Darren Matthews

Codsall, United Kingdom

Biography

Darren Kenneth Matthews is an English professional wrestler, author and color commentator currently signed to WWE under the ring name William Regal. He is also known for his time in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Steven Regal. Having started his career wrestling on a rare surviving carnival booth in England, Matthews moved on to wrestle for national-level promotions on the British wrestling circuit, including on UK television. He then progressed to touring around the world, in countries such as Germany and South Africa, before being called up to World Championship Wrestling in 1993. In 2000, after leaving WCW, Matthews joined the World Wrestling Federation (later World Wrestling Entertainment and now just WWE), where he became commissioner. More recently he has been General Manager of Raw, the 2008 King of the Ring and was briefly the official match coordinator for NXT Redemption in 2011. He is currently a color commentator on NXT. He's also known for being the first wrestler to beat CM Punk by submission. Matthews has achieved considerable championship success in professional wrestling, although he has never been a world champion. Throughout his career, he has won more than 60 titles worldwide, including four in WCW and 15 in WWE. He has overcome multiple drug problems as well as a major heart defect during his career, and he has written an autobiography.

Movies

WCW Monday Nitro was a weekly professional wrestling telecast produced by World Championship Wrestling, created by Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff. The show aired Monday nights on TNT, going head-to-head with the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001. Production ceased shortly after WCW was purchased by the WWF. The debut of Nitro began the Monday Night Wars, a ratings battle between the WWF and WCW that lasted for almost six years and saw each company resort to cutthroat tactics to try to compete with the competition. In mid-1996, Nitro began to draw better ratings than Raw based on the strength of the nWo storyline, an anarchist wrestling stable that wanted to take over WCW. Nitro continued to beat Raw for 84 consecutive weeks, forcing WWE owner Vince McMahon to change the way he did business. As the nWo storyline grew stagnant, fan interest in the storyline waned, and Raw began to edge out Nitro in the ratings. The turning point for the organizations came during the January 4, 1999 broadcast of Nitro, during which lead commentator Tony Schiavone gave away the results of matches for that night's Raw broadcast. As Raw was taped and Nitro was live, Bischoff believed that knowing the outcome would dissuade viewers from watching the program. Excited by the prospect of seeing perennial WWF underdog Mick Foley win the WWF Championship, a large number of Nitro viewers changed channels to watch Raw, switching back to Nitro after Foley won the title. From that week forward, Raw beat Nitro in the ratings by a significant amount, and WCW was never able to regain the success it once had.

More info
WCW Monday Nitro
1995