WCW Monday Nitro

The very first episode of Nitro was broadcast from the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 4, 1995. The featured matches on the one-hour broadcast were Brian Pillman versus Jushin Thunder Liger, Ric Flair versus WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Sting, and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan taking on Big Bubba Rogers. The show was also highlighted by the return of Lex Luger to WCW after having spent the previous two years wrestling for the WWF, where he had been one of the promotion's top stars. Luger's appearance was particularly jarring because he had just wrestled a match for the WWF the previous evening on a Live Pay-Per-View card; the match was his final contractual obligation with the company, and Luger signed with WCW the morning of his appearance. The event set the tone for Nitro's "anything can happen" atmosphere, and prefigured the similar defections of WWF wrestlers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash the following year.

Final episode of Nitro. WCW is purchased by the WWF. The matches that aired on this final 3-Hour long WCW card were as follows:Singles match: Sting defeated Ric FlairTag team match for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship: The Filthy Animals (Rey Mysterio, Jr. & Billy Kidman) defeated the current champions Elix Skipper & Kid RomeoLoser Gets A Tattoo match: Shawn Stasiak (with Ms. Hancock) defeated Bam Bam BigelowTag team match for the WCW World Tag Team Championship: WCW Tag Champions Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo defeated Team Canada (Mike Awesome & Lance Storm)Singles Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship: WCW Crusierweight Champion "Sugar" Shane Helms defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr.3-Way Dance No.1 Contenders Tag team match for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship: The Filthy Animals (Rey Mysterio, Jr. & Billy Kidman) defeated 3 Count (Shannon Moore & Evan Karagias) and The Jung Dragons (Kaz Hayashi & Yun Yang)Main Event - Title vs. Title match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Booker T (WCW United States Heavyweight Champion) defeated Scott Steiner (WCW World Heavyweight Champion) (with Midajah)In an attempt to save WCW and Nitro, Bischoff attempted to purchase the company with a group of investors. However, although Bischoff's offer had been accepted, recently appointed Turner Broadcasting executive Jamie Kellner announced shortly after his arrival that Nitro and all WCW programming was immediately canceled on both TNT and TBS. Bischoff's group then withdrew their deal, as it was contingent on keeping WCW programming on some outlet. Instead, WCW's trademarks and certain assets (such as its video library and the contracts of 24 wrestlers), though not the company itself (which still exists as a Time Warner-owned legal entity under the name Universal Wrestling Corporation[8][9]), were bought by Vince McMahon- the owner of the WWF (now WWE), its long-time competitor.Around the time of the cancellation, WCW was preparing to make its yearly trip to Panama City, Florida for Spring break. Since the premiere of Nitro, WCW had gone to either the Boardwalk Beach Resort or Club La Vela every March to try to gain favor with adolescent and young adult viewers who might not otherwise be tuning into the program. It was announced that the upcoming March 26, 2001 episode of Nitro from Panama City was to be the finale and the show was dubbed "The Night of Champions." The show began with McMahon appearing via satellite from Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, the site of that Monday's RAW is WAR broadcast on TNN. McMahon announced his purchase of WCW to the crowd and appeared in vignettes throughout the show, including one where he terminated WCW's Jeff Jarrett on air due to bad blood the two had in the past.The show was unique in that all of WCW's major championships were defended that night and in almost all of the matches on the show, the faces won (traditionally WCW was seen as the promotion where heels were often the top stars as opposed to the WWF, where faces were often the top stars. Shawn Stasiak was the only heel to emerge victorious on the final episode of Nitro). In addition, various WCW wrestlers were interviewed giving their honest, out-of-character responses to the selling of WCW. The co-main event of the evening was WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner taking on WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Booker T in a match with both belts on the line; Booker defeated Steiner for his fourth WCW World Championship while retaining the U.S. Championship.Just as it had been on the initial Nitro, the final match of the final Nitro was between long-time WCW rivals Ric Flair and Sting, a match that was more informal than their usual encounters (Sting and Flair were seen smiling and nodding respectfully towards each other throughout the match). Sting won using his finishing move, the Scorpion Deathlock. After the match, the two competitors stood in the middle of the ring and embraced to show respect for one another.The show ended with a simulcast on Raw on TNN with an appearance by Vince's son Shane McMahon on Nitro. Shane would interrupt his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW (this was just part of the storyline, as the WWF as a whole was the true owner of what assets it acquired from WCW), as part of the set up of their match at WrestleMania X-Seven and of what would later become WWF's "Invasion" storyline. In addition to the tape library and other intellectual properties, WWF also purchased several contracts of WCW talent, keeping many of the younger stars. Four of WCW's championships found their way into the WWF; in addition to Booker T carrying both the WCW Championship (as it was renamed) and United States Championship with him into the WWF, McMahon also signed then-WCW Cruiserweight Champion Shane Helms and then-WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire to contracts. (The WWF scrapped the WCW Hardcore Championship, as it was officially retired immediately following the final Nitro despite no one holding it since Meng departed for the WWF in early 2001, and the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship for undisclosed reasons; although no official reason was given, Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, Jr. were the last champions and McMahon was only able to sign Kidman to a contract at the time.)