[Fox]

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball If I remember correctly in the Death of WCW book, I think both ideas were from Bischoff but he was legitimately shocked at how willingly Ted Turner was with the live Nitro idea when everyone else said it was a waste of time or money. Bischoff believed giving away results from a taped show would eventually kill WWF Monday Night Raw which it did for a while in ratings. The problem with that plan was when RAW began to improve a lot where a taped show was more entertaining than a predictable/boring live Nirto show.

You are partly correct here. It was Bischoff's idea. When WCW was broadcasting out of Orlando, Florida every week it was a taped show called WCW Saturday Night, and if I may say so, it was a piece of shit (think TNA). Bischoff was with the company since 1991 in a broadcasting position, but in 1995 when Ted Turner asked how WCW could compete with WWF, Bischoff came up with the idea to create a live prime time show that would run directly against WWF's RAW. Turner bought it.

WCW Nitro started out as a 1-hour show in 1995, became 2-hours in 1996 and eventually 3-hours in 1997, all of them produced LIVE.

Though Bischoff did give away the WWF's taped results on air, it didn't have as much impact on the ratings as he thought. When it eventually DID make the impact he wanted, it was the opposite result: fans tuned into RAW to see the matches that WCW was promoting for them. Still, the WWF, sick of having their results spoiled on air (and online, as the internet was beginning to take off) and ready to take their program to the next level, turned Monday Night RAW into a live broadcast as well.