WCW Saturday Night

In addition, Best of World Championship Wrestling aired on Sundays, though it was frequently preempted.

Best of World Championship Wrestling (a.k.a. Best of Championship Wrestling) is an hour-long show, that was the Sunday evening edition of TBS' Saturday night wrestling shows, Georgia Championship Wrestling and NWA World Championship Wrestling.

In spring 1988, TBS replaced it with a new Sunday wrestling show called NWA Main Event.

Jim Crockett Promotions's NWA World Championship Wrestling, along with its predecessor (Georgia Championship Wrestling), were Saturday night mainstays on TBS for almost 30 years.

World Championship Wrestling continued to be taped at the WTBS studios until March 1989, when the taping location was moved to the Center Stage Theater, in Atlanta.

On April 4, 1992, the show was renamed WCW Saturday Night and relocated to the CNN Center (although months later, they would return to film in Center Stage or in Columbus, GA).

In 1984, WWF owner Vince McMahon, hoping to expand the national reach of his Stamford, Connecticut-based company, bought a majority stake in the Georgia territory, and its WTBS time slot, for $750,000.

In addition to matches, McMahon also hosted other WWF shows, and introduced WWF programming to TBS on Black Saturday, upon the WWF's acquisition of Georgia Championship Wrestling and its lucrative Saturday night timeslot (McMahon sold the timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions after the move backfired on him and he eventually acquired JCP's successor company, World Championship Wrestling, from AOL Time Warner in 2001).

Launched in 1971 initially by Georgia Championship Wrestling, the program existed through various incarnations under different names before becoming WCW Saturday Night in 1992.

Georgia Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion whose self-titled TV program aired in the 1970s and 1980s on Atlanta, U.S., superstation WTBS.

Although initially the anchor show of the Ted Turner-backed wrestling company, the September 1995 premiere of WCW Monday Nitro airing on sister station Turner Network Television usurped the show's once preeminent position in the company, as the primary source of storyline development and pay-per-view buildup.

This infamous event would be parodied by WCW on a 2000 episode of Nitro, when Scott Hall threw the WCW World Television Championship in the trash and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan found and claimed the belt weeks later on an episode of Saturday Night.

WCW Saturday Night is a weekly Saturday night TV show on TBS that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

In November 1988, TBS became the television home of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which Turner acquired from Jim Crockett Promotions; from 1992 to 2000, it carried the weekly show, WCW Saturday Night, which served as the WCW's flagship program prior to the launch of Monday Nitro on sister channel TNT in 1995.

WCW Saturday Night is a weekly Saturday night TV show on TBS that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

On this first program, the Jim Cornette–Paul E. Dangerously feud took center stage as their dueling versions of the well-known tag team Midnight Express commenced an intense feud that would last until the following February.

On the February 6, 1993 episode on WCW Saturday Night, Jim Cornette, the Bodies and Bobby Eaton (who Cornette once again began to manage) confronted the Express during an interview.

59 episodes from 1992 to 1993 under the WCW Saturday Night banner are available on the streaming service WWE Network.

Rhodes and Schiavone were removed from the broadcast so Schiavone could focus on his other broadcasting duties and Rhodes could take a managerial role after having turned heel, joining the New World Order.

This led to the nWo starting a segment on Saturday Night, called nWo Saturday Night, where nWo stable members wrestled local jobbers inside an empty arena.

On this first program, the Jim Cornette–Paul E. Dangerously feud took center stage as their dueling versions of the well-known tag team Midnight Express commenced an intense feud that would last until the following February.

He settled into the role of an announcer, joining Jim Ross to call the matches on WTBS' World Championship Wrestling and other programming.

Gene Okerlund often handled interviews after he joined WCW in 1993, as did Tenay, Schiavone, and Lee Marshall.

He interviewed and announced alongside Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson on WCW Saturday Night as well.

Although initially the anchor show of the Ted Turner-backed wrestling company, the September 1995 premiere of WCW Monday Nitro airing on sister station Turner Network Television usurped the show's once preeminent position in the company, as the primary source of storyline development and pay-per-view buildup.

In 1995, TNT debuted WCW Monday Nitro, which assumed the distinction as the flagship program of the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling from WCW Saturday Night, which debuted on sister channel TBS in 1992 and ran on that channel until 2000.

Dusty Rhodes, who affectionately referred to Saturday Night as "The Mothership", replaced him in 1995 and continued until January 1998.

He later joined the broadcast team, usually working with Tony Schiavone on Saturday Night.

Gene Okerlund often handled interviews after he joined WCW in 1993, as did Tenay, Schiavone, and Lee Marshall.

He debuted on the November 6, 1993 edition of WCW Saturday Night.

The opening contest was Barry Windham vs. Arn Anderson from the Philadelphia Civic Center.

On the May 9, 1992 edition of Saturday Night, he defeated Austin in a two out of three falls match to win the WCW World Television Championship.

Eventually, McMahon cut his losses and sold the former GCW time slot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) for $1 million in March 1985.

The programming aired under the World Championship Wrestling banner, which had been adopted by GCW before its demise.

On November 1, 1989, in Atlanta, Georgia, the Steiners defeated the Freebirds for the NWA World Tag Team titles; the title change would air on the November 18 episode of World Championship Wrestling.

They were replaced by Scott Hudson and Mike Tenay, who was later replaced with Larry Zbyszko.

Tenay would later serve as a full-time play-by-play announcer for secondary television shows such as WCW Worldwide and WCW Saturday Night, where he was known as "Iron" Mike Tenay.

They won the title back in Philadelphia on August 16, 1986, and held them until a Saturday night prime time match on WTBS' World Championship Wrestling against Rick Rude and the Raging Bull Manny Fernandez.

Rude debuted on the May 28, 1983 episode of World Championship Wrestling, defeating Pat Rose with a dropkick.

The main event would often feature mid-card performers such as the current Cruiserweight Champion, Television Champion, or U.S. Heavyweight Champion in a non-title match.

On the April 6, 1991, episode of World Championship Wrestling, Nikita Koloff destroyed the classic 1980s United States Heavyweight Championship belt during a post-match brawl with Lex Luger, who was in his fourth reign as champion.

WCW's weekend TBS shows (Power Hour, Saturday Night, and Main Event), featured the NWA/WCW Gauntlet Series, in which a wrestler was selected to face a different top star on each show that weekend, winning $10,000 if they defeated all three.

Bobby Heenan would replace Ventura after joining WCW in the beginning of 1994.

He was originally brought in to replace Jesse Ventura, his former client, as the color commentator for WCW Saturday Night and eventually took over Ventura's position as the company's lead commentator, replacing him for pay-per-view events and on the syndicated WCW Worldwide and Clash of the Champions events produced for TBS.