Ep 112 "Billionaire TED Talk"

I just, I just said, like, history, history making, game changing.

What are your thoughts on the, on the impact of Ted Turner as it relates to pro wrestling, pop culture, and what he brought to the table?

I mean, you know what? Ted was a very, um, shrewd businessman, but he was a visionary.

You know, whether you like the man or you don't like the man, um, Ted Turner created the first cable news network, 24-hour news network, CNN, you know what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

Uh, Cartoon network, you know, TNT, TBS, uh, and a lot of that was built around, guess what? Professional wrestling, you know? And it goes all the way back to Georgia Championship Wrestling.

You know, SuperStation, what was it? Channel 17 in Atlanta.

Mm-hmm.

You know? So the guy built an, an empire there, but Ted always loved wrestling, and I've heard this from not only different interviews that I've seen with people talking about Ted, but also, you know, talking to Teddy Long, and he was there when, when Ted, you know, came in, whatever, and, and took over the, uh, promotion from the Crocketts.

Um, just, just the impact, um, you know, pop culture, man, listen, had it not been for Ted and WCW, WWE probably would not be here today-

Mm

... because look at how bad the business was for the WWE, and just wrestling in general, in 1995.

Mm-hmm.

And Ted comes along, um, and, and, and gives the green light for Nitro, you know, one hour on TNT, to go opposite of WWF Monday Night Raw, and it completely changed the game.

And then the guaranteed contracts was another part that, that changed the game, made a lot of people rich.

You know, you know, Barry Bloom was one of the big agents during that time, and negotiated contracts for different people and, and that's all because of the resources that Ted had.

Um, and just, I, I think obviously history, you know, will, will tell the different, you know, tales here about some of the the decline of, of, of Turner at, you know, his own company.

The mergers, uh, that he had, you know, the, the first one with Time Warner-

Yep

... which, you know, kept him on a board, but the one that really dealt him in financially...

You know, Ted was still a billionaire, you know, he was, he still had money, but the thing that, that, you know, wiped away a lot of his money was the merger with America Online, that AOL Time Warner merger.

Right.

That kinda, you know, and it just, it took away any power he had.

Because, see, bottom line of it is that even though WCW was losing a lot of money, as long as Ted had some type of control at Turner, WCW would always be around, and that's what he would always...

I mean, even during the '90s when the company wasn't making any money, making no profit, okay? Even though if you look at the roster of WCW in 1990, '91, '92, I mean, my God, look at, look at the, look at the talent they had back then, man.