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PWINSIDER Q&A: WCW-NWA CHANGE, BIGGEST BATTLE ROYALE EVER?, XPW AND MORE

Answered on 12/15

Hi guys, I was reading a question about turning Batista heel against Cena on Sunday, setting up a match at WM. If this went ahead, do you think they could make it a winner take all match, bringing an end to the brand extension?

No way.  Even if WWE went with a "Champion vs. Champion" main event of Cena vs. Batista (provided both are still champions) at Wrestlemania, they wouldn't end the brand extension.  WWE is enjoying the revenue of having two separate house show tours and an excuse to have even more PPV events too much to end it now. Besides, now that they are doing crossover angles all the time, there really is no point in ending it. 

I saw the cover for the upcoming "XPW: After The Fall" DVD & saw Raven on the cover. When was Raven in XPW?

I know Raven worked at least one show for XPW in 2003, losing to Vic Grimes. 

What are your thoughts on turning Raw into the heavyweight show with the World, U.S. and a T.V. title, then turning Smackdown into the Tag Team, Cruiserweight, and Women show and having a combined PPV with all titles and about three or four grudge matches?

I think it is an interesting thought, but it will never happen.  WWE's mindset is that singles matches with heavyweights draw, not tag teams, Cruiserweights or Women's matches, so you will never see a WWE brand that doesn't include a heavyweight division on top of it. 

Why is WWE promoting the 30 man battle royal as the biggest in history of wrestling? Wasn't the old World War 3, 3 ring 60 men battle royal bigger? Is it something that WWE doesn't like to acknowledge stuff that happened on WCW even though they now own them? Could you explain.

It is just typical WWE hype taking priority over telling the truth.  Forgetting about WCW for a moment, WWE has had plenty of 40 man battle royales in the past, so having one with 30 is hardly that impressive. 

My question has to do with the usual confusion surrounding Jim Crockett Promotions merging into World Championship Wrestling. Now as I understand it, JCP was sold to Ted Turner on November 21, 1988. The thing I'm wondering though is that after seeing a "Clash Of The Champions" broadcast on WWE 24/7 recently from December 7, 1988, when exactly did Turner decide to change the name of the product to WCW, considering it was still under the NWA banner and Crockett still had a hand in producing the shows (at least evidenced on the Clash Of The Champions broadcast I mentioned)? I realize they used the NWA titles up until around 1991, but I'm not sure when the name was actually changed over to WCW. Thanks for any help you can give me, and keep up the great work guys!

Turner made the purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions on November 21, 1988.  Over the next few months, they slowly began referring to things as "WCW" instead of "NWA".  Things really didn't become an issue until 1991, when Ric Flair left WCW for the WWF, and a split was made between WCW (owned by Turner) and the NWA Titles (which were controlled by the NWA Board Of Directors) over the status of their "World championships". 

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