PWTorch Newsletter Flashback - 20 years ago
Bill Watts demoted from head of WCW

Headline: Bill Watts Demoted
Subheadline: Dhue and Shaw Take Control of WCW; Jim Ross Taken Off The Air Completely

By Wade Keller, Editor/Publisher

Bill Watts’s power in WCW was significantly reduced last week and Jim Ross was removed from his television announcing duties among several other changes in WCW's front office.

A meeting Friday, Jan. 29 with WCW management, including Bob Dhue, Bill Shaw, and Bill Watts, led to Watts being dismissed from his position of total control over WCW.

Sources say initially the meeting was to inform Watts of his dismissal entirely. Low ratings, low attendance, and low buyrates along with overall discontent with Watts’s style of running WCW apparently led to the decision to make major changes.

Ross's situation is less clear, although according to sources close to the situation, Watts was negative toward Ross during his meetings with Dhue and Shaw, and combined with a bad review for Ross by a consulting firm hired by WCW, the decision was made to go with a new look.

Tony Schiavone will replace Ross on WCW Saturday Night and Eric Bischoff will host WCW Main Event. There is no confirmation on whether Ross will retum to TV as host of WCW World Wide, but the possibility has been discussed. Schiavone was already replaced by Gordon Solie as host of “WCW Up Close."

Ross, who has hosted WCW Saturday Night since Ted Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987, will be sent on the road to sell World Wide to television stations. Ross had a similar role with the UWF when it expanded nationally and was successful, but that was at a time when wrestling was an easier sell.

Dhue and Shaw have taken a more hands-on approach with WCW in the last two months, and especially in recent weeks. Dhue is the President of WCW who appointed Shaw as WCW Vice President. Dhue also hired Bill Watts.

There are four top management positions below Dhue and Shaw. Watts retains his position as vice president in charge of wrestling operations with his powers significantly reduced, Bischoff has been promoted to executive producer of television and has gained significant power with Dhue and Shaw, Sharron Sedello remains the executive vice president of marketing, and Rob Garner remains the executive vice president for business. All four will answer to Dhue and Shaw.

The booking committee has been expanded to 16, including Greg Gagne, Bill Dundee, Dusty Rhodes, Watts, Sedello, Gamer, Bischoff, and eight others.

These front-office changes have led to various reactions from WCW employees and wrestlers. There is no hint of what changes will be made in the on-air product due to the changes.

***

Torch Editorial Flashback
Headline: Did Watts's Demotion Come Too Soon?
By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Critics of Bill Watts this week said the overpush of his son and inability to increase business in his first six months makes his demotion a necessity.

Supporters of Watts have said this demotion comes after Watts had substantially cut WCW’s payroll and was beginning to build some momentum with better television and an upgrade in singles wrestlers to work with.

Both sides will likely make their opinions well-known in the upcoming weeks. The degree of vehemence by those on both sides will depend on the power Watts retains when the smoke clears.

If Watts ends up leaving WCW within a few weeks and then WCW goes downhill further, there will be a lot of second-guessing of Bob Dhue and Bill Shaw.

That second-guessing would be well deserved because Watts, for all of his faults, was not necessarily given a fair chance to get all of his ideas across. He did not adapt to the corporate structure well, a point that was brought up before he was hired by WCW and stressed over and over again after he was hired.

The guaranteed contracts were something Watts had never before dealt with. He was told to reduce salaries and he took the only routes he knew. Unfortunately, some of those routes were of questionable ethics, not to mention of questionable legality.

Watts overpushed his son. That has been said a million times. But because the push got so out of control and because every time Watts was criticized it made him push Erik even harder, it was probably a contributing factor in the early changes in the front office.

But under Watts’s leadership, WCW Saturday Night saw improvements. The problem is, Watts had never dealt with more than two hours of television per week before. He was unable to stretch his endurance to produce seven distinctive hours of WCW wrestling. Perhaps the new format of having different bookers and producers for each program will be the answer. However, better than having different teams for each show, one leader with a vision of how television shows can look different and still be worthwhile and garner ratings (as seen with WWF's Superstars, Challenge, Raw, and All-American) would have been better. A leader with vision, the respect of his staff, and the ability to effectively delegate would have been the ideal answer.

If the changes this week prove to be successful and out of this mess comes order and improved business, then no one will question this new structure. However, if business does not improve under this new structure, Watts will be looked at as the man whose tires were slashed just as he got rolling.

There may not be enough fresh faces with knowledge of wrestling in power positions in WCW. Michael Hayes has received mixed reviews over the years, but many have spoken about him as a future leader behind the scenes. Now is his chance to shine. Greg Gagne has yet to be tested. WCW WorldWide is as big of a test as you can have - WCW’s number one vehicle to sell house show tickets is in his hands.

And Eric Bischoff has been handed a hefty responsibility as producer of TBS’s weekend shows. He must prove he is not all sizzle, no steak, which is what his appearance and demeanor suggest to many.

However, if you add Eddie Gilbert’s name to the mix, along with Ric Flair, perhaps there will be enough fresh blood to make some positive changes.

But all of the speculation in the world will not answer the most important question, and that is whether there is a commitment on everyone’s part to work together and form a synergy. Without the necessary chemistry, the talent and ideas will clash and cancel each other out. And if Bill Watts sticks around, he will have to be enough of a person to accept a decrease in his power.

Even though I was one of Watts’s strongest critics, I can’t help but believe that it would have been better for WCW to give Bill Watts through May to see what he would have done with Ric Flair and Davey Boy Smith as two top singles attractions. Already there are over a dozen people with over a dozen ideas of how Ric Flair can best be utilized. Getting one solid scenario that is not muddled through compromise and watering-down will be a tough challenge.

Waiting in the wings are several people with experience in wrestling who believe they could successfully take over Watts’s position of a couple weeks ago and be more successful. If the delegated power approach does not work, more changes will come. Dhue and Shaw are proving to be willing to pull the trigger on change.

For Kip Frey and Bill Watts, that is not good news. For wrestling fans, hopefully it is.

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