It was exactly 10 years ago yesterday that Vince McMahon sneered maniacally, got right in my face and yelled in his gravelly voice, "You're fired!"
Actually, that didn't really happen, at least not literally. Figuratively speaking, however, the WWE chairman did indeed put me out of work. In fact, he was responsible for costing me what was something of a dream job. I wasn't alone, however, as nearly all of my co-workers at the time were let go as well.
Just one year earlier, I had been hired by World Championship Wrestling to be the editor of WCW Magazine. Unfortunately, not long after taking the position, speculation began running rampant that WCW was either going to fold or be sold.
We all know how that turned out. A deal was in place for a group led by Eric Bischoff to purchase the company, but it fell through when a Turner Broadcasting executive announced that WCW programming on TBS and TNT was being cancelled. That allowed McMahon and WWE to swoop in and buy WCW.On March 26, 2001, the final episode of WCW Nitro took place in Panama City Beach, Fla., the site of WCW's annual Spring Breakout episode. I attended the show that night at the Boardwalk Beach Resort and watched it with a sense of foreboding and sadness.
While rumors were circulating that WCW was going to continue as a separate entity under the WWE banner, I and a lot of other office workers with the company had a pretty good idea that we were not going to be a part of it. At the same time, I also realized that I was witnessing something truly historic, as the pro wrestling landscape was changing forever right in front of my eyes.
To say the whole thing was surreal would be an understatement. For the past five and a half years, WWE and WCW had competed in a heated and extremely personal head-to-head ratings battle on Monday nights, and now WWE personnel such as Shane McMahon and Bruce Pritchard not only were backstage at a WCW broadcast, they were running the show.
The episode – which aired on TNT and was billed as "Night of Champions," as all of WCW's titles were on the line – began with Vince McMahon appearing via satellite from Cleveland's Gund Arena, the site of that night's Raw, to announce that he had purchased WCW. Playing his Mr. McMahon heel character, he said that he held WCW's fate in the palm of his hands. It was simultaneously both a work and a shoot.
The first match on the program saw U.S. champion Booker T. defeat Scott Steiner for the WCW world title. That result seemed to indicate that WWE had plans for Booker, but not necessarily for "Big Poppa Pump."
Fittingly, the final match on Nitro was between the two biggest stars in WCW history – Ric Flair and Sting. After Sting won the match with the Scorpion Deathlock, the two longtime rivals broke character and embraced.
The climax of the show was simulcast on Raw on TNN (which has since become Spike TV). As Mr. McMahon gloated about buying his competition, Shane McMahon suddenly appeared before the live crowd in Panama City and made his way to the ring to a huge pop. Shane – who was involved in a story line feud with his father at the time – announced that he had actually purchased WCW because Vince had not yet signed the papers to seal the deal.
And with that, an era came to an end.
While hanging out with WCW talent and office workers after the show, it was clear that many of the wrestlers were concerned about their future. Some knew that they were going to be part of the "new WCW" in WWE, but others wondered if their careers were over. There were a lot of hugs going around that night.
For those of us who worked in the office, the other shoe dropped later that week. We were called into a meeting at the Power Plant – the gym that the company used to train its developmental talent – and informed that we were being let go.
As disappointed as I was to be losing a job that I loved, the truth was that I had only been with WCW for a year. There were plenty of people in the Power Plant that day who had been with the company far longer, including David Crockett – the former NWA announcer who went on to work behind the scenes in WCW – whose family had been in the wrestling business for decades. Those were the ones I truly felt bad for.
Beyond the fact that I was suddenly unemployed, I also was saddened as a wrestling fan to see WCW close its doors.
To this day it still amazes me that WCW Nitro – the show that ignited the wrestling boom in the late '90s and re-defined what a prime time wrestling program looked like – ended up being a casualty of the Monday Night War.
Photo: A flyer I saved from the final Nitro.