WCW Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

Perhaps most memorably of all, WCW Saturday Night featured the epic World Heavyweight Championship decider between Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat and Ric Flair on 14 May 1994. Following the controversial finish to their championship bout at Spring Stampede in April, the title was held up and the legendary rivals waged war for the vacant strap on Saturday Night. The bout proved to be the last time the two adversaries would fight for the World Title on TV and saw Flair become WCW Champion once again – a victory not currently recognised by WWE.

Outside of the matches themselves, the show also featured several historic moments in the history of WCW, including Hulk Hogan’s contract signing on 11 June 1994 and Randy Savage’s WCW debut later that same year in December. Nevertheless, once Turner execs had facilitated the introduction of Nitro and Thunder on Mondays and Thursdays respectively, Saturday Night became the C-show of WCW’s weekly schedule. Very little of note happened on the show during the late ‘90s and it was used primarily to feature new talent and underutilised stars.

On 8 April 2000, WCW Saturday Night ceased running its own matches and the show became a recap of the week’s primary programming, much like This Week in WWE today. In one final demotion, WCW Saturday Night became WCW Saturday Morning in July 2000. The move proved to be the death knell for the WCW institution and the show was read its last rites on 19 August 2000.

From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, the Saturday night time slot was synonymous with wrestling for almost three decades. Affectionately nicknamed “The Mothership” by Dusty Rhodes, the action on WCW Saturday Night proved that Saturday night is indeed alright for fighting.