World Championship Wrestling

:There was also a World Championship Wrestling circuit in Australia from 1964 to 1978. This article is about the U.S. promotion.

Monday Night Wars

Bischoff's largest impact on the North American pro wrestling landscape was the launch of the weekly show WCW Monday Nitro in September 1995. In the aforementioned top-level meeting that summer, Turner asked Bischoff how WCW could conceivably compete with McMahon's WWF. Bischoff, not in his wildest dreams expecting Turner to comply, said that the only way would be a primetime slot on a weekday night, possibly up against the WWF's flagship show, Monday Night Raw. Turner, impressed by Bischoff's candor, gave him what he asked for: a live hour on TNT every Monday night, which specifically overlapped with Raw. This format quickly expanded to two live hours in May 1996, and then later three. Bischoff himself was initially the host, alongside Bobby Heenan and ex-NFL star Steve "Mongo" McMichael.

Related Topics:
WCW Monday Nitro - 1995 - Monday Night Raw - Bobby Heenan - NFL - Steve "Mongo" McMichael

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

McMahon later admitted to being hugely bitter about Turner's decision to air Nitro live on Monday nights, saying that Turner and Bischoff's only reason for doing this could be to hurt and damage the WWF. Turner and McMahon certainly had something of a personal history: in the early 1980s, when McMahon began buying up local organizations in order to create a nationwide wrestling system, he took over Georgia Championship Wrestling, thus he was in the position of providing a Saturday night show for Turner's TBS station. When viewers tuned to WTBS on July 14, 1984 (a date known as "Black Saturday" in the wrestling community) and saw WWF programming instead of the wrestlers they were used to seeing, many called the station and demanded the NWA's return; two weeks later, GCW returned, albeit on Saturday mornings. Turner quickly grew tired of the personality-driven glitz of McMahon's product and was upset at the fact that McMahon had gone back on his earlier promise not to dump second-rate stars and matches onto TBS. Turner therefore axed McMahon's show and turned to Jim Crockett to fill the Saturday night pro wrestling slot. Furthermore, on the very same day that Turner later acquired Crockett's territories, he famously called McMahon personally to say "Vince, I'm in the rasslin' business!"

Related Topics:
July 14 - 1984

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By 1995, Turner (as sole head and owner of both TBS and TNT), could air Nitro whenever he wanted. The WWF on the other hand was restricted by having to deal with the USA Network, whose executives were pleased about the viewers Raw brought to their network, but weary of the stigma associated with being the "wrestling channel." WCW Monday Nitro made its debut in September 1995 live from the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and featured the surprise appearance of then-WWF wrestler Lex Luger, who had been working on a handshake deal with WWF after his most recent contract expired, on a week when Raw was pre-empted the US Open Tennis tournement.

Related Topics:
USA Network - Mall of America - Bloomington, Minnesota - Lex Luger

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the first head-to-head ratings the following week, Nitro managed to convincingly defeat Raw, seeing WCW beat the WWF for the first time ever. For most of Nitro's first year, the ratings battle between the two promotions were close. In the end, Nitro ended up beating Raw in the Nielsen ratings for 84 straight weeks between 1996 and 1998.

Related Topics:
Nielsen ratings - 1996 - 1998

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Raw and the WWF in general was at a creative nadir from 1995 to 1997, thus helping WCW's meteoric rise. The WWF tried in vain to fight back in early 1996 with the infamous "Billionaire Ted" sketches, which occasionally starred an unbilled Vince Russo and viciously parodied Turner, Hogan ("The Huckster") and Savage ("Nacho Man") in particular. Only when stars such as ex-WCW wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin began to emerge, and when McMahon swallowed his pride and turned to Russo, a New York DJ and WWF magazine writer, did the WWF begin to pick up steam.

Related Topics:
1997 - Vince Russo - Parodied - Stone Cold Steve Austin - New York

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Siphoning off the WWF's talent and airing Nitro on Monday night was not the end of WCW's less-than-honorable tactics to defeat the competition. In the early days, as Raw was only live once every three weeks at that point, and as hours of upcoming shows would be taped in one arena on one night, announcers on Nitro could (and would) often give away the results of that week's Raw to keep viewers tuned to Nitro. Much later, with the WWF firmly back on top, this tactic backfired memorably on January 4, 1999 when WCW announcer Tony Schiavone was instructed by Bischoff over his headset to announce that Mick Foley (wrestling as Mankind) in the WWF, would win the WWF Championship that night on the USA Network. He then sarcastically remarked, "That'll put a lot of butts in the seats!" Ironically, the comment became true. Nielsen ratings for that night showed that almost immediately after Schiavone's comment, more than 600,000 viewers switched from Nitro to Raw in a matter of seconds, a true testament to Foley's work and the WWF's ever-growing popularity, and "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat" signs were seen for years afterward.

Related Topics:
January 4 - 1999 - Tony Schiavone - Mick Foley - WWF Championship

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~