WCW Saturday Night

WCW Saturday Night
The WCW Saturday Night logo as it looked like from 1994 to 1999.
Also known as	'WCW Saturday Morning'
Genre	Professional wrestling
Created by	Jim Crockett Promotions / World Championship Wrestling
Starring	See World Championship Wrestling alumni
Theme music composer	Richard Harvey ("Dynamics")
Opening theme	"Dynamics" (1982-1987)
Country of origin	USA
Production
Location(s)	WTBS' studios at 1050 Techwood Drive Center Stage Theater in Atlanta
Camera setup	Multicamera setup
Running time	60 to 120 minutes per episode
Release
Original network	TBS
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Original release	December 25, 1971 – August 19, 2000

WCW Saturday Night was a weekly Saturday night TV show on TBS produced by World Championship Wrestling. The program existed through various incarnations under different names before becoming WCW Saturday Night in 1992. Although initially the anchor show of the Ted Turner-backed wrestling company, the September 1995 premiere of WCW Monday Nitro airing on sister station Turner Network Television usurped the show's once preeminent position in the company, as the primary source of storyline development and pay-per-view buildup.

The show's place in the company was further devalued by the advent of WCW Thunder in 1998, airing on TBS and providing the secondary wrestling and storyline development that WCW Saturday Night had produced in the wake of Nitro's burgeoning three-hour-long format. Once the cornerstone of the WCW wrestling empire, WCW Saturday Night ended its run in 2000 as the company struggled creatively to meet the demands of producing over six hours of new broadcast material on a weekly basis. The rights to WCW Saturday Night now belong to WWE as a result of that company's 2001 purchase of selected assets of WCW (including its video library).

WCW Saturday Night premiered on April 4, 1992 as the showcase for the company's top talent. It grew out of two previous wrestling programs on TBS - Georgia Championship Wrestling, which began on the station (then known as WTCG-TV) in January 1972 and ran under that name until August 1982, when it became World Championship Wrestling. In addition, there was also a Sunday edition of World Championship Wrestling; however, in later years, Sunday editions became infrequent. In spring 1988, TBS replaced the Sunday edition with a new Sunday wrestling show called NWA Main Event.