WCW Main Event

Last updated
WCW Main Event
WCWMainEvent.jpg
WCW Main Event logo
Also known asNWA Main Event
Created by Jim Crockett Promotions / World Championship Wrestling
StarringSee World Championship Wrestling alumni
Country of originUnited States
Production
Camera setup Multicamera setup
Running time60 minutes per episode
Original release
Network TBS
ReleaseApril 3, 1988 (1988-04-03) –
January 3, 1998 (1998-01-03)

WCW Main Event, originally NWA Main Event, is an American televised wrestling program of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) that aired from April 3, 1988 [1] to January 3, 1998. [2] For most of its run, it was the promotion's secondary show and aired on Sunday evenings on TBS. The show originally aired in 1988 as NWA Main Event. The rights to WCW Main Event now belong to WWE.

Contents

History

Jim Crockett Promotions's NWA World Championship Wrestling , along with its predecessor ( Georgia Championship Wrestling ), were Saturday night mainstays on TBS for almost 30 years. Throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s, these two Saturday night wrestling programs were also complemented with a Sunday night wrestling program titled Best of World Championship Wrestling . The Sunday editions were mostly presented as a magazine format, featuring sit-down interviews with wrestlers and footage from other GCW and JCP television programming. In later years, airings of the Sunday edition became infrequent, as these airings were frequently pre-empted by TBS' coverage of the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks.

In early 1988, Ted Turner asked Jim Crockett, Jr. to create a new Sunday evening wrestling show featuring exclusive "main event caliber" matches. In 1988, NWA Main Event made its debut. The debut episode featured a main event match pitting Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard against Sting, Lex Luger and Barry Windham. The show proved to be an instant ratings success. Due to surmounting losses, Crockett was forced to sell JCP in November 1988 to Turner, who renamed the organization World Championship Wrestling.

The format for WCW Main Event kept one match that was regarded as "main event caliber" and would almost always feature one of WCW's top stars. Often, two or more matches would be featured, but by 1995 the format for the program slightly changed. Main Event would feature, in addition to its one featured match at the end of the program, matches that had aired on WCW Pro, WCW Saturday Night, and WCW WorldWide earlier in the weekend. When WCW Monday Nitro premiered later in 1995, matches from that program would also be featured.

On pay-per-view nights, Main Event would always air live from the venue where the pay-per-view was taking place and would feature multiple matches involving mid-carders and up-and-coming stars.

Title changes

Throughout the years, WCW Main Event has had numerous title changes.

The WCW gauntlet

In 1989, Turner also added a Friday night (later moved to Saturday mornings) wrestling show called NWA Power Hour . With three wrestling shows on TBS, WCW execs decided to create a unique feature called "Running the Gauntlet", which would have a select wrestler compete on all three TBS wrestling shows on a particular weekend, with the objective of winning all three of their matches (including singles and tag matches). Any wrestler who successfully ran the gauntlet won (kayfabe) $15,000. If a wrestler failed to win any one of their matches, their three scheduled opponents in their failing effort (including a loss or a draw) would split the $15,000. The Gauntlet format was eventually dropped in 1990/91. Only two wrestlers (The Steiner Brothers) managed to successfully run the gauntlet.

PPV pre-shows

In the mid-1990s, WCW Main Event would be used as a live pre-show that aired before most WCW pay-per-view events. These special episodes would be used not only to promote the pay-per-view, but also to have special matches - which at any other time would be considered dark matches - prior to the pay-per-view. The last WCW Main Event episode to serve as a PPV pre-show aired July 7, 1996, leading up to Bash at the Beach.

One episode of WCW Main Event originated live in an outdoor environment: the episode prior to the 1995 Bash at the Beach.

Later years and the end

Starting August 24, 1996, the show moved from its established Sunday evening time slot to Saturday mornings. Starting around 1997, WCW Main Event was re-tooled as a recap show with some "exclusive" matches. On January 3, 1998, the show was cancelled and was replaced by WCW Thunder which was launched 5 days later.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Crockett Promotions</span> Professional wrestling promotion

Jim Crockett Promotions is a family-owned professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1931, the promotion emerged as a cornerstone of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). By the 1980s, Jim Crockett Promotions was, along with the World Wrestling Federation, one of the two largest promotions in the United States. The Crockett family sold a majority interest in the promotion to Turner Broadcasting System, which was acquired by Time Warner in 1996, resulting in the creation of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1988. In 2022, Jim Crockett Promotions Inc. was restarted by Jim Crockett's son and Jim Crockett Jr's brother, David Crockett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Taylor</span> American professional wrestler

Paul Worden Taylor III is an American retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Terry Taylor and for his time as an in-ring performer in National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment. From 2003 until 2011, he worked as a road agent, trainer, interviewer and the director of talent relations in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Since 2012, Taylor has worked as a trainer in WWE's developmental territory, NXT.

Kendall Wayne Windham is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling. He is the son of Blackjack Mulligan and the brother of Barry Windham.

Steven James, better known by his ring name Steve Armstrong, is an American professional wrestler. He is the son of fellow wrestler "Bullet" Bob Armstrong, and has three brothers who also wrestled: Scott, Brad, and Brian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Bart (wrestler)</span> American professional wrestler

Richard Harris, better known by his ring name Black Bart, is an American retired professional wrestler.

<i>Clash of the Champions</i> World Championship Wrestling professional wrestling television program

Clash of the Champions is an American series of professional wrestling television specials that were produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in conjunction with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The specials were supercards comprising pay-per-view caliber matches, similar to the World Wrestling Federation's Saturday Night's Main Event series. The Clash of the Champions shows were famous for typically not airing commercials during matches even though many of these matches lasted 20 minutes or more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantastics</span> Professional wrestling tag team

The Fantastics were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers that worked together extensively between 1984 and 2007. At times, Bobby Fulton would team up with his brother Jackie Fulton under the same name.

Todd Bradford is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Todd Champion. He competed in the Southeastern United States, winning titles in several promotions, including World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George South</span> American professional wrestler (born 1962)

George South is an American professional wrestler. In the course of his career, South has wrestled for professional wrestling promotions such as Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation.

The Lightning Express was a professional wrestling tag team, composed of Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Championship Wrestling</span> American professional wrestling promotion

Georgia Championship Wrestling is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Atlanta, Georgia. The promotion was affiliated with what had been the world's top sanctioning body of championship titles for decades before, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and ran live wrestling shows throughout its geographic "territory" of Georgia. The company was also known for its self-titled TV program, which aired on Atlanta-based superstation WTBS from the 1970s until 1984 when its timeslot was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation.

<i>WCW Saturday Night</i> Former professional wrestling television series

WCW Saturday Night is an American weekly Saturday night television show on TBS that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Launched in 1971 initially by Georgia Championship Wrestling, the program existed through various incarnations under different names before becoming WCW Saturday Night in 1992. Although initially the anchor show of the Turner Broadcasting-backed wrestling company, the September 1995 premiere of WCW Monday Nitro airing on sister station TNT usurped the show's once preeminent position in the company, as the primary source of storyline development and pay-per-view buildup.

<i>WCW WorldWide</i> American television series

WCW WorldWide is an American syndicated television show that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) that aired from October 8, 1975, to March 31, 2001. At the time of its cancellation, WorldWide was the longest-running, uninterrupted weekly syndicated show of any kind on the air in the United States.

<i>WCW Pro</i> American TV series or program

WCW Pro is an American televised wrestling show that was presented by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Along with WCW WorldWide, it was part of the WCW Disney tapings. The rights to WCW Pro now belong to WWE and 161 episodes of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling are available for streaming on NBCUniversal's Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets.

WCW Power Hour was the original Friday-night wrestling show for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), airing on TBS from June 23, 1989 to March 5, 1994.

<i>Best of World Championship Wrestling</i> American TV series or program

Best of World Championship Wrestling is an hour-long show, that was the Sunday evening edition of TBS' Saturday night wrestling shows, Georgia Championship Wrestling and NWA World Championship Wrestling. The rights to Best of World Championship Wrestling now belong to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1980s professional wrestling boom</span> Era of professional wrestling

The 1980s professional wrestling boom was a surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and elsewhere throughout the 1980s. The expansion of cable television and pay-per-view, coupled with the efforts of promoters such as Vince McMahon, saw professional wrestling shift from a system controlled by numerous regional companies to one dominated by two nationwide companies: McMahon's World Wrestling Federation and Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The decade also saw a considerable decline in the power of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a cartel which had until then dominated the wrestling landscape, and in the efforts to sustain belief in the kayfabe of wrestling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of World Championship Wrestling</span>

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion that existed from 1988 to 2001. It began as a promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) that appeared on the national scene under the ownership of media mogul Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to the launch of WCW as a separate promotion, the "World Championship Wrestling" name was used for a television program produced by NWA promotions Georgia Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions on TBS; the name came from an Australian wrestling promotion of the 1970s.

The Miracle Violence Connection was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy.

The following is a historical overview television coverage provided the National Wrestling Alliance's territories. The NWA began in 1948 as a governing body for a group of independent professional wrestling promotions.

References

  1. ↑ "NWA/WCW The Main Event 1988". thehistoryofwwe.com.
  2. ↑ "NWA/WCW The Main Event 1997". thehistoryofwwe.com.
  3. ↑ The Main Event – 8/16/92: Ron Simmons (sub. for Sting) pinned WCW World Champion Big Van Vader (w/ Harley Race) to win the title with a powerslam at 9:42 after avoiding the powerbomb -History of WWE: WCW 1992, retrieved October 24, 2023
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.