10 Things You Didn't Know About WCW In 1998

3. Kevin Nash Had Idea To Turn Nitro Into Wrestling-Free Show

Upon assuming responsibility of the creative team in 1998, Kevin Nash had one huge idea to help keep ratings for Monday Nitro healthy. Just what could it be? More marquee matches? A stronger focus on cohesive, tight storylines? No, Nash's big concept for making WCW's flagship show must-see was to strip it of wrestling altogether, simply having it act as a non-wrestling vehicle to promote Pay-Per-Views. On one level, there's nothing wrong with that, but wrestling fans like to see some, y'know, wrestling when they tune into a wrestling show. The key is in the name, and this whole idea just reeks of everything that was wrong with WCW's mentality - in the promotion's race to be the WWF, they actually just ended up alienating their own core audience, many of which had been reared on a more wrestling-centric style than Vince McMahon traditionally offered. Going 3 hours for good early in 1998, Nitro suddenly became a chore to watch. There were still memorable moments, of course, but when the promotion started using the entire first hour (which was unopposed, the program started 60 minutes before Raw) for nothing but promos and hype packages, momentum was lost and shows were killed quickly. Thankfully, the idea to completely take matches out of the Nitro format didn't come to pass.