The Monday Night Wars

Two shows, one night

The WWF's Monday Night Raw had been on the air since January 1993. On September 4, 1995, World Championship Wrestling answered with Monday Nitro, an hour-long live show on TNT that debuted from the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. WCW executive Eric Bischoff was the driving force behind it, and Ted Turner's money stood behind him.

For the first time, two national wrestling companies went head to head in the same time slot every week. Each Monday the Nielsen ratings declared a winner, and fans and wrestlers alike followed the score.

The nWo and 83 weeks

Turner's deep pockets let WCW sign big names who had made their fame in the WWF, including Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. In 1996 Scott Hall and Kevin Nash arrived as invaders who seemed to come from a rival company. At the Bash at the Beach pay-per-view that July, their mystery third man turned out to be Hogan, wrestling's most famous hero, who turned villain and named the group the New World Order.

The nWo storyline felt dangerous and real, and starting in June 1996 Nitro beat Raw in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks.

The tide turns

The WWF fought back with a rougher, more adult product built around Stone Cold Steve Austin's feud with his on-screen boss, Vince McMahon, and the rise of The Rock. On April 13, 1998, Raw beat Nitro for the first time since 1996.

One of the war's most famous nights came on January 4, 1999. Raw was taped in advance, and on live Nitro an announcer revealed that Mick Foley, wrestling as Mankind, would win the WWF title on the rival show. Ratings indicated that about 600,000 viewers switched channels to watch it happen. That same night, Nitro's main event between Kevin Nash and Hogan ended with a single finger poke, a moment fans still call the Fingerpoke of Doom.

The last Nitro

WCW never recovered. By early 2001 its parent company, AOL Time Warner, was ready to move on, and the WWF bought WCW's assets. The final Nitro aired on March 26, 2001, from Panama City Beach, Florida, with Vince McMahon gloating on a simulcast from Raw in Cleveland.

Looking back, many wrestling commentators call the Monday Night War a golden age. Competition pushed both companies to try new ideas, and the stars it created still headline nostalgia shows today.

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