WCW Monday Nitro

WCW Monday Nitro was the weekly Monday night TV show on TNT, produced by the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Nitro's production started on September 4, 1995 and continued until March 2001, until the WWF (now the WWE) bought WCW. It ran head to head with the WWF show Monday Night Raw. The creation was the brainchild of then WCW owner Ted Turner and WCW's Vice President, Eric Bischoff. Though ratings were poor early on, WCW Nitro improved in mid-1996 and went on to draw better ratings than the WWF for 84 continuous weeks, lasting until April 13, 1998, when a heated confrontation between the villainous WWF Chairman Vince McMahon and fan favorite Stone Cold Steve Austin shifted momentum in the WWF's favor. Besides broadcasting from various arenas and locations across the country (such as the Mall of America, from which the very first episode of Nitro was broadcast) Nitro also did special broadcasts from the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando in 1996, and did annual Spring Break-Out episodes from Panama City Beach, Florida. On the very first edition of Nitro, Lex Luger (who was working for the WWF without a contract) made a surprise appearance during the program's very first match between Ric Flair and Sting.

Monday Night Wars

Sting The advent of WCW Monday Nitro brought with it an intense rivalry between WCW's Monday night program and the WWF's Monday Night Raw program. This rivalry is known to wrestling fans as the "Monday Night Wars." Throughout the Monday Night Wars between Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon, Nitro was gaining on its WWF counterpart popularity-wise. Soon Nitro would surpass RAW in the TV ratings. Monday Nitro beat RAW in the ratings for approximately 80 consecutive weeks until RAW finally regained ground in the ratings war. At its peak, the rivalry resulted in performers on either show trading verbal insults and challenges. At one point, Bischoff himself challenged McMahon to a fight on Nitro.

Initial success

Initially, Nitro became extremely popular with WCW's extensive roster of stars. Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, and Sting were some of the few stars signed with WCW and appearing on the Nitro program at this time. WCW's lineup of cruiserweights - smaller wrestlers known for their crowd-pleasing high-flying wrestling maneuvers provided a strong set of setup matches for their main events. With the introduction of the nWo, Nitro started its unprecedented run of ratings domination. With former WWF wrestlers Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hogan (who was now calling himself Hollywood Hogan) as rebellious heels, the company seemed to have a winning story and a great future. Wrestling fans watched the show every week to see what the nWo would do next. Since Nitro was live and RAW was often taped, Nitro was seen as far less predictable and thus more entertaining than its WWF counterpart. Eric Bischoff soon became the voice of Nitro (in perhaps, a subtle knock on Vince McMahon, who often appeared on camera as a commentator) and began to air Nitro a couple of minutes before RAW so he could give away the results of the WWF program so fans had no point to see the competition. Nitro would be expanded to a three-hour show, unprecedented for live, weekly wrestling program. Eventually RAW began using a new generation of rebellious wrestlers and adult material to challenge Nitro in the ratings. RAW was building for a future with a young Triple H and D-Generation X along with former WCW wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was becoming increasingly popular as a rule-breaking, unpredictable anti-hero.

RAW gains ground

While RAW was taking a new approach to programming, Nitro would start producing lackluster shows with the same storylines. Older stars such as Hogan and Nash frequented the main events, while younger talent such as Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero were not given opportunities to advance in the company. Hogan and the rest of the nWo almost never lost and the once-elite group was now bloated in size and recruiting midcard wrestlers. Few new stars were made during the run of Hogan and the nWo storyline. The only newcomer elevated to main event status at this time was Goldberg. His main event match with Hogan on the July 6, 1998 edition of Nitro won the ratings battle from the WWF for the week, but Goldberg's victory was anti-climactic and little was done on Nitro to build on Goldberg's victory and reign as World Champion. Plus, some observers felt that WCW should have saved the Goldberg/Hogan match for an eventual pay-per-view event. Meanwhile, on RAW, fans were immersed in the feud between WWF owner Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin. New talent such as Triple H and his D-Generation X faction, Mankind and The Rock were elevated to main event status on the WWF's program. Things got so heated between the two programs that D-X was sent to Atlanta to film a segment near Turner's headquarters for a "war" storyline that was done when both shows were in the same area on the same night — RAW in Hampton, Virginia and Nitro in nearby Norfolk, sending D-X to the Norfolk Scope arena Nitro was broadcasting from and berating WCW fans.

Changes

With the WWF starting to beat Nitro in the ratings on a consistent basis, Bischoff and WCW officials attempted to use a series of "quick fixes" to regain ground in the ratings war. All these attempts would win them short-term ratings victories, but the WWF continued its steady climb to ratings dominance. Signings of wrestlers such as Warrior and several top ECW stars did nothing to stop their ratings slide. Eric Bischoff's "tried & true" tactic of giving away the results from taped RAW shows backfired on January 4, 1999. Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title as Mankind on RAW. Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone sarcastically mentioned "that'll sure put some butts in the seats." The moment that Schiavone insulted Foley, over 600,000 viewers changed channels to watch RAW. The next week, and for months after, many fans in the RAW audience brought signs which read, "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat!" In the meantime, while Foley's title win was airing, Nitro was highlighted by the now-infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom", a WCW Title match in which Nash, who had won the championship belt from Goldberg at the StarrCade PPV event (WCW's equivalent to the WWF's WrestleMania) two weeks before, blatantly laid down for Hogan after he poked him in the chest. The incident damaged the credibility of the WCW Title almost beyond repair, and the damage done to WCW was, in the mind of some, exacerbated when Hogan and Nash immediately announced the reformation of the nWo, which by that time was widely perceived as a stale storyline. Former WWF writers Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera were also hired to fix the company but may have increased the gap between the two Monday night programs. They attempted to make Nitro more like RAW with edgier storylines, more lengthy non-wrestling segments and a increased amount of sexuality on the show. Through this, Nitro would become a two-hour program, with the second hour competing with RAW. Fans had a negative reaction to the direction Russo was bringing the show in and it was reflected in the low ratings for the program. Bischoff would be brought back to WCW and attempted to team with Russo to fix the ills of Nitro and WCW - taking Nitro off the air for one week to reorganize the program, but all this was to no avail. The once highly rated Nitro became deprived of wrestlers, with its most capable young stars signing with the WWF and its current roster of talent being constantly misused. WCW's sharp decline in revenue and ratings would lead to Time Warner's sale of the company to the rival WWF.

The final Nitro

The final edition of WCW Monday Nitro aired on March 26, 2001 from Panama City Beach, Florida. The show began with Vince McMahon making a short statement about his recent purchase of WCW. 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. In addition, various WCW wrestlers were interviewed giving their honest, out-of-character responses to the selling of WCW. The final Nitro match was between long-time WCW rivals Ric Flair and Sting, a match that 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), which was 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, setting up what would now become the WWF's infamous "Invasion" storyline.

Television program

A television program is the content of television broadcasting. The content of an individual broadcast may be referred to as a television program (U.S., Canada, and Australia), television programme (UK, NZ, Ireland and South Africa) or television show. A program may be a one-off broadcast or, more usually, part of a periodically returning television series. A television series that is intended to air a finite number of episodes is usually called a miniseries. Americans call a short run lasting less than a year a season; Europeans call this a series. This season or series usually consists of 10–24 installments of the series. A single instance of a program is called an episode, although this is sometimes also called a "show" or "program." A one-off broadcast may be called a "special." A television movie is a movie that is initially aired on television rather than being released in cinemas or direct-to-video, although many successful television movies are later released on video.

What television programming is

The content of television programs may be factual, as in documentaries, news, and reality television, or fictional as in comedy and drama. It may be topical as in the case of news and some made-for-television movies or historical as in the case of such documentaries or fictional series. It may be primarily instructional as in the case of educational programming, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy, reality TV, and variety shows. A drama program usually features a set of actors in a somewhat familiar setting. The program follows their lives and their adventures. Many shows, especially before the 1980s, maintained a status quo where the main characters and the premise changed little. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, it was usually undone by the end. (Because of this, the episodes could usually be watched in any order.) Since the 1980s, there are many series that feature progressive change to the plot, the characters, or both. Common TV program periods include regular broadcasts (like TV news), TV series (usually seasonal and ongoing with a duration of only a few episodes to many seasons), or TV miniseries which is an extended film, usually with a small pre-determined number of episodes and a set plot and timeline. Miniseries usually range from about 3 to 10 hours in length, though critics often complain when programs hit the short end of that range and are still marketed as "minis." In the UK, the term "miniseries" is only usually used in references to imported programmes, and such short-run series are usually called "serials" there. In the United States, most regular television series have 22 episodes per year. In general, dramas usually last 44 minutes (an hour with commercials), while comedies last 22 (30 with commercials). However, with the rise of cable networks, especially pay ones, series and episode lengths have been changing. Cable networks usually feature series lasting thirteen episodes. Many British series have significantly shorter yearly runs. Old television shows begin with a title sequence, show opening credits at the bottom of the screen over the beginning of the show, and include closing credits at the end of the show. However, in the 1990s shows began cold opening with a "teaser" (a short beginning to the episode, designed to catch the viewer's attention), followed by a title sequence, and a commercial break. More plot-driven shows begin with a "previously" (a short introduction to past major plot events through excerpts), even before the teaser. And, to save time, some shows omit the title sequence altogether, folding the names normally featured there into the opening credits. While television series appearing in TV networks are usually commissioned by the networks themselves, the real revenue for the producers is typically when the product is sold into syndication. However, with the rise of the DVD home video format, box sets containing entire seasons or the complete run have become a significant revenue source as well.

How programs are made

:What follows is the standard procedure for shows on network television in the United States. Someone (called the show "creator") comes up with the idea for a new television series. This consists of the concept, the characters, usually some crew, and sometimes some big-name actors. They "pitch" it to the various television networks, hoping to find one that's interested. If a network is interested, they will "order" a pilot (a prototype first episode of the series). To create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series needs to be put together. If the network likes the pilot, they will "pick up" the show for their next season (UK: series). Sometimes they'll save it for "midseason" or request re-writes and further review (know in the industry as "Development hell"). And other times they'll pass entirely, leaving the show's creator forced to "shop it around"' to other networks. Many shows never make it past the pilot stage. If the show is picked up, a "run" of episodes is ordered. Usually only 13 episodes are ordered at first, although a series will typically last for at least 22 episodes (the last nine episodes sometimes being known as the "back nine", borrowing a term from golf). The show hires a "stable" of writers, who usually work in parallel: the first writer works on the first episode, the second on the second episode, and so forth. When all of the writers have been used, the assignment of episodes continues starting with the first writer again. On other shows, however, the writers work as a team. Sometimes they will develop story ideas individually, and pitch them to the show's creator, who then folds them together into a script and rewrites them. The executive producer, often the show's creator, is in charge of running the show. They pick crew and cast (subject to approval by the network), approve and often write series plots, and sometimes write and direct major episodes. A whole host of other producers of various names work under him or her, to make sure the show is always running smoothly. Once the script for a show is written, a director is found for the episodes. The director's job is to turn the words of the script into film. They decide how scenes should be "staged" and where the cameras should be placed; they also often coach the actors, including any guest stars who may be in the particular episode. On television shows, directors are often interchangeable, mainly serving the dictates of the writer. A director of photography takes care of making the show look good, doing things with lighting and so on. Finally, an editor cuts the various pieces of film together, adds the musical score, and assembles the completed show. The show is then turned over to the network, which sends it out to its affiliates, which air it in the specified timeslot. If the Nielsen Ratings are good, the show is kept alive as long as possible. If not, the show is usually cancelled. The show's creators are then left to shop around remaining episodes, and the possibility of future episodes, to other networks. On especially successful series, the producers sometimes call a halt to a series on their own like M
- A
- S
- H and end it with a concluding episode which sometimes is a big production called a series finale. If the show is popular or lucrative, and a number of episodes (usually 100 episodes or more) are made, it goes into syndication where broadcast rights are then resold.

Common genres

- TV comedy (typically situation comedy or sketch comedy)
- TV documentary
- TV drama (including dramedy)
- TV talk shows
- TV news
- TV current affairs shows
- TV cartoons
- TV infomercials
- TV miniseries
- Game shows
- Soap operas
- Reality TV

World Championship Wrestling

: For the Nintendo Entertainment System video game, see WCW Wrestling. :There was also a World Championship Wrestling circuit in Australia from 1964 to 1978. This article is about the U.S. promotion. World Championship Wrestling or WCW, was a professional wrestling promotion that was based in Atlanta and existed from 1988 to 2001. Originally known as Universal Wrestling Corporation, the company was formed when Turner Broadcasting System acquired control of the wrestling related assets of Jim Crockett Promotions, at the time the flagship of the dissipating National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) for $9 million (the Crocketts continued to own a minority stake in the promotion until selling out altogether a few years later). In March 2001, the company's assets were purchased by the World Wrestling Federation, who continued to use the name as part of a storyline until November, when the promotion officially ceased. WCW was also a member of the NWA until September 1993.
In the Beginning: The NWA Years
By 1986, Jim Crockett, Jr. controlled key portions of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) under the name Jim Crockett Promotions, including the traditional NWA territories in The Carolinas, Georgia, and St. Louis. Crockett merged his various NWA territories into one group, and began promoting under the name "NWA World Championship Wrestling." A simmering feud between Crockett and Vince McMahon's WWF sprang up, and both companies attempted to outmaneuver the other to acquire key TV slots. In the same year, he also purchased Heart of America Sports Attractions Inc (HASA), which owned the rights to promote wrestling shows through several central states (Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa). HASA was known to many fans as NWA Central States, and ran a TV show called All Star Wrestling. In 1987, Crockett's buying spree continued, with the purchase of Florida Championship Wrestling, and the Universal Wrestling Federation (which covered Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana), which was not an NWA member. The Florida & UWF (and its wrestlers) were absorbed into Crockett Promotions. Crockett had almost accomplished his goal of creating a national federation. Between his purchasing several NWA territories, World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas leaving the NWA in 1986 (and later merging with Jerry Lawler's Championship Wrestling Alliance in Memphis to create the United States Wrestling Association), and the once highly viable Portland territory going bankrupt (it closed in 1992), he was the last bastion of the NWA, and the last member with national TV exposure. Since it was all they now saw, many people began to believe that World Championship Wrestling was the NWA. World Championship Wrestling and the NWA were still two separate entities, though, with Crockett as NWA President, they were very much on the same page. By this point, the NWA was effectively an on paper organization funded by Crockett, and allowed Crockett to use the NWA brand-name. However, it takes a large amount of capital to take a wrestling federation on a national tour, and Crockett's territorial acquisitions had seriously drained WCW's coffers. He was in a similar situation to that of the WWF in the early 1980s: a large debt load, and the success or failure of a federation hinging on the success or failure of a couple of PPVs. Crockett marketed StarrCade '87 as the NWA's answer to WrestleMania, however neither it, nor Bunkhouse Stampede, drew enough money to keep Crockett's promotion afloat. On November 21, 1988, Crockett's struggling firm was purchased outright by billionaire media mogul Ted Turner, the Atlanta-based owner of the cable TV networks TBS and TNT, among other interests. Crockett remained NWA President until 1991. Originally incorporated by TBS as the "Universal Wrestling Corporation", Turner promised the fans that WCW way would be the athlete-oriented style of NWA, as opposed to the cartoonish and simplistic exploits of the WWF. 1989 proved to be a huge year for WCW, with Ric Flair on top for most of the year both as World Champion and also as head booker. Flair drafted in two genuine pro wrestling legends in Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk, and his PPV matches with both were hugely successful, financially and especially critically. Young, hot stars such as Sid Vicious, Sting, Scott Steiner, The Road Warriors, Brian Pillman, The Great Muta and Lex Luger were given big storylines and equally notable championship opportunities. Despite this influx of talent, WCW soon began working to gradually incorporate much of the glamor and showy gimmicks for which the WWF was better known. Virtually none of these stunts, such as the live cross-promotional appearance of RoboCop at a PPV event in 1990, the "Chamber of Horrors" gimmick and the notorious "Black Scorpion" storyline, succeeded. Behind the scenes, WCW also becoming more autonomous and slowly started separating itself from the historic NWA name. In January 1991, WCW officially split from the NWA and began to stand alone, recognizing its own WCW World Heavyweight Champion and WCW World Tag Team Championships. Confusingly, both the WCW and the NWA recognized Ric Flair (who was by now no longer the head booker) as their "World Heavyweight Champion" throughout most of the first half of 1991, but WCW, particularly recently-installed company president Jim Herd, turned against Flair for various reasons and fired him just prior to the July 1991 Great American Bash PPV. In the process, they officially stripped him of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. However, according to Flair's autobiography, they refused to return the $30,000 deposit he had put down on the (physical) belt, so he kept it and took it with him when he was hired by the WWF at the request of Vince McMahon. Flair then incorporated the belt into his gimmick, dubbing himself "the real World's Champion" (a jab at then-WWF Champion Hulk Hogan). WCW later renegotiated the use of the NWA name as a co-promotional gimmick with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and sued the WWF to stop showing Flair with the old NWA World title belt on its programs, claiming a trademark on the physical design of the belt. The belt was personally returned to WCW by Flair when Jim Herd was let go and he received his deposit back, and it was brought back as the revived NWA World Heavyweight Title. During the brief, complex period that WCW operated with its own World Champion while also recognizing the NWA's world title, Flair quit the WWF and returned to WCW, regaining the title from Barry Windham in July 1993. Immediately, the other, now much smaller, member organizations of the NWA began rightfully demanding that Flair defend the title under their rules in their territories, as mandated by old NWA agreements. The title was later scheduled to be dropped by Flair to "Ravishing" Rick Rude, a title change which was exposed by the months-in-advance taping of WCW TV shows at Disney-owned studios in Florida. The NWA board of directors, working separately from WCW, objected to Rude, therefore forcing WCW to finally leave the NWA for good again in September 1993. However, WCW still legally owned and used the actual NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt (Rick Rude even defended it as "The Big Gold Belt") but they could no longer use the "NWA" name. The title thus became known as the WCW International World Heavyweight Title. WCW knew that the title belt, because of its rich in-ring history and visual impact, was highly sought after and respected over in Japan and as such created a fictional subsidiary dubbed "WCW International" to inject some credibility back into the belt. WCW claimed that their subsidiary still recognized the belt as a legitimate World Title. Sting eventually won the WCW International Championship and lost the belt to then-WCW World Champion Ric Flair in a unification match in May 1994 when the experiment was jettisoned. To make things more confusing, the WCW title belt, as introduced in 1991, was dropped and the old NWA Championship belt was revived and officially replaced it as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. It was used as such until WCW's closure in 2001. The belt (in a slightly altered design) is still seen today in WWE as the World Heavyweight Championship on their SmackDown! brand (previously on RAW), and WWE has claimed on various programs that the World Heavyweight Championship is a continuation of the World Heavyweight Championship lineage from WCW.
The Bischoff Era Begins
SmackDown! No matter how technically amazing and athletic WCW's action could be, it did not make as much money as the WWF. The creative product of the company sank very noticeably in 1992 and 1993 under the presidency of Jim Herd and, subsequently, Bill Watts. There were signs of gradual recovery in late 1993 when former commentator and American Wrestling Association (AWA) booker Eric Bischoff joined WCW. Bischoff, originally brought in as a secondary commentator behind Jim Ross after the AWA became defunct, was desperate to give WCW a new direction and impressed Turner's top brass with his confrontational tactics and business-savvy. Bischoff did not disappoint, declaring open war on McMahon's WWF in the media and aggressively recruiting high-profile former WWF superstars such as Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 1994. Using Turner's superior monetary resources, Bischoff placed his faith in the established, WWF-made stars with proven track records. Because of their high profiles, however, Hogan and Savage were able to demand and get several concessions not usually allowed to wrestlers at the time, such as multi-year, multimillion dollar guaranteed contracts and significant creative control. This problem only became worse during subsequent years of competition with the WWF, as other wrestlers were able to make similar demands, and contract values soared out of control. Hogan, in particular, was able to gain considerable influence through a blossoming friendship with Bischoff. Another problem Bischoff failed to consider was the fact that many WCW fans watched it as an alternative to the cartoony product of the WWF in the early 90s, and many NWA fans saw the hiring of former WWF talent as an attempt to copy its success, as opposed to being a high-quality alternative product with an emphasis on in-ring action. However, WCW's first major event since Hogan's hiring, Bash At The Beach, saw the former WWF mainstay cleanly defeat longtime WCW stalwart Ric Flair for the WCW Championship in a genuine dream match. Interestingly enough, the two had worked for the WWF at the same time from 1991 to 1992, and a feud was teased between them, but the big-money match originally planned for WrestleMania VIII was changed to Flair/Savage and Hogan/Sid. When WCW delivered the match, the PPV drew a high buy rate by WCW standards due to mainstream intrigue and hype if nothing else, but the hoped-for long-term effects on ratings and buy rates simply did not materialize. Hogan was, to an extent, still a definite draw and celebrity, but his style was not as suited to the Southern NWA audience. This was not lost on Turner management, however, and Bischoff's bold, expensive steps didn't quite meet their expectations when they came to check up on things in mid-1995. Thus, Bischoff called Turner and requested a private meeting, which he was granted.
Monday Night Wars
Bischoff's largest impact on the North American pro wrestling landscape was the launch of the weekly show WCW Monday Nitro in September 1995. In the aforementioned top-level meeting that summer, Turner asked Bischoff how WCW could conceivably compete with McMahon's WWF. Bischoff, not in his wildest dreams expecting Turner to comply, said that the only way would be a primetime slot on a weekday night, possibly up against the WWF's flagship show, Monday Night Raw. Turner, impressed by Bischoff's candor, gave him what he asked for: a live hour on TNT every Monday night, which specifically overlapped with Raw. This format quickly expanded to two live hours in May 1996, and then later three. Bischoff himself was initially the host, alongside Bobby Heenan and ex-NFL star Steve "Mongo" McMichael. McMahon later admitted to being hugely bitter about Turner's decision to air Nitro live on Monday nights, saying that Turner and Bischoff's only reason for doing this could be to hurt and damage the WWF. Turner and McMahon certainly had something of a personal history: in the early 1980s, when McMahon began buying up local organizations in order to create a nationwide wrestling system, one of the promotions he took over was Georgia Championship Wrestling; thus he was in the position of providing a Saturday night show for Turner's TBS station. When viewers tuned to WTBS on July 14, 1984 (a date known as "Black Saturday" in the wrestling community) and saw WWF programming instead of the GCW wrestlers they were used to seeing, many called the station and demanded the NWA's return; two weeks later, GCW returned, albeit on Saturday mornings. Turner quickly grew tired of the personality-driven glitz of McMahon's product and was upset at the fact that McMahon had gone back on his earlier promise not to dump second-rate stars and matches onto TBS. Turner therefore axed McMahon's show and turned to Jim Crockett to fill the Saturday night pro wrestling slot. Furthermore, on the very same day that Turner later acquired Crockett's territories, he famously called McMahon personally to say "Vince, I'm in the rasslin' business!" In 1995, Turner (as sole head and owner of both TBS and TNT), could air Nitro whenever he wanted. The WWF on the other hand was constrained by having to deal with the USA Network, whose executives were pleased about the viewers Raw brought to their network, but were also weary of the stigma associated with being the "wrestling channel." WCW Monday Nitro made its debut in September 1995 live from the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and featured the surprise appearance of then-WWF wrestler Lex Luger, who had been working on a handshake deal with WWF after his most recent contract expired, on a week when Raw was pre-empted by the US Open Tennis tournament. In the first head-to-head ratings the following week, Nitro managed to convincingly defeat Raw, seeing WCW beat the WWF for the first time ever. For most of Nitro's first year, the ratings battle between the two promotions were close. In the end, Nitro ended up beating Raw in the Nielsen ratings for 84 straight weeks between 1996 and 1998. Raw and the WWF in general was at a creative nadir from 1995 to 1997, thus helping WCW's meteoric rise. The WWF tried in vain to fight back in early 1996 with the infamous "Billionaire Ted" sketches, which occasionally starred an unbilled Vince Russo and viciously parodied Turner, Hogan ("The Huckster") and Savage ("Nacho Man") in particular. Only when stars such as ex-WCW wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin began to emerge, and when McMahon swallowed his pride and selected Russo, a New York DJ and WWF magazine writer, as his head booker, did the WWF begin to pick up steam. Siphoning off the WWF's talent and airing Nitro on Monday night was not the end of WCW's less-than-honorable tactics to defeat the competition. In the early days, as Raw was only live once every three weeks at that point, and as hours of upcoming shows would be taped in one arena on one night, announcers on Nitro could (and would) often give away the results of that week's Raw to keep viewers tuned to Nitro. Much later, with the WWF firmly back on top, this tactic memorably backfired on January 4, 1999, when WCW announcer Tony Schiavone was instructed by Bischoff over his headset to announce that Mick Foley (wrestling as Mankind in the WWF), would win the WWF Championship that night on the USA Network. Schiavone then sarcastically remarked, "That'll put a lot of butts in the seats!" Ironically, the comment became true. Nielsen ratings for that night showed that almost immediately after Schiavone's comment, more than 600,000 viewers switched from Nitro to Raw in a matter of seconds. This startling ratings switch was a true testament to Foley's dedication to wrestling and the WWF's ever-growing popularity, and "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat" signs were seen in crowds for years afterward.
WCW vs. nWo
Everything changed in 1996, when WCW became the hottest promotion in North America. It did this with the groundbreaking WCW vs. nWo storyline that was masterminded by Bischoff. It was based on an idea of two warring promotions that he had seen in Japan. The storyline kicked off with Scott Hall, who was recently seen on WWF TV as Razor Ramon, walking into the ring unexpectedly during the middle of a match, 'declaring war' on WCW. At the end of a Nitro episode a few weeks later, he was joined by Kevin Nash, another former WWF wrestler who was recently seen on WWF TV as Diesel. The two wrestlers named themselves "The Outsiders" and sent out a challenge to any three wrestlers on the WCW roster, against them, and their mystery partner. Many wrestling fans were confused, thinking that Hall and Nash were still WWF wrestlers. McMahon himself took notice and said during a Raw telecast that they were no longer WWF wrestlers. Hall and Nash's attitude and similarities to their WWF characters also sparked a copyright infringement lawsuit against WCW by the WWF. At Bash At The Beach '96, Sting, Lex Luger, and "Macho Man" Randy Savage took on The Outsiders but the third man never showed up for the Outsider team. When Hall and Nash began to get the upper hand, Hulk Hogan ran in to seemingly make the save for Team WCW. Hogan threatened The Outsiders but turned around and dropped his patented legdrop finishing move on Savage instead. The fans and the announcers went crazy wondering what was going on. Hogan had shockingly "defected" from WCW to The Outsiders. In his post-match speech, Hogan revealed that he, Hall and Nash were the "New World Order of professional wrestling." The crowd was so incensed by Hogan's turn that many of them threw garbage at the ring, and within minutes it was literally covered with refuse. Bischoff was ecstatic, knowing that this meant the crowd was truly shocked by Hogan finally turning heel after years as a babyface. Hogan, as a bad guy, leading the (fictional) nWo (or New World Order) faction in their attempt to "take over" WCW and run the WWF out of business was a compelling and original storyline. Fueled by this new scenario, WCW Monday Nitro managed a string of wins against WWF Raw that lasted from June 10, 1996 to April 1998, and included a popular feud between nWo leader Hulk Hogan and WCW leader Sting. The nWo was so wildly successful that Eric Bischoff entertained the thought of branching them off as a separate promotion. There were some experiments to see if such an idea would hold. The first PPV event of 1997 for WCW was nWo Souled Out which saw radical departures from the WCW formula. The entire set, the ring and every banner was a shade of black with scattered white nWo logos. The show itself was both a critical and financial disappointment. The matches more-or-less spent more time playing-up nWo members than providing quality matches. One segment, featuring Bischoff hitting on biker chicks caused a "boring!" chant to echo from the crowd. In late 1997, Bischoff decided to see if a separate nWo show would work instead. The newly branded nWo Nitro aired in December 1997 and was a complete dud both in terms of quality and ratings. The first hour was nothing more than nWo tearing down WCW sets while more time was spent celebrating the career of Hulk Hogan in an extended segment. Ratings for that show dropped nearly a full point on the Nielsen Ratings causing the idea to be scrapped. It was later re-designed in 1998 as WCW Thunder and was a complement to WCW Monday Nitro.
Vince McMahon Strikes Back
After WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new WWF Attitude brand, led in particular by rising stars Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Mankind. The classic feud between McMahon (who was re-imagined and re-branded as the evil company chairman character Mr. McMahon) and Austin (who, ironically, had been released by Bischoff in the summer of 1995 for not being marketable) caught the imaginations of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of RAW, headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996. WCW attempted to counter this by dividing the nWo into the Hogan-led heel nWo Hollywood faction and the Nash-led face nWo Wolfpac faction, but many felt that it was a poor rehash of the original WCW vs. nWo storyline. Undeterred, WCW also launched a new Thursday TV show, WCW Thunder, around this time. WCW's next big attempt at ratings supremacy was marketing ex-NFL newcomer Bill Goldberg as an invincible monster with a record-breaking winning streak. Goldberg was indeed incredibly popular from the outset, with chants of 'Gold-berg, Gold-berg' heralding his approach to the ring, but business still quickly fell off for WCW, especially as the list of stars ready to be destroyed by Goldberg grew shorter. One of WCW's last big genuine wins in the Monday night ratings war was on July 6, 1998, when WCW gave the long-awaited World Title match in Atlanta between Hogan and Goldberg (which Goldberg won), away for free on Nitro. By doing this, they indeed 'spiked' and inflated their TV ratings for a week, but flushed away millions of possible PPV dollars in the process, as Hogan vs. Goldberg was a clear PPV main event. On September 14, 1998, WCW won the ratings war once again with a memorable moment that featured Ric Flair's return to WCW and the reformation of the legendary Four Horsemen. On October 25, 1998, WCW's Halloween Havoc PPV ended up running longer than the time allowed due to the last-minute addition of a Tag Team Title match. As a result, several thousand people lost the PPV feed at 11pm which was during the World Title match between Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg. The following night, WCW decided to correct the problem by airing the entire match for free on Nitro and thus winning the ratings war for the final time. WCW slowly slid into a period of extravagant overspending and creative decline; why this happened and who let it happen is a matter of debate among wrestling fans and historians. Some attribute the slump to the overuse of celebrities (such as employing Dennis Rodman and Jay Leno) to wrestle PPV matches. Others blame the stale, pointless, and at times self-serving storylines concocted by inexperienced bookers such as Nash, while still others claim that the top-level stars had no motivation to excel in the ring due to their long-term guaranteed-money contracts, and only gave their utmost when it suited them to do so. As mentioned above, people were growing suspicious of Nash's questionable storylines, which were dominated by his on-screen persona. After booking himself to win World War 3 in November 1998, he went on to end Goldberg's winning streak on the StarrCade PPV just one month later. Then came the infamous 'fingerpoke of doom' match with Hogan. The World Heavyweight Championship changed hands when Hogan knocked Nash to the ground by prodding him in the chest with one finger and then pinning him, further damaging the credibility and perceived value of the title. It was the same episode of Nitro that Tony Schiavone announced the Mick Foley WWF Title win. Also in 1998, The Ultimate Warrior, a former WWF star, was recruited to feud with Hogan. Their October 1998 encounter at Halloween Havoc was subpar, and Warrior vanished soon after. The Ultimate Warrior also insisted on a number of elaborate and costly apparatuses such as a trapdoor in the ring, which badly injured The British Bulldog when he landed on it. In addition, no matter who was in charge, WCW did not like promoting its younger stars to the company's top slots. Despite having many talented younger wrestlers such as Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Billy Kidman, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., the late Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Raven, and Booker T (just to name a few) on its roster, they were kept away from the main event scene. WCW's poor talent decisions combined with the massive popularity of the new, hip and edgy WWF Attitude Era, likely began WCW's rapid demise. Bischoff was eventually removed from power by the Turner higher-ups in September 1999, the last straws perhaps being a mystifying and expensive on-screen push for the 1970s rock group KISS through WCW shows, a storyline involving rapper Master P and The No Limit Soldiers that saw Master P last only two weeks (the No Limit Soldiers flopped so badly that the West Texas Rednecks heel stable that they were feuding with was cheered by the Southern WCW fans); an announced million-dollar contest that was later cancelled; a planned Nitro animated series that was scrapped, as well; and Bischoff's long-standing desire to put on a huge, outdoor rock 'n' wrestling concert on December 31, 1999.
The Death of WCW
Bischoff was unexpectedly replaced by former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrera. Russo and Ferrera had been the head writers for the WWF at the beginning of the Attitude Era, subordinate only to Vince McMahon himself. WCW offered them lucrative contracts to jump ship in October 1999 in an effort to revitalize their own flagging product and weaken the product of the WWF. Russo and Ferrera tried to push the younger WCW talents straight away, and phase out aging stars such as Hogan and Flair. However, Russo was thought by many to be incapable of recreating the intriguing and cutting-edge TV he had produced while working for McMahon. Russo and Ferrera struggled to gain approval for their near-the-knuckle ideas from the conservative WCW management, such as the introduction of an effeminate (and possibly incestuous) tag team called 'The West Hollywood Blondes' (Lenny Lane and Lodi; their name spoofed the Hollywood Blondes, an enormously successful early 90s tag team of Steve Austin and Brian Pillman), and 'Piñata-On-A-Pole' matches between Mexican wrestlers. In late 1999, Russo and Ferrera hired their friend Jeff Jarrett from the WWF and revived the nWo storyline, this time with Jarrett and Bret Hart at the helm. They next targeted WWF announcer Jim Ross with a tasteless parody character called 'Oklahoma', who was played onscreen by Ferrera (Ross had been suffering from Bell's palsy, and the character lampooned his resultant facial defects). Bad luck struck in December 1999 when Hart suffered a genuine (and ultimately career-ending) concussion at the hands of Goldberg, who severely damaged his own hand less than a week later while punching through a limousine window in Salisbury, Maryland as part of an storyline that was written by Russo. Russo himself became an onscreen character during this period, though one whose face was never shown on camera, in a manner not dissimilar to Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget. Only his hand and the back of his chair were ever actually seen, as he called wrestlers into his office to receive their marching orders for the night. Both Russo and Ferrera were suspended just three months later amid rumors that they wanted to make former UFC fighter Tank Abbott the WCW Champion (Abbott, despite his legitimate fighting background, had little wrestling experience and had utterly failed to connect with WCW audiences). Kevin Sullivan, who had been an on/off booker over the course of several years, was placed in charge in the interim. The new writing team attempted to appease the demoralized wrestlers and fans by making Chris Benoit the WCW Champion at the Souled Out PPV in January 2000. However, after learning he'd be quickly stripped of it, and because of the real-life personal issues between himself and Sullivan, Benoit handed the belt back the next day and left WCW. He signed with the WWF along with his similarly frustrated friends Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko. On February 11, 2000, black wrestlers Bobby Walker and Harrison Norris and Japanese manager Sonny Onoo launched racial discrimination lawsuits against WCW, claiming that they had not been pushed as a result of their ethnicities, had not been paid as well as other wrestlers and personalities, and had been given offensive gimmicks. Some speculated that the charges of racism brought against WCW (and the resultant bad publicity for the company, which had been dogged by accusations of racism for years), were partially responsible for black wrestler Booker T winning the WCW Championship later that year and his brother Stevie Ray being made a color commentator, with Ray himself acknowledging that it might have been a factor. In April 2000, with ratings hitting new lows, both Russo and Bischoff were reinstated by WCW. They formed an on-screen union that stood up for the younger talent in the company (which they dubbed the "New Blood"), claiming they had been held down for years by the establishment. Russo and Bischoff led the New Blood against the "Millionaire's Club," which consisted of the older, higher-paid, and more visible stars such as Hogan, Sting, and Diamond Dallas Page. Though initially well-received, the storyline quickly degenerated into yet another nWo rehash, with the heel nWo recast as the New Blood and the face WCW embodied in the Millionaire's Club. As well, the unorthodox and often controversial storylines continued. These included making actor David Arquette the WCW Champion in order to promote a WCW-themed movie, Ready to Rumble; Russo himself winning the WCW Championship in September 2000 (Russo, like Arquette, was not a trained wrestler); a botched (and, in the eyes of many, completely unnecessary) June heel turn for Goldberg that greatly diminished his drawing power; and a shoot speech by Russo at Bash At The Beach 2000 aimed at Hulk Hogan which led to Hogan resigning and filing a defamation of character lawsuit against the company (which, in 2002, has been dismissed). Bischoff vanished once more in July 2000, and Russo was gone from WCW completely by late 2000, leaving Terry Taylor holding the reins. It was later revealed in 2005 that Russo's shoot promo had actually just been a storyline between Russo and Hogan, meant to set up Booker T's winning the WCW World Title and Hogan's departure from the company without a loss of face. Meanwhile, when Time Warner bought out Turner's cable empire in 1996, it also purchased WCW. Even though Turner was a big fan and faithful to the professional wrestling shows on his stations (a professional wrestling program had helped get Turner's very first TV station, WTBS, off the ground, and WCW was, in fact, the modern incarnation of the promotion that Turner had run on WTBS back in those days) regardless of whether it was losing him money, Time Warner did not share his loyalty, especially when accounts showed that WCW was losing between $12-$17 million a year because of its decline. However, Turner was still the single largest Time Warner shareholder, and WCW was supported at his behest. When AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000, Turner was effectively forced out of his own empire. The new AOL Time Warner finally had the power to auction off WCW, which they saw as an unncessary drain on resources. In late 2000, Bischoff and a group of private investors, calling themselves Fusient Media Ventures, enquired about buying WCW but backed out when Turner networks head (and The WB founder) Jamie Kellner formally cancelled all WCW programming from its TV networks. With no network to air its programming, WCW was of little value to Fusient, whose offer was dependent on the Turner networks continuing to air WCW programming. On March 23, 2001, WCW, along with virtually all of its trademarks and archived footage, was sold to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. for a paltry $7 million (although the book The Death of WCW said it was $3 million). McMahon did not employ all of the WCW wrestlers and staff, though, passing over proven draws such as Goldberg due to contractual compensation reasons. A gloating McMahon then opened the last-ever episode of WCW Monday Nitro simulcast with RAW on March 26, 2001 with a self-praising speech. Sting vs. Ric Flair (won by Sting) was the nostalgic final match of the final broadcast, ending affectionately with a respectful embrace. March 26 When Vince came on RAW after the Sting/Flair match to declare victory over WCW, Shane McMahon appeared at the Nitro event, declaring that he had bought WCW. This set up a storyline with Shane leading the WCW Invasion of the WWF (a highly anticipated storyline that most considered as a huge missed opportunity), which lasted from March to November 2001 and marked the end of WCW. Despite aborted attempts to run WCW-branded events, the WWF only ran a handful of matches on RAW and SmackDown! under the WCW banner. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship (which was renamed the World Heavyweight Championship) would continue to be used in WWF until it was merged with the WWF Championship into the WWF Undisputed Championship when Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin for the respective titles on December 9, 2001 on the PPV, Vengeance (the current World Heavyweight Championship, despite the fact it uses the old WCW World Title belt, is generally considered to be a new title that does not share lineage with its WCW namesake).
Final champions
This is a list of the champions as they were at the end of the last WCW Monday Nitro on March 26, 2001 (though all these titles, with the exception of the Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship, continued to be active in WWF until November of that year).
- WCW World Heavyweight Champion — Booker T
- WCW United States Champion — Booker T
- WCW World Tag Team Champions — Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire
- WCW Cruiserweight Champion — "Sugar" Shane Helms
- WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions — Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, Jr.
Books

- WCW: The Ultimate Guide by Bob Ryder & Dave Scherer, 2000, ISBN 0-7894-6673-2.
- The Death of WCW by Wrestlecrap and Figure Four Weekly, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-661-4.
See also

- List of WCW stars
- List of professional wrestlers
- List of professional wrestling stables
- List of WCW pay-per-view events
- The Alliance
- Nitro Girls
- WCW Monday Nitro
- WCW Thunder
- WCW Power Plant
- Jim Crockett Promotions
WCW Titles

- WCW World Heavyweight Championship
- WCW International Championship
- WCW World Tag Team Championship
- WCW World Television Championship
- WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship
- WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
- WCW United States Tag Team Championship
- WCW Cruiserweight Championship
- WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship
- WCW Light Heavyweight Championship
- WCW Hardcore Championship
- WCW Women's Championship
WCW Special Tournaments

- WCW Jesse "The Body" Ventura Strongest Arm Tournament (1992-1993)
- WCW King of Cable Tournament (1992)
- WCW/NWA Gauntlet Series (1990)
External links

- [http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/promotions/wcw.html Obsessed With Wrestling - World Championship Wrestling]
- [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185130/combined "WCW Monday Nitro" (TV-Series 1995-2001)]
- [http://www.wrestleview.com/info/faq/wcw.shtml WCW - FAQ]
- [http://www.sportztawk.com/thread9130/page1.html HISTORY OF WCW: The Beginnings]
- [http://www.ddtdigest.com/ DDT Digest, the resting place of WCW on the internet]
- [http://www.flagshipnews.com/archives_2004/feb262004_23.shtml Bischoff looks back at Monday night rivalry]
- [http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingBiosH/hhh_mar01-can.html Triple H on the collapse of WCW and ECW]
- [http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingBiosK/mar19_konnan-can.html Konnan: Politics killed WCW]
- [http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20020722154905.06776.00000082%40mb-fc.aol.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain The Seven Deadly Sins Of WCW]
- [http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=20010422221832.25059.00000347%40ng-cv1.aol.com When did Nitro JUMP THE SHARK?]
- [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.sport.pro-wrestling.moderated/browse_frm/thread/20ac03020df3c7b7/b301cfb0694d85fd?tvc=1&q=victims+of+hulk+hogan#b301cfb0694d85fd Why WCW went out of business and was bought by the WWF]
- [http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/columns/donaldgarner/01.html The Death of WCW: Who killed Who?]
- [http://mrtitopdc.tripod.com/march31_2001.htm Brief Recap on Why WCW Went Downhill]
- [http://www.gerweck.net/wwa040301.htm Monday Night Wars Dominated by Vince McMahon; Who is to Blame?]
- [http://www.wrestlinginformer.net/world_championship_wrestling_history.htm WrestlingInformer.net - WCW History]
- [http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=74063&page=1 WCW Late 1996-1999: Care to Reminisce] Category:Atlanta sports Category:Time Warner subsidiaries Category:World Championship Wrestling ja:WCW

1995

1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the first year of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2005): http://www.unesco.org/culture/indigenous/

Events

January

- January 1 - Austria, Finland and Sweden enter the European Union
- January 1 - Fred West, accused of mass murder, hangs himself in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham
- January 1 - World Trade Organization is established to replace GATT
- January 2 - Former President of Somalia, Siyad Barre died. He had been ousted in 1991.
- January 6-January 7 - A chemical fire occurs in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines. Policemen led by watch commander Aida Fariscal and investigators find a bomb factory and a laptop computer and disks that contain plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack. The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, is arrested one month later
- January 9 - Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station breaking a duration record
- January 17 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake" occurs near Kōbe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing 6,433 people
- January 24 - The prosecution delivers its opening statement in the O. J. Simpson murder trial
- January 25 - The Norwegian Rocket Incident - A rocket launched from the space exploration centre at Andøya, Norway to study the Northern Lights, is mistaken by the Russians as a nuclear attack and the russian missile command is put into combat mode before realizing the misunderstanding.
- January 31 - United States President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 trillion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.

February

- February 9 - Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. makes history as the first African American astronaut to walk in space.
- February 13 - United Nations tribunal on human rights violation in the Balkans charges 21 Bosnian Serb commanders with genocide and crimes against humanity
- February 15 - Hacking: Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computers systems.
- February 17 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence
- February 21 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
- February 21 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon
- February 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 -- The Dow's first ever close above 4,000.
- February 26 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank collapses after a securities broker Nick Leeson has lost $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
- February 27 - In Denver, Colorado, the old Stapleton Airport closes: it is replaced by a new Denver International Airport, the largest airport in the United States.
- February 28 - Members of the Group Patriot's Council are convicted in Minnesota for manufacturing ricin

March

- March 1 - Attack Submarine USS-Seahorse (now ex-Seahorse SSN-669) starts to be deactivated
- March 1 - Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Jozef Oleksy
- March 1 - Daniel Sleator announces his intentions to commercialize the Internet Chess Server (ICS) himself, renames it the Internet Chess Club, or ICC, and charges a yearly membership fee of $49 to howls of protest
- March 1 - Muntinlupa City, Philippines officially becomes a city.
- March 1 - In Moscow, Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev is killed by a gunman.
- March 2 - Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Barings Bank.
- March 3 - In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
- March 6 - Adrianus Jacobs, chairman of Internationale Nederlanden Groep NV announces that his company would buy bankrupt Barings PLC bank for a nominal prize
- March 14 - Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.
- March 20 - Terrorist incident: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on five separate railway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
- March 22 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space. Also, the Schengen treaty comes into force.
- March 24 - For the first time in twenty six years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- March 30 - Police officer tries to assassinate Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency of Japan
- March 31 - The president of Selena fan club, Yolanda Aldivar, kills the star in Corpus Christi, Texas

April

Corpus Christi, Texas
- April 19 - Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city was bombed. 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, were killed. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols set off the bomb.
- April 24 - Unabomber bomb kills lobbyist Gilbert Murray in Sacramento, California

May

- May 7 - Jacques Chirac elected president of France.
- May 11 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
- May 14 - The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
- May 16 - Japanese police besieges the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara.
- May 16 - Jacques Chirac assumes the presidency of France.
- May 23 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
- May 24 - AFC Ajax beat AC Milan 1-0 to win the Champions League.
- May 25 - Egan v. Canada - Supreme Court of Canada rules that sexual orientation is a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- May 27 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition, ending his career.
- May 28 - Neftegorsk, Russia is hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake killing at least 2000 people (2/3rd of the towns population).

June

- June 1 - The busiest hurricane season in 62 years begins. (see 1995 Atlantic hurricane season).
-
- EarthBound is released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S.
- June 2 - United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady survives on bugs and grass until he is rescued.
- June 2 - SS captain Erich Priebke extradited from Argentina to Italy
- June 5 - Bose-Einstein condensate created.
- June 6 - U.S. astronuat Norman Thagard broke NASA's space endurance record of 14 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station Mir.
- June 8 - Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
- June 13 - French president Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
- June 15 - While on trial for murder, O.J. Simpson put on a pair of gloves that were found soaked with blood at the murder scene. The gloves appear not to fit.
- June 20 - Oil multinational Shell caves in to international pressure and abandons plans to dump the Brent Spar oil rig at sea.
- June 22 - Japanese police rescues 365 hostages from a hijacked Nippon Airlines 747 at Hakodae airport. The hijacker was armed by a knife and demanded release of Shoko Asahara
- June 24 - The New Jersey Devils sweep the Detroit Red Wings in 4 games in the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 29 - Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the northern hemisphere.
- June 29 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
- June 29 - The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
- Summer - Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the UN Security Council begins to fray, as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, are starting to become increasingly more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than disarming the country.

July

Iraq
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA, if sanctions against the country are not lifted by Thursday, August 31, 1995
- Midwestern United States heat wave: An unprecedented heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States for most of the month. Temperatures exceed 104°F (40°C) in the afternoon in numerous cities for 5 straight days. At least 3000 people die, 750 in Chicago, Illinois alone.
- July 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
- July 4 - The UK Prime Minister, John Major, has won his battle to remain leader of the Conservative Party.
- July 8 - Volcanic eruption begins in the island of Montserrat
- July 11 - Bosnian Serbs march into Srebrenica while UN Dutch peacekeepers leave. Large numbers of Bosniak men and boys are killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
- July 13 - Dozens of cities, most notably Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set all-time record high temperatures. Hundreds in these and other cities die as the July 1995 heat wave reaches its peak.
- July 17 - The Nasdaq Composite index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
- July 18 - Fabio Casartelli, an Italian cyclist, dies in a crash during the Tour de France.
- July 21 - to July 26 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
- July 27 - In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated
- July 28 - Network Solutions announces a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet.
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al Majid, minister of industry and military industrialisation, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last UN declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.

August

- Chrono Trigger is released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
- August 4 - Croatians launch Operation Storm against Serbian forces in Krajina and force them to withdraw to Bosnia
- August 5 - Croatian forces take Knin and continue to advance
- August 6 - Hundreds in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Washington, and Tokyo mark the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.
- August 7 - Operation Storm over, UN-brokered ceasefire, remaining Serbian forces start a surrender
- August 9 - Netscape launches IPO. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,1081456,00.html
- August 14 - Avalanche buries Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen - reported dead
- August 17 - 50th Indonesia Independence.
- August 24 - Microsoft releases Windows 95.
- August 28 - Serbian Mortar bomb near Sarajevo market square kills 37 civilians
- August 30 - NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia - continues into October

September

- September - DVD, optical disc storage media format, is announced.
- September 2 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio
- September 4 - The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
- September 6 - With the jury absent, Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman invokes his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson
- September 6 - NATO air strikes continue after repeated attempts at a solution with the Serbs fail
- September 26 - Trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, accused of Mafia connections, begins.
- September 27-September 28 - night - Bob Denard's mercenaries capture president Said Mohammed Djohor of the Comoros. Local army does not resist

October

- October 1 - 10 people are found guilty for bombing the World Trade Center in 1993
- October 3 - O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (He would be found liable in a second civil trial in 1996)
- October 4 - France launches a counter-coup in the Comoros with 600 soldiers. They arrest Bob Denard and his mercenaries and take Denard to France. Caabi el-Yachroutu becomes new interim president
- October 9 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
- October 12 - black motorist Johnny Gammage dies of asphxyation after being stopped by police in the nearly all-white Pittsburgh suburb of Brentwood
- October 16 - The Million Man March is held in Washington D.C.. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
- October 21 - Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon, dies of a cocaine overdose while on tour.
- October 25 - A Metra commuter train slammed into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
- October 30 - Quebec separatists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada

November

- November 1 - Participants of the Yugoslav War begin negotiations in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, USA
- November 1 - the House voted to ban "partial birth" abortions by a vote of 288-139.
- November 2 - Supreme Court of Argentina orders extradition of Erich Priebke, ex-SS captain
- November 3 - At Arlington National Cemetery, US President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing
- November 4 - After attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is mortally wounded by a right-wing Israeli gunman. (He later died on the operating table at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv)
- November 10 - Iraq disarmament crisis: With help from Israel and Jordan, UN inspector Ritter intercepts 240 Russian gyroscopes and accelerometers on their way to Iraq from Russia
- November 10 - In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) are hanged by government forces
- November 14 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and run most government offices with skeleton staff
- November 16 - UN tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić with genocide during the Bosnian War
- November 17 - Public Radio International's radio program This American Life broadcasts its first episode, "New Beginnings"
- November 21 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes the 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses two millennium marks in a single year. It would do it again in 1997 and 1999.
- November 21 - Peace agreement about Bosnia
- November 22 - Rosemary West is sentenced for life of killing 10 women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter
- November 22 - Eilat, Israel, Egypt, and much of the North African Mediterranean is struck by the strongest earthquake in Israel's history - 7.2 mw. Curiously, within a week there is attempted historical revisionism downwards to 6.2 with Gulf of Aqaba architects and engineers holding the bag for alleged 'shoddy construction'. A 6.2 mw earthquake is only 1/100th the magnitude of a 7.2 quake.
- November 28 - Barcelona Treaty signed by 27 attending nations
- November 28 - US President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.
- November 30 - Javier Solana is made new NATO general secretary

December

- December 14 - The Dayton Peace Agreement signed in Paris.
- December 15 - The European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer between European Union member states at the end of their contracts (see Bosman ruling)
- December 15 - Because of "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 638 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987 when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.
- December 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of UNSCOM, dredge the Tigris River near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian made missile instruments and components.
- December 30 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
- December 31 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
- Republic of Texas (group) claim to form a provisional government in Texas.

Unknown dates

- The oldest flute, made by Neanderthal, was found by Dr. Ivan Turk in the cave Divje babe I in Slovenia. See: prehistoric music.
- The Ebola virus kills 244 Africans in Kikwit, Zaire in Central Africa.
- Creed (band) formed.
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