|
/wrestling /guests /Johnston |
|
|
/wrestling /guests /Johnston |
| Guest Columns | Luke Johnston |
MainBLAH |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU... This week marks the fourth anniversary of the premiere of Monday Nitro, which debuted on Labor Day weekend of 1995 from the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The first show included a memorable Brian Pillman vs Jushin "Thunder" Liger opening match as well as the infamous surprise appearance by Lex Luger. Luger's appearance was totally unexpected and served as one of the first shots in the long and fabled Monday night wars with which we are so familiar today. When Nitro debuted, most observers predicted that it would be a dismal failure and that it would become the final nail in the coffin of WCW. Never before had so many people been so wrong. From the moment Lex Luger walked out of the WWF and onto the set of Nitro, WCW made it clear that they meant business. Within a few months, the unthinkable was actually happening: Not only was Nitro competing with Raw on a weekly basis, but some weeks it was actually winning. Nitro's early success came largely as a result of the "anything can happen" type of feel that was established from week one. The booking-on-the-fly strategy that has been so harmful to WCW as of late was actually a key ingredient in the success of the show in the early days. The intertwining feuds between Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Sting, Lex Luger, Randy Savage, Arn Anderson, and Brian Pillman surprised viewers on a weekly basis. Fans never knew what was going to happen, and that's what made the product so appealing. On December 18th of 1995, another shocking incident happened, as Madusa (whom like Luger, everybody assumed was still with the WWF) made a surprise appearance in which she degraded the WWF by throwing the promotion's Women's title in a trash can. It was an unforgettable moment, and it only added to to the feeling that you had to watch Nitro because you never knew what was going to happen. Another key ingredient in Nitro's early success was the structuring of the shows as mini pay-per-views. Giving away PPV quality matches on free TV was a practice that largely began in 1993 with the start of Monday Night Raw, but never before had a promotion packed its weekly television show with as many big name matches as did WCW during the first few months of Nitro. With names like Hogan, Flair, Savage, Luger, and Sting regularly competing against eachother on free TV, the WWF was simply outgunned. Eric Bischoff broke new ground and exploited the fact that Nitro was always live by giving away the results of taped Raw matches on a weekly basis. While the merits of Bischoff's actions were questionable, it can't be denied that his ploy was successful. Inevitably, Bischoff's spoilers gave the viewer the impression Raw was "yesterday's news" while Nitro was the fresh, important show that couldn't be missed. Not only was Nitro beating Raw more and more often in the ratings, but now Bischoff was rubbing it in the WWF's face. Obviously the WWF didn't take kindly to either of these things, so they ended up responding in a rather silly and immature way. Instead of improving their own product, the WWF responded to Nitro's increasing popularity by launching the Billionaire Ted skits, a shameful and embarrassing series of comedy sketches that personally attacked Ted Turner and portrayed WCW's top personalities as either dishonest, senile, or handicapped. What the WWF hoped to accomplish with these skits is unknown, but clearly nothing good came out of them. Nitro continued to enjoy a growing success in the ratings, and the WWF didn't seem to have a clue as to how to stop the train. On Memorial Day of 1996, the train that was Nitro turned into a full fledged rocket ship. During a match between Steve Doll and Mike Enos, the man who was known in the WWF as Razor Ramon strolled into the ring and uttered the four words that launched the most successful single angle in the history of the wrestling business: "We are taking over." Nitro beat Raw in the ratings that night, and they would continue to do so every week for next 83 weeks. Two weeks after Scott Hall debuted, Kevin Nash made his first appearance. On July 3rd, Hulk Hogan turned heel and the nWo was formed. Nitro served as the stage for the nWo, and as the months went by, more and more former WWF stars started jumping ship: Ted DiBiase, Sean Waltman, Roddy Piper... Fans began tuning into Nitro each week to see which former, or in some cases current, WWF wrestler would show up. Nitro had truly become a phenomenon. Fueled by the wildly successful nWo angle, the show reached an all time high in popularity. Not only was it taking fans away from Raw, but it was also creating droves of brand new wrestling fans of its own. The WWF had truly been left in the dust. But nothing stays the same forever. In November of 1997, Vince McMahon screwed Bret Hart during a match with Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight title. Wrestling fans everywhere were furious with McMahon for his underhanded actions, and Hart's upcoming debut with WCW was viewed with great anticipation. With one of the WWF's top draws jumping ship to the other company, and with McMahon filling the role as public enemy #1, many people thought that the final nail had been hammered in the WWF's coffin. It was a somewhat popular belief that 1998 would literally mark the end of the WWF. Only once before had so many people been so wrong. Hart's debut with WCW at Starrcade '98 ended up being a flop, and from that day on the promotion had no idea what to do with the man. Through a series of non-sensical face and heel turns, Hart quickly became a non-factor in WCW. Nitro, which had been an unstoppable machine for almost two years, began to slip. Eric Bischoff and his booking committee became complacent, and their attitude was evident by the steady falling of the show's quality. At the same time, Raw was showing signs of life for the first time in ages. Aided by the public's hate of him after the Survivor Series incident, McMahon became the company's top heel. Steve Austin's popularity was growing at a frightening rate, and he became the perfect antagonist to the evil McMahon. On April 13, 1998, with the Austin-McMahon feud having reached a red hot state, the two had a match on Raw. It was on that night that Raw beat Nitro in the ratings for the first time in 83 weeks. The numbers: 4.6 for Raw, 4.3 for Nitro. Sparked by the wildly successful Austin-McMahon feud, the WWF product as a whole began to show dramatic improvements. At the same time, Nitro's product was becoming more and more disappointing. The booking-on-the-fly mentality that had worked early on was beginning to wear thin on the fans. Illogical angles, unfinished storylines, and too much repetition contributed to a decline in Nitro's ratings. It seemed that the impossible was actually happening: Nitro was actually losing its iron grip on the Monday night wars. On November 2, 1998, Raw scored a 4.8 composite rating, while Nitro did a 4.1. Raw has continued to beat Nitro every week since that day, and as it stands now, Raw's dominance has never been stronger. Nitro, in the eyes of many, has never been lower. The same problems that plagued the show a year ago remain unfixed today, and the ratings themselves tell the story better than anything. In January of this year, the average composite rating for the show was a 5.0. Last month, the average composite rating had dropped to a 3.3 On August 23rd, the show scored a rating below 3.0 for the first time in some two and a half years. On August 30th, despite the fact that Nitro aired unopposed in much of the country due to Raw being bumped by the U.S. Open, Raw still scored a higher rating. Four years after making its debut and changing the shape of professional wrestling in the 1990s, we find Nitro in the toughest spot it's ever been in. 42 weeks of being dominated in the ratings has taken a toll on company moral. It would be one thing if the show was actually showing signs of improvement, but sadly, things only seem to get worse and worse. Attempts to boost ratings by bringing in musical acts have resulted in embarrassing and expensive failures, while the real problems that plague the show continue to fester. From the eyes of the average observer, the idea of Nitro one day regaining the popularity it once had and surpassing Raw in the ratings would seem impossible. But don't be fooled. If four years of watching the dramatic and sometimes astonishing battle between these two shows, and these two companies, has taught us anything, it's that we should never say never. When Lex Luger made his shocking debut on the very first Nitro, WCW conditioned us to expect the unexpected. When observing the Monday night battles, that's exactly the state of mind we should adopt. As the past four years have shown us, anything can and will happen. It's the nature of the business. And for the past four years, through the good and the bad, it's been fun watching. Mostly. Happy birthday, Nitro. Luke Johnston The Shooters Email the Author Visit The Shooters Visit Wrestling Radio |
BLAH |
Main |
||