Rewatching The Last Wrestling Show To Beat WWE Raw In The Ratings

8. Three Hours Can Work

Hollywood Hogan Horace Hogan
WWE.com

Realistically, three hours for a regular weekly wrestling show is too much. One of the biggest problems with WWE these days is that they've lumbered themselves with a three-hour Monday night show that they forever struggle to fill with anything remotely entertaining.

The latter days of WCW were clearly far from perfect, with the company putting on awful show after awful show in its final year, yet there were times when Ted Turner's organisation made a weekly three-hour broadcast work well.

With a roster overflowing with genuine main event stars, with lower-card talent who had defined characters and storylines, with a commentary team who expertly guide the audience, and in-attendance fans who were rampant, the October 26, 1998 edition of WCW Nitro flew by.

Was this a perfect three hours of wrestling television? Absolutely not - especially when anyone with the last name Bagwell was on screen - but, as a whole, this was an enjoyable, engaging wrestling show that never particularly dragged.

Given how WWE struggles so much with making Raw even passable these days, there's a lot that Vince McMahon's promotion could learn from revisiting some old Nitro episodes.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.