20 Days That Changed WWE Forever
13. 4 September 1995 - Monday Nitro Debuts
WWE may have been the first wrestling company to make it to Mondays, but WCW completely changed the game on 4 September 1995. On that evening, WCW debuted Monday Nitro, its own new flagship show - and one that would go head-to-head with Raw.
Many analysts predicted that WCW, which had long been in second place in the wrestling hierarchy, was making a mistake by taking it to the more organized WWF, but owner Ted Turner's bottomless pockets and executive vice president Eric Bischoff's wrestling vision managed to turn the tide of the war - at least for a little while. WCW had the funds to air a live show every week (which Raw had stopped doing) and to lure stars away from the WWF - on the very first episode of Nitro, Lex Luger made a surprise appearance.
Moreover, Nitro completely changed the recipe for wrestling on TV. The show gave away main event-level matches each and every week, forcing the WWF to do the same thing in order to compete in the ratings. It was a trend that completely changed the business - many would argue for the worse - and could never be undone.