10 Important Innovations WCW Made To The Wrestling Industry

10. Going To Two Hours And Then Three Hours

Raw was a one hour show when it started out in 1993. Nitro was too when it began in 1995. Like everything in wrestling, fans wanted more. Nitro was the first to go two hours on a regular basis in May of 1996 with Raw countering in February 1997. Without WCW going to two hours first, we don't know if WWE would have ever changed how Raw was presented. When WWE announced that the "longest running weekly episodic show in television history" aka Raw was moving to three hours permanently in 2012, they did so without mentioning that WCW made Nitro a three hour show in January 1998. At the time of WCW's three hour move, Nitro was still doing great numbers and beating Raw on a regular basis although the gap was shortening because of the rise of Steve Austin among other things. It was around that time when WWE brought Mike Tyson in too, which turned out to be big deal that really swung things in WWE's favor from that point on. Going to two hours set the stage for what we were used to seeing from our wrestling shows. It's the show length that WWE still has for Smackdown. Raw has become three hours and it's considered to be too long by a lot of people, but it looks like it isn't going to be changed any time soon. While WWE may get to brag as the "last man standing" it shouldn't be forgotten that it was WCW that changed things first.