| WCW WorldWide | |
|---|---|
 Logo 1999–2001 | |
| Also known as | Wide World Wrestling NWA World Wide Wrestling |
| Created by | Jim Crockett Promotions /World Championship Wrestling |
| Starring | SeeWorld Championship Wrestling alumni |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multicamera setup |
| Running time | 60 minutes per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndicated |
| Release | October 8, 1975 (1975-10-08) – March 31, 2001 (2001-03-31) |
| Related | |
| WCW Monday Nitro WCW Thunder WCW Saturday Night WCW Clash of the Champions WCW Pro | |
WCW WorldWide is an Americansyndicated television show that was produced byWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) that aired from October 8, 1975, to March 31, 2001. At the time of its cancellation,WorldWide was the longest-running, uninterrupted weekly syndicated show of any kind on the air in the United States.
The show began in 1975 asWide World Wrestling, a syndicated one-hour program produced byCharlotte, North Carolina–basedJim Crockett Promotions. It was taped each Wednesday night at the studios ofWRAL-TV inRaleigh, North Carolina, following the taping of the syndicatedMid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. The original host ofWide World Wrestling was formerGeorgia Championship Wrestling announcer Ed Capral.
Later hosts ofWide World Wrestling includedGeorge Scott,Sandy Scott,Dr. Tom Miller, andLes Thatcher.
In 1978, to avoid confusion withABC'sWide World of Sports (many newspapers would incorrectly mix the two shows up in their listings), JCP changed the name of the show to NWA World Wide Wrestling.Rich Landrum became the new host and was joined shortly thereafter by veteran wrestlerJohnny Weaver as color commentator.
In the summer of 1981, WRAL-TV opted not to renew its contract with JCP, citing that it needed the studio space to produce a new local version ofPM Magazine. Crockett initially worked out a deal withWCCB in Charlotte to house the tapings, but after that fell through he instead moved his production to a rival Charlotte station, then-Westinghouse Broadcasting-owned WPCQ-TV (nowWCNC-TV), a station which until recently had been owned byTed Turner.
WPCQ-TV had briefly played host to tapings forEddie Einhorn'sInternational Wrestling Association in the 1970s, so it seemed like a natural fit. The physical studio itself was very cramped however; the ring, television sets, banners, and camera platforms, which had been positioned symmetrically at WRAL-TV, were now positioned off-center.
Landrum leftWorld Wide Wrestling in 1982 after being released by Jim Crockett Promotions in a cost-cutting measure.David Crockett left his position asBob Caudle's color commentator onMid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling to take over play-by-play duties onWorld Wide.
For a time,World Wide ran with a three-man announce team as wrestlerRay "The Crippler" Stevens joined.Rowdy Roddy Piper would also occasionally commentate.
Not pleased with the studio situation, Crockett began to make plans to rectify matters and by July 1983, had moved his tapings out of WPCQ-TV and into major arenas, buying a mobile TV truck for $1 million and hiring his own crew.
In 1984,Tony Schiavone replaced Weaver as color commentator onWorld Wide (with Weaver moving over to join Caudle onMid-Atlantic). Schiavone had previously worked for JCP as the announcer for their minor league baseball team theCharlotte O's, and as the host of their market-specific promotional interview segments, which were used to promote events in individual towns.Tully Blanchard for a time joinedWorld Wide as a color commentator as well.
After the sale of JCP's wrestling assets toTurner Broadcasting in 1988,World Wide Wrestling went through a revolving series of announcing teams and included at various times such names as Schiavone,Jim Ross,Gordon Solie,Lance Russell, Chris Cruise,Terry Funk,Dutch Mantell,Ole Anderson,Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Scott Hudson,Bobby "The Brain" Heenan andLarry Zbyszko.
Under theBill Watts regime, the nameWorld Wide Wrestling was changed toWCW WorldWide in 1992.
WorldWide was originally made up of matches from television tapings around the country. Beginning in 1993, whenEric Bischoff took over, the show was taped inOrlando, Florida. The initial home for these tapings wasDisney/MGM Studios atWalt Disney World, which gave rise to the term"Disney Tapings". The last set of tapings at Disney occurred in November 1996 and aired in February 1997; afterward, Disney evicted WCW from the studio space it was using and the company moved across Orlando toUniversal Studios Florida.
In 1998,WorldWide became an in-studio recap show like its sister programWCW Pro had, with an exclusive match or two at the end of the show. These matches continued to be taped in Orlando. On January 23, 1999, theWorldWide exclusive matches were moved out of Orlando and began being taped withWCW Saturday Night, which left its base in Atlanta in 1996 and had become a traveling show. Later still, the matches were moved a second time and began to be recorded beforeWCW Thunder tapings.
In November 2000, the show would change formats, seldom having exclusive matches, and instead would mostly show matches from previousWCW pay-per-view events (as well as providing a recap of that week'sMonday Nitro andThunder).[1]
WorldWide was cancelled along withMonday Nitro andThunder the day before theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased WCW's tape library and intellectual property. At the time of its cancellation,WorldWide was the longest-running, uninterrupted weekly syndicated show of any kind on the air in the United States. The final episode ofWorldWide aired on March 31, 2001, making it the last WCW television show aired.[citation needed] Some syndicated stations would airWorldWide very early in the morning on Sunday (12:00 to 1:00 a.m., 1:00 to 2:00 a.m., etc.), so there are people[who?] who consider the last episode's date to be April 1, 2001, the day ofWrestleMania X-Seven.
And this wraps upWCW WorldWide not just for this week but...forever and a day! WCW gone,WorldWide gone, we want to thank you for joining us each and every week here onWorldWide. What a great crew we had! It's been a lot of fun...taping these shows and you can see we have a really good time! ForMike Tenay, I'm Scott Hudson, we'll see you down the road...somewhere else! Thanks for watchingWorldWide!
— Scott Hudson at the end ofWorldWide's final episode.
Throughout the years,WorldWide hosted numerous title changes.
Up until 2019 (six years after the UK's five traditional channels hadceased analogue broadcasts, subsequently being carried as part of digital television platformFreeview) whenChannel 5 started showing highlights ofWWE Raw andSmackDown andAEW Dynamite started airing onITV4,WCW WorldWide was one of only two American wrestling shows (the other beingSunday Night Heat onChannel 4) to have had a regular syndicated slot on UK terrestrial television, having appeared on two different over-the-air networks/channels during its lifetime.
Beginning in 1991,WCW WorldWide was broadcast in the UK on theITV network originally overnight at 1 or 2 a.m. alongside other U.S. imports such asAmerican Gladiators andAmerica's Top Ten. In spring of 1992 however, it was also broadcast inlocal British Wrestling's old Saturday afternoon slot. In late 1995, however, the show was moved back to the late night slot and eventually disappeared from the network, with WCW being taken up by pan-European satellite channelSuper Channel.
In July 1999 following Super Channel's demise,WorldWide returned to TV in the UK on Channel 5, who broadcast the show at 7 p.m. on Friday evenings, although occasionally the show would be broadcast in a late-night mid-week time-slot instead. These shows were a collection of matches fromNitro,Thunder andSaturday Night, which had taken place five or six weeks before. Theannouncers were usually Scott Hudson andLarry Zbyszko, who provideddubbed commentary with references aimed at the UK viewers. In order to keep the more extreme action suitable for a pre-watershed audience any attacks with weapons such as steel chairs were comically covered over with large, cartoonish effects with "BLAM!" or "SMASH!" inside them. Due to being moved around the schedules and skipping some weeks, the show continued until April 20, 2001, three weeks after the final American broadcast. This episode contained re-aired and editedNitro matches throughout 2001 to theWorldWide theme, and was different from the final American broadcast. Following the purchase of WCW by the WWF, older versions ofWorldWide were repeated onSky Sports.
