The World Wrestling Network was a short-lived National Wrestling Alliance-affiliated professional wrestling promotion which was owned by promoter Jim Crockett, Jr., his last attempt to rebuild a national wrestling promotion after selling Jim Crockett Promotions to Ted Turner in 1988. As part of a no-compete clause agreement he signed with Turner, Crockett was unable to promote professional wrestling events for three years.
History[]
In 1993, he began contacting former World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation veterans such as Road Warrior Hawk, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Paul Heyman. Heyman, who had recently left on bad terms with WCW, eventually became head booker for the promotion although he and Crockett would eventually part ways due to his commitments to then Eastern Championship Wrestling and ECW's eventual breakaway from the National Wrestling Alliance.
Holding its first event in Killeen, Texas in August 1993, the show proved moderately successful with 2,156 in attendance. The following year, the promotion held its first televised event at the Manhattan Center in New York City on February 27, 1994 which featured Road Warrior Hawk and Jake Roberts as well as Public Enemy, Sabu, Terry Funk, Shane Douglas and Missy Hyatt in her first appearance since being fired by WCW.
Both Crockett and Heyman had hoped to provide a unique concept of producing televised matches in high definition television via internet broadcast, using much of ECW's television production and other resources to do so (this is one of the reasons that Eddie Gilbert resigned his position as head booker and left the promotion in September 1993), however, the event was the only HDTV-television taping broadcast and eventually Crockett closed the promotion by the end of the year.