Youtube Thread 2000

[Chico Torres]

I agree, not as familiar with his work outside of wrestling but I gather the whole schtick was “anti comedy”, pissing off the audience and blurring the lines of reality so he was perfect for wrestling.

Since he won’t come up often on here, some great Andy Kaufman in wrestling highlights.

His charming film with Classy Freddie Blassie. It’s obvious who his influences were, the classic golden era heels. Can’t find the clip but when he was hosting Saturday Night Live he brought in the OG Nature Boy Buddy Rogers to referee a match between him and a woman (against the wishes of the SNL producers)

And probably the most comprehensive playlist on his time in Memphis

 

[BarryOVega]

I remember when I got into reading Power Slam around Mania 2000, I was always amazed Fin saying Heenan was the greatest manager ever as I'd always thought Hart was from a kayfabe point of view, never had his arse handed to him whereas I'd seen Bobby twatted whilst dressed like a Andre tribute act at SS89

[wandshogun09]

Yesterday was the 31st anniversary of the debut of WCW Monday Nitro.

Love that intro. Even though, in typical WCW fashion, the original version still had Vader in it despite him being done with WCW in August and never appearing on the show for its entire run. Didn’t the WWF debut the ‘Raw on the roof’ intro the very next week after Nitro debuted? Was that a coincidence or a direct response? 

[Chili]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

Yesterday was the 31st anniversary of the debut of WCW Monday Nitro.

Love that intro. Even though, in typical WCW fashion, the original version still had Vader in it despite him being done with WCW in August and never appearing on the show for its entire run. Didn’t the WWF debut the ‘Raw on the roof’ intro the very next week after Nitro debuted? Was that a coincidence or a direct response? 

Given I'd not seen WCW since Worldwide on ITV in 1993, seeing this pop up on TNT was mind-blowing in how the look has changed and felt so massive.

[Chico Torres]

Here’s the familiar moment you knew Friday night was going to be great when the Cartoon Network ended and transitioned to TNT which meant Nitro was about to begin.

 

[davertfnewman]

3 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Didn’t the WWF debut the ‘Raw on the roof’ intro the very next week after Nitro debuted? Was that a coincidence or a direct response? 

I think that was just because they were debuting in the new fall season. Raw behind Nitro because of the Westminster Dog Show.

Edited September 5 by davertfnewman

[SaitoRyo]

On 9/5/2026 at 1:40 PM, Chico Torres said:

Here’s the familiar moment you knew Friday night was going to be great when the Cartoon Network ended and transitioned to TNT which meant Nitro was about to begin.

 

So THAT'S how I first discovered wrestling! 

I have a vague memory of being babysat when I was younger (I think it was probably in '97, when I was five or six) and WCW coming on the TV. It's the first time I can remember watching it and it must have just come on after the cartoons. Me and my brother got proper into wrestling in '99, if I remember correctly, but I definitely saw some Nitro before that!

Anyway, I've recently been watching a bunch of old Velocity episodes - well, select Velocity matches - as I always really enjoyed watching it after taping it off Sky Sports. There's a cracking tag match between MNM and Paul London & Brian Kendrick in the main event of this one, several months before they'd work a proper programme against each other. The enthused, sold-out British crowd help a lot, too. 

Enjoy:

 

[Lorne Malvo]

I think Paul London and (to a lesser extent) Brian Kendrick are quite underrated / not spoke about enough when it comes to the indie/'workrate' style coming to more prominence in the early 00s. When it came to the IWC there was a brief period of time in 02/03 where it seemed London was as popular as Danielson/Homicide/Amazing Red etc. It would be nice to see him turn up in AEW for a cameo.

[SaitoRyo]

39 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I think Paul London and (to a lesser extent) Brian Kendrick are quite underrated / not spoke about enough when it comes to the indie/'workrate' style coming to more prominence in the early 00s. When it came to the IWC there was a brief period of time in 02/03 where it seemed London was as popular as Danielson/Homicide/Amazing Red etc. It would be nice to see him turn up in AEW for a cameo.

They were an excellent, high-flying babyface tag team in the mid-2000s. I loved watching their stuff as they were one of those teams who could have a decent match with anybody.

London, in particular, is very underrated. Even though he wrestled a progressive style back then, it was his timing, selling and all the other stuff that made him stand out (as much as the dives and the SSPs and whatnot). 

Wouldn't hold your breath for an AEW cameo, mind, as he's been quite outspoken about his dislike of their product in recent times. 

[The Reverend]

On 9/5/2026 at 10:08 AM, wandshogun09 said:

Yesterday was the 31st anniversary of the debut of WCW Monday Nitro.

Love that intro. Even though, in typical WCW fashion, the original version still had Vader in it despite him being done with WCW in August and never appearing on the show for its entire run. Didn’t the WWF debut the ‘Raw on the roof’ intro the very next week after Nitro debuted? Was that a coincidence or a direct response? 

It's hard to believe with today's current on-demand way of life that we had to wait so long here in the UK to find out about this new show. I guess the only way I found out about the whole Lex thing on the first episode was waiting for the news to arrive in the next issue of Powerslam.  I seem to re-call a mate got the first 4 episodes about the end of October that year from a tape trader, and the quality was a little sketchy, but it was like a holy grail after hearing so much about this exciting new show. 

[Chico Torres]

I believe this was the first Nitro we got in the UK, air date of March 25 1996 in the US. Refreshing at a time when WWF was doing the most boring build to the most boring Wrestlemania main event ever.

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

21 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

It's hard to believe with today's current on-demand way of life that we had to wait so long here in the UK to find out about this new show. I guess the only way I found out about the whole Lex thing on the first episode was waiting for the news to arrive in the next issue of Powerslam.  I seem to re-call a mate got the first 4 episodes about the end of October that year from a tape trader, and the quality was a little sketchy, but it was like a holy grail after hearing so much about this exciting new show. 

I remember reading about Nitro in Powerslam and seeing a few episodes on German sports channel DSF.

As you say, it's crazy now to comprehend waiting a month for the next issue of a magazine to come out before getting updates on a wrestling show - or having to catch it dubbed on a German sports channel before they switched to the softcore European porn at 10pm. 

I remember channel surfing and seeing AAA on Galavision in the 90's too. It was like something from another world - particularly because the first time I saw it they had 5 ninja turtles battling another team with a mummy or something equally as crazy. 

90's Sky was awesome and bizarre in equal measures.

[Callum1993]

3 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I think Paul London and (to a lesser extent) Brian Kendrick are quite underrated / not spoke about enough when it comes to the indie/'workrate' style coming to more prominence in the early 00s. When it came to the IWC there was a brief period of time in 02/03 where it seemed London was as popular as Danielson/Homicide/Amazing Red etc. It would be nice to see him turn up in AEW for a cameo.

I saw London wrestle at an Attack! Pro Wrestling show earlier this year. He came to the ring singing ‘Thunderball’ and wrestled the entire match in a Onesie. Definitely doesn’t have the highflying style anymore but was a lot of fun. 

[The Reverend]

47 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

I remember reading about Nitro in Powerslam and seeing a few episodes on German sports channel DSF.

As you say, it's crazy now to comprehend waiting a month for the next issue of a magazine to come out before getting updates on a wrestling show - or having to catch it dubbed on a German sports channel before they switched to the softcore European porn at 10pm. 

I remember channel surfing and seeing AAA on Galavision in the 90's too. It was like something from another world - particularly because the first time I saw it they had 5 ninja turtles battling another team with a mummy or something equally as crazy. 

90's Sky was awesome and bizarre in equal measures.

DSF was marvellous. I think the PPV's were about 3 or possibly 4 weeks behind, but even with the German commentary it was so good we got to see them, especially as come 95 onwards things really picked up pace with storylines, angles etc. Does anyone know when DSF started airing Nitro? 

[wandshogun09]

3 hours ago, The Reverend said:

It's hard to believe with today's current on-demand way of life that we had to wait so long here in the UK to find out about this new show. I guess the only way I found out about the whole Lex thing on the first episode was waiting for the news to arrive in the next issue of Powerslam.  I seem to re-call a mate got the first 4 episodes about the end of October that year from a tape trader, and the quality was a little sketchy, but it was like a holy grail after hearing so much about this exciting new show. 

My memory is hazy but I’m pretty sure the first time I heard or seen anything of Nitro was in the dying days of the Worldwide run on ITV in late 95. They definitely showed the first ever Hogan vs Sting match from Nitro that November and I don’t recall seeing anything before that. If I did, it was probably through the mighty DSF - the home of boobs and bodyslams. What more could you want? 

2 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

I believe this was the first Nitro we got in the UK, air date of March 25 1996 in the US. Refreshing at a time when WWF was doing the most boring build to the most boring Wrestlemania main event ever.

 

Yeah that was the first episode we got over here. Vividly remember my old man telling me he’d read somewhere it was gonna be starting so I started recording it every week on an 8 hour tape and that Macho Man vs Belfast Bruiser match was definitely the first match on the tape. 

1 hour ago, The Reverend said:

Does anyone know when DSF started airing Nitro? 

I think they got it earlier than we did, they might’ve even got it from the start. But they definitely had it from late 95 because, for some reason, I have a really vivid memory of watching an Eddie Guerrero vs Johnny B Badd match on there and looking that up now it was the November 13th 1995 episode. They probably had it from the debut episode the jammy sods.

I remember telling a school mate at the time who lived round the corner from us about DSF showing the WCW PPVs and he didn’t believe me until he stayed over one Saturday and we were watching one of the World War 3 shows (think it was 95). And we were both shocked when the German commentator started speaking English for a minute, thanking their UK viewers.

Speaking of German channels showing wrestling, was it RTL2 or something like which used to show Attitude Era WWF? I vaguely recall seeing Raws from 99 on there, which was a godsend because we didn’t have Sky Sports for a bit back then.

Edited September 9 by wandshogun09