Best of WCW Monday Nitro......

Been watching some of this over the weekend & must admit the stuff from Mid 96 to Late 98 was absolutely superb.... I didn't watch a lot of WCW back in the day but now i'm kicking myself that I didn't....

Has anyone seen it yet?

Who was the head writer/booker during the Monday Nitro years?.... I'm imagining Russo started booking around 99 because the product started to go completely down hill then, but who was it before?.

Also Benoit makes a few appearances on the DVD he's involved in some of the nWo stuff & during the four horseman segment Double A calls him to the ring & we get his full entrance, very surprising....

I think they're more likely to promote Benoit under a WCW banner than a WWE one, thats just my opinion though

I've watched the first two discs and really enjoyed what I have watched so far. I am glad they used DDP as he was obviously there a long time and knew the company. Some great matches too.

I think Kevin Sullivan was the head booker during that time, though Dusty Rhodes was involved too I think, I'm sure Jimmy Hart was also part of the creative team, Crips is the man for these questions

Are you ready for this?.....

Kevin Sullivan was the head of the booking committee, but Eric Bischoff was ultimately responsible for the product; he could (and did) overrule ideas that he didn't like. However, Hulk Hogan had creative control in his contract and could overrule what Bischoff and Sullivan planned for him, while he was also more than happy to throw in suggestions for other wrestlers' storylines as well.

Anyone starting to see why WCW went out of business yet?

WCW back in its heyday was an amazing product - that's why guys like Nash and Hall left the WWF in their prime to work there! WCW had a real buzz about it and even though there was plenty of cross over (Austin going to WWF) nevertheless WCW was the hottest thing in wrestling at one point. It was in WCW that Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Booker T and even Stone Cold made names for themselves.

It's a shame in many ways that WCW's legacy was tarnished by their booking towards the end because during the Monday Night Wars WCW was the greatest wrestling promotion in the world. I feel extremely privileged growing up during the monday night wars - I didn't really realise it at the time, I just enjoyed the wrestling, but it really was a historic time.

Jericho Benoit and Eddie made there names in ECW, Thats where they got their first real exposure to the American Public, I'd also not agree that it was the buzz of WCW that got Razor and Diesel, they created the buzz when the 'invaded', I still can't believe they messed up Austin, if ever there was a guy who was destined for the top it was Stunning Steve

Got half way through disc two, real glad i picked it up as i was a WWF fan

I'm desperate to widen my knowledge on WCW as I really didn't see much of it back then.

I think it was on Channel Five on Fridays but I always stuck to the WWF and never much cared for what was going on outside of that. Although by the time I started watching in 1998/99 it seems like I wasn't missing much elsewhere!

Also after the Starrcade DVD's too, it looks an excellent collection.

Also apprent that the main event matches barely went over 10 mins. With a lot more ring time afford to the workers like Guerrero, Benoit & The Cruiserweights a decent move I thought

Brady12 wrote:Also apprent that the main event matches barely went over 10 mins. With a lot more ring time afford to the workers like Guerrero, Benoit & The Cruiserweights a decent move I thought

Yeah I thought that was a masterstroke. Some of the things Bischoff did during the Nitro era were genius, but sadly not enough of them.

the-gaffer wrote:Jericho Benoit and Eddie made there names in ECW, Thats where they got their first real exposure to the American Public, I'd also not agree that it was the buzz of WCW that got Razor and Diesel, they created the buzz when the 'invaded', I still can't believe they messed up Austin, if ever there was a guy who was destined for the top it was Stunning Steve

ECW may have been where they first made their names (in America - Jericho had already wrestled in Mexico, Europe and Japan!) but it was WCW where they were exposed to the wider wrestling community and became the future stars they were destined to be in WWE. It was the likes of the aforementioned guys that truly made WCW with the cruiserweight division. WCW deserves a lot of credit for that.

As far as Nash and Hall go there needed to be something to attract you to switch alliegences, you don't just leave the WWF for a 'lesser' promotion unless you've been FE'd or like Chavo were being underutilised. But Diesel was a former WWF champion and Razor IC champion. Besides which they were members of the Kliq, which they effectively broke up once they made the jump. WCW had already got Hogan on board by then and he was still a big name in wrestling. WCW was becoming the biggest promotion in America and when Hall and Nash did get on board it propelled them even further. The NWO storyline was a stroke of genius by Bishoff.

I finished watching it last night, really enjoyable dvd if a little sprawling - I didn't know the storylines well and so had to work out who was face/heel or part of the NWO month on month! Lots of great highlights I'd never seen before though, the Sting/DDP Match is an epic and I found the 'reboot' footage fascinating, even if it made me think even less of Russo