WCW Main Event WCW Main Event was a televised wrestling program of World Championship Wrestling that aired from 1988 to 1998 . For most of its run , it was the promotion ' s secondary show and aired on Sunday evenings on TBS . The show originally aired in 1988 as " NWA Main Event " . The rights to " WCW Main Event " now belong to WWE . In 2012 , it was announced that WWE will bring back the " Main Event " name as they launch " WWE Main Event " . History . 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 . Throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s , these two Saturday night wrestling programs were also complimented with a Sunday night wrestling program titled " Best of World Championship Wrestling " . The Sunday editions were mostly presented as a magazine format , featuring sit - down interviews with wrestlers and footage from other GCW and JCP television programming . In later years , airings of the Sunday edition became infrequent , as these airings were frequently pre - empted by TBS ' coverage of the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks . In early 1988 , Ted Turner asked Jim Crockett , Jr . to create a new Sunday evening wrestling show featuring exclusive " main event caliber " matches . In 1988 , " NWA Main Event " made its debut . The debut episode featured a main event match pitting Ric Flair , Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard against Sting , Lex Luger and Barry Windham . The show proved to be an instant ratings success . Due to surmounting losses , Crockett was forced to sell JCP in November 1988 to Turner , who renamed the organization World Championship Wrestling . The format for " WCW Main Event " kept one match that was regarded as " main event caliber " and would almost always feature one of WCW ' s top stars . Often , two or more matches would be featured , but by 1995 the format for the program slightly changed . " Main Event " would feature , in addition to its one featured match at the end of the program , matches that had aired on " WCW Pro " , " WCW Saturday Night " , and " WCW WorldWide " earlier in the weekend . When " WCW Monday Nitro " premiered later in 1995 , matches from that program would also be featured . On pay - per - view nights , " Main Event " would always air live from the venue where the pay - per - view was taking place and would feature multiple matches involving mid - carders and up - and - coming stars . The WCW gauntlet . In 1989 , Turner also added a Friday night ( later moved to Saturday mornings ) wrestling show called " NWA Power Hour " . With three wrestling shows on TBS , WCW execs decided to create a unique feature called " Running the Gauntlet " , which would have a select wrestler compete on all three TBS wrestling shows on a particular weekend , with the objective of winning all three of their matches ( including singles and tag matches ) . Any wrestler who successfully ran the gauntlet won ( kayfabe ) $ 15 , 000 . If a wrestler failed to win any one of their matches , their three scheduled opponents in their failing effort ( including a loss or a draw ) would split the $ 15 , 000 . The Gauntlet format was eventually dropped in 1990 / 91 . Only two wrestlers ( The Steiner Brothers ) managed to successfully run the gauntlet . Pre - PPV shows . In the mid - 1990s , " WCW Main Event " would be used as a live show that aired before WCW pay - per - view events . These special episodes would be used not only to promote the pay - per - view , but also to have special matches - which at any other time would be considered dark matches - prior to the pay - per - view . Only two episodes of " WCW Main Event " originated live in an outdoor environment : the episodes prior to WCW Road Wild ( in Sturgis , South Dakota ) and the episode prior to the 1995 Bash at the Beach ( from Huntington Beach , California ) . Later years and the end . In September 1996 , TBS moved " WCW Main Event " to Saturday mornings and moved " WCW Pro " to Sunday afternoons ( and to an 5 : 05 - 6 p . m . ( ET / PT ) time slot ) . Starting around 1997 , " WCW Main Event " was re - tooled as a recap show with some " exclusive " matches . In 1998 , the show was cancelled .