Around a decade ago, I was searching for old WCW 2001 footage or news stories on Google and came across a Vimeo page of Kevin Sullivan.
Unlike the wrestler Kevin Sullivan, who was a former booker of World Championship Wrestling, as late as 2000, and former WCW World Tag Team Champion with Cactus Jack, this Kevin Sullivan was an über-talented video producer
Although he has achieved success with his work with Fox Sports, GSN, and DIRECTV, Mr. Sullivan is best known for his time in professional wrestling. He was a vice-president of post-production, marketing, and brand creative for both TNA/IMPACT Wrestling (2005-2019) and All Elite Wrestling (2019-2023).
Mr. Sullivan first broke into wrestling, however, in 1998 as a part of the World Wrestling Federation. For five years, he was involved in countless promos and vignettes for television, pay-per-view, and with various licensing agreements the company had, including Jakks Pacific, PlayStation, and Chef Boyardee.
His talents were and are world-renowned.
So, when I found the Vimeo page over a decade ago, I came across this video for a live WCW event, which was apparently unreleased until the mid-2010s.
In thirty seconds, this live event commercial had explained the apparent vision behind what the WWF-owned World Championship Wrestling was going to be. Terms like “rebellion, revolution, and unrest” were utilized within the promo. Talents like Evan Karagias, Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, Stacy Keibler, Hugh Morris, Sean O’Haire, Chavo Guerrero, Jr, and WCW Owner Shane McMahon were highlighted.
The WCW taping would take place at the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, PA on June 27, 2001. With a Ticketmaster number attached, it looks as if the show was ready to go.
In the midst of trying to create a writing project around the final days of WCW in 2015, and unabashedly looking for a scoop, I emailed Mr. Sullivan, completely unaware of his stature and presence in the industry, asking for any information regarding that particular commercial.
Sadly, I lost the email, but I remember Mr. Sullivan actually wrote back. The contents had to do with one day, he was told to make a commercial on short notice for a WCW taping and had it done in rather quick fashion. When the event was canceled, it never made airwaves.
For myself, this little commercial became a vital piece of footage of “what could have been” had WCW actually been run as a separate entity under the WWF umbrella.
As I mentioned in the initial blog post to kick off the site, my writing project fell through due to lack of connections, and I moved on.
When I purchased TheBigBangMay6.com, I began digging deeper into older wrestling websites, courtesy of Archive.org, and began looking for old WCW news stories that were reported back from 2000 and 2001.
On LordsOfPain.net, I came across a Ryan McFarland post with the headline, New WCW Re-launch dates, Russo commentary, Lawler news, more and clicked on it.
The contents of the news blurb was interesting:
The new TENTATIVE date for a launch of the new WCW is June 13 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA.
TENTATIVE dates following the launch are June 20 at the Coliseum in Jacksonville, and June 27 at the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, PA.
[Credit: 1Wrestling.com]
Seeing the Stabler Arena and June 27, 2024 mentioned together brought my memory back to that infamous commercial. I decided to take a chance and email Mr. Sullivan again regarding this unreleased local advertisement and see if I could get a quote regarding this.
Again, he responded and gave this note when it came to the commercial’s development:
“It's possible we were brainstorming a fresh brand identity for a WCW Live Tour, but I can't confidently say that this was a 'real' event. I'm guessing it was, but I can't say for sure.”
This one puts everything into perspective. With the uncertainty of if and when WCW ran again, preparations had to be made, including creative and marketing material. This commercial would have been most likely added had the Stabler Arena show come to fruition.
Sadly, after deeping digger, this event did not take place.
However, thanks to TheHistoryOfWWE.com, on June 27, 2001, WWF and Ohio Valley Wrestling ran a joint event called “The Last Dance”, celebrating the final night of the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, KY.
The main event was the Undertaker and Kane defeating Leviathan, who’d later be known as Batista, and WCW’s Diamond Dallas Page. I believe that’s proof WCW was involved somewhere on June 27.
However, the thoughts will always remain as it comes to the “WCW Revolution Stabler Arena” promo in 2001. It will always be a major “what if?” in wrestling folklore had the event took place.
At least we know that Kevin Sullivan can make a bad-ass commercial.
Thank you to Kevin Sullivan for providing the quote for this article.
Jon Harder
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