I remember when the end of the Monday Night Wars happened. I was watching WCW Nitro and Vince McMahon showed up at the top of the show telling everyone he bought the company. It was pandemonium.

The Ringer’s David Shoemaker tells the behind the scenes tale and frames it like a series finale. In a very real way, it was.

That night was the last night of Nitro. It was the last night of WCW as its own entity entirely. WWF talked about reviving WCW as its own show under the WWF banner, but it never came to be. And so we were right about the stakes of the Monday Night Wars. WWF won and, a silly invasion feud aside, WCW was gone. And if WWF had ended that night too, it would have been the greatest series finale of all time. It was certainly the end of the best story ever told, because it was a story that actually mattered. For all of pro wrestling’s forced hyperbole, a story line bigger than Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant ended that night, and it was a clean finish. The last episode of WCW Monday Nitro was without question the greatest series finale of all time.