When Did "Nitro" Jump the Shark? (http://groups.google.com/groups?q=wcw+nitro+jump+the+shark&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=20010422221832.25059.00000347%40ng-cv1.aol.com&rnum=1)

Several possibilties:

Hogan vs. Sting at Starrcade '97, and the follow-up angles

Eric Bischoff suing Ric Flair after Flair failed to show a Thunder event so he
could watch his son compete in an amateur wrestling tournament.

Bret Hart turning heel and aligning with Hogan after costing Hogan the World
Title at Starrcade four months before.

NWO splitting into two factions, with WCW babyfaces Sting and Lex Luger joining
the NWO Wolfpack.

Jay Leno wrestling

Hogan vs. Warrior feud. Hogan seeing Warrior in the mirror, Ed Leslie and
Horace's involvement, so on and so forth

Hogan runs for President, announces retirement a week later, returns less than
two months later

Kevin Nash beats Goldberg for the World Title at Starrcade '98 with Scott
Hall's interference, Goldberg's career is killed

Only days later, the Fingerpoke of Doom before 35,000 pissed-off PAID fans at
the Georgia Dome

Raven's ridiculous "Ferris Buller" skits

NWO fades away with no explanation

Goldberg is not seen for months (a pattern that would sadly repeat itself)

Ric Flair in a mental hospital

Randy Savage beats up Gorgeous George and Torrie Wilson

Master P, the No Limit Soldiers, and the West Texas Rednecks

The Hummer

Sid Vicious returns

Randy Savage wins World Title

Hulk Hogan returns one night later and wins World Title from Savage

Hogan beats Kevin Nash in "retirement" match at Road Wild, Nash returns two
months later

KISS performs on Nitro, debuts the Demon, The Demon isn't heard from again for
another six months

West Hollywood Blondes provoke complaints from gay groups

Eric Bischoff is fired

Sting wins the World Title from Hogan, turns heel by bashing Hogan with a
baseball bat handed to him by Lex Luger, a mere 3,500 fans in Winston-Salem, NC
(the same city where WCW drew sellouts for Fall Brawl the three years previous)
cheer Sting and Luger.

Vince Russo is brought into WCW

Flithy Animals attack Ric Flair, steal his belongings, leave him laying for
dead in the desert. Animals turn face less than a month later, Flair returns
three months later, no mention of this angle ever again

The pinata match, followed by Dr. Death Steve Williams' shoot attack on the
Mexican wrestlers, and, of course, "Oklahoma"

"The Powers That Be"

Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall (for a brief time, at least), Jeff Jarrett, &
Scott Steiner reform the NWO AGAIN. This version lasts less than two months,
with only Jarrett and the Harris Brothers carrying the NWO torch into the
spring of 2000.

Goldberg ends Bret Hart's career

Goldberg smashes his fist into the NWO limo two days after Starrcade in a fit
of anger. Oops, there goes our storylines for the next four months.

Commissioner Kevin Nash

Vince Russo is fired, replaced by Kevin Sullivan

Chris Benoit wins the WCW World Title, quits the company the next day in
protest of Sullivan. Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko follow
suit, and jump to the WWF.

Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair comeback. Hogan and Flair main event Uncensored, draw
lowest buyrate in WCW history

Sullivan is fired, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo are brought back.

Russo & Bischoff write their first show, Billy Kidman is touted as the next big
superstar, gets in Hulk Hogan's face. Hogan kicks the crap out of him for two
months, kills Kidman's career

Constant title changes

David Arquette, WCW World Champion

New Blood vs. Millionaire's Club angle fizzles out in two months

Russo pins Ric Flair in a cage match.

Goldberg turns heel

Ric Flair loses retirement match to son David, gets his head shaven, before
maybe 1,000 fans in Richmond, VA. Pathetic

Vince Russo publicly fires Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach

Goldberg "breaks the script" at New Blood Rising

Vince Russo books himself as WCW World Champion, beating Booker T in a cage
match

Russo is let go of his duties

Last six months of WCW television are lame duck TV, with nothing notable
happening, aside from Scott Steiner's World Title reign, and Ric Flair
returning in the role of CEO. Flair's heel turn at Sin and the forming of the
(not-so) Magnificent Seven really killed WCW for good. Flair was basically one
of the only things WCW had left at the end, and they screwed it up in typical
WCW fashion.

I'd like to learn more about the Goldberg breaking script thing and the finger-poke of doom......... classic.

In a nut-shell, the "Finger Poke of Doom" happened on the first "Nitro" of 1999. The setting was the Georgia Dome after Starrcade, which was WCW's biggest event (much like Wrestlemania is for the WWE).

Kevin Nash had won the World Title against Goldberg via the help of Scott Hall. Goldberg couldn't make it for a rematch because Miss Elizabeth (RIP) fabricated charges to the police about Goldberg harrassing her.

Hulk Hogan came back after running for President and got in a shoving match w/ Nash in the ring. Then, out of nowhere, Nash literally lays down for Hogan and allows Hogan to win the title (and reform the NWO in the process). This was designed as a ratings ploy since WCW and or Hogan assumed that the reason that WCW's ratings were down because Hogan was either off TV or nowhere near the belt.

All of those reasons are viable reasons for WCW's demise.

WCW was a killer promotion before 1994 when Hulk Hogan took over the company. In the early 90s all of their stars were superb, their titles had crediblity and their feuds were way better than the WWF.

For instance any of these feuds:

Sting vs. Rick Rude - 1992-1994

Sting vs. Lex Luger and Harley Race - February 1993

Sting vs. Big Van Vader - 1992-1993

Ricky Steamboat vs. Rick Rude - 1992

Ricky Steamboat vs. Steve Austin - 1992

Ron Simmons vs. Lex Luger - 1991

Sting vs. Cactus Jack - 1991-1992

http://www.amiannoyingornot.com/(lpg2ut55qv3vmve1lpftsi55)/view.aspx?ID=8550

The Resume
(19??-2001)
World Championship Wrestling
Defunct
Originally the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance)
Changed to WCW in the late-80's when Ted Turner bought the company
Based in Atlanta, Georgia

Why they might be annoying
Ted Turner started the company simply to bury Vince McMahon and to grow his empire by going into another business venture.
With the exception of a few years in the 90's, they could never break out of the WWF’s shadow and were always known as a 'second fiddle.'
The only wrestler in the company that Ted Turner knew was Ric Flair and he had the company make Flair the booker, which turned out to be a disaster.
When Hulk Hogan entered the company in 1994, they built the entire company around him and gave him a contract with full control. This led to a ton of problems with the company in the locker room, in the television shows, in the ratings and in their wallets.
They hired Vince Russo to be their head booker and he turned WCW into a cheap imitation of the WWF instead of making the company unique.
They were known for burying a lot of talent and not elevating wrestlers with potential, such as Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho.
They tarnished their Heavyweight Title by making David Arquette the champion, severing their ties with the hard-core fans that stuck by the company.
Things got so bad for the company both creatively and financially that they eventually sold the out to the WWF (2001).

Why they might not be annoying
They had a rich history and all-time greats like Ric Flair, Sting, Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger and Vader got their big start with WCW.
Although the WWF would usually pound them in the ratings, they put on great matches that would go on to make careers.
They hit the WWF hard in the early 90’s by signing away their top wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and it was years until the WWF was able to find a way out of the hole they were in.
They would pull stunts like telling their audience the results of 'RAW,' the WWF’s weekly show, on nights when 'RAW' was taped and 'Nitro,' WCW’s weekly show was live.
Madusa (Alunza Blaze) left the WWF for WCW, and threw her WWF Women’s Title in the trash.
They did the unthinkable in the mid-90’s, when they beat the WWF in the ratings every week for over a year.
They were the home of the NWO (New World Order), which many claim to be the greatest wrestling angle ever and was mostly, if not fully, responsible for the company's boom in business.
A lot of people miss the company because their competition forced the WWF to try harder.


Credit: Reo Rogerz