The Day WCW Nitro Died

Shane McMahon Vince McMahon Raw Nitro Simulcast
WWE.com

The closing moments of the last ever Monday Nitro saw it halved on screen with a live edition of Raw simulcasting across TNT and USA Network.

This was one of the few audacious flexes Vince McMahon actually deserved, though who knows what any of us did in a past life to suffer Shane McMahon on the other half of the divide. You know all this, though. WWE love bringing it up, even though there was once a time they wouldn't even mine their own history with such fondness.

Imagine tuning into an edition of Superstars or Wrestling Challenge to watch Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in March 1991 and listening the commentators or wrestlers themselves talk about Ivan Koloff and Pedro Morales battling over the WWWF Championship. The comparative timeframe is identical. The difference is how little wrestling used to lean so heavily on its past. And the prism of nostalgia can be powerful, regardless of what actually took place.

It's so prevalent that some of the Wrestling Twittertariat have become confused into thinking that this classes as "#storytelling", which itself has been chewed up and sarcastically spat back out by opposing voices. It's not storytelling, because - and this almost shouldn't need saying but evidently does - a story isn't being told. An image may be revisited, a moment rebadged or a memory relived. But it's not a story. Not unless it builds on the old, creating something new.

This was something Vince Russo clearly felt when he took the creative reins of the struggling Atlanta outfit in 1999. Time for new. New wrestlers, new stories, and a new WCW. This was good.

His version of WCW Nitro...was not.

CONT'D...

Advertisement
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett