Encore: WWF vs WCW | Shock Tactics | 5

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s 1996 and with Monday Nitro topping the TV ratings, WCW is out to end WWF’s time as the biggest player in the wrestling business.

It’s plotting to establish two brands: one that WCW boss Eric Bischoff hopes can suck away WWF’s family audience, another that will seek to capture the young males who crave more violent and outrageous entertainment than the WWF offers.

But Vince McMahon has a plan of his own. He’s going to push the WWF in a new direction by embracing controversy. But it’s a strategy that will put him on a collision course with the cable network the WWF depends on for its survival.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Business Wars ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:16.0	It's Friday, November 1st, 1996. And in Walton, Kentucky, Vince McMahon's exploring the large colonial home of wrestler Brian Pilman.
0:25.0	The curly, blood-haired Pilman is a rising star in the WWF, but he's out of action after shattering his ankle in a car crash.
0:34.0	So McMahon's keeping him in the spotlight, with the storyline about a feud he's having with thuggish WWF star Stone Cold Steve Austin.
0:44.0	Now to keep the fictional feud going, McMahon's planning a major surprise. And that's why he's checking out Pilman's pad.
0:51.0	As Pilman hobbles behind him with his foot in a cast, McMahon surveys the basement lounge.
0:59.0	He spots a side door with a glass window pane.
1:03.0	Well, film it here.
1:05.0	Pilman flops onto the cream-colored couch to rest his broken ankle.
1:10.0	So, what do you need from me?
1:13.0	Sit there like you are right now, but with your wife at your side, we'll have the interviewer in this chair here.
1:19.0	Now the angle is Stone Cold Steve Austin's coming for you. He's going to invade your home and you've got to defend your castle.
1:27.0	You got a gun?
1:29.0	Yeah, I got a 9mm block.
1:32.0	Good, good.
1:34.0	Hold that in the interview. Okay, show it off. Austin will break in by smashing the window at that side door.
1:40.0	Now when he gets in, I want pandemonium. Your wife is screaming, you're waving the gun, and then we cut.
1:47.0	We'll say the live feed went down. Okay, anything else?
1:53.0	The feed returns at the end of the show. Austin fled after seeing your gun, but then he returns.
2:00.0	Your friends hold him back, but you've totally lost it. You're yelling and you're pointing your gun and threatening to kill Austin. Okay?
2:08.0	And then just when it looks like you're going to pull the trigger, the show ends. Wow. When are we taping it? We're not.
2:15.0	It's got to feel real. We'll broadcast it live on Monday. So remember, don't swear.
	...

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