WCW Nitro Day: Mar 26, 2001

[The Rick Jericho]

Anyone here always thinks about this day every Mar 26th?

Still one of the more surreal and sad days in the history of this business.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I was only 7 at the time but even I understood in some weird way that what I was witnessing was pretty crazy. My older brother and father couldn't believe it.

[GuyOfOwnage]

Think about this - someone born the day Vince McMahon bought WCW can now legally drink in the United States.

[wildojinx]

Here's a flyer from that show:

[MiLB Fan]

It may have been the final Nitro, but WWE actually announced its purchase three days earlier.

corporate.wwe.com/news/company-news/2001/03-23-2001

This part of the release is especially striking when you consider what we have today. Seeing WWE mention streaming and broadband applications in 2001? Talk about forward-thinking!

The acquisition of the WCW brand is a strategic move for us," said Stuart Snyder, President and Chief Operating Officer for WWE Entertainment. "We are assuming a brand with global distribution and recognition. We are adding thousands of hours to our tape library that can be repurposed for home videos, television, Internet streaming, and broadband applications.

I don’t remember where I heard the news first, but I do recall going to WCW.com and seeing its competitor’s logo splashed across the main page along with a copy of the press release.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Mar 26, 2022 16:33:44 GMT -5 MiLB Fan said:

It may have been the final Nitro, but WWE actually announced its purchase three days earlier.

corporate.wwe.com/news/company-news/2001/03-23-2001

This part of the release is especially striking when you consider what we have today. Seeing WWE mention streaming and broadband applications in 2001? Talk about forward-thinking!

The acquisition of the WCW brand is a strategic move for us," said Stuart Snyder, President and Chief Operating Officer for WWE Entertainment. "We are assuming a brand with global distribution and recognition. We are adding thousands of hours to our tape library that can be repurposed for home videos, television, Internet streaming, and broadband applications.

I don’t remember where I heard the news first, but I do recall going to WCW.com and seeing its competitor’s logo splashed across the main page along with a copy of the press release.

I remember it vividly. Had the Friday off school, went to my friends house for our usual backyard wrestling shit and when I showed up he told me that WWF bought WCW. I knew WCW was in trouble, but this was a point in time all my “backstage info” came from rajahwwf.com so I was not exactly on top of things. It still feels like a very surreal moment, and we were on spring break the next week so I didn’t even get to talk about it with most of my wrestling friends at school.

[Mozenrath]

It's somehow a moment that is both over and under rated in terms of what a game changer it was for US wrestling, and by extension, much of the world's wrestling, since these kinds of events don't happen in a vacuum.

[hassanchop]

I recall rumors in late 2000 about WWF at the time considered buying out WCW I saw an article on Gamespot that day.

[tafkaga]

I was at work on this day. Had not been watching wrestling regularly for probably about a year, and I went to WCW.com just to catch up on what was going on and saw the WWF logo on it. I think my jaw hit the ground.

That night I went home and caught the Nitro replay. I almost cried. There was the tiniest bit of excitement for what might be ahead, but that was all but squashed by Vince's gloating and disrespectful treatment of the brand and its talent.

It was almost 8 years before I watched WWE again.

[jason1980s]

I love the flyer posted above. The beer special looks like an idea Eric would have using Ted Turner's money to give out all you can drink low cost beer. But oddly enough I have to think it wasn't him.

Vince buying WCW and wasting it is like someone winning the lottery and blowing through the money on useless stuff. I do think WCW's brand had been damaged and of course, he couldn't get lots of the bigger name talent but he could have still tried building some new guys. But I'm sure the WWF loyalists who WCW never wanted wouldn't have let that happen.

[agent817]

I read a lot of the dirt sheets back then. My go-to was Steve's Wrestling at the time. The one thing that caught my attention was reading that the WWF buying WCW. I was like "what?"

What's weird about this was that my interest in wrestling was waning at the time. Not so much that I was liking it less as I still followed weekly at the time, but certain interests started to overshadow wrestling that it took a backseat to the others.

That same day as the final Nitro, I read more of the dirt sheets, and everything was confirmed. The moment I tuned into Nitro and saw Vince McMahon at the start, my eyes widened and my jaw dropped. Not only was everything confirmed, but it was so surreal seeing that image on TV. I remember switching back and forth between Nitro and Raw that night. It was weird to see that segment being simulcast.

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

Mar 26, 2022 16:31:50 GMT -5 wildojinx said:

Here's a flyer from that show:

Seeing this I always think of OSW Review.

Jay: 4pm until.. question mark?
OOC: ..7pm