WCW Final Nitro: Where Are They Now

Catching up with the stars of Nitro's final broadcast.

by Andrew Pollard
Shawn Stasiak
WWE.com/WWE.com

With Sting's shocking arrival on AEW Dynamite this week, there were several references made to the final episode of WCW Nitro.

Nitro, of course, aired on TNT back during its 288-episode run, and the last outing for WCW's flagship show was famously the last time that Sting had appeared on the network. Well, until that debut at Winter is Coming.

It's still fun to go back and watch that final Nitro now and again, with it interesting to see how things played out for the WCW talent featured on that broadcast. For some, they went on to bigger and better things. For others, their story maybe didn't end quite so well.

To take a quick look at the card for that last Nitro:

- US Champion Booker T defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner to win both belts

- The Filthy Animals defeated 3 Count and the Jung Dragons to earn a shot at the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championships later that night

- WCW Cruiserweight Champion Shane Helms defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr.

- WCW Tag Team Champions The Natural Born Thrillers defeated Team Canada

- Shawn Stasiak defeated Bam Bam Bigelow

- The Filthy Animals defeated Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo to become WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions

- Sting defeated Ric Flair

Looking back at those stars of this March 31, 2001 offering, then, here's what those names are up to here in 2020.

23. Scott Steiner

Shawn Stasiak
WWE.com/NWA.com

Wanting to start off hot, the opening match of the final episode of Nitro saw WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner facing off against WCW United States Champion Booker T in a winner-takes-all contest.

Given how Scotty was happy to sit on his Time Warner deal for the rest of the year, that meant WWE-bound Booker T got the win here.

Big Poppa Pump would spend two years in WWE from 2002 to 2004, and Steiner would go on to have several stints in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling over the subsequent years. Still an active wrestler, Freakzilla most recently competed for the NWA at the start of this year and was then due to make an IMPACT return.

Unfortunately, Steiner collapsed at that IMPACT taping and had to undergo a heart procedure. As a double blow from 2020, Steiner and his wife Christa were forced to close their Shoney's restrauant in August of this year, too.

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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.