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Monday Night Wars: Difference between revisions
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The peak of the [[Professional Wrestling]] industry's success, the [[Monday Night Wars]] refers to the period of time from 1995 to 2001 when [[WCW]]'s ''Monday Nitro'' went head-to-head with [[WWE|the WWF's]] ''Monday Night Raw''.
It all started when Eric Bischoff was approached by Ted Turner and asked what he believed WCW needed to do to overtake the WWF. Bischoff's on-the-spot suggestion was a weekly timeslot on Mondays to directly compete with ''Raw''; in 1995, he got what he wanted - ''Nitro'' hit the air directly opposite ''Raw'', and the War was on. At the time, ''Nitro'' was live every week, as opposed to ''Raw'' being pre-taped days (or weeks) in advance, which allowed Bischoff to reveal the results of ''Raw'' on ''Nitro'' (a move that, later, [[Hoist
For a period starting in mid-to-late 1996 and continuing until early 1998, ''Nitro'' would routinely defeat ''Raw'' in the ratings, mainly due to the ultra-hot "[[New World Order]]" angle. As Eric Bischoff famously put it, WCW beat the WWF for "eighty-four weeks in a row". Facing bankruptcy and defeat square in the face, the WWF fired back in 1997: starting around the time of the [[Montreal Screwjob]], the company started to become [[Darker and Edgier]] (a move inspired by the success of [[ECW]]) and went into what they called the "[[Attitude Era]]". With WWF's adult-oriented fare competing with WCW's more family-friendly product, WWF eventually took the lead in the ratings.
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In the meantime, the WWF flourished thanks to the [[Attitude Era]] and WCW's missteps - wrestlers like [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]], [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], [[Mick Foley]], [[Triple H]], [[The Undertaker]], and [[Wrestler/Kane|Kane]] practically became household names, and the company's success positioned them as the most powerful wrestling promotion on the planet. On the flip side, WCW kept pushing the nWo angle for far longer than it should have, and it failed to build new stars who could ultimately replace the older stars on the roster (mainly because those older stars were often members of the company's booking team), leading its product to become stale and boring to many, which led to the company beginning to lose viewers at an astonishing rate.
From 1999 to 2001, WCW tried - and failed miserably - to mirror the WWF's successful changeover to the [[Attitude Era]], doing everything from hiring [[Vince Russo]] to instituting a Hardcore Title to trying to cross-promote the company with music and movie stars (including its infamous decision [[So Bad It's Horrible
The [[Monday Night Wars]] ended on March 26, 2001, when WCW held the final ''Monday Nitro''; in a surreal sight, [[Vince McMahon]] appeared live on both ''Raw'' and ''Nitro'' as part of a special simulcast (Vince was in the arena where ''Raw'' was being held), and then it was revealed that [[Shane McMahon]] - who was at ''Nitro'' - had (kayfabe) bought WCW instead of his father. This led into the InVasion angle, which would eventually put WCW to rest for good.
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