Original subtitles

I got a hell of an idea.

Consider this an open invitation, Vince McMahon.

How do you describe the Monday Night Wars?

The Yankees can't stand the Boston Red Sox. Well, in wrestling, we have WWE

and WCW.

Hulkamania lives in world championship wrestling.

We just want to be as successful as Vince is.

And then we'd like to, you know, kick his butt.

He was there to try to put Vince out of business.

They beat us for 83 weeks straight.

We fought back.

I felt very competitive with him. It's like, hey, man, he's guys.

This is going entirely too far.

Such a unique time in the business.

Everything had an edge. It was kind of like the cool thing to do.

Mike Tyson!

You don't know what's going to happen next and you don't want to miss it. It

a legit rivalry and competition between two companies.

You want a war?

You're going to get one.

This rivalry has just escalated into a war.

When two legends collide, their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories behind the greatest

of all time.

I'm Freddie Prinze Jr., and this is WWE Rivals.

This was the craziest time in wrestling that I had ever experienced as a fan.

We're going to discuss WCW and WWE.

As a fan, you're getting like the best of both worlds to where you're taping

Nitro on the VCR in one room and then in the other room you're watching live

because you can't go back and watch both. Otherwise, you're missing the key

points of the story.

So I feel like it was just such a good job of really trying to honor, I guess,

the customer or the viewer by putting out like good stuff.

So, John, I'm wondering if you can sort of put into perspective, how did this

come about?

Sure, it's because of television.

Television was regional, and they were talking about going national because

saw what was coming with national television and knew somebody was going

it. Hello, everyone. This is Vince McMahon in the studios of the USA Cable

Network. We wholeheartedly welcome you to the premiere of All -American

Wrestling.

Vince is the guy that is going national.

Welcome to wrestling.

But guys weren't able to beat Vince at it. And the one guy that's left is Jim

Crockett in the Carolinas. And Jim Crockett sells to Ted Turner.

So this is the last battle of the territories in the United States.

I want to congratulate World Championship Wrestling for continuing

of bringing action -packed wrestling excitement to PBS.

The reason that I got involved from an ownership standpoint is that I had a

vision that eventually would be successful with it.

WCW was the distant number two to WWE.

Nobody ever thought it would be competitive to WWE.

We just want to be as successful as Vince is.

And then we'd like to, you know, kick his butt.

Monday Night Raw, starting on the USA Network in 1993, was revolutionary.

Prior to that, shows felt very canned and put together. The launch of Raw sort

of completely changed sports entertainment.

The live nature of it, the sort of anything can happen

quickness of it.

There was a magic to that show, and the way it was presented, that sort of was a

game changer.

Back then, Vince was moving in a different direction.

Vince was moving to younger wrestlers at the time, and it was like a youth

movement.

And it just seemed like the perfect time for us to mutually part ways.

When I did Thunder in Paradise,

On the soundstage next to me where I was filming was Ted Turner's WCW.

Eric Bischoff started coming over, and he started bringing Ric Flair with him,

going, hey, Hulk, we want you to come back and be part of wrestling. I said,

way.

This went on for a good five or six months.

I missed wrestling so much, the filing I caved, and basically went to work for

Ted Turner.

I told you Hulkamania was going to run wild in the WCW, brother.

Look at all the Hulkamaniacs.

That was the first blow of like, hmm, now they're taking established

stars from the WWE and bringing them into WCW. That's going to get them

Hulkamania lives in world championship wrestling.

The first night on a pay -per -view, it had much more traction than they'd had

ever. One man, one champion, the only champion in the world today.

Everybody double -bobbed and said, whoa, what's going on over here? And made

everybody look and not look away.

And then from there, it was Randy Savage.

I'm here for only one reason, and that's to take it to the limit, yeah.

Machen Kogan came in. It was huge.

All these wrestlers that we used to watch growing up were now going to a

different place of business to work for someone else that we never thought we'd

see before.

Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage had been established as the two biggest

stars in all of sports entertainment.

So the idea that they were on another channel wrestling for another company

instantly gave that company credibility and gave that company eyeballs.

Without a shadow of a doubt, this is where the big boys play.

Look, they were outvincing Vince.

You know, you look at what Vince did at WrestleMania 1.

He poaches Piper. He brings in Liberace. He brings in Muhammad Ali.

They were doing the same things.

The Hulk stars in the ring!

High five Shaquille O 'Neal!

They poached Hogan. They bring in the celebrities.

This was his most formidable opponent by far.

We'd like to make an announcement today.

WCW Monday Nitro live on PNT will be seen Monday night.

The first time I heard about Nitro going head -to -head with us, I thought they

were crazy.

Why wouldn't you go on a different day where you have an opportunity to have

of the audience?

I wanted to go on Monday night because I wanted to go head -to -head with Vince.

You can't beat anybody unless you get in the ring with them.

We want to give viewers a choice. We believe we've got the biggest stars in

industry. When WCW made the decision to go head -to -head Monday night, that was

absolutely an act of war. It was real competition.

Same time spot, one channel apart.

Buckle your seatbelt because it's going to be a bumpy, bumpy ride.

Everyone in the Minneapolis -St. Paul area getting ready for Monday Nitro on

this Monday night. Check your local listings. It's coming your way.

I had just finished doing probably about six months worth of research.

I traveled all over the country, sitting in different focus groups. The element

of surprise is one of the things that I kept hearing.

And I've got the inside track on a scorching rumor that has a very

wrestling superstar about to sign with World Championship Wrestling.

Lex Luger was one of WWE's biggest stars.

Lex Luger's contract had expired.

Lex didn't let anybody in WWE know that his contract was coming up, and somehow

WWE just let it slip between their fingertips.

As we were getting closer and closer to the debut at Nitro, Lex came to me and

he said, look, my contract is up Sunday.

And I thought, whoa, huh.

Lex, it's Eric.

I got an idea.

What a matchup we have got in store in this debut broadcast.

What in the hell is he doing here?

Lex came in. That was like, whoa.

He had jumped ship.

People are freaking out.

Really helped set us up for great success because there was already

Now we have the opportunity to really surprise people.

Well, you said things were going to happen every Monday night, Bishop, and

happening. It was definitely a big shocker for wrestling fans.

How is this happening?

Wait, Luger's in there! What is this?

In the ring!

It was such a shocker to everyone. It was a big deal.

Lex Luger has come from out of nowhere!

It was going to be different, and it was never going to be the same ever again.

This is the most amazing turn of events I have ever seen.

It worked magically.

Didn't it, Bruce Prichard?

Damn, how did that happen?

I am sick and tired of playing around with kids.

I'm here to get it on with the big boys, and that means you.

It was electric. I mean, this is our opportunity to gain some more momentum.

I know where you've been, brother.

It told everybody that you have to tune into Nitro every week because you don't

know what's going to happen next, and you don't want to miss it.

Okay, we're going to compete. Let's go. We're in a fight. Let's go fight.

Last week, debut edition of Nitro. We saw Lex

Luger stunning the world, making his appearance here.

That Lex Luger moment, it had a lot more to do with Nitro's success, in its

early success, than almost anything.

because it set the tone.

Here's this new show coming out to compete with Monday Night Raw, head -to

-head, and we're doing things that nobody else in the wrestling business

ever done.

At the time, Monday Night Raw was recorded live every other week, and they

live every week, and they would often give spoilers as to what was going to

happen on our tape shows.

In case you're tempted to grab the remote control, check out the

Don't bother.

Shawn Michaels beat the big guy with a super kick he couldn't earn a green belt

with in a local YMCA.

He wasn't there to do good business for himself. He was there to try to put

Vince out of business.

He was just trying to attack Vince McMahon. That's how I'm going to get

recognized. Look at her.

And a hundred plays once again. The WWF Women's Champion.

So Alundra Blaze never lost the WWE Women's Championship. But her contract

out. And Eric Bischoff and WCW signed her right away.

And she brought the championship belt with her to Nitro.

That indeed it is.

And that's what I think of the WWF Women's Championship belt.

Alundra Blaze throwing that title in the garbage can. Let the WWE know that the

gloves were off.

Competition is one thing, but WCW, some of their tactics were a little on the

personal side.

Oh, Chief Covers just got sucked up on that one in Connecticut, didn't he? Wow!

Competition's great, and it brings out the best. It also brings out the worst

sometimes. And one thing that we had never done was acknowledge our

Don't acknowledge them. They don't exist.

But we were in a fight, and there are no rules in a fight.

I built this company by doing one thing really well.

Buying old assets and repackaging them.

Heck, I even bought old Rafflers.

The billionaire Ted Skits were something we had to do. It was unorthodox.

Joining us tonight, the Hoxta and the Nacho Man.

Vince started doing the mockeries.

Not really the smartest move.

Because all of a sudden, the WWE wrestling fan.

who love those two guys, and you mock those two, that pissed WWE fans off.

It kind of like made fans, we better turn WCW to see if Hulk Hogan's really

pushing the walker.

Made people look, you know, to see if I was really that washed up.

I was not that offended by him. I said, boy, this must be hurting to be

resorting to this kind of stuff.

We're losing guys left and right, and our business is suffering.

We were starting to lose in the ratings more regularly, and it became clear that

WCW had what I would call the hot hand.

Am I in a role, or am I in a role, Bobby? You're in a role. How about it?

When I got there, business wasn't that great.

I can remember very distinctly being in Pittsburgh in a half -full arena,

standing at the curtain with Austin, him saying, man, you think it'll ever be as

big as it was like in the 80s?

I remember one show we had like 500 people.

That was really, really bad.

A lot of our big guys are leaving to go to WCW. They had just kind of basically

opened up their checkbook and said, come on down, you're not going to have to

work much and you're going to get paid a lot of money.

There was more money being offered than had been offered before to guys.

The businessman in me is going, this is a good thing.

Because I'm a wrestler, so the more wrestling companies there are, the

is for me.

Dallas Page, who was really good friends with Scott Hall, kind of brought a

ballpark number of what he would get guaranteed money for half as many dates.

So it was basically for Scott almost three times the amount of money he made

half as many dates.

And it was guaranteed.

I looked over at Scott and I said, see what they'll give me.

Dude.

Say hello to Razor Ramon.

Razor Ramon and Diesel had been built as two of the biggest new superstars in

WWE. They left the WWE and decided to go for big money in WCW.

It works because, number one, the stars are aligned.

Scott Hall walks on WCW TV.

You want a war?

You're going to get one.

The next week.

Kevin Nash walks on TV.

This is where the big boys play, huh?

You know who I am, but you don't know why I'm here.

They're not saying they're Razor or Diesel.

Razor's got the same haircut, he's got the toothpick, it's hey -o.

And Diesel's, you know, out there and doing big daddy cool stuff.

Perception as an audience member is, are we working together?

WWE's invading WCW, this is good stuff.

These two rogues who think they're going to come in and take over world

championship wrestling.

So it seemed as if WWE was invading WCW. It made it so you never wanted

to turn the channel off Nitro. The big man and the medium -sized man and

our surprise buddy are going to carve them

up.

Who is going to show up to WCW next? And who is going to join this invasion

organization that Razor and Diesel, Hall and Nash, were starting?

I want to confront you. I don't see three men here tonight. Where is your

partner?

Chico, you know too much already.

All you need to know, little man, is he's here and he's ready.

I thought the build -up to it, who's the third man, was huge.

It was one of the coolest things in wrestling.

Hulkamania! Hulk Hogan is here!

Hulk Hogan's here!

Now, Hulk Hogan, since the early 80s, had been the ultimate hero in

wrestling. So WCW decided to shock the world.

White meat, baby face, good guy. This was the role model for your children.

But the act had started to get stale with wrestling fans.

Hulk Hogan dropped the leg on

WCW. Hulk Hogan went villain.

Like, are you kidding me? And not only that, but literally have trash thrown at

Hulk Hogan.

Beloved Hulk Hogan.

The ring filled up with so much crap. I said, oh my God, we got some heat.

As far as I'm concerned, all this crap in the ring represents these

fans out here.

You fans can stick it, brother.

All you fans can stick it, brother. Like, what a moment in wrestling

This right here is the future of wrestling.

You can call this the New World Order of Wrestling, brother.

He's like, I'm bigger than WWE, and I'm going to make this company bigger than

you. That fuse was lit. Oh. And it was a short fuse.

Yeah. And when it blew up, you guys took over.

The following announcement has been paid for by the New World Order.

Well, you talk about the money. You talk about beating people up. Well, it's the

New World Order. And I hope it's okay because there's nothing you can do about

it. The NWO became the most popular thing in sports entertainment. The anti

-heroes that everybody was craving in that era.

Here's the NWO.

Ready or not, here we come.

They were so hot. They kind of like redefined wrestling.

Be a spray painting on the video truck.

Oh, you're talking about a bunch of cowards.

They were supposed to be the bad guys.

Oh, no!

But they were too cool to be bad.

Everybody here just can't get enough of the

NWO.

And so you're kind of wondering what's going to happen next week. Who's going

be the next guy in the NWO?

I guess we're getting the official coronation of the newest member of the

world order.

Culturally, the most influential thing that was happening was West Coast wrath.

I remember Hogan saying, well, where'd you guys get that for life at? I said,

it's at the beginning of Mac 10.

All we did was just took all these different little culture things and kind

integrated them and just ran with it. It kind of matched what was really going

on in society where everything had an edge.

And NWO fell right in that pocket with what was cool and acceptable.

You gotta love this.

Once the NWO emerged, that train just took off and left everybody, including

Monday Night Raw, in the dust.

NWO for life, brah.

WCW beat us for 83 weeks straight.

The NWO is the reason for the success.

Of Monday Nitro.

WCW was catering to that 18 to 34 -year -old male demographic.

Everything they did seemed to work.

We didn't have that yet.

The WWE product in the mid -1990s was a cartoon.

It was aimed at young people.

Wrestling fans around the world, that's just not what they wanted.

We couldn't sell any tickets.

They're on fire.

Yeah. They're the innovators.

We're not.

And they're kicking our ass.

Back then, you know, you are true blue WWE.

You get that loyalty, you know what I mean? And that's kind of a thing. But

you see this other side of these guys doing their thing over here.

You're captivated by it.

I remember one time we were flying back from Nitro. It was Hulk, me, Scott,

Eric.

Randy, and all of us have worked for Vince.

We're all drinking and laughing, and Bischoff said, I'm going to put him out

business. It's just like... And Hogan's

the first one. Hogan goes, you'll never put that man out of business.

You're looking at a company where top stars are leaving to go there, and the

tide shifts.

and all of a sudden you have to recreate from what you have left.

Guys, what we'll be doing is some of you, I think, are in this last meeting

I had in terms of where we're going with our product.

To give us more of an edge, one of the things we're doing is putting more sex

appeal into our product.

When we really made the change and

dove in headfirst, there was no turning back.

We are Degeneration X. You make your rules and we will break them.

Yeah.

Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley started gesturing to their

became Degeneration X.

Took on a life of its own.

You're not going to tell us what to do. You're not going to tell us what we can

say. You're not going to tell us how to dress.

We're going to tell you to suck it.

Shawn and I both got jumbo weenies.

I don't think you saw yourself hanging out with the NWO. You saw yourself

hanging out with DX.

It resonated in the same voice of kind of a culture and where it was at at the

time. Surely the era of the superhero who urged you to say your prayers and

your vitamins is definitely passe.

We encourage some degree of parental discretion as it relates to the younger

audience allowed to stay up late.

When he committed to, okay, we're leaving the kid stuff behind, now we're

into this, hell yeah.

Product needed to change and be more realistic.

Hence the birth of the Attitude Era.

We're going to push it. We're going to walk to the line, may step over it, and

we're going to try and move that line a little bit as well.

Wait a minute. This is going entirely too far.

The Attitude Era represented the seismic shift into a more edgier program.

It was such a unique time in the business. And there was one man in

who was responsible for ushering in the Attitude Era, and that man was Stone

Cold Steve Austin.

Steve Austin does what he wants, when he wants. And that's the bottom line for

Stone Cold Simpson.

The style of delivery was so much different than other wrestling promos.

only thing that I'll deliver is a big can of whoop -ass right to your front

door.

Austin is entertaining as hell.

He's impactful.

Steve was unique and he was special. And what that did just in terms of moving

the needle and raising the bar.

Austin 316 says I just whipped your ass.

Tune in next week. Same Stone Cold time, same Stone Cold channel.

I knew that we were in competition with WCW, and I felt very competitive with

them. It's like, hey, man, these guys.

Monday Night Raw began to have a little bit more of an edge, and I began to

notice it, but it didn't really concern me too much.

Until Mike Tyson showed up.

Mike Tyson was at the time one of the biggest

celebrities on the face of the planet and certainly the baddest man on the

of the planet.

Mike Tyson in a WWF ring. This is big, ladies and gentlemen.

I went, oh, that's going to sting.

Mike Tyson brings a lot of eyeballs from boxing and mainstream media and

everywhere in the world to what we do.

To see Mike Tyson go nose to nose with

Stone Cold Steve Austin, that was very interesting.

You're messing with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and that's something you don't

I

sat

there and I said, oh, my God, they got it.

They figured it out.

That was the first time that I knew we were in for a real fight.

Vince realized from the numbers that people were not watching Raw like they

to. What does Vince do is he takes the number one pay -per -view name, Mike

Tyson, and puts him into WrestleMania.

I would like to thank Mike Tyson being the media magnet that he is.

This is what I love to do. I love wrestling.

And I was just so happy to be involved with that.

I'm happy with the WWF. I'm very happy.

Mike Tyson is the hottest thing in sports.

With Mike there, it'll draw more attention to the athleticism and the

showmanship of the athletes in the World Wrestling Federation.

Get ready. The World Wrestling Federation title at stake. And the

baddest man on the planet, Mike Tyson.

Austin, he got it. The standard.

Mike Tyson in.

Austin is the champion.

The Austin era.

I think the Mike Tyson, Steve Austin storyline and the way it was

presented was so believable that not only set up Steve Austin, but it

the Mr. McMahon character in such a credible, believable way.

Nobody, especially Vince McMahon, tells Stone Cold Steve Austin what to do, and

that's the bottom line.

All of a sudden, it wasn't just about wrestling.

It was about this guy against his boss.

McMahon, 316, says, I just pissed my pants.

If you want to see Austin McMahon, give me a hell yeah.

Just brought viewers in.

Austin and McMahon turned the tide for WWE.

I can't believe what we're about to witness.

And WWE started winning the ratings.

You know, you've heard the saying, all boats rise with a high tide.

WWE, WCW was at its highest tide.

Welcome to WWF Raw.

We are absolutely sold out.

All my friends would come over. And so we would just be like flipping back and

forth, flipping back and forth.

I mean, arenas are full.

Everybody's household names.

Sting is heavyweight champion of the world.

Greatest time, I think, in the history of wrestling.

This was two mega companies going head to head

with one another.

The wrestling universe got bigger than it had ever been before. I mean, there

were millions and millions of people watching every night.

The mailman, Karl Malone.

Teaming with Diamond Dallas Page against a tandem of Hollywood Hogan and Dennis

Rodman. Jay Leno in command.

Bullseye.

I feel like NWO was really cool at one point. And then Austin and DX kind of

made WWE cool. So WCW now needed an answer to that. Who was their answer?

Goldberg.

And Goldberg just went on a streak of just beating people's ass.

It was completely different. It was shock and awe.

What you see is what you get.

It was perfect.

The amount of rivalry.

that WCW and WWE had at that moment in that time. They would throw jabs at each

other live on television.

Me and you, McMahon, in the ring.

You didn't see the Red Sox or the Yankees doing that. It really was a

rivalry. And I'm going to knock you out.

WCW is now going in and actively going in and trying to hurt business. They're

going in and we book TV in a venue and our stuff is announced earlier.

They shift and they book the scope right just down the road and things are

thrown out. Like we should go down there and do something live in their parking

lot or just like get that attention on it.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are the number one wrestling promotion in the world.

Oh, my gosh. We're talking about it being the Monday Night Wars, and here's

driving up outside their arena while their show is going on. That's just

something that had never been done before.

It was so, like, holy.

WCW! There's a bunch of powers!

Someone came to your house trying to fight. You closed the drapes. They

that door because they knew Scott and I were trying to get out that door.

From watching it as a fan, it just looked like, oh, my God, they just came

the doorstep. Yeah, let's do it. This is going down right now.

There was a 68 -year -old man running that door, and we're like, open the

Open the door, because all I'm thinking of, I'm going to walk on raw here in a

minute.

It's about to go down.

Something's about to go down. We don't know what it is, but we're going to be a

part of it. That's how crazy it was. And then nothing.

Nothing.

Tell me who knows professional wrestling.

I remember there was a moment where Bruce Prichard had said, what if they

bunch of guys in a car and they come here and they try to do the same thing

to us and they just shoot it and they put it on the show next week and what do

we do?

And Vince was like.

Open up the garage doors. Let them in. What show are you going to watch? The

with all the wrestlers or the one with none of the wrestlers?

Let them go right to the ring. They drive straight out there to the ring,

they will all come out.

That's the greatest TV ever.

And I remember thinking at that moment, like, this is why we're going to win.

Like, that's genius.

40 ,000 fans are on hand for WCW Monday Night Raw.

There's nothing like a good battle.

It was not only the creative battle that took place between the characters

inside of the ring, it was the battle between two companies.

I suggested to Tony Schiavone that he give away the finish to Monday Night Raw

and kind of downplay it. If you're even thinking about changing the channel to

our competition, fans do not. I hear Tony Schiavone tell their viewers not to

even think about changing the channels. We understand that Mick Foley is going

to win their world title.

It's going to put some butts in the seat.

They're taped, and here's what happens. So you might as well stick around here.

That was the idea. And it worked very, very well all the way up until the night

I tried it with The Rock and Mick Foley because a lot of my audience went, oh,

really? Rock, Mick Foley? I'm going to go check that out.

So Rock's against Mankind, and the odds are stacked against Mick Foley.

Five to six hundred thousand people had switched channels instantaneously.

Foley was so beloved, and it backfired on Nitro.

Sometimes things work really, really well, and sometimes they suck.

That one sucked.

Did you watch Raw?

Yes.

I watched every Monday.

Back then, we would have our show, and then we would have the Raw show, both

monitors. What the hell?

Steve was such a megastar and Rock was such a megastar.

But when you

watched the landscape of sports entertainment at that time, from the

show started, everybody was a star.

Every Monday was Woodstock.

To go up against this thing, that's what I just said back. I went, I'm so glad I

got guaranteed money.

This is ridiculous.

At WCW, for the first time in a year and a half, two years, almost three, we're

playing catch -up.

For a while, it felt more like, oh, WWE guys are jumping ship to go there.

And when it started becoming the opposite, that was pretty exciting as a

for sure.

Jericho's Tron hits, and I lose my mind. My dad's like, got to work in the

morning. I wake him up. I'm just losing my mind. It just felt like a really big

deal.

That one stung.

When you start losing key talent at the same time you're losing ground

competitively, it's kind of a double whammy.

I fell out of WWF for about a year, saw it now. I just got back in. I think it's

the best thing in sports entertainment.

Fans started to realize how much.

was really happening on Monday Night Raw.

And when they changed the channel, they didn't change back.

WWE has always

greatly benefited by having one genius in charge of everything.

In WCW, they were part of a much larger corporation, which was Time Warner.

We are very excited about joining forces with Time Warner because we share a

common vision for the future.

The subsequent AOL -Time Warner merger with Turner created a lot of radical

changes within Turner Broadcasting.

People within Turner Broadcasting didn't want WCW in that primetime real estate

position on Monday night on TNT. They wanted those time slots for movies.

Everybody looked down their nose at wrestling, with the exception of Ted. He

been relegated to a back office with a view and absolutely no influence.

WCW was in shambles at that point.

The people at AOL Time Warner, they weren't wrestling fans, and they wanted

get rid of that property, the WCW property.

We made an offer, and it was, look, we're going to buy certain assets. We'll

a library.

We'll take a look at your contracts. If there's any contracts we may want to

pick up, we'll pick up some of them. We had a real cash offer on the table that

could be done like that, and they took it.

Many of you may already know that WCW has new owners.

We couldn't believe it.

Somebody's going out of business.

And at the end...

We realized that WWE had won, and we were staying there with them, and we had

been with them through the thick and thin.

I mean, it was a pretty, I don't know, euphoric, because we didn't dislike the

boys down there. Of course. They were us. Of course. They were us. They were

friends. The fans weren't the ones who were fighting. We were just enjoying all

of the product that we were getting to see. It wasn't like, oh, good job, WWE,

you won. It's like, ah, this is one less product that I get to watch now.

Because the whole time was a double agent with Vince. Of course.

Imagine that. Me, Vince McMahon.

Here I am on WCW television.

How can that happen?

Rival networks.

And we were simulcasting this thing. Huge deal.

Here's WCW. And here we have the owner of the World

Wrestling Federation.

And now.

The owner of WCW.

The Monday Night Wars are over.

Strong's passion won out.

Time Warner had no skin in the game. They didn't care. They hated the

and wanted to get rid of it. We loved our property. We love what we do. And

was the difference.

Shane McMahon is on nitro.

The decision was to let Shane go down and shock Vince and say that he had

WCW.

The name.

on the contract does say McMahon.

However, the contract reads Shane McMahon.

Oh, my God!

The storyline was my brother against my dad, but in reality, it was the moment

that we knew WCW was done.

WWE didn't buy WCW.

WWE bought the assets of WCW, bought the tape library, bought the intellectual

properties.

Smart purchase.

You have to grab your competition by the throat and you've got to squeeze the

life out of your competition.

Just like I did to WCW.

In the end, WWE put the boots to WCW and we wound up winning

the war.

The landscape of our industry is pink.

As a fan, the idea that you're experienced watching wrestling on a

was never going to be the same again was a tough pill to swallow.

I remember one guy crying, and he was like, man, it's the final night.

What are you going to do, book?

I was like, man, I'm going to WWE.

Flair, Sting, Hogan, the NWO.

Those contracts were paying so much money to people just to sit at home.

I didn't get Sting versus Austin.

Flair versus The Rock.

The NWO versus DX.

Didn't get the dream matches I wanted.

Until 10, 15 years later.

Sting's first ever appearance on the grandest stage of all, WrestleMania.

You know, there had been periods of time when there had been overtures of Sting

to come in, and they had been shut down.

When Sting finally signed to come in, we ended up making the match with me and

him.

I was sitting in the third row for WrestleMania 31. To see him in the ring

-to -face with Triple H, who is a symbol for everything that WWE is, is enough

of a mind -blowing moment.

But then halfway through the match, the NWO music plays.

The DX music plays.

And you're like, oh, my God, this is all happening right in front of me all

these years later.

Like the Monday Night War is still happening.

What an absolutely incredible moment. History of the making tonight in

WrestleMania. These two great, iconic, legendary groups that people will

remember as long as their sports entertainment in the world. They finally

up. To me, it was just a magical moment.

When the match was over, we kind of all just stood there in the ring, and Sting

and I sort of shook hands, and it was, we all did this war, it's all over, and

to me, that's what made it work.

The rivalry between WCW and WWE, the Monday Night Wars, it completely changed

the wrestling industry.

That was a great time for television.

It was hot.

There will be nothing like this ever again. The two number one rated shows on

two networks, and they're fighting each other on live television.

The battle between WCW and WWE was real. People gravitated towards it. It

doesn't matter what your name is.

It was the right time and the right companies going head to head. It stands

test of time. We're still talking about it to this day.