The future of World Championship Wrestling finally came into focus today. While most assumed Shane McMahon’s purchase of WCW was just another elaborate storyline, we can now confirm the ink is dry on a legitimate sale. Shane McMahon is officially the owner of WCW.

WWF.com posted a brief article this morning confirming that Shane has left the company both as a performer and executive. Simultaneously, WCW.com was updated with its first major layout overhaul in months, detailing the promotion's relaunch. It looks like his victory over Vince at WrestleMania X7 was his final appearance with the company.

The updated WCW.com is already making waves, officially announcing the company’s return to the ring. The site is heavily promoting "The Big Bang" pay-per-view set for May 27th, and perhaps even more shocking, the return of Nitro to national television. The flagship show is moving to FX, airing live on Wednesday nights starting May 30th.

However, a look at the official roster page shows that Shane has his work cut out for him. Right now, the lineup looks incredibly thin. Because Shane's acquisition didn't include the massive, guaranteed contracts held by TimeWarner, most of the "Top Tier" names from the Monday Night War era are sitting at home getting paid to do nothing. While the website lists a decent amount of talent, it’s mostly midcard and lower-midcard names filling out the space. The heavy lifting is currently falling on Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, and Buff Bagwell, who are the only established main-eventers on the books.

The buzz right now involves the company's new headquarters. We have confirmed that WCW is leasing out significant office space in a major building in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. This has everyone in the area talking, especially with rumors swirling that Shane is looking to move his family to the region to be hands-on with the day-to-day operations. Moving the home base to Charlotte is a clear nod to the territory's roots, but the real question is who is actually going to be in the ring.

WCW.com is dropping info faster than we can refresh the page. The biggest news is the announce booth. It is official: Jerry "The King" Lawler and Joey Styles are the new voices of Nitro and PPV. Lawler has been a free agent since walking out of the WWF in February after they fired his wife, Stacy "The Kat" Carter. Most speculated his signing with WCW as soon as the relaunch was announced. Joey Styles also seemed like a foregone conclusion and the new commentary team highlights that this really is a new WCW. Scott Hudson is also back in the fold as the lead backstage interviewer.

On the officiating front, the four main referees are locked in: Nick Patrick, Charles Robinson, Billy Silverman, and Scott Armstrong. Interestingly, Armstrong is dropping the Scott James moniker he used while refereeing for WCW previously.

Backstage, the core of agents is shaping up to be Arn Anderson, Johnny Ace, Terry Taylor, Fit Finlay, and Ricky Santana. Anderson is the senior agent and will be coordinating most major matches, while Johnny Ace also assumes the rule of Head of Talent Relations and has been central to most new contract negotiations working alongside Terry Taylor. Ricky Santana is a talent out of Puerto Rico who is actually still wrestling there who has been brought in to head up the cruiserweight division. Fit Finlay, likewise, is still wrestling in the UK right now and many were surprised to see him brought in as an agent and not active talent.

The WCW roster has been taking shape and many have been critisizing its lack of top named talent. Here is the deal, most of the big money guys like Goldberg, Sting, and Steiner have fat guaranteed contracts with Time Warner. To join Shane, they would have to walk away from millions of dollars and negotiate a new contract. So far, only Booker T, DDP, Buff Bagwell, and Billy Kidman have had the guts to take the buyout and jump, with insiders saying all four talent could have made more money sitting at home, but have decided to bet on themselves longer term with new deals.

In just the last several days, the website has been updated with names that were not originally on the roster page. New additions include Disqo, La Parka, Crowbar, Torrie Wilson, and Shark Boy. Most interesting is the inclusion of Willy Fraizer. Fans of the dying days of ECW will recognize him as Chilly Willy, and he appears to be the first talent confirmed by WCW with zero prior history in the company.

The rumor mill says the main group evaluating and signing talent for the new WCW consists of Shane McMahon, Johnny Ace, Arn Anderson, and Terry Taylor. So far, reports suggest they have been holding meetings with the likes of Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Scott Steiner, Konnan, & Curt Hennig. With ECW's doors officially closed, they are also reportedly looking at the remaining ECW talent like Rob Van Dam, The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Roadkill and Danny Doring. Another name being mentioned is The Road Dogg who was fired by WWF in January. Some sources are even claiming they have reached out to former WCW World Heavyweight Champion David Arquette about a potential return to the company.

WCW is trying to win back the fans' wallets before they even hit the ring. The Big Bang on May 27th is being marketed at a $20 price point.

The preliminary buys for WCW’s massive return is finally circulating, and the office in Charlotte has to be thrilled. Early word is that The Big Bang pulled in 1,749,871 buys across the US, Canada, Mexico, and the UK. For a company that was left for dead a few months ago, those are huge numbers.

Insiders are reporting that when you factor in the gate and merchandise, the event cleared nearly $3,000,000 in total revenue. Shane McMahon’s $25 gamble seems to have paid off, proving there is still a massive audience hungry for a WCW alternative.

There is a ton of news from WCW's return to PPV.

First off, it looks like Greg Valentine was just a one night only deal. "The Hammer" was apparently a last-minute addition to the Big Bang Brawl to add some veteran name value to the mix. Reno was bumped last minute from the Big Bang Brawl and word is he took the news well enough but was still disappointed to be off the main show.

Juventud Guerrera was also brought in on tryout of sorts for his appearance in the Cruiserweight title ladder match. Guerrera is known for his issues backstage, and word is he managed to behave himself on Sunday enough that while no long term contract was signed, it looks like WCW is open to working with him again.

WCW.com has already updated its roster page to reflect the new landscape. Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, BG James, Curt Hennig, and Johnny B. Badd are all officially listed as part of the active roster. Additionally, Hugh Morrus and Lash LeRoux have been officially rebranded back to their Misfits In Action personas as General Rection and Corporal Cajun.

The WCW United States title was quietly vacated at the show. During the main event, it was mentioned Booker T had given up the title as he wanted to focus on defending the World Heavyweight title. Many expect sort of tournament or battle royal to determine a new champion.

The injury report from Sunday night is pretty grim. The biggest blow is to one half of the new Tag Team Champions, Mike Sanders, who suffered a separated shoulder during the four-way match. It is still up in the air how this affects his and Disqo’s title reign. Even worse is the news regarding Jamie Knoble, who worked a dark match before the PPV. Knoble reportedly suffered a torn quad and is expected to be out of action for over a year. Johnny Stamboli and Jason Jett also picked up minor injuries, but they aren't expected to miss significant time.

In other news, Little Guido and SoCal standout Adam Pearce of UPW, worked dark matches before the show. Word backstage is that Guido has possibly inked a deal, though the company hasn't made it official yet. Pearce, who has done some jobber work in the past, appears to be on another tryout.

Quick Dark Match Results:

We have already seen a major executive shakeup in the new WCW. Johnny Ace has been fired from his position as a Road Agent and Head of Talent Relations. Ace was notably absent from the PPV on Sunday, and we have confirmed he was officially terminated Monday morning.

Rumours are that Ace was already ruffling feathers with the talent, and some female performers specifically described his behaviour as "creepy." Terry Taylor has been tapped to move into the Head of Talent Relations role effective immediately.

The rumour mill is spinning fast regarding two of the biggest names on the market. NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Steve Corino has reportedly stopped taking new bookings, and NWA sources expect him to drop the title shortly. While most signs point to a WCW deal, there are still whispers that he could be headed to the WWF or even a long-term tour of Japan.

Even bigger is the status of Scott Hall. Sources tell us that Hall came within a hair of appearing at The Big Bang. Since being fired by the old WCW in 2000, Hall has spent time in ECW and New Japan, but he remains the biggest name available in North America. Hall has reportedly informed NJPW that he won't be returning for another tour, and most believe a WCW contract is all but signed.

The World Wrestling Federation is officially overhauling how they handle their developmental system. The office has been looking to streamline how they train prospects, a strategy that goes back to the old days with the USWA in Memphis, and even ECW had an agreement with WWF around talent scouting and development.

While the WWF has recently used Ohio Valley Wrestling, Power Pro Wrestling, and Memphis Championship Wrestling, the lineup is changing. PPW was already dropped earlier this year, and now sources say MCW has been cut as well. They also appear to be moving away from IWA Puerto Rico, which has a unique agreement where WWF would send them more established talent like D'Lo Brown to stay ring ready while WWF found new creative directions for veteran talent.

In their place, the WWF has signed a deal with Les Thatcher’s Heartland Wrestling Association in Cincinnati. Most of the Memphis crew will be moving to the Ohio territory soon, though OVW remains the main spot for talent that is almost TV-ready. Several sources are indicating that a batch of talent releases may accompany the move.

The rumors about talent cuts following the developmental shakeup have turned out to be true. WWF.com made it official today, announcing that Gangrel, Chaz aka Headbanger Mosh, Tiger Ali Singh, and the entire Mean Street Posse (Joey Abs, Rodney, and Pete Gas) have been released. The company gave them the standard best in their future endeavors send-off.

We can also confirm that the releases also hit the developmental ranks. American Dragon, Spanky, Joey Matthews, Christian York, and Russ McCullough were all told they were being let go. American Dragon and Spanky are a surprise to some to be among the cut names. Both were trained by Shawn Michaels, and most say American Dragon is easily one of the best pure wrestlers in the entire system, while Spanky has massive charisma upside. Both wrestlers are on the small side, which probably hurt their overall chances within the WWF land of giants. All other developmental talent that was in MCW have apparently been told to move to Cincinnati to join the HWA and D'Lo Brown will also be in HWA for at least a few weeks while his future is decided.

In another bit of fallout, Dave Taylor is also gone. He had been working as a trainer down in Memphis Championship Wrestling, and apparently the office gave him the option to move to Cincinnati to work with HWA. He turned it down and decided to part ways with the company instead.

The most interesting part of this might be Rodney and Pete Gas. Those guys are legit real-life friends of Shane McMahon, so seeing them get fired so shortly after Shane left the WWF has some raising eyebrows. People are already speculating that Shane might just turn around and hire them for the new WCW.

WCW Nitro was attended by a reported 3,601 fans in Troy, Ohio last night. WCW booked a smaller venue and filled it to the brim. While some suggested it made the atmosphere great for the show and in the arena, others think the choice to run smaller venues is making WCW look bad in comparison to the WWF.

Early ratings have it doing around 593,000 viewers on FX last night, give or take. While that is a small number compared to what Nitro was doing at its peak on TNT, it is one of the biggest audiences FX has attracted. International versions of the show bring the total viewers to somewhere around 1,175,000 which looks great for the return of WCW.

The cuts from the WWF continued today. Most notable is that WWF has parted ways with Tori. She had been getting heat as of late for various things backstage, and seems to be ready to move on from wrestling all together, and WWF quietly released her a few days ago.

Gene Okerlund was also let go from the company. Mean Gene had been under contract for some time, but wasn't being used in any meaningful way with his last appearance being on the commentary team for the Legends Battle Royal at WrestleMania X7.

Another backstage move, Alex Abrahantes was let go from the WWF creative team. Abrahantes had actually gotten his start as a wrestler on the independent scene before joining WWF's creative team in 2000.

And finally, a few more releases out of the developmental ranks as Mike Hard, Christian York and Joey Matthews appear to be done with the company. All three have ties to ECW with Hard having been part of The Dupps tag team as Jack Dupp and had been in MCW until recently moving to OVW, making him the lone casualty out of OVW thus far. Matthews & York were a tag team towards the companies tail end and have been compared to The Hardy Boys in the past, but smaller, which is likely why they were let go after they were not transferred from MCW to HWA or OVW.

Before Nitro went on the air, WCW ran 4 dark matches for the live crowd and fan Jonathan Good sent the results to TotalExtremeWrestling.com. Interestingly, Mike Awesome worked babyface in his match vs. Stasiak. Little Guido appeared again after wrestling before The Big Bang and Koko B. Ware made an appearance in a 6-man tag alongside La Parka and Shark Boy which makes quite the group.

Adam Pearce, who lost to Curt Hennig on Nitro, looks like he is with the company full time as his name and profile were added to WCW.com sometime in the last few days.

It looks like Little Guido is being brought in. He wrestled another dark match last night before Nitro after also working a match before Big Bang where Jamie Knoble got injured. Speaking of which, Dawn Marie was seen backstage and around the arena on Wednesday, with sources saying she has been under contract since early May.

Koko B. Ware was backstage at Nitro as he lives in the area, and officials decided to book him in a dark match. It looks like the appearance was a one-off.

WCW has been looking at expanding its roster. Scott Hall and Steve Corino are still rumored to be coming in, but with a couple injuries already hitting the small roster, new head of talent relations Terry Taylor has been looking to bring in some more bodies.

Speaking of injuries, Mike Sanders' shoulder injury is legitimate, and WCW is hoping he will be healthy soon. Jamie Knoble had surgery on his torn quad which should shorten his recovery time, but he will still be on the shelf for a year or so. Johnny Stamboli and Jason Jett were banged up after Big Bang, but Jett seemed healthy enough that he worked Nitro. However, word backstage was he possibly re-aggravated the same injury or suffered a new minor injury during his match with Kanyon.

The creative for WCW is being run by Shane McMahon himself. It looks like he has surrounded himself with a creative team made up mostly of the road agents but also referee Scott Armstrong, with Armstrong joining Arn Anderson, Terry Taylor, Fit Finlay, and Ricky Santana in the closed-door creative meetings.

Fit Finlay ran the ringside area before WCW opened its doors for Nitro, working with some of the younger talent on the roster. Ricky Santana was seen in the ring working with Stacy Keibler, Torrie Wilson, and Dawn Marie as it looks like WCW may be preparing them to actually wrestle.