We're all used to seeing the WWF high up in the Lycos 50. After all, Vince McMahon's wrestling outfit has never dropped out of the top 20. But once upon a time there were two different wrestling leagues in the Lycos 50: WWF and WCW.
WCW, or World Championship Wrestling, is the league that is owned by Ted Turner and Time Warner. Or should I say, was owned by Time Warner. This week, AOL Time Warner sold the WCW to Vince McMahon and the WWF, giving McMahon total monopoly over major pro wrestling. On Monday night, WCW broadcast on TNT for the last time; soon it will switch to the WWF's network, TNN.
Once upon a time, WCW actually got higher television ratings than the WWF. Led by president Eric Bischoff, WCW first challenged the WWF in the "Monday Night Wars" with the premiere of WCW Nitro in September 1995. From Spring 1996 to Spring 1998, it was the most popular wrestling league, luring many of the WWF's big name stars (Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage) to their "New World Order" story line, which pitted the wrestlers against the organization itself.
Those big name stars got old and stale, however, and WCW's popularity fell as the WWF got its act together with new superstars and new attitude. But WCW still had tons of fans, thanks to a few younger superstars like Goldberg and Buff Bagwell and the popular Nitro Girls.
WCW was the #45 online topic in 1999; in 2000 it dropped to #92. Since wrestling's online peak in October 1999, the WCW had lost over 75 percent of its search traffic -- until this week. Interest in the purchase caused WCW searches to double this week, and searches for Vince McMahon went up 70 percent.
The WWF is spinning the WCW purchase as part of its continuing story line that has Vince McMahon and son Shane fighting for control of the company. Monday night, WCW's last Nitro program and WWF's Raw is War simulcast for their last twenty minutes. Vince appeared to announce that he expected Ted Turner himself to come to Wrestlemania 17 this Sunday in order to sign the contract to sell the company, and then Vince would close WCW forever (crowd boos). Then Shane appeared to announce that he had purchased WCW himself and would make it even better than WWF (crowd cheers).
Yes, in one fell swoop, McMahon changed his story line to make an entire league into good guys (in wrestling parlance, babyfaces) fighting against the ultimate bad guy: Vince McMahon.
Will the WCW's bad guys ally with McMahon? Can the WCW regain its popularity with the WWF's writers now in charge? Will it rejoin its new big brother on the Lycos 50? Will Bob Costas be signing as the new WCW color commentator? Tune in and find out?
TOMORROW: The top wrestlers of today: how dominant is the WWF?
BONUS POKEMON TALK: Two strange stories revolving around our favorite pocket monsters this week. First, this clubs indicates a strange reason why Pokemon searches may have been rising again recently. It seems there is an online rumor that Pikachu will be killed in the next Pokemon movie!
