As we were going to end the 20th century and venture into a brand new millennium: the 2000s, WCW had still looked like it was going to be a thorn in the side of the WWF. Despite the WWF getting all the momentum of the Attitude Era and the birth of WCW's discarded wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin as they were taking over the ratings war, WCW seemed to still be on sound financial ground to continue the rivalry into the 21st century.
They did just make $50 million in 1998 despite slipping and falling behind the WWF as the top promotion in America. One thing though was that their main source of income all these years, Ted Turner, no longer was in control of WCW following the Time Warner merger and could not just write blank checks to cover their asses. Vince McMahon had no such problem he was the boss and put his heart and soul in it.
Early on in 1999, however, the end of WCW was about to unfold right before our very eyes. It started right off the bat on the January 4, 1999 episode of Monday Nitro. The show took place at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the same venue where Goldberg won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six months before from Hollywood Hulk Hogan on Nitro.
Goldberg since lost the title to nWo Wolfpac leader Kevin Nash at Starrcade '98 in December and along with that Goldberg also lost his undefeated streak, which ended at "173-0." There was supposed to be a title rematch against Goldberg and Nash that night. The match would not go on as a series of abominations transpired over the course of the evening.
The first and really most abomination was that Goldberg was "arrested" and taken to jail because he "aggravated stalked" Miss Elizabeth. It could have been worse believe it or not as the original storyline called for Goldberg to have "raped" her. What the fuck were they thinking?
Hollywood Hogan was at Nitro and he mocked Goldberg for getting arrested as remember Hogan was supposed to be retired and running for President? Nash believed Hogan was behind this and challenged him for the title which Hogan accepted. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was caught lying to the police and they freed Goldberg and were set to bring him back to the Georgia Dome.
Nash took on Hogan for the title in the rematch. After a few minutes of stalling, the two shoved each other. Hogan looked like he was going to punch Nash only for him to touch him in the chest with a finger. Nash went down like he was shot. Hogan suddenly covered Nash for the 1-2-3 and win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a total swerve and it pissed off the fans all over the world.
This was Nash and Hogan doing their best backstage politics. This incident would forever be known as the "Fingerpoke of Doom." Hogan and Nash were joined in the ring celebrating with a mix of nWo Wolfpac and Hollywood members Scott Hall, Scott Steiner, Buff Bagwell, and Elizabeth as the two factions reunited to form nWo Elite.
Goldberg made his way to the ring to attack everyone. nWo Wolfpac member Lex Luger ran in looking to help Goldberg take down the nWo. However, he attacked Goldberg joining nWo Elite as well. They beat on Goldberg and handcuffed him to the ropes and Hall shocked him with his Taser in a truly awful wrestling moment.
The disgrace of WCW did not end at Nitro that night as over in the WWF the same night on Raw, former WCW member Mick Foley, who wrestled as Cactus Jack and was Mankind in the WWF, took on The Rock for the WWF Championship.
The match was taped six days before on December 28, 1998 and played on January 4, 1999 as in those days, WWF hosted a live Raw on Monday and taped the following week's the next night on Tuesday whereas WCW Nitro was live each and every week.
The taped results were given away on Nitro like they did many times on the live Nitro. Announcer Tony Schiavone on orders from Eric Bischoff said that Foley defeated The Rock to win the WWF Championship so don't change the channel. He then infamously added "that's gonna put some butts in the seats!"
After Schiavone said that plus the knowledge that Foley already won the WWF Championship, some 600,000 viewers switched from Nitro on TNN and switched over to Raw on USA to see Foley win the title. Many fans switched back to Nitro to see the ending. Raw is War ended with a 5.7 rating compared to a 5.0 for Nitro.
Throughout the year at WWF events, signs would be seen in the audience reading "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat!!" Nitro had not beaten Raw in the ratings since October 26, 1998 would never beat Raw ever again and the January 4 episode was one of the last Nitros to even come close to Raw in the final ratings for the duration of the "Monday Night Wars."
In fact only three more times would Nitro ever get a 5.0 or higher rating and all three of those times came in the following five weeks (Jan. 11, 25, and Feb. 8, which saw a 5.7 on a week where Raw was preempted by the Westminster Dog Show).
The Fingerpoke of Doom did not immediately affect WCW but it slowly began to dwindle until the bottom completely fell out. It was not just the Fingerpoke of Doom or just Kevin Nash or just Hulk Hogan or just the nWo or just Eric Bischoff or just Thunder or just anything. No one thing could blame WCW's downfall it was a bunch of things collectively working together to kill the promotion. That's teamwork my friends!!!
I don't blame them for trying a swerve as I actually thought it was a great idea minus the Goldberg-Elizabeth angle. It was good to kind of go back to one nWo and try to regain heat as the ultimate bad guys. The reason why it bombed was that everyone was sick of the nWo and ready for something else and everyone was especially sick of Hogan and his creative control B.S.
Nash even got the mask off of Rey Mysterio, which upset Mysterio and his family as the mask in Mexico is about as sacred as you get, but WCW made him take the mask off. Mysterio feuded with Nash over the Latino World Order (LWO) which was a group of Mexican wrestlers sick of the nWo and started their own faction.
Mysterio and Konnan, who was also kicked out of the nWo, lost a tag team match against Nash and Scott Hall where if Mysterio and Konnan lost he lost his mask but if they won, Elizabeth would have to cut her hair. Mysterio was forced to unmask and wrestled the rest of his WCW without a mask. Nash carried the mask with him like it was some sort of trophy.
Mysterio upset Nash on the February 22, 1999 episode of Nitro but lost to Nash at Uncensored in March when Lex Luger interfered and helped Nash. Mysterio, much like the other Cruiserweights, never got a push as the main pushes went to the older Heavyweight wrestlers which was what Eric Bischoff wanted and the Cruiserweights were used as mid-card talent that still got over well with the fans.
The whole 1999 year as a whole for WCW was a major disappointment with a bunch of lousy storylines going nowhere and babyface and heel turns coming out of nowhere with no story to build it up. It would be very quick and random and when the fans did not respond to it or simply like myself confused they switched them right back to a babyface or heel without any warning.
Some examples of lousy storylines were Ric Flair assuming the President of WCW "for life" and going mad with power and even getting committed to a mental hospital and David Flair turning on and reuniting with his father Ric and the whole B.S. with the Hummer. It got to the point where WCW began to simply run out of ideas and since they could not really create new wrestlers they were about to fall apart.
One of the few positives was seeing Diamond Dallas Page win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time at age 43, the oldest ever first time World Heavyweight Champion in pro wrestling history. Page defeated Hollywood Hogan, Sting, and champion Ric Flair in a Four Corners match at Spring Stampede in April.
One of the only really great moments in WCW in 1999 was on the March 29 episode of Nitro from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada. Bret Hart came out to the partisan Canadian crowd wearing his Calgary Hitmen jersey and basically trashed WCW for not getting any world title shots.
Hart then challenged Goldberg to a match where he could beat him in five minutes or less as Hart took off his Hitmen jersey as he was wearing a Tie Domi Toronto Maple Leafs jersey underneath it to a loud roar from the Toronto crowd.
Goldberg came out and accepted Hart's challenge. Goldberg speared Hart, but Goldberg was not moving. Hart rolled Goldberg over and pinned him as he counted 1-2-3. Hart took off his jersey to show he had a metal plate underneath it. Hart then took the microphone and said "Hey Bischoff, I quit!" and left the ring.
Hart did not quit WCW as he was nursing an injury and needed time off. However before he could come back to the ring, his brother Owen tragically died in an accident flying down to the ring at the WWF PPV Over the Edge from Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri on May 23, 1999. Hart took time off and even returned on WCW TV at the July 5, 1999 episode of Nitro from the Georgia Dome.
Hart took about 10 minutes to pour his heart out about his brother Owen. Bret mentioned how some of the fans at the Georgia Dome were disrespectful to Bret talking about his brother how they wanted him to hurry up so they could watch more wrestling just as Bret's time in WCW could not be irritating enough.
Hart returned to action in the fall and even took on fellow Alberta native and someone who trained in the Hart Family Dungeon Chris Benoit on the October 4, 1999 episode of Nitro. It was an Owen Hart tribute as Nitro was held at the same venue where Owen died in Kansas City. The match was amazing as many would think and Bret won by putting Benoit in the Sharpshooter, but the real winner was the fans and of course Owen.
On the April 5, 1999 episode of Nitro, WCW was "rebranded" with a brand new logo, new colors, and new theme music as it was a new era for WCW. The new logo made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. The original WCW logo was pretty cool. The new WCW logo was so bad even USA Today made fun of it in their advertisement of WCW Nitro.
The Steiner Brothers reunited at Slamboree in May when Scott helped Rick win the WCW TV Title and Rick returned the favor helping Scott beat Buff Bagwell to retain his U.S. Title. Later that night, the Steiners along with Bret Hart attacked both Sting and Goldberg in the main event.
Scott helped Rick in his match with Sting at The Great American Bash in June when Rick fought Sting backstage and along with MMA/UFC shoot fighter Tank Abbott the three attacked Sting. Scott then sic'd a Doberman on Sting. The Steiner Brothers reunion did not last long though as Scott had to undergo a serious back surgery that nearly ended his career. Rick continued to wrestle single as well as team with other heels.
Hollywood Hogan was injured and took a couple of months off in the summer and came back as the babyface Hulk Hogan and wearing his trademark yellow-and-red for the first time in three years. He also became a babyface and even "Hulked up!" for the first time in three years when he became Hollywood Hogan. While Hogan was out, the nWo just faded away and was nothing but a distant memory.
Hogan won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the sixth and final time on his return on the July 12, 1999 episode of Nitro when he defeated "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Hogan was involved in a feud with his former nWo buddy Kevin Nash. Hogan defeated Nash at Road Wild in August and the loser was forced to "retire."
Hogan next entered a feud with Sting over the fact whether Sting could trust Hogan or not as Lex Luger told Sting not to trust Hogan as he was the same old Hollywood Hogan. Hogan gave Sting a title shot at Fall Brawl in September.
During the course of the match, numerous wrestlers interfered on both men's behalf. Luger attempted to hit Hogan with a baseball bat. But Sting got the bat and attacked Hogan with it, knocking him out and winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and turned heel for the first time in his illustrious WCW career.
Sting's heel run was a disaster from the standpoint of the fans cheered for him very loudly as they were still on Sting's side. Even when an un-face painted Sting attacked WCW Commissioner James J. Dillon for Dillon stripping Sting of the WCW World Title due to his actions at Halloween Havoc, the fans cheered very loudly for Sting beating the hell out of him.
Sting quickly turned back to a babyface when he was betrayed by Luger. They fought at Starrcade '99 and Luger "broke" Sting's arm with the bat and a steel chair. Sting returned in early 2000 to settle the score with The Total Package.
About six years after nearly stabbing Arn Anderson to death and getting fired from WCW because of it, Sid Vicious returned to WCW in June 1999. Sid began this "Millennium Man" gimmick where he was undefeated since returning to WCW and would remain undefeated through the new millennium and would even do better than Goldberg's 173-0 record. Sid lost twice to Goldberg at Halloween Havoc and the new PPV Mayhem ending his unbeaten streak.
WCW was suffering with their first financial losses since 1995. Eric Bischoff continued to build WCW with aging stars in their 40s and even 50s such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Scott Hall, and Sid Vicious making millions of dollars with fat guaranteed contracts.
The younger stars especially the Cruiserweights were never getting pushes whatsoever and were buried. Bischoff also got criticism for taking the World Title off of Goldberg and ending his undefeated streak at Starrcade '98 despite Goldberg being the top draw and him earning nearly $1 million for three shows in December 1998 and January 1999.
WCW was struggling in the second half of 1999 and there were reports that the company was losing approximately $5 million a month. Overall attendance, PPV buys, and ratings were down signficantly. Bischoff knew he needed to turn this around quick or else he'd be out of a job.
Bischoff decided to bring in bands such as KISS, Megadeth, and Insane Clown Posse in to try and raise more awareness and bring more eyes to WCW. KISS was brought in specifically to have their own wrestler the "KISS Demon" which failed dramatically. Having older bands like KISS and Megadeth (I liked Megadeth) instead of what was in at the time like Limp Bizkit and any kind of rap hip pop bombed.
Insane Clown Posse (ICP) came to wrestle in WCW after a brief stint in the WWE in 1998 as they were actual wrestlers despite being known as rappers. They teamed with Raven (before he left WCW), Vampiro, The Great Muta, and The Demon to form the Dark Carnival from 1999-2000. ICP have their own pro wrestling promotion: Juggalo Championship Wrestling.
WCW also brought in Rapper Master P who created a stable called The No Limit Soldiers with a group of wrestlers led by Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr. They feuded with The West Texas Rednecks (Curt Hennig, Barry and Kendall Windham, and Bobby Duncam Jr.) over the Rednecks hating rap music and preferred country.
The Rednecks had this total country redneck gimmick and even recorded a song titled "Rap is Crap (I Hate Rap)." The Soldiers were supposed to be faces while the Rednecks were supposed to be heels. However in the mainly southern-based WCW, the Rednecks were the faces and the Soldiers were heels. The gimmick bombed tremendously.
The super decline in ratings, attendance, PPV buys along with serious financial losses and bombed gimmicks were enough for President of Turner Sports and Bischoff's boss Harvey Schiller, who relieved Eric Bischoff of his duties of President of WCW on September 10, 1999.
The job title of "President of WCW" was eliminated and Bischoff was replaced by WCW accountant Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President. Busch would soon hire WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara on October 5, 1999.
Russo and Ferrara were the writers, Russo head writer, of WWF Raw and their pay-per-views which ultimately went from losing to WCW to beating WCW. Some of Russo's ideas to turn the WWF around was the rise of the Stone Cold Steve Austin character and him fighting with Vince McMahon, who was then known as "Mr. McMahon."
He also came up with D-Generation X, The Rock, Kane vs. The Undertaker, and Mick Foley. His edgy and controversial storylines took Raw from losing to Nitro in the ratings for 84 straight weeks to ultimately beating Nitro as Raw would continue to do so after Russo and Ferrara left.
Russo and Ferrara left the WWF because of the long hours dealing with Vince McMahon as well as an increased workload with the debut of their new hit show SmackDown. WCW wanted Russo and Ferrara to produce the same style of "Crash TV" that the WWF produced in the Attitude Era to increase the ratings.
Russo and Ferrara were given this on-screen gimmick known as "The Powers That Be." They would not be shown on TV only a shadow of them or the backs of their chairs as Russo's voice was heard. Ferrara gained a ton of heat for his "Oklahoma" character where he portrayed Jim Ross with his face purposely slumped due to Ross' bouts of Bells Palsy, which disfigured his face. Pretty much everyone rightfully so hated this.
The Powers That Be often favored the heels over the babyfaces and forced the faces to do things they did not want to do in threats of being fired and often screwed the faces over. Russo decided to take a lot of the older talent in WCW such as Hulk Hogan, Sting, and Ric Flair among many others off of TV at the end of 1999 to make it look like he was ruining them and burying them.
His plan was to build them back up like they were superheroes and come back better than ever to take out the younger guys and Russo. He had Hogan lay down in the middle of the ring in his match against Sting at Halloween Havoc, allowing Sting to simply pin him to win the match and Hogan left the ring never to be seen on TV the rest of the year. He also had Flair buried in a desert somewhere after Halloween Havoc.
Unfortunately, this plan would not go on as planned as Russo was removed as head writer and let go of WCW briefly in January 2000. With the ratings continuing to plummet, WCW needed to bring back Hogan, Flair, and Sting before what was originally planned for damage control as unfortunately there was no storylines for their return and could not get built up.
The Powers That Be even had their "Chosen One" in Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett returned to WCW after a two-year stint in the WWF on the October 18, 1999 episode of Nitro, where he hit Buff Bagwell with a guitar and proclaimed himself "The Chosen One."
Jarrett continued a habit he had in the WWF where he would break a guitar over a wrestler's head and would do so for the remainder of WCW. Jarrett's return to WCW came one night after he lost the WWF Intercontinental Championship to female wrestler Chyna at the WWF No Mercy PPV as he left the company that night. Jarrett appeared on WWF TV one night and on WCW TV the next.
Jarrett's contract expired the day before the PPV and in order for him to show up and lose the title to Chyna, he reportedly held up Vince McMahon for $300,000 or else he wouldn't show. Jarrett appeared and there is bad blood between the WWE and Jarrett this day.
Bret Hart finally got the big break in WCW he had hoped for since being in the company for two years. At the inaugural Mayhem PPV on November 21 in Toronto in Hart's home country of Canada, Hart defeated Sting in the semifinals and Chris Benoit in the finals of the tournament to win the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.
Hart also became the only man to win both the WWF/E and WCW Triple Crown Championship.Hart had a new number one contender for his World Title in Goldberg and Hart defended the title against him in the main event at Starrcade '99. During the match, Goldberg gave Hart a superkick and kicked him so hard it gave Hart a concussion, which he did not know he had.
Hart said he suffered up to an additional three concussions in this match due to the hard blows he received to his head by Goldberg and Hart said the kick tore a muscle in his neck that still remains to this day. This concussion ultimately ended his wrestling career and forced him to retire in 2000. Some believe that the concussions ultimately triggered his stroke he suffered in 2002.
The end of the match saw the referee get knocked down. Hart put Goldberg in the Sharpshooter. With the referee down, Roddy Piper came to the ring and called for the bell and awarded the match to Hart despite Goldberg not submitting. This was reminiscent of the Montreal Screwjob in 1997 as Hart was on the other end of the screwjob. Hart walked back to the dressing confused as to what was going on.
The next night on the December 20, 1999 episode of Nitro, it was revealed that Vince Russo forced Piper to call for the bell to make up for what happened to Hart in Montreal in 1997. Hart did not want to win the title this way so he vacated it and decided to take on Goldberg in the main event that night for the vacant World Title.
Again the referee was knocked out in the match. Hart had Goldberg in the Figure Four Leg Lock when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash entered the ring with baseball bats looking to attack both men. Then they suddenly just hit Goldberg with the bats and did not touch Hart. Hart grabbed one of the bats and began whacking Goldberg with it aligning himself with Hall and Nash.
Piper came out to confront the men only for Jeff Jarrett to come to the ring and knock Piper out with his guitar. Hart covered Piper actually not Goldberg but the referee regained consciousness and counted three as Hart won back the World Title. The foursome celebrated by spray-painting "nWo" on Goldberg and Piper and the nWo music played as the nWo once again formed.
They referred to themselves as "nWo 2000" and had black-and-silver instead of the traditional black-and-white. They controlled all of the main titles in WCW as Hart was WCW World Champion, Jarrett was United States Champion, and Hall and Nash were World Tag Team Champions.
The following week on the December 27 episode of Nitro, Scott Steiner came to the ring wearing a back brace and gave an emotional speech that he was retiring due to his back injury. The nWo 2000 came out and mocked him and told him to get out of the ring.
Later that night, Steiner came to the ring wearing his back brace and carrying a baseball bat along with Sid Vicious as they were going to take out the nWo. As Sid was about to Powerbomb Jarrett, Steiner hit Sid with the bat.
He took off his brace and shirt to show he was wearing an nWo t-shirt as he was part of the nWo. They continued to beat on Sid and threw him into a car and were about to run him over in an nWo Monster Truck as the show went off the air.
WCW tried to bring back the nWo one last time to try to turn things around but it would not last too long. The angle would be over early in 2000 when injuries and other interests ended the nWo once and for all in WCW.
WCW entered the final year of the decade/century/millennium with all the momentum on their side only to pretty much destroy it in one year. There was no one thing that ruined WCW it was a collective number of things. One year after making a whopping $50 million, WCW lost $15 million in 1999. The WWF topped what WCW made in 1998-99 by making $56 million.
However as they went into the new millennium, the worst was yet to come. What WCW lost in 1999 was nothing compared to what they were about to endure in 2000.
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