FILE – Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner watches his team in action against the St. Louis Cardinals during the first National League Championship Game, Oct. 6, 1982, St. Louis. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File)
Ted Turner, the media billionaire who transformed professional wrestling by turning WCW into the first true national rival to Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF), has died at the age of 87. Turner Enterprises announced his death on Wednesday, confirming that Turner died peacefully surrounded by his family.
He had Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder that he revealed publicly in 2018, and was also hospitalized earlier in 2025 for a mild case of pneumonia before recovering in a rehabilitation facility. Although Turner’s broader legacy extends across 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 height of the Monday Night Wars.
The decision that changed wrestling
Turner entered wrestling in 1988 when he acquired Jim Crockett’s shows and turned them into World Championship Wrestling under Turner Broadcasting. At the time, Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) had already established itself as the dominant national wrestling company, but Turner had the television infrastructure and financial backing to seriously challenge that position.
The defining moment came in 1995 during a company meeting, which Eric Bischoff repeatedly mentioned in subsequent interviews. “Ted Turner asked me, ‘Eric, what do we need to do to compete with WWE?'” Bischoff said. “I wasn’t ready for that. Give me prime time.” I thought it was safe not to do that. And Ted looked at me, and he looked at Scott Sasser, and he said, “Scott, give Eric two hours, Monday night, on TNT.” That conversation led directly to the launch of WCW Monday Nitro on September 4, 1995, airing head-to-head against WWF Monday Night Raw.
The rivalry between the two companies soon escalated into the Monday Night Wars, a period that reshaped wrestling television’s 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 building a Cruiserweight division that helped introduce a faster, more athletic style to the mainstream American audience. Hogan’s arrival to WCW in 1994 became one of the most important moments in the history of the wrestling business because the biggest star of wrestling’s previous boom period had left Vince McMahon’s company for its main rival.
Rise of Nitro and the nWo
WCW’s biggest breakthrough arrived in 1996 when Hogan turned to Hatred and formed the New World Order alongside Nash and Hall. The nWo storyline became one of wrestling’s most commercially successful angles and helped WCW surpass WWF Raw in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks. This race remains the closest the wrestling industry has come in the modern era to two major national federations operating on equal competitive footing. The WWF responded with the popular “Billionaire Ted’s Wrasslin’ Warroom” parody segments in 1996, mocking Turner as a Southern caricature along with parody versions of Hogan called “The Huckster”, Savage as “The Nacho Man”, and Gene Okerlund as “Scheme Gene”. According to Bischoff, Turner really enjoyed the sketches and laughed at the parodies of himself even as the real-life rivalry between WCW and McMahon was heating up.
Bischoff reflected on Turner’s impact during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s show following news of his death. “He changed my life. He changed my kids’ lives,” Bischoff said. “None of us would be where we are today. I wouldn’t be competing in the Real American Freestyle Championship if it weren’t for the opportunities Ted Turner gave me.” Bischoff also described Turner as “never intervening” creatively with WCW, explaining that Turner rarely interferes in wrestling operations but always calls to discuss television ratings, especially when WCW is outperforming the WWF. “He was the media version of the Elon Musk of his time,” Bischoff added.
Turner’s relationship with wrestling and television
Bischoff also spoke about Turner’s connection to middle American audiences and Southern television culture, explaining that Turner understood wrestling’s popularity long before many television executives took it seriously. “It fit the middle American mentality and the relationship that Ted had,” Bischoff explained. “He grew up in the South.
He knew there were a lot of people who culturally loved pro wrestling. Just as they loved Andy in Mayberry and loved the Atlanta Braves. According to Bischoff, WCW, Atlanta Braves baseball, and The Andy Griffith Show became cornerstones of the Turner Superstation identity that eventually expanded into a national media empire.
FILE – Ted Turner speaks during the CNN World Report contributors’ banquet in Atlanta on May 4, 1995. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
Outside of wrestling, Turner has built one of the most influential modern television empires.
CNN was launched in 1980 as the first 24-hour cable news network and gained massive international attention during the 1990-1991 Gulf War due to its live satellite coverage. Turner later expanded his television footprint through TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies, while also making an unsuccessful attempt to acquire CBS and briefly purchasing MGM/UA Entertainment before retaining portions of MGM’s film catalog. His corporate influence grew further in 1996 when Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner, making him vice president of the company. The subsequent merger between AOL and Time Warner in 2001, once considered the largest corporate merger in history at $165 billion, ultimately became a financial disaster and pushed Turner further from day-to-day influence.
He watches
The Complete Documentary: The Rise and Fall of WCW
WCW collapse
Turner’s influence over WCW gradually weakened after the Time Warner merger and collapsed completely after the AOL-Time Warner deal.
In March 2001, Turner Broadcasting’s new CEO, Jimmy Kilner, canceled all WCW programming, a move that ruined Eric Bischoff’s Fusient Media bid to buy the company. Without television, WCW immediately lost most of its value and Vince McMahon took over the company’s assets shortly thereafter. The purchase officially ended the Monday Night Wars and closed the chapter on the Turner wrestling era. Even after WCW disappeared, Turner’s influence on wrestling never went away. Nitro permanently changed the structure of wrestling television, the nWo reshaped wrestling storytelling, and the rivalry between WCW and WWF forced both companies into the most commercially successful creative period the industry had ever seen. Turner leaves behind five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
