October 25, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF No Mercy review, first Nitro with Vince Russo, more

The new era of WCW television began on 10/18 in Philadelphia, with Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara’s first Nitro. There was no mistaking the fingerprints even if viewers didn’t have that fact drummed into their heads from early in the show. Far more detailed work was done in scripting the show then at any Nitro in recent memory and possibly ever.

Time will tell, but after the first show, my feeling was that when Nitro was in its heyday with the good undercard wrestling climaxing with the star power matches on top, it was a far better three hour show than this was. However, this was better than the majority, but not all, of the recent Nitro shows. The throwing so many angles at people burns out the audience faster than wrestling matches do, and by late in the show, the crowd reactions were similar to Raw, in that the crowd was dead for the wrestling. This show was very entertaining for the first hour and entertaining still for the second hour. By the third hour, even though there was nothing “wrong” with the show, it was evident this style of booking doesn’t translate well into the three hour format. Fortunately, it appears most likely if not a certainty that Nitro will be cut back to two hours in January.

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