Nitro by Guy Evans is the best book ever written about Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling. Prior to this book’s existence, The Death of WCW held this title. Not anymore. At nearly 600 pages, Nitro features interviews with over 120 former TBS and WCW employees. The author also had access to a myriad of internal WCW documents, providing the reader with the nitty gritty details when it comes to contracts, PPV revenue, and more. For a topic that has been covered ad nauseam, Nitro is a fresh take on one of the wildest times in professional wrestling, providing the most comprehensive and satisfying account of the rise and fall of WCW.

One of my favorite parts of Nitro was learning the details behind the creation of the epic opening to Monday Nitro, which included gigantic projections of wrestlers on city buildings, traffic lights and manholes exploding, and fire running down the street toward a massive WCW Monday Nitro sign that was met with the biggest explosion of all. This visual paired with the perfect theme song set the tone for Monday Nitro in a way that can only be described as magical. It was TV perfection, so I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about how it came to fruition.

25 years ago, in September 1995, WCW Monday Nitro debuted on TNT. It would run for 288 episodes before ending with a whimper on March 26, 2001. Nitro by Guy Evans is the perfect way to relive those glory days or learn about them for the first time. I own the audiobook and eBook version, and I recommend both. The audiobook, available on Audible, is read by the author. He does a wonderful job of narrating his written work, and at 17 hours and 37 minutes you get a lot of bang for you buck. I can’t recommend Nitro by Guy Evans enough. It not only met my expectations, it exceeded them in every way imaginable. So, go ahead, pick up a copy and celebrate the 25th anniversary of WCW Monday Nitro in style, brother!