September 25, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF moving to Viacom, WCW Fall Brawl reviewed, more

The Delaware Supreme Court on 9/18 ruled 3-0 not to overturn the Chancery Court ruling that the WWF would be able to accept the Viacom deal, and thus ending its 17-year relationship with the USA Network.

The decision was more than one month in the making, which left much of the entire pro wrestling industry, and both networks, paralyzed to an extent, certainly as it pertained to wrestling programming. TNN had canceled ECW, and ECW had begun negotiations with USA Network, but as part of its agreements with both networks, WWF had exclusivity on the network. Since the WWF had signed the contract to start with Viacom, starting with Raw on TNN on 9/25 and the original court decision upheld that, they were contractually bound to the move.

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