World Championship Wrestling

World Championship Wrestling
Details
Acronym	WCW
Established	1988
Folded	2001
Style	Professional wrestling, Sports entertainment
Location	Atlanta, Georgia
Founder(s)	Ted Turner
Owner(s)	Jim Crockett (1973-1988) Ted Turner (1988-2001) Vince McMahon (2001-present)
Parent	Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), Inc. (1988 – 1996) Time Warner (1996 – 2001) World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Inc. (2001-present)
Formerly	NWA Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling Georgia Championship Wrestling Jim Crockett NWA World Championship Wrestling Universal Wrestling Corporation World Championship Wrestling

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was a professional wrestling company that went out of business in 2001 when it was purchased by what was then the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) (now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)) and it's owner Vince McMahon. Within 3 weeks of the purchase the infamous storyline called "The Invasion" started. The storyline centered around WCW trying to take over the WWF and put the WWF out of business. In storyline, the owner of WCW was Vince's son, Shane McMahon.

Final champions

Under WCW banner

Championship	Final champion(s)	Date won	Event
WCW World Heavyweight Championship	Booker T	March 26, 2001	Nitro
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship	Booker T	March 18, 2001	Greed
WCW World Tag Team Championship	Natural Born Thrillers (Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire)	January 14, 2001	Sin
WCW Cruiserweight Championship	Shane Helms	March 18, 2001	Greed
WCW World Television Championship5	Jim Duggan	February 16, 2000	Thunder
WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship6	The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, Jr.)	March 26, 2001	Nitro
WCW Hardcore Championship7	Meng	January 14, 2001	Sin

Under WWF banner

Championship	Final champion(s)	Date won	Event
WCW World Heavyweight Championship1	Chris Jericho	December 9, 2001	Vengeance
WCW United States Championship2	Edge	November 12, 2001	Raw
WCW World Tag Team Championship3	The Dudley Boyz	October 23, 2001	Survivor Series
WCW Cruiserweight Championship4	Tajiri	October 22, 2001	Raw

Footnotes

• ¹ Unified (became one) with the WWF Championship at Vengeance 2001. The belt design was later reintroduced in WWE as their sanctioned World Heavyweight Championship in September 2002.
• ² Unified with the WWF Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series 2001. Reactivated (brought back) in July 2003 as the WWE United States Championship.
• ³ Unified with the WWF Tag Team Championship at Survivor Series 2001.
• ⁴ Although Tajiri was the final "WCW Cruiserweight Champion", the belt was redesigned and renamed the WWF Cruiserweight Championship after The Invasion.
• ⁵ The title was retired in April 2000 after Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff rebooted WCW.
• ⁶ WWF abandoned (did not use) the championship upon the purchase of WCW in March 2001. The original belts are now still under possession of the final champions, Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman.
• ⁷ Like the Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship, the Hardcore championship was also abandoned by the WWF. WCW had already abandonded the title after Meng signed a contract with WWF in January 2001.

References