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Although it’s been a shade over a decade already since the ‘Wars’ ended, make no mistake about it. The way professional wrestling was handled during this era was forever changed, and its after-effects are being felt to this day.
Although WWE had RAW on the USA Network for a few years by the time 1995 rolled around, that particular year was where the first battle was forged.
And Vince McMahon wasn’t even a part of it!
Eric Bischoff, who by this point was running WCW as a last-resort hire, had a very important meeting with Ted Turner in Atlanta.
The question Ted asked Eric seemed simple on paper, “How do we compete with the WWE?”
Eric, on a whim and a prayer, said to go to Monday nights. Keep in mind, almost all of WCW’s programming by this point was relegated to Saturday nights and Pay-Per-Views.
Ted, thinking about it, told an aide to give Eric two hours on Monday nights on TNT.
Oh boy, shit’s on! For Eric, it was put up, or shut up time,
Did he ever put up the game!
The first episode of the newly-named Nitro show took place from the Mall of America on September 4th, 1995. With a fully loaded roster and the surprise appearance of Lex Luger, the result led to WCW tying RAW in the ratings. Nitro wouldn’t back down as WCW and WWE would trade ratings winnings for about a year.
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Let’s take a look at one key word in that last passage: RATINGS.
Back in the 70s, 80s, and even the early 90s, ratings were hardly a number to professional wrestling. Although syndication carried shows (like Saturday Night and All-American Wrestling) for the longest time, the big number was GATES. How many people attended a show, how much did they pay for tickets, and how much revenue off of merchandise was generated.
When 1996 dawned however, all Bischoff did was think about how to squeak out that last tenth of a point.
For example, former WWE Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze, now known as Medusa in WCW, took the WWE belt and threw it in the trash!
Also, Eric would go on earlier than advertised just to spoil the WWE show! Since most WWE shows were taped, the results were readily available. Being live was an advantage for Bischoff, because he was able to create more legitimate surprises, while still delivering on the strengths of the brand.
While this seemed all well and good in 1996, the practice would of “boosting points” would later deliver some of the stupidest mistakes WCW made.
One example was when Goldberg won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan on July 6th, 1998. WCW was struggling to get a win in the ratings by this point, so they went to their last bullet in the chamber a wee bit early. in order truly realize what they did, think of it this way: to win ONE WEEK OF RATINGS, WCW foregone MILLIONS of DOLLARS on PAY PER VIEW buyrates! Millions of dollars that could have been useful in the future.
Another example was that delightful night of January 4th, 1999. RAW was once again taped, and Eric told announcer Tony Schiavone to spoil the fact that WWE just put their world title belt on Mick Foley. Mick, who had wrestled in WCW as Cactus Jack, was pretty much dismissed as a talented wrestler who could never make it by the Turner organization. Mick’s title win, surprisingly, caused a massive amount of fans to turn over to the WWE. Back to WCW, fans were treated to a title match, which Hulk Hogan defeated Kevin Nash via the “Fingerpoke of Doom”. The WCW fan base was so disgusted that this week set the tide in WWE’s favor for the rest of the war.
Now that the end of the war has been unveiled, there is one thing to discuss: this practice still exists!
There was a tournament that set up the next WWE Champion. The biggest problem didn’t lie in The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio title match that started the show.
It was the John Cena and Rey Mysterio title match that did.
WWE has no competition right now, whereas since the war it’s the only real game in town. For some odd reason, not only was Mysterio’s title reign a sham, but it did nothing to boost ratings. More of a bad booking decision (no, do not blame that on me), at the same time, it meant money on PPV buyrates just washed down the toilet. ____________________________________________
Another way the ‘Wars’ changed professional wrestling forever was the quality of matches that showed up on television.
Back in the decades previous, television was usually meant to build up big events. Whether it would be a huge live event tour or a PPV, most of the TV revolved around series’ of interviews, with mainly the bigger names (good and bad) going over jobbers/local talent. This practice, while keeping big name matchups special, didn’t make for the best of TV. Then again, TV back then didn’t necessarily mean $$$.
When the ‘Wars’ hit, ratings were the flavor.
Flavor sometimes meant some VERY STRONG ingredients. Sometimes, they worked, and sometimes they didn’t.
One example of what didn’t work outright was a main event in Germany for RAW in early 1997. British Bulldog was set to take on Owen Hart for the inaugural European Championship. A fantastic match ensued, one that lasted 20+ minutes with moves not seen before to WWE audiences. Sadly though, this match garnered a 2.0 rating, and thus it gave Vince McMahon impetus to start ushering in ‘Attitude’.
Another example of what didn’t work was the Hogan/Nash main event from WCW. In addition to reasons already stated, this match was thrown together last-minute, IN THE ARENA (which was the Georgia Dome), with Bischoff pushing the ‘worry’ button for ratings. They didn’t win that week, and worse yet, made their reputation so bad that it began a flurry of changes that, well, made the company worse heading into the new millennium.
For good examples, I’ll first state one that had the highest ratings of ALL the war. A six-man tag on RAW, Rock/Austin/Vince McMahon vs. Triple H/Undertaker/Shane McMahon encounter from 5/10/99, drew a 9.2 overrun, en route to a 8.3 overall rating! While the ratings are mentioned yet again, the main point here is that big names in main events on shows were getting more and more commonplace than in years’ past.
While this sounds like a PPV event, and it was, here is what made the WWE successful.
Instead of doing something JUST for ratings, WWE usually had a plan of following that up.
Best example of this was the Austin/McMahon WWE Championship match from April 13th, 1998. Although it turned out to be a non-match due to the emergence of Mick Foley as a heel Dude Love, the impact it had was huge. Not only was it a win for RAW, the first in 80 some-odd weeks, but it led to a hot program with Austin/Love, with McMahon being a catalyst of trying to screw Austin out of the WWE Championship. WCW could never manage to get two weeks of hot ratings in a row after this.
Again, it’s not just so much a number, but what a company can do with the momentum. While it’s arguable/the truth that WWE had better overall programming between latter 1997 to early 1998, the fact that WWE never changed their course is a testament to their patience. WCW, always looking for the ratings, never had patience for failure, and thus dug their graves when really they shouldn’t have.
Sadly, I see a lot of late WCW in current-era WWE. Shoddy booking, older men in the main event with younger talent not being able to break through the ceiling. Worse yet, a wrestler’s whole status could be determined on RATINGS.
Geez, what the hell happened? Imagine if Stone Cold didn’t get pushed in 1997 because he didn’t get ratings? The wrestling landscape would be drastically different if it did. Also imagine if TNA (ahem, iMPACT) opened up the WWE playbook from 1997? We would have had another real war!
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