Kevin Sullivan Recalls Events That Lead To WCW Being Bought Out By WWE
Kevin Sullivan was one of the many bookers in WCW during the 1990s, but he actually played a role in Nitro's popularity during the Monday Night Wars. However, it was also his promotion to head booker in 2000 that continued WCW's downfall and eventual sale to WWE.
It wasn't all Sullivan that led to WCW's decline, and he was asked what he attributed the company's downfall to when he joined VOC Nation.
"They went to comedy. Funny doesn't earn money – it's that simple. I'm a boxing fan; do you go to see a fight that's just going to be a joke? No. Then they tried to bury Ric Flair in a desert? They wanted to get rid of him. They wanted to get rid of Ric Flair since 1989," said Sullivan. "They don't know where to drive the stake? He's the greatest champion of all time and they tried to get rid of him – that's how silly these people are. Egos!"
Eric Bischoff was also involved in the booking process, and Sullivan has nothing but respect for the job Bischoff did. He complimented Bischoff for getting WCW to the position it was during it's heyday despite the constraints he had to deal with from above.
"Eric did an amazing, amazing job. But he had to go out to the north tower. If someone wanted to [say] foreign object, he had to listen to them [change the name to] international [object]. [It was] wasting his days. He could have been using his time [better]. They succeeded in spite of themselves and they succeeded because of Eric Bischoff," stated Sullivan. "And Eric was a smart enough guy to listen to guys that were very smart. And in the end, they made a huge mistake and they went to comedy, and comedy doesn't draw money."
In 2001 WCW's parent company, Time Warner, merged with AOL to become AOL Time Warner. However, AOL wasn't too fond of wrestling programming, which meant that no network wanted WCW. That led to Vince McMahon buying the company and buying his chief competition.
Sullivan discussed the AOL-Time Warner merger and why that signaled the end of WCW.
"I think it was destined to die because they didn't want it to work. AOL didn't want wrestling, didn't want it," said Sullivan.