Times WCW Title on the line on Nitro

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Hey all.

 

I was just wondering, does anyone know how many times the WCW Title was on the line in the entire run of Nitro?

 

This includes successful defenses, title changes, and the infamous "nWo Finish" for the shows.

 

Ones off the top of my head are Hogan/Luger, Hogan/Goldberg, Booker T/S. Steiner from the final Nitro, DDP/Sting, Flair/Jarrett, and Savage/Hogan.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

Off the top of my head...

 

Nash had two title matches against Sting in April of '98.

I think Hogan/DDP from the summer of '97 was for the title.

The War Games match Russo won.

Booker T defended the title very often, most notably against Kanyon, Goldberg, and Lance Storm.

Flair/Mysterio from Spring Break '99.

 

Look up Nitros from the Russo era. They had the belt on the line all the time.

[Guest Loss]

There were hundreds of world title matches. If you're curious, I suggest going through Nitro results at DDT Digest, counting them, and posting the results of your research.

 

I'm pretty sure the only world title changes ever on Nitro were the following:

 

04/29/96 - The Giant def. Ric Flair

08/04/97 - Lex Luger def. Hulk Hogan

04/20/98 - Hulk Hogan def. Randy Savage

07/06/98 - Bill Goldberg def. Hulk Hogan

01/04/99 - Hulk Hogan def. Kevin Nash

04/26/99 - Sting def. Diamond Dallas Page

04/26/99 - Diamond Dallas Page def. Kevin Nash in a four way also involving Sting and Bill Goldberg

07/12/99 - Hulk Hogan def. Randy Savage

 

**This is only up until the point of the Russo era, at which point he started changing the title every three days or so seemingly and thus made me not really give a shit about the belt at all because it was impossible to follow.

[Guest OSIcon]

It shouldn't be too hard to research the early part.

 

The title was defended on Nitro from 9/95 - 7/95 with some frequency, though hardly every week. Hogan rarely defended the title during his August '96 - August '97 run. My guess is he defended on Nitro a handful (or less) times during that run. In 1998, the title was defended on TV more frequently, as evidenced by the fact that the title changed hands twice in a row on Nitro (from Hogan to Savage in April and then from Hogan to Goldberg in Jully).

 

It starts to get real sticky when Goldberg wins the title since a lot of his matches against random jobbers would billed as title defenses. The title was probably "defended" nearly every week (or every other week) during that run.

 

'99 settled back into seeing only "real contenders" (ie. not low card guys) getting on title shots on Nitro and that was fairly frequent. When Russo came in, the belt was defended on Nitro quite often. That dropped when Russo left. During Steiner's title reign, the championship wasn't defended much at all on TV if I remember. It was defended on Nitro, but they spread those out to make the PPV matches important.

 

Like Loss said, there's been hundreds of them.

 

I was going to try and make a list of title changes on Nitro during the Russo era and early 2000 Sullivan-booking period, but I can't do it off the top of my head. For starters, there was the whole thing where Sid was champion, but then ended up facing Jarrett and the Harris brothers a million times (or so it seemed like it). Still not sure if the belt was held up during that time or what. Jarrett dropped the belt to Flair on a Nitro in the summer of 2000. Flair suffered an injury on Thunder, so the title was vacated. Nash then won the title (I believe this was on Nitro), gave it back to Flair, and I *think* Flair dropped it back to Jarrett on Nitro.

[Placebo Effect 0]

7 - 1995

20 - 1996

3 - 1997

20 - 1998

21 - 1999

30 -2000

5 - 2001

[BUTT 0]

There were hundreds of world title matches. If you're curious, I suggest going through Nitro results at DDT Digest, counting them, and posting the results of your research.

 

I'm pretty sure the only world title changes ever on Nitro were the following:

 

04/29/96 - The Giant def. Ric Flair

08/04/97 - Lex Luger def. Hulk Hogan

04/20/98 - Hulk Hogan def. Randy Savage

07/06/98 - Bill Goldberg def. Hulk Hogan

01/04/99 - Hulk Hogan def. Kevin Nash

04/26/99 - Sting def. Diamond Dallas Page

04/26/99 - Diamond Dallas Page def. Kevin Nash in a four way also involving Sting and Bill Goldberg

07/12/99 - Hulk Hogan def. Randy Savage

 

**This is only up until the point of the Russo era, at which point he started changing the title every three days or so seemingly and thus made me not really give a shit about the belt at all because it was impossible to follow.

You forgot about 01/22/96 - Randy Savage def. Ric Flair

 

As for the Russo Era,

 

12/20/99 - I'm not sure that this counts. Bret gave up the title because he was pissed off at Russo sending in Piper to award him his match with Goldberg the previous night, so he "threw down the title". Of course, later that night, when Jarrett and the Outsiders helped him to win his rematch with Goldberg, it was all revealed to be an elaborate ruse in which Bret and Russo were in collusion with one another. Either way, Bret had the title at the beginning and end of the night, and whether he lost and regained the title during that episode of Nitro is up for discussion.

01/24/00 - Sid def. Nash to win the vacant title

04/24/00 - DDP def. Jarrett in a cage match

05/15/00 - Flair def. Jarrett

05/22/00 - Jarrett def. Nash after Russo and Bischoff strip Flair of title

05/29/00 - Jarrett def. Flair after Nash, who had won the title on Thunder, gave the title back to Flair

08/28/00 - Nash def. Booker T

09/25/00 - Russo def. Booker T in a cage match

10/02/00 - Booker def. Jarrett in a "49er's match" after Russo vacated his title on Thunder

03/26/01 - Booker def. Scott Steiner

[alfdogg 0]

12/20/99 - I'm not sure that this counts. Bret gave up the title because he was pissed off at Russo sending in Piper to award him his match with Goldberg the previous night, so he "threw down the title". Of course, later that night, when Jarrett and the Outsiders helped him to win his rematch with Goldberg, it was all revealed to be an elaborate ruse in which Bret and Russo were in collusion with one another. Either way, Bret had the title at the beginning and end of the night, and whether he lost and regained the title during that episode of Nitro is up for discussion.

The PWI Almanac lists it as two reigns.

[alfdogg 0]

In 2000, the WCW World title changed hands on free TV 11 times.

 

By comparison, since the PPV era began, the WWF/E title has changed hands on free TV 13 times. That's in almost 20 years.

 

EDIT: Here's the list

 

1. Hogan to Andre, The Main Event, 2/5/88

2. Savage to Flair, Prime Time Wrestling, 9/1/92

3. Bret to Sid, RAW, 2/17/97

4. Kane to Austin, RAW, 6/29/98

5. Rock to Foley, RAW, 1/4/99 (taped on 12/29/98)

6. Rock to Foley, Halftime Heat, 1/31/99 (taped on 1/26/99)

7. Foley to Rock, RAW, 2/15/99

8. Taker to Austin, RAW, 6/28/99

9. Foley to HHH, RAW, 8/23/99

10. HHH to Vince, SD, 9/16/99 (taped on 9/14/99)

11. Show to HHH, RAW, 1/3/00

12. Angle to Austin, RAW, 10/8/01

13. Angle to Brock, SD, 9/18/03 (taped on 9/16/03)

[BUTT 0]

I'm not even sure Flair/Savage from '92 counts, because even though they showed the whole match on TV, they announced beforehand that Flair won.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

If Savage/Flair counts, you may as well count Diesel/Backlund from 1994.

[Australian Pride 0]

If Savage/Flair counts, you may as well count Diesel/Backlund from 1994.

And Hart/Flair from late 1992, but I'm not sure that ever featured on TV.

[JHawk 0]

If Savage/Flair counts, you may as well count Diesel/Backlund from 1994.

And Hart/Flair from late 1992, but I'm not sure that ever featured on TV.

The only thing that ever made free TV was Hart's celebration as Howard Finkel announced the title change. I remember being super pissed about it too, as I was practically begging for it to get the Flair-Savage treatment on Prime Time.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

Interestingly enough, most of the WWF title changes on network television look to have been booked when Russo was in the company.

[Guest Prof_Plague]

Notice the span of the years too that it didn't change hands.

 

'88-'92

 

'92-'97

 

'01-'03

[Guest Prof_Plague]

I remember watching Nitro throughout the '90s and seeing it defended as almost every main event - and changing hands a lot too because of it.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Why was Rock's reign after winning the I Quit match only a day long (techinically)? It should have been so much longer after such a match. I always thought him and Foley traded it too many times for it to mean anything.

[Slickster 0]

Why was Rock's reign after winning the I Quit match only a day long (techinically)? It should have been so much longer after such a match. I always thought him and Foley traded it too many times for it to mean anything.

This is the WCW Title discussion thread.