10 Monumental Decisions That Changed The Course Of Wrestling History

9. Ted Turner Agrees To Give Eric Bischoff Prime Time

In the mid-90's, pro wrestling in North America was on somewhat of a downer. The WWF seemed to have run out of ideas, and even though the main event matches from the likes of Bret Hart were critically more acclaimed than the ones Hulk Hogan had been involved in, business was down across the board. Over in WCW, Hogan was chugging along, wheeling out the same act he had for years. Sure, there was still a big audience for the industry, but things needed to shake up a little, something WCW's head honcho Eric Bischoff was only too aware of. Feeling cornered during a meeting with Ted Turner, Bischoff remarked that he felt he needed a prime time slot on Monday evenings if he was ever going to turn the WCW ship around. Taking the throwaway statement to heart, Turner instructed his secretary to make a note of what Bischoff had said, and agreed to launch WCW Monday Nitro, a program which would go head-to-head with the WWF's Monday Night Raw. This was ground-breaking, nobody had ever challenged Vince McMahon this way. What resulted was dubbed the 'Monday Night Wars', as WCW became a true force in the pro wrestling business worldwide for the first time.