Sunday Mornings with the Nitro: 6/19/2022

Paul “The Nitro” Skivers

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Thank you for joining us on this chaotic week in wrestling. I thought that I would take an historical look at this chaotic week and see if this is the most chaotic in wrestling history.

This past week has been chaotic to say the least with Jeff Hardy being arrested for DUI at the beginning of the week to the WWE 3-million-dollar hush money scandal and possible insider trading (Kevin Dunn is being accused of this crime) that lead to Vince stepping aside as CEO of the WWE and Stephanie McMahon stepping in as interim CEO at the end of the week. However, from an historical perspective is the question of whether this week in the history of the sport. Let us look at several examples of this kind of week:

1. WCW and ECW being sold to WWE- March 2001: The rumors were flying around all week that Vince was going to buy out the competition and with the state of both companies being near extinct, Vince decides to buy them out for cheap prices. With the purchase, WWE have bought out the competition and in effect ended the Monday Night Wars with WCW and eliminated the third top promotion at the time with ECW. We all know what happend after the purchase with WWE having to compete with themselves for ratrings (RAW vs. Smackdown).
2. Vince McMahon culminating his talent raid of the territories by getting Hulk Hogan from the AWA-1983: Vince had already got Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine and others from the NWA and the dying territories at the time and then landed the ultimate coo by getting Hulk Hogan from the AWA. With the signing, Vince made Hulk Hogan a mega star with Hulkamania and the rest is history.
3. WrestleMania 1 week-1985: The media blitz with the Rock n Wrestling connection culminated in Hulk Hogan and Mr. T beating Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in the main event of the event. Along with the celebrities like Muhammad Ali, Liberace and Billy Martin being at the event, WrestleMania 1 was a major success and put the WWE on the map.
4. WWE Steroid Trial-1994: A two year investigation into alleged Steroid distribution charges that could have put Vince in jail for several years and alter the WWE like never before, but it never happend as Vince was found innocent of the charges. Because of the trial, Vince instituted a drug polciy in the WWE that has been modified many times over the years.

With these examples and many more in mind, I feel that this is the most chaotic week in wrestling history as the mere fact that Vince could step done as CEO of the WWE and in effect have Nick Khan run the company (I don’t feel that the McMahon family will be running the WWE after the smoke clears.) and the rumors of selling the company to a major media company like Disney would be a major possibility. Also, the release of Sasha Banks, which happened at the end of this week will leave the door open for her to join AEW. Finally, Jeff Hardy’s arrest may lead to the end of the Hardy Boys in AEW as Tony Khan will learn about someone’s past catching up with them. It will be interesting to see the end result of all these events and how it will affect the wrestling world.

With that in mind, we will end this week’s edition of Sunday Mornings with the Nitro. Thank you for joining us and we will see you again with another new column. Have a great week.