A Moment in Time: The Final Hours Before The Last WCW Nitro

Posted on December 4, 2014 by bdamage1

Brian Damage

The Date: March 26th, 2001

The Location: Panama City Beach, Florida

The Event: WCW Monday Nitro

“We literally walked in as millionaires… we walked off jobless.” – Buff Bagwell

The writing was on the wall…WCW was on its last legs. In the midst of Eric Bischoff partnering with Fusient Media Ventures to buy and take control of the company….the deal fell through. Sure, there were rumblings…even tremors that Vince McMahon had an interest in buying WCW’s assets…but surely that could never happen…..right???

According to some accounts, wrestlers started to arrive to the venue for what was being advertised as the last Nitro on TNT. What they saw wasn’t Turner broadcasting trucks…but several WWE trucks. Buff Bagwell recalls the experience like being in the Twilight Zone. He says nobody saw it coming….or perhaps nobody believed it would happen. It was, however, all too real.

Several wrestlers including Bagwell, Sting, Kevin Nash, Lex Luger and Goldberg all split up and got on their cell phones to their agents and contacts trying to find out the real deal. When they were informed that the WWF was indeed the new owners, they made their way inside.

While inside, they were told that Shane McMahon wanted to hold a meeting. The meeting itself lasted a total of two minutes. Shane introduced himself….he said he was the new owner of WCW and he then said that some of you (The wrestlers) were going to stay and some were going to go…that included referees and other staff. He then ended the interview and walked out.

The reports at the time were that Shane McMahon arrived to the WCW venue heavily guarded by a security team. Rumors were to protect himself from a crazed Scott Steiner. Other reports were just to protect himself in case a revolt occurred right then and there. Either way, Shane was left unscathed and the show went on as planned.

Buff Bagwell claimed that the entire evening was like a shoot. Every time Vince appeared on camera from the Raw simulcast…nobody knew what he was going to do or say. Of course, during that night…Jeff Jarrett was legitimately fired on live TV.

We all know how the night went….vignettes aired from WCW regulars saying their good-byes….Booker T won the World title from Scott Steiner and Ric Flair wrestled Sting one last time on WCW television. Some made their way to the WWE, while others didn’t. The show closed out with an angle setting up the inevitable ‘Invasion angle.’ Those final hours before showtime though…