10 Things We Learned From A Genuine 1998 WCW Nitro Script
Because who cares about main event storylines when Chucky needs the rub?
1998 was still a banner year for WCW, but major cracks were beginning to show and it wouldn't be long before the 'Monday Night Wars' became a Monday night slaughter WWF loyalists could chuckle about.
Recently, Guy Evans (author of the tremendously insightful Nitro book - a must-read for any WCW fan and available over at WCWNitroBook.com) passed over a genuine script from the 5 October '98 episode of Monday Nitro. Everything, from time stamps and match formatting to promo notes and even production cues, were right there in black and white on printed paper.
If one merely glances at the document, it's little more than a generic run down of that evening's TV show. Look a little closer though and it's possible to see how simultaneously organised and dis-organised World Championship Wrestling was even when it was still popping big ratings and riding the nWo wave.
To put things into context, the promotion were gearing up for Halloween Havoc on 25 October. They had three episodes of Nitro, including this one (and a further three editions of Thunder) to navigate before reaching that pay-per-view.
Here's everything we learned from scouring the script...