Looking Back On My Favorite Moments Of WCW Monday Nitro - June 6, 2011

WWE is set to release a Best Of WCW Monday Nitro DVD set tomorrow. The set will be hosted by Diamond Dallas Page and will include matches and moments over the run of the series. It just popped into my head that it might be fun to do a Wrestling List looking back on my favorite moments of WCW Monday Nitro.

WCW Monday Nitro premiered in September of 1995 and went right head to head with Raw. Well, it actually didn't go head to head on its premiere night as Raw was preempted that night on USA Network. So, Eric Bischoff went with the plan to air the first Nitro on a night unopposed when fans would be looking for wrestling. Yeah, I think that might have worked. Yeah, it did work! The opening had great action, an interesting environment in the Mall of America, and the first of many surprises that we would get on Nitro with the return of Lex Luger. Keep in mind that Luger had just been with the WWF at the time so his return to WCW on a live Nitro was a complete shocker to everyone watching. This premiere is definitely in my list of favorite moments. This show gave us big matchups and stars on a live broadcast making us wonder what could happen next. This was such a huge alternative to what WWF was giving us on Raw in 1995. Lots of cartoony gimmicks and the only highlights for the company were Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and those top level guys.

Savage/Hogan/Flair/Giant. This was a battle between these stars to be WCW World Champion. These four battled one another in early 1996 to become champion. The title changed hands on multiple occasions. There were twists and turns such as Elizabeth turning on Savage to go with Flair. She was his before she was Savage's by the way. Anyone get that 1992 reference? I enjoyed the matches of these four as they went for the title.

Memorial Day 1996. Scott Hall's debut on Nitro. Oh, what was to come with this. Hall showed up in basically the Razor Ramon gimmick except for the clothes. Fans were abuzz at his talk of "we are taking over". If you weren't a fan that knew the inside stuff, then you were thinking that WWF was showing up on WCW programming. I loved the stuff with Sting standing up to him as well when Hall would repeatedly show up. Enter in Kevin Nash a couple of weeks later. The set up for the nWo was underway. Some of my favorite Nitro moments were after the reveal of Hogan being in the nWo. They were taping TV down in Orlando. A black limo would show up and I was just glued to the TV wondering what was going to happen when these guys got out. All fans were glued to the TV. We had the moment where they went up into the top of the venue covering up the WCW letters. They attacked the WCW roster in the back including Nash throwing Rey Mysterio like a dart into the trailer. It was just a different level of TV than we had ever seen. These guys that were just there to wreck havoc and you never knew when they were going to show up.

1-2-3-4, next week, 5. That was the signal that Ted Dibiase held up during a live broadcast when he sat ringside and started counting nWo members. This became a lot of what the fall of 1996 would be in WCW. Who was the next to join? Would somebody turn on WCW? You just never knew. An attack would play out when The Giant would turn on WCW and join up with the nWo and unleash a big time attack on Randy Savage.

Sting. This was a big deal as 1996 came to a close in WCW. We had the supposed attack of Sting on Luger in the parking lot on a Nitro show which made it look like Sting had joined the nWo. However, Sting denied it was him but with all the turns of people to the nWo, nobody believed him. So, Sting would show up at Fall Brawl in the War Games match as scheduled. He cleaned house on the nWo and then left saying now do you believe me. It was an awesome, awesome moment. Then, he would walk out on WCW on the next edition of Nitro. This would see the emergence of one of my favorite things in wrestling history. The black and white "crow" looking Sting who would just watch the happenings of the action in the tops of the buildings. Not saying anything. What was on his mind? Whose side was he on? He would make his way to the ring, lay out somebody, not say anything, and leave. It was great TV. He didn't say a word for months. Sting would later start getting to the ring by propelling from a cable to the ring. It was an amazing sight and one that would send fans into a big reaction. It came across great on TV and also live as I saw Sting drop down in the building in Nashville on Nitro to one of the loudest roars that I've ever heard at an event. The mystery of Sting would be great TV for many months on Monday Nitro.

Lex Luger wins for WCW. The big Luger/Hogan match for the WCW title was built up on a Nitro in August of 1997. Luger pulled out the win and won the title giving WCW a big celebration against the nWo. Then, WCW would put the belt back on Hogan days later at the Road Wild or Hog Wild PPV, whatever it was called that year. Just took some of the big momentum off of it.

Goldberg/Hogan. Some still point at this match as a problem that WCW had putting this first ever epic encounter on free TV on Nitro. Me? I didn't really have a problem with it. They went for the ratings gold with it and packed the Georgia Dome with it. I see both sides of the argument though. Goldberg had all sorts of momentum in 1998 with him steamrolling competition and had the crowd in the palm of his hands. I still love to watch those crowds react jumping out of their seats when Goldberg would hit the spear. With his undefeated record, it was a matter of time before he would get to Hogan. July of 1998 would see that. Goldberg would defeat Hogan to win his first WCW title in front of a loud and pumped up crowd in Atlanta.

Chris Jericho. When you read his book, you realize that Jericho knew he wasn't getting attention from management so he just did whatever to get attention. It worked! Jericho's Nitro segments are some of my favorites in history. Lots of great comedy stuff with Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, and others. The 1,004 holds segment is still one of my favorites. Jericho proclaimed that Malenko was the man of a 1,000 holds that Jericho was the man of a 1,004 holds and was going to read them all off. Almost every other one of them was an arm bar. Hilarious stuff. When they went to commercial, they came back and he was still in the ring reading moves. Great, great stuff. Jericho had great segments and matches over the years on Nitro and I always have to think Jericho when I think of Monday Nitro.

The Four Horsemen are reunited. Charlotte, North Carolina hosted one of the biggest Nitro moments ever. The Horsemen had been separated. Flair and WCW had all sorts of backstage issues. However, this was the night that the Horsemen rode again. The culmination of this big moment would be Arn Anderson in the ring finishing up the promo when he said that he almost forgot somebody and introduces Ric Flair. Horsemen country goes crazy and Flair walks out in his suit all sorts of teary eyed. Flair does his usual great promo and the Horsemen were back.

January 4, 1999. The fingerpoke of doom. Ok, just kidding. Not in my favorite moments. Ranks up there with my least favorite moments. Most of which include Vince Russo.

Bret Hart knocks out Goldberg in Canada. I had forgotten how good this segment was until they showed the footage again on a recent Legends of Wrestling roundtable show on WWE Classics On Demand. The basic set up was that Nitro was in Canada in 1999. Now, you know that Bret Hart got a huge ovation walking out there and the crowd was eating up everything he said. He laid out the challenge for Goldberg. Goldberg answered it and hit Bret with a spear. They then both laid on the mat to the stunned reaction of everyone wondering why Goldberg was unconscious after hitting the spear. After a minute or so, Bret staged to his feet and revealed that he had a piece of metal around his waist which Goldberg knocked himself out on with the spear. Bret had outsmarted and KO'd Goldberg in Canada and the crowd went wild over it.

Speaking of Bret Hart, I have to mention another incredible Nitro moment and that was the tribute match to Owen Hart. Bret returned to Kansas City and a match was made with him and Chris Benoit to pay tribute to Owen. They put on a classic match and Bret was the winner. Afterwards, he pointed upward to Owen. With the Benoit tragedy, this moment will likely never be seen again in WWE footage unless they just show Bret paying tribute and they ignore the match completely.

August 9, 1999. The return of Hulkamania. I loved this. They had been teasing a Hogan face turn for a while. The fans had gotten back behind Hollywood Hogan. On this night on Nitro, the red and yellow returned along with the "American Made" music. The crowd went nuts as he teamed with Sting and Goldberg. It was the first time to see Hogan in red and yellow in over three years and the crowd ate it up. One of those moments where you saw fathers nudging their kids and saying this is what I grew up on.

Sting vs. Ric Flair. How fitting was it that these two competed on the last Monday Nitro ever? Two of the guys who had meant so much to the success of WCW got to go at it one last time. Was it a mat classic? No, but it was a great ending to the show to have these two competing against each on this night in March of 2001.

WCW Monday Nitro had its big place in pop culture. Nitro parties were held all over the country every week. It changed the landscape. Nitro was the reason that the then WWF had to step up to the plate and try to grab that audience back. Nitro always had surprises whether it was from talent moving over such as the night that Rick Rude appeared on both Raw and Nitro. Nitro went from one hour, to two hours, and eventually on to three hours. Yeah, three hours was way too much TV and add into the fact that Thunder was airing on TBS at the time of the three hour Nitro's and that was five hours of wrestling programming just on those two shows alone. Nitro was exciting and innovative. It was sad to see what the show became in the later years especially with what it was for so long. It was that unpredictable show that you couldn't wait to tune in to. I remember Nitro for the early years of entertainment. If there was no Nitro, the wrestling landscape would not have changed into what it became. You need that great competition out there and it was there for both companies. The Monday Night Wars are a time that will live on forever in fans minds. If you weren't there to witness it, stories can be told that will do it justice. The truth is that the stories can't even really live up to what we saw unfold week after week as these two companies battled for cable TV supremacy every Monday night. It was cutthroat, vicious, exciting, fun, and the real winners were all of us fans that got to witness it.