In 1995, World Championship Wrestling escalated its rivalry with the dominant World Wrestling Entertainment by debuting a new live show called Monday Nitro, which would run head-to-head against Monday Night Raw every single week until the promotion’s demise in 2001. As a result, a period called the Monday Night Wars ensued as ratings, stunts, and gimmickry were at an all-time high for both companies.
Such crazy times also mean crazy anecdotes, so let’s take a look at the history of Monday Nitro and uncover some wild stories about the landmark show, including backstage incidents and surprise appearances -- both planned and (apparently) unplanned.
10 The Mall of America
While most wrestling TV shows are taped in arenas, the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro emanated from Minnesota’s Mall of America. This was a calculated decision on WCW’s part, as malls were popular at the time, and using the largest mall in the US would make Nitro seem like something fresh and new. According to Eric Bischoff, WCW wasn’t a huge draw at the time, so shooting at an unconventional space like the Mall of America was also a good way to hide potentially low turnout.
9 Lex Luger’s Return to WCW
The inaugural Nitro ended with the return of Lex Luger, who hadn’t wrestled for WCW since 1992, overshadowing Big Bubba Rogers’ only World Title Shot. To keep word from getting out, Eric Bischoff urged Luger to not give advance notice to WWE that he was leaving, so Luger literally worked some WWE house shows in Canada over the weekend and drove to Minneapolis to appear on Nitro. To further keep from spoiling the surprise, Luger was snuck to the mall as late in the show as possible and was secluded from the rest of the roster.
8 Sting Nearly Died
Sting’s evolution from bodybuilding surfer babyface to Crow-esque nocturnal vigilante involved not only a change in look but also some stunt-based gimmickry like rappelling down to the ring from the rafters. While Sting trained for it with Hollywood stuntmen and practiced it several times in the arena, when it came time to do it on live television for the first time, tragedy nearly struck.
Amid all the crowd noise, pyrotechnics, and general chaos, Sting’s harness was set up backwards, which would have resulted in the same incident that would later kill Owen Hart. Thankfully, however, the mistake was caught and rectified before it was time for Sting to descend upon the ring.
7 The Nitro Girls
Monday Nitro was a big production and even had devoted cheerleaders in the form of The Nitro Girls, who kept the fans in the arena entertained and hyped during the commercials. Just as importantly, they were considered another tool in combating WWE.
One of the big issues in the Monday Night Wars was the likelihood of fans changing the channel during commercials, and The Nitro Girls were deliberately employed just before the commercials to keep viewers from flipping over to Raw.
6 Rick Rude’s Double-Booking
Monday Nitro would feature a number of surprising appearances from ex-WWE talent, but the strangest one was Rick Rude who defected from WWE straight to WCW in the wake of The Montreal Screwjob. However, because Raw episodes were taped two-at-a-time, Rude showed up live on Nitro and then appeared on Raw later that same evening -- hilariously sporting more facial hair than he did on Nitro. To make a weird thing even weirdo, Rude ALSO showed up on an episode of ECW Hardcore TV that was airing that same night.
5 Who Was Watching Raw?
Part of what made the Monday Night Wars more than just two shows airing at the same time was how much WCW worked to mess with WWE, offering pointed jabs on live television and announcing the results of WWE’s pre-taped Raws -- a stunt that would ultimately backfire. There were rumors that Eric Bischoff was closely watching Raw during Nitro even as he was at the commentary table. However, Bischoff dispelled that, explaining that the crew in the production truck were the ones who watched Raw so that they would make sure to stay on the air while WWE was on commercial.
4 Regal vs. Goldberg
Goldberg was WCW’s biggest (and arguably only) home-grown phenomenon, who racked up a legendary winning streak thanks to a series of squash matches. But the 2/9/1998 episode of Nitro gave fans a curious subversion of the formula, as opponent Lord Steven Regal got in a surprising amount of offense on Goldberg.
Accounts of the story behind the match differ: Goldberg claims that Regal took advantage of his rookie opponent, while Regal claims that the road agent told them to have a competitive match. According to Regal, because Goldberg only ever wrestled 90-second squashes, he had no idea what to do wrestling a six-minute match against a seasoned veteran.
3 Sable At WCW
On the 6/14/1999 episode of Nitro, viewers noticed a surprising sight as WWE’s Sable sat ringside for the show. Reportedly, Sable just bought a ticket to attend the show while still under contract to WWE, although she had recently filed a lawsuit against her employers.
WCW boss Eric Bischoff claimed to have no prior knowledge of Sable’s attendance, but some at WWE believed that Bischoff had concocted a publicity stunt that would also prevent him from getting sued by WWE. Either way, despite the intention, Sable never actually appeared as a performer on WCW television.
2 The Extravagant Final Episode
The final episode of Monday Nitro, which aired 3/26/2001, was an emotional swan song for the company, ending with a big World Title win for Booker T and one last WCW match between rivals Ric Flair and Sting.
While new owners AOL/Time Warner reportedly wanted a low-budget show, WCW decided to go all-in budget-wise, taking a week to construct a special outdoor set and flying in the entire roster despite only a fraction of them appearing on the show.
1 The WWE Crew Was Worried About A WCW Attack
The last year of WCW was a tumultuous time, as nobody was entirely sure what would happen to the company, and a lot of misinformation was going around. In fact, not everyone at the company was informed of WWE’s purchase of WCW, and many employees didn’t know a WWE production crew was coming to Nitro until hours beforehand. Even the WWE crew was unsure of what was going to happen and feared that the situation would be so hostile that WCW’s crew and roster might actually attack them when they arrived. However, this did not happen.