Today is the Fifteenth Anniversary of the WWF's Purchase of WCW

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the World Wrestling Federation's purchase of rival company World Champion Wrestling, marking the end of a historic rivalry that defined one of wrestling's most popular eras. World Champion Wrestling (or WCW) was started in 1988 as the merger of several smaller wrestling promotions by Jim Crockett Promotions. During its earliest days, the WCW featured wrestling legends like Ric Flair, Lex Luger and Sting, who became known as the face of the company. Facing stiff competition from the WWF, Crockett sold the struggling WCW to Ted Turner, who gave the company a home on national television on TNT and TBS.

If you were a wrestling fan during the mid-1990s, you probably remember the famous "Monday Night Wars" which pitted the WWF's flagship Monday Night RAW program against the WCW's Monday Nitro show. WCW kicked off the Monday Night Wars by hiring two of the WWF's biggest wrestlers, Hulk Hogan and Randy "The Macho Man" Savage, using massive contracts and airing Nitro at the same time as RAW. With the help of nWo, a popular heel wrestling faction that included Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall, the WCW actually overtook the WWF in popularity for several years. The companies began a bitter rivalry, poaching star wrestlers from one another and engaging in a battle of oneupmanship that bordered on personal. For instance, the WCW would occasionally spoil the results of Raw (which was taped in advance during the 1990s) on Nitro to keep viewers from switching between the two shows.

As the WCW regularly raided WWF's top talent, the Vince McMahon-led company seemed to be on the verge of collapse during 1997. When Bret Hart, the WWF's World Champion, announced he was leaving for the WCW in 1997, some speculated that the WWF would fold. However, McMahon battled back with the start of the WWF's "Attitude Era", beginning with the infamous Montreal Screwjob that stripped Hart of the WWE's title in a disputed finish. Led by stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Rock, the WWF regained market share as the WCW floundered under poor creative direction and bad contracts.

Once Time Warner purchased Ted Turner's television holdings, the WCW (which was losing millions of dollars per year) was living on borrowed time. In 2001, AOL Time Warner arranged for the WWF to purchase the WCW video library for a mere $3 million. Nitro aired one final episode in March 2001 before the WWF began integrating WCW wrestlers in a multi-month long "Invasion" storyline that pitted Vince McMahon against his son Shane, who (in storyline) controlled the WCW remnants.

While the WCW is gone for good, the company's legacy lives on to this day. The WWE is inducting Sting, the WCW's "franchise" face, into its Hall of Fame next weekend. Other current wrestlers who became stars in the WCW include Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio Jr. Even popular WWE stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H wrestled for the WCW in their early wrestling careers. The WWE also still uses the WCW's United States Championship as one of their secondary championship titles. Many of the WCW's shows can also be found on the WWE Network as part of its streaming library.

So, wrestling fans, which did you prefer: the WCW or the WWF?