WCW Saturday Night

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WCW Saturday Night

WCW Saturday Night logo 1992 - 2000
Genre Rasslin'
Camera setup Multicamera setup
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Running time 120 minutes per episode
Creator(s) Jim Crockett Promotions / World Championship Wrestling
Starring See World Championship Wrestling alumni
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel TBS
Original run 1973–June 24, 2000

WCW Saturday Night was the weekly Saturday night TV show on TBS, produced by World Championship Wrestling.


Contents

[edit] History

WCW Saturday Night premiered in 1992 as the showcase for the company's top talent. It grew out of two previous wrestling programs on TBS - Georgia Championship Wrestling, which began on the station (then known as WTCG-TV) in January 1972 and ran under that name until early 1984, when it became World Championship Wrestling. On July 14, 1984 (a.k.a. Black Saturday), Vince McMahon bought the Georgia promotion, only to sell it back to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in mid-1985. JCP elected to have the show's name remain World Championship Wrestling. The program name would also become the promotion's name following the purchase of JCP by Ted Turner in 1988.

In addition, there was also a Sunday edition of World Championship Wrestling; however, in later years, Sunday editions became infrequent. In spring of 1988, TBS replaced World Championship Wrestling: Sunday Edition with a new Sunday wrestling show called NWA Main Event.

In all of its iterations, WCW Saturday Night would normally air for two hours. During baseball season, however, it would typically air for one hour, to be immediately followed by an Atlanta Braves game. The show featured a hi-tech, futuristic design with a unique entry way of slide-open doors and billowing smoke as the performers made their way to the ring. When the show originally premiered, it was hosted by Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura. In later years, Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, Scott Hudson, Mike Tenay, and Lee Marshall handled the show's announcing duties and backstage interviews.

Episodes of WCW Saturday Night were filmed well in advance, with the exception of two live editions, which is detailed below in Trivia.

[edit] Decline

When WCW introduced live programs Monday Nitro and Thunder, Saturday Night became WCW's "C-show" (like WWE's Sunday Night Heat). The majority of airtime would be used to display up-and-comers and recent graduates of the WCW Power Plant (with the occasional squash match) as well recapping the major events of the other shows. The main event would often feature mid-card performers such as the current Cruiserweight Champion, World Television Champion, or U.S. Heavyweight Champion in a non-title match.

[edit] The End

In July 2000, the name of the show was changed to WCW Saturday Morning, which coincided with a change to an earlier timeslot and a new format: rather than feature new matches, Saturday Morning simply recapped the past week's Monday Nitro and Thunder. On June 24, 2000 WCW Saturday Night aired for the last time. On August 19, 2000, the last episode of Saturday Morning aired.

[edit] Trivia

  • Georgia Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling were taped in Atlanta, Georgia, at WTBS' studios at 1050 Techwood Drive until 1989, when the taping location was moved to the Center Stage Theater, in Atlanta.
  • As mentioned above, WCW Saturday Night only aired two live shows in its history. The first one aired from downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 27, 1995. It started raining halfway through the show, causing the ring mat to become slippery at times. The second live airing took place on August 10, 1996, from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. The show took place right before the Hog Wild pay-per-view event, which was held on a Saturday night instead of the usual Sunday night slot for WCW pay-per-views. Hence, WCW Saturday Night was used as a lead-in to the pay-per-view show, much like WCW Main Event was used as a lead-in for Sunday pay-per-views until 1996.
  • The nWo (New World Order) did their own version of WCW Saturday Night in late 1996 called nWo Saturday Night.

[edit] External links

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