WCW Monday Nitro
| WCW Monday Nitro | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Professional wrestling |
| Created by | Ted Turner Eric Bischoff |
| Starring | World Championship Wrestling alumni |
| Opening theme | "Purity V.3" (September 4, 1995-March 29, 1999) "Adrenaline V.1" by Purity (April 5, 1999-March 26, 2001) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 288 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multicamera setup |
| Running time | 1 hour (September 4, 1995–May 20, 1996, April 28-May 19, 1997, April 27, April 28, May 18, 1998) 2 hours (May 27, 1996–April 21, 1997, May 26-July 28, 1997, August 11, 1997-January 19, 1998, January 3–March 27, 2000, April 10, 2000-March 26, 2001) 3 hours (August 4, September 1, December 22, 1997, January 26–April 20, May 4, May 11, May 25 1998-May 3, 1999, May 17-December 27, 1999) |
| Original release | |
| Network | TNT (September 4, 1995 – March 26, 2001) |
| Release | September 4, 1995 – March 26, 2001 |
| Related | |
| WCW Thunder | |
WCW Monday Nitro was a professional wrestling television program for World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The show ran from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001 and had 288 episodes.
History[change | change source]
When Nitro debuted it started a ratings battle which became known as the Monday Night Wars between WCW and WWF which lasted almost six years.[1][2] WCW started the nWo storyline which helped them gain more viewers than the WWF.[3] They would continue to defeat the WWF in viewers for 84 consecutive weeks which forced WWF owner Vince McMahon to change the style of wrestling his promotion was doing and introduce The Attitude Era.[1][4] As the nWo storyline became stale, fans turned from WCW to watch the WWF.
On the January 4, 1999 episode of Nitro, commentator Tony Schiavone gave away the results to Raw which included underdog Mick Foley defeating The Rock saying:
- "Fans, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, do not. We understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here at one time as Cactus Jack, is gonna win their World title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh."[2]
Bischoff thought that in doing this, viewers would be put off by this and would not watch Raw. His plan backfired however and a lot of Nitro viewers changed the channel to watch Raw because they were excited to see the underdog Foley win the championship.[2] The fans switched back to Nitro after Foley won but from that week on, Nitro was beat by Raw in the ratings by a large amount and WCW was never able to regain their former success.[2]
Special episodes[change | change source]
| Episode Title | Date | Rating | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 | September 4, 1995 | 2.5[5] | Debut episode |
| nWo Monday Nitro | December 22, 1997 | 3.5[5] | nWo takeover of Nitro |
| The Fingerpoke of Doom | January 4, 1999 | 5.0[5] | Bill Goldberg was arrested before he was able to compete in his WCW World Heavyweight Championship match. Tony Schiavone also gave away Raw spoilers including Mankind's pre-taped WWF title victory, which 600,000 viewers switched over to see. |
| WarGames 2000 | September 4, 2000 | 3.6[5] | WarGames match which took place in a three-tiered cage between two teams for the world championship. Kevin Nash ended up retaining the championship. |
| The Night of Champions | March 26, 2001 | 3.0[5] | Final episode. |
On-air personalities[change | change source]
Commentators[change | change source]
| Commentators | Year(s) |
|---|---|
| Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael (1st hour) | January 1993-March 1993 |
| Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Tony Schiavone | August 25, 1997 (2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko | May 27, 1996 – July 29, 1996 (1st hour) August 5, 1996 – April 21, 1997 (1st hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Larry Zbyszko | April 28, 1997 - May 19, 1997 (1st hour) |
| Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan | May 20, 1996 – June 10, 1996 (1st hour/2nd hour) July 1, 1996 - July 22, 1996 (2nd hour) August 5, 1996 – August 26, 1996 (2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko and Eric Bischoff | July 29, 1996 (2nd hour) |
| Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay | September 2, 1996 – October 28, 1996 (2nd hour) November 11, 1996 - November 18, 1996 (2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko | May 26, 1997 – July 28, 1997 (1st hour) August 11, 1997 - March 29, 1999 (1st hour/1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay | November 4, 1996 (2nd hour) November 25, 1996 – March 29, 1999 (2nd hour/3rd hour) August 4, 1997 (2nd hour-3rd hour) December 20, 1999 – January 24, 2000 (1st/2nd hour-3rd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan | June 17, 1996 – June 24, 1996 (2nd hour) April 5, 1999 – July 12, 1999 (1st-3rd hour) August 9, 1999 – December 13, 1999 (1st-3rd hour) |
| Scott Hudson and Bobby Heenan | July 19, 1999 – August 2, 1999 (1st-3rd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Mark Madden | January 31, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone and Mark Madden | February 7, 2000 – March 27, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) August 28, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden | April 10, 2000 – July 10, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) July 24, 2000 – August 21, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) September 18, 2000 – October 2, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) October 30, 2000 – November 6, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) November 20, 2000 - December 4, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) December 18, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden and Stevie Ray | July 18, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) October 9, 2000 – October 23, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden and Jeremy Borash | September 4, 2000 - September 11, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Stevie Ray | November 13, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Stevie Ray | December 12, 2000 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Disco Inferno | January 8, 2001 (1st-2nd hour) |
| Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson | January 15, 2001 – March 26, 2001 (1st-2nd hour) |
Ring announcers[change | change source]
| Ring announcer | Year(s) |
|---|---|
| David Penzer | September 4, 1995–March 26, 2001 |
| Michael Buffer | (For select main events, May 12, 1997–March 26, 2001) |
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The true story behind the debut of WCW Monday Nitro". WWE. Archived from the original on 2013-11-20. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "SlashWrestling.com: WCW Monday Nitro results". SlashWrestling. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
- ↑ "On this date in WCW history: The formation of the nWo at Bash at the Beach". Cageside Seats. 7 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
- ↑ "Mr. McMahon Proclaims Raw is the Cure for the Common Show: Raw, December 15, 1997". WWE. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "WCW Monday NITRO Ratings History". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2013-12-15.