For five and a half years, WCW Monday Nitro and WWE Monday Night Raw ran opposite one another, but on March 26, 2001, something happened for the first time ever: both broadcasts showed exactly the same thing. At approximately 9:45 PM EST, Vince McMahon stood in the center of his WWE ring, gloating over the purchase of World Championship Wrestling. He began to poll the crowd, asking if he should retain the services of various wrestlers (it may not seem like much in a world where WWE has owned American wrestling for 13 years, but at the time, hearing McMahon mention Booker T and Buff Bagwell was surreal). Finally, he was interrupted by his son, Shane, who came to the WCW ring and announced that he had swiped the purchase of the company out from under his old man's shoes. The war would begin once more. www.youtube.com/embed/8WbZaT8qSw4 Of course, we all know what happened after that, but the absolute craziness of the original moment can never be understated.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
