This Day in Wrestling History on one of the biggest and most important in the history of the sport as it signaled the beginning of the Monday Night Wars.
Out of the gate, Eric Bischoff and WCW were out to take on the WWE and usurp them as the number one wrestling company in the world, and to do that they needed a prime time episode.
This came about when Ted Turner wanted to go prime time and Bischoff went with what he considered a safe bet that would be turned down, but instead, Turner gave him two hours on Monday night opposite WWE Raw.
WCW was already taking chunks out of the WWE and growing in popularity after signing stars like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, but this opened up a whole new dimension in televised wrestling.
Reality and betrayal
Bischoff wanted WCW to be more reality based, so he had wrestlers use their real names when they came on board as the company continued to grow, but he also found ways to harvest WWE talent without anyone knowing.
So, on the first episode coming from The Mall of America, Lex Luger shocked everyone by appearing at the end of the episode to survey the goings on and approach Hulk Hogan.
Luger had worked a house show for the WWE the night before in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. He’d been working without a contract for a couple of weeks on what amounted to a handshake deal with Vince McMahon.
A fun fact about this is Luger returned for a fraction of what he’d made during his last time with WCW because Bischoff didn’t like him and made the offer more as a gesture as he expected him to turn it down.
Luger’s best friend Sting had been working on Bischoff to give him and chance, and Luger accepted the deal.
As reported in pwtorch.com in 2009, he sat down for an interview and offered his thoughts on the events that helped change the dynamic of professional wrestling.
“I will always have regret over that. I would have liked to have done things the right way and given Vince my notice. I do have regret for that. But, at the time, I had to do what was right for my family.
“I was brought into wrestling by Hiro Matsuda about proper protocol and respect for the business. Even if things didn’t work out with Vince McMahon, I wanted to give two weeks notice.”
This Day in Wrestling History is, as they say, is history, but this one night began the shift and Monday Night Wars.
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