When the WWE purchased both WCW and ECW in 2001, they also obtained the entire past video libraries of both productions and have released many past matches online and on home video.

WCW television ratings were also heavily competing with ABC's Monday Night Football.

It also featured the established Monday Night Wars, where both WCW and the WWF had Monday night shows that competed against each other in the ratings, and saw the WWF finally beat WCW for the first time in 84 weeks when McMahon made his in-ring debut against Austin.

Starting in 1995, TNT was also the home of WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of the now defunct World Championship Wrestling, once regularly the highest rated weekly program on cable.

He wrestled there under the ring names 1 – 2 – 3 Kid and X-Pac off and on from 1993 – 2002, World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) under the ring name Syxx, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ( TNA ) under the ring name Syxx-Pac and also under his real name.

Norfolk Scope was also the site of an infamous episode of WCW Monday Nitro, where several members of the World Wrestling Federation stable D-Generation X literally drove a tank to the entryway of the Scope, thus " invading " the competition.

He also held the WCW / WWE Cruiserweight Championship a record eight times ( five times in WCW, three in WWE ).

It also hosted a live edition of WCW Monday Nitro on October 28, 1996 following WCW Halloween Havoc, a taped Smackdown / ECW on August 25, 2009, and on March 29, 2010, a live episode of RAW that saw Shawn Michaels give his farewell speech to the WWE the night after losing to The Undertaker in a Streak vs Career match at WrestleMania XXVI, and the July 1, 2011 edition of Friday Night SmackDown taped on the June 28, 2011 live episode of WWE NXT.

He also played for the Jacksonville Bulls and the Tampa Bay Bandits in the USFL, where he was a teammate with future WCW rival Ron Simmons.

Mascaras also wrestled in World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), where his most notable match was a match with Cactus Jack at Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shootout on February 6, 1990 in the Memorial Coliseum in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Psaltis was also offered a contract by WCW, but declined to leave ECW in order to remain with her fiancé, ECW wrestler Simon Diamond.

Copeland also wrestled briefly as Damon Striker against Kevin Sullivan and Meng on separate episodes of WCW Pro.

He also held the WCW United States Championship once, and is the record holder for most reigns as WWE Hardcore Champion with 26 reigns.

Southern, and he won the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship ( also known as the first incarnation of the WCW Cruiserweight Championship ) on June 20, 1992 by defeating Brian Pillman at Beach Blast.

He was also reunited with his former valet Chastity, who WCW claimed was his sister.

In World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), he also had two stints as a booker — in 1989 – 1990 and 1994.

With that, he also became the first WCW Triple Crown Champion upon being awarded the title, having already held the United States and World Tag Team titles.

Using the officially recognized totals ( by WWE, TNA and PWI ) of 16 World Championships and a record-tying five U. S. Championship reigns, Flair has won a total of 30 different major championships between the NWA, WCW, and WWE, with numerous regional titles also to his credit.

The Kliq was also the primary catalyst for two of the most controversial stables in wrestling history: the New World Order ( nWo ) in World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) and the WWF / E, and D-Generation X ( DX ) in the WWF / E.

Hall and Nash soon to left for WCW, and also escaped punishment.

and immediately attacked Hogan, claiming he had been waiting four years to do so, stemming from shoot comments from Hogan on WCW Thunder in 1998 after he was fired that he could not " cut the mustard ".

As a result, WCW programming was canceled on both TBS and TNT, leaving Vince McMahon's company, which at the time had an exclusive deal with Viacom, free to acquire the trademarks, video libraries and a few contracts.

During the sale, WCW was in litigation, with various lawsuits pending, and AOL Time Warner still had to pay various performers their guaranteed deals, as many had contracts directly with the parent company, and not with WCW.

WCW dominated pro wrestling's television ratings from 1996 to 1998 ( 84 straight weeks ) mainly due to its incredibly popular New World Order storyline, but thereafter began to lose heavy ground to the WWF, which had recovered greatly due to its new " Attitude " branding.

Commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the purchase of the company, WWE re-opened WCW. com, highlighting the history of the company that had once had the upper-hand in the professional wrestling marketplace.

McMahon later revealed that she had purchased Extreme Championship Wrestling and intended to bankrupt the WWF ( in reality, the ownership of ECW assets at this time was highly disputed ), along with her brother Shane, who had become the on-screen owner of World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), and the two rosters merged to form a " supergroup " known as The Alliance.

In January 1991, WCW officially began to recognize a WCW World champion, with Ric Flair, who had just defeated Sting to regain the NWA World championship, as the first title holder.

As one of the most popular independent promotions of the early 1990s, they hosted a tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion after WCW had withdrawn from the NWA.

Guerrero returned to WCW in late 1995 along with Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit with whom he had worked with in NJPW and ECW.

Despite his success and popularity, Guerrero had been one of many wrestlers who were frustrated at never being given a chance to be main event stars in WCW.

Flair then kicked Sting out of the Horsemen upon his challenge for the NWA Championship, resulting in a revived feud between the two which had to be delayed due to Sting injuring his knee, forcing WCW to slot Lex Luger as Flair's main challenger until Sting returned.

While the NWA recognized Fujinami as their new champion, WCW did not because Fujinami had backdropped Flair over the top rope in a violation of WCW rules.

In the spring of 1991, Flair had a contract dispute with WCW president Jim Herd, who wanted him to take a substantial pay cut.

WCW sued Flair in an attempt to reclaim the belt, but Flair claimed that he owned the belt in lieu of the $ 25, 000 deposit paid by NWA champions upon winning the title, which had not been returned to him when he was fired from WCW.

The Extreme Championship Wrestling ( ECW ) name was brought in later to help boost the presence of WCW after the original promotion closed in April 2001.

In WCW, Kevin Nash was banned from using his finishing move, the Jackknife powerbomb, not because the move itself was dangerous, but because he was kayfabe billed as being so good at the move that it would end careers ( this was designed to help push him towards the main event ).

McMahon managed to keep Bret Hart from reverting to WCW, and began a feud with Hart and Steve Austin.

Many wrestlers such as Chris Jericho and The Radicalz ( Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko ) were drafted from WCW, all publicly claiming on both companies ' TV broadcasts that they were extremely unhappy at the storylines and backstage chaos at WCW, and were further intrigued and happier with the structural running of the WWF.

Although Eric Bischoff was nearing a deal to purchase the company complete, in March 2001, WWF Entertainment, Inc. acquired WCW from AOL Time Warner for a number reported to be around $ 7 million.

Shortly after WrestleMania X-Seven, the WWF launched the Invasion storyline integrating the incoming talent roster from WCW and ECW.

European, Australian, Latin American, Spanish and Asian versions of TNT were launched in the 1990s but were exclusively dedicated to movies, mainly from the MGM and Warner Brothers archives ( The UK and Scandinavian TNT did show WCW Monday Nitro on Friday nights just four days after its US broadcast, and the Latin American version aired a children's block called " Magic Box ").

* Debra Marshall, known from her days with the WCW and WWE, was raised in West Blocton.

An episode of WCW Monday Nitro from February 17, 1997, featured a home movie filmed during the preceding week by NWO members Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Syxx.

While recuperating from his injury, Waltman was fired by then WCW President Eric Bischoff as a show of force to keep Hall and Nash in check due to locker room instability caused by the three, as well as Waltman's lack of commitment.

Waltman returned to WWF programming on March 30, 1998, the night after WrestleMania XIV and days after being released from WCW.

WWE released a documentary showing highlights from WCW Nitro's history, The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro, hosted by Diamond Dallas Page.

He wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling ( ECW ) from 1995 to 1996 and World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) from 1996 to 2001, as Rey Misterio, Jr ./ Rey Mysterio, Jr. but dropped the " Junior " from his name when he began working for WWE in 2002.

After Master P's departure from WCW, Mysterio formed a stable with Eddie Guerrero and Billy Kidman known as the Filthy Animals.

He is the second longest-reigning WWF Champion of all time ( after Bruno Sammartino ) and the longest-reigning of the 1980s, having held the title for 1, 474 days from 1984-1988, as well as the longest-reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion of all time, with a 469 day reign from 1994-1995.

In September 1993, WCW withdrew completely from the NWA, and, despite Flair's possession of the physical belt, made no mention of the NWA name on air after the split.