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125-476: Nakanishi has always stayed based in Japan, but has wrestled for various other promotions including World Championship Wrestling , All Japan Pro Wrestling , Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero1 . Nakanishi's career slowly declined after a spinal injury in 2011, but he continued to wrestle for a further nine years, before retiring on February 22, 2020. In 1992, Nakanishi won bronze in freestyle wrestling at

250-454: 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

375-487: A 14-team block with 3 wins and 10 losses, earning 6 points. They would team once more in what would be Nakanishi's last World Tag League, finishing in last place in a 16-team block with 2 wins and 13 losses, earning 4 points. Nakanishi would say farewell to the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2020, after losing a pre-show tag team match with longtime partner Yuji Nagata against Tencozy, being pinned by Satoshi Kojima following

500-647: A big win over Sgt. Craig Pittman on Nitro . He was also known there for nearly defeating "Macho Man" Randy Savage on an episode of Nitro . It was here that Nakanishi learned the infamous "Road Warrior Workout" from Hawk and Animal , who also taught this routine to Kenta Kobashi and Kensuke Sasaki . When Nakanishi came back to NJPW in September 1996, he appeared more confident and stronger. With his new change in attitude and in-ring style, he found instant success. He formed The Bull Powers with Satoshi Kojima , who returned from Europe. In May 1997, he and Kojima won

625-508: A biker gimmick . After only a few matches as a singles competitor, his career and life would change thanks to an idea by Paul Ellering . When Paul Ellering was looking to put together a stable of heels in Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) called the "Legion of Doom", it was decided to put Laurinaitis together with his good friend Mike Hegstrand and change their names to "Animal" and "Hawk" respectively. Thus,

750-484: 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

875-570: 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

1000-700: A feud with the Steiner Brothers , who returned in March, and Harlem Heat , before moving on to challenge the WCW Tag Team Champions Sting and Lex Luger . The Road Warriors had several shots at the champions but never won the title in the six months they were with the company. The Steiner Brothers also arrived shortly after the Warriors did, and feuded with them to try to prove who the best team of all time was. The Steiners got

1125-594: A handicap match in Japan against the Beverly Brothers in September 1992, Laurinaitis legitimately injured his back from a botched double suplex and had to take a lengthy hiatus. His last match was a victory over Papa Shango in San Francisco, California on October 16. After this his back was too injured to allow him to wrestle. Laurinaitis made some non-wrestling appearances in WCW in 1993. On August 18, at

1250-670: A heart attack on September 22, 2020, ten days after his 60th birthday, at the Margaritaville Resort (formerly known as the Tan-Tar-A Resort) in Osage Beach, Missouri . WWE released a statement regarding his death. Former Road Warriors manager Paul Ellering along with numerous others also paid tribute. It was later confirmed that Laurinaitis died from a sudden heart attack shortly after his and his wife's wedding anniversary celebrations. He had collapsed on

1375-721: A lariat. Nakanishi would announce his retirement three days later, scheduling it for a February 22 Korakuen Hall show. Nakanishi had said that 'As a result of a neck injury [that he had sustained in 2011], I haven't been able to wrestle to the level I wanted, and rather than drag things out, I wanted to draw a line in the sand.' Nakanishi hosts his own variety show called Nakanishi Land on TV Asahi where he cooks traditional Japanese food, play sports, complete challenges alongside special guests that are fellow wrestlers or legends, like Kuniaki Kobayashi , Seiji Sakaguchi , Hiroshi Tanahashi , Yuji Nagata and others. World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling ( WCW )

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1500-687: A living from a very early age. He attended Irondale High School . Because of his size and love of power lifting, Laurinaitis was an imposing figure and thus a very effective bouncer. He worked as a bouncer at Grandma B's in the Twin Cities where he caught the eye of Eddie Sharkey , a well-known wrestling trainer. Sharkey thought that Laurinaitis and Mike Hegstrand , Richard Rood , and Barry Darsow could make it big in professional wrestling, and trained all four of them. Laurinaitis made his debut in November 1982, competing as The Road Warrior using

1625-527: A long time the Road Warriors' run with the tag team titles was short-lived. Teddy Long used a fast count to cheat the Road Warriors out of their titles. In their last year with the NWA, the Warriors feuded mainly with The Varsity Club , The Samoan Swat Team , and The Skyscrapers before leaving the NWA in the summer of 1990, due to conflicts with Jim Herd . From 1984 to 1985, Animal wrestled for

1750-618: A losing effort against the team of Takashi Iizuka , Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano . From November 20 to December 1, Muscle Orchestra reunited to take part in the round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League , finishing with a record of two wins and four losses, finishing second to last in their group. On January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome , Nakanishi teamed with Strong Man, Akebono and MVP in an eight-man tag team match, where they defeated Chaos ( Bob Sapp , Takashi Iizuka, Toru Yano and Yujiro Takahashi ). On April 7 at Invasion Attack , Nakanishi debuted his new finisher,

1875-471: 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

2000-533: A new tag team partner in Heidenreich , Animal went on to defeat MNM for the titles, dedicating the win to Hawk by saying, "Hawk, this one was for you, brother!" The two would team up for a few months in a new chapter of the Legion of Doom, with Heidenreich adopting the L.O.D.'s shoulder pads, face paint, and mohawk haircut. However, this came to an end with Heidenreich's release from WWE on January 17, 2006. On

2125-656: 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

2250-526: 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

2375-407: 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

2500-442: A son named Joseph (born 1981) from a previous marriage. He coached youth football for Wayzata, the school his son played for. Laurinaitis's brothers have both been involved in professional wrestling over the years. John Laurinaitis (Johnny Ace) is the former executive vice president of Talent Relations for World Wrestling Entertainment and a former wrestler. Marcus Laurinaitis is a former wrestler, mainly known as one half of

2625-607: A sophomore, James won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy , given to the best defensive player in the country, and was a finalist for the Butkus Award , which is awarded to the best linebacker in the country. In 2007, James won the Butkus Award. In fact, Sports Illustrated made a joke about borrowing his father's shoulder pads and later did an interview with him that included a picture of him wearing them. He

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2750-572: A surprise appearance on Raw on May 12, 2003, when they took on Kane and Rob Van Dam for the World Tag Team Championship. This would be the last time the two would pair together as Hawk died later that year, on October 19, 2003. Animal made a return to WWE on the July 14 episode of SmackDown! in 2005, where he was challenged by the then- WWE Tag Team Champions MNM to a title match at The Great American Bash . Finding

2875-527: A third L.O.D. member, Puke , was introduced to team with Animal while Hawk dealt with his personal issues. The storyline ended with accusations that Puke had been the "enabler" of Hawk's problems, exploiting them to take Hawk's place in the team. During the controversial segment, Hawk was shown to have fallen off the Titan Tron. Neither Hegstrand nor Laurinaitis approved of the WWF exploiting Hegstrand's personal problems, which caused them to subsequently leave

3000-490: 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

3125-481: 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

3250-491: A wooden ventriloquist dummy called "Rocco". Both members of the L.O.D. thought the Rocco gimmick was stupid, and it led to Hegstrand walking out of the WWF immediately following SummerSlam 1992 , leaving Laurinaitis on his own for the first time in nine years. Animal went ahead and finished his contractual obligations with the WWF, as a singles wrestler and occasionally teaming with former rival Crush, formerly of Demolition. During

3375-693: The AWA World Tag Team Championship , NWA National Tag Team Championship , NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship , NWA World Tag Team Championship , WWE Tag Team Championship , and WWF Tag Team Championship , and headlined multiple pay-per-view events, including competing for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at WCW Sin . Animal was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996,

3500-563: The American Wrestling Association . From 1985 to 1989, Animal wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling . The Road Warriors signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1990 and were pushed into a feud with the most famous of all "Road Warrior Clones", Demolition , a group which included their old training partner Barry Darsow. Due to the ailing health of one of Demolition ( Ax ) he

3625-654: The Asian Championship in Bombay , India , where he placed fifth. In June 1989, he participated in another Asian Championship in Ōarai, Ibaraki , Japan, and this time moved up to fourth place. In September 1990, Nakanishi took part in two tournaments: On September 6, he participated in the World Championship in Tokyo, where he was placed tenth. Over three weeks later, on September 30, he participated in

3750-649: The Asian Championships . Later that year, he competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain , and placed eleventh. Manabu Nakanishi began his amateur wrestling career in 1986, competing freestyle in the 220 lbs. division. In July 1986, Nakanishi competed in his very first tournament, the World Cup in St. John's , Newfoundland , Canada, where he placed fifth. In October 1987, he participated in

3875-638: The Asian Games in Beijing , China , where he placed fourth. In October 1991, he took part in his second World Championship in Varna, Bulgaria , where he was placed eleventh. In April 1992, he took part in his third Asian Championship in Tehran, Iran , and was in third place, earning a bronze medal. In his biggest tournament, Nakanishi participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain , where he

Manabu Nakanishi - Misplaced Pages Continue

4000-607: The Clash of the Champions XXIV , Animal made his appearance, getting out of a black Camaro Z28 indicating his partner Hawk was Dustin Rhodes ' mystery partner against Rick Rude and The Equalizer . On September 19, at Fall Brawl , Animal was the advisor for Sting 's team, consisting of Sting, Davey Boy Smith , Dustin Rhodes, and The Shockmaster for WarGames, defeating Big Van Vader , Sid Vicious , and Harlem Heat . For

4125-720: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship by pinning Hiroshi Tanahashi at Dissidence on May 25, 2009. He went on to hold the title for nearly a month until losing it back to Tanahashi at Dominion 6.20 . For the 2010 G1 Tag League Nakanishi formed a tag team named Muscle Orchestra with Strong Man . The team made it to the semifinals of the tournament and was at the end of the year named Tag Team of the Year by Tokyo Sports . On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome , Muscle Orchestra unsuccessfully challenged Bad Intentions ( Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson ) for

4250-588: The IWGP Tag Team Championship in a three–way match, which also included Beer Money, Inc. ( James Storm and Robert Roode ). On February 20 at The New Beginning , Muscle Orchestra received another shot at Bad Intentions and the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but were again unable to win the title. On June 4 Nakanishi was injured during a six-man tag team match after taking a German suplex from Wataru Inoue . The match

4375-501: The IWGP Tag Team Championship . He had arguably the upset win of the decade in the 1999 G1 Climax , submitting then-IWGP Heavyweight Champion and nWo Japan leader Keiji Mutoh , to win the tournament. As the years went by, Nakanishi was never able to capitalize on his win in the G1 Climax as he constantly came up short in big matches, and Antonio Inoki's focus on pushing MMA fighters from 2002 to 2005 made matters worse for him. When

4500-850: The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2011, the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011, and the NWA Hall of Fame in 2012. The Road Warriors were named Tag Team of the Year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 1984, and the number one tag team of the "PWI years" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in 2003. Laurinaitis was born in Philadelphia on September 12, 1960. He is of Lithuanian ancestry. He grew up in Minnesota, having to work for

4625-615: 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

4750-674: The Uekara Don! , to gain a victory for his team consisting of him, Akebono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Super Strong Machine , defeating the Chaos faction of Bob Sapp, Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi . On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2013 , Nakanishi and Strong Man received a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a four-way match with the defending champions, K.E.S. ( Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. ), as well as Chaos (Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano) and Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima). Kojima pinned Strong Man to win

4875-677: 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

5000-496: 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 . Road Warrior Animal Joseph Michael "Joe" Laurinaitis (September 12, 1960 – September 22, 2020), better known by his ring name Road Warrior Animal (or simply Animal ), was an American professional wrestler . Along with Road Warrior Hawk , he

5125-580: 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

Manabu Nakanishi - Misplaced Pages Continue

5250-463: 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

5375-710: 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

5500-481: The March 3, 2006, episode of SmackDown! , Animal teamed up with Matt Hardy to face MNM. After he and Hardy lost the match, Animal turned heel for the second time in his career by attacking and injuring Hardy's knee. Animal reasoned that he had realized that Hardy and Heidenreich were screw-ups and that Road Warrior Hawk was the only tag team legend and partner for him. After the heel turn, Animal, once again known simply as "The Road Warrior", would drop many aspects of

5625-448: The May 6, 2006, episode of Velocity . On June 26, 2006, Animal was released from his WWE contract. WWE announced on March 28, 2011, on Raw that the Road Warriors would be inducted into the 2011 Hall of Fame. Animal also spoke openly about his future induction on Right After Wrestling just minutes after the announcement on WWE Raw . Animal told hosts, Arda Ocal and Jim Korderas that

5750-568: The Moondogs 2000 in Lodi, New Jersey on September 8, 2001. The Road Warriors mainly continued working in the independent circuit. In 2002, Animal once again returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling as Animal Warrior teaming with Keiji Muto . In 2003, The Road Warriors last stint was for Fighting of World Japan Pro Wrestling feuding with the Shane Twins . After Hawk's death, Animal returned to

5875-625: The NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On March 25, 2018, Nakanishi made an appearance in All Japan, where he reunited Wild Child for one night with Takao Omori to unsuccessfully challenge Jun Akiyama and Yuji Nagata for the All Asia Tag Team Championship. After teaming with young lion Henare the year prior, Nakanishi reunited with Yuji Nagata for the 2018 World Tag League , finishing second-last in

6000-423: 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

6125-538: The Powers of Pain left the NWA after finding out they were booked against the Road Warriors in a series of Scaffold Matches and they did not want to get hurt by falling off the scaffold. Near the end of 1988, the Road Warriors captured the NWA World Tag Team Championship from The Midnight Express whom they mauled in short order to win the titles. After being the "Uncrowned champions" for

6250-477: The Road Warriors DVD that it was hard for Ellering to work with another team against the Road Warriors and difficult to rip on his former team on promos. In 1998, the Legion of Doom became involved in their most controversial angle; playing off Hegstrand's real life drug and alcohol problems. Hawk started to show up drunk or "unable to perform" on TV. As Hawk proved more and more erratic and unreliable,

6375-549: The Road Warriors fan favorites. Even when they were booked as heels, the fans refused to boo them. They started to split their time between the AWA and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) until finally leaving the AWA for big money contracts with the NWA and a huge push for the monster duo. The move paid off instantly as they won the inaugural Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament and feuded with

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6500-486: The Road Warriors were born. They first started out as biker gimmicks; on The Road Warriors DVD, Animal said he felt like one of the Village People . To look more intimidating, the two shaved their heads into Mohawks and started wearing studded dog collars, spiked shoulder pads, and face paint. The look and name were taken from The Road Warrior , helping to paint the two as no-mercy monsters. Their interview style

6625-458: The Rush of Wrestling on March 1, 2011, published by Medallion Press, Inc. The book talks about the rise of The Road Warriors, shares funny stories of life on the road, and offers behind-the-scenes accounts of professional wrestling. Laurinaitis and his ex-wife Julie, a former powerlifter and bodybuilder, had two children, son James (born 1986) and daughter Jessica (born 1989). Laurinaitis also had

6750-466: 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

6875-489: 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

7000-533: The WWE was going to create a physical Hall of Fame in Tampa and he was going to donate his trademarked 'spiked-shoulder pads' to that Hall. On the July 20, 2012, episode of SmackDown on Syfy , Animal returned to face Heath Slater in honor of Raw ' s 1,000th episode . He went on to squash Slater. He then reappeared on the actual 1,000th episode on July 23 with other WWE Legends to help Lita take down Slater, in what would be Animal's final WWE appearance and

7125-529: 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

7250-498: 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

7375-564: 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

7500-742: 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

7625-453: 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

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7750-483: 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

7875-644: The WWF. While the Road Warriors never officially broke up, Animal started making an increasing number of solo appearances after they left the WWF as Hegstrand struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. After his release from WWF, the Road Warriors wrestled at the AJPW Giant Baba Memorial Show defeating Jun Akiyama and Kenta Kobashi in Tokyo, Japan on May 2, 1999. In 2000, the Road Warriors worked for i-Generation Superstars of Wrestling in Australia feuding with The Public Enemy over

8000-428: 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

8125-420: 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

8250-445: 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,

8375-432: 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

8500-424: The bed when he and his wife went back to their room. The Road Warriors reign with the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, with Genichiro Tenryu, began December 7, 1988, after Ted Turner's purchase of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from Jim Crockett Jr. and having it renamed World Championship Wrestling. Hawk and Animal's reign with this championship also happened after Ted Turner bought and renamed

8625-406: The better of the feud and the Warriors left WCW in June 1996. After leaving WCW, they returned to the WWF where the Legion of Doom took part in the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. the Hart Foundation feud, siding with Austin against the Harts. The Legion of Doom also became two-time tag team champions on October 7, 1997, when they defeated The Godwinns . In November 1997, the Legion of Doom faced

8750-424: 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

8875-423: 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

9000-537: The company concealed the risks of injury. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who had been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant dismissed the lawsuit in September 2018. An appeal was filed but the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed it two weeks before Laurinaitis's death. Laurinaitis died of

9125-454: 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

9250-498: 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

9375-542: The company suffered a massive exodus in main event talent (including Shinya Hashimoto , Shinjiro Otani , Sasaki, and Mutoh), it was considered that Nakanishi might finally live up to his potential, but once again he was overlooked, as NJPW started to look towards building their younger talent like Hiroshi Tanahashi , Shinsuke Nakamura , Togi Makabe , and Hirooki Goto . He formed the popular tag team, Wild Child, with Takao Omori in late 2006 and together they enjoyed another IWGP Tag Team title reign. Nakanishi finally captured

9500-496: 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

9625-671: 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

9750-457: 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

9875-505: 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

10000-479: 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

10125-660: 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

10250-414: The first team that could truly match the Road Warriors in power (and who were one of the most well known Road Warrior clones). The Powers of Pain even went so far as to injure Animal's eye, ( kayfabe ) as his eye injury actually occurred days earlier during a match, during a weightlifting competition. When Animal returned, he initially wore a hockey goalie mask to protect his eye. The angle abruptly ended when

10375-402: The i-Generation Tag Titles. They also worked in the independent circuit . Later that year, Animal wrestled for Battlearts in Japan as Animal Warrior teaming with Alexander Otsuka . In January 2001, Animal returned with a prominent position in WCW as the "enforcer" of the stable known as The Magnificent Seven with the objective to protect WCW World Champion Scott Steiner . He appeared on

10500-546: 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

10625-441: 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

10750-505: The last match that he wrestled. On September 1, 2018, Animal made a surprise appearance at All In to open the event. On the June 12, 2020, episode of SWE Fury, a Plano, Texas–based nationally televised wrestling promotion, Teddy Long was named the new SWE General Manager alongside Road Warrior Animal, who served as his enforcer. Laurinaitis released an autobiography with William Andrew Wright titled The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and

10875-500: 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

11000-432: The main event of Sin for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against champion Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett and Sid Vicious in a four corners match. Steiner retained the title. The Magnificent Seven split up shortly before Vince McMahon purchased WCW in March 2001; Animal's contract was not one of the contracts the WWF picked up. After WCW folded, Animal reunited with Hawk at Jersey Championship Wrestling defeating

11125-524: The match and the title. On June 22 at Dominion 6.22 , Nakanishi unsuccessfully challenged Rob Conway for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . From November 24 to December 6, Nakanishi and Strong Man took part in the 2013 World Tag League , where they finished second to last in their block with a record of two wins and four losses, failing to advance to the semifinals. Nakanishi spent the majority of 2014 and 2015 working

11250-453: 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

11375-738: The name Kurasawa as a member of The Stud Stable led by Colonel Robert Parker . He frequently teamed with Meng , with whom he feuded against Sting and Road Warrior Hawk . He broke the arm of Hawk using a seated armbar after their tag team match at Clash of the Champions XXXI, in which they lost it was at the event that he was billed as the Terror from the Far East He subsequently feuded with Hawk when Hawk returned from injury heading into Halloween Havoc , beating many local wrestlers on their B-shows, WorldWide and Pro , as well as

11500-419: 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

11625-430: 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

11750-416: The newly formed New Age Outlaws ( Road Dogg and Billy Gunn ) and lost the titles to the upstart team. After several unsuccessful challenges, the L.O.D. were repackaged as "Legion of Doom 2000" with manager Sunny , although she did not stay with the team for long. At the same time, Paul Ellering returned, but sided with D.O.A. , whom L.O.D. were feuding with at the time; Ellering and Animal explained on

11875-692: The next couple of years, Laurinaitis stayed out of the wrestling ring, collecting on an insurance policy from Lloyd's of London while Hegstrand competed all over the world. Near the end of 1995, Laurinaitis' back had finally recovered enough for him to return to active competition. Three years after everyone thought the Road Warriors had ended, they reunited and signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling . On January 4, 1996, Animal seconded Hawk in his match against Scott Norton in New Japan Pro-Wrestling 's annual Tokyo Dome show. Upon their return in January 1996, they immediately started

12000-421: 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

12125-472: The promotion. On June 17, 2007, Road Warrior Animal returned to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on the pay-per-view, Slammiversary , with Rick Steiner ; he replaced Scott Steiner , who was out with an injury. They ended up losing to Team 3D . On December 15, 2016, Animal returned to TNA for a guest appearance on the Impact Wrestling special, " Total Nonstop Deletion ". Animal and Hawk made

12250-513: 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

12375-702: The ring nearly a year later focusing on his singles career. On May 11, 2008, Animal teamed with Power Warrior to defeat Damián 666 and El Terrible to win the UWA Tag titles for Toryumon Mexico Dragonmania III in Mexico City, Mexico. Animal would then retire from wrestling. The Road Warriors appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in late 2002 to early 2003 as part of a group that opposed Vince Russo 's faction Sports Entertainment Xtreme , but would only wrestle one actual match for

12500-555: 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

12625-509: 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

12750-523: 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

12875-675: The tag team The Wrecking Crew (Terminator / Fury). Laurinaitis and his tag team partner Hegstrand owned two gyms in Minneapolis in the late 80s. The pair, alongside gym employees Bob Truax and Dan Stock, conceptualized the Zubaz workout pants and helped popularize the brand globally. Laurinaitis owned 25% of the company until its closure in 1996. Laurinaitis became a born again Christian in 2001. Laurinaitis's son, James Laurinaitis , played linebacker for Ohio State University . As

13000-399: 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

13125-531: The top stars of the NWA such as The Four Horsemen and The Russian Team (which included the Road Warriors' old training buddy Barry Darsow). During their initial run in the NWA, they helped popularize the WarGames match , the Scaffold match , and their trademark Chicago Street Fight . In 1988, the Road Warriors engaged in a violent feud with The Powers of Pain ( The Barbarian and The Warlord )

13250-432: 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

13375-467: 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

13500-568: The undercard and in multiple man tag matches, teaming with Yuji Nagata during the 2014 World Tag League , failing to advance from their block. On August 19, 2015, Nakanishi donned a mask and going as Maybach Don, teamed up with Nagata (as Maybach Blue Justice) and Maybach Taniguchi to win the Arukas Cup 6-Man Tag Tournament hosted by Pro Wrestling Noah . On January 5, 2017, Nakanishi, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Los Ingobernables de Japón ( Bushi , Evil and Sanada ) for

13625-529: The well-known Road Warrior gimmick, losing the face paint, and shoulder pads. Animal's look at this time was similar to his old Road Warrior gimmick in the early 1980s he had prior to teaming up with Hawk. On the March 17 episode of SmackDown! , Animal lost to Hardy in a Money in the Bank qualifying match. Animal was defeated by United States Champion Chris Benoit on the March 31 episode of SmackDown! . In his final WWE match, Animal defeated Paul Burchill on

13750-471: 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

13875-419: 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

14000-584: Was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the second round as the 35th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft , and played with the Rams through the team's final season in St. Louis in 2015 , after which he moved to the New Orleans Saints . In July 2016, Laurinaitis was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that

14125-416: 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

14250-521: 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

14375-597: Was one-half of the tag team the Road Warriors (also known as the Legion of Doom ). Over the course of his career, Animal appeared with professional wrestling promotions including Georgia Championship Wrestling , Jim Crockett Promotions / World Championship Wrestling , the American Wrestling Association (AWA), All Japan Pro Wrestling , and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) / World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He held multiple championships , including

14500-483: Was placed eleventh. Nakanishi debuted for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in October 1992, already taking part on NJPW's Super Grade Tag League , teaming up with Tatsumi Fujinami . The team lost all but one match, this one where they beat the combination of Jim Neidhart and Z-Man , during the whole tournament. He wrestled tag matches for the rest of his first year. Nakanishi's first single match came in February 1993, when he lost to Takayuki Iizuka . His in-ring style

14625-486: 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

14750-481: Was replaced by Crush , but the magic of the original Demolition was gone and the feud did not live up to the high hopes of the fans. Just over a year after signing with the WWF, the Legion of Doom won the WWF Tag Team Championship and held it for over five months. When they lost the titles, they briefly left the WWF, only to return with longtime manager Paul Ellering by their side, as well as

14875-487: 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

15000-583: 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"

15125-399: Was stopped immediately and Nakanishi was stretchered out of the arena in a neckbrace. The following day it was announced that Nakanishi had suffered a spinal cord injury, which resulted in numbness and temporary paralysis, but was expected to make a full recovery. Nakanishi returned to the ring on October 8, 2012, at King of Pro-Wrestling , where he teamed with Strong Man and Yuji Nagata in

15250-515: 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

15375-532: 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;

15500-524: Was very basic early in his career, as is standard for their trainees. After winning the Young Lions Cup in 1995, in order to hone his skills and bulk up, he went on an excursion to North America and joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW). 12 days after his pro debut Nakanishi appeared at Halloween Havoc , as a spectator, sitting alongside NJPW and NWA President Seiji Sakaguchi at ringside. Three years later he returned to WCW to wrestle, under

15625-531: Was vicious, yet charismatic and a bit humorous. They wrestled their first match together in June 1983. The team was an instant hit, revolutionizing the tag-team scene with their power moves, no mercy attitudes, and innovative face paint that would spawn many future imitators in wrestling. In Georgia, they won the NWA National Tag Team Championship four times. Their hard hitting style, no nonsense attitude, and winning ways made

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