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Wrestling main index Narrative
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 Let the war begin The term "Monday Night Wars" refers to the period of time from 1995 to 2001 when WCW's Monday Nitro went head-to-head with the WWF's Monday Night Raw. During this time period, the Professional Wrestling industry rose to a level of success never seen before (or since).The "war" began when Ted Turner approached Eric Bischoff and asked Eric what he believed WCW needed to do to overtake the WWF. Bischoff suggested a weekly timeslot on Mondays to directly compete with Raw; in 1995, he got what he wanted when Nitro hit the air directly opposite Raw. At the time, Nitro aired live every week, as opposed to pre-taped episodes of Raw which the WWF had filmed days (or weeks) in advance, which allowed Bischoff to reveal Raw results on Nitro (a move that would later come back to bite him on the ass). In response to this, the WWF eventually transitioned Raw into a live weekly broadcast.From mid-to-late 1996 until early 1998, Nitro routinely defeated Raw in the ratings, mainly due to the ultra-hot "NWO" angle. (As Eric Bischoff famously put it, WCW beat the WWF for "eighty-four weeks in a row".) Facing bankruptcy and defeat square in the face, the WWF fired back in 1997: starting around the time of the Montreal Screwjob, the company started to become Darker and Edgier (a move inspired by the success of upstart indie promotion ECW, which resulted in what fans (and WWE) now refer to as "The Attitude Era". As the WWF's adult-oriented fare competed with WCW's more family-friendly product, the former eventually overtook the latter in the ratings.In the last great shot of the War, WCW pulled the trigger on a potentially huge match in July of 1998: live on Nitro, then-WCW United States Heavyweight Champion and up-and-coming superstar Goldberg defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan for the title. WCW won the ratings battle that night, but it gave up a ton of potential PPV revenue to deliver the match on free TV; numerous pundits mark this moment down as the beginning of WCW's downfall.While Goldberg's victory may have put the lid on WCW's coffin, the first (and biggest) nail came from the Fingerpoke Of Doom: the combination of a Shocking Swerve ending to a world title match that led to the reformation of the nWo coupled with the half-million viewers Nitro lost when announcer Tony Schiavone revealed that Mick Foley would win his first WWF Championship on a pre-taped episode of Raw (with Schiavone adding "That'll put butts in seats" after the spoiler) all but killed the promotion that night although it should be pointed out that the ratings of Nitro were the same the very next week.The WWF flourished due to its Attitude Era content and WCW's constant missteps. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley,Triple H, The Undertaker and Kane practically became household names during this time, and the WWF's success turned it into the most powerful wrestling promotion in the world. On the flip side, WCW kept pushing the nWo angle for far longer than it should have, and it failed to build new stars who could ultimately replace the older stars on the roster (thanks to a number of those older stars working on the company's booking team); these problems caused WCW to start losing viewers at an astonishing rate.From 1999 to 2001, WCW tried — and failed — to mirror the WWF's successful changeover to the Attitude Era by doing everything from hiring Vince Russo to instituting a Hardcore Title to trying to cross-promote the company using music and movie stars (including its infamous decision to make David Arquette the WCW Champion). After the AOL/Time Warner merger went down, however, the conglomerate put WCW up on the chopping block in an attempt to get rid of what it saw as a money drain. Since Ted Turner could no longer protect WCW and WCW couldn't turn itself around fast enough, it was eventually sold — to the WWF. (Eric Bischoff tried to purchase the company in the weeks prior to its sale so he could eventually reboot the entire promotion, but those plans eventually fell through.)The Monday Night Wars ended on 26 March 2001; after WCW held its final edition of Monday Nitro, Vince McMahon appeared live on both Raw and Nitro as part of a special simulcast (with Vince at Raw). As part of the first major storyline to come out of the purchase, Shane McMahon, Vince's son, appeared at Nitro to announce that he had bought WCW instead of his father. This led into the InVasion angle, which would eventually put the WCW brand to rest for good. (WWE eventually produced a DVD — The Monday Night War — that covered this timeframe in wrestling history; WWE's Rise and Fall of WCW DVD set covered the Monday Night Wars as part of WCW's overall history.)The book The Death Of WCW, co-authored by WrestleCrap writer RD Reynolds, examines many of the problems and decisions that led to WCW's ultimate downfall. The book includes numerous historical facts and figures (such as pay-per-view buyrates and earnings) that trace WCW's rise to prominence in 1997 all the way to its eventual demise.When Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff arrived in TNA in 2010, that company soon moved its weekly show (Impact) to Monday nights in what looked like an attempt to reignite the Monday Night Wars. Impact ended up getting only a third of the ratings of Raw (at best), and it eventually moved back to Thursday after a mere four months, where it remains to this day. (TNA's "Monday Night Skirmish" received the 2010 Gooker Award from WrestleCrap.)While having weekly national wrestling shows programmed against each other was different, many of the cheap shots and dirty tricks HAD been done before in the late stages of the territorial era, making this concept qualify as Older Than They Think.:
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0 reviews alternative title(s): Monday Night Wars
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