How did you watch during the Monday Night Wars?

[Xero]

The Monday Night Wars was a great time for wrestling fans. Two companies vying for your eyes on the same night. So, how did you watch on a typical night (strictly Nitro vs. RAW) and which company was "your company", if you even "chose"?

Discuss the Monday Night Wars in general in here.

[Lara Emily]

Canada was great for the MNW, there wasn't one lol. Raw was live Nitro was aired Tuesday. So I easily watched both and had no affinity or loyalty to/of one over the other.

[CSL]

The cable I used to have back then at like 14 had TNT for Nitro but no sound so I watched a lot of WCW in silence.Made it kind of hard to keep up so most of my proper WCW viewing has come from a friends collection that used to have every PPV ever, the internet etc. Was def a 'WWF guy' though, RAW on a Friday night, Smackdown on a Saturday morning. WCW was dead a long time before we got live RAW, on time Smackdown etc.

[Xero]

I started out as a WCW and Nitro fan, even remember switching back to RAW in 96 where they were doing Mankind vs. Undertaker and was like "fuck this shit". Then I became more of a WWF fan and watched and taped only RAW. Though I would sometimes switch between them, catch the replay of Nitro and I absolutely watched the first hour of Nitro (when Nitro was 8 to 10/11 and RAW was 9 to 11).

Outside of the MNW I'd watch any wrestling I could find. Still do to an extent.

[Lara Emily]

PS I was tempted to vote other as the option because watched Raw live and the Nitro replay kinda implies I did so by choice rather than necessity but none the less I voted Raw Live/Nitro Replay

PPS I miss Nitro as bad as it was eventually there was something so gosh darn lovable about it.

[Cool King]

If I remember correctly, Raw and Nitro were both on at 9pm on Friday nights in the UK. Raw was on Sky Sports and Nitro on TNT, just after Cartoon Network went off the air for the night.

For me, I was always a WWF guy. Me and my brother would watch Cartoon Network, then when that went off the air and we saw the opening to Nitro, we knew RAW IS WAR would be starting over on Sky Sports, so we'd change the channel to it.

Later, we weren't able to afford the Sky channels, so instead, my granny would record RAW IS WAR as she watched it too, then I would get the tape from her and watch it that way.

Good times. :'(

[Lock Jaw]

Raw on Monday, Nitro on Tuesday.

During the Monday Night Game of Checkers of TNA vs WWE though, I flipped channels. For the first few weeks. Then I stopped flipping to TNA unless WWE was doing something really dumb.

[Xero]

Raw on Monday, Nitro on Tuesday.

During the Monday Night Game of Checkers of TNA vs WWE though, I flipped channels. For the first few weeks. Then I stopped flipping to TNA unless WWE was doing something really dumb.

lol I just streamed TNA and muted it while I watched RAW.

God I love technology.

[Calamondin]

I'd watch RAW, and flip to Nitro during commercials. If something was good, I'd watch the 11pm replay of Nitro until I fell asleep.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

I watched Nitro from 8-9, then switched between Raw and Nitro from 9-10, then watched Raw from 10-11.

[Tazz Dan]

I watched Raw a week later when it was on Pay TV, and Nitro 8 months later on free-to-ar TV. Yeah, it was that far behind.

[Loose Cannon]

switched back and forth the whole night.

[Loose Cannon]

or what Supreme did when Nitro wasn't 3 hours

[bigslimjj]

I always went to school tired as shit on Tuesdays. I'd watch RAW mostly,still flipping over now and again for NWO segments,or the horsemen.Then i would watch what I'd missed on the nitro replay. I would tape it most mondays and it would record when I changed the channel as well. I still have some tapes I look at, and I'll really be into a segment now, and it switches over to something crap on the other show...and stays there? WTF was I thinking back then when I was watching.-"This Taker/ Austin match is great,guess I'll watch Hugh Morris vs. Jerry Flynn on nitro instead."lol

[Razzamajazz]

used to solely watch nitro, then over time started to tape it as it became worse so i could watch raw

[bigslimjj]

lol I just streamed TNA and muted it while I watched RAW.

God I love technology.Yea my dvr took care of that little war. TNA thinks its still 1999.

[VSG]

Didnt have WCW in India.. Loved WWF.

[loopydate]

I watched Nitro from 8-9, then switched between Raw and Nitro from 9-10, then watched Raw from 10-11.

[Juan]

I watched Nitro from 8-9, then switched between Raw and Nitro from 9-10, then watched Raw from 10-11.

This right here

[YoungFlyFlashy]

Watched RAW and the watched the Nitro reply either that night, or if I fell asleep I would catch the Thursday replay of Nitro.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Nitro was an hour longer than Raw, so I'd watch the first hour of that, then Raw. I was a WWF fanboy so I never paid even that first hour much notice.

[Schlomey]

Obviously when big things happened I would switch back and forth but the majority of the time I watched RAW and taped Nitro.

[Heisenberg]

Watched Nitro on Mondays, then my buddy would bring a taped version of RAW over and we'd watch that. Then we'd play N64 nWo Revenge and own with Glacier and turn everyone into the nWo, then rename Fit Finlay, Fit the Shit Finlay. Good times and shit.

[YoungFlyFlashy]

Watched Nitro on Mondays, then my buddy would bring a taped version of RAW over and we'd watch that. Then we'd play N64 nWo Revenge and own with Glacier and turn everyone into the nWo, then rename Fit Finlay, Fit the Shit Finlay. Good times and shit.

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Memories....

[The Gold Standard]

I sometimes watched Nitro, but it never kept my interest. Once Raw started I was 100% committed to Raw.

I realized it was a good idea when I was watching Raw at my friends house and we had Nitro on in the other room. Every match that night on Nitro ended in a DQ. It was terrible.

[YoungFlyFlashy]

I have been re-watching Nitros from 97 - 99, and they are god awful. Now that the nWo craze is out of my blood, and the edgy direction is no longer the "it" thing, I can barely sit through a Nitro, they are god awful, every night seems to end with a fucking fake Sting and the nWo laughing in 97....even the ppvs...

[Fox]

I started out as a die hard WCW fan in 1997 and made fun of the kids who watched WWF, so I only watched Nitro and only switched over to USA during commercials only to find that I didn't know or care about any of the characters, and then switched back to Nitro as soon as it came back from break.

Sometime in late 1999 I started to get more into the WWF as WCW's programming truly turned to absolute shit. I would record RAW IS WAR on my parents' TV upstairs and watched/recorded Nitro downstairs. Around the time Jericho and Big Show/Giant left WCW for the WWF that changed and I would record Nitro upstairs so I could fast forward through all the bullshit and I would watch/record RAW IS WAR live.

Around late 2000 I went on a WCW strike in a single-handed attempt at making them improve their content. At this time I wrote a column for a site called 5 Star Wrestling.com called "Last Man Standing" and wrote an entire column dedicated to saying goodbye to WCW until they got better, comparing it to abandoning a drug addicted friend in an attempt to make them hit rock bottom and eventually ask for help.

My friend apparently OD'd and died.

[Aguakate]

...Man, those Mondays, I would switch between the two all the time...I used to hate it, at the time, because there were times where both shows had things that interested you AT THE SAME TIME (usually the start of the second hour), and it would suck because, no matter how hard you tried, you were going to miss something on one show, as you watched the other, even for a moment.

[eazey]

When Nitro went to 3 hours I used to watch the first hour, then RAW, then the replay.

[Emperor Smeat]

Mainly just WWF Monday Night RAW for most of the era but did do the switching around the middle of the era.

Early years: Mostly RAW with the occasional WCW Nitro episode.
NwO years: Mostly RAW but would switch to Nitro during commercials. When Nitro got the 3rd hour, watched Nitro at 8pm and then switched between RAW and Nitro.
Late years: Still watched the 1st hour of Nitro but rarely switched back once RAW started.

[XCaliber]

Never really watched Nitro but i'd catch some of the other WCW programming.

[Nicky Fives]

I really only watched Nitro (as it was on earlier)..... but I did watch most of the WWF PPV's and the occasional Raw..... I didn't start watching WWF regularly (and religiously) until WCW folded in March 2001.....

[Steveviscious89]

Yeah I'm like a lot of other people; watched Nitro religiously in late '97 when I first started following wrestling. Then naturally everything fell apart for them after the big Starrcade so I started looking into Raw around the time that they started winning back the TV ratings. I guess you could say I was going with the crowd and didn't even know it since I wasn't an Internet fan at the time. I still kept up with WCW for the most part unless they had a string of shows that were really boring. Of course I wanted for them to do better because it would mean better things for the business, but it just wouldn't happen.

While were on the subject, I am really fearful that the man mostly responsible for the MNW, Eric Bischoff, has absolutely no good ideas left in him for TNA. After looking into it, I noticed his first year at WCW was kind of a stinker, so maybe TNA gives him (and Hogan) another year to see what happens. Otherwise I'd say move on.

[Steveviscious89]

I really only watched Nitro (as it was on earlier)..... but I did watch most of the WWF PPV's and the occasional Raw..... I didn't start watching WWF regularly (and religiously) until WCW folded in March 2001.....

Really?..Forgive me, but I would have assumed just the opposite based on some of your posts. By the way....is this thread maybe because we are approaching the ten year anniversery of the WCW buy out?

[bigslimjj]

Now I get why so much hate on TNA,on TPWW. There's a bunch of freakin old school raw fans on this site.The wars have never truly stopped.lol

[dronepool]

I watched RAW like 95% of the time.

[Jeritron]

I watched Nitro from 8-9 and then Raw. Hardly ever switched, tbh. During commercials sometimes.

No option for that though.

[Tom Guycott]

I'd watch RAW, and flip to Nitro during commercials. If something was good, I'd watch the 11pm replay of Nitro until I fell asleep.

I watched Nitro from 8-9, then switched between Raw and Nitro from 9-10, then watched Raw from 10-11.

I did a combination of the two. Initially, I could only watch RAW with very few exceptions (like the first Nitro that they held in that mall). Honestly, for a long time, I forgot it was on, and when I did remember Nitro (or when WWF went on Dog Show hiatus or something similar) WCW would be airing angles such as that shit about Hogan and Woman's shoe or whatever the fuck. Didnt hold my interest. So, color me suprised when I found out not that much later Hogan turned heel, an "announcer" was behind it, and watched a vignette of "Easy E" issuing that 30 day "with us or against us" nWo ultimatum.

It wasn't until much later I even learned there was a replay, and that was because of a job I had.

I began to tape RAW, as I was usually at work, and watch the Nitro replay which started about 30 min after I got home (in spite of my choice above, out of neccessity). On any night where I actually didn't have to work monday night, I watched RAW and the Nitro replay.

Then, I had the bright idea to just tape them both and watch them at my leisure, even if I worked or not. This usually meant I started watching RAW until about the main event portion of the show, then drifted off to sleep secure in the knowledge I could see what happened tomorrow.

I just wish I had known exactly when Hardcore TV aired. It seemed to jump timeslots. Yeah, it wasn't part of the question, but I would have had an extensive (yet poorly recorded, as I used SLP to make sure I caught show entirities of RAW and Nitro, including possible overruns) video collection of ECW. I always caught it by accident, and it never seemed to be on the same time every week.

[AKin3D]

Watch Nitro until the last hour, flip to Raw, then I'd

A)stay up way late watch other tv shows until the last hour of Nitro came on, watched last hour of Nitro

or

B)Pop in a video tape and go to bed.

No matter what I'd go to school the next day, talk WWF, get told I was stupid for watching WCW since only old washed up wrestlers and stupid Mexicans and Japs were on there, but that was only till wolfpac formed, then I'd remind them all they only started watching wrestling right around Austin 3:16, and I had been watching since birth, so of course I wanted to see those old guys.

In the later years I just couldn't watch WCW anymore. The last full show I watched was Jericho just losing it.

[Seth82]

during 95-96 I watched every Nitro as WWF was shit

Then later on I'd watch every RAW live and tape Nitro

I still taped Nitro to the bitter end even tho it was fucking awful but I'd watch it on the next night

I guess I was a huge WCW fan but by late '99 I fast forwarded thru alot of shit

[DaVe]

never watched a nitro in my life.

and as australia was wcw-country back in the day, i reckon its pretty impressive. huge wwf fanboy.

[whiteyford]

If I remember correctly, Raw and Nitro were both on at 9pm on Friday nights in the UK. Raw was on Sky Sports and Nitro on TNT, just after Cartoon Network went off the air for the night.


I watched Nitro then the Raw rerun at 1am usually, only because Nitro/Thunder were only shown the once.

[Road Warrior]

Honestly had two tv's set up side by side and watched both simultaneously with a couple of friends.

[Londoner]

Honestly had two tv's set up side by side and watched both simultaneously with a couple of friends.

Lucky bastard.

[Team Sheep]

Never really acknowledged WCW. Just loved WWF.

[The Genius]

watched the first hour of nitro and then switched back and forth during the last 2 hours.

[TheAdamEvansFan]

I watched Nitro from 7-9 then turned to WWF for Raw is War? or Warzone?? Final hour was always the best... Now it seems like the first segment is great, then u have to wait til the final event.

Damn I miss the Attitude Era.

EDGY!

[MVP]

I used to tape RAW and watch Nitro until probably the beginning of 1999 then I started watching RAW exclusively and switched channels to Nitro every now and then. I became largely uninterested in WCW after the finger poke of doom and the shit storm of bad angles that followed it.

[ron the dial]

watched the first hour of nitro and then switched back and forth during the last 2 hours.
i did the same, with more of a focus on wwf when i was switching.

[Anybody Thrilla]

I watched the first hour of Nitro, then I stayed on Raw the whole time. Maybe if I wasn't dead tired, I'd catch some of the Nitro replay.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Channel 35 for Raw and Chanel 33 for Nitro. I was too lazy to press up and down so I just used the channel return button.

[OldSchoolFan]

In my underwear on the couch...

[DaveBrawl]

Normally I watched Nitro and flipped to Raw during the commercial breaks then flipped back unless something interesting was going on.

I did the same for Impact the 2 or 3 weeks it was on Monday nights.

[Jordan]

I watched Nitro only on Raw's commercials, unless it was more interesting (cruiserweight match or cool debuts or NWO stuff)

[RiX1024]

Watching the 1st hour of Nitro then switched it to RAW.

[Eklipse]

When Nitro went to 3 hours, I'd watch the first hour, switch to RAW, and watch the Nitro replay.

[Kane Knight]

Other: Depends. I would switch between the two with friends over because my friends into wrestling had serious ADHD, I would tape one and watch the other, or if there was a program I wanted to watch later I'd watch Raw then catch the replay.

Canada was great for the MNW, there wasn't one lol. Raw was live Nitro was aired Tuesday. So I easily watched both and had no affinity or loyalty to/of one over the other.

That wasn't universally true, was it? I know some Canucks who were watching it realtime.

And this was hardly the says of Justin.TV and streaming as a household name.

[zdmay]

I watched Nitro from 8-9, then switched between Raw and Nitro from 9-10, then watched Raw from 10-11.

[Sixx]

I watched Nitro on Friday nights and RAW on Mondays. But it was aired like 2 weeks later.

And RAW was in German.

[Kane Knight]

I watched Nitro on Friday nights and RAW on Mondays. But it was aired like 2 weeks later.

And RAW was in German.

I can now watch Raw in Spanish twice a week.

[Seth82]

yeah RAW plays in spanish here on sundays on Telemundo

You can still hear the american WWE commentators in the background pretty clear tho

[Disturbed316]

Nitro, I loved WCW during this time. Plus I didn't have the channel for Raw.

[Grablot]

Raw only, WCW was for losers at least thats what I believed.

But hey I was right, WCW is the one that went out of business

:p

[SonOfAnarchy26]

I flipped back and forth. In 95-96 i watched mostly Nitro but from 97 and on I would watch mostly RAW and hardly any Nitro. I have all the Monday night shows from the 90s on DVD now though so life is good...

[El Tigre]

I too flipped back and forth between the two, since I didn't really have a personal preference back then.

If memory serves me correctly, I recall one time watching Raw in which an opponent was hit with a lariat, then rebounded and countered with a power slam. I then switched it to Nitro and saw the exact same sequence. I don't recall who the wrestlers were, but I do remember thinking "What the Hell did I just see?"

It wasn't really that big of a deal, but since I was young at the time it became one of my fondest memories of the Monday Night Wars.

[Attitude99]

Nitro was stupid as hell, Watched Raw All The Way

[mhirn3]

Flipped back and forth between the two and watched whichever had the best match on....then watched the replay of wcw

[Sixx]

I can now watch Raw in Spanish twice a week.

I think watching it with commentary that sounds like a Hitler speech is better.

[teamXtremist]

I WAS HARDCORE WWF/E AT THE TIME had just got back into watching wrestling again and never got a chance to catch much wcw

never watched a nitro from start to finish would check in for the mainevent but kept it on raw mostly

[Crazy Nick]

I never did watch WCW that much, I always tuned in to WWF RAW, I rarely missed an episode of it. I did however catch WCW Thunder from time to time. I was a huge WWF fan and just couldnt get enough of it really.