411’s WWE Greatest Moments Report: WCW Monday Nitro

-Written: 5.11.26
-Source: A&E

-Plugs: I have been doing Retro Reviews of every episode of Nitro for over a year now. Here’s the latest from Dec 96.

-Michael Cole is our host and narrator.

10. The Premiere
–Sept. 4, 1995

-The very first episode inside The Mall of America. Eric notes he wanted to do live TV every week. Bruce Prichard thought it was crazy. Eric’s biggest take away was that fans loved surprises. Enter Lex Luger, who a few days earlier had wrestled with WWF. To say they crushed the debut would be an understatement and it worked out well as RAW was preempted that week.

9. Trashing The Competition
–Dec. 18, 1995

-Heavy stuff here as Alundra Blayze leaves the WWF as their Women’s Champion and Eric tells her to bring the title. He has her dump it in a trash can and set the tone for the Monday Night Wars. Steph says WWF took it personal and Eric says he wanted to make a statement. That moment would be used by people to justify why Vince had to take the WWF Title away from Bret in Montreal.

8. Soaring Stinger
-Jan. 20, 1997

-Almost to this moment in my weekly reviews, so I guess SPOILERS! Sting makes his first entrance dropping down from the rafters. Eric notes they had a stunt coordinator. Sting says he was a lone wolf guy and people didn’t know what was going to happen. Booker notes that’s when WCW stopped thinking wrestling and started thinking entertainment. I think they could have left this one off the list and really, if you wanted a Sting entrance, use when he dropped down and took DDP up with him or the helicopter entrance with Bischoff selling the wind.

-Commercials!

7. Sitting Out The Last Dance
-June 8, 1998

-WWE Hall of Famer, Dennis Rodman blows off Bulls’ practice to show up on Nitro in Detroit. Dennis mentioned he was free to come and Eric says he never thought about Dennis having practice. Booker credits Dennis for bringing eyes to WCW. Hulk Hogan says his phone was blowing up from Phil Jackson wanting Dennis back. They couldn’t make him as he loved hanging out with the wrestlers. You know from Dennis’ Hall of Fame Speech how much Hogan meant to him. This was a massive deal at the time and we see feed from ESPN covering the fiasco. Eric says he couldn’t buy advertisement like that. Rodman was fined but made more showing up at wrestling. His teammates even joked it showed Dennis was a smart businessman.

6. A Ravishing Night
-Nov. 17, 1997

-Great stuff here as Rick Rude walked out on WWF after The Montreal Screwjob and showed up on Live Nitro. He was also on a taped RAW so he is the first person to appear on both shows the same the night. Rude even shaved and then cuts a promo about abandoning the Titanic. Austin says he felt it was a low blow. It was awesome for fans! I think WWF even tossed in a line in the feed about Rude getting around a lot. I might have been dreaming that though.

-Commercials!

5. Diamond Dallas Parka
-July 7, 1997

-The Savage/DDP feud was awesome and helped make DDP a superstar. This was also one year to the day that the nWo formed. Big E says they all just thought it was a normal nWo SQUASH Match. DDP says he worked on doing the mannerisms in the back. Savage gets caught with The Diamond Cutter and gets the pin as he unmasks to reveal he is DDP. Great, fun moment!

4. The Chest There Is
-March 29, 1999

-Oh man! It’s Bret vs. Bill Goldberg! He calls him William Goldberg and a chicken as he cuts a promo in Canada. Goldberg is out and hits the spear, but Goldberg is the one that’s knocked out. Big E is here and I start laughing because Goldberg was the genesis of the BIG MEATY MENT SLAPPING MEAT answer. Bret of course was wearing armor and outsmarted Goldberg on this night. I am sure these two realized they created magic here and became best friends.

3. A Package for Hollywood
-Aug. 4, 1997

-100th episode of Nitro in Auburn Hills and it’s Hogan vs. Luger for Hogan’s World Title. After a year of the nWo dominating, WCW and the fans finally get one back as Luger makes Hogan submit to the Torture Rack. Luger finally gets his big moment and it was perfect. Hogan won the title days later but that doesn’t take away from the moment to me. They realized Luger was hot, were celebrating a milestone show and gave the fans a special moment.

-Commercials!

2. The Outsider
–May 27, 1996

-My 15th Birthday! Memorial Day 96! Scott Hall walks through the crowd and wrestling is never the same. I love this moment so much and I would argue it should be #1, but I think I know what’s coming. I get all the feels every time I see this moment and I have had Hall’s promo go through my head so many times since that moment.

1. Spearing Hollywood
-July 6, 1998

-Yep! It had to be this moment as this may have been the peak for WCW. It’s GOLDBERG vs. HOGAN! Eric says they are in the TV business and not the PPV business so the choice was easy. Hogan says he was the bad guy and they needed another Hulk Hogan. Booker says Hogan passing the torch was huge. Goldberg: “Hogan putting me over in front of 45,000 people. What a cool deal that was.” Eric calls it magic. Yeah, that was easily the biggest moment in Nitro’s history. I was a tad worried them may put Shane “buying” WCW as the top moment, but they didn’t do it.

-The outro footage is great as well as we get other moments that didn’t make the list including Nash throwing Rey into the side of a trailer. If you missed out on the Monday Night Wars, I feel bad for you.

-This show is all about nostalgia and this was another episode I feel was targeted content for me. The top two were perfect and I would not have been mad if the Final Nitro made the list. I think the nWo attack at Disney should have been on here as well. I would have taken the Sting entrance out of this list and added the Disney attack. I am sure there was others I am forgetting and a lot probably deal with the nWo. Bischoff turning nWo? One funny thing I noticed is nothing from the final two years of the show made the list. This was a fun list! Thanks for reading and if you like this content, check out my weekly Nitro reviews.