In 2001, the Monday Night Wars, the rivalry between the then-WWF and its arch-rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW), ended with the WWF emerging victorious. The WWF would acquire all assets of WCW, and later Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW); the third largest promotion in the United States at this point in time), through separate buyouts that included the employees (on and off-air talent) from both companies. The sales had left WWF as the sole wrestling promotion in the world with international TV distribution (until the national expansion of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2004).