Will we ever again see a wrestling ratings war on monday night? I doubt it. Like many, I believe that really was the golden age of Professional Wrestling – from September 4, 1995, to March 26, 2001. It was a time when the feud between the incumbent WWF’s Monday Night Raw was in direct competition with a younger promotion, WCW, was at all-time high. The latter was trying to take on the McMahon-led massive conglomerate. WCW certainly had a great Monday night run with Nitro, and it was the head-to-head battles between them and WWF that provided entertainment we’ll never forget.
I grew up watching Hulk Hogan, and he is the one who made me fall in love with the wrestling business. He was a WWF Guy back in 1986 when I first started following the promotion. He really was that All-American, larger-than-life personality who could almost do no wrong.
But during the period of the Monday Night Wars beginning in 1995, it was a different story. Hulk Hogan was in WCW and was the World Champion. WCW soon after launched Nitro, which was well received from the hop. One of the stronger personalities of the day, Lex Luger, showed up on Nitro, where just a few weeks before he was on the WWF Summerslam 95 PPV.
I was and will always love WWF/WWE, but what WCW did in 1996 turning Hogan “heel” was shocking, and it all started at Bash at the Beach 96. Bringing in Hall and Nash to join Hogan was epic and made the Group and the whole NWO (New World Order) invasion on WCW, awesome. Many fans even thought Nash and Hall actually invaded WCW as many thought they were still under contract to the WWF.
NWO was big for WCW, and for a long time they started to turn the heat on the much larger WWF. The NWO storyline grew and almost singlehandedly changed the Monday Night Wars. In fact, WCW won in the ratings for 83 weeks in a row.
Let’s take a few minutes to compare the two rosters of wrestlers:
WCW: Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Sting, DDP, Roddy Piper, Raven, Ric Flair, Harlem Heat, The Steiner Brothers, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Bret Hart in ’97 and of course “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan’s character gained new life as a heel in WCW.
WWF: Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Goldust, the Godfather, LOD, the New Age Outlaws, D-Generation X, Triple-H, X-Pac, Shawn Michaels (even if he was not on TV much after WM14), Ken Shamrock, Vader, Kane, Mankind, The Undertaker and Owen Hart.
Okay, so that doesn’t settle much as they both had great rosters. My point is, the period was so successful and entertaining just as much a direct result of the direct competition between WWF and WCW as it is the talent in each organization. The competition pushed both the wrestlers and the writers to be their absolute best week in and week out.
Will we ever see the Monday Night Wars again in pro wrestling? Will anybody even attempt taking on WWE on Monday night? To be truthful, I doubt it. It was a fun ride while it lasted.
When I think of the Monday Night Wars, I smile. It was a great time to be a wrestling fan and I will never forget those days from 1995 to 2001.
The end of the wars occurred as World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. purchased WCW for $3,000,000.
Feel Free to leave your comments below and to follow me on twitter @TNAWWEGUY. You can follow the site while you are at it @lastwordonsport.
Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? If so, check out our “Join Our Team” page to find out how.
