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157-562: The stable came about as a result of the WWF's purchase of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001. The Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) name was brought in later to help boost the presence of WCW after the original ECW promotion closed in April 2001. The original plan for The Invasion storyline was WCW being a babyface group, led by Shane McMahon (who was the owner of WCW during

314-629: A Bimbo Brawl . at Final Resolution (December 2008) , Kip competed in the Feast or Fired match but failed to get a case. At Genesis 2009 , Kip became the one-night-only replacement for the injured Kevin Nash in the Main Event Mafia . As of March 19, 2009, Sopp was taken off of TNA Impact! along with Jacqueline Moore to become road agents. Sopp returned as Cute Kip and lost to Awesome Kong in an intergender stretcher match on May 14, 2009. On

471-544: A roundhouse kick . Billy and Chuck quickly won the title back two weeks later on SmackDown! with Rico's help. They held the championship for almost a month before losing it to the team of Edge and Hollywood Hulk Hogan on the July 4 episode of SmackDown! . On the September 5 edition of SmackDown! , after Billy lost a match to Rey Mysterio , Chuck proposed to Billy, asking him to be his "partner for life" and gave him

628-467: A tag team wrestler, Gunn is an overall 11-time tag team champion in WWE with three different partners (with Bart Gunn as The Smoking Gunns ; with Road Dogg as The New Age Outlaws ; and with Chuck Palumbo as Billy and Chuck ). He is also a former one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion and a two-time WWF Hardcore Champion , giving him 14 total championships in WWE. He also won the 1999 King of

785-504: A ten-man tag team match billed as the "Inaugural Brawl". During the match, Austin turned on the WWF and joined The Alliance, helping them score the victory, after about a week of teasing a face turn . Over the next few months, the two sides fought back and forth. Except for the feuds for select wrestlers ( X-Factor and Christian , for example), every feud on WWF programming involved a WWF wrestler facing an Alliance wrestler. Ten combined WWF and WCW championships were defended among all

942-405: 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

1099-551: A Four-way tag team match which was won by Team 3D. By November 2006, Kip and B.G. began to show displeasure in TNA and threatened to go find work elsewhere if they did not receive gold soon. They began performing the crotch chop, a reference to the WWE's DX. On the November 2 edition of Impact! , Kip and B.G. threatened to quit. Kip grabbed the mic and tried to say something to the TNA administration and Spike TV , but each time his mic

1256-552: A Kiss My Ass Match. Following this, Gunn then briefly feuded with Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental Title before reuniting with Road Dogg to reform The New Age Outlaws. The Outlaws won their fourth tag team championship by defeating The Rock 'n' Sock Connection in September 1999. The Outlaws later reunited with X-Pac and Triple H to reform D-Generation X. During this time, The Outlaws won their fifth Tag Team Championship after defeating Mankind and Al Snow . At

1413-733: A Ten-team tag team gauntlet match which was won by A.J. Styles and Tomko . At Bound for Glory , Kip James competed in the Fight for the Right Reverse Battle Royal which was won by Eric Young. On the October 25 edition of Impact! , VKM teamed with A.J. Styles and Tomko in a losing effort to the Latin American Xchange and the Steiner Brothers . At Genesis , B.G. was present along with Kip in

1570-484: 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

1727-482: A campaign to make former ally B.G. James leave the 3Live Kru and defect to Planet Jarrett, reforming the old tag team with Outlaw. At No Surrender , he renamed himself Kip James and was announced as "wrestling out of Marietta, Georgia " (the family seat of the Armstrong family) as a psychological ploy. As a result of his campaign, Kip attracted the ire of 3Live Kru members Ron Killings and Konnan , leading to

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1884-638: A double-Triple Powerbomb by The Shield at WrestleMania XXX . Gunn returned to Raw with Road Dogg in January 2015, attacking The Ascension along with the nWo and the APA. At the Royal Rumble , the Outlaws faced The Ascension in a losing effort. At WrestleMania 31 , Gunn, with Road Dogg, X-Pac and Shawn Michaels , reunited as D-Generation X to help Triple H in his match against Sting . In May, Gunn

2041-674: A dumpster and pushed it off the stage. This led to a dumpster match at WrestleMania XIV where Cactus and Chainsaw defeated the Outlaws for the Tag Titles. The next night on Raw , the New Age Outlaws won the Tag Team Championship for a second time by defeating Chainsaw and Cactus in a steel cage match , but only after interference from Triple H, Chyna , and X-Pac . After the match, the Outlaws officially became members of D-Generation X (DX). After joining DX,

2198-570: 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

2355-488: A feud between himself and the remainder of the Kru. Shortly thereafter, B.G. James's father, Bob Armstrong , attempted to reconcile the group, but was instead attacked by Konnan and his new stablemates, Apolo and Homicide . Killings later stated that he had severed his ties with the Kru. With Konnan and Killings no longer members of the Kru, Kip and B.G. began referring to themselves as The James Gang and continued to feud with

2512-509: A generic tandem, but they were given a gimmick where they grew increasingly affectionate toward each other, showing evidence of a storyline homosexual relationship. In February 2002, Billy and Chuck defeated Spike Dudley and Tazz to win the WWF Tag Team Championship for the first time as a team. After winning the titles, Billy and Chuck found a "Personal Stylist" in the ambiguously flamboyant Rico . After retaining

2669-595: A handicap match at Sacrifice where he lost. However, they beat Hemme's team at Slammiversary . After the match, VKM were betrayed by their associate Lance Hoyt . At Victory Road , they introduced their new manager , the Voodoo Queen, Roxxi Laveaux , to embarrass Christy Hemme. At Hard Justice , The Voodoo Kin Mafia lost to The Latin American Exchange. At No Surrender , The Voodoo Kin Mafia competed in

2826-537: A losing effort against Morgan and The Latin American Xchange . On the August 14 episode of Impact! , Kip was revealed to be the new image consultant and member of The Beautiful People , dubbed Cute Kip and was using his Mr.Ass Attire, after they brought him out during their interview on Karen Angle 's show Karen's Angle . at Bound for Glory IV , Kip, Love and Sky lost to Rhino , ODB and Rhaka Khan in

2983-616: A losing effort against The Radicalz. A few weeks later on SmackDown! , Gunn won the Intercontinental Championship from Guerrero. However, the title reign was short-lived, as Chris Benoit defeated him for the title two weeks later at Armageddon . After feuding with Benoit, Gunn participated in the 2001 Royal Rumble where he made it to the final four, Gunn interfered in the Hardcore Championship Match at No Way Out , and taking advantage of

3140-471: 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

3297-662: A match against him. When Tanahashi captured the IWGP Intercontinental Championship the following month, he immediately nominated Gunn as his first challenger. Gunn was defeated in the title match on July 2 at G1 Special in USA , and it was his final match in NJPW. Gunn and numerous other WWE legends appeared on the January 22, 2018, episode of Raw 25 Years as part of the D-Generation X reunion. He

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3454-417: A match between The Dudley Boyz (WCW) and The Hardy Boyz (WWF), while Edge and Test would meet in a match to unify Edge's WCW United States Championship with Test's WWF Intercontinental Championship . Further, 20 WWF and Alliance members would square off in what was called the " Immunity Battle Royal ", with the winner of the match keeping his job for one year regardless of whether his side won or not. In

3611-656: 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

3768-536: A record of three wins and four losses, failing to advance from their block. Gunn returned to NJPW on January 4, 2017, taking part in the pre-show New Japan Rumble at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome , from which he was eliminated by the eventual winner Michael Elgin . While Gunn did not appear for NJPW for the next six months, he was brought up in May by Yoshitatsu, who told Hiroshi Tanahashi that Gunn had requested

3925-445: A returning Ric Flair , who was revealed, in storyline, to have bought Shane and Stephanie's stock in the company prior to Survivor Series, making him the new co-owner of the WWF, along with McMahon. After being "fired", Shane walked out on his own and congratulated his father for his victory, and spent most of the next eighteen months away from television; he would return to feud with Kane in 2003. Stephanie blamed Shane for everything and

4082-526: 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

4239-435: A series of tag team matches pitting Kip and Monty Brown against Killings and Konnan, with a conflicted James unwilling to take sides. Kip's efforts ultimately proved futile; James, the guest referee in a final match between Brown and Kip versus Konnan and Killings at Sacrifice , attacked Kip enabling a 3Live Kru victory. In September at Unbreakable , Kip teamed with Brown to defeat the team of Apolo and Lance Hoyt . There

4396-407: 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

4553-443: A six-man tag team match. At Sacrifice , The James Gang defeated Team 3D which led to a rematch at Slammiversary where Team 3D defeated The James Gang in a Bingo Hall Brawl . At Victory Road , The James Gang and Abyss defeated Team 3D and their newest member Brother Runt . At No Surrender , The James Gang competed in a Triple Chance tag team battle royal but failed to win the match. At Bound for Glory , The James Gang competed in

4710-620: A stalker angle with Undertaker and his wife). Later that night, during a tag team match pitting Chris Jericho and Kane against WCW's Lance Storm and Mike Awesome , former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) stars Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer interfered and attacked Jericho and Kane. Justin Credible , Raven , Tazz , Rhyno , and The Dudley Boyz (all ECW alumni ) came to the ring shortly thereafter and joined Van Dam and Dreamer in attacking Jericho and Kane, and Raw Is War color commentator Paul Heyman announced that together, he

4867-574: A staredown with Konnan and Killings. Kip saved James from Team Canada once again at Bound for Glory . Though Killings showed signs of gratitude, Konnan remained skeptical as to his true intentions. Later that night, Kip took part in an over-the-top-rope gauntlet match for the number one contendership to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. After he was eliminated, he tried in vain to prevent Killings from being eliminated as well, before being sent away from ringside by

The Alliance (professional wrestling) - Misplaced Pages Continue

5024-579: A stipulation in a match with Steven Richards on the October 31 episode of Monday Night Raw from the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts, Gunn could no longer use the Mr. Ass gimmick, so he renamed himself Billy G. for a few weeks before settling on "The One" Billy Gunn. Gunn then feuded with Eddie Guerrero and the rest of The Radicalz . At Survivor Series , Gunn teamed with Road Dogg, Chyna, and K-Kwik in

5181-477: A symbolic victory of WWF's dominance over its former rivals. Earlier in the night, The Dudley Boyz defeated The Hardy Boyz to unify the tag team championships while Edge defeated Test to win the Intercontinental Championship. Despite his loss, Test entered the Immunity Battle Royal later that night and won. With The Alliance's loss, nearly all of their members lost their jobs in storyline following

5338-507: A tag team gauntlet match. The two entered the match as the final team and scored the win over Prakash Sabar and The Proletariat Boar of Moldova. On November 5, 2016, at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) event Power Struggle , Yoshitatsu announced Gunn as the newest member of his Hunter Club stable and his partner for the upcoming 2016 World Tag League . Gunn and Yoshitatsu finished the tournament on December 8 with

5495-677: A tag team. Gunn agreed and smashed a guitar over the Honky Tonk Man's head to solidify their new alliance. James and Rockabilly were quickly rebranded as "Road Dogg" Jesse James and "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn, respectively, and their tag team was dubbed the New Age Outlaws . They quickly rose to the top of the tag team ranks and won the Tag Team Championship from the Legion of Doom on November 24. They also defeated

5652-490: 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

5809-481: 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

5966-406: A wedding ring. Billy agreed, and one week later, on the September 12 episode of SmackDown! , Billy and Chuck had their wedding ceremony. However, just before they tied the knot, they revealed that the entire ordeal was a publicity stunt and disavowed their on-screen homosexuality, admitting that they were just friends. The "preacher" revealed himself to be Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff (who

6123-546: A win against Bam Bam Bigelow and the Headshrinkers. On January 22, 1994, Gunn entered his first Royal Rumble match at the namesake event , but was eliminated by Diesel . In early 1995, the Gunns won their first Tag Team Championship by defeating the makeshift team of Bob Holly and 1-2-3 Kid . They held the title until WrestleMania XI , where they were defeated by the team of Owen Hart and Yokozuna . They won

6280-720: The 1000th episode of Raw . In December 2012, he was hired by WWE as a trainer for the NXT Wrestling territory in Tampa, Florida . On March 4, 2013, Gunn and Road Dogg made a return at Old School Raw , defeating Primo and Epico . On March 11, 2013, they accepted a challenge from Team Rhodes Scholars and faced them in a match, which was interrupted by Brock Lesnar , who hit both Outlaws with an F-5 as part of his ongoing feud with Triple H. He then appeared alongside Road Dogg to help CM Punk clear out The Shield in aid of Roddy Piper on Old School Raw on January 6, 2014. On

6437-681: The 2000 Royal Rumble , The New Age Outlaws retained their title against The Acolytes after interference from X-Pac. The Outlaws then had a feud with The Dudley Boyz , who won the Tag Team Championship from The Outlaws at No Way Out . After suffering a torn rotator cuff in the match with The Dudley Boyz, Gunn was kicked out of D-Generation X for "losing his cool" to explain his impending absence to recover from his injury. Gunn made his return in October and immediately teamed with Chyna to feud with Right to Censor , who wanted to "censor" his Mr. Ass gimmick. At No Mercy , Right to Censor members Steven Richards and Val Venis defeated Chyna and Gunn. Due to

The Alliance (professional wrestling) - Misplaced Pages Continue

6594-598: The COVID-19 pandemic . On the May 27, 2020, episode of Dynamite , Gunn, now under the shortened ring name of Billy , participated in a battle royal match to determine the number one contender for the AEW TNT Championship . He also would wrestle MJF in a singles match on the June 17, 2020, episode of Dynamite as well. The Gunn Club would wrestle in more tag team matches on more episodes of AEW Dark . On

6751-518: The Intercontinental Championship . At the 1999 Royal Rumble , Gunn unsuccessfully challenged Ken Shamrock for the Intercontinental Title. The next month at St. Valentine's Day Massacre , Gunn was the special guest referee for the Intercontinental Championship match between Val Venis and champion Ken Shamrock, where Gunn made a fast count and declared Venis the new champion before attacking both men. In March, Gunn won

6908-467: The Lockdown preshow The Voodoo Kin Mafia defeated another one of Hemme's handpicked team Serotonin (Kaz & Havok) in a Six Sides of Steel match. The final tag team was Damaja and Basham , who appeared on an episode of Impact! and beat down VKM. They also held up Kip James so Hemme could slap him. B.G James was taken out by Basham and Damaja which led to Kip James competed against Basham and Damaja in

7065-822: The MCW Pro Wrestling MCW Rage Television Championship . On February 5, 2016, Gunn defeated Joey Hayes in the Preston City Wrestling PCW Road to Glory tournament, on February 6 he lost to T-Bone in the quarter-finals that same night Gunn teamed up with Mr. Anderson and Tajiri to defeat Dave Raynes, Joey Hayes, and Martin Kirby. On February 7, 2016, Gunn challenged for the Pro Wrestling Pride Heavyweight championship losing to Steve Griffiths. On March 19, 2016, Gunn lost

7222-615: 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

7379-718: 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

7536-463: The angle ) to go against the heel owner of the WWF , Mr. McMahon . During May and June 2001, wrestlers identified as being "under contract to WCW" (such as Lance Storm and Mike Awesome ) "invaded" WWF programming, by performing several run-ins during matches. The ultimate goal, reportedly, was for WCW to "take over" WWF's flagship show Raw Is War and rebrand it as its own television program, while

7693-466: 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 . Monty Sopp Monty Kip Sopp (born November 1, 1963), better known by his ring name Billy Gunn , is an American professional wrestler and coach signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he also performs under

7850-580: 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

8007-413: The 24/7 Rule, pinning Raven for the title. The reign was short-lived, as Raven won it back a few minutes later. In a 2001 match on Sunday Night Heat , Gunn was defeated by Chuck Palumbo , who recently left The Alliance to join the WWF. After the match, Gunn suggested that they form a tag team. Palumbo agreed, and Billy and Chuck quickly rose to the top of the tag team division. Initially they were

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8164-837: The AEW World Trios Championship in a winner takes all championship unification match to unify the titles as the Unified World Trios Championship, ending their reign at a record 238 days. Sopp married his first wife Tina Tinnell in 1990. Together they had two sons: Colten and Austin , who are both professional wrestlers working for All Elite Wrestling . Sopp and Tinnell separated in 2000 and finalized their divorce in December 2002. Sopp has since married his long-time girlfriend Paula on January 24, 2009. Sopp has said that he battles asthma and uses an inhaler . Before becoming

8321-451: The AEW website's roster page got updated and his name was once again changed to its long form, Billy Gunn . The three man Gunn Club would then defeat Cezar Bononi, KTB, and Seth Gargis in another six man tag team match on the November 24, 2020, episode of Dark . On the December 8, 2020, episode of Dark The three man Gunn Club-which entered the ring on a golf cart with the words "Taz Taxi" on

8478-835: The Acclaimed successfully capture the AEW World Tag Team Championship with a win over Swerve in Our Glory ( Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee ). On August 27, 2023, at All In , Gunn and The Acclaimed won the AEW World Trios Championship from The House of Black ( Malakai Black , Brody King , and Buddy Matthews ) in a "House Rules" No Holds Barred six-man tag team match . At Dynasty : Zero Hour on April 21, 2024, ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club Gold ( Jay White and The Gunns) defeated Gunn and The Acclaimed for

8635-721: The American Pro Wrestling Alliance American Championship. However, he lost the title due to travel issues. On September 8 and 9, 2012, he wrestled in a Bad Boys of Wrestling Federation tournament. He defeated Rhino in the semi-finals and Scott Steiner in the final, winning the BBWF Aruba Championship. On July 23, Sopp, under his Billy Gunn name, made his first WWE appearance in nearly eight years as he reunited with Road Dogg , X-Pac , Shawn Michaels and Triple H to reform D-Generation X for one night only on

8792-485: The August 17, 2022, episode of Dynamite , the Gunn Club ended when both of his sons turned against him and joined Stokely Hathaway . The Acclaimed ( Max Caster and Anthony Bowens ) came to Gunn's aid and Gunn began managing the duo. While paired with the Acclaimed, Bowens affectionately coined Gunn as Daddy Ass , a reference to Gunn's 1999 WWF "Mr. Ass" persona. On September 21, 2022, at Dynamite : Grand Slam ,

8949-463: 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

9106-591: The Edge . Gunn then won the King of the Ring tournament by defeating Ken Shamrock, Kane , and his former ally, X-Pac. After King of the Ring, Gunn, Triple H, and Chyna went on to feud with X-Pac and Road Dogg over the rights to the D-Generation X name. This feud culminated at Fully Loaded when X-Pac and Road Dogg defeated Gunn and Chyna. Gunn then began a brief feud with The Rock . At SummerSlam , The Rock defeated Gunn in

9263-516: The Gunns lost the Tag Team Title to Owen Hart and The British Bulldog . After the match, Sunny abandoned The Gunns, saying that she would only manage title holders. Billy, frustrated with losing both the championship and Sunny, walked out on Bart, breaking up The Smoking Gunns. The two would feud in late 1996. After The Smoking Gunns disbanded, Gunn took some time off to nurse an injury. At WrestleMania 13 , he defeated Flash Funk catching

9420-759: 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

9577-474: The Hardcore Championship from Hardcore Holly . At WrestleMania XV , Gunn lost the title to Holly in a Triple Threat match which also included Al Snow . The New Age Outlaws then reunited to defeat Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart at Backlash . After Backlash, Gunn left D-Generation X and aligned himself with Triple H and Chyna. Gunn defeated his former partner, Road Dogg, in a match at Over

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9734-474: The January 1, 2020, episode of Dynamite , wrestling in a dark match with his son Austin that aired on January 7, 2020. They wrestled again together on another dark match during the January 8, 2020, episode of Dynamite , airing on January 17, 2020, with the tag team name " The Gunn Club ", defeating the team of Peter Avalon and Shawn Spears. Gunn has also appeared in the crowd (made up of AEW wrestlers and other employees) on numerous episodes of Dynamite during

9891-602: The January 10 episode of SmackDown , the Outlaws teamed with CM Punk in a six-man tag match against The Shield in a losing effort. On the January 13 episode of Raw , the Outlaws again teamed with Punk in a rematch against The Shield, only to abandon Punk and lose the match. On January 26 during the Royal Rumble Kickoff Show , Gunn and Road Dogg beat Cody Rhodes and Goldust to win the WWE Tag Team Championship . The next night on Raw

10048-490: The Konnan-managed Latin American Exchange , whose third man position as Homicide's partner would switch from Apolo to Machete , and then from him to Hernandez , who finally stuck, during the course of this feud. At Final Resolution , The James Gang defeated The Diamonds in the Rough ( David Young and Elix Skipper ). At Against All Odds , The James Gang defeated LAX (Homicide and Machete). At Destination X , The James Gang and Bob Armstrong defeated Latin American Exchange in

10205-538: The LOD in a rematch at In Your House: D-Generation X . The Outlaws slowly began to align themselves with D-Generation X . At the Royal Rumble , the New Age Outlaws interfered in a casket match to help Shawn Michaels defeat The Undertaker . At No Way Out Of Texas , the Outlaws teamed up with Triple H and Savio Vega (who replaced the injured Shawn Michaels) to face Chainsaw Charlie , Cactus Jack , Owen Hart , and Steve Austin . They were, however, defeated. On February 2, The Outlaws locked Cactus and Chainsaw in

10362-401: The May 17, 1993, episode of Raw , teaming with his on-screen brother, Bart Gunn to defeat Tony Vadja and Glenn Ruth . The duo, now known as The Smoking Gunns , made their pay-per-view debut at King of the Ring , teaming with The Steiner Brothers to defeat Money Inc. and The Headshrinkers in an eight-man tag team match . At SummerSlam , the duo teamed with Tatanka to pick up

10519-455: The May 28 edition of Impact! , Kip was fired by The Beautiful People. On the June 18 edition of Impact! , Mick Foley hired him as his handyman, turning Kip into a face . he made another appearance on the August 6 edition of Impact where Kip had to clean up the IMPACT Zone after a chaotic fifteen minute "riot". On October 9 edition of Xplosion , Kip was defeated by Rhino. On October 30 edition of Xplosion , Kip defeated Sheik Abdul Bashir . on

10676-423: 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

10833-415: The New Age Outlaws retained the championship against Rhodes and Goldust via disqualification when Brock Lesnar attacked the brothers. The next week on Raw the New Age Outlaws retained the championship against Rhodes and Goldust in a steel cage match. On March 3, the Outlaws lost the Tag Team Championship to The Usos . Gunn sustained hemoptysis after he and his New Age Outlaws partner, Road Dogg, suffered

10990-482: The November 13 edition of Xplosion , Kip lost to Rob Terry and on December 3, 2009, edition of Xplosion , Kip competed in his final TNA match where he lost to Kiyoshi . Sopp's profile was removed from the TNA website on December 29, 2009, confirming his departure from the promotion. After leaving TNA, Sopp reunited with B.G. James to reform The New Age Outlaws , with both men resuming their Billy Gunn and Road Dogg ring names. After joining TWA Powerhouse in 2010,

11147-400: The November 4, 2020, episode of Dynamite , The Gunn Club teamed with Cody Rhodes to successfully defeat The Dark Order (John Silver, 10 and Colt Cabana). On the November 17, 2020, episode of Dark , The Gunn Club, which now added Austin's brother and Gunn's other son Colten to the stable, defeated Bshp King, Joey O'Riley and Sean Maluta by pinfall in a six-man tag team match. On the same day,

11304-585: The October 29 episode of Raw . In late October, both sides agreed to end things once and for all. A "Winner Take All" classic Survivor Series elimination tag team match was set for the Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 18, with the losing company going out of business forever. In addition, two title unification matches were signed, as the WCW Tag Team Championship and the WWF Tag Team Championship were to be unified in

11461-404: The Outlaws defeated Canadian Extreme to win the promotion's Tag Team Championship on July 25. They re-lost the title to Canadian Extreme on June 5, 2011. On July 30, 2011, Sopp, working under the ring name Kip Gunn, made his debut for Lucha Libre USA as a member of the heel stable The Right. Later that night, Gunn lost in his debut match against Marco Corleone . On June 26, 2012, Sopp won

11618-473: The Outlaws in a Handicap match after Kane no-showed the title defense. The Outlaws defeated Mankind to win the titles for the third time. In December, the Outlaws lost the title to The Big Boss Man and Ken Shamrock from The Corporation . The Outlaws then began to focus more on singles competition. Road Dogg won the Hardcore Championship in December 1998, and Gunn set his sights on

11775-423: The Outlaws successfully defended their Tag Team Title against the Legion of Doom 2000 at Unforgiven . DX began to feud with Owen Hart and his new stablemates , The Nation . At Over The Edge , the Outlaws and Triple H were defeated by Nation members Owen, Kama Mustafa , and D'Lo Brown in a Six Man Tag Match. During this time, the Outlaws began a feud with Kane and Mankind . At SummerSlam , Mankind faced

11932-643: The Ring tournament , and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 as a member of D-Generation X . At AEW, Gunn is a former one-time and longest reigning AEW World Trios Champions with The Acclaimed ( Max Caster and Anthony Bowens ). Gunn trained as a bull rider while attending Oviedo High School in Oviedo, Florida . After a stint as a professional bull rider in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association , Sopp left

12089-545: 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

12246-414: The WCW and ECW wrestlers faced off in the ring, however, they did not fight but rather congratulated each other and attacked the WWF wrestlers. It was revealed that ECW had merged with WCW to form a "supergroup" to more effectively challenge the WWF and that Stephanie McMahon had purchased the defunct company. This combined group was originally referred to as "WECW" on WCW.com and then as "Team WCW/ECW," but

12403-489: 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

12560-529: 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

12717-443: 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

12874-513: 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

13031-742: 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

13188-453: 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

13345-477: The WWF would retain control of SmackDown! as their own show. To test the waters for this, the final twenty minutes of the July 2 edition of Raw Is War was given over to WCW, which (in kayfabe ) brought in its own commentators (Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson ), ring announcer ( Stacy Keibler ), referee ( Nick Patrick ), ring apron, and Chyron graphics , to present a match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for Booker T's WCW Championship (which he had won on

13502-483: 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

13659-508: 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

13816-624: 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

13973-529: 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,

14130-401: The attention of The Honky Tonk Man , who made Gunn his protégé. During this time, he adopted a new gimmick, Rockabilly, He would use this gimmick throughout much of 1997 and eventually had a short-lived feud with "The Real Double J" Jesse James . On the October 4, 1997, episode of Shotgun Saturday Night , James realized both of their careers were going nowhere and suggested that they become

14287-496: 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

14444-414: The bout "the worst match ever". The two other WCW matches also received a negative fan reaction. The decision was thus made to make WCW a heel group who was out to destroy the WWF. On the July 9 episode of Raw Is War , when then-face WCW owner Shane was scheduled to face Page in a street fight, the two instead attacked The Undertaker , turning Shane heel (Page had already debuted in WWF as a heel, as part of

14601-696: 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

14758-423: 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

14915-454: 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

15072-561: 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

15229-496: 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

15386-671: 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

15543-457: 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

15700-709: The corner of Roxxi Laveaux at ringside for the Fatal Four Way knockout match for the TNA Women's Championship in which Gail Kim retained the title. At Turning Point , James competed in the Feast or Fired where he grabbed a case but threw it to BG James. It was revealed that the case was for a shot at the TNA World Tag Team Championship and BG James picked his dad to be his partner at Against All Odds , James and Bob Armstrong failed to win

15857-505: 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

16014-479: 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

16171-408: The end, Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show ) defeated Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, and Shane McMahon) when Angle double-crossed The Alliance by turning on Austin while he was fighting The Rock during the closing stages of the match. The Rock then pinned Austin, not only putting The Alliance out of business, but also being

16328-660: 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

16485-500: The final episode of Nitro ). This continued later that week on SmackDown! , where Gregory Helms lost the WCW Cruiserweight Championship to Billy Kidman and Booker defended the WCW Championship against Diamond Dallas Page . The Booker T/Bagwell title match, however, was very poorly received both by television viewers and the live crowd in the arena; sports journalist Michael Landsberg reported that many have called

16642-533: The first undisputed champion in company history. Jericho, who had been feuding with The Rock over the WCW Championship dating back to October, won the World title while Austin defeated Angle to retain his WWF Championship. Jericho, thanks to a returning Booker T, defeated Austin to become the first Undisputed WWF Champion. Following the crowning of the inaugural Undisputed WWF Champion, mentions of WCW and The Alliance ceased on WWF programming. World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling ( WCW )

16799-496: The group they (Kip and BG) used to be a part of: D-Generation X . After the initial shock value of this incident wore off, at Genesis , The Voodoo Kin Mafia defeated Kazarian , Maverick Matt and Johnny Devine in a handicap match. VKM began a feud with the villainous Christy Hemme . Hemme then searched for a tag team to square-off against VKM. At Destination X , The Voodoo Kin Mafia defeated Hemme's handpicked team of The Heartbreakers ( Antonio Thomas & Romeo Roselli ). On

16956-546: 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

17113-441: 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

17270-436: 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

17427-440: The match to the team of Ron Simmons and Reverend D-Von . Afterwards, Gunn took a few months off because of a shoulder injury and the team of Billy and Chuck quietly disbanded. After returning in June 2003, Gunn reverted to the "Mr. Ass" gimmick, defeating A-Train , and Torrie Wilson became his new manager. He started a feud with Jamie Noble , which led to an "Indecent Proposal" Match at Vengeance , which Noble won and due to

17584-598: The match's stipulation, won a night with Torrie. After taking time off again due to a shoulder injury, Gunn returned to action at the 2004 Royal Rumble , but was eliminated by Goldberg . Afterward, he wrestled mainly on Velocity , forming an occasional tag team with Hardcore Holly . At Judgment Day , Gunn and Holly challenged Charlie Haas and Rico for the WWE Tag Team Championship , but were unsuccessful. At The Great American Bash , Gunn lost to Kenzo Suzuki . Afterwards, he mainly wrestled on WWE Velocity and house shows until that August. On November 1, 2004, Sopp

17741-745: The match. Exceptions were made for Stone Cold Steve Austin, then-WWF Champion; The Dudley Boyz, who won the WWF Tag Team Championship; Stacy Keibler, the Dudleys' manager; Rob Van Dam, who at the time was the Hardcore Champion ; Christian, who at the time was the European Champion ; Immunity Battle Royal winner Test; and Alliance Commissioner William Regal, who was forced to join the " Mr. McMahon Kiss My Ass Club " to keep his job. Some of them would be hired back over

17898-453: 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

18055-448: The name on on-screen graphics blurred, the name silenced out of the audio, and match commentary completely replaced to reflect a retroactive name change to "Kip James". One such DVD is the pay-per-view Lockdown , included in the "TNA Anthology: The Epic Set" box set, in which the silencing of the name during a segment where Dusty Rhodes picks his name from a lottery leaves DVD viewers in the dark as to who just got picked. The Outlaw began

18212-419: 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

18369-430: 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

18526-533: The next few months, with the majority of them returning when the brand extension began. The WWF Light Heavyweight Championship , which was held at the time by X-Pac, was quietly retired and replaced with WCW's Cruiserweight Championship. The next night on Raw , Mr. McMahon celebrated his victory by making a slow return to his villain character, aligning himself with The Alliance members that kept their jobs. Later that night, he resumed his rivalry with Austin, who turned face by attacking Angle and aligning himself with

18683-421: 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

18840-531: The owner of WWE Vince McMahon . A few weeks later on Impact! , The James Gang re-emerged under a new name Voodoo Kin Mafia (VKM for short, a play on Vincent Kennedy McMahon's initials). They mentioned their new right of 'creative control', meaning they could do whatever they wanted. They also declared 'war' on Paul Levesque , Michael Hickenbottom , and Vincent K. McMahon (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Vince McMahon, respectively). Kip then declared that 'Triple Hollywood' and 'Shawn Kiss-my-bottom' were failing as

18997-422: The profession in his early 20s in order to pursue a career as a professional wrestler. Trained by Jerry Gray, Sopp wrestled on the independent circuit for eight years (including a brief stint as enhancement talent for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) before signing a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1993. After weeks of vignettes , Sopp, under the name Billy Gunn, made his WWF debut on

19154-513: 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

19311-421: The referees. On the November 26 episode of Impact! , B.G. brought Kip and the 3Live Kru to ringside and asked Killings and Konnan whether Kip could join the stable. Following a heated argument between Konnan and B.G., both Killings and Konnan gave their approval, and the 4Live Kru was born. However, at Turning Point , Konnan attacked both B.G. and Kip, costing them their match against Team Canada and initiating

19468-759: The rights to ECW's assets (including the ability to use of its name on-air) were still being debated in bankruptcy court at that time, so the name of the group was changed to "The Alliance". The Alliance also extended to the WWF's developmental territory the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA), itself a former WCW developmental territory, where members appeared as "Team WCW". At the Invasion pay-per-view on July 22, Team Alliance (Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno , and The Dudley Boyz ) defeated Team WWF ( Stone Cold Steve Austin , The Undertaker, Kane , Kurt Angle , and Chris Jericho ) in

19625-572: The ring name Daddy Ass . He is a member of The Acclaimed as a manager and the team's six-man tag team partner. He was previously known for his tenures in World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) from 1993 to 2004 and from 2012 to 2015, while also serving as a coach on WWE's Tough Enough and was a trainer in NXT . He also wrestled for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from 2005 to 2009. Primarily

19782-632: The same gimmick, helping Jeff Jarrett retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a match with Kevin Nash . Sopp, using the name The New Age Outlaw, then formed a stable with Jarrett and Monty Brown known as Planet Jarrett . However, WWE threatened TNA with legal action if Sopp continued the use of the name "The New Age Outlaw", so he shortened his name to The Outlaw. Due to the legal issues with WWE, all TNA - DVD releases featuring footage with Sopp as "The Outlaw" (and presumably also as "The New Age Outlaw") have had

19939-555: 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

20096-439: The side, defeated Shawn Dean, Sean Maluta & RYZIN. On the December 1, 2021, episode of Dynamite , The Gunn Club stable's undefeated streak in AEW ended when Billy and Colten Gunn lost to the team of Sting and Darby Allin. On the April 15, 2022, episode of AEW Rampage , the Gunn Club lost a six-man tag team match to Blackpool Combat Club ( Bryan Danielson , Jon Moxley , and Wheeler Yuta ), after Yuta pinned Billy. On

20253-509: 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

20410-523: 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

20567-399: 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

20724-706: The title against the Acolytes Protection Agency , the Dudley Boyz , and the Hardy Boyz in a Four Corners Elimination Match at WrestleMania X8 and against Al Snow and Maven at Backlash , Billy and Chuck began a feud with Rikishi . At Judgment Day , Rikishi and Rico (Rikishi's mystery partner of Mr. McMahon's choosing) defeated Billy and Chuck for the WWE Tag Team Championship after Rico accidentally hit Chuck with

20881-428: The title becoming known simply as the World Championship. Co-owners McMahon and Flair decided that, since there were now two world championships in the company, a tournament would be set up at Vengeance on December 9 to crown an Undisputed WWF Champion. Current WWF Champion Stone Cold Austin was to take on Kurt Angle while World Champion The Rock was to take on Chris Jericho, with the winners then facing off to become

21038-572: The title to Ken Dixon . On June 12, 2016, Gunn won the Smashmouth Pro Wrestling championship from KC Huber but lost it on the same night, Gunn teamed again with Anderson in a losing effort against the UK Hooligans at PCW Tribute to theTroops on June 25, 2016. He defeated Hardcore Holly in a singles match at PCW Top Gunn on July 2, 2016. On September 4, 2016, Gunn made his debut for Chikara , representing DX alongside X-Pac in

21195-401: The titles again in September 1995. On February 15, 1996, the Gunns vacated the title because Billy was in need of neck surgery. After Billy returned from hiatus, The Smoking Gunns won the Tag Team Title for the third time by defeating The Godwinns in May. After the match, The Godwinns' manager Sunny turned on her team in favor of the Gunns. On September 22 at In Your House: Mind Games,

21352-592: The titles and on February 21, 2008, episode of Impact! he turned on B.G. and B.G's father "Bullet" Bob Armstrong by hitting them both with a crutch. On April 13, 2008, he faced former partner B.G. James at Lockdown and lost. After the match, he appeared to want to make amends as he raised B.G.'s hand after the match, only to clothesline him down to the mat and taunt him with a DX crotch chop. Kip went on to declare himself "The Megastar", an arrogant gimmick similar to "The One" gimmick from his WWF tenure. Kip later stopped making appearances on Impact! until April 24 when he

21509-432: 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

21666-467: 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

21823-413: The wrestlers in the various feuds. Over time, numerous WWF wrestlers would defect to The Alliance, including Test , William Regal , Ivory , and Christian. Former ECW and WCW wrestler Steven Richards would belatedly defect to The Alliance, bringing WCW alumni KroniK with him. In return, Chuck Palumbo and Torrie Wilson defected from The Alliance to the WWF. Kurt Angle also defected to The Alliance on

21980-471: 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

22137-419: 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

22294-623: Was announced as a coach along with WWE Hall of Famers Booker T and Lita for the sixth season of Tough Enough . On November 13, 2015, WWE officially announced that Sopp was released from his WWE contract after failing a test for performance-enhancing drugs . He had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone at a powerlifting event on July 25, 2015, and was suspended from powerlifting for four years. On December 26, 2015, Gunn teamed up with Kevin Thorn to defeat Brian Klass and Rob Street. One month later, Gunn defeated Ken Dixon for

22451-586: Was attacked backstage by Matt Morgan for no reason. The next week on Impact! , Kip got back at Morgan by attacking him backstage in Jim Cornette 's office. On May 8, 2008, Cornette forced Morgan into being Kip's tag team partner for the Deuces Wild tournament at Sacrifice , though both were unable to win. Kip went on another brief disappearance from television until the June 5 edition of Impact! , where he partnered with Lance Hoyt and James Storm in

22608-585: Was clear tension between the partners because Brown was unhappy at the series of losses at the hands of the 3Live Kru, and Kip was irked by Brown's decision to leave Planet Jarrett. Despite the victory, the partners argued after the match. On the October 8, 2005, episode of Impact! , Kip rekindled his feud with the 3Live Kru, running to the ring after a bout between the 3LK and Team Canada in order to prevent Team Canada captain Petey Williams from beating down B.G. James. He saved James, and then engaged in

22765-556: Was cut off. Kip then tried to use the announcer's headset, but it was cut off as well. Frustrated, he started yelling loudly to the crowd, but he was cut off again as the show went to a commercial break. When the show returned, the announcers speculated that they may have been frustrated due to the influx of new talent entering TNA. It was reported that the segment was a worked shoot that Vince Russo had written in order to renew interest upon their eventual return. Kip and BG appeared in an internet video on TNA's website where they addressed

22922-422: Was escorted out of the arena by security, but unlike Shane she made a quick return and began appearing again shortly after the return of her then on-screen husband Triple H in January 2002, which led to a three-month-long feud that ended shortly after WrestleMania X8 on March 17. One of the more important changes following Survivor Series was the removal of the WCW branding from The Rock's WCW Championship, with

23079-416: 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

23236-462: Was forming an ECW team to take on the feuding WWF and WCW factions. Later that evening, Vince and Shane agreed to put aside their differences and join forces to take out ECW once and for all in a twenty-man brawl between Team WWF ( Hardcore Holly , Big Show , APA , and Billy Gunn ), Team WCW ( Chris Kanyon , Chuck Palumbo , Sean O'Haire , Shawn Stasiak , and Mark Jindrak ), and the ECW invaders. When

23393-464: Was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2019 as a member of D-Generation X. In January 2019, Gunn was hired by All Elite Wrestling as a coach . At May 25 at the AEW Double or Nothing event he competed in the pre-show battle royal. Gunn made his first televised appearance for AEW on the November 20, 2019, episode of AEW Dynamite , competing in a battle royal. He also appeared during

23550-521: 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

23707-486: 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

23864-547: Was released from his WWE contract. In June 2005, Sopp gave an interview in which he was heavily critical of WWE and the events that led to his release. Many of the negative comments were directed towards Triple H , who Sopp claimed "runs the show up there". On February 13, 2005, Sopp debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) without a name (as Billy Gunn is a WWE trademark , although announcers recognized him as such) at Against All Odds with

24021-487: 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

24178-583: 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"

24335-515: 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

24492-532: 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;

24649-455: Was wearing a skin mask ), who then summoned 3-Minute Warning to beat up Billy and Chuck. Rico, furious that Billy and Chuck gave up their gimmick, became the manager of Three Minute Warning and defected to Raw . At Unforgiven , Three Minute Warning defeated Billy and Chuck. Their final match together occurred on the October 3 episode of SmackDown! in the first round of a tournament for the newly created WWE Tag Team Championship . They lost

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