10 Most Important Weeks In The Monday Night War
5. 17th June 1996 - Nitro's First Win Of The 83 Week Streak
What's fantastic about Nitro's 83-week streak was that it came as much because of what WCW had already done rather than what they would do shortly after it commenced.
The (WWE-spun) narrative will always be that it took Scott Hall and Kevin Nash's arrival to light the war's most explosive feud in 1996, but there's plenty of evidence to support that they were the next step rather than the first one.
Nitro's first few months were still more than a little wild west thanks to whatever bizarre thing despised "babyface" Hulk Hogan was up to, but a lot of the content was clicking. Cruiserweight (and style-adjacent) wrestling was showcased on mainstream television like never before, Ric Flair and Randy Savage's WCW Title programme was responsible for the company's best ever house show ticket sales, and Vince McMahon's gotten-to nature on the other side made Eric Bischoff's hitherto unseen arrogance all the more captivating.
To look at the ratings in 1996, WCW was clearly building evident momentum outside of a strong WrestleMania period for Raw. May's move to two hours (more on that later) came backed by a big angle that they were deep in the weeds with a month later. This Nitro pushes Bash At The Beach and the roster's willingness to fight against the Outsiders, but looks and feels like just about every other episode between January and Hogan's formal turn in July.
On Raw, Steve Austin hit his first ever Stone Cold Stunner to defeat Savio Vega. It'd be nearly two full years before he'd win a ratings battle with it.