WCW Live!

WCW Live! was an internet radio program created by World Championship Wrestling which aired on weekdays from its inception on March 9, 1999 until the final broadcast on March 21, 2001. The program aired on WCW.com. It was initially a weekly show, but evolved into a daily show recapping the day's news in wrestling, while simulcasting with WCW Monday Nitro and WCW Thunder for show critiques and interviews.

Hosted by Jeremy Borash and Bob Ryder and later joined by Mark Madden, the show chronicled events in the wrestling world as well as gave interviews with its talent with them "Out of character" (except Scott Steiner, who notoriously did kayfabe interviews for the program).

Dustin Rhodes incident

Since the show wasn't listened to very much by management, many wrestlers would come on the program to air their grievances about the WCW product, including storylines and backstage heat between co-workers. A newly introduced Dustin Rhodes once came onto the show and berated everything about WCW, with head booker Vince Russo being the main focus of Rhodes' attacks. Russo was a regular listener of the program, and it was erased from their archives and Rhodes was buried in the storylines. Wrestlers became tightlipped about their grievances in the company after this incident.

Propaganda programming

Before and after the Rhodes controversy, WCW Live! was used primarily to put a positive spin on all WCW goings-on while criticizing or condemning all actions of rival promotions, the World Wrestling Federation and Extreme Championship Wrestling. As head bookers, Kevin Nash and Vince Russo would periodically come on the show to put a positive spin on their booking decisions that were being met with sharp criticism at the time. Later, after being released from the company just before WCW folded, Ryder would write a formal apology to wrestling fans on the Internet for shamelessly shilling for the company on the show.1

See also

• WWE Byte This!
• TNA Global Impact!