I worked for WCW Magazine from 1995 until August of 1999. I was a writer, then Associate Editor, then Executive Editor.
I wrote a lot of stories and interviews and managed everyone else who wrote including the wrestlers who guest wrote. Jericho was the best, Stevie Richards was also easy to work with. A few others, who I won't mention, were just grrr to deal with. I also discussed with the publisher, who was my very close friend by then and I respected and still respect immensely, ideas for stories, interviews, covers and the layout of the magazine. We had a WCW rep who looked at everything to be sure we didn't break kayfabe or say something tat would make one of the bigwigs or wrestlers mad and that kind of ticked me off but that was how it was.
I traveled to all the PPVs and many televised shows, stayed in the same hotels with the workers and staff, had full backstage privileges and was part of the gang but....not because I was a woman. That is where "On the Fringe" came from. I was on the fringe of being in and out of the business.
I left WCW Magazine in August of 1999 when they asked us to move to Atlanta and work in house. We were producing the magazine from all over the world. I was in NY, my publisher was in FL, our designers were in the UK, other writers were in Chicago and other places. It all came together fine for years.
But they wanted it in house and we all decided (bar one guy) not to do it. Thankfully because WCW collapsed only months later!
I saw the decline. When I was very involved, we were on top. Money flowed like water. I had a HUGE salary (You wouldn't believe it), a large multi room office near my hone with several employees I hired to do different types of jobs, a beautiful sports car leased for me, several charge cards with no limits, free travel everywhere and hotel, room service, whatever plus many other perks (like the Bruise Cruise which was a cruise with the wrestlers to the Bahamas Amazing!). Anything I wanted or needed, I got.
And so did many others within WCW.
Which led to their financial collapse. I think we all knew it wouldn't and couldn't last forever. I mean even Ted Turner has a limit, but we were having so much fun and enjoying huge ratings (I am talking in the 8's....WWE does high 3's and very low 4's on good weeks now) and everything was great.
Slowly though WWE was creeping back up and finding its attitude. Now, this was tough for me because I was always a WWF/WWE fan and never missed it. I wanted it to do well. It was sad on Tuesdays when the ratings came in and we had beaten them so badly.
83 weeks later, they beat us in the ratings by a small margin and that was the beginning of the end for WCW. It was all downhill from there. Management changed, Russo came over, Eric and him could not work together, the wrestlers, who were so used to doing whatever they wanted refused to adhere to new rules, and everyone got miserable and started to rebel.
I was already Editor in Chief of RollerJam magazine when WCW was sold. But it was no surprise, I knew about it months before it happened.
It was sad but the era had ended when we left and things changed so I wasn't really upset. I was hoping Vince would keep the WCW brand alive but he didn't, which was disappointing. I also was sad to see some of my friends out of a job and then ECW collapsed! And WWE took THAT over too.
I knew then that wrestling as we knew it would not be the same for a very long time and it isn't.
I am just holding out hope that TNA makes some difference and that it gives the workers somewhere to go when they are axed or unhappy.
If you want to start a thread asking me things, go ahead. I can't say some things as you might imagine but I can talk about what I saw and did and thinks like that. Just not anything that would get me chokeslammed ....again <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Big Show was The Giant in WCW. This is about 7 years old!
