Tag: wcw saturday night

WCW Saturday Night added to WWE Network

Posted on by Bryan Rose

WCW Saturday Night has officially been added to the WWE Network.

WWE.com posted an article today highlighting that Saturday Night is the latest addition to the Network. Over 50 hours of content have been uploaded, starting with the April 4, 1992 episode, where the flagship World Championship Wrestling program was rebranded as WCW Saturday Night, and runs through January 2, 1993. Names highlighted in the content include Stunning Steve Austin, Dustin Rhodes, Rick Rude, Sting and Ricky Steamboat.

World Championship Wrestling on TBS started to air in the early 1970s as a show for Georgia Championship Wrestling. It would eventually become the top program for Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling promotion until 1995, when WCW Nitro became the company’s top priority. With the addition of WCW Thunder in 1998, Saturday Night became a C-show with little name value.

The show’s format was changed to a recap show in 2000. After a switch to daytime and its runtime cut to an hour, the show ended on August 19, 2000.

WCW Saturday Night reportedly coming to WWE Network next week

Posted on by Bryan Rose

More of WCW’s long running Saturday night program is coming to the WWE Network next week, a new report indicates.

Episodes from 1992 through 1994 will be uploaded to the Network starting on April 2, WWE Network News reports. It will be seperate from the World Championship Wrestling shows that have already been uploaded, which has episodes from 1985 through 1989. World Championship Wrestling was rebranded into WCW Saturday Night on April 4, 1992, so that may be the starting point. WWE Network News estimates that up to 100 hours of content will be uploaded. 

Saturday Night was WCW’s flagship show until 1995 when WCW Nitro was introduced and changed the wrestling world forever with a live program that rivaled WWE Raw for years. With the addition of WCW Thunder three years later, Saturday Night eventually became a meaningless “C-show” program that largely featured WCW’s midcard and Power Plant trainees. The show continued to run until 2000, when it was turned into a recap show and ultimately cancelled altogether on August 19, 2000.