WCW MONDAY NITRO

'''WCW Monday Nitro''' was a weekly professional wrestling program produced by World Championship Wrestling. The show aired Monday nights on TNT, going head-to-head the World Wrestling Federation's ''Monday Night RAW'' from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001. Production ceased after WCW was purchased by the WWF. ''Nitro'' was created by Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff.
Though ratings were poor early on, ''WCW Nitro'' improved in mid-1996 and went on to draw better ratings than the WWF for 84 continuous weeks. This lasted until April 13, 1998, when a heated confrontation between the villainous WWF Chairman Vince McMahon and fan favorite Stone Cold Steve Austin dominated WWF programming, as well as the company introducing a new incarnation of the popular faction D-Generation X shifted momentum in the WWF's favor.
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 of 1997.
On the very first edition of ''Nitro'', Lex Luger (who was working for the WWF without a contract) made a surprise appearance during the Ric Flair vs. Sting match and the program's main event between Hulk Hogan and Big Bubba Rogers.

Contents

Monday Night Wars

Initial success

''RAW'' gains ground

Changes

Final broadcast

Broadcasters

Trivia

See also

External links

Monday Night Wars

Main articles: Monday Night Wars

The advent of ''WCW Monday Nitro'' brought with it an intense rivalry between WCW's Monday night program and the WWF's ''Monday Night RAW'' program. This rivalry is known to wrestling fans as the "Monday Night Wars." 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 did not show-up, and Bischoff was declared the winner by countout).

Initial success

Initially, ''Nitro'' became extremely popular with WCW's extensive roster of stars. Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, and Sting were some of the few 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 nWo, ''Nitro'' started its unprecedented run of ratings domination. With former World Wrestling Federation 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. 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, unprecedented for 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. Older stars such as Hogan and Nash frequented the main events, while younger talent such as Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero were not given opportunities to advance in the company. 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 Goldberg 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 the WWF for the week, but some observers felt that WCW could have made millions if they saved the Goldberg/Hogan match for an eventual pay-per-view event.

Meanwhile, on ''RAW'', fans were immersed in the feud between WWF owner Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin. New talent such as Triple H and his D-Generation X faction, Mankind and The Rock were elevated to main event status on the 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 the same area on the same night (''RAW'' in Hampton, Virginia and ''Nitro'' in nearby Norfolk), sending D-X to the Norfolk Scope arena ''Nitro'' was broadcasting from and berating WCW fans.

Changes

With the WWF 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. Signings of wrestlers such as Warrior and several top ECW stars did nothing to stop their ratings slide.
Bischoff's "tried & true" tactic of giving away the results from taped ''RAW'' shows backfired big time on January 4, 1999. Mick Foley, 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 moment that Schiavone insulted Foley, over 600,000 viewers changed channels to watch ''RAW''. 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!"'' In the meantime, while Foley's title win was airing, ''Nitro'' was highlighted by the now-infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom", a WCW Title match in which Nash, who had won the championship belt from Goldberg at the ''StarrCade'' PPV event (WCW's equivalent to'' the WWF's WrestleMania'') two weeks before, blatantly laid down for Hogan after he poked him in the chest. The incident damaged the credibility of the WCW Title almost beyond repair, and the damage done to WCW was, in the mind of some, exacerbated when Hogan and Nash immediately announced the reformation of the nWo, which by that time was widely perceived as a stale storyline.
Former WWF writers Vince Russo 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. Through this, ''Nitro'' would become a two-hour program, with the second hour competing with ''RAW''. Fans had a negative reaction to the direction Russo was bringing the show in and it was reflected in the low ratings for the program. The 2-hour format also hurt the program as an entire hour of advertising revenue was lost. Bischoff would be brought back to WCW and attempted to team with Russo to fix the ills of ''Nitro'' and WCW - taking ''Nitro'' off the air for one week 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. WCW's sharp decline in revenue and ratings would lead to Time Warner's sale of the company to the rival the World Wrestling Federation.

Final broadcast

To attract adolescent viewers, Monday Nitro was telecast every year during Spring Break from Panama City Beach, Florida, because students on universities was a high-value demographic audience group for WCW. There, WCW originated from a well-known nightclub, "Club La Vela" to get in touch with those viewers.
The final edition of ''WCW Monday Nitro'' which aired on March 26, 2001 from Panama City Beach, Florida, was dubbed "The Night of Champions". The show began with Vince McMahon making a short statement about his recent purchase of WCW. 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.
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 through out 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 WWF as a whole was the true owner of WCW), setting up what would later become the WWF's "Invasion" storyline. In addition to the tape library and other intellectual properties, the WWF would also buy a few selected contracts of the WCW talent, keeping many of the younger stars but passing on many key players, who had more expensive contracts. Some key players, like Booker T, would eventually accept contract buy-outs to take the smaller contracts offered by the WWF. The main event included WCW Champion, Scott Steiner vs. WCW United States Champion Booker T.

Broadcasters

★ Eric Bischoff 1995 - 1996, 1999

★ Tony Schiavone 1996 - 2001

★ Steve McMichael 1995 - 1996

★ Bobby Heenan 1995 - 2000

★ Larry Zbyszko 1996 - 1999

★ Mike Tenay 1996 - 2001

★ Scott Hudson 1999 - 2001

★ Mark Madden 2000 - 2001

★ Gene Okerlund 1995 - 2001

Trivia

★ In its final year, ''WCW Monday Nitro'' returned to the two-hour format with which it had started and was taped with ''WCW Thunder'' in order to reduce production costs.

★ The only wrestler to appear on both ''WCW Monday Nitro'' and ''WWF Monday Night RAW'' on the same day is Rick Rude. He appeared at the ''RAW'' taping the previous Tuesday despite not having a WWF contract and signed with WCW in time to appear at ''Nitro'' on Monday.

★ When then WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze signed with WCW in 1995 (going back to her old name of "Madusa"), she brought the title with her and threw it in the trash on ''WCW Monday Nitro'' (the first week that Nitro started before the top of the hour). Because of this incident Vince McMahon was afraid his current champions would do the same, and insisted on collecting all title belts from his champions at the end of each event (typically, the Champion carries the title belt with him). 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 "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan found it and claimed it.

★ ''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 ''RAW'' 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.

★ When Eric Bischoff became Raw General Manager he had John Morrison as his assistant under the name Johnny Nitro in a reference to WCW Monday Nitro, this was made more evident when Johnny Nitro's Entrance Music became WCW Monday Nitro's Theme Tune

★ Eugene Dinsmore appreared as a jobber on WCW Monday Nitro long before becoming Eric Bischoff's nephew on WWE RAW

See also

★ Nitro Girls

★ World Championship Wrestling

★ WCW Thunder

External links

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★ Jump The Shark - WCW Nitro