by Greg Dillard

The talk of the wrestling world over the past couple months has consistently surrounded the potential purchase of World Championship Wrestling. The list of potential suitors for the struggling promotion has been changing so rapidly lately that you almost need a crib sheet to figure out who's in and who's out. Mandalay Entertainment, SFX Promotions, The WWF, and many different forms of Eric Bischoff have dominated these rumors. On more than one occasion the deal has been very close to being completed, only to have it fall apart at the last minute. Now, it appears Eric Bischoff is set to re-gain control of the company once again. According to Wade Keller on last night's edition of The Edge it is nearly a foregone conclusion that Eric Bischoff, along with a host of investors, will secure WCW very soon.

Assuming this all is true…assuming it's finally going to get done…

Then what?

The ATM machine, one would assume, is not nearly as available for Eric this time around. Gone is Ted Turner's checkbook, and gone is the huge budget necessary to pull big name talent away from the WWF.

Gone are the days of Vince McMahon leaving his company vulnerable for the talent thefts Bischoff used so well the last time around the block. Wrestlers, almost all WWF wrestlers, are re-signed to new deals when they get within their last year of WWF employment. The days of Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett, Sean Waltman, and others leaving the WWF to get a big paycheck in WCW are over. Vince has been burned before and has made the changes needed to prevent it from ever happening again.

Gone is a lot of the talent depth. Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Paul Wight, Eddy Guererro, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, Steven Regal, Juventud Guererra, Scott Hall, and Raven are all gone from WCW. All of these guys played a fairly important role in the last successful run of the Eric Bischoff-led WCW. All of these guys either main evented or provided some of the best matches on almost each and every card. All are now in the WWF or are out of the mainstream wrestling scene altogether.

In other words, gone is a lot of what let Eric Bischoff be successful the first time around. That means that in order to be effective, in order to actually re-create the Monday Night "Wars", Eric Bischoff is going to need to start from scratch and come up with some new ideas. As someone who's known as an "idea guy," that may play into Eric's hand….but what exactly is left to do in the world of wrestling that hasn't been done before?

One thing has been proven. If nothing else, Vince Russo proved one thing. You cannot "out-WWF" the WWF. Russo attempted to copy almost every detail of New York and failed at each and every turn. Gimmicks, production, match styles…everything down to the ring rope colors has been ripped off and it's done absolutely zip in terms of bringing WCW back to respectability. Trying to rip off and create a WWF style product will not work.

So what do you do? You're stuck with a thin talent roster. There are very wrestlers left with drawing power, and even fewer that are healthy. Perhaps, just maybe the route to travel here is the route less traveled. Perhaps you need to play to the strengths of your company rather than to the weaknesses. Perhaps it's time to let the wrestlers wrestle?

They have the talent to pull that off. Guys like Lance Storm, Jeff Jarrett, Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio Jr, Chavo Guererro, Mike Awesome, 3 Count, Kaz Hayashi, and may others have the talent to consitently turn out **** level matches. Mixed in with the "names" like Steiner, Goldberg, Sting, Booker T and others this could figure to be a somewhat successful formula. They also have the availability and opportunity to add some depth to the roster of these type of wrestlers. Guys like Rob Van Dam, Jerry Lynn, Kid Kash, Psychosis, Super Crazy, and Yoshihiro Tajiri could add a lot of workrate depth to that roster. Figure in some potential Japanese imports such as Tokyo Magnum, and Jushin Liger….and you just might have something. If nothing else you'd be guaranteed to have something that isn't being shown at the same time, just a few channels away.

The main problem with this is simple. In today's world of instant ratings the producers of a show want the ratings quickly. To build this type of product you would need to stay the course for quite some time. You would need a vision for your company that could effectively sell a smaller, good workrate style group of wrestlers as being legitimate to the WCW audience.

You would need a ton of patience, and you would need vision. Those two things have been lacking for, well….almost forever in WCW. Can they turn it around this time?

I think the answer here is simple. They have to. Whether it be this idea, or some other "new" thing, they have to come up with some new variation of wrestling in order to succeed. They have to make a commitment, stick with it, and see it through. They have to play to their strengths rather than their weaknesses. They have to slowly build back the respectability that they have all but lost.

They have to or they are going to die. New owner or not, unless you fix the problems nothing will ever change. Nothing will change until they finally shut the doors for good.

Final Take
This column was a variation on the comments that Wade Keller and I shared on last night's Edge. To check out the show you can go to EdgeLive.com. Speaking of the show, we should have Les Thatcher back next Tuesday. Les is always a great interview and has a lot of experience in the business. You'll want to check out that one.

Also, be sure to check back for more from me over at Emzee.com. We've just brought in 8, count 'em 8 new writers over there and thus far they've done a bang up job. For a change of pace check it out.

Till next week…..