Why was Monday Night Nitro was Launched?

With NXT on USA and AEW Dynamite on TNT (They know Drama) about to go head to head, I thought perhaps it would be good to have a look into why the show that started the Monday night wars was launched.

WCW Nitro on TNT was born when Eric Bischoff requested a meeting Ted Turner (the then owner of TNT and WCW) and justified to Turner that the company wasn’t performing as well the WWF because they didn’t have a prime time tv slot like Vince McMahon had for RAW. Up until this time WCW had a show on Saturday Nights, aptly named “WCW Saturday Night”. Which was a lesser TV slot than that of a Monday Night and didn’t have the occasional advantage that RAW had of sometimes being able to go live for an episode.

Turner gave Bischoff what he wanted, but went even further by giving him a slot on Monday night that would have WCW go head to head with the WWF. It’s worth noting here that allegedly Vince had been sending Turner letters for the past year telling him “his promotion was an embarrassment to him and he should shut it down”

The debut of Nitro was a one hour show from the mall of America on the 4th of September 1995 - not so coincidently the day Monday night Raw was preempted by the Westminster Dog Show… That’s right the WESTMINSTER DOG SHOW!

I need a puffy shirt like Luger!

For the first time since 2001 (minus TNA’s short-lived attempt in 2011), we’re going to be seeing two wrestling companies with go head-to-head on major TV networks and I for one can’t wait for the first shots to be fired.