FILE – Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner watches his team play against the St. Louis Cardinals during the first National League Championship Game on October 6, 1982 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File)

Ted Turner, billionaire media executive who changed professional wrestling by making WCW the first true national rival vince mcmahonWWF member dies at age 87 Turner Enterprises announced his death on Wednesday, confirming that Turner died peacefully surrounded by family. He was living with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder that he publicly disclosed in 2018, and was hospitalized in early 2025 with a mild case of pneumonia before recovering in a rehabilitation facility. Although Turner’s extensive legacy spans television, news and sports through CNN, TNT, TBS and the Atlanta Braves, his role in wrestling permanently changed the direction of the industry during the 1990s. Under Turner’s ownership, WCW became the only company in the modern era to consistently beat Vince McMahon’s WWF in television ratings, beating Raw for 83 consecutive weeks during the peak of the Monday Night Wars.

The decision that changed wrestling

Turner entered wrestling in 1988 when he acquired Jim Crockett Promotions and transformed it into World Championship Wrestling under Turner Broadcasting. At the time, Vince McMahon’s WWF had already established itself as wrestling’s dominant national company, but Turner had both the television infrastructure and financial backing to seriously challenge that position. The defining moment came in 1995 during a corporate meeting that Eric Bischoff has repeatedly recalled in later interviews. “Ted Turner asked me, ‘Eric, what do we have to do to compete with WWE?'” Bischoff said. “I wasn’t ready for it. ‘Give me prime time.’ I thought it was safe that he wouldn’t do it. And Ted looks at me, looks at Scott Sasser, and says, ‘Scott, give Eric two hours, Monday night, on TNT.'” That conversation resulted in the live broadcast of WCW Monday Nitro on September 4, 1995, which aired head-to-head with WWF Monday Night Raw. The rivalry between the two companies quickly escalated into the Monday Night Wars, a period that reshaped wrestling television, talent movement, production and storytelling. WCW aggressively signed major WWF stars including Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Roddy Piper, while also creating a cruiserweight division that helped introduce a faster and more athletic style to the mainstream American audience. Hogan’s arrival in WCW in 1994 became one of the most significant moments in the history of the wrestling business as the biggest star of wrestling’s previous boom era left Vince McMahon’s company for its main rival.

Nitro and the rise of the nWo

WCW’s greatest success came in 1996 when Hogan turned heel and formed the New World Order with Nash and Hall. The nWo storyline became one of wrestling’s most commercially successful angles and helped WCW overtake WWF Raw in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks. This race is the closest the wrestling industry has come to two major national promotions operating on competitive parity in the modern era. The WWF responded in 1996 with the famous “Billionaire Ted’s Wrasslin’ Warroom” parody segment, mocking Turner as a Southern caricature with parody versions of Hogan as “The Huckster”, Savage as “The Nacho Man”, and Gene Okerlund as “Scheme Gene”. According to Bischoff, Turner actually enjoyed the sketches and laughed at the parody of himself, while the real-life rivalry between WCW and McMahon was intense. Bischoff reflected on Turner’s influence during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show following the news of Turner’s death. “He changed my life. He changed my kids’ lives,” Bischoff said. “None of us would be where we are today. I wouldn’t have joined Real American Freestyle if Ted Turner hadn’t given me the opportunities.” Bischoff described Turner as “absolutely isolated” creatively with WCW, explaining that Turner rarely interfered in wrestling operations, but was always called to discuss television ratings, especially when WCW was performing better than the WWF. “He was the media version of Elon Musk in his time,” Bischoff said.

Turner’s relationship with wrestling and television

Bischoff also talked about Turner’s connection with Middle-American audiences and Southern television culture, pointing out that Turner understood the popularity of wrestling long before many television executives took it seriously. “It fits that mentality of Middle America and Ted’s relationship,” Bischoff explained. “He grew up in the South. He knew there were a lot of people who loved pro wrestling culturally. Just like they loved Andy in Mayberry and they loved the Atlanta Braves. According to Bischoff, WCW, Atlanta Braves baseball and The Andy Griffith Show became central pillars of the Turner Superstation identity that eventually expanded into a national media empire.

File – Ted Turner speaking during the CNN World Report Contributors Banquet in Atlanta on May 4, 1995. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Outside of wrestling, Turner built one of television’s most influential modern empires. CNN launched in 1980 as the first 24-hour cable news network and gained international attention for its live satellite coverage during the 1990–91 Gulf War. Turner later expanded its television footprint through TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies, while also unsuccessfully attempting to acquire CBS and briefly purchasing MGM/UA Entertainment before retaining portions of the MGM film catalog. His corporate influence became even greater in 1996 when Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner, making him vice president of the company. Later in 2001, the AOL-Time Warner merger, which was considered the largest corporate merger in history at $165 billion, ultimately proved financially disastrous and removed Turner from day-to-day influence.