Monday Night Wars: Difference between revisions

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In the last great shot of the War, WCW pulled the trigger on what could have been their biggest moneymaking feud/match of the year in July of 1998: live on ''Nitro'', then-US Champion and up-and-coming superstar [[Goldberg]] defeated "Hollywood" [[Hulk Hogan]] to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Despite winning the ratings battle that night, it was done at the cost of a ton of potential PPV revenue; many consider the move to be the beginning of the end of WCW.

Of course, the event that really sent WCW into a downward spiral was the [[Finger Poke of Doom]]: the combination of a [[Shocking Swerve]] ending to a world title match that led to the reformation of the nWo, coupled with the half-million viewers ''Nitro'' lost when it was revealed [[Mick Foley]] was winning his first WWF Championship on a pre-taped episode of ''Raw'' (with WCW announcer Tony Schiavone famously remarking "That'll put butts in seats"), was the killing blow for the promotion. It just took them two more years to really die out.

Of course, the event that really sent WCW into a downward spiral was the [[Finger-Poke of Doom]]: the combination of a [[Shocking Swerve]] ending to a world title match that led to the reformation of the nWo, coupled with the half-million viewers ''Nitro'' lost when it was revealed [[Mick Foley]] was winning his first WWF Championship on a pre-taped episode of ''Raw'' (with WCW announcer Tony Schiavone famously remarking "That'll put butts in seats"), was the killing blow for the promotion. It just took them two more years to really die out.

In the meantime, the WWF flourished thanks to the [[Attitude Era]] and WCW's missteps - wrestlers like [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]], [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], [[Mick Foley]], [[Triple H]], [[The Undertaker]], and [[Wrestler/Kane|Kane]] practically became household names, and the company's success positioned them as the most powerful wrestling promotion on the planet. On the flip side, WCW kept pushing the nWo angle for far longer than it should have, and it failed to build new stars who could ultimately replace the older stars on the roster (mainly because those older stars were often members of the company's booking team), leading its product to become stale and boring to many, which led to the company beginning to lose viewers at an astonishing rate.

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[[Category:Professional Wrestling]]

[[Category:Monday Night Wars]]

[[Category:Trope]]