WCW Monday Nitro
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- For the video game, see WCW Nitro (video game).
WCW Monday Nitro was the weekly Monday night TV show on TNT, produced by the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Nitro's production started on September 4, 1995 and continued until March 2001, until the WWF (now the WWE) bought WCW. It ran head to head with the WWF show Monday Night RAW. The creation was the brainchild of then WCW owner Ted Turner and WCW's Vice President, 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, lasting until April 13, 1998, when a heated confrontation between the villainous WWF Chairman Vince McMahon and fan favorite Stone Cold Steve Austin shifted momentum in the WWF's favor.
Besides broadcasting from various arenas and locations across the country (such as the Mall of America, 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.
On the very first edition of Nitro, Lex Luger (who was working for the WWF without a contract) made a surprise appearance during the program's very first match between Ric Flair and Sting.
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Monday Night Wars
Image:Nitrologo95.jpg 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 approximately 80 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). Template:Main
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 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. 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.
Eventually RAW began using a new generation of rebellious wrestlers and adult material to challenge Nitro in the ratings. RAW was building for a future with a young Triple H and D-Generation X along with former WCW wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was becoming increasingly popular as a rule-breaking, unpredictable anti-hero.
RAW gains ground
While RAW was taking a new approach to programming, 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, Chris Benoit, and the late 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. Few new stars were made during the run of Hogan and the nWo storyline. The only newcomer elevated to main event status at this time was Goldberg. His main event match with Hogan on the July 6, 1998 edition of Nitro won the ratings battle from the WWF for the week, but some observers felt that WCW could have made millions if they saved 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 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 Ferrera 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, more lengthy 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 reorganize 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 WWF.
The final Nitro
The final edition of WCW Monday Nitro aired on March 26, 2001 from Panama City Beach, Florida. 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. 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 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, setting up what would now become the WWF's infamous "Invasion" storyline.
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 to ensure larger crowds.
- The only wrestler to appear on both WCW Monday Nitro and WWF Monday Night RAW on the same day is the late 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 (taking the name "Madusa"), she brought the title with her and threw it in the trash on WCW Monday Nitro. 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.