WCW Monday Nitro, also known as WCW Nitro or simply Nitro, is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and broadcast weekly every Monday night on TNT in the United States from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001. Created by then WCW owner Ted Turner and Vice President Eric Bischoff, it was the flagship weekly show produced by the company.
Nitro featured wrestlers contracted to WCW. Besides broadcasting from various arenas and locations across the United States and Canada, such as Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota (from which the first episode was broadcast), Nitro also organized special broadcasts from the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando in 1996; aired annual Spring Break-Out episodes from Panama City Beach, Florida or South Padre Island, Texas starting in March 1997; and filmed some episodes in Australia and the United Kingdom during the Fall of 2000.
At its peak, Nitro was the highest-rated show on primetime cable TV. Its premiere was notable for sparking a period of television known as the "Monday Night War": for the entirety of the show's run, Nitro went head-to-head in the ratings with the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF; now WWE) Monday Night Raw. Nitro began to dominate in ratings in 1996, based largely on the strength of the WCW's New World Order (nWo) kayfabe rebellious group. Raw began to overtake Nitro in the ratings in 1998 due to the WWF's revamped Attitude Era programming. In March 2001, TNT canceled the show.
The rights to WCW Monday Nitro now belong to WWE, who purchased WCW properties in 2001. The WWE has released three Best of WCW Monday Nitro DVD sets and all episodes are available for streaming on the WWE Network. In 2025, WWE started uploading episodes to a WCW YouTube channel.
History
Premiere The first episode of Nitro was broadcast from the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on September 4, 1995. The featured matches on the one-hour broadcast were Brian Pillman versus Jushin Thunder Liger, Ric Flair versus WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Sting, and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan taking on Big Bubba Rogers. The show was also highlighted by the return of Lex Luger to WCW after having spent the previous two plus years wrestling for the WWF, where he had been one of the promotion's top stars. Luger had just wrestled a match for the WWF the previous evening; the match was his final contractual obligation with the WWF, and Luger signed with WCW the morning of his appearance. The event prefigured the similar defections of WWF wrestlers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash the following year.
The title video for the debut episode of Nitro featured multiple shots of Big Van Vader (one of four wrestlers featured, along with Hulk Hogan, Sting and Macho Man Randy Savage), who parted ways with WCW following a backstage altercation with Paul Orndorff. Absent from the first episode, he had been scheduled to face Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on the September 11 edition, but was replaced by Lex Luger, who issued a challenge to Hogan on the debut show.SEPT. 4 IN HISTORY: WCW Nitro launches. PWTorch. Vader would never perform on Nitro, and embarked on a WWF career in January 1996.Vader: Profile & Match Listing. IWDB.
Monday Night War
The advent of Nitro brought with it a television ratings rivalry with the WWF's Monday Night Raw, known to wrestling fans as the "Monday Night War". Throughout this period, Nitro would grow in popularity and eventually surpass Raw in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks, beginning in June 1996.
Since Nitro was live, the show was seen as far less predictable than its WWF counterpart. Initially only sixty minutes in length (as was Raw at the time), Nitro was expanded to two hours following the 1996 NBA Playoffs (Raw would later extend to two hours in February 1997). In January 1998, the show was extended to three hours. At its peak, the rivalry resulted in performers on either show trading verbal insults and challenges. In retaliation for a segment of Raw in which D-Generation X (DX) travelled to the Norfolk Scope arena in Norfolk where Nitro was being broadcast (WWF was nearby in Hampton, Virginia the same night), Eric Bischoff challenged Vince McMahon to face him in a match to be held at Slamboree 1998; McMahon never formally recognized the challenge and did not appear.
The July 6, 1998, episode of Nitro from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta saw Goldberg defeat Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
Nitro is best remembered for the New World Order (nWo), with former WWF wrestlers Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan as rebellious heels plotting to take over WCW. Despite ratings success, both the angle and stable would later be criticized for the heel wrestlers almost never losing, and for what was seen as overexposure. As the nWo expanded, the stable would ultimately split into several warring factions within itself, while most WCW-branded wrestlers would eventually become neutral.
Changes Nitro'''s success forced WWF owner Vince McMahon to usher in the more adult-oriented "Attitude Era". In April 1998, Raw beat Nitro in the ratings for the first time in almost two years. The shows would continue to trade ratings wins back and forth until November 1998 when Raw pulled ahead of Nitro for good. WCW was frequently criticized for several faults, including an inability to create new stars while over-relying on established stars to support ratings.
On January 4, 1999 Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Championship as Mankind on a pre-taped episode of Raw. Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone sarcastically commented on the match, which unexpectedly resulted in Nitro losing in the ratings battle when several hundred thousand viewers switched over to Raw to see the title change. That night's episode of Nitro would be notorious for the "Fingerpoke of Doom", in which a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match between Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan was quickly revealed to be a ruse that reunited the core members of the nWo as the "nWo Elite". The match was universally panned and was considered to have damaged WCW's credibility and begin their decline.
In October 1999, former WWF writers Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara were hired by WCW. Both men attempted to bring their WWF-style writing to Nitro, including edgier storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments, and an increased amount of sexuality. Many WCW fans greatly resented Russo and Ferrara for changing their programming to be like the WWF, as they preferred the traditional method of wrestling over long skits, screwjobs, and risque innuendo that were widely popular among WWF audiences.Nitro would be reduced to two hours in January 2000, returning the program to an 8-10 p.m. timeslot, with the first hour running unopposed and the second hour competing with the first hour of Raw. Eric Bischoff would be brought back to Nitro and was paired with Russo to "reboot" WCW on April 10, 2000. None of these changes were able to help recover Nitros ratings and Bischoff eventually left WCW in July 2000 after an incident involving Hogan and Russo at the Bash at the Beach event. Russo would later suffer a severe concussion after being speared through a cage by Goldberg, later leaving WCW on extended leave to recover. Further declines from late 2000 would see WCW search for new ownership beginning in early 2001.
Notable episodes Episode TitleDateVenueLocationRatingNoteWCW Monday NitroSeptember 4, 1995Mall of AmericaBloomington, Minnesota2.5First episode of Nitro. See above for more information.Tuesday NitroJuly 22, 1997Jacksonville ColiseumJacksonville, Florida4.1nWo Monday NitroDecember 22, 1997Macon ColiseumMacon, Georgia3.5The nWo take over the last 2 hours of Nitro.Spring BreakMarch 16, 1998Club La VelaPanama City Beach, Florida5.6Free event held in the Boardwalk Beach Resort's Club La Vela.WCW Monday NitroJuly 6, 1998Georgia DomeAtlanta, Georgia4.9Event held at the Georgia Dome, 41,412 attended the event making it the highest WCW Nitro attendance. Main Event: Goldberg wins first World Heavyweight title by defeating Hollywood Hogan. The second hour had a tv rating of 5.6.WCW Monday NitroAugust 31, 1998Miami ArenaMiami, Florida6.0Nitro reaches its highest rated episode. The Wolfpac's Lex Luger and Sting battled nWo Hollywood's Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart in the main event."Fingerpoke of Doom"January 4, 1999Georgia DomeAtlanta, Georgia5.0Goldberg was arrested before his title match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Later, Tony Schiavone, on orders from Eric Bischoff, gave away Mankind's pre-taped WWF title victory on Raw, which resulted in over 600,000 viewers switching to Raw.New Year's EvilDecember 27, 1999Houston AstrodomeHouston, Texas2.8Special New Year's edition of Nitro. The name was later revived in 2021 as a yearly New Year's-themed special episode of WWE NXT.Spring Breakout 2000March 27, 2000Sheraton South PadreSouth Padre Island, Texas2.6Free event held on the beachfront of the Sheraton Beach Resort Hotel.WCW Monday NitroApril 3, 20001.8Before the official "reboot", the most memorable moments of Nitro are revisited.WCW Monday NitroApril 10, 2000Pepsi CenterDenver, Colorado3.1WCW is "rebooted" by Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo and all WCW titles are vacated.WarGames 2000September 4, 2000Reunion ArenaDallas, Texas3.6On the fifth anniversary of the premiere, a WarGames match took place in a three-tiered cage between two teams for the world championship. Kevin Nash retained the title.The Night of ChampionsMarch 26, 2001Boardwalk Beach ResortPanama City Beach, Florida3.0Final episode of Nitro. WCW is purchased by the WWF. See below for more information.
The Night of Champions – Final broadcast
In an attempt to save WCW and Nitro, Bischoff attempted to purchase WCW with a group of investors. However, although Bischoff's offer had been accepted, recently appointed Turner Broadcasting executive Jamie Kellner announced shortly after his arrival that Nitro and all WCW programming was immediately canceled on both TNT and TBS. Bischoff's group then withdrew their deal, as it was contingent on keeping WCW programming on some outlet. Instead, WCW's trademarks and certain assets (such as its video library and the contracts of 24 wrestlers), though not the promotion itself (which continued to exist as a Time Warner-owned legal entity under the name Universal Wrestling Corporation until late 2017), were bought by Vince McMahon's WWF, its long-time competitor.
Around the time of the cancellation, WCW was preparing to make its yearly trip to Panama City, Florida for spring break. Since the premiere of Nitro, WCW had gone to Club La Vela or South Padre Island every March to try to gain favor with adolescent and young adult viewers who might not otherwise be tuning into the program. It was announced that the upcoming March 26, 2001, episode of Nitro from Panama City (which was actually held at the nearby Boardwalk Beach Resort) was to be the finale and the show was dubbed "The Night of Champions." The show began with McMahon appearing via satellite from Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, the site of that Monday's Raw is War broadcast on TNN. McMahon announced his purchase of WCW to the crowd and appeared in vignettes throughout the show, including one where he terminated WCW's Jeff Jarrett on air due to bad blood the two had in the past.