WCW website

[RowdyRoddy]

www.thehistoryofwcw.com/

I had thought that WCW started in 1989, not 1990. I do recall Rick Steamboat and Ric Flair, as well as Sting, referred to as the NWA World Champion in 1989 and 1990.

I was at this card in person in a 9 - 10 inch snowstorm.....

Ric Flair defeated Sting on 1/11/91 in East Rutherford, NJ to win the NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Title

[danpoutsma]

It was officially announced that Turner had bought out Crockett in Nov. 1988. The new TBS subsidiary that was formed in the union was briefly called Universal Wrestling Corp. before it was renamed World Championship Wrestling, Inc.. In actuality it was incorporated in Oct. '88, approximately a month before everything was made public.

Anyway, I don't know about the last couple of months of '88, but the World Championship Wrestling name was definitely being used in reference to the company as a whole by early 1989. And of course they also continued to call it "The NWA". So yeah, '89 was more or less the starting point.