The Monday Night Wars between WCW and the WWF (as it was back in the day) were responsible for some of the looniest stories and angles in professional wrestling history, as WWF chairman Vince McMahon and WCW president Eric Bischoff each attempted to outdraw each other for ratings of their flagship Monday night shows, RAW and Nitro. Everyone knows that the WWF won the ratings war, the elevation of Stone Cold Steve Austin and his feud with the tyrannical owner Mr. McMahon finally pushing pushing RAWs ratings over and above Nitros in April 1998. Incredibly, Eric Bischoff would actually outdo himself in an attempt to claw back the top dog position for Nitro and WCW. While the WWF went from strength to strength with the Attitude Era, WCWs characters, stories and angles became increasingly ridiculous. In September 1999, Bischoff was removed from power due to plummeting ratings and serious losses (the company was, from all reports, losing $5million a month at the time) and WWF head writer Vince Russo was brought in to attempt to control the companys freefall plunge. As most wrestling fans know, this was an even worse idea. Under Russo, the stories became even more ridiculous, with edgier stories, frequent title changes and character swerves from heel to face and back again, all backed up by multiple non-wrestling segments and backstage vignettes. Russo had nicknamed his style Crash TV, but historys shown it to be more of a car crash. Bischoff was brought back to work with Russo the following year, but the damage was done, and WCW, haemorrhaging money, was removed from television. With no TV deal, the company was easy pickings for WWF. Vince McMahon purchased WCW, their trademarks, their video library and the contracts of twenty-five of their stars in March 2001, officially putting the dying promotion out of its misery. What follows is a countdown to 10 of the most memorably insane, loony and frankly just weird stories that WCW played out on its flagship show Monday Nitro before they finally bit the bullet.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
