Former WCW Owner Ted Turner Passes Away at Age 87

American media mogul and former WCW owner Ted Turner passed away on Wednesday at the age of 87.

Turner’s passing was first announced by Turner Enterprises and CNN.

Ted Turner, the billionaire media entrepreneur and philanthropist who launched the 24-hour cable TV news revolution when he founded CNN in 1980, has died. He was 87. https://t.co/CboJPpPBiC pic.twitter.com/DOKk9QM120

— CNN (@CNN) May 6, 2026

Turner is notable in wrestling history for being one of the most important figures ever. Turner purchased UHF channel 17 WJRJ-TV in Atlanta in 1969 and began airing wrestling on it in 1972 due to him recognizing the popularity of pro wrestling at the time and its importance on helping to build up his station.

Turner launched WTBS Superstation in 1976 which became notable for becoming a major television home of pro wrestling and as an important battleground in Vince McMahon’s national expansion of WWF (WWE) during the early 1980s.

Following the Black Saturday incident after McMahon’s purchase of the timeslot on TBS that had belonged to Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1984, Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions and gave it McMahon’s timeslot on the network. Turner would rename JCP into World Championship Wrestling and kicking off a rivalry between WCW and WWE that resulted in the famous Monday Night Wars from mid-1990s until WCW’s sale to WWE in 2001.

While Turner stepped away from the wrestling industry following WCW’s closure in 2001, pro wrestling’s tradition on TBS and TNT would later be revived following the launch of AEW and its media rights deal with Warner Bros Discovery to air their weekly programming on both networks.

Outside of pro wrestling, Turner is also most known for being the founder of CNN and transformed it into a 24/7 news media empire. Turner was also the owner of MLB team Atlanta Braves from 1976 to 1996 and NBA team Atlanta Hawks from 1977 to 1996.