Yet another week so that means yet another review of a wrestling event this time it was wcw Monday night nitro's first ever episode which I sort of live tweeted on my @RantsWrestle account but first lets go back and take a little look that the brief history of WCW and what inspired them to go to war with WWF back in September 1995. As the death of wcw book opening paragraph said wcw wasn't supposed to die, according to insiders following the death of the promotion in March 2001. Many within the company believed that Owner Ted Turner would never allow his promotion to die regardless of how much money it lost in 12 years he had owned the promotion. Well why you ask well for that you would have to back to 1976 when ted turners then fledgling tv station (TBS/Superstation) needed programming and pro wrestling was a cheap alternative to producing live sporting events and big budget tv sitcoms. Ted gave Jim Barnett (a successful promoter in Australia and later booker in the WWF and wcw) then Georgia championship wrestling promotion. The promotion got a Saturday evening that 6.05 and on Sunday evening (where GCW run a best of programme) timeslot on Turners TBS superstation (which at this time was called UHF). Serveal years later turner had a small request and that was to change the name of the promotion and Barnett agreed and renamed his promotion to WCW which was the name of his old promotion in Australia. In 1985 during the WWF national expansion vince McMahon purchased barnetts promotion for 750,000 as apart of the deal McMahon purchased the then extremely lucrative Saturday evening 6.05 timeslot on TBS. The switchover from WCW to WWF programming was dubbed by many fans as black Saturday on July 14th 1985. The two shows were vastly different as on WWF shows the emphasis was on short mathes which were normally one sided and short promos while Georgia (WCW) was more based on long athletic matches and amazing promos both were normally delivered by ric flair. Over a 1,000 angry fans flooded the tbs phone lines with angry calls demanding to know where there version of pro wrestling had gone and what was this circus that had replaced it. Ted in fact listened to these angry callers and commissioned a show booked by Ole Andersson to air on a Sunday morning (reports vary some say 7am others claim 10am) under the name championship wrestling from Georgia which appeased fans for now. Over a year later turner turned to bill watts mid south wrestling and handed them the Sunday evening timeslot (were the best of Georgia championship wrestling shows used to air) and told Bill he would back him and mid south financially so he could compete on a national level with vince. Vince was irrate at this as he felt when he purchased the timeslot he had exclusive rights to be the only wrestling brand on tbs to which ted disagreed. In fact ted told vince that vince had regened on a stipulation in a deal the two had inked a year earlier. As vince had claimed to turner when requiring the timeslot he would run a separate weekly wrestling show from Georgia with Georgia's biggest stars and not use the timeslot as a dumping ground for his brand of wrestling. Obviously turner was unhappy with vince reneged on there deal and as vince wouldn't do the Georgia shows then ole or watts would. Vince meanwhile was obviously furious and so was ted and this began the near 15 year rivalry between the two businessmen. In 86 ted was so angry he threated to throw Vince's WWF shows off the air until Jim Barnett stepped in as he neogtiated a deal between McMahon and Jim Crockett (JCP) which would see Crockett purchase the timeslot for 1 million from vince, Turner was reportable ecstatic to get rid of vince. Eventually watts stepped aside and sold Mid South (watts had renamed the promotion to UWF universal wrestling federation by this point) to Crockett while all the other territory's all but died, the AWA was still there just hanging on as Crockett and vince went to war over the next few years. In 1988 crocketts promotion was in a financial mess as well and turned to ted for help (ted had always had a soft spot for wrestling in his heart and was a mark just like the rest of us) and turner brought JCP for 9 million. Then ted made the famous phone call to vince saying hey vince I'm in the wresslin business. Over the next few years WCW would be a horribly mismanaged promotion under the leadership (head booker) of ole Anderson, dusty Rhodes or bill watts and this mismanagement had many within turner to plead with ted to just put wcw out of business once and for all but ted never listened as mentioned above he was a mark at heart for pro wrestling. So in 1993 after 5 years of mismanagement the company turned to eric Bischoff an announcer at the time for wcw 3rd string shows and he was given the role as executive Vice President of wcw. Gone were the grumpy ring warriors that had proceeded Bischoff like ole and watts. Take for intense ole he was not well liked within the turner organisation and bill watts well Jim ross puts it best he weren't ever going to be a corporate guy while Bischoff was someone within the CNN towers turnerbemployees could approach without having there head bitten off. Bischoff took wcw out of the dingy lit arenas and transferred wcw tv tappings into the much more nicer looking and family friendly Disney studios in Orlando Florida and It saved wcw a boatload of cash in doing so. Bischoff also decided to save wcw more money he needed to do what vince had done earlier in the WWF expansion and Tape weeks worth of shows like WCW Saturday night and sometimes even months at a time but this horribly backfired for wcw. As tv tappings had indicated Sid vicious would dethrone Vadar at wcw starrcade 93 for the wcw title but this match never happened. As during a tour of England in late 93 Sid began to talk shit to Arn Andersson he has been reported as saying that Arn and flair were to old to draw and he was the future of wcw. The exchange between the two become more heated and escalated as a fight broke out between the two which ended with Sid taking a pair of scissors and stabbing Arn serveal times. Police and an ambulance were obviously called by staff of the hotel in Blackburn were this incident had taken place and it even made the national newspapers. Sid was fired and the starrcade 93 main event was no more. By this point ted turner had approached Bischoff asking him what would it take to compete with the WWF to which Bischoff replied he would need to sign hulk hogan. In June of 1994 hogan finally signed to wcw (on screen anyway but I believe wcw had secured hogans services before June as the promotion had been hinting since February of 94 that hogan was on his way to wcw), hogan was a short term success for sure as his matches with flair at wcw bash at the beach and wcw Halloween havoc bumped wcw ppv business by 40%. Hogans next feud with good buddy old pal ed lesile was a shambles and had no right headlining that years starrcade ppv. Hogan then buried Vadar in there feud which resulted in hogan no selling vadars powerbomb which had crippled jobbers years earlier and it made Vadar look like just another guy and his killer aura was gone to never return in the USA at least. Hogan then entered into a dreadful feud with the dungeon of doom but it was so bad it was actually good but during this time hogans appeal was beginning to wear off with the hulkster now regularly being booed in arenas up and down the country. As for Bischoff he was again pulled into turners office and asked point blank by ted what do we have to do to compete with vince. Bischoff was put on the spot and blurted out the only answer he could at the time saying we need prime time. Bischoff says on the Monday night war DVD giving his best ted impression give eric prime time on Mondays head to head with Vince's WWF Monday night RAW show. Many within the industry felt this was an awful move by wcw and it wouldn't just result in there death but wrestling as a whole, yes seriously insiders thought that at the time. Obviously time would tell on that over the top comment and this review isn't about the death of wcw because I will touch on that next week when I sort of live tweet the final episode of wcw nitro.
WCW Monday Night Nitro 1st ever episode on TNT 05/09/95
The opening shot of this brand new wrestling show shows the skyline of Minneapolis minnasota and were live says Bischoff as we shoot to inside the mall of the America ( I here you ask why a mall well it was because wcw could cross co promopt hulk hogans resturant pasta mania) the site of the first ever wcw Monday night nitro live on TNT. Eric Bischoff welcomes us to the show and welcomes steve mongo mcmichael to the announce desk here on wcw nitro. In walks bobby the brain Hennan who had been on the build up to this show saying how much of a chicken mcmichael was among other things. Hennan tries to shake mcmichaels hand but he's having none of it as Bischoff throws us to the ring for opening bout of the evening. Brian Pillman vs Jusin Thunder Liger- liger goes for Pillmans arm at the bell and slaps on a side headlock onto flyin Brian, liger Irish whips Pillman to the corner and follows it up with a cart wheel kick to Pillmans shoulder. Liger serves the first plate of chops of the evening to Pillmans chest. liger goes to Irish whip Pillman again but Pillman counters it and sends liger into the corner but before liger ends up back first in the corner liger jumps up top and moonsualts into the awaiting arms of Pillman. During this sequences Bischoff utters his iconic tag line for nitro for years to come that this is where the big boys play. Liger covers Pillman for a two count and then slaps on a sleeper to Pillman to give the two a much needed rest. Liger whips Pillman into the far corner and then drives his knees into Pillmans head. Liger goes to whip Pillman again and follow him in but Pillman catches liger with a head scissors and it drives liger head first into the top turnbuckle. Pillman backs liger up into another corner and proceeds to chop liger serveal times with a knife edge chops. Pillman goes to Irish whip liger but liger counters it and Pillman ends up in the corner then liger charges Pillman but Pillman puts his boot up and liger runs face first into Pillmans boot. Pillman goes for a botched huancaina and covers liger for another two count, snapmere by Pillman to liger. Abdormal stretch by Pillman to liger while the two are in a seated position (sorry I don't recall the spots actual name) then Pillman rolls through on liger and has ligers shoulders pinned to the mat but only gets a two count. Pillman goes for another Irish whip but again liger counters it and sends Pillman into the corner as Pillman stumbles out he is taken down by liger with a scoop slam and liger applies the rarely seen in 1995 the Mexican surf board. The announcers meanwhile talk about how you won't see action like this anywhere else (verbal joust number 2 by wcw to WWF). Liger breaks the surfboard at 4 and reverts to a chinlock on Pillman then he breaks that and whips Pillman into the ropes which again Pillman counters with a headscissors. Liger is dazed by the ropes so Pillman runs at liger but liger sends Pillman up and over onto the floor on the outside. Liger on the ring apron now then runs and cannonballs from the apron into Pillman. Liger rolls into the ring and the referee counts but only reaches 6 as Pillman rolls back into the ring to break the count. Pillman rolls back onto the ring apron to get a breather but liger grabs him and tries to bring Pillman back into the ring the hard way via a suplex but Pillman counters the suplex and sends liger out onto the floor below. Pillman ascends the ropes and goes up top and dives out onto liger who is just recovering after being suplex from the ring to the outside a few moments ago. Pillman rolls liger into the ring and goes up top again but now liger is up as he drop kicks Pillmans feet out from underneath him and Pillman falls crotching himself on the top rope in the process. Liger then climbs up top and suplexes Pillman from the top to the mat below and liger covers Pillman but only gets a two count. Liger goes up top now and flys off into Pillman but Pillman is waiting for liger and dropkicks liger in the gut. Pillman covers liger and only gets a two count again, both men are up now and Pillman chops liger. Pillman whips liger into the ropes but liger counters and sends Pillman into the ropes. Pillman rebounds into liger who cuts him off with a right hand and then liger gives Pillman a powerbomb and covers him for the 1,2 no as Pillman just kicks out. Liger is frustrated and then puts Pillman up top and goes and follows Brian up top. Pillman pushes liger back down and gives liger a right hand and a swinging DDT but only gets a two count. Waist lock by Pillman but liger counters it and teases giving Pillman a German suplex but Pillman counters it with a standing switch rolls up liger and gets the 1,2 and 3 and your Winner is Brian Pillman to open up nitro proper with this excellent contest. Liger shakes Pillmans hand afterwards as Bischoff throws us to a pre tapped sting promo were sting shares with us there is no one better to scorpion death lock than the nature boy ric flair. After commerical easy e is in the pasta mania store with wcw champion hulk hogan and jimmy hart. Hulk seems more interested in plugging his resturant than his main event title defence against big bubba (the big bossman/Ray Traylor). Up next is Us champion sting facing the nature boy Ric Flair in a Non Title Match. The nature boy is out first and gets a big pop from the crowd and he's followed by the stinger who gets an even louder reception from the crowd. Mongo is then in the middle of saying something when Bischoff interrupts him with well what in the hell is he doing here and take the camera off of him as lex luger a recognisable WWF superstar and former wcw champion himself has arrived on nitro and live on TNT. The crowd that first is in some sort of a stunned silence then the reaction gets louder and louder. Security head Doug Dillinger and his security team escort luger away into the back as flair and sting even look on stunned by what they had just witness. Flair and Sting lock up and flair backs sting into the corner and they release the lock up as the crowd chant lets go stinger. Sting let's out a wooo that the nature boy so ric goes in for another lock up and flair sends sting into the ropes. A shoulder block by sting to flair who pops right back up and rebounds into the ropes while the stinger goes the other way and a kris cross by both men. Sting leapfrogs clean over Naitch not once but twice then sting catches flair and gives him a military press and hoists flair up into the air and flair goes and hits the mat stomach first. Flair begs off as sting stands over him but sting is having none of it and grabs flair by the hair and picks him up and does the same spot again to get a massive ovation from the crowd. Sting then gives flair a hip toss and then drops flair with a dropkick. Flair rolls to the outside as the crowd are at a fever pitch chanting sting. Flair gets back in the ring and the two lock up again this time flair proves why he is the dirtest player in the game and takes a short cut by poking his thumb into stings eye. Flair backs sting up into the corner and begins to chop at the stingers chest but it has little or no effect on the stinger as flair begins to back up begging off again from sting. Sting then whips flair into the ropes and does his 3rd military press slam to flair. Sting picks up Naitch and tries to whip flair into the ropes but flair counters it and kicks sting in the gut. Then flair whips sting into the ropes but Sting rebounds back into flairs path who goes for a chop but sting ducks it hits the ropes and flys back out at flair with a cross body block but flair ducks and sting hits the top rope and falls to the outside. Meanwhile Bischoff on the announce desk reminds us once again this is live and were the big boys play. Flair follows sting to the outside and begins to chop stings chest again and again it has no effect on sting. Flair begs off again then runs at sting but sting catches him and lifts him up into the military press slam again rather than dumping flair on the floor he tosses the flair back through the middle rope and into the ring. Sting gets back in the ring as flair begs off on his knees this time again sting Irish whips flair into the corner and goes for his stinger splash but flair moves and sting misses his intended target. Flair is dazed and can't recover in time while sting comes back to life and gives flair a bulldog. Sting picks up flair and whips him into the corner yet again and runs that Naitch but this time flair gets an elbow up and stings into it jaw goes flairs elbow. Then we go to commerical once back flair is in control of the contest. Flair then goes up top but sting recovers and catches flair who took a long time getting up there and sting flings nature boy from the top to the mat below. Yet another military press slam by sting to flair who then covers flair for a two count only. Then out walks Arn Anderson (at the time flair and Anderson were feuding and no longer buddies) to get a better view of the action. Back in the ring sting tries to splash flair but misses up pops flair who gives sting a suplex but sting pops right back up and clothes line flair not once but twice. Sting then whips flair into the corner and flair goes up and over landing on the ring apron but sting flairs long time rival knows this and chops flair off the ring apron and flair lands on the floor. Flair rolls back in the ring and flair and sting lock up, stings backs flair into corner and mounts him in the corner and gives flair the 90's baby face spot of ten punches in the corner which the crowd happily counts along too. Sting then gives flair a hip toss all the way from one side of the ring to the other side. Sting puts flair on the top rope, sting goes up top and the two exchange left and rights. Sting falls onto his feet to the mat and flair follows, flair then Irish whips sting into the ropes. Flair goes for a hip toss but sting counters it and sting goes for a hip toss of his own but flair cuts him off with a punch to the gut. Flair takes sting down with a side headlock, sting gets back and the two both tease the backslide which sting wins and has flair pinned for a two count only. Sting then puts flair on the top rope and follows flair up top and gives flair a big suplex from the top rope. Sting goes to cover flair but is distracted by Arn Anderson on the outside and flair has time to recover. Flair gets up and gives sting a chop block and applies the figure four as Arn Anderson jumps into the ring forcing the DQ. Winner By DQ the nature boy ric flair announces Dave penzer as double a removes his shirt and goes right after flair attacking him and the two battle to the back. Back in the ring stings music plays as he celebrates his lose(um ok), great match shame about the DQ finish. Moments later Arn comes back out and confronts sting but the two are cut off by Scott Norton who is on the outside shouting at mongo. The macho man randy savage comes out to the ring as well as sting and Arn leave. Savage then picks up a microphone while in the ring and says I want to fight you tonight Scott Norton. Bischoff then tells norton if he steps foot in that ring he will never work here in wcw and out comes Doug dillenger and his security team who lead norton away to the back. A video package airs on Sabu, yes the homicidal genecidal maniac Sabu on his impending arrival in wcw. When we return mean gene okerlund is in the ring and he announces the winner of the Harley Davidson sweep stakes challenge (pointless segment). Another video package airs this time on another newcomer V.K. Wall Street (get it) who basically buries WWF new generation and mentions his former character IRS. Up next is WCW World TItle Match as champion Hulk Hogan defends his title against Big Bubba. Before the bell can ring Bischoff announces that next week it's been signed and made official as Scott Norton goes one on one with the macho man randy savage. Both start the match with a lock up but the two quickly break it and both men pose (stalling tactics) to the crowd. Again they lock up and bubba slaps on a side lock to hogan which hogan counters by pushing bubba off an into the ropes and hogan shoulder blocks Bubba sending him down to the mat. Hogan poses while bubba recovers and both men lock up again and into a test of strength spot. Bubba takes the low road by kicking hogan in the gut while locked up and pushes hogan back into the corner. Bubba then begins to trash talk the hulkster and it fires hogan up who bursts out of the corner decking bubba with left and rights. Bubba goes low to cut hogan off again with a knee to the gut and powerslams hogan. Bubba backs hogan up into the corner and fires left and right hands at hogans mid section. Bubba then goes to splash hogan but hulk gets his boot up and bubba runs into the boot. Hogan fires more left and rights at bubba until referee randy Anderson can take no more and tries to pull hogan off of bubba. This gives bubba time to recover who gets up and decks hogan up side the head with a right hand and hogan bends over the middle rope and bubba sits on hogans neck. Bubba then goes out after jimmy hart but hulk comes out and saves harts bacon as bubba removes Jimmys jacket. Back in the ring hogan chokes bubba with the jacket (blatant DQ) and then Pummels bubba in the face with a right hand which sends bubba reeling back into the corner. Hogan then gives bubba a clothesline while bubba is in the corner, hogan beats on bubba some more in the corner. Referee randy Anderson has to step in to pull hogan off of bubba and hulk threatens to deck poor official randy Anderson for doing his job (this would be the start of quick tease by hogan that he might go heel). Hogan scoop slams bubba and drops an elbow into bubbas chest. Bubba gets the upper hand with an uppercut to hogans throat while mongo says on commentary you won't see wrestling like this anywhere else (yes mongo this match vince would have never booked during the new generation era because he knew how much it sucked). Hogan hits the ropes and rebounds into bubba who catches hogan and gives him the side walk slam, bubba covers hogan but only gets a two count. Bubba then punches hogan but by now hulk is hulking up and the crowd pop big time for this. Hulk whips bubba into the ropes and gives bubba the big boot leg drop combo and gets the 1,2 and 3. Your Winner and still wcw world champion hulk hogan. As hogan celebrates with jimmy hart the dungeon of doom (the taskmaster Kevin Sullivan, zodiac aka ed lesile or Brutus the barber beefcake, kamala and shark aka earthquake john tenta) who attack hogan. This leads to lex Luger coming out and luger and hogan take out the dungeon sending them packing. Then the two turn and see another and are ready to fight one another when out comes sting and savage who hold both hogan and lugar back respectively as Bischoff says did you hear that hulk hogan just said to luger, to go back from where he came from. We then go to commerical when we return mean gene okerlund is in mid ring he says to hulk I don't know what the hell is going on here. Hulk interrupts mean gene and says what In the hell are you Doing here. Lex then rambles on for a bit and hits his points by saying he was sick to death of playing with kids and wanted to play we're the big boys did. Luger then added the biggest boy of them all is hulk hogan and I want to fight you for that wcw world title weather that be next week, next month or next year. Hogan then tells luger he knows who Luger is and that they've traveled the same path so luger doesn't need to wait because next week with the title on the line, me (hogan) and you (lex) one on one. Mean gene then pops as hogan and luger square up to one another yet again and savage and sting have to step in to pull the two apart and we fade to black.
Round Up
Nitro started a trend not seen during this period as they wheeled out three big matches which were all of ppv quality something rarely seen during the mid nineties and this couldn't have been a better week to debut the show as WWF raw was pre-emptied for the westminster dog show so wcw had monoplay that evening and made a hell of a lot of noise as well. Fans who may have not have been aware of raw not being on that week may have flipped the channels and found there wrestling fix that night and wcw would have currently made an impression on those fans. It was so different to WWF raw during that period as raw consisted of one big star match sandwiched in between a bunch of one sided squash matches. In compassion wcw was fresh, hip and innovative. Now the question was would vince change with the times and try to catch up with the times and for once do something different. This is all sounding rather familiar isn't it. Anyway next week I will move onto the final episode of wcw nitro and take a look back at the vince Russo effect, creative control and the fall of wcw in 99 and try to answer went wrong with wcw and how this once innovative show meet it's timely demise.
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