On this date in WCW history: Tony Schiavone and the Finger Poke of Doom
by Jesse Holland on Jan 4, 2012 10:00 AM EST
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How many times can you bury your own company in one night?
If you're World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the answer is "two." On the January 4, 1999, edition of Monday Nitro, ringside announcer Tony Schiavone tried to keep viewers from flipping over to World Wrestling Federation's (WWF) Monday Night RAW by revealing that Mick Foley would win the world title in the main event.
He knew that, because RAW at that time, was taped before hand.
"Fans, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, fans, do not. We understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here one time as Cactus Jack, is going to win their world title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh."
Eric Bischoff, who was the mastermind behind the spoilers, probably underestimated just how over the WWF had become at the time, and instead of viewers passing up the competition, they instead made a mass exodus to watch it all go down.
Those WCW viewers who did stick around, probably wish they hadn't.
That's because WWF was giving fans a main event that featured Mick Foley vs. The Rock with run-ins by Steve Austin and DX while WCW was giving fans the Finger Poke of Doom.
Yes, the reunification of the nWo factions that saw Kevin Nash lay down for Hollywood Hogan (after having billed it as a "grudge match") and turn over the belt after getting tapped in the chest by the Hulkster.
Everyone in the ring cheers and hugs. Everyone watching vomits on the guy in front of him.
While their exists a laundry list of reasons why WCW lost control of the Monday Night Wars, it's hard not see this as the straw that broke the camel's back. Especially for viewers who tuned back into Nitro after RAW ended and got to compare the two.
Final score in the Nielsen ratings: WWF 5.7, WCW 5.0.
The Finger Poke of Doom
Tony Schiavone reveals WWF Raw results live on Nitro
Any active Cagesiders at that time remember when it all went down? How did you react?
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THAT WAS THE GREATEST NIGHT IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT
I wanna say poor Schiavone but that condescending attitude toward Foley makes me hate him, a lot.
Greatest lover ever during the day, Trainyard Sleeper at night.
Can you really blame him though?
Keep in mind, it was Bischoff’s idea to go ahead with the spoiler. As an announcer, your supposed to make your product look good.
His delivery had to be condescending, it wasnt so much an insult to Mick as much as it was an attempt to trivialize the opposition. Which was the point of the entire line.
Though as noted, it backfired on a tremendous level.
A buddy of mine called me that night
The conversation more or less went
“Did you watch Nitro”
“Nah, I wanted to see Foley win the WWF title”
“All that happened was Hogan poked Nash, Nash went down like he got shot by Dirty Harry, and Hogan pinned him”
“The FUCK?!?!”
“Yeah, never watching Nitro again”
“Yep”
by Jonathan Loesche on Jan 4, 2012 10:09 AM EST reply actions
Small typo
on the line ‘finer poke of doom’. Sorry on the nitpicking. I think Nash tried to explain this on the WWE roundtable but just pissed off Michael Hayes instead.
by Holls Hoyce on Jan 4, 2012 10:18 AM EST via Android app reply actions
The funny thing about this whole thing is that on its own, its not really a bad idea
Its a good little heel move to set up a championship match and have one guy lay down for the other. The problem though is that this wasn’t built up on a single episode of Nitro where you were just waiting an hour and a half to see what happens and that this kind of booking was what WCW was doing on a weekly basis.
Its not a bad idea for some midcarder but Nash was getting over as a face champ. WCW fans wanted to see him beat Hogan. They tried to copy what WWF did with Rock. Rock turned face heading into the 1998 Survivor Series only to turn again and become the corpoarate champion. But the WWF had so well booked that scenario that Rock became even more hated and Foley became a sympathetic face which set Foley on the road to win his championship. WWF got hotter off that double turn because there was weeks and weeks of build to it. WCW just did shit on the fly cuz it sounded cool on that day.
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
by Major on Jan 4, 2012 1:10 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
WWF also did it with Shawn Michaels and Triple H
in 1997 when they were DX after Sgt. Slaughter, who was acting as commissioner on-screen at the time, tried to screw with them by booking them in a match for the (at that point) meaningless European title. They acted really pissed about getting booked for the match and I remember wondering what was going to happen when I watched at the time. Then they made a mockery of it with Michaels just laying down and Triple H comically running the ropes for live three minutes before doing an overexaggerated splash and pinning HBK to win the belt. Michaels then acted completely devastated while Trips celebrated like he just accomplished the greatest feat in pro wrestling history. It was glorious.
But that was with the European title and in a situation that dictated it actually making sense to do something like that. As you said, that was most definitely not the case with Hogan and Nash.
Forget it Donny, you're out of your element.
by Geno Mrosko on Jan 4, 2012 1:22 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Also, if you had to choose who could do the more comical laydown
Triple H and Shawn Michaels during their DX days hand down. Those 2 were wrestling comedy gold. Nash and Hogan were almost never intentionally funny.
Nash had his moments
but I don’t think Hogan has ever made me laugh in my entire life. Other than at him, of course.
Forget it Donny, you're out of your element.
Between the 2..
the ratings were a 10.7…. today if you hit 3.0 you’ve done something to be proud of. How insane is that? To lose that many viewers… ouch.
Suum Cuique
by Rawuncutnxrated on Jan 4, 2012 12:05 PM EST reply actions
Its unavoidable
How many channels were out there that year? How many channels did the average TV viewer have access to? In today’s time, you have hundreds and hundreds of channels where there’s always something to watch. Plus, with DVRs, you have a lot less live viewing for shows like Raw that generally have a half hour of commercials.
I had more channels in the 90s, used to get ECW, nwa and USWA. Now they charge you for everything.
by MVP Raiders on Jan 4, 2012 1:57 PM EST via Android app up reply actions
How many people were in the world then, 4.7 billion?? There are now 7 billion people in the world. The US has close to 350 million. There are more channels, that’s true.. there are a lot more people as well.
Suum Cuique
by Rawuncutnxrated on Jan 4, 2012 4:30 PM EST up reply actions
What??
American had about 272 million in ‘99 and has around 311 million today. Yes, there are more people. But relative to the amount of channels and the rise in DVR’s and torrents/online streams, it’s not even close enough to make up the difference
So go forth, my brethren, and proceed to mark the f*ck out
by C. J. Bradford on Jan 4, 2012 5:24 PM EST up reply actions
Are you counting...
ALL the illegals?
Just think about the numbers.. America grew by 40 million people. All those things you said are true.. but 40 million people. To lose about 8 points in your ratings… in those 12 years.. that’s about enough to kill the industry all together. I don’t think its proportional in the least.
Suum Cuique
by Rawuncutnxrated on Jan 4, 2012 5:40 PM EST up reply actions
It wasn't 8 points though
They we’re doing 5-7, and now they are hovering around 3. And that doesn’t include DVR or online streams/torrents. They entire industry is suffering deep loses. It sucks yeah, but not something that is unique to wrestling.
So go forth, my brethren, and proceed to mark the f*ck out
by C. J. Bradford on Jan 4, 2012 6:32 PM EST up reply actions
huh?
americas population has nothing to do with the rating points
by SuperstarAlen on Jan 4, 2012 11:35 PM EST up reply actions
Saturday night main events were doing 12 ratings in the 80’s. Times change and people leave pro wrestling when it becomes the same old shit like its been for nearly a decade. Potentially, the next great period for wrestling might be even greater than all others because wwe is such a household name now.
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
by Major on Jan 4, 2012 12:58 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I say greater because CM Punks two weeks of awesome put wrestling in the mainstream press, had espn doing wrestling podcasts for goodness sakes! All it takes is real emotion properly booked. Sounds easy right?
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
by Major on Jan 4, 2012 1:01 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I didn’t know what SNME was doing.. but that is an awesome number.. now I see why WWe tried to resurrect that a few times.. them & NBC.
Suum Cuique
by Rawuncutnxrated on Jan 4, 2012 4:30 PM EST up reply actions
I remember it a little different
When they gave away the spoiler it wasn’t people switching to watch because WWF had gotten over, it was because so many people had been watching Nitro because people had no faith Foley would ever win so when it turned out Foley actually did people couldn’t believe the WWF actually did something SOOO right and switched to see it.
Anyway, that’s how I remember it.
1. Anderson Silva is waiting for you to punch him.
2. That guy is Anderson Silva.
3. Don't fucking punch that guy.
Trying to gauge the reactions of the fans
Doesn’t seem that negative I guess because people are still figuring out what happened.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest | 1st place- 2012 AAOP Contest
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Jan 4, 2012 12:25 PM EST reply actions
I remember this vividly
me and my buddies were watching both shows and Nitro was better up until he made that comment. No one thought Foley would beat Rock but once Tony said that we were like gtfo! Rock and Foley had a good match and remember the pop Austin got and we were blownaway. We thought Hogan would put over Nash but nope. After that Nitro really became a joke. We never took the show seriously anymore until Goldberg and Hogan in atl but then we realized that Goldberg beat Hogan clean with no feud no hype and on free tv. Business wise that match on ppv wouldve offset a lot of their operating losses. They killed themselves in the Georgia Dome.
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
by Major on Jan 4, 2012 12:52 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Still
they sold out the Georgia Dome for a weekly broadcast show. That’s impressive even with all the cracks that started showing in the WCW armor at that time
Players who should be in the Hall of Fame: Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Jack Butler, Greg Lloyd, Andy Russell, Cris Carter, Kevin Greene, Curtis Martin, Willie Roaf, Andre Reed and Jerry Kramer
"Back in my day we killed five hookers and thought nothing of it" Craig James
Yeah they did sell it out but it had been sold out weeks before Hogan/Goldberg was even announced
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
by Major on Jan 4, 2012 7:56 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
As it is I remember thinking
Why in the hell did Hall help Nash beat Goldberg? If you were going to end the streak just end it…and then the show just got dumber and dumber as the night went on. I don’t even remember the Schiavone bit (I remember that it happened, but I don’t remember actually hearing it), but I remember thinking “really?” with the whole Goldberg/Liz rape angle, and then once the poke happened I was just like “okay and now I’m done.” It was crazy to see just how out of ideas WCW seemed to be.
Writer (and a handsome one at that),
And the Valley Shook
I used to record both shows on a couple of VCRs
I was busy Monday nights so I would watch one later that night and the other on tuesday. For some reason I watched Nitro first and thought it was a dick move to give the RAW results. From that point on I always watched RAW first.
When Mike Ditka calculates pi it's decimal representation ends.
by Lester A. Wiltfong Jr. on Jan 4, 2012 7:02 PM EST via iPhone app reply actions
Never bought the argument that this moment killed WCW or that it was even a bad move. To me what killed it was the aftermath with Goldberg getting hurt and for whatever reason WCW putting the belt on Flair and turning Hogan. Basically a couple of months after this things went to hell and they would never be the same but the original idea was solid WCW just dropped the ball.
"@bigfootsilva, I want to tell you a joke so funny it will make your head grow. It goes like this..Oh wait, I see you have already heard it." -Chael Sonnen
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