jj60

I keep reading that the Fingerpoke of Doom killed the WCW. In fact I would argue it helped save the WCW. The WWE machine would like you to believe that the Fingerpoke of Doom killed the ratings but it actually helped ratings. So did the Warrior's return despite the hatchet job by the WWE media.

the ratings for the 5 shows before Fingerpoke of Doom:

4.2
4.2
4.2
3.7
4.6 (4.18 total average, Raw averaged 4.98)

4.9 (fingerpoke of Doom, Raw did 5.7)

next 5 shows:

5
4.4
5
4.7
5.7 (unopposed to Raw this week)

4.96 average that stretch (Raw was 5.61). The Fingerpoke of doom week did 5.7 for Raw. In fact in the next 3 weeks Raw did 5.5, 5.55, and 5.5. So that didn't immediately add fans to the WWF.

The Thunder that happened right after the Fingerpoke (3 days later) did a 4.2 ratings which was the best Thunder rating ever.

In fact the only 6 week ratings stretch ever for Nitro that was better happened when Nitro went 2 weeks straight unopposed to Raw and had Warrior return. Speaking of Warrior's return that did well too. If I remember correctly, the WWE said the ratings dropped like a rock during Warrior's segment which isn't true. Warrior's return did a 6.4 rating while the Raw match at the time was doing a 3.1. Overall that Nitro did a 4.9 so I imagine the rest of the show did really bad if it that far off the 6.4 rating the Warrior's return gave them.

5 week average before Warrior return: 4.48 rating
8/17/98 Warrior return: 4.9
8/24: 5.2 (Nitro's highest rating ever to date)
8/31: 6.0 (Raw did not air this week)
9/7: 5.5 (Raw did not air)
9/14: 4.5

There were only a few times that the WCW did a 5 rating or better on a monday going against the WWF.

4/20/98: 5.1 (Goldberg/Raven, Hogan/Macho Man)
8/24/98: 5.2 (1 week after Warrior's return)
10/26/98: 5.1 (replay of Goldberg/DDP HH match that was cut short on PPV)


01/11/99: 5 (1 week after Fingerpoke of Doom, I thought it killed the WCW?)
1/25/99: 5 (3 weeks after Fingerpoke of Doom)
3/08/99: 5.7 (over 2 months after Fingerpoke of Doom)

That's right, the best ever WCW rating head to head vs. Raw happened 2 months after the Fingerpoke of Doom. So much for that narrative. You can probably guess that the top 3 WCW PPV buys were hogan/sting, hogan/rodman vs. DDP/malone, and goldberg/Nash. Do you want to guess what #4 was? It was Uncensored in Feb 99 (1.1 PPV buyrate) which was over a month after the fingerpoke of doom.

The Fingerpoke didn't kill them, it helped. Here are monthly ratings:

Nov 98: 4.24
Dec 98: 4.18
Jan 99: 4.8 (Fingerpoke month)
Feb 99: 4.78
Mar 99: 4.44 (but they did have their highest head to head rating in this month)
Apr 99: 4.1
May 99: 3.48
Jun 99: 3.25

Pretty soon the WCW was consistently getting 3 ratings until Russo came in Sep 99. So based on that data, the WCW died sometime in March or April, not after Fingerpoke. What happened is they failed to capitalize on the momentum of the Fingerpoke and the WWF was coming off of a Rock/Austin Wrestlemania. You can see the falloff in the PPV buyrates. 99 had a few of the worst PPV buys ever for the WCW to that point.

1 *Dec-99 *Starcade *0.23 *Bret/Goldberg
2 *Sep-99 *Fall Brawl *0.35 *Sting/Hogan
4 *Jul-99 *Bash at the Beach *0.39 *Savage/Sid vs. Sting/Nash
5 *Jun-99 *Great American Bash *0.43 *Savage/Nash
10 *Nov-99 *Mayhem *0.45 *Bret Hart wins Tournament


So they had 4 of the 5 worst PPV buyrates of the 94-99 timeframe happen from June 99 to December 99.

Sho'nuff

Simple, they own the large majority of wrestling history, therefor they can revise it as much as they please, as long as it benefits them.

I'm glad you posted all this, as maybe people can finally understand that WWE has different accounts regarding WCW over the years and the WWE production won't give Bischoff & crew extensive credit for anything.

Bad thing is some marks are dumb enough to assume the Fingerpoke killed WCW or Warrior's debut hurt them. Another sign of WWE revising history to benefit them, just like the bullshit they did back in the day, regarding tournaments & title switches that never happened.

__________________

Yosihait

Because the history is written by the winners.

There are a lot of stupid people out there that swallow everything WWE tells.

But you're right- They know nothing at WWE.

Dexter Morgan

They can revise all they want, fans remember what happened, plus once it happens, its in the record books for life. Just makes WWE look lame and stupid for thinking they can fool anyone.

sm0ked0gg

just like every countries books in school are scwed a little bit to favor them....

also, injuries started taking a lot of people off tv, and killed the reformed wolfpac angle

WWETopTen

The victor will never be asked if he's telling the truth.

__________________
My Top Ten Favorite Wrestlers of All-Time
1. Stone Cold Steve Austin
2. The Rock
3. Undertaker
4. Kane
5. Shawn Michaels
6. CM Punk
7. Ryback
8. Taz
9. Sheamus
10. Mick Foley

Those are my top ten and I really don't care who agrees or disagrees.
PS- I HATE SMARKS!

wrestlespot

THIS

JOAL.com

I dont get what history they really changed

Hogan vs Warrior was one of the worst, most retarded match/feuds ever, and the fingerpoke of doom was a major sign where shit was going wrong in WCW

Ratings or not, both showed a clear lack of logic and direction. And in the future it showed. Sting vs Hogan drew insane buyrates, but it still went down in a fucking retarded way. Goldberg vs Hogan did massive ratings, but it was still horribly booked

__________________

ScottishLuchador

Is it a common claim from WWE that Fingerpoke of Doom instrumental in killing WCW? Can't say I've ever seen them be so specific but I could be wrong.

I would also argue that ratings aren't everything, it wasn't lack of ratings that killed WCW as such, it was poor booking, misdirected talent and a core of workers/writers that were too high on themselves.

__________________
"Act 1 and Act 2: they don't mean nothing...the only thing that matters....everyone remembers....... Act 3" - The Rock @ Wrestlemania 19

jj60

The WWE mentions that Nitro never beat Raw again in the ratings after the Fingerpoke of Doom which implies that the Fingerpoke of Doom did huge damage to the WCW.