hypnotizing local politicians on the air, skydiving from 13,000 feet over Fort Dodge, and his popular breakfast drive through, where Borash would personally deliver free breakfast to his listeners cars as they drove by. His involvement in local community activities included serving on

1635-608: A reality show featuring four aspiring UK wrestlers competing for a TNA contract. While interviewing Ethan Carter III , Borash was engaged in a feud with him after he interfered to help Rockstar Spud . While Carter and his bodyguard Tyrus tried to head shave the head of Spud but due to interference of Borash, that attempt was failed. Rather than shaving Spud, Carter and Tyrus decided to shave Borash. This event caused an alliance with Spud and Borash, with Borash saving Spud numerous other times from getting his head shaved. Ken Anderson and Mandrews would also start to help Spud as well. On

1744-526: A reunited nWo in the widely panned " Fingerpoke of Doom " angle. By September 1999, the rapidly declining ratings of Nitro (now half that of Raw ), drastic dropoff in revenue, and the increasing antagonism between Eric Bischoff and Time Warner executives prompted the head of Turner Sports , Harvey Schiller , to relieve Bischoff of his position. Almost immediately Schiller found a duo to replace Bischoff: former head writers for Raw Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera . Russo had just weeks prior walked off

1853-407: A shift to reality-based storylines , and notable hirings of former WWF talent. WCW also gained attention for developing a popular cruiserweight division, which showcased an acrobatic, fast-paced, lucha libre -inspired style of wrestling. In 1995, WCW debuted their live flagship television program Monday Nitro , and subsequently developed a ratings competition against the flagship program of

1962-490: A three volume series hosted by Diamond Dallas Page called The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro . WCW's library content would be made available with the launch of WWE Network in 2014. WWE would revive several of WCW's events, including Great American Bash in 2004, Starrcade in 2017 and Halloween Havoc in 2020. WWE also utilized the Night of Champions name and theme used on the last episode of Nitro beginning in 2001, which

2071-481: A unique and popular identity by integrating and mixing wrestlers from all around the world and from vastly different wrestling styles, particularly Mexican luchadores such as Rey Misterio Jr. , Psicosis , and Juventud Guerrera , but also Japanese "Super Juniors" such as Último Dragón . North American wrestlers, such as Chris Jericho , Eddie Guerrero , Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit , who had travelled abroad to Mexico and Japan earlier in their careers and learned

2180-657: The American Wrestling Association (AWA) growing up in Minneapolis. Since becoming backstage interviewer, Borash actually became involved with the kayfabe politics of TNA, as his respect for Kurt Angle led him to be a constant presence during many of Angle's backstage segments and even gained him membership into Angle's stable , the Angle Alliance . He was humorously Karen Angle 's maid of honor at her wedding vows renewal to Kurt on

2289-877: The Boston Celtics in the 1964 NBA Finals . The 1967 NBA Finals between San Francisco and the Philadelphia 76ers saw three games held at the Cow Palace. The two NBA Finals games hosted by the Warriors in their 1974–75 championship season were also held at the Cow Palace because of other events at the Oakland Coliseum. In 2010, the Cow Palace once again had a regular sports tenant when the American Indoor Football Association 's San Jose Wolves kicked off. However,

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2398-723: The Gold Coast in Queensland , Australia . The promotion's first tour of Australia concluded with a live pay per view from the Sydney Superdome called "The Inception", where Borash provided play-by-play commentary alongside Jerry "The King" Lawler . The WWA would go on to produce numerous international tours, as well as live pay per view events from Las Vegas, Nevada , Glasgow, Scotland , Melbourne, Australia , and Auckland , New Zealand, with Borash serving as executive producer and host. In March 2002, Borash returned to

2507-710: The National Basketball Association called the Cow Palace home from 1962 to 1964 and from 1966 to 1971. From 1964 to 1966, the Warriors played predominantly at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium . The franchise then moved across the bay to the new Oakland Coliseum Arena and changed their name to Golden State Warriors . In 2019, the Warriors moved to the Chase Center in San Francisco. The Warriors lost to

2616-556: The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena was booked for an Ice Follies performance. It was the site of both the 1956 Republican National Convention and the 1964 Republican National Convention . During the 1960s and 1970s, the SF Examiner Games, a world-class indoor track and field meet, was held annually at the Cow Palace. The Cow Palace was also an important venue for professional boxing until

2725-615: The USA Network . The meeting led to Turner greenlighting the creation of WCW Monday Nitro , which would air on TNT on the same day and in the same time slot as Raw . Nitro would debut on September 4, 1995, and directly lead into the Monday Night War era of professional wrestling, in which WCW Nitro and WWF Raw would fiercely compete to beat each other in the Nielson ratings each and every week. The struggle between

2834-880: The Valentine's Day edition of Impact! . In April 2007, Borash launched TNA Today on TNAWrestling.com, a show he hosted from the TNA corporate offices. In early 2008, Borash announced that Samoa Joe was voted the MVP of TNA. Joe then attacked Borash, thus (kayfabe) injuring him, which resulted in Borash wearing a neck brace on television. Borash has gone on to become the host of Internet-based TNA Spin Cycle which aired on TNA's YouTube channel. On January 17, 2010, at Genesis new executive producer Eric Bischoff took Borash off television. After Mick Foley agreed to work with Bischoff, Borash

2943-718: The X Division . Throughout the 2000s, WWE would incorporate elements into their shows formerly associated with WCW. Former WCW Championships such as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship , the WCW United States Championship and the WCW Cruiserweight Championship would be reactivated in WWE, with their WCW lineages acknowledged. The Cruiserweight division concept was introduced to WWE in 2002 and since then has been used intermittently throughout

3052-614: The 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, including WCW Wrestling , WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling , WCW vs. the World , WCW vs. nWo: World Tour , WCW/nWo Revenge and WCW Mayhem . Cow Palace The Cow Palace (originally the California State Livestock Pavilion ) is an indoor arena located in Daly City, California , situated on the city's northern border with neighboring San Francisco . Because

3161-580: The 2000s, 2010s and 2020s from 2002 onwards. Some WCW mainstays such as Booker T, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho were able to achieve long-term top positions within WWE by the mid to late 2000s. Similarly, promotions such as Total Nonstop Action would also make use of former WCW talent when possible and also continued the legacy of the Cruiserweight with their X-Division. WWE has since released various WCW documentaries, anthologies, and compilations, including The Rise and Fall of WCW , and

3270-599: The Bay Area stop for the Cirque du Soleil . The idea for the arena was inspired by the popularity of the livestock pavilion at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition . A local newspaper asked, as early as May 1935, "Why, when people are starving, should money be spent on a 'palace for cows'?" A headline writer turned the phrase around, thus "Cow Palace". The arena opened in April 1941. During World War II, however,

3379-463: The Beach series of shows with AEW Bash at the Beach on January 15, 2020. However, a lawsuit by WWE prevented further reuse of that branding. Beginning in 2021, AEW began presenting their own version of WCW's WarGames match , held at the AEW Blood & Guts event. Who Killed WCW? , a four-part documentary series based off the downfall of WCW premiered June 6, 2024 on Vice TV . The series

Jeremy Borash - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-413: The Cow Palace from the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Division of Fairs and Expositions in order to develop housing, basic amenities, and possibly a school for the surrounding area. However, the legislation was opposed by groups that regularly use the venue and other California citizens outside Daly City. On September 9, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed this proposed sale of

3597-493: The Cow Palace hosted AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage , leading into AEW Revolution , which was hosted at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The Cow Palace twice hosted the Republican National Convention. Republicans gathered at the Cow Palace for the 1956 Republican National Convention to renominate Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard Nixon for vice president. The ticket won in

3706-526: The Cow Palace overflow parking lot. Following the 2008 publicity associated with Leland Yee's failed bill, the Cow Palace board of directors entered exclusive negotiations with Cypress Equities for a 60-year lease to develop the 13-acre (5.3 ha) proposed by Daly City. Due to the lack of progress, this agreement was subsequently terminated and negotiations then commenced with a Marin County-based developer in early 2010. The San Francisco Warriors of

3815-882: The February 20 episode of Impact Wrestling , Borash, Anderson, Mandrews and Spud made an attempt to shave Carter's head but Tyrus saved him. Tyrus, instead got shaved by Spud. Deginning in April 2015, Borash began conducting backstage interview at the One Night Only pay-per-view events along with Christy Hemme and some impact! tapings. In addition to this, Borash was still the lead commentator for Xplosion until Josh Mathews took over. Beginning at Bound for Glory 2015 , he went on hiatus until returned to interviewing on January 5, 2016. Also in 2016, Borash returned to Xplosion alongside Mathews and took over ring announcer position full-time while Hemme went on hiatus. On March 21, 2016, Borash returned to TNA Wrestling commentary for

3924-759: The Hall and Nash debuts as it gave the show an unscripted, "anything can happen at any time" feeling to the television audience. The start of the nWo angle, which immediately proved immensely popular and intriguing to wrestling fans, was part of a wider shift in the WCW presentation still being pursued by Eric Bischoff. As part of his overhaul of WCW, Bischoff wanted to grow WCW's audience amongst 18 to 35-year-olds . To that end, he alongside WCW's booker Kevin Sullivan began grounding WCW characters and storylines more in reality, utilising real names and darker themes in contrast to

4033-471: The Koscielak show in Minneapolis, Borash started a weekly Saturday morning wrestling show at the very station he started with at the age of 15. Through the show, Borash met internet wrestling executive Bob Ryder , who quickly pitched the show concept to Eric Bischoff of Ted Turner 's World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In March 1999, WCW Live! premiered to an online audience with their first guest on

4142-472: The NWA and becoming a standalone wrestling promotion. In February 1993 former commentator Eric Bischoff was appointed as Executive Producer of WCW, and by 1994 he had been promoted once again to Senior Vice President, a position which gave Bischoff both creative and financial control of WCW. At this point, the promotion was struggling financially and was widely perceived within the wrestling industry to be at

4251-648: The Sharks sold out every game played at the building. It was one of the last buildings to house a smaller than NHL-regulation rink. The NHL had previously rejected the building in 1967 as a home for the expansion California Seals franchise, who instead played home games out of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena. San Jose lost their first game at the Cow Palace to the Vancouver Canucks 5–2 on October 5, 1991. Wayne Presley scored

4360-610: The UK debuted at #1 and #2 on the Sports and Recreational charts, over two years after their US release. The show holds the largest gate in the history of the ECW Arena, as a complete sellout with tickets ranging from $ 99–$ 149, with premiums given to all fans attending. Since January 2021, Borash is currently married to his longtime girlfriend, Vanessa De La Gala. World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling ( WCW )

4469-482: The United States alongside the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), at one point surpassing the latter in terms of popularity. After initial success through utilization of established wrestling stars of the 1980s, the company appointed Eric Bischoff to executive producer of television in 1993. Under Bischoff's leadership, the company enjoyed a period of mainstream success characterized by

Jeremy Borash - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-537: The United States to join Jeff Jarrett in launching TNA Wrestling in Nashville, Tennessee . As the second employee the company hired, Borash worked in several positions for the organization including ring announcer, video editor, and show writer. In January 2006, Borash became the backstage interviewer for TNA's Impact! on Spike TV , a position he dreamed of as a child, watching his idol Gene Okerlund in

4687-489: The WWE immediately and participated in The Invasion storyline as part of The Alliance which lasted until the end of 2001, however many of WCW's top stars had contracts with AOL Time Warner rather than WCW itself that the WWF did not acquire, and most choose to sit out the length of their contracts rather than breaking them in order to work for the WWF. Most would eventually find their way to WWE, although Sting remained

4796-529: The WWF free to acquire the key assets of WCW through its new subsidiary W. Acquisition Company, which was renamed WCW Inc. afterwards. AOL Time Warner sold the rights to the World Championship Wrestling name, branding, championships, and all other remaining assets aside from the talent roster and video library to WWF for $ 2.5 million in March 2001. Shortly afterwards WWF paid an additional $ 1.8 million to cover costs to AOL Time Warner in

4905-498: The WWF in January 2000, an incident which resulted in a number of firings amongst WCW management. With shakeups to WCW management becoming more and more frequent, the WCW talent began to lose any sense of leadership or direction, which in turn caused them to form bickering political cliques amongst themselves. In April 2000, WCW attempted to resolve its creative issues by asking Eric Bischoff to return but work alongside Vince Russo as

5014-564: The WWF seizing back the ratings lead as well as WCW's own internal problem caused tension amongst both the on-screen talent and management. By November 1998 Kevin Nash had become head booker of WCW, overseeing the creative direction of both Nitro and Thunder . Nash's tenure was fraught with unpopular decisions, such as the move that saw the popular undefeated streak of WCW Champion Goldberg ended by Nash himself, who then became champion, only for Nash to then lay down for Hollywood Hogan and reform

5123-742: The WWF throughout 2001. The storyline began proper at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view, which received 775,000 buys and became one of the highest-grossing wrestling pay-per-views of all time. Although WWF was able to recruit many of those on the WCW roster at the time of the purchase, it was unable to secure the use of most of its top-level stars, as they were signed to long-term contracts with AOL-Time Warner rather than WCW. As such, these stars could remain inactive but still continue to be paid, and were not incentivized to join WWF until those contracts expired. It would not be until 2002 onwards that headline WCW stars such as Goldberg or Scott Steiner would join

5232-453: The WWF to fight a proxy war. They also alleged that they would soon be joined by a third major figure; this "third man" was eventually revealed to be Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1996 . A major advantage WCW Nitro initially had over WWF Raw was that Nitro was live-to-air every week, while Raw alternated between live episodes and ones taped in advance and aired the following week. Nitro ' s live atmosphere enhanced segments such as

5341-483: The WWF, Monday Night Raw , in a period now known as the Monday Night War . From 1996 to 1998, WCW surpassed their rival program in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks. Beginning in 1999, WCW endured significant losses in ratings and revenue due to creative missteps and suffered from the fallout from the 2001 merger of America Online (AOL) and Turner Broadcasting parent Time Warner (later WarnerMedia, now known as Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)). Soon thereafter, WCW

5450-508: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF). This led to marquee names such as Hulk Hogan and "The Macho Man" Randy Savage joining WCW's ranks and helping to supplement its business. In 1995, during a face-to-face meeting with Ted Turner, Bischoff was able to convince Turner that in order for WCW to become competitive with the WWF, WCW would require an equivalent to WWF's new flagship cable show WWF Raw , which aired on

5559-624: The X-Division was considered a direct spiritual successor to the style developed in the WCW Cruiserweight division and became influential in its own right. WWE and TNA/Impact have continued to experiment and use the Cruiserweight/X-Division concept on and off throughout the 2000s and 2010s and into the 2020s. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s WCW

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5668-529: The acquisition of WCW by WWF/WWE in 2001, WWE revived the Cruiserweight division in 2002 to be a feature of its Smackdown brand, with the WWE Cruiserweight Championship being deemed by the promotion to be the direct lineal successor to the WCW title. Simultaneously, the newly formed Total Nonstop Action wrestling promotion heavily featured their X Division , which did not limit participants by weight but rather by style. Nonetheless,

5777-426: The announce team for the first hour of impact! . from June 12 edition of TNA Xplosion he started commentating with Mike Tenay. In 2012, along with Tenay, he was there for his 10th year with the company. Borash assumed duties as TNA Wrestling's Director of Social Media, and took over the company's marketing online. Borash also was given the role as Executive Producer of the UK's Challenge TV exclusive British Boot Camp ,

5886-470: The annual Grand National Rodeo and occasionally for other events. It also used to host events on the now-defunct BRO (Bull Riders Only) tour. In 1982, the Cow Palace stood in for the Houston Coliseum when the 1962 barbecue welcoming NASA to Houston was recreated for the movie The Right Stuff . The explosion of the starship USS Reliant , used in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ,

5995-597: The arena was used for processing soldiers bound for the Pacific Theater . In the following years, it hosted hockey and basketball games, wrestling and boxing matches, concerts, roller derby and political events, most notably the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions . The arena is still used for the Grand National Rodeo and other events. In the spring of 2008, State Senator Leland Yee advanced legislation to allow Daly City to purchase

6104-547: The battle for the largest television audience. However, in June 1996, Nitro would begin a streak of 83 constructive victories over Raw , initially sparked by the start of the New World Order (nWo) storyline. The start of the nWo angle saw former WWF talent Scott Hall and Kevin Nash unexpectedly leave the WWF to come to Monday Nitro on consecutive episodes, and each time insinuate that they were there on behalf of

6213-779: The board of the United Way , as well as Honorary Chairman for the March of Dimes , which received national attention when Borash became the youngest person ever nominated for radio's prestigious Marconi Award for Broadcasting as America's Small Market Personality of the Year in 1996. Upon receiving this honor, offers came from around the country, and Borash chose to move back to Minnesota, as morning show host of KXLP in Mankato, Minnesota . At 22, Borash lasted only four months in Mankato, citing major creative differences with management after

6322-540: The border passes through the property, a portion of the upper parking lot is in San Francisco. The venue first opened in 1941, and has hosted a range of events such as sports, concerts, and political rallies. Completed in 1941, it hosted the San Francisco Warriors of the NBA from 1962 to 1964 and again from 1966 to 1971. The Warriors temporarily returned to the Cow Palace to host the 1975 NBA Finals as

6431-424: The circuit. WCW also had a presence in NASCAR from the mid-1990s to 2000, sponsoring the #29 team in the Busch Grand National Series full-time and the #9 Melling Racing team in the Winston Cup Series part-time. In 1996, Kyle Petty 's #49 car in the Busch Grand National series was sponsored by the nWo, and Greg Sacks briefly drove a WCW-sponsored for Galaxy Motorsports. Several WCW video games were made in

6540-423: The closure of WCW, several new professional wrestling promotions would launch featuring former talent associated with WCW. The most prominent of these, Total Nonstop Action (TNA), was founded by Jeff Jarrett in 2002 and would attempt to take over WCW's market position in the mid-to-late 2000s using some former WCW stars such as Sting. TNA would also adopt their own version of the Cruiserweight division, branded as

6649-401: The company initially less dependent on the nWo storyline for ratings. However, beginning in Spring 1998, WCW began an angle which saw the nWo split into a heel faction, nWo Hollywood (centered around "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan), and the rival face nWo Wolfpac (consisting of stars such as Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger and Konnan ). Speaking in hindsight in 2023, Eric Bischoff has said the angle

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6758-443: The company solely as the NWA, reasoning that "it has become apparent that the NWA and the World Championship area are one and the same." By late 1988, JCP was financially struggling after further territory acquisitions. Ted Turner , the namesake principal owner of Turner Broadcasting System, formed a new subsidiary in October 1988 to acquire most of the assets of JCP. The acquisition was completed on November 2, 1988. While initially

6867-496: The company went from struggling financially as late as 1995 to generating $ 55 million in profit in 1998. December 1997's Starrcade pay-per-view (PPV) event became the highest-grossing PPV of all time for the company, thanks in large part to the show being billed as the culmination of a year-and-a-half feud between Sting and "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. 1996 and 1997 had been banner years for WCW, with profits and popularity soaring. 1998 saw profits continue to rise. However, maintaining

6976-449: The company. At the No Way Out pay-per-view in February 2002, WWE began their own version of the new World order centered around Hogan, Nash and Hall, but later incorporating former WCW stars the Giant (now known as the Big Show) and Booker T as well as WWE talent such as Shawn Michaels . Throughout the early 2000s, many former WCW headliners found it difficult to integrate into WWE, as there continued to be legitimate tensions between

7085-457: The company. Ted Turner, however, did not hold influence over Time Warner before the final merger of America Online (AOL) and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001. One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out after AOL Time Warner refused to allow WCW to continue airing on its networks, leaving Fusient to take that offer off

7194-505: The cruiserweight division and the talent represented therein probably had as much to do with the success of Nitro as the nWo storyline and Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash. I don’t think people recognize it. The talent in that division not only helped Nitro consistently defeat WWE...that talent forced WWE, as much as the nWo, to change the way they were presenting the product. The Cruiserweight division would continue to directly influence North American wrestling for many decades. Following

7303-407: The early 1960s to 1981, oftentimes to sold-out houses headlined by Ray Stevens, Pat Patterson and others. After Shire ended operations, other promotions such as the WWF and WCW moved in. Notable cards included WCW 's SuperBrawl in 1997, 1998, and 2000 and WWE 's No Way Out in 2004. In 2018, the Cow Palace hosted New Japan Pro-Wrestling 's G1 Special in San Francisco . On March 1 and 3, 2023,

7412-400: The early 1980s, having staged regular shows, including ten world title fights and appearances of all-time greats like Joe Louis , Sugar Ray Robinson , and Alexis Arguello . Additionally it has hosted professional wrestling and the Bay Bombers of roller derby ; the Derby's world championship playoffs were held at the Cow Palace every fall beginning from 1959 through 1973, when the organization

7521-399: The end of WCW. In the spring of 1996, WCW introduced its "Cruiserweight division", a segmented portion of the roster featuring smaller, faster and more agile wrestlers that contrasted starkly, both visually and stylistically, with their heavyweight counterparts. Although weight categories were not a new concept in wrestling or even WCW, the WCW Cruiserweight Division was quickly able to form

7630-419: The end of the first season. In 1995, the IHL's San Francisco Spiders played their only season at the Cow Palace. Several players who played for the Sharks during their Cow Palace years suited up for the Spiders that year. Due to poor attendance, the team ceased operations at the end of the 1995–96 season. On September 27, 2011, the ECHL formally announced that pro hockey would return to the Cow Palace after

7739-599: The events that became known as Black Saturday , in which GCW and its television program briefly came under the ownership of the WWF, the promotion was eventually purchased by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the promoter of the Mid-Atlantic territory immediately north of Georgia. Influential wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its sister publications thereafter habitually referred to JCP as "World Championship Wrestling", "WCW" and most commonly "the World Championship area" and continued to do so until early 1988 when it began referring to

7848-516: The first Sharks goal at the arena. Three nights later, San Jose won their first game in franchise history there, a 4–3 win over the Calgary Flames . The Sharks' second season in the Cow Palace included a 17-game losing streak and a league record 71 losses. The Sharks ended their run at the Cow Palace at the conclusion of the 1992–93 season with a 3–2 loss to eventual Campbell Conference champion Los Angeles on April 10, 1993. The team moved to

7957-400: The head writers for WCW Monday Nitro on TNT , as well as WCW Thunder on TBS . Later that year, Borash premiered for the first time on WCW TV, co-hosting the year end special for WCW on TBS. Borash went on to make several appearances on WCW television as a play-by-play announcer for Nitro and Thunder . His role eventually led to an on-air character as Vince Russo's stooge, including

8066-546: The innovations WCW had implemented and reapplying them to their own presentation, WWF began its " Attitude Era ". Building around newly emerging stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock , as well as WWF promoter Vince McMahon becoming a major on-screen character himself, the WWF finally ended Nitro ' s 83 weeks of ratings victories on April 13, 1998. For the next four months, Nitro and Raw would trade wins until October 26, 1998, when Nitro scored its last-ever ratings victory over Raw . The combined pressure of

8175-441: The job at the WWF after a dispute with Vince McMahon over work hours, and Ed Ferrera soon followed. Russo and Ferrera were heralded at the time as the main drivers in the turnaround at WWF over the previous two years with their writing philosophy of "Crash TV", a presentation style that emphasized Soap opera style storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments, frequent heel/face turns, an increased amount of female representation on

8284-436: The local styles were also able to thrive in the division. The division as a whole became a showcase of a fast-paced, aerial and athletic style of wrestling which became highly influential in both the short and long term in the industry. Eric Bischoff has credited with the division as becoming a defining feature of Monday Nitro that was as fundamental to the late 1990s popularity of WCW as the New World Order faction: I think

8393-453: The more cartoon-like presentation which had dominated wrestling in the 1980s and early 90s. An example of this shift in tone was seen in the transformation of top WCW star Sting over the course of 1996 following the start of the nWo angle, whose persona shifted from a colorful and cheerful clean-cut face to a dark, depressed and brooding antihero inspired by the 1994 film The Crow . Another major innovation occurring concurrently in WCW

8502-419: The negotiations, bringing the final tally of WCW's sale to $ 4.3 million. AOL Time Warner maintained its subsidiary, which reverted to its original legal name of Universal Wrestling Corporation, to deal with legal obligations and liabilities not acquired by the WWF. The UWC was listed as a subsidiary of Time Warner until 2017, when it was merged into Turner Broadcasting System. Some of the WCW wrestlers joined

8611-430: The network for the first time since WCW's closure. On January 5, 2022, Dynamite moved to TNT's sibling network, TBS, marking the first time TBS has aired wrestling programming since the March 21, 2001, episode of WCW Thunder . TNT has also broadcast AEW's second show, AEW Rampage , since August 13, 2021, and added another AEW show with the June 17, 2023, debut of AEW Collision . In 2020, AEW revived WCW's Bash at

8720-469: The new San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center) to start 1993–94 after going 22–56–4 at their first home. At the Cow Palace, the Sharks recorded the franchise's first win, shutout ( Artūrs Irbe ) and hat trick ( Rob Gaudreau ). The team also introduced their mascot, S.J. Sharkie , on the Cow Palace ice in mid-1992 when he climbed out of the front of a Zamboni . He later bungee-jumped from the rafters near

8829-701: The next year they would move to Stockton as the independent Stockton Wolves . On and off between 1975 and 1984, the San Jose/Golden Bay Earthquakes of the NASL played indoor soccer at the Cow Palace, including hosting the 1975 NASL indoor championship game , which they won 8–5 over the Tampa Bay Rowdies . The 'Quakes spent several seasons playing at the Oakland Coliseum Arena before splitting time between

8938-786: The night after Lashley attacked color commentator The Pope . In March 2017, after being mentored by Mike Tenay for many years, Borash was appointed as the lead play-by-play announcer for TNA Wrestling by executive producer Jeff Jarrett . He was involved in a feud with fellow announcer, Josh Mathews, which culminated at Slammiversary with a tag team match featuring Borash and Abyss against Mathews and Scott Steiner . On January 30, 2018, PWInsider reported that Borash had officially left Impact Wrestling, thus ending his long-standing tenure with TNA Wrestling. On January 30, 2018, PWInsider reported Borash had officially signed with WWE , where he works as part of their NXT brand. On May 8, 2020, Jeremy Borash made his first appearance on WWE programming as

9047-421: The other trucks is most prominent with Goldberg. Driven by to great success by Tom Meents (including Monster Jam World Finals championships both years the truck ran), after the end of the sponsorship Meents continued to run the truck as "Team Meents" in 2002 before debuting its new name Maximum Destruction in 2003. Max-D continues to compete in the series and rivals the legendary Grave Digger in popularity on

9156-513: The quality of the shows became difficult, particularly after WCW's owners Time Warner Entertainment (who bought Turner Broadcasting System in 1996) ordered the creation of a second live cable WCW program WCW Thunder , to air on Thursdays on TBS Superstation starting on January 8, 1998 , as well as ordering a third hour to be added to Nitro ' s runtime. Nonetheless, the creation of new major headline babyface stars such as Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg were causes for optimism, making

9265-688: The roof. The engineers designed new structural steel beams and had them installed in the rafters to provide the additional support required. The Bulls folded on January 28, 2014, 40 games into their second season. From 1974 to 1989, the Cow Palace was the site of the Pacific Coast Championships , a yearly tournament on the men's professional tennis tour. Some of the biggest names in tennis played there, such as Jimmy Connors , John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl . The Palace has also hosted professional wrestling events under various promoters, most notably Roy Shire , who ran cards there from

9374-574: The show, Hollywood Hogan . WCW Live! went on to become the most listened to streaming audio program in the world, often reaching fifty thousand live audio streams nightly in an era of this new technology. While doing the nightly two hour internet show for WCW, Borash continued his stint on the Ruth Koscielak Show until August 1999, when he left Minneapolis to work full-time in the offices of WCW in Atlanta, where he went on to become one of

9483-555: The show, expanded storyline depth, frequent title changes, and a greater focus on developing mid-card talent. The tenure of Russo and Ferrera at the creative helm of WCW was short-lived; by March 2000 the pair had been suspended from their positions as their provocative and edgy angles caused constant protest from AOL Time Warner executives. AOL and Time Warner had merged in January 2000 and, according to Bischoff and Russo, headquarters′ eagerness to tone down WCW had only grown more intense because of this. Mounting frustrations amongst

9592-509: The subsidiary was incorporated as the "Universal Wrestling Corporation", following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" as the name for the promotion. In late Summer/early Autumn 1993, a behind-the-scenes dispute between WCW and the NWA Board of Directors over who had the right to authorize NWA World Heavyweight Championship title changes ultimately resulted in WCW formally withdrawing from

9701-523: The table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division in 2000, eventually succeeding Ted Turner on March 7, 2001. Along with AOL Time Warner, Kellner deemed WCW, along with Turner Sports as a whole, to be out of line with its image and saying that it "would not be favorable enough to get the 'right' advertisers to buy airtime" (even though Thunder

9810-399: The talent resulted in many leaving WCW for the WWF; The Giant and Chris Jericho were the first major talent to "jump" to the WWF in 1999, but they were soon followed by many others. Chris Benoit (WCW World Champion at the time), Dean Malenko , Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn , who performed together on WCW television as " The Revolution ", all collectively walked out of WCW and over to

9919-653: The team flourished as the Kansas City Comets . The San Francisco Shamrocks ( PHL ) called the Cow Palace home from 1977 to 1979. They won the championship their first season, but ended up disbanding in January 1979 part way through their second season. It also hosted the San Jose Sharks of the NHL from 1991 to 1993 before the completion of their new home, the San Jose Arena . From 1991 to 1993,

10028-550: The two arenas for the 1983–84 NASL Indoor season . The Major Indoor Soccer League came to the Cow Palace for the 1980–81 season, when David Schoenstadt relocated his Detroit Lightning there, renaming them the San Francisco Fog . After a dismal season with an 11–29 record and less than five thousand fans per game, Schoenstadt moved the franchise again, this time to Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri , where

10137-432: The two groups. Former WCW performers such as Diamond Dallas Page (who had accepted a WWF contract in 2001) were perceived to be intentionally poorly used as part of a "victory lap" by WWF. In turn, this dissuaded some WCW stars from trusting WWE; for example, Sting choose to remain out of WWE until 2014, and even when he did join, WWE was criticised using Sting to perform yet another victory lap at WrestleMania 31 . After

10246-467: The two promotions, each one attempting to produce the best television show possible each week, led to an explosion in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and in hindsight is widely considered a golden era. WCW Monday Nitro proved a success for the company, which was immediately able to create a television audience of an equivalent size to WWF Raw . Between September 1995 and May 1996, Nitro and Raw regularly traded victories in

10355-471: Was a television show produced by Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) since 1982. Jim Barnett (who had briefly owned the Australian promotion of that name ) came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle for control of GCW. Barnett ultimately became majority owner of the promotion, and began using his previous promotion's name for GCW's weekly Saturday television program in 1982. Following

10464-419: Was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System , through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territory Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) (which had aired its programming on TBS ). For all of its existence, WCW was one of the two top professional wrestling promotions in

10573-595: Was born just outside Minneapolis. Borash started a career in broadcasting at the age of 15, hosting both a nightly radio talk show and live television show in the Twin Cities . Borash's radio show on KSMM in Minneapolis, and television show Jeremy Borash Live! won several Minnesota broadcasting awards, as well as leading to on-air positions at KSTP and KDWB in the Twin Cities. After graduating from Brown Institute for Broadcasting in Minneapolis, Borash took

10682-486: Was brought back as the backstage interviewer on February 14 at Against All Odds . At Sacrifice , Borash was made the new ring announcer. On June 14, 2010, Borash began working as the lead play-by-play commentator for TNA Xplosion . He also worked as the color commentator beside Mike Tenay on July 10, 2011, at the Destination X pay-per-view. On October 25, 2012, Borash and the debuting Todd Keneley began working as

10791-462: Was considered a historical success for the era, culminating with a surprise barbwire rematch of one of the most famous matches in ECW history with Terry Funk vs Sabu vs Shane Douglas , with featured referee Mick Foley. The show led to a Hardcore Homecoming tour, and the show's DVDs broke Billboard ' s Top 10 Sports and Rec DVD releases. The release of Forever Hardcore and Hardcore Homecoming in

10900-501: Was disbanded. From 1956 until 1999, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus visited the Cow Palace, joined in later years by what is now Disney on Ice ; both events were later held at Oracle Arena , where Disney on Ice still plays since the reorganisation of Feld Entertainment (which owned both). The arena seats 11,089 for ice hockey and 12,953 for basketball . When the Warriors played there, its basketball capacity

11009-416: Was extremely influential within professional wrestling in the 1990s and several elements innovated and introduced by WCW would continue to be used in professional wrestling decades after its closure. In the immediate aftermath of WWF's purchase of WCW, a significant portion of WCW's active roster was integrated into the WWF. These former WCW talents would be used as part of a "WCW vs WWF" storyline that ran in

11118-482: Was filmed in the Cow Palace auditorium. The pyrotechnic charge for the shot was suspended over the auditorium floor and the explosion was filmed from below. On 15 June 2024, Open Sauce , a STEM fair stylized like Maker Faire , hosted its 2nd convention in the Cow Palace. The event drew over 25,000 attendees and 550 exhibitors. The purpose of Open Sauce was to fill the void left by Maker Faire's original discontinuation in 2019, which has since been revived in 2023 under

11227-419: Was just over 15,000. It has also been the home of the annual Grand National Rodeo , Horse & Stock Show since 1941 (except for a break from 1942 to 1945 due to World War II). The venue hosted the 1960 men's NCAA basketball Final Four and the 1967 NBA All-Star Game . Sesame Street Live has been held at the Cow Palace since the early 1980s, as has Champions on Ice . In recent years the Cow Palace has been

11336-578: Was later known as Clash of Champions , similarly named from WCW's Clash of the Champions . In 2017, WWE held its first annual NXT WarGames event for its NXT brand , with that's year's event featuring the first WarGames match since the September 4, 2000, episode of Nitro . In 2019, new promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) formed a partnership with WarnerMedia to air their flagship show, AEW Dynamite , on TNT, returning professional wrestling to

11445-486: Was presented by Dwayne Johnson and featured former WCW personalities including Bill Goldberg , Eric Bischoff , Bret Hart , Booker T , Kevin Nash , amongst others. From 2000 to 2001, Monster Jam had a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers' names. These included the nWo , Sting , Nitro Machine, Madusa and Goldberg . Following the end of WCW, Debrah Miceli , the only one of the truck's namesakes to actually drive them, remained in monster trucks. The legacy of

11554-487: Was rushed, ill-conceived and had no long-term direction. By this point, many critics began to argue that WCW was now completely overreliant on the nWo storyline and unable to pivot to a new grand concept. Additionally, beginning in the summer of 1998, Bischoff has claimed that Time Warner Entertainment management began to increasingly micromanage WCW and meddle in its presentation. Executives at Time Warner Entertainment began to increasingly advocate that WCW should pivot to more

11663-583: Was shut down, and the WWF purchased select WCW assets in 2001, including its video library, intellectual property (including the WCW name and championships), and some wrestler contracts. The corporate subsidiary, which was retained to deal with legal obligations and reverted to the Universal Wrestling Corporation name, officially became defunct in 2017. Its headquarters were located in Smyrna, Georgia . "World Championship Wrestling"

11772-515: Was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time). As a result, WCW programming was cancelled on TBS and TNT . Another factor in Kellner's decision to cancel all WCW programming was the terms of the company's purchase deal with Fusient, which included giving Fusient control over time slots on TNT and TBS even if those slots did not air WCW programming. WCW's losses were then written off via purchase accounting. The cancellation of WCW programming left

11881-532: Was the introduction of the Cruiserweight division, which saw the introduction of smaller, more agile and more athletic wrestlers performing fast-paced, high-flying dangerous matches on WCW shows. This added another unique element to WCW shows that helped propel their surging popularity. The combination of a more adult-orientated presentation, live and unedited television, more reality-based storylines, new top-level talent, new and intriguing characters, and more varied in-ring action saw WCW's fortunes dramatically shift;

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