WCW Nitro is 30 years old today!

[gmoney]

Yeah, BBC showed Wrestling With Shadows as part of Storyville. It blew my tiny mind watching that on terrestrial TV, all I had at the time. 

Edited September 4, 2025 by gmoney

[SuperBacon]

36 minutes ago, Weezenal said:

on BBC 2 by chance.

It was shown as part of the Storyville programme. Absolutely rinsed the recorded tape of it.

Edited September 4, 2025 by SuperBacon
What gmoney said

[JoeManco7]

4 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

Raw started being shown here in September 1995 on Fridays.

Actually the first few weeks were on Thursdays* and it was around the time that Bill Watts was brought in as a booker before he soon left. I am certain of that, but can anyone remember if on the first few episodes over here it showed a teaser for the next episode with clips from what would actually happen on that show from what were then Monday Night Raw tv tapings? And over here weren't we on a week or two delay? I will have to go check my Powerslam Yearbooks 1995 Part 1 and 2...

 

*I know this due to the passing of a relative at that time. RIP Grampy

Edited September 4, 2025 by JoeManco7
correction

[JoeManco7]

2 hours ago, JoeManco7 said:

I will have to go check my Powerslam Yearbooks 1995 Part 1 and 2...

 

 

Powerslam Yearbook 1995 Part Two, Page 15.5 = Monday Night Raw returned to Sky Sports on Thursday, September 14th

Edited September 4, 2025 by JoeManco7
correction

[Merzbow]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Wikipedia tells me Cartoon Network switched off at 7pm from 1993 until 1996, and at 9pm from 1996 until it went to 24 hours. 

It's really messy between different cable and Sky like packages in Europe, either way I'm pretty sure they started showing Nitro in April of 1996 if an old advert I just watched was right.
At 5:52, there's even a flash of Sabu.

EDIT: 11:40 has another WCW ad, April 5th seemed to be the exact day.

 

Edited September 4, 2025 by Merzbow

[Chili]

As someone who only saw bits of WCW Worldwide and the older tapes I could rent, WCW was always a bit Sindy/Burger King/Rola Cola and I just couldn't get into it looking older and slightly knock-off. Then I came across Nitro channel surfing (I think the first episodes I must have seen were the 1996 summer Disney stuff post Hogan heel turn, definitely remember the Mysterio into the production truck bit), I was blown away by how WCW now seemed to look, it felt bigger and all the cool nitro aesthetics caught me (the Nitro set 1995-1999 is a fucking beauty of an entrance), so I kept up with it. We were still very much a WWF house, though me casual watching mum made note to turn Nitro over if Goldberg was on. 

I enjoyed discovering a load of new faces, much like what AEW did keeping me interested in modern stuff. The cruiserweights were absolutely mind blowing to me. Of the people I really got into at the time it was definitely people like Benoit, Eddie, The Giant, La Parka, Alex Wright, Chris Jericho in his heel run (just an amazing bit of someone really striving to break out) and Booker T. I absolutely LOVED WCW Booker T. Probably post more when my brain works better.

Edited September 4, 2025 by Chili

[sivy]

I saw you post something similar on top rope nation FB group. 

But as I remember WCW always aired from 7pm, because when thunder started to air, it would follow it. It tend to be thunder that use to face Raw. Both use to be on the same time as the channel 5 movie. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

 

19 minutes ago, sivy said:

saw you post something similar on top rope nation FB group. 

You can't just recycle stuff that's already been said. Anyway. 

At that time Sky TV way out of my price range so I never got to see Nitro during those years. That's my contribution done and dusted.

[SuperBacon]

4 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

 

You can't just recycle stuff that's already been said. Anyway. 

At that time Sky TV way out of my price range so I never got to see Nitro during those years. That's my contribution done and dusted.

IIRC we had the most basic of cable set ups (Telewest?) and even then we only had it for a while. Sky was well out of reach.

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Really cannot comprehend in my mind that Nitro is 30years old!

I remember being in Florida on holiday when the second episode aired, this was the first head to head episode with Raw. I honestly could not believe Lex Luger was on Nitro and a match between him and Hogan was going to happen that night…. Early on in the show, Bischoff give the raw results away as their main event was HBK and Sid, which again, was something that just didn’t happen back in those days

I ended up getting the first four episodes from Glen Radford the tape trader back in the day as well.

Fast forward around 18 months and I use to love Friday nights, flicking between Raw is War and Nitro, with the occasional channel hop to DSF, as they use to show more WCW, but I would only do that after everyone had gone to bed as their adverts were basically soft core porn…Honestly, back then, Friday nights were just awesome 

[wandshogun09]

6 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

I think the first episode shown here was from March 1996 and had a Macho Man vs Finlay match.

I think that’s right. My old man told me it was gonna be on after seeing it in listings somewhere or other. I would’ve probably found it pretty quick anyway though because my little brother had Cartoon Network on non-stop back then. That episode was pretty fun as I recall. Particularly enjoyed the Sting/Luger vs American Males match purely to get a fix of Lex during maybe the best little stretch of his career, when he was a heel only when Sting wasn’t looking. 

3 hours ago, gmoney said:

Yeah, BBC showed Wresting With Shadows as part of Storyville. It blew my tiny mind watching that on terrestrial TV, all I had at the time. 

Wasn’t that when Bret was on the Big Breakfast as well?

Nitro was fantastic for those first few years. You had your odd bits of shite like any pro wrestling show but I used to love settling in on a Friday night to watch the Cartoon Network switchover to TNT and being met with this glorious sight…

The NWO stuff goes without saying, Sting going from neon to dark, Luger’s mad title win over Hogan, DDP going from useless bum to one of WCW’s genuine top stars in about a one year span, the rise of Goldberg, that constant feeling of ‘who’s gonna jump from the WWF next?’ etc. So many great memories of watching back then.

Gotta say though, the Cruiserweights were as big a part of it as anything for me. And not even really in a workrate wanker way. They just brought a completely different feel and change of pace to the shows that you wouldn’t find on WWF TV back then. Tons of cool and unique wrestlers from Mexico and Japan that really opened up my eyes to different flavours of wrestling. Still vividly remember the first time I saw Rey and it blew me away. One of those few wrestlers where that first time you see them really sticks in your memory. Throw in Eddie, Malenko, Psychosis, Juvi, Ultimo Dragon, Liger would pop in occasionally, the murderer from Canada was there, heel Jericho (who was never as fun again as he was in WCW in 98 for me), La Parka who I loved. Just a hell of a bunch of talent. That Cruiserweight division could almost have been its own roster. You’d kill for a crew like that even now thirty years later. The NWO and Hogan’s heel turn gets the bulk of the credit for WCW’s success in 96/97 but I think that lot doing their thing every week was a bigger part of it than they’re often given credit for. It brought a totally different feel to their show than what was going on over on Raw at the time. And I love Raw in late 96 into 97. Nitro was an incredible alternative for a while there though. Between the two shows there really was something for everyone.

[Chico Torres]

The amount of WCW shows on German channel DSF was great but I was glad to see WCW with English commentary again for the first time in about a year. I think Worldwide stopped being shown on ITV sometime in 1995 and by the end it had been reduced to just a segment as part of some Pat Sharp show (Sharps Funday?).

The first few weeks skipped shows here and there and when they moved to 2 hours we still only had an edited 1 hour show for a while until we started getting everything. Which brings to mind another memory that when they switched over from the first hour to the second and changed commentary teams they would also do all the fireworks regardless of whether it was in the middle of a Hard Work Bobby Walker vs Prince Iaukea match, the pyro had to happen.

As a side note, TNT teletext had a good wrestling section. Anyone else find out about Hogans heel turn on there?

[Snitsky's back acne]

7 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

It was on TNT on Friday nights, after the Cartoon Network shut down. I think the first episode shown here was from March 1996 and had a Macho Man vs Finlay match.

Yes, that was it!

Bloody average episode of Nitro to be the first one we saw but I didn't care. It was cool seeing a show I had only read about in Powerslam magazine or watched with German commentary previously. 

[Chili]

Actually I was going to ask about the 3 hour Nitro's from 1998-1999. Did we in the UK get the 3 hour Nitro's? Or edited. I'm having a long reach memory in my mind that back when it aired I'd hear Schiavone announce they were in their 3rd hour, but that it had only aired for an hour. I'm sure I'm misremembering. In my head Raw and Nitro ran head to head Sky/TNT, with Thunder airing right after Nitro when we got that. Used to watch all of it, like a right sadist. It wasn't the quality of WCW that made me drop it. It was definitely moving to Bravo and no longer having lovely European Cartoon Network either. For some reason I just couldn't be arsed with the channel move. 

Edited September 4, 2025 by Chili

[Cheeky Boy]

30 minutes ago, Chico Torres said:

As a side note, TNT teletext had a good wrestling section. Anyone else find out about Hogans heel turn on there?

Yep. Since I wasn't watching the shows themselves, the magnitude of what was going on in the build up to Bash at the Beach was somewhat lost on me by teletext only referring to Nash and Hall as the "big size guy" and the "medium size guy". 

 

3 hours ago, JoeManco7 said:

I am certain of that, but can anyone remember if on the first few episodes over here it showed a teaser for the next episode with clips from what would actually happen on that show from what were then Monday Night Raw tv tapings? And over here weren't we on a week or two delay?

 

I'm sure I remember them giving away or at least hinting at the 1-2-3 Kid turning on Razor in a preview for the next week. I'd forgotten about those previews. It used to confuse me as to how we could see clips of things which hadn't yet happened. Was it something shown in the US as well following a block of tapings? Or if we were on a weeks delay, wouldn't it have caused some logistical problems with PPVs presumably being live here around that time (must have been close to Survivor Series 95)? I don't remember ever watching a TV show that felt behind the PPV I'd already seen.

My long-suppressed confusion has resurfaced!