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Turner Broadcasting (TBS) Getting Back Into Wrestling Business With New Deal

By Nick Younker
Published on: 13:38 PST, Oct 26, 2016

Turner Broadcasting System, or TBS, has officially announced that it will be entering back into the wrestling business after a new deal with a major wrestling promoter. Of course that is something that WWE CEO Vince McMahon never saw coming when he bought the struggling wrestling organization WCW back in 2001.

It seems as though Turner Broadcasting has given Vince McMahon a full decade and a half to run wild in the wrestling world without any real competition, domestic or international, with his WWE brand. But now, according to a press release by Turner Broadcasting, as translated by Forbes, Turner will be entering back into the wrestling TV market that it made famous way back in the late ’90s when the Monday night wrestling wars were going on.

As most wrestling fans might remember, that was back when Eric Bischoff was running WCW for owner Ted Turner, and using the bottomless checkbook to carve out a major share of the wrestling TV market. At one point, fans of WWE were tuning into WCW earlier than WWE’s Monday Night Raw and telling the fans what happened at their pre-taped event.

At the time, there was also a major shakeup in the wrestling talent rosters, when they were being actively vetted from the competition on either side of the wrestling world. When “The Outsiders” came over to WCW, they did so appearing to still have contracts at WWE, which was a false scripted claim, and they started wreaking havoc on the show with pre-scripted chaotic antics.

The Outsiders, which were basically Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, eventually made their way to the ring and that was where the big wrestling shocker took place. The historically famous and always the “good guy” Hulk Hogan turned on his fans and joined Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to become the New World Order, or the N.W.O.

This infamous transition catapulted the WCW wrestling brand into the mainstream and put Turner over the top of the WWE wrestling brand, which was actually called the WWF back then. For the first time in the history of professional wrestling, the WWE was beaten in TV ratings by another promoter and was forced to compete with another major brand.

Fast forward out of the ’90s and WCW found out that once it was on top, it was vulnerable to all of the major fallouts that can happen in the business. It led to a decline in ratings and the eventual sell of Turner’s WCW to Vince McMahon’s WWE. Shane McMahon famously went on the final broadcast of Monday Nitro and there was a dual cast on both shows that showed Vince and Shane starting a scripted war, each with scripted ownership of each separate brand.

But now, Turner Broadcasting System is back and they have made a deal with another major wrestling brand, Lucha Underground. This deal will give Turner the rights to air the Lucha Underground wrestling events on their German networks and thus lay out a foundation for possible expansion after heavy investment, presumably.

Turner’s programming director in Central and Eastern Europe, Marion Rathmann, has made a comment that shows she is quite enthusiastic about what is to come with Lucha Underground on their TNT network in Europe.

“Lucha Underground captivates the audience–Not just with spectacular matches, but above all with an exciting story that is told throughout the season,” Rathmann said.

Lucha Underground wrestling ring announcers, Günter Zapf and Mike Ritter, also released a statement about the new wrestling promotion as well.

“The atmosphere at the Temple is absolutely exceptional, and we are incredibly happy to do commentary on the spectacular matches,” the statement read. “Of course, we’re looking forward to seeing some wrestling stars we have encountered in the past and whose careers we’ve been accompanying in the past. The fans may be curious to see who will emerge all at Lucha Underground!”

Lucha Underground wrestling will start airing in Germany on TNT every Saturday night beginning on December 10.

[Featured Image By Elsa Hasch/Allsport/Getty Images]

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