The Road To Nitro

1995 will forever be remembered as one of the most pivotal years in the history of Professional Wrestling. Almost as titanic as the battles in the ring was the war between America's two biggest promotions as Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF) found it's dominance of the industry under threat as Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW), under the guidance of charismatic Executive Producer Eric Bischoff, began an unprecedented run of ratings victories that almost drove McMahon out of business. 

The two companies battled it out in what has gone down in folklore as 'The Monday Night Wars' with WCW's main product 'Monday Nitro' airing live and providing an exciting and refreshing alternative to WWF's 'Monday Night Raw' which was often pre-taped and had followed almost the same format since it's inception in January 1993. 

Over the coming months, in the anticpation to the 25th anniversary of Nitro's debut episode Nitro25 will take a look at the history of the show and analyse the most important moments during the show's heyday and it's later decline. 

For now however, let's take a look at the journey that led to the birth of Nitro. 

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) 

WCW's origins can be traced back through the history of now-defunct North Carolina based promotion Jim Crockett Promotions. JCP had become the cornerstone of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) but by the late 1980s had encountered serious financial trouble. 

Thankfully, through their connections with TBS which aired JCP's main programming, the owner of TBS, media mogul Ted Turner purchased the assets of the company in 1988. To maintain familiarity with a previous (unrelated) TBS show, Turner rechristened the organisation World Championship Wrestling.

In 1991, WCW split from the NWA and began recognising their own World Champion and World Tag-Team Champions. For the majority of the first half of 1991, The 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair was recognised as the main champion but ran into creative trouble with the company's newly-installed President, Jim Herd. 

Herd had previously served as manager of local television network KLPR TV in St. Louis, Missouri and before that had worked as an Area Manager for Pizza Hut and came into the company with radical ideas including changing Flair's gimmick from his legendary 'Nature Boy' persona to that of a Roman gladiator named 'Spartacus' and aiming to move WCW to a more gimmick-heavy, character based product similar to the rival WWF. Tensions between Herd and Flair reached a head prior to the Great American Bash event in July 1991 when contract negotiations reached an all-time low and Herd subsequently fired Flair. 

Flair's departure from the company and Herd's ill-received new creative direction precipitated the departure of other key figures from WCW as names such as Stan Hansen, Stan Lane and Jim Cornette left the company. In light of these misdemeanours, Herd was fired in January 1992. 

Kip Frey served as the head of the company for a brief period but was subsequently succeeded by 'Cowboy' Bill Watts. WCW's creative product continued to struggle under during Watts' tenure with the company running events in dimly-lit, rundown venues and the making of top rope moves illegal, stifling the repertoire of up and coming talents such as 'Flyin'' Brian Pillman and the Steiner Brothers.

Behind the curtain, Herd's out-dated practices were causing further problems as well as accusations of racism and anti-Semitism. These issues eventually led to the departure of Watts in 1993.

WWF Monday Night Raw 

In a radical change to how professional wrestling was broadcast on TV, Vince McMahon's WWF broke new ground in January 1993 with the launch of their new flagship show 'Monday Night Raw'. 

Gone were the days of voice over commentary and pre-taped matches recorded in large arena venues. Instead came an hour long show broadcast live from the Manhattan Center in New York. The live and unpredictable nature of the show won plaudits from both critics and fans but soon became a financial drain on the company as the toll of weekly live broadcasts began to tell. Later in 1993, WWF got into the habit of pre-recording several weeks worth of Raw episodes. 

Eric Bischoff 

Eric Bischoff first entered the business of professional wrestling in 1987 with the Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), run by the legendary Verne Gagne. By 1989, Bischoff had graduated to the position of on-air interviewer and even becoming an announcer after the arrest of incumbent commentator Larry Nelson. In light of the company's perilous financial position in 1990, Bischoff had an unsuccessful try-out as an announcer with the WWF.

Bischoff eventually joined WCW as an announcer and interviewer for the company's less important programming in 1991, reporting to producer Tony Schiavone and VP of broadcasting Jim Ross. 

When Bill Watts resigned in 1993, Bischoff successfully applied for the vacant position of Executive Producer, beating alleged favourites for the job Schiavone and Ross. The decision to give Bischoff the job led to Ross departing the company to work for the WWF.

Bischoff was eventually promoted to the role of WCW Executive Vice President in 1994 and began to implement changes that would change the company forever. After successfully campaigning to Turner for WCW to be better financed, Bischoff dragged the company away from the Southern stereotype and transformed WCW's TV output into a more polished, streamlined product. Later during the year, Bischoff pulled off a major coup by signing former WWF Champion Hulk Hogan. The increased interest in the company after Hogan's signing coupled with the increase of Pay-Per-View events to twelve per year eventually saw WCW turn a profit for the first time in it's history.

The Birth Of Nitro 

In 1992, 'WCW Saturday Night' took over the traditional late Saturday afternoon slot previously held by Georgia Championship Wrestling and later JCP's unrelated 'World Championship Wrestling' show. This quickly became established as WCW's main output with many of the company's prominent stars such as Ric Flair (who returned to the company in February 1993) and Sting competed alongside former WWF performers such as Hogan and Randy Savage who had joined from the WWF as well as interviewer 'Mean' Gene Okerlund and colour commentator Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan.

Despite an increased PPV buyrate for Hogan's WCW debut against Flair at 1994's 'Bash At The Beach' event, prolonged critical and financial success failed to continue which resulted in a fateful meeting between Turner and Bischoff in 1995.

Frustrated at their failure to compete with McMahon and the WWF, Turner asked Bischoff what the company needed to do in order to challenge their rival. Speculatively, Bischoff requested a prime-time TV slot. Much to his surprise, Turner acquiesced and granted WCW a Monday night slot, putting them in direct competition with the WWF.

WCW staged a major press conference to announce the launch of their new flagship show, titled 'WCW Monday Nitro' which was slated to commence broadcasting in September of 1995.

The battle lines had now been well and truly drawn. A war that would shake the world of professional wrestling to it's very core had now been declared and the game would change forever.

That brings our look back down the road to WCW Monday Nitro. I hope you have enjoyed the nostalgia trip and that you're excited to join us on our journey through the history of the show. Next week we'll be starting our trip through time with a special blog taking a look at the debut episode of Nitro from September 4th 1995 before we begin our monthly reviews of the subsequent month's shows as well as the respective month's PPV. We'll also be deviating from the timeline sporadically for special blogs along the way. 

Ladies and gentlemen this is #Nitro25. 

Until next week, take care.