Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions team is working on a new docuseries about the rise and fall of WCW. It will premiere on June 4.
The project, titled “Who Killed WCW?,” will be executive produced by Johnson and Dany Garcia. WCW, founded by Ted Turner in 1988, closed in 2001 and was later acquired by WWE.
The docuseries will delve into the factors that led to WCW’s downfall, including management challenges and creative decisions during the Monday Night Wars. The docuseries will feature exclusive interviews with wrestlers, executives, and insiders, shedding light on personal stories and struggles.
Speaking on a recent edition of “The Masked Man Show,” Seven Bucks SVP Brian Gewirtz commented on the project. He said,
“This four-part series was sold and everything before Dwayne (Johnson) [The Rock] was appointed to the TKO Board. Even if he wasn’t, we had been working with VICE on Tales From The Territories. We partnered with Evan Husney and Jason Eisener from Dark Side of the Ring and had a great time. When the run was over, VICE basically said, ‘This was good, but we don’t know if we want to continue because it’s just not as buzzy. It’s fine, but we’d like something a little better.’ We pivoted and said, ‘What if we did the ultimate Tale from the Territory and did WCW?’ We went back and forth in terms of how we could do that. Should it be one giant doc, two-part doc, ultimately we settled on four one-hour episodes. Everything is so knee-jerk on social media, and if you put out the trailer, a lot of people are excited, which is great, and a lot of people are like, ‘How many times can you tell this story?’ People are like, ‘Rock is an executive producer, so it’s going to be the usual WWE version.'”
He continued, “Let me dispel some things. VICE is not buying this show if it’s a retread of the WWE version of the WCW story. It’s hard to sell a show. We’re pitching shows all the time. They’re not buying it if it’s the same old, same old. That was our pitch. Yes, we have strong WWE ties, but this isn’t a WWE story. Yes, Raw got great, and that made a dent, but Raw’s ascension isn’t even in the top ten of the reasons why WCW imploded, even if the WWE version of the show, whether it’s their intention or not, gives the impression that it is. We need to tell the actual story from the actual people who were there. We have to. This is something that no version of the WCW story has ever done before. We interviewed top Turner executives and have them tell their story unfiltered. That’s really, at the heart of the matter, the relationship between Turner broadcasting and WCW. We got Brad Siegel and top WCW and Turner executives. Ted Turner’s son is interviewed. We got the big names. Bret [Bret Hart], Kevin Nash, Goldberg, Booker T and Sharmell, Bischoff [Eric Bischoff], Russo [Vince Russo], DDP [Diamond Dallas Page], Konnan, David Arquette, Madusa, and we have The Rock speaking on it from a ‘this is what we were seeing on the WWE side,’ but we truly wanted to tell the ‘real story’ of WCW from the people that were there and not the WWE version.”
