I miss WCW Saturday Night. I always looked forward to 6:05 pm on Saturdays in the 90's. I would get upset whenever it was delayed/ not shown due to Atlanta Braves baseball.
The debut of Hogan to WCW really was kind of the beginning of the end of WCW Saturday Night. They did a good job of making WCW Saturday Night and Nitro equally important for a while until Nitro went to 2 hours. I didn't know WWE planned on keeping WCW a separate brand by rebooting the Saturday night show after the purchase. Good video!
The irony is that the WWF initially responded to Nitro by starting WWF Shotgun. Shotgun didn't last very long, either. The very program that brought WCW to the dance would eventually be a part of it's undoing.
To some extent, I've always wondered how serious WWE was about keeping WCW on as a separate brand, after listening to a shoot interview of Scott Hudson. I remember Hudson mentioning he did an audition for WWE after WCW was purchased, and WWE wanted to bring him into the company. He turned down the offer because he'd have to quit his main job in Atlanta and uproot his family to move to Connecticut, but WWE still wanted to make a few appearances early on as a commentator for the WCW bits WWE would do (mainly, the one on Raw that would have Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell). I feel like no matter how that segment played out, I don't think WWE was fully invested into separating WCW as its own brand. I know WWE had booked venues for a separate WCW brand, but I could see a cancellation fee not costing that much, especially if you're cancelling it months out of the way. Still an interesting thing to think about.
@@coryshannon3815 One thing Bischoff did say in his podcast that they asked him to be a part of the Invasion angle, and he turned it down. He turned it down due to lack of the mainstay names, however his answer would have changed had they seriously pursued Sting, which could have led to Luger and The Steiner Brothers being a part of the Invasion angle as well... nice fan fiction to consider, but we'll always wonder if the brand split was originally planned to be WWE and WCW. Not sure, booking venues is actually pretty high commitment. That means they planned to do something, even if it meant sending former WCW Stars to WCW to make it work, but the rest of the angle wasn't going that well.
Honestly, I only knew about WWE's Saturday night WCW show because the Attitude Era Podcast made fun of the proposed names, especially "Hard On Saturday Night"
So a fun fact the original time slot wwf wanted for their relaunch of wcw Saturday 10-12 would become the recap show exess since as you mentioned TNN didn't want wcw shows since they paid for wwf branded shows
I know it's a classic look, but I always find wrestling shows filmed in studios cheap looking. Maybe it's because I grew up watching Attitude era WWE where every show was from a big arena.
I wasn't a wrestling fan until I turned thirteen and by then WCW already got bought out. Instead, my Saturday night wrestling nostalgia is based on WWE Velocity and Confidential from 2002-2004. I know it wasn't the same as WCW Saturday Night but I still remember some hidden gems like Benoit vs Regal and the development of Ken Kennedy.
When I was a kid I was introduced to WCW through Saturday nights on TBS. I remember seeing this young kid who did cool moves, but rarely won. That kid was Billy Kidman and another reason he caught my eye is because we live in the same state and I thought that was awesome! Anyways, I've been looking for old Billy Kidman matches from Saturday night when he wore blue tights (I believe) and had short hair, but can't come across any.
They have it on TH-cam. I know it's rare to find a pre Flock Billy Kidman's match. For me that's the Billy Kidman I was into. He was more athletic, technically, and high flyer than later when he joined the Flock, he became more of a brawler.
While some people will point out WCW Saturday Night was at a disadvantage to college football, I think it's important to note airing at 6:05 ET allowed for a majority of big games to ve over (since they'd air at noon), and Saturday Night would be over by the time any big prime time game aired. I think that any lackluster matches airing that night (and getting preempted by a Braves game) would have hurt Saturday Night's viewership more. I still liked Saturday Night, as well as shows like Pro and Worldwide, just because you might get a chance to see a wrestler jobbing in their early days, before becoming a bigger star. Same with stuff like Superstars, Shotgun, and Heat on WWF's side. Long live the C/D shows!
It was never so much the games that were the problem-TBS cut into Saturday night for "The Chrysler-Plymouth College Scoreboard" at the top of the 705 hour during CFB season, and DRAG it out. Being a football fan, I got it-but it was annoying
By the time I got into WCW, the NWO had already formed and WCW Saturday Night was already a non-factor in pushing storylines and rarely featured any wrestlers that I actually wanted to see. I can understand the nostalgia for longer-time fans, though.
It was once the show switched to the mechanical doors, graphics and studio location that it was perceived as "less than". The only thing Bischoff got right was the nwo. It's wasn't his idea, and it only worked bc he was surrounded by people who knew what "cool" was.
Wow! So dope you made this! I loved weekend wrestling! Saturday/Sunday morning too! WCW Saturday Night was amazing! Miss the ":05" (6:05/7:05pm/Etc.) time slots for thier entire tv schedule! Remember the rotation ring platform! No one ever mentions it but i loved it! Loves the Saturday Night studio set up!
Was it really 89 that the show tappings moved from the TBS studio? Or was it actually 79 when that happened? Just asking cause the timeline doesn't seem to match up, and I'm just wondering if maybe I'm confusing myself or that I missed something.
@@DaveKnowsWrestling Alright man thank you for that. I'm very fascinated with the history of pro wrestling, and you helped me so much with the origin and culture of the industry. Thank you for everything you do.
Yep. Who remembers (from VA; EST) Saturday 8am WCW Power Hour 12 noon WCW Pro 6-8 Another program b/f Saturday Night aired. I forget the name Sunday 6-7 (?) WCW Main Event
Good video brother. I love the videos you do but I really love that you go out of your way to cover topics that don’t get covered a lot. Everyone covers everything WWE and AEW and is far as wrestling in the past if it’s not WWE or WCW during the Monday night war they don’t get much coverage. Growing up in the Carolinas and WA/WCW was my favorite wrestling for two decades. Man, I can’t tell you how much WCW Saturday night meant to us. I know it’s crazy to today’s fans, but there was a time when there was no wrestling on Mondays, the biggest wrestling show of the week would be on Saturday night at 6:05 on TBS. 605 on Saturday nights was where you watch WCW from the 80s all the way till 1995 . It wasn’t until nitro came along that it stopped being the main show. I think really by 1996. The ratings were probably pretty low compared to what they used to be because it just wasn’t the main show anymore. I think with all the mistakes that were made either by someone in WCW or someone on the Turner side, this mistake definitely came from the Turner side because no one in WCW wanted a Thursday show just because WWE had smacked down. Remember by this time they had WCW Monday, Nitro, WCW thunder, WCW, Saturday night, WCW Main event on Sunday night, and then you had the syndicated shows WCW, worldwide and WCW Pro that came on during the weekends during the daytime. Back then I was only 18 years old or 19 maybe when thunder started but I remember thinking it was a mistake. We don’t need to compete with WWF on every front. I always thought that instead of having thunder make WCW Saturday night means something again. Of course Nitro would still be your main show but the second biggest show at that point should have been WCW Saturday night. At the time WWF didn’t have anything on prime time on Saturdays and it was two hours they could’ve really just owned. Needless to say, if I had a time machine, there are several things I would probably go back in time and sit down and talk with Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner about.
The final month the WWF was on TBS, they began having actual first run matches from inside the TBS studios and briefly changed the name of the show back to Georgia Championship Wrestling until Crockett took over .
That was not a bad little history lesson there' an idea for maybe a future video, what if WWE brought in a Women's mid card title? I got some ideas what titles they could bring in someday in the near future' I think at some point they will bring one in but its just a question of when and should they really do it? Right now I would say no not at this time' not until they book them better and fix their women's tag team division first but maybe in a few years they might, but anyways here are my top 8 ideal women's mid card title they could bring in. Here they are in no order: 1.WWE Women's Cruiserweight title' with a weight limit at 165 pounds 2.WWE Women's European title 3.WWE Women's International title 4.WWE Women's TV title' This one I feel would work better over on NXT myself 5.WWE Women's Pure title' It would follow either the same or similar rules as Ring Of Honor's Pure Championship 6.WWE Women's Martial Arts title 7.WWE Women's Atlantic title 8.WWE Women's Hardcore title' This one has the least chance of happening but needed something to fill up this last spot But anyways those are the ones I could think of' if I had my choice I would go with a Pure championship, its really fresh and different from other titles and I think that would be the best one for them to go with.
I miss WCW Saturday Night. I always looked forward to 6:05 pm on Saturdays in the 90's. I would get upset whenever it was delayed/ not shown due to Atlanta Braves baseball.
88/89/90 were my favorite years
I miss it to love watching it i would be outside all day playing but i would be glue to the tv by 6:05 on saterday night
Used to stay up till 1-2 am Sunday early hours in the UK watching wcw with no sound on ,loved it
WCW PreHogan was amazing! As kids we looked forward to seeing Saturday Night every weekend
I always dug the futuristic look of Saturday night as a kid it looked cool
I liked when the robotic arm would come at the screen for the replay transition, Dusty would be like "Watch out, here it comes! Duck, Tony!"
I miss the early 90s.
Same
The debut of Hogan to WCW really was kind of the beginning of the end of WCW Saturday Night. They did a good job of making WCW Saturday Night and Nitro equally important for a while until Nitro went to 2 hours. I didn't know WWE planned on keeping WCW a separate brand by rebooting the Saturday night show after the purchase. Good video!
The irony is that the WWF initially responded to Nitro by starting WWF Shotgun. Shotgun didn't last very long, either. The very program that brought WCW to the dance would eventually be a part of it's undoing.
To some extent, I've always wondered how serious WWE was about keeping WCW on as a separate brand, after listening to a shoot interview of Scott Hudson.
I remember Hudson mentioning he did an audition for WWE after WCW was purchased, and WWE wanted to bring him into the company. He turned down the offer because he'd have to quit his main job in Atlanta and uproot his family to move to Connecticut, but WWE still wanted to make a few appearances early on as a commentator for the WCW bits WWE would do (mainly, the one on Raw that would have Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell).
I feel like no matter how that segment played out, I don't think WWE was fully invested into separating WCW as its own brand. I know WWE had booked venues for a separate WCW brand, but I could see a cancellation fee not costing that much, especially if you're cancelling it months out of the way. Still an interesting thing to think about.
@@coryshannon3815 One thing Bischoff did say in his podcast that they asked him to be a part of the Invasion angle, and he turned it down. He turned it down due to lack of the mainstay names, however his answer would have changed had they seriously pursued Sting, which could have led to Luger and The Steiner Brothers being a part of the Invasion angle as well... nice fan fiction to consider, but we'll always wonder if the brand split was originally planned to be WWE and WCW.
Not sure, booking venues is actually pretty high commitment. That means they planned to do something, even if it meant sending former WCW Stars to WCW to make it work, but the rest of the angle wasn't going that well.
Honestly, I only knew about WWE's Saturday night WCW show because the Attitude Era Podcast made fun of the proposed names, especially "Hard On Saturday Night"
@@BBall0027 WCW Saturday Night wasn't a WWE show. It was WCW's flagship show before Nitro debuted.
Love watching WCW Saturday Night back in the day.
I miss that show it was like a 2-hour mini pay-per-view every Saturday
So a fun fact the original time slot wwf wanted for their relaunch of wcw Saturday 10-12 would become the recap show exess since as you mentioned TNN didn't want wcw shows since they paid for wwf branded shows
WCW's flagship show
Until Nitro started
I know it's a classic look, but I always find wrestling shows filmed in studios cheap looking. Maybe it's because I grew up watching Attitude era WWE where every show was from a big arena.
I wasn't a wrestling fan until I turned thirteen and by then WCW already got bought out. Instead, my Saturday night wrestling nostalgia is based on WWE Velocity and Confidential from 2002-2004. I know it wasn't the same as WCW Saturday Night but I still remember some hidden gems like Benoit vs Regal and the development of Ken Kennedy.
I love watching TV yes at 6:05 p.m. on a Saturday night TBS
Saturdays were the big wrestling day during my early childhood, that was also when WWF Superstars ran in my local market.
Wrestling was better pre ratings wars.
USWA in Tennessee too
Love these types of videos
I knew it was a very boring Saturday afternoon in the 90's if at 3pm Pacific i was watching WCW Saturday Night. 😂🤦🏿♂️
Best thing about WCW Saturday Night was from April to October it was the lead in for Braves baseball and sometimes vice versa.
I loved wcw Saturday night. I only missed it maybe 3 times from 93 to the end in 2000
Another amazing video from professor Dave. Becoming my favorite wrestling channel
When I was a kid I was introduced to WCW through Saturday nights on TBS. I remember seeing this young kid who did cool moves, but rarely won. That kid was Billy Kidman and another reason he caught my eye is because we live in the same state and I thought that was awesome! Anyways, I've been looking for old Billy Kidman matches from Saturday night when he wore blue tights (I believe) and had short hair, but can't come across any.
They have it on TH-cam. I know it's rare to find a pre Flock Billy Kidman's match. For me that's the Billy Kidman I was into. He was more athletic, technically, and high flyer than later when he joined the Flock, he became more of a brawler.
Most underrated wrestling channel if you don’t believe me , ask Dave he knows 😉
While some people will point out WCW Saturday Night was at a disadvantage to college football, I think it's important to note airing at 6:05 ET allowed for a majority of big games to ve over (since they'd air at noon), and Saturday Night would be over by the time any big prime time game aired. I think that any lackluster matches airing that night (and getting preempted by a Braves game) would have hurt Saturday Night's viewership more.
I still liked Saturday Night, as well as shows like Pro and Worldwide, just because you might get a chance to see a wrestler jobbing in their early days, before becoming a bigger star. Same with stuff like Superstars, Shotgun, and Heat on WWF's side. Long live the C/D shows!
It was never so much the games that were the problem-TBS cut into Saturday night for "The Chrysler-Plymouth College Scoreboard" at the top of the 705 hour during CFB season, and DRAG it out. Being a football fan, I got it-but it was annoying
By the time I got into WCW, the NWO had already formed and WCW Saturday Night was already a non-factor in pushing storylines and rarely featured any wrestlers that I actually wanted to see. I can understand the nostalgia for longer-time fans, though.
This was a great video, Dave! This was the first wrestling I saw as a wee tot. 1983/84ish. My Dad used to watch every Saturday.
As a nine year old, I thought that WCW Saturday Night intro from 95-96 was amazing. Mainly the music.
I absolutely Loved wcw Saturday Night and I never missed it all through elementary school and junior high
Colison not first time wrestling show on saturday
When Nitro started I pretty much stopped watching Saturday Night. Pretty well forgot about it really.
The death of Saturday Night was in 2000
Never realized the saturday wrestling shift actually once pulled the most audience!
WCW Saturday was the best wrestling show of the day. Wish they’d bring it back
It was once the show switched to the mechanical doors, graphics and studio location that it was perceived as "less than". The only thing Bischoff got right was the nwo. It's wasn't his idea, and it only worked bc he was surrounded by people who knew what "cool" was.
Shame I didn't become a Saturday Night regular until it was a job show. Still some cool memories.
The Motha Ship, if you Will!!!
Wow! So dope you made this! I loved weekend wrestling! Saturday/Sunday morning too! WCW Saturday Night was amazing! Miss the ":05" (6:05/7:05pm/Etc.) time slots for thier entire tv schedule! Remember the rotation ring platform! No one ever mentions it but i loved it! Loves the Saturday Night studio set up!
6:05 Saturday nights on the Superstation was my favorite wrestling show growing up . But it was still NWA in 86 . And that was my jam .
Collision is the closest we got to see WCW Saturday Night's return
I loved this show as kid
Great job Dave!!!
Techwood Studio old J.C.P. Promotion was when I start watching wresting , and it was must watch every Saturday at 3:05. I grew on the west coast.
Thank For the History Video 📖🙊🤯💖💞👍💐🌟🥇🏆
Don't sleep on WCW Pro, Dave
Yes!!always my favorite, Dave's "History of " videos
Was it really 89 that the show tappings moved from the TBS studio? Or was it actually 79 when that happened? Just asking cause the timeline doesn't seem to match up, and I'm just wondering if maybe I'm confusing myself or that I missed something.
I worded it weirdly I just kept going down the order of events then went backwards to where I left
@@DaveKnowsWrestling Alright man thank you for that. I'm very fascinated with the history of pro wrestling, and you helped me so much with the origin and culture of the industry. Thank you for everything you do.
Looks like young Cody at 5:42
That *is* young Cody
Yep. Who remembers (from VA; EST)
Saturday
8am WCW Power Hour
12 noon WCW Pro
6-8 Another program b/f Saturday Night aired. I forget the name
Sunday
6-7 (?) WCW Main Event
GCW was the best show imo
Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!
WCW Saturday Night..... Taped weeks in advance on a Tuesday...
Good video brother. I love the videos you do but I really love that you go out of your way to cover topics that don’t get covered a lot. Everyone covers everything WWE and AEW and is far as wrestling in the past if it’s not WWE or WCW during the Monday night war they don’t get much coverage. Growing up in the Carolinas and WA/WCW was my favorite wrestling for two decades. Man, I can’t tell you how much WCW Saturday night meant to us. I know it’s crazy to today’s fans, but there was a time when there was no wrestling on Mondays, the biggest wrestling show of the week would be on Saturday night at 6:05 on TBS.
605 on Saturday nights was where you watch WCW from the 80s all the way till 1995 . It wasn’t until nitro came along that it stopped being the main show. I think really by 1996. The ratings were probably pretty low compared to what they used to be because it just wasn’t the main show anymore. I think with all the mistakes that were made either by someone in WCW or someone on the Turner side, this mistake definitely came from the Turner side because no one in WCW wanted a Thursday show just because WWE had smacked down. Remember by this time they had WCW Monday, Nitro, WCW thunder, WCW, Saturday night, WCW Main event on Sunday night, and then you had the syndicated shows WCW, worldwide and WCW Pro that came on during the weekends during the daytime.
Back then I was only 18 years old or 19 maybe when thunder started but I remember thinking it was a mistake. We don’t need to compete with WWF on every front. I always thought that instead of having thunder make WCW Saturday night means something again. Of course Nitro would still be your main show but the second biggest show at that point should have been WCW Saturday night. At the time WWF didn’t have anything on prime time on Saturdays and it was two hours they could’ve really just owned.
Needless to say, if I had a time machine, there are several things I would probably go back in time and sit down and talk with Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner about.
Saturday Night > Nitro and Thunder combined
The final month the WWF was on TBS, they began having actual first run matches from inside the TBS studios and briefly changed the name of the show back to Georgia Championship Wrestling until Crockett took over .
That was not a bad little history lesson there' an idea for maybe a future video, what if WWE brought in a Women's mid card title? I got some ideas what titles they could bring in someday in the near future' I think at some point they will bring one in but its just a question of when and should they really do it?
Right now I would say no not at this time' not until they book them better and fix their women's tag team division first but maybe in a few years they might, but anyways here are my top 8 ideal women's mid card title they could bring in.
Here they are in no order:
1.WWE Women's Cruiserweight title' with a weight limit at 165 pounds
2.WWE Women's European title
3.WWE Women's International title
4.WWE Women's TV title' This one I feel would work better over on NXT myself
5.WWE Women's Pure title' It would follow either the same or similar rules as Ring Of Honor's Pure Championship
6.WWE Women's Martial Arts title
7.WWE Women's Atlantic title
8.WWE Women's Hardcore title' This one has the least chance of happening but needed something to fill up this last spot
But anyways those are the ones I could think of' if I had my choice I would go with a Pure championship, its really fresh and different from other titles and I think that would be the best one for them to go with.
Now this was my favorite wrestling show right here
THE MOTHERSHIP!!!