WCW programming

[Wardlow on Wardlow 54]

Just something I was wondering about, as I'm working on a WCW fantasy booking and was trying to lay out the format for weekly writeups.

Back in the 80s and 90s, JCP/World Championship wrestling had quite a few weekly programs. When I first started watching in 1995, they had no less than SIX weekly shows: Nitro, Saturday Night, Main Event, Pro, Worldwide and Prime. What was the purpose of having that many programs, though? Obviously, Saturday Night was the flagship before Nitro came along and even then, Saturday Night served a purpose until Thunder started. Main Event often served as the PPV pre-show. But what was the point of having three other shows, which often had the same matches, rarely, if ever, did anything to advance the storylines, and most importantly, were barely watched?

I remember Pro would occasionally have some bleed-over with the main shows, and Worldwide featured occasional title changes. Prime, however, was Sports Network exclusive and a glorified recap show, with meaningless matches. Were there homes that got Sports Network but not TBS/TNT?

[jimmyjames]

Nitro pretty much changed the whole landscape. Before Nitro all the shows had a market although Pro was already on the downhill. WCW Prime was pretty much a partnership between Prime Sports and WCW. Prime Sports as a network had just formed and they needed programming and WCW probably hoped it would help grow Nitro. It's not a coincidence that when Nitro blew up big time Prime ended. After Nitro became a huge success Pro and Main Event pretty much were place fillers on TBS. Established enough and with WCW being as big as it was it probably drew a decent size audience and made money. Worldwide was the syndicated show and the moneymaker. A majority of household didn't get cable until the early 90s so Worlwide was probably where the majority of WCW fans saw it at that time. I always have a soft spot for it since it was the show that got me not only into WCW but wr4estling.

[James Fabiano]

Main Event, Worldwide, and Pro were carryovers from the Crockett era, pretty much.

Prime was not unlike Spotlight in that it presented matches from the others shows (plus the Moo Match of course).

[tafkaga]

I believe most of those shows predated JCP. Saturday Night was Georgia Championship Wrestling. Pro and Worldwide were Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. When those territories came under the JCP umbrella, their shows continued as NWA and later WCW programs, but became secondary and then eventually tertiary when Nitro debuted, and then eventually completely irrelevant and cancelled.

[Wardlow on Wardlow 54]

So what would have been the hierarchy of the four shows besides Nitro and Saturday Night? I assumed Main Event might have been number 3, but from the research I'm doing, it was basically a studio show with one match, except on PPV nights.

[MrElijah]

Feb 8, 2022 13:32:51 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

I believe most of those shows predated JCP. Saturday Night was Georgia Championship Wrestling. Pro and Worldwide were Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. When those territories came under the JCP umbrella, their shows continued as NWA and later WCW programs, but became secondary and then eventually tertiary when Nitro debuted, and then eventually completely irrelevant and cancelled.

IIRC it went:
-Georgia Championship Wrestling to World Championship Wrestling(GCW to WWF to JCP) then WCW Saturday Night in 1992
-Worldwide Wrestling was always the name.
-Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling became NWA Pro then WCW Pro

[tafkaga]

Feb 8, 2022 16:21:19 GMT -5 Wardlow on Wardlow 54 said:

So what would have been the hierarchy of the four shows besides Nitro and Saturday Night? I assumed Main Event might have been number 3, but from the research I'm doing, it was basically a studio show with one match, except on PPV nights.

Depends on when you're looking at them. 

If you're looking strictly at the Nitro era, then Saturday Night would be #2 (or #3 after Thunder) and the other shows listed were basically irrelevant recap shows with midcard main events. 

Early 90's WCW, it probably would have been 1) Saturday Night, 2) Main Event, and then the other shows were all about on the same tier along with Power Hour and Prime. 

TBS had a lot of wrestling shows because it was cheap to make, popular, and they could fill a lot of time with it.  It made up the bulk of their original programming in the late 80's and 90's, where TBS was mostly known for John Wayne westerns and Hanna Barbera cartoons.

[Slingshot Suplay]

Feb 8, 2022 16:21:19 GMT -5 Wardlow on Wardlow 54 said:

So what would have been the hierarchy of the four shows besides Nitro and Saturday Night? I assumed Main Event might have been number 3, but from the research I'm doing, it was basically a studio show with one match, except on PPV nights.

Nitro
Thunder
Saturday night
Main event

The morning shows didn't matter, they were more showcase filler.