The March 26, 2001 Edition of WCW Monday Nitro (The Night of Champions) was held at the Boardwalk Beach Resort in Panama City Beach, Florida. It was the last ever WCW Nitro to be held by World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
Summary[]
Vince McMahon appeared to open the broadcast in a pre-taped backstage segment from Cleveland, Ohio (the site of that night's WWF Raw is War) in which he announced he had bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and would address the WCW fans and wrestlers later in the show during a simulcast on both the TNN and TNT networks.
At the end of the night the live simulcast of RAW and Nitro began in which Vince McMahon cut an in-ring promo about his purchase of WCW and said the sale from Time-Warner would become final at WrestleMania X-Seven. McMahon then discussed his upcoming match with his son Shane McMahon and said he would do to Shane what he did to WCW; he then said he could put WCW on the shelf or run it as a "media conglomerate" like WWF and listed several WCW stars to see if the crowd thought he should bring them to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, Buff Bagwell, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Sting, and Goldberg; Goldberg received the biggest applause with Bagwell, Booker, and Steiner close behind; moments later, Shane McMahon walked to the ring on Nitro in Panama City Beach, Florida and said the deal with WCW was finalized but it was Shane's name, not Vince's, on the contract and Shane was now the owner of WCW; Shane then said he would beat Vince at WrestleMania just like WCW used to beat the WWF in the Monday Night War.
Results[]
- Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.
- (c) refers to the champion(s) heading into the match.
- Dark Match: Mark Jindrak defeated Jason Jett
- Booker T (c) [US] defeated Scott Steiner (w/ Midajah) (c) [World] to retain the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (5:11)
- Rey Mysterio Jr. & Billy Kidman defeated Shannon Moore & Evan Karagias and Kaz Hayashi & Yang in a Three Way Tag Team Match to become the #1 Contenders for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship (3:40)
- Shane Helms (c) defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship (4:39)
- Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo (c) defeated Lance Storm & Mike Awesome to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship (3:23)
- Shawn Stasiak (w/ Stacy Keibler) defeated Bam Bam Bigelow (1:25)
- Rey Mysterio Jr. & Billy Kidman defeated Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo (c) to win the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship (4:43)
- Sting defeated Ric Flair (7:19)