10 Wrestlers Cursed By Their Undefeated Streaks
2. WCW Monday Nitro
WCW Nitro's 83-week winning streak over WWE Monday Night Raw was far more than just a case of one wrestling show beating another. World Championship Wrestling, for the first and only time in its complex history, was the North American market leader for pro wrestling.
The industry that Vince McMahon renamed and reframed was suddenly dominated by a company he'd barely considered opposition until it literally opposed his beloved flagship. The story is well-told, but Nitro's knack for doing the opposite of a stagnant and safe Monday Night Raw was a success beyond even wildest expectations, carried by a New World Order angle that enlivened a scene otherwise on death's door for much of the 1990s.
It was, for the latter half of the streak, something of a false position. WCW's financials pointed in all the right directions, but the product had started eating itself as early as mid-1997, even though it went back and forth competitively with WWE for much of the subsequent year. The latter ills were sadly borne out of such rampant success and over-confidence at the highest level, not least when WCW and Bischoff in particular had bureaucracy beyond all reasonable justification to sift through once he was on the back foot.