How much did Vince McMahon pay for WCW?

Vince McMahon is one of the most popular names in pro wrestling, despite not being a full-time wrestler himself. He is the man who owned WWE for about forty years. It was under his leadership that WWE became the biggest pro-wrestling promotion in the world, beating every other opponent.

Born on August 24, 1945, McMahon became interested in professional wrestling at the age of 12. He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps in pro wrestling. McMahon worked as a manager, ring announcer, promoter, commentator, and assistant for his father in WWF. In 1980, he founded Titan Sports Inc., and two years later, Titan acquired WWF from his father.

McMahon’s first step as the owner was to leave the NWA and go independent. He hired Hulk Hogan and created The Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection. While things were going well for the company, something momentous was missing. McMahon achieved this by putting in all his money on WrestleMania, a gamble that paid off, and the rest is history.

WWE became the biggest pro wrestling promotion in the world. However, it had to then, defend its title against its competitors. While it has faced promotions such as TNA, ROH, AEW, and NJPW during its life, no promotion gave WWE a fight as tough as WCW did. The Monday Night Wars is surely one of the most interesting rating wars ever, and everyone knows how it ended.

For how much WCW was sold to WWE / Vince McMahon?

Following a fiery fight against WWE for years, WCW was sold to WWE in 2001. Firstly, the company’s trademark for name and logo was sold to WWE for $2.5 Million. Then, Vince McMahon purchased the entire WCW library for an additional $1.7 Million. This brought the final tally of WCW’s acquisition cost to $4.2 Million.

WWE vs. WCW - The Monday Night Wars

After WWE left the NWA in the early 1980s, Jim Crockett Promotions tried to rally the rest of the NWA to create a nationwide promotion. They also created StarCade as a response to WWE’s WrestleMania. However, Crockett had to sell the company to Ted Turner in the late 1990s, who renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

Over the next years, WCW’s Prime Time Wrestling started failing while WWE came up with the revolutionary Monday Night RAW. Things started changing when WCW hired Eric Bischoff and facilitated the reunion of Four Horseman, including Ric Flair. By the end of 1994, Bischoff started Turner’s fund to bring the biggest names of WWF including Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage amongst other wrestlers.

WCW’s Monday Nitro premiered in 1995. The show began as a one-hour programming overlapping WWE’s Monday Night RAW. Soon, it turned into two hours, and three hours over the next years. In 1996, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash left WWE for WCW. They acted as Outsiders in WCW and they were surprisingly joined by Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1996. This completely turned the tides of Monday Night Wars in WCW’s favor.

WWE soon realized that its traditional storylines of “Face vs. Heel” were not going to work anymore. It had to do something more appealing to the new audience, and there was born the Attitude Era with stars like Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H in the focus. After Bret Hart left WWE for WCW, Austin and The Rock became perhaps the biggest names in the company and their feud defined the rest of the era.

In 1998, thanks to its new Attitude-centric programming, RAW defeated Nitro in programming for the first time since 1996. WCW had already relied on nWo for three years. Thus, it decided to split the faction in half to spice things up. WCW also brought in Bill Goldberg at the time.

While both the nWo split and Goldberg’s streak were appealing to fans at first, it failed to give any payout due to their lackluster conclusions. WCW also introduced Thunder, a two-hour program, but it did not help an ailing WCW. Eventually, due to spending loads of money and poor storytelling in later years, WCW stumbled and had to be sold. Who was a better person to buy it than Mr McMahon himself?