WCW Nitro was a television show on professional wrestling ran by WCW on Monday Nights in TNT to go to head-to-head competition with WWF Monday Night Raw, the flagship show of the bitter rivals of WCW in the same time slot on Monday Nights.
Nitro's production started on September 2, 1995 and continued till March 2001, until WWF bought the WCW, it was the brainchild of then WCW President Eric Bischoff. He convinved WCW owner Ted Turner to create this show in order to increase the competition with WWF. Though ratings were poor early on, WCW Nitro picked up mid-96 and hence headed on to win 84-straight Head to Head Battles with the WWF, up to December 1997.
Besides broadcasting from various arenas across the country (such as the Mall of America, where the very first episode of Nitro was broadcasted) Nitro also did special broadcasts from Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.
On the very first edition of Nitro Lex Luger, whose contract (unbeknowst to most of the general public) with the WWF had just expired, made a surprise appearance during the very first match.
A frequent tatic that Eric Bischoff used to try to draw viewers away from Raw was to away results from their competition (since Nitro was aired live and Raw was often taped six days in advance) at the start of the show. This tatic unfortunately, would ultimately backfire when one night in Janurary of 1999. Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s, won the WWF title on Raw. Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone sarcastically mentioned that Foley as champion "wouldn't put butts in the seats." Apparently, the moment that Schiavone insulted Mick Foley, nearly 500,000 viewers changed channels to watch Raw. Another considerably dirty tactic used by Eric Bischoff was him insisting on having Nitro go on the air at 7:57 PM Eastern Time and end at approximately 11:05 PM.
Due to poor bookings and the use of repetitive storylines by Eric Bishcoff after the first half of 1998, ratings began to fall and in 1999, Eric Bischoff was fired from his position. Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera from the WWF were hired as the new head writers/bookers-an imitation of the WWF Attitude Era. WCW increased the ratings for sometime but soon it became boring, unpopular and ratings dropped again. Russo was soon fired.
In 2000, many bookers and writers tried their luck on WCW booking but failed miserably. Perhaps the most notable exception was Kevin Sullivan, who decided (likely as a means of revenge) to include his real life divorce from his wife Nancy Daus Sullivan (AKA Woman) in the storyline involving his feud with Chris Benoit. Nancy and Benoit fell in love in real life and eventually wound up getting married a few years later.
Nitro ratings continued to go downhill. However at the second half of 2000, WCW seemed to find a right direction, but the WWF was so popular then that this changes went unnoticed. Towards then end, both Nitro and Thunder (WCW's Wednesday television program) were taped on the same day as they couldn't get enough fans for two separate television tapings. In March of 2001, WCW was sold to the WWF, and the final Nitro aired on March 26, 2001- thus ending the show's legacy once and for all.
On the final episode (which included a simulcast with Raw), WWF Chairman Vince McMahon requested that Ric Flair and Sting wrestle each other because for the final match they wrestled on the very first match on the show's debut in 1995. Sting won the match and he and Flair embraced afterward.
