BREAKING: Former WCW Owner Ted Turner Dies At 87

Former owner of WCW, Ted Turner, has died, aged 87.

In 1988, Turner acquired Jim Crockett Promotions and rebranded it as World Championship Wrestling, a wrestling promotion that went on to give Vince McMahon’s WWF several weeks of nightmares, ratings-wise.

Reportedly, the broadcasting billionaire had been hospitalized in early 2025 due to a mild case of pneumonia, following which he recovered at a rehabilitation facility. In 2018, he admitted to having been living with Lewy body dementia, which is a progressive brain disorder.

Owning WCW was just one of Ted Turner’s prominent business ventures. Some of his other achievements include creating the United Nations Foundation, establishing CNN, and owning the Atlanta Braves.

In the world of wrestling, his leadership helped his promotion beat Vince McMahon in TV ratings for 83 consecutive weeks at the peak of the Monday Night Wars.

While announcing Turner’s passing, Chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide Mark Thompson said the following:

Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement. He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.

Eventually, Turner sold Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner in 1996 before exiting the business.

Eric Bischoff Revealed Losing Respect For Tony Khan Over Comments About Ted Turner

Eric Bischoff shared massive respect for Ted Turner. After all, it was under his leadership that Bischoff ascended to becoming WCW’s Senior Vice President in 1994.

At the time of a team meeting before the Monday Night Wars began, Turner pulled Bischoff aside and asked him what they could do to beat Vince McMahon in TV ratings.

Bischoff proposed putting their show on prime time, to which Turner agreed. Soon, WCW premiered on Mondays on TNT, debuting on September 4, 1995, opposite Monday Night Raw.

While speaking on an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff also claimed that he would have been less critical of AEW President Tony Khan had he not made disrespectful comments about Turner.

Honest answer, yeah. I mean, I could bulls**t you here and I could probably say some smart sounded s**t that would make you think maybe it’s true.

But that really disappointed me, and it had nothing to do with me, it was just so disrespectful of someone who I have so much respect for and everybody that’s in the industry today, should be thankful and grateful for what Ted Turner contributed to the business.

For him (Tony) to come out and say that about Ted on the network that Ted Turner built from scratch, at a time when everybody thought Ted Turner was nuts…it made me lose any respect.

Everyone at TJR Wrestling sends their condolences to the Turner family and his friends.