WCW Monday Nitro
Encyclopedia
WCW Monday Nitro was a weekly professional wrestling
telecast produced by World Championship Wrestling
, created by Ted Turner
and Eric Bischoff
. The show aired Monday nights on TNT
, going head-to-head with the World Wrestling Federation
's (WWF) Monday Night Raw
from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001. Production ceased after WCW was purchased by the WWF, now known as WWE.
The debut of Nitro began the Monday Night Wars
, a ratings battle between the WWF and WCW that lasted for six years and saw each company resort to cutthroat tactics
in order to try and one-up the competition. In mid-1996, Nitro began to draw better ratings than Raw based on the strength of the nWo
storyline, a metafiction
event built around the idea of former WWF wrestlers forming their own anarchist organization in order to take over WCW. Nitro continued to beat Raw for 84 consecutive weeks; as the nWo storyline grew stagnant, with wrestlers in the nWo consistently beating non-members, fan interest in the storyline waned, and Raw began to edge out Nitro in the ratings. The turning point for the organizations came during the January 4, 1999 broadcast of Nitro, during which host Tony Schiavone
gave away the results of matches for that night's Raw broadcast, as it had been taped the night before; Bischoff believed that knowing the outcome would dissuade viewers from watching the program. Excited by the prospect of seeing perennial WWF underdog Mick Foley
win the world championship, a dramatic number of Nitro viewers changed channels to watch Raw. From that week forward, Raw consistently beat out Nitro in the ratings by a significant amount, and Nitro was never able to regain the numbers it had once enjoyed.
Besides broadcasting from various arenas and locations across the country (such as the Mall of America
in Bloomington, Minnesota
, from which the very first episode of Nitro was broadcast), Nitro also did special broadcasts from the Disney-MGM Studios
in Orlando
in 1996, and did annual Spring Break-Out episodes from Panama City Beach, Florida
starting in March 1997.
The rights to WCW Monday Nitro now belong to WWE.
in Bloomington, Minnesota
. The featured matches on the one-hour broadcast were Brian Pillman
versus Jushin Liger
, Ric Flair
versus WCW United States Heavyweight Champion
Sting, and WCW World Heavyweight Champion
Hulk Hogan
taking on Big Bubba Rogers
. The show was also highlighted by the return of Lex Luger
to WCW after having spent the previous few years wrestling for the WWF, where he had been one of the promotion's top stars. Luger's appearance was particularly jarring because he had just wrestled a match for the WWF the previous evening; the match was his final contractual obligation with the company, and Luger signed with WCW the morning of his appearance. The event set the tone for Nitro's "anything can happen" atmosphere, and prefigured the similar defections of WWF wrestlers Scott Hall
and Kevin Nash
the following year.
." Throughout the Monday Night Wars between Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon, Nitro was gaining on its WWF counterpart popularity-wise. Soon Nitro would surpass Raw in the TV ratings
. Monday Nitro beat Raw in the ratings for 84 consecutive weeks until Raw finally regained ground in the ratings war. At its peak, the rivalry resulted in performers on either show trading verbal insults and challenges. At one point, Eric Bischoff challenged Vince McMahon to face him in a match to be held at Slamboree 1998. McMahon never formally recognized the challenge and did not appear. Bischoff was declared the winner via countout.
and Hulk Hogan
were some of the major stars signed with WCW and appearing on the Nitro program at this time. WCW's lineup of cruiserweights – smaller wrestlers known for their crowd-pleasing high-flying wrestling maneuvers - provided a strong set of setup matches for their main events. With the introduction of the New World Order
, Nitro started its unprecedented run of ratings domination. With former WWF wrestlers Scott Hall
, Kevin Nash
and Hogan (who was now calling himself Hollywood Hogan) as rebellious heels, the company seemed to have a winning story and a great future. Wrestling fans watched the show every week to see what the nWo would do next. Since Nitro was live and Raw was often taped, Nitro was seen as far less predictable and thus more entertaining than its WWF counterpart. Initially only sixty minutes in length (as was WWF Monday Night Raw
at the time), Nitro was expanded to two hours following the 1996 NBA Playoffs
while Raw waited until nearly a full year later to expand to a second hour. Nitro remained a two-hour program from May 1996 until January 1998, when WCW and TNT agreed to a third hour for the still-#1 wrestling program in the country.
and certain football
matches, but unlike in the USA, it never beat Monday Night Raw in the then head-to-head "Friday Night Wars" in the UK. This was despite the fact that Raw aired on a subscription channel whereas Nitro aired on TNT
, a basic Sky
and cable channel. However, Raw being on Sky Sports was much more heavily promoted in the media through advertisements and TV guide listings, whereas Nitro being on TNT did not receive the same amount of promotion. It is likely many people were unaware at Nitro's peak that it was on. (On screen TV guides did not exist back then as they do now on Sky. Similarly the listings for TNT received little media coverage in comparison to Sky Sports.) TNT
in Britain
(now named TCM
) would only start at 9pm after the end of Cartoon Network
in the late 90s. Nitro was its flagship show and was the only actual TV show on the network, as it showed classic movies like TCM in North America rather than standard broadcast TV shows. From 2000 until its end in March 2001, Nitro in Britain moved to Bravo where it moved to 10pm directly head to head with Raw instead of the usual hour head start
. Nitro would air in the United Kingdom four days after its live US airing from its first showing in late 1995 until it moved to the Bravo network in 2000. It then was two weeks behind the US airings until it went back to four days again in early 2001. It stayed this way until WCW's demise. The last Nitro was shown head to head with Raw meaning the crossover did work the same as it did in the USA as both channels aired at the same time in the same "simulcast" style as was in the USA.
and Diamond Dallas Page
. Goldberg's main event match with Hogan on the July 6, 1998 edition of Nitro from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta won the ratings battle from WWF for the week, but some observers (including Vince McMahon) felt that WCW could have made millions if they saved the Goldberg/Hogan match for an eventual pay-per-view event. Despite Goldberg's title win and Page's rapid ascent into the main event picture, they still took a backseat to the nWo, which by this point had split into two warring factions and would dominate storylines for most of the summer of 1998.
between WWF owner Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin
. New talent such as Triple H
and his D-Generation X
faction, and later Mankind
and The Rock were elevated to main event status on WWF's program. Things got so heated between the two programs that D-X was sent to Atlanta
to film a segment near Turner's headquarters for a "war" storyline that was done when both shows were in nearby areas on the same night (Raw in Hampton, Virginia
and Nitro in nearby Norfolk
), sending D-X to the Norfolk Scope
arena which Nitro was broadcasting from and interacting with WCW fans. (This eventually led to a lawsuit filed by WCW against the WWF, who had claimed that in order to fill the Norfolk Scope for Nitro, WCW had given away free tickets on the day of the program.)
, the Hardy Boyz
, Edge and Christian
and Kurt Angle
. WCW continued to rely on established stars like Hulk Hogan
, Macho Man Randy Savage and The Outsiders to support ratings, causing much unease among the younger and less well known members of the roster. This was illustrated most clearly in 1999, when former WCW mid-carder Chris Jericho
signed with the WWF and immediately started a feud with The Rock, when months earlier he had been told he was too small to sell tickets in WCW.
, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title
as Mankind on Raw. Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone
sarcastically mentioned "that'll sure put some butts in the seats." The comment, however, backfired and Nitro would lose the ratings battle that night. The next week, and for months after, many fans in the Raw audience brought signs which read, "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat!" To make matters worse for WCW, a convoluted storyline was played out over the course of the evening that eventually resulted in Hulk Hogan returning, winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and the two warring nWo factions reuniting as one.
and Ed Ferrara were also hired to fix the company but may have increased the gap between the two Monday night programs. They attempted to make Nitro more like Raw with edgier storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments and an increased amount of sexuality on the show. Nitro's third hour was jettisoned and the program returned to an 8-10 PM timeslot, with the first hour running unopposed and the second hour competing with the first hour of Raw. Although Russo's change made Nitro more of a streamlined program (WCW had been criticized for not featuring much wrestling in the first third of Nitro since its expansion), the loss of an entire hour of advertising revenue offset whatever benefits the change may have produced.
Bischoff would be brought back to WCW and attempted to team with Russo to fix the ills of Nitro and WCW. Part of this involved Nitro being taken off the air to reboot
the program, but all this was to no avail. The once highly rated Nitro became deprived of wrestlers, with its most capable young stars signing with the WWF and its current roster of talent being constantly misused. To top it all off, Bischoff and Russo did not work well together at all, with the two constantly at each others' throats over Russo's booking style. Nitro's ratings were continuing to lose ground to Raw's and Bischoff eventually left the company in July 2000 after an incident involving Hogan and Russo. Bischoff's departure left Russo in control of everything production-related in WCW, and an already bad situation turned worse. Although Nitro eventually pulled to within .6 ratings points of Raw in early September, it was not momentum that could be sustained and Raw once again began to distance itself from Nitro. This was evidenced by a December ratings battle that saw Raw draw a 5.75 rating while Nitro could only manage a 1.8. At that point, it only seemed like a matter of time before Time Warner would give up on WCW, and 2001 saw the company begin searching for a buyer.
announced shortly after his arrival that Nitro and all WCW programming was immediately canceled on both TNT and TBS. Bischoff's group then withdrew their deal, as it was contingent on keeping WCW programming on some outlet, and WCW was bought by Vince McMahon
- the owner of the WWF, its long time competitor.
Around the time of the cancellation, WCW was preparing to make its yearly trip to Panama City, Florida
for Spring Break
. Since the premiere of Nitro WCW had gone to either the Boardwalk Beach Resort or Club La Vela
every March to try and gain favor with adolescent and young adult viewers who might not otherwise be tuning into the program. It was announced that the upcoming March 26, 2001 episode of Nitro from Panama City was to be the finale and the show was dubbed "The Night of Champions." The show began with McMahon appearing via satellite from Gund Arena
in Cleveland, Ohio, the site of that Monday's RAW is WAR broadcast on TNN. McMahon announced his purchase of WCW to the crowd and appeared in vignettes throughout the show, including one where he terminated WCW's Jeff Jarrett
on air due to bad blood the two had had in the past.
The show was unique in that all of WCW's major championships were defended that night and in almost all of the matches on the show, the faces won (traditionally WCW was seen as the promotion where heels were often the top stars as opposed to the WWF, where faces were often the top stars). In addition, various WCW wrestlers were interviewed giving their honest, out-of-character
responses to the selling of WCW. The co-main event of the evening was WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner
taking on WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Booker T
in a match with both belts on the line; Booker defeated Steiner for his fourth WCW World Championship while retaining the U.S. Championship.
Just as it had been on the initial Nitro, the final match of the final Nitro was between long-time WCW rivals Ric Flair
and Sting
, a match that was more informal than their usual encounters (Sting and Flair were seen smiling and nodding respectfully towards each other throughout the match). Sting won using his finishing move, the Scorpion Deathlock. After the match, the two competitors stood in the middle of the ring and embraced to show respect for one another.
The show ended with a simulcast on Raw on TNN with an appearance by Vince's son Shane McMahon
on Nitro. Shane would interrupt his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW (this was just part of the storyline, as the WWF as a whole was the true owner of WCW), as part of the set up of their match at WrestleMania X-Seven
and of what would later become WWF's "Invasion" storyline. In addition to the tape library and other intellectual properties, WWF would also buy a few selected contracts of the WCW talent, keeping many of the younger stars. Four of WCW's championships found their way into the WWF; in addition to Booker T carrying both the WCW Championship (as it was renamed) and United States Championship with him into the WWF, McMahon also signed then-WCW Cruiserweight Champion Shane Helms
and then-WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo
and Sean O'Haire
to contracts. (The WWF scrapped the WCW Hardcore Championship
, as it was officially retired immediately following the
last Nitro despite no one holding it since Meng
departed for the WWF in early 2001, and the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship
for undisclosed reasons; although no official reason was given, Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, Jr. were the last champions and McMahon was only able to sign Kidman to a contract at the time.)
Alundra Blayze
signed with WCW in 1995 (going back to her old name of "Madusa"), she brought the WWF Women's title belt with her and threw it in a trash can on Nitro (the first week that Nitro started before the top of the hour), and the title itself would become inactive for the next three years. Many cite this incident as one of the causes of the infamous Montreal Screwjob
. This infamous event would be parodied by WCW on a 2000 edition of Nitro, when Scott Hall
threw the WCW World Television Championship
in the trash and weeks later on an edition of WCW Saturday Night
, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan
found it and claimed it.
The only wrestler to appear on both Nitro and Raw on the same night was Rick Rude. Rude was able to appear on both shows because he was not under contract with the WWF at the time, appearing on a handshake deal with McMahon on Raw – which was still pre-recorded at the time while Nitro was broadcast live.
The January 13, 1997 episode of Nitro ended with the first two minutes of the Hollywood Hogan vs. The Giant
main event. Before the show went off the air, commentator Tony Schiavone announced the match was to continue during the commercial breaks of The New Adventures of Robin Hood
, which premiered that night after Nitro. This resulted in the premiere episode of Robin Hood receiving high ratings due to WCW fans being lured in to watch the show for the Hogan/Giant match.
While the service does show episodes of Nitro, they are often edited. Some WCW entrance theme music tracks are replaced with stock WWE music. Beginning in July 2007, WWE Classics on Demand began deleting content from episodes of Nitro, as matches and some references to Chris Benoit
are removed. Benoit is sometimes shown in segments where he is not the main issue of the segment. This was in light of the controversy surrounding the deaths of Benoit and his family
on June 24 of that year.
In April 2009, WWE Classics went back to the first episodes that aired in September 1995. These shows alternate with the current Nitro airings (Dec. 1997 and onwards).
A 3-disc DVD entitled "The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro" was produced and released by WWE on June 7, 2011. The set is narrated by former three time WCW champion Diamond Dallas Page and highlights some of the biggest matches and moments in the history of WCW Monday Nitro.
(*) - Starting with the May 27, 1996 edition of Nitro, after a week off due to the NBA Playoffs on TNT, the show started using two Broadcast teams for the show. Schiavone and Zbyszko would call the first hour of the Nitro, and when the top of the hour came, even if during mid-Match, the pyro would go off on the Stage while Bischoff and Heenan would take over from their booth near the set. Eventually the teams changed, and starting in September 1996, Mike Tenay became a color commentator for both hours of Nitro, calling the first hour with Schiavone and Zbyszko, usually at Heenan and Bischoff's booth, and would call the second hour with Bischoff and Heenan. After Bischoff joined the nWo and took on a more prominent on-screen authority figure role, Schiavone replaced Bischoff in the second hour of Nitro, thus making him the lone play-by-play commentator for the show. Unlike Tenay, Schiavone, despite calling both hours of Nitro, would leave the Ringside position at the top of the second hour and join Tenay and Heenan at the booth, instead of just waiting for the first break of the second hour, and he would do this until the Ringside position was discontinued in 1997.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
telecast produced by World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...
, created by Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
and Eric Bischoff
Eric Bischoff
Eric Aaron Bischoff is an American entrepreneur, and professional wrestling booker and on-screen personality currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
. The show aired Monday nights on TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
, going head-to-head with the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
's (WWF) Monday Night Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001. Production ceased after WCW was purchased by the WWF, now known as WWE.
The debut of Nitro began the Monday Night Wars
Monday Night Wars
Monday Night Wars is the common term describing the period of mainstream televised American professional wrestling from September 4, 1995, to March 26, 2001. During this time, the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw went head-to-head with World Championship Wrestling's Monday Nitro in a...
, a ratings battle between the WWF and WCW that lasted for six years and saw each company resort to cutthroat tactics
Dirty tricks
Dirty tricks are unethical, duplicitous, slanderous or illegal tactics employed to destroy or diminish the effectiveness of political or business opponents...
in order to try and one-up the competition. In mid-1996, Nitro began to draw better ratings than Raw based on the strength of the nWo
New World Order (professional wrestling)
The New World Order was a professional wrestling stable that originally wrestled for World Championship Wrestling . The group later appeared in the World Wrestling Federation after the purchase of WCW by the WWF...
storyline, a metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
event built around the idea of former WWF wrestlers forming their own anarchist organization in order to take over WCW. Nitro continued to beat Raw for 84 consecutive weeks; as the nWo storyline grew stagnant, with wrestlers in the nWo consistently beating non-members, fan interest in the storyline waned, and Raw began to edge out Nitro in the ratings. The turning point for the organizations came during the January 4, 1999 broadcast of Nitro, during which host Tony Schiavone
Tony Schiavone
Noah Anthony "Tony" Schiavone is an American sports broadcaster. He is the play-by-play broadcaster for the Gwinnett Braves of the International League...
gave away the results of matches for that night's Raw broadcast, as it had been taped the night before; Bischoff believed that knowing the outcome would dissuade viewers from watching the program. Excited by the prospect of seeing perennial WWF underdog Mick Foley
Mick Foley
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...
win the world championship, a dramatic number of Nitro viewers changed channels to watch Raw. From that week forward, Raw consistently beat out Nitro in the ratings by a significant amount, and Nitro was never able to regain the numbers it had once enjoyed.
Besides broadcasting from various arenas and locations across the country (such as the Mall of America
Mall of America
The Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, in the United States. It is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the...
in Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...
, from which the very first episode of Nitro was broadcast), Nitro also did special broadcasts from the Disney-MGM Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
in Orlando
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
in 1996, and did annual Spring Break-Out episodes from Panama City Beach, Florida
Panama City Beach, Florida
Panama City Beach is a city in Bay County, Florida, United States, on the Gulf of Mexico coast. The city is often referred to under the umbrella term of "Panama City", despite being a distinct municipality from the older and larger inland Panama City to the east, making Panama City and Panama City...
starting in March 1997.
The rights to WCW Monday Nitro now belong to WWE.
First episode
The first episode of Nitro was broadcast from the Mall of AmericaMall of America
The Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, in the United States. It is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the...
in Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...
. The featured matches on the one-hour broadcast were Brian Pillman
Brian Pillman
Brian William Pillman was an American football player and professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and World Championship Wrestling....
versus Jushin Liger
Jushin Liger
, better known as and later, is a Japanese professional wrestler who primarily works for New Japan Pro Wrestling.He has wrestled and beaten many of the top smaller wrestlers in both Japan and the United States, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most revolutionary junior...
, Ric Flair
Ric Flair
Richard Morgan Fliehr is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ric Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is one of the most well-known professional wrestlers in the world....
versus WCW United States Heavyweight Champion
WWE United States Championship
The WWE United States Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It was originally a National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling championship, and is currently the secondary championship of the Raw brand....
Sting, and WCW World Heavyweight Champion
WCW World Heavyweight Championship
The World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation . It existed within WCW between 1991 and 2001. Following the acquisition of WCW by World Wrestling...
Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
taking on Big Bubba Rogers
Ray Traylor
Ray Walter Traylor, Jr. was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Big Boss Man and World Championship Wrestling under various ring names, most notably Big Bubba Rogers.-Early years:Traylor, a prison guard in...
. The show was also highlighted by the return of Lex Luger
Lex Luger
Lawrence Wendell "Larry" Pfohl , better known by his ring name Lex Luger, is an American former professional wrestler and football player currently working with WWE on their wellness policy...
to WCW after having spent the previous few years wrestling for the WWF, where he had been one of the promotion's top stars. Luger's appearance was particularly jarring because he had just wrestled a match for the WWF the previous evening; the match was his final contractual obligation with the company, and Luger signed with WCW the morning of his appearance. The event set the tone for Nitro's "anything can happen" atmosphere, and prefigured the similar defections of WWF wrestlers Scott Hall
Scott Hall
Scott Hall is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation in the early and mid 1990s under the ring name Razor Ramon, as well as for his period in the mid 1990s and early 2000s with World Championship Wrestling under his real name...
and Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash
Kevin Scott Nash is an American professional wrestler and actor. As of 2011, Nash is signed to a five year contract with WWE under their WWE Legends program and appears as part of their Raw brand roster...
the following year.
Monday Night Wars
The advent of WCW Monday Nitro brought with it an intense rivalry between WCW's Monday Nitro program and the WWF's Monday Night Raw program. This rivalry is known to wrestling fans as the "Monday Night WarsMonday Night Wars
Monday Night Wars is the common term describing the period of mainstream televised American professional wrestling from September 4, 1995, to March 26, 2001. During this time, the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw went head-to-head with World Championship Wrestling's Monday Nitro in a...
." Throughout the Monday Night Wars between Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon, Nitro was gaining on its WWF counterpart popularity-wise. Soon Nitro would surpass Raw in the TV ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. Monday Nitro beat Raw in the ratings for 84 consecutive weeks until Raw finally regained ground in the ratings war. At its peak, the rivalry resulted in performers on either show trading verbal insults and challenges. At one point, Eric Bischoff challenged Vince McMahon to face him in a match to be held at Slamboree 1998. McMahon never formally recognized the challenge and did not appear. Bischoff was declared the winner via countout.
Initial success
Initially, Nitro became popular as result of WCW's extensive roster of stars. Randy SavageRandy Savage
Randall Mario Poffo , better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler, best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling .Savage held twenty championships during his professional wrestling career and was a...
and Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
were some of the major stars signed with WCW and appearing on the Nitro program at this time. WCW's lineup of cruiserweights – smaller wrestlers known for their crowd-pleasing high-flying wrestling maneuvers - provided a strong set of setup matches for their main events. With the introduction of the New World Order
New World Order (professional wrestling)
The New World Order was a professional wrestling stable that originally wrestled for World Championship Wrestling . The group later appeared in the World Wrestling Federation after the purchase of WCW by the WWF...
, Nitro started its unprecedented run of ratings domination. With former WWF wrestlers Scott Hall
Scott Hall
Scott Hall is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation in the early and mid 1990s under the ring name Razor Ramon, as well as for his period in the mid 1990s and early 2000s with World Championship Wrestling under his real name...
, Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash
Kevin Scott Nash is an American professional wrestler and actor. As of 2011, Nash is signed to a five year contract with WWE under their WWE Legends program and appears as part of their Raw brand roster...
and Hogan (who was now calling himself Hollywood Hogan) as rebellious heels, the company seemed to have a winning story and a great future. Wrestling fans watched the show every week to see what the nWo would do next. Since Nitro was live and Raw was often taped, Nitro was seen as far less predictable and thus more entertaining than its WWF counterpart. Initially only sixty minutes in length (as was WWF Monday Night Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
at the time), Nitro was expanded to two hours following the 1996 NBA Playoffs
1996 NBA Playoffs
The 1996 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1995-1996 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Chicago Bulls winning their first NBA championship in three years by defeating the Western Conference champion Seattle...
while Raw waited until nearly a full year later to expand to a second hour. Nitro remained a two-hour program from May 1996 until January 1998, when WCW and TNT agreed to a third hour for the still-#1 wrestling program in the country.
United Kingdom
WCW Monday Nitro also pulled in strong ratings in the UK. It was once the third most watched show on satellite and cable TV only beaten by RawWWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
and certain football
FA Premier League
The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...
matches, but unlike in the USA, it never beat Monday Night Raw in the then head-to-head "Friday Night Wars" in the UK. This was despite the fact that Raw aired on a subscription channel whereas Nitro aired on TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
, a basic Sky
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
and cable channel. However, Raw being on Sky Sports was much more heavily promoted in the media through advertisements and TV guide listings, whereas Nitro being on TNT did not receive the same amount of promotion. It is likely many people were unaware at Nitro's peak that it was on. (On screen TV guides did not exist back then as they do now on Sky. Similarly the listings for TNT received little media coverage in comparison to Sky Sports.) TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(now named TCM
Turner Classic Movies (UK)
Turner Classic Movies is a subscription digital television channel featuring classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. film libraries, which include many MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. titles...
) would only start at 9pm after the end of Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
in the late 90s. Nitro was its flagship show and was the only actual TV show on the network, as it showed classic movies like TCM in North America rather than standard broadcast TV shows. From 2000 until its end in March 2001, Nitro in Britain moved to Bravo where it moved to 10pm directly head to head with Raw instead of the usual hour head start
Head start (positioning)
In positioning, a head start is a start in advance of the starting position of others in competition, or simply toward the finish line or desired outcome...
. Nitro would air in the United Kingdom four days after its live US airing from its first showing in late 1995 until it moved to the Bravo network in 2000. It then was two weeks behind the US airings until it went back to four days again in early 2001. It stayed this way until WCW's demise. The last Nitro was shown head to head with Raw meaning the crossover did work the same as it did in the USA as both channels aired at the same time in the same "simulcast" style as was in the USA.
Eric Bischoff's on-camera role
Eric Bischoff soon became the voice of Nitro (in perhaps, a subtle knock on Vince McMahon, who often appeared on camera as a commentator) and began to air Nitro a couple of minutes before Raw so he could give away the results of the WWF program so fans had no point to see the competition. Nitro would be expanded to a three-hour show, starting from the January 26, 1998 edition, unprecedented for a live, weekly wrestling program.Raw gains ground
While Raw was taking a new approach to programming with its "WWF Attitude," Nitro would start producing lackluster shows with the same storylines. Hogan and the rest of the nWo almost never lost and the once elite group was now bloated in size and recruiting midcard wrestlers. The only newcomers elevated to main event status at this time were GoldbergBill Goldberg
Goldberg earned a scholarship to play for the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team where he served as a defensive tackle. He was taken in the 11th round, with the 302nd overall selection, in the 1990 NFL Draft....
and Diamond Dallas Page
Diamond Dallas Page
Dallas Page , better known by his ring name "Diamond" Dallas Page , is an American retired professional wrestler, fitness instructor and actor...
. Goldberg's main event match with Hogan on the July 6, 1998 edition of Nitro from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta won the ratings battle from WWF for the week, but some observers (including Vince McMahon) felt that WCW could have made millions if they saved the Goldberg/Hogan match for an eventual pay-per-view event. Despite Goldberg's title win and Page's rapid ascent into the main event picture, they still took a backseat to the nWo, which by this point had split into two warring factions and would dominate storylines for most of the summer of 1998.
The D-X/Norfolk, Virginia incident
Meanwhile, on Raw, fans were immersed in the feudFeud (professional wrestling)
A professional wrestling feud is a staged rivalry between multiple wrestlers or alliances of wrestlers. They are integrated into ongoing storylines, particularly in events which are televised...
between WWF owner Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin , better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler...
. New talent such as Triple H
Triple H
Paul Michael Levesque is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling authority figure, WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and actor, better known by his ring name Triple H, an abbreviation of the ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley...
and his D-Generation X
D-Generation X
D-Generation X was a professional wrestling stable in WWE . The group originated in the midst of the WWF's "Attitude Era" from 1997 to 2000...
faction, and later Mankind
Mick Foley
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...
and The Rock were elevated to main event status on WWF's program. Things got so heated between the two programs that D-X was sent to Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
to film a segment near Turner's headquarters for a "war" storyline that was done when both shows were in nearby areas on the same night (Raw in Hampton, Virginia
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
and Nitro in nearby Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
), sending D-X to the Norfolk Scope
Norfolk Scope
Norfolk Scope is a multipurpose culture, entertainment, convention and sports arena at the northern perimeter of downtown Norfolk, Virginia, designed by Italian architect/engineer Pier Luigi Nervi in conjunction with the local firm of Williams and Tazewell...
arena which Nitro was broadcasting from and interacting with WCW fans. (This eventually led to a lawsuit filed by WCW against the WWF, who had claimed that in order to fill the Norfolk Scope for Nitro, WCW had given away free tickets on the day of the program.)
Changes
With Raw starting to beat Nitro in the ratings on a consistent basis, Bischoff and WCW officials attempted to use a series of "quick fixes" to regain ground in the ratings war. All these attempts would win them short-term ratings victories, but the WWF continued its steady climb to ratings dominance. Nitro's inability to create new stars was its ultimate undoing, while the WWF had invested in younger talent like The Rock, Triple HTriple H
Paul Michael Levesque is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling authority figure, WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and actor, better known by his ring name Triple H, an abbreviation of the ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley...
, the Hardy Boyz
Hardy Boyz
The Hardy Boyz are a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of real-life brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy...
, Edge and Christian
Edge and Christian
Edge and Christian was a tag team made of real life best friends Edge and Christian , who performed in WWE and the Canadian independent circuit. They won the WWF Tag Team Championship on seven occasions...
and Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle
Kurt Steven Angle is an American professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and 1996 Olympic gold medalist. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he is recognized as a 15-time World Heavyweight Champion...
. WCW continued to rely on established stars like Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
, Macho Man Randy Savage and The Outsiders to support ratings, causing much unease among the younger and less well known members of the roster. This was illustrated most clearly in 1999, when former WCW mid-carder Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho
Christopher Keith Irvine , better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an inactive Canadian-American professional wrestler, musician, songwriter, radio personality, television host, actor, author, and dancer...
signed with the WWF and immediately started a feud with The Rock, when months earlier he had been told he was too small to sell tickets in WCW.
January 4, 1999 broadcast
Bischoff's "tried and true" tactic of giving away the results from taped Raw shows backfired on January 4, 1999. Mick FoleyMick Foley
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, author, comedian, actor, voice actor and former color commentator. He has worked for many wrestling promotions, including WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. He is often referred to as "The Hardcore Legend", a nickname he...
, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title
WWE Championship
The WWE Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It is the world title of the Raw brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the World Heavyweight Championship of the SmackDown brand. It was established under the then WWWF in 1963...
as Mankind on Raw. Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone
Tony Schiavone
Noah Anthony "Tony" Schiavone is an American sports broadcaster. He is the play-by-play broadcaster for the Gwinnett Braves of the International League...
sarcastically mentioned "that'll sure put some butts in the seats." The comment, however, backfired and Nitro would lose the ratings battle that night. The next week, and for months after, many fans in the Raw audience brought signs which read, "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat!" To make matters worse for WCW, a convoluted storyline was played out over the course of the evening that eventually resulted in Hulk Hogan returning, winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and the two warring nWo factions reuniting as one.
Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara
Former WWF writers Vince RussoVince Russo
Vincent James "Vince" Russo is an American creative writer and author, well known for his work in the professional wrestling industry. He is notable for his tenure with World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
and Ed Ferrara were also hired to fix the company but may have increased the gap between the two Monday night programs. They attempted to make Nitro more like Raw with edgier storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments and an increased amount of sexuality on the show. Nitro's third hour was jettisoned and the program returned to an 8-10 PM timeslot, with the first hour running unopposed and the second hour competing with the first hour of Raw. Although Russo's change made Nitro more of a streamlined program (WCW had been criticized for not featuring much wrestling in the first third of Nitro since its expansion), the loss of an entire hour of advertising revenue offset whatever benefits the change may have produced.
Bischoff would be brought back to WCW and attempted to team with Russo to fix the ills of Nitro and WCW. Part of this involved Nitro being taken off the air to reboot
Reboot (continuity)
The verb reboot, in media dealing with serial fiction, means to discard much or even all previous continuity in the series and start anew with fresh ideas...
the program, but all this was to no avail. The once highly rated Nitro became deprived of wrestlers, with its most capable young stars signing with the WWF and its current roster of talent being constantly misused. To top it all off, Bischoff and Russo did not work well together at all, with the two constantly at each others' throats over Russo's booking style. Nitro's ratings were continuing to lose ground to Raw's and Bischoff eventually left the company in July 2000 after an incident involving Hogan and Russo. Bischoff's departure left Russo in control of everything production-related in WCW, and an already bad situation turned worse. Although Nitro eventually pulled to within .6 ratings points of Raw in early September, it was not momentum that could be sustained and Raw once again began to distance itself from Nitro. This was evidenced by a December ratings battle that saw Raw draw a 5.75 rating while Nitro could only manage a 1.8. At that point, it only seemed like a matter of time before Time Warner would give up on WCW, and 2001 saw the company begin searching for a buyer.
Notable episodes
| Episode Title | Date | Rating | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| WCW Monday Nitro | September 4, 1995 | 2.5 | First episode of Nitro. See above for more information. |
| nWo Monday Nitro | December 22, 1997 | 3.5 | The nWo organized a complete takeover of Nitro six days before Starrcade Starrcade (1997) Starrcade was the fifteenth annual Starrcade professional wrestling pay-per-view event. It was the tenth Starrcade event produced by World Championship Wrestling , and it took place on December 28, 1997 from the MCI Center in Washington, D.C... . |
| The Fingerpoke of Doom Fingerpoke of Doom The Fingerpoke of Doom is a nickname for an infamous incident in American professional wrestling that happened on January 4, 1999 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, during a live broadcast of WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of World Championship Wrestling... |
January 4, 1999 | 5.0 | Goldberg was arrested before his title match for the World Heavyweight Title WCW World Heavyweight Championship The World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation . It existed within WCW between 1991 and 2001. Following the acquisition of WCW by World Wrestling... . Later, Tony Schiavone, on orders from Eric Bischoff, gave away Mankind's pre-taped WWF title WWE Championship The WWE Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It is the world title of the Raw brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the World Heavyweight Championship of the SmackDown brand. It was established under the then WWWF in 1963... victory on Raw, which resulted in over 600,000 viewers switching to Raw. See above for more information. |
| WarGames 2000 | September 4, 2000 | 3.6 | On the fifth anniversary of the premiere, a WarGames match WarGames match The WarGames match was a gimmick match used originally in the National Wrestling Alliance and later held annually in World Championship Wrestling , usually at their Fall Brawl pay-per-view event in September.-History:... took place in a three-tiered cage between two teams for the world championship. Kevin Nash retained the title. |
| The Night of Champions | March 26, 2001 | 3.0 | Final episode of Nitro. WCW is purchased by the WWF. See below for more information. |
The Night of Champions – Final broadcast
To try and save WCW and Nitro, Bischoff made an attempt to purchase the company with a group of investors. However, although Bischoff's offer had been accepted, recently appointed Turner Broadcasting executive Jamie KellnerJamie Kellner
Jamie Kellner is an American television executive. He was chairman and chief executive officer of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a division of Time Warner which includes TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network. Kellner took over the post in 2001 and handed over the company to Philip Kent in 2003...
announced shortly after his arrival that Nitro and all WCW programming was immediately canceled on both TNT and TBS. Bischoff's group then withdrew their deal, as it was contingent on keeping WCW programming on some outlet, and WCW was bought by Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler. McMahon is the current Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of professional wrestling promotion WWE...
- the owner of the WWF, its long time competitor.
Around the time of the cancellation, WCW was preparing to make its yearly trip to Panama City, Florida
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
for Spring Break
Spring break
Spring break – also known as March break, Study week or Reading week in the United Kingdom and some parts of Canada – is a recess in early spring at universities and schools in the United States, Canada, mainland China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the United...
. Since the premiere of Nitro WCW had gone to either the Boardwalk Beach Resort or Club La Vela
Club La Vela
Club La Vela is a nightclub owned by Patrick and Thorsten Pfeffer, and is located in the resort community of Panama City Beach, Florida. It is billed as the largest nightclub in the United States...
every March to try and gain favor with adolescent and young adult viewers who might not otherwise be tuning into the program. It was announced that the upcoming March 26, 2001 episode of Nitro from Panama City was to be the finale and the show was dubbed "The Night of Champions." The show began with McMahon appearing via satellite from Gund Arena
Quicken Loans Arena
Quicken Loans Arena , is a multi-purpose arena, in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States....
in Cleveland, Ohio, the site of that Monday's RAW is WAR broadcast on TNN. McMahon announced his purchase of WCW to the crowd and appeared in vignettes throughout the show, including one where he terminated WCW's Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett
Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett is an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. He is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , an organization he co-founded along with his father and in which he holds some stock but not total control...
on air due to bad blood the two had had in the past.
The show was unique in that all of WCW's major championships were defended that night and in almost all of the matches on the show, the faces won (traditionally WCW was seen as the promotion where heels were often the top stars as opposed to the WWF, where faces were often the top stars). In addition, various WCW wrestlers were interviewed giving their honest, out-of-character
Shoot (professional wrestling)
A shoot in professional wrestling is a term that refers to any unplanned, unscripted or real-life occurrence within a wrestling event. Contrary to popular belief, the name does not originate from "shooting in" for a takedown, as in amateur wrestling - rather it is a carny term shortened from...
responses to the selling of WCW. The co-main event of the evening was WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner
Scott Steiner
Scott Carl Rechsteiner is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Scott Steiner. Steiner is perhaps best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling alongside his older brother Rick as the Steiner Brothers and as a member of the New World Order...
taking on WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Booker T
Booker Huffman
Robert Booker Tio Huffman , better known by his ring name Booker T, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler and currently signed to WWE, on its SmackDown brand, as part of the announcing team. Booker is best known for his time in both the World Wrestling Entertainment and World...
in a match with both belts on the line; Booker defeated Steiner for his fourth WCW World Championship while retaining the U.S. Championship.
Just as it had been on the initial Nitro, the final match of the final Nitro was between long-time WCW rivals Ric Flair
Ric Flair
Richard Morgan Fliehr is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ric Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is one of the most well-known professional wrestlers in the world....
and Sting
Sting (wrestler)
Steven James "Steve" Borden , better known by his ring name Sting, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
, a match that was more informal than their usual encounters (Sting and Flair were seen smiling and nodding respectfully towards each other throughout the match). Sting won using his finishing move, the Scorpion Deathlock. After the match, the two competitors stood in the middle of the ring and embraced to show respect for one another.
The show ended with a simulcast on Raw on TNN with an appearance by Vince's son Shane McMahon
Shane McMahon
Shane Brandon McMahon is an American executive, currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of YOU On Demand. A former executive and professional wrestler for World Wrestling Entertainment , he is the son of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and former US Senate candidate Linda...
on Nitro. Shane would interrupt his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW (this was just part of the storyline, as the WWF as a whole was the true owner of WCW), as part of the set up of their match at WrestleMania X-Seven
WrestleMania X-Seven
WrestleMania X-Seven was the seventeenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on April 1, 2001 at the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The event was the first WrestleMania held in the state of Texas...
and of what would later become WWF's "Invasion" storyline. In addition to the tape library and other intellectual properties, WWF would also buy a few selected contracts of the WCW talent, keeping many of the younger stars. Four of WCW's championships found their way into the WWF; in addition to Booker T carrying both the WCW Championship (as it was renamed) and United States Championship with him into the WWF, McMahon also signed then-WCW Cruiserweight Champion Shane Helms
Gregory Helms
Gregory Shane Helms is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment where he wrestled as The Hurricane and Gregory Helms. He is also known for his time with World Championship Wrestling where he wrestled as "Sugar" Shane Helms...
and then-WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo
Chuck Palumbo
Charles "Chuck" Palumbo is an American professional wrestler, currently working for Nu-Wrestling Evolution . Palumbo is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment...
and Sean O'Haire
Sean O'Haire
Sean Christopher Haire is an American mixed martial artist and former professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Sean O'Haire.-World Championship Wrestling:...
to contracts. (The WWF scrapped the WCW Hardcore Championship
WCW Hardcore Championship
The World Championship Wrestling Hardcore Championship was a title in World Championship Wrestling. The title was defended in Hardcore matches, in which there were few rules and restrictions and weapons were allowed. Eventually, the rules were changed so that matches began in the backstage area...
, as it was officially retired immediately following the
last Nitro despite no one holding it since Meng
Meng
Meng can refer to the following:* Master of Engineering , an academic or professional master's degree in the field of engineering, the symbol used for the labiodental nasal consonantal sound...
departed for the WWF in early 2001, and the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship
WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship
The World Championship Wrestling Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship was a short-lived title created in 2001 just prior to World Championship Wrestling being sold to the World Wrestling Federation.-History:...
for undisclosed reasons; although no official reason was given, Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, Jr. were the last champions and McMahon was only able to sign Kidman to a contract at the time.)
Results
| # | Matches | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Booker T (WCW United States Heavyweight Champion) defeated Scott Steiner Scott Steiner Scott Carl Rechsteiner is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Scott Steiner. Steiner is perhaps best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling alongside his older brother Rick as the Steiner Brothers and as a member of the New World Order... (WCW World Heavyweight Champion) (with Midajah Melinda O'Hearn Melinda McCullum , also known by her ring name Midajah, is an American actress, singer and fitness model, former professional wrestler and valet for World Championship Wrestling, World Wrestling All-Stars and Ultimate Pro Wrestling.... ) |
Title Unification Championship unification Championship unification is the act of combining two or more separate professional wrestling championships into a single title.-History:In professional wrestling, championships may be unified to consolidate the number of championships in a given promotion, or to add legitimacy and prestige to a... match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship WCW World Heavyweight Championship The World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation . It existed within WCW between 1991 and 2001. Following the acquisition of WCW by World Wrestling... and the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship WWE United States Championship The WWE United States Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It was originally a National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling championship, and is currently the secondary championship of the Raw brand.... |
5:08 |
| 2 | Filthy Animals Filthy Animals The Filthy Animals was a professional wrestling faction in World Championship Wrestling from 1999 until 2001.-Concept:The Filthy Animals was a group conceived after Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara were hired by WCW. The plan for the stable was to be WCW's version of the World Wrestling Federation's... (Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Billy Kidman) defeated 3 Count 3 Count 3 Count was a professional wrestling stable in World Championship Wrestling which formed in 1999. The group consisted of Shane Helms, Shannon Moore and Evan Karagias and they were given a boy band gimmick. For a brief time, Tank Abbott was added to the group as a manager and... (Shannon Moore Shannon Moore Shannon Moore is an American professional wrestler, who is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . He is best known for his work with World Championship Wrestling between 1999 and 2001 and with World Wrestling Entertainment for several years in the 2000s.Moore befriended Matt and Jeff Hardy... and Evan Karagias Evan Karagias Evan Karagias is an American professional wrestler and actor. he is a 3 time WSL World Heavyweight Champion-Biography:Karagias's father's family are of Greek origin... ) and Jung Dragons Jung Dragons The Jung Dragons were a professional wrestling faction and tag team. Originally formed in World Championship Wrestling, the Dragons consisted of Kaz Hayashi, Yang, and Jamie-San and their manager Leia Meow. The Jung Dragons were notable for their high-flying, cruiserweight wrestling style and... (Kaz Hayashi Kaz Hayashi Kazuhiro "Kaz" Hayashi is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is working for All Japan Pro Wrestling. He is also the head booker for the company's junior division.-Career:... and Yun Yang James Yun James Carson Yun is an American professional wrestler and actor, best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Jimmy Wang Yang, in World Championship Wrestling as one-third of the Jung Dragons as Yang, and in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and the independent circuit... ) |
Three-Way Dance No.1 Contenders Tag team match Professional wrestling tag team match types Much like singles matches, tag team professional wrestling matches can and have taken many forms. Just about any singles or melee match type can be adapted to tag teams; for example, hardcore tag team matches are commonplace... for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship The World Championship Wrestling Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship was a short-lived title created in 2001 just prior to World Championship Wrestling being sold to the World Wrestling Federation.-History:... |
3:37 |
| 3 | Shane Helms Gregory Helms Gregory Shane Helms is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment where he wrestled as The Hurricane and Gregory Helms. He is also known for his time with World Championship Wrestling where he wrestled as "Sugar" Shane Helms... (c) defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr. Chavo Guerrero, Jr. Salvador "Chavo" Guerrero IV also known as Chavo Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Jr., is a third generation Mexican-American professional wrestler and member of the famed Guerrero wrestling family who was well known for working with World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling... |
Singles Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship | 4:38 |
| 4 | Sean O'Haire Sean O'Haire Sean Christopher Haire is an American mixed martial artist and former professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Sean O'Haire.-World Championship Wrestling:... and Chuck Palumbo Chuck Palumbo Charles "Chuck" Palumbo is an American professional wrestler, currently working for Nu-Wrestling Evolution . Palumbo is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment... (c) defeated Team Canada Team Canada (WCW) Team Canada was a professional wrestling stable, active in World Championship Wrestling in 2000 and 2001. The team was composed of Canadian and American wrestlers who believed that Canada was superior to the United States of America.-History:... (Mike Awesome Mike Awesome Michael Lee Alfonso , better known by his ring name Mike Awesome, was an American professional wrestler best known in America for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and in World Wrestling Federation and also in Japan for his work with Frontier Martial-Arts... and Lance Storm Lance Storm Lance Timothy Evers known professionally by his ring name Lance Storm, is a semi-retired Canadian professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in World Wrestling Entertainment, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and World Championship Wrestling... ) |
Tag team match Professional wrestling tag team match types Much like singles matches, tag team professional wrestling matches can and have taken many forms. Just about any singles or melee match type can be adapted to tag teams; for example, hardcore tag team matches are commonplace... for the WCW World Tag Team Championship WCW World Tag Team Championship The World Championship Wrestling Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling world tag team championship in World Championship Wrestling... |
3:20 |
| 5 | Shawn Stasiak Shawn Stasiak Dr. Shawn Emile Stipich, DC, is an American chiropractor and former professional wrestler. He is best known under the ring name Shawn Stasiak and for his stints with World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment, where he is a fifteen time Hardcore Champion, and World Championship Wrestling, where he... (with Ms. Hancock Stacy Keibler Stacy Keibler is an American actress, model, and former professional wrestler and valet, best known for her work with World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment .... ) defeated Bam Bam Bigelow |
Loser Gets A Tattoo match | 1:24 |
| 6 | Filthy Animals Filthy Animals The Filthy Animals was a professional wrestling faction in World Championship Wrestling from 1999 until 2001.-Concept:The Filthy Animals was a group conceived after Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara were hired by WCW. The plan for the stable was to be WCW's version of the World Wrestling Federation's... (Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Billy Kidman) defeated Elix Skipper Elix Skipper Elix Skipper is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling, where he was a one-time Cruiserweight Champion and a one-time Cruiserweight Tag Team Champion, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he is a four-time NWA World Tag Team... and Kid Romeo Sam Loman Sam Loman is an American former professional wrestler. He is best known for his stint in World Championship Wrestling in 2001 under the ring name Kid Romeo, where he was one half of the first ever Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions alongside Elix Skipper.-Debut and departure:After a briefly working... (c) |
Tag team match Professional wrestling tag team match types Much like singles matches, tag team professional wrestling matches can and have taken many forms. Just about any singles or melee match type can be adapted to tag teams; for example, hardcore tag team matches are commonplace... for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship The World Championship Wrestling Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship was a short-lived title created in 2001 just prior to World Championship Wrestling being sold to the World Wrestling Federation.-History:... |
4:43 |
| 7 | Sting Sting (wrestler) Steven James "Steve" Borden , better known by his ring name Sting, is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling... defeated Ric Flair Ric Flair Richard Morgan Fliehr is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ric Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is one of the most well-known professional wrestlers in the world.... |
Singles match | 7:19 |
Other notable moments
When then-WWF Women's ChampionWWE Women's Championship
The WWE Women's Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion. Created in 1956, it was the oldest active professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment history until its retirement in 2010 as a result from a unification...
Alundra Blayze
Debra Miceli
Debrah Ann Miceli is a Monster truck driver and former professional wrestler. She is best known under her ring names Madusa or Alundra Blayze. Her early career was spent in the American Wrestling Association, where she held the AWA World Women's Championship one time...
signed with WCW in 1995 (going back to her old name of "Madusa"), she brought the WWF Women's title belt with her and threw it in a trash can on Nitro (the first week that Nitro started before the top of the hour), and the title itself would become inactive for the next three years. Many cite this incident as one of the causes of the infamous Montreal Screwjob
Montreal Screwjob
The Montreal Screwjob was a controversial, purportedly real life professional wrestling event in which the owner of the World Wrestling Federation, Vince McMahon, double-crossed the defending WWF Champion, Bret Hart, during the main event match of the professional wrestling pay-per-view event...
. This infamous event would be parodied by WCW on a 2000 edition of Nitro, when Scott Hall
Scott Hall
Scott Hall is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation in the early and mid 1990s under the ring name Razor Ramon, as well as for his period in the mid 1990s and early 2000s with World Championship Wrestling under his real name...
threw the WCW World Television Championship
WCW World Television Championship
The World Championship Wrestling World Television Championship was a professional wrestling championship in World Championship Wrestling....
in the trash and weeks later on an edition of WCW Saturday Night
WCW Saturday Night
WCW Saturday Night was a weekly Saturday night TV show on TBS produced by World Championship Wrestling. The program existed through various incarnations under different names before becoming WCW Saturday Night in 1992...
, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan
Jim Duggan
James Edward Duggan , better known by his ring name "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment in the 1980s, when it was known as World Wrestling Federation , and World Championship Wrestling...
found it and claimed it.
The only wrestler to appear on both Nitro and Raw on the same night was Rick Rude. Rude was able to appear on both shows because he was not under contract with the WWF at the time, appearing on a handshake deal with McMahon on Raw – which was still pre-recorded at the time while Nitro was broadcast live.
The January 13, 1997 episode of Nitro ended with the first two minutes of the Hollywood Hogan vs. The Giant
Paul Wight
Paul Donald Wight, Jr. , better known by his ring name, Big Show, is an American professional wrestler and actor, currently signed to WWE on its Raw brand....
main event. Before the show went off the air, commentator Tony Schiavone announced the match was to continue during the commercial breaks of The New Adventures of Robin Hood
The New Adventures of Robin Hood
The New Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1997-1998 live action TV series on Turner Network Television. It was filmed in Vilnius, Lithuania and produced and distributed by Dune Productions, M6, and Warner Bros. International. The tone of the series resembled its contemporaries Hercules: The Legendary...
, which premiered that night after Nitro. This resulted in the premiere episode of Robin Hood receiving high ratings due to WCW fans being lured in to watch the show for the Hogan/Giant match.
WWE Classics On Demand / WWE Home Video
Since buying the WCW video library, WWE Home Video has included many Nitro matches and segments on some of their Superstar biography DVD sets. Episodes are also streamed on WWE Classics on Demand, as part of The Monday Night Wars feature.While the service does show episodes of Nitro, they are often edited. Some WCW entrance theme music tracks are replaced with stock WWE music. Beginning in July 2007, WWE Classics on Demand began deleting content from episodes of Nitro, as matches and some references to Chris Benoit
Chris Benoit
Christopher Michael "Chris" Benoit was a Canadian professional wrestler whose career and life ended in a murder–suicide...
are removed. Benoit is sometimes shown in segments where he is not the main issue of the segment. This was in light of the controversy surrounding the deaths of Benoit and his family
Chris Benoit double murder and suicide
The Chris Benoit double murder suicide occurred over a three-day period ending on June 24, 2007. World Wrestling Entertainment professional wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife, Nancy Benoit, strangled his seven-year-old son, Daniel, and subsequently committed suicide by hanging. Autopsy results...
on June 24 of that year.
In April 2009, WWE Classics went back to the first episodes that aired in September 1995. These shows alternate with the current Nitro airings (Dec. 1997 and onwards).
A 3-disc DVD entitled "The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro" was produced and released by WWE on June 7, 2011. The set is narrated by former three time WCW champion Diamond Dallas Page and highlights some of the biggest matches and moments in the history of WCW Monday Nitro.
Commentary Teams
| Commentators | Dates |
|---|---|
| Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan Bobby Heenan Raymond Louis "Ray" Heenan , better known as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan , is a former American professional wrestling manager and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association , World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation... and Steve "Mongo" McMichael |
September 4, 1995 - May 13, 1996 |
| Tony Schiavone Tony Schiavone Noah Anthony "Tony" Schiavone is an American sports broadcaster. He is the play-by-play broadcaster for the Gwinnett Braves of the International League... and Larry Zbyszko Larry Zbyszko Lawrence "Larry" Whistler is a professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Larry Zbyszko. Zbyszko is perhaps best known for his feud with his mentor, wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino during the early 1980s.... * |
May 27 - July 29, 1996 August 5 - August 26, 1996 |
| Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan* | May 27 - July 22, 1996 August 5 - August 26, 1996 |
| Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko and Eric Bischoff | July 29, 1996 |
| Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay Mike Tenay Michael William "Mike" Tenay is a professional wrestling play-by-play announcer currently employed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . Prior to signing with TNA in 2002, he had a notable tenure with World Championship Wrestling from 1994-2001... * |
September 2 - November 18, 1996 |
| Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko* | August 25, 1997 - April 12, 1999 |
| Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay* | November 25, 1996 - April 12, 1999 December 20, 1999 - January 24, 2000 |
| Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan | April 12 - May 24 May 31 - July 12 August 9 - December 13, 1999 |
| Scott Hudson and Bobby Heenan | July 19 - August 2, 1999 |
| Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Mark Madden Mark Madden Mark Madden is an American radio sports talk-show host in Pittsburgh and also a former World Championship Wrestling color commentator. -Career:... |
January 31, 2000 |
| Tony Schiavone and Mark Madden | February 7 - March 27, 2000 August 28 |
| Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden | April 10 - July 10 July 24 - August 21 September 19 - October 2 October 30 - November 13 December 4 - December 18, 2000 |
| Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden and Stevie Ray Stevie Ray Stevie Ray may refer to:*Stevie Ray Vaughan - an American blues guitarist**Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster - a guitar made in tribute to Vaughan*Lane Huffman - a professional wrestler who worked under the name Stevie Ray... |
July 18, 2000 October 9 - October 23, 2000 |
| Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden and Jeremy Borash Jeremy Borash Jeremy Borash , is an American professional wrestling play-by-play commentator, announcer, ring announcer, booker, interviewer, producer and website designer... |
September 4 - September 11, 2000 |
| Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Stevie Ray | November 13, 2000 |
| Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Stevie Ray | December 12, 2000 |
| Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Disco Inferno | January 8, 2001 |
| Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson | January 15 - March 26, 2001 |
(*) - Starting with the May 27, 1996 edition of Nitro, after a week off due to the NBA Playoffs on TNT, the show started using two Broadcast teams for the show. Schiavone and Zbyszko would call the first hour of the Nitro, and when the top of the hour came, even if during mid-Match, the pyro would go off on the Stage while Bischoff and Heenan would take over from their booth near the set. Eventually the teams changed, and starting in September 1996, Mike Tenay became a color commentator for both hours of Nitro, calling the first hour with Schiavone and Zbyszko, usually at Heenan and Bischoff's booth, and would call the second hour with Bischoff and Heenan. After Bischoff joined the nWo and took on a more prominent on-screen authority figure role, Schiavone replaced Bischoff in the second hour of Nitro, thus making him the lone play-by-play commentator for the show. Unlike Tenay, Schiavone, despite calling both hours of Nitro, would leave the Ringside position at the top of the second hour and join Tenay and Heenan at the booth, instead of just waiting for the first break of the second hour, and he would do this until the Ringside position was discontinued in 1997.
Ring announcers
- David PenzerDavid PenzerDavid Penzer is an American professional wrestling ring announcer, most recently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling between 1995 and 2001....
(1995–2001) - Michael BufferMichael BufferMichael Buffer is an American professional ring announcer for boxing and professional wrestling matches. He is known for his trademarked catchphrase, "Let's get ready to rumble!" He is known for pioneering a distinct announcing style in which he rolls certain letters and adds other inflections to...
(Select main events only, 1995–2001)
See also
- 1996 in television1996 in televisionThe year 1996 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1996.For the American TV schedule, see: 1996-97 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...
- Nitro GirlsNitro GirlsThe Nitro Girls were a dance team in World Championship Wrestling. Similar to the Fly Girls from In Living Color, their initial function was to dance and entertain the live crowds during commercial breaks.-History:...
- World Championship WrestlingWorld Championship WrestlingWorld Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...
- WCW ThunderWCW ThunderWCW Thunder was a professional wrestling show produced by World Championship Wrestling which aired on TBS from January 8, 1998 to March 21, 2001...