WCW Nitro
| WCW Monday Nitro | |
|---|---|
WCW's Monday Nitro logo used from April 5, 1999 to March 26, 2001
|
|
| Genre | Professional wrestling |
| Created by |
Ted Turner Eric Bischoff |
| Directed by |
Craig Leathers (1995–1999, 2001) Rick Fansher (1999–2000) Mike Miller (2000) |
| Starring | See World Championship Wrestling alumni |
| Opening theme | "Monday Night Nitro Theme" by Jonathan Elias (September 4, 1995 – March 29, 1999) "Adrenaline V.1" by Purity (April 5, 1999 – March 26, 2001) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 288 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | Various locations in North America |
| 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) |
| Release | |
| Original network | TNT |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original release | September 4, 1995 – March 26, 2001 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | WCW Thunder |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
WCW Monday Nitro, also known as Monday Nitro or simply Nitro, was a weekly professional wrestling telecast produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), created by Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff.
The show aired Monday nights on TNT, going head-to-head with the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF now WWE) Monday Night Raw from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, when WCW was purchased by the WWF.
The debut of Nitro began the Monday Night Wars, a ratings battle between the WWF and WCW that lasted for almost six years and saw each company resort to cutthroat tactics to try to compete with the competition. Although comparable to Raw in popularity from the beginning, Nitro began to dominate its rival in television ratings by mid 1996, based largely on the strength of the nWo storyline, a rebellious wrestling stable that wanted to take over WCW. Nitro continued to beat Raw for 84 consecutive weeks, forcing WWF owner Vince McMahon to change the way he did business.
As the nWo storyline grew stagnant, fan interest waned and Raw began to edge out Nitro in the ratings. The turning point for the organizations came during mid-April 1998 after Stone Cold Steve Austin won his first WWF Championship. From that week forward, Raw beat Nitro in the ratings by a significant amount, and WCW was never able to regain the success it once had.
Besides broadcasting from various arenas and locations across the country (such as the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, 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 1997. The rights to Nitro now belong to WWE.
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