10 Reasons WWE Raw Is Lucky To Still Be On The Air
5. WCW NitRaw
Unable to switch off the defensiveness that had plagued him since Ted Turner "got in the rasslin' business" in 1988, Vince McMahon was still relentlessly abusive towards the WCW long after he'd purchased the entire back catalogue. All except for (or maybe because of) one brief period where, astonishingly, he almost handed Raw over to it.
Desperate to make WCW a separate entity but struggling to have his interests shared by television execs burned by the brand's latter toxicity, McMahon almost pre-dated 2002's Brand Extension by a year, donating his Monday slot to the brand whilst retaining a still-buoyant SmackDown as the new 'WWE' flagship broadcast.
An infamously terrible trial run put paid to that and just about any other plans he had for the eventual split. Booker T and Buff Bagwell's horrendously executed contest on the July 2nd 2001 edition of the show was just part of a woefully ill-conceived rebrand that ultimately saw the concept shelved and rebadged as an invasion a week later. In comparison to that train-wreck, WCW Nitro contains at least partial intrigue.