The WCW Conspiracy Iceberg EXPLAINED!
12. Is That Why It Was Called ‘Nitro’?
To put the following theory into context, you need to get into Eric Bischoff’s head.
The man was fixated, to an obsessive degree, with overtaking the World Wrestling Federation. It was not enough for him to be competitive with the WWF and generate enough profits to appease Warner management. He reasoned that he could make the maximum money possible by embarrassing and supplanting the market leader, but it was more than that. Bischoff was an egomaniac. He didn’t want to beat the WWF purely to make his company money; he wanted it for himself. He wanted to be the main character - he didn’t put himself on television for nothing - and he couldn’t do that with Vince McMahon around.
Bischoff signed Hulk Hogan, banking almost everything on the Hulkster playing along. He read out the taped results of Monday Night Raw on air in a bid to stop people from changing the channel. He had Madusa throw the WWF Women’s Championship in the trash. And, very famously, he convinced Ted Turner to air a new primetime flagship show head-to-head against Raw on Monday nights.
Bischoff was so obsessed with the WWF that the promotion informed WCW’s most famous storyline, the New World Order - and generally, the entire outfit was based on doing what Vince didn’t. “Real” characters. High-flying cruiserweight wrestling. Crazed heavy heat angles. Any idea that Bischoff ever had was either a response to or a gap left open by the WWF - it makes sense, then, that the very name of the flagship TV show was no different. Was Monday Nitro, all along, a half-homophone of Monday Night Raw?
In naming the show Nitro, was Bischoff trying to put over that it was just like WWF wrestling, only more explosive and action-packed?