Smack2k Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Was looking through the ratings history of WCW Nitro and noticed some strange things in terms of their numbers against when most say it was going down.. 1. Starrcade 97 / 1998 - Nitro was still pulling REALLY good numbers (higher than 97 on average) and they had a spike during the NWO split, so although it seemed they were making the NWO drag on and on, when looking at the ratings, you can see why they continued with it. High 4's, low 5's and even a 6 sneaks in in November. Heading to Starrcade, things looked good. They were trailing the WWF, but some weeks it was only by a few tenths and others a bit more, but still had nice numbers..so the Starrcade 1997 end didnt really take them down a lot. It did hurt them from really taking over, but didnt turn things negative. 2. Starcade 1998 Goldberg Loss / Finger Poke of Doom 1999 - Heading out of the Jan 4 1999 Fingerpoke, Nitro's numbers stayed good and even went up a little. Jan 4- 4.9 Jan 11 - 5.0 (they went up a tenth after the Fingerpoke) After this, they fluctuate from mid 4's to mid to high 5's (with one 3.9) through Mar 8, when they pulled a 5.7. Following the 5.7, WCW numbers began to drop quickly with a 3.9 on March 15 and from then on a few low 4's and mostly low and high 3's as highs from that point on and continued to go down from there until WCW's end. March 8 was Scott Steiner vs. Booker T (TV Title) / Rey Mysterio's giant killer push as well as a main event of Goldberg vs. Ric Flair (with Nash and Hogan taking over the announcing) and another ending of the NWO A and B Teams attacking Flair and Goldberg as Nitro went off the air. That weekend, Uncensored 1999 was on PPV and after that, literally over two million and some viewers said "Fuck This" I am done and didnt come back. What's strange is that Uncensored (except the strange cage match with 100 different rules) was a decent show. March 15 had a Flair / Goldberg vs. Hogan / Nash main event but still only got a 3.9 So looking at the TV numbers, some of the things commonly said to have killed WCW really doesnt look that way after checking the numbers out, it was their issues of how they booked the re-united NWO, and even that was given a few months chance, including the Hogan / Flair sereis that good a decent buyrate and ratings on TV. I know this isnt 100% perfect reasoning, but interesting to see from a ratings standpoint how people were watching Nitro and when they actually left...after a Hogan vs. Flair title match! Funny to see what took it to the top (Flair bringing WCW into mainstrean and then Hogan heel turn taking it to next leve) also be the last BIG thing they did in terms of ratings. Also, just thinking of this, there is one reason that is given that carries water - Nash's booking killed WCW...the time frames match up with the ratings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Brian, Starrcade 1997 is interesting in the fact that as you say business was till really good for WCW in 1998. In fact I think that was their most profitable year. I just look to it as a tipping point and is a real concrete example of when significant cracks began to rise. For comparison, the main benefactors that caused the Enron scandel occurred in the mid 1990's. Enron prospered for years afterwards and showed significant earnings growth but when the bottom fell out it was easy to look back at that one point and show it as the deciding factor that started the ball rolling towards collapse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smack2k Posted October 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Yeah, I completely agree with you, but I thought it was interesting how viewership tended to grow after that show. Most of their biggest ratings were during the split NWO time in 1998 all the way through the Hogan / Warrior stuff, so it made sense why they kept doing that angle, as it was getting viewers. I know what you are saying about the tipping point and such, but I have seen many people over the years talking about how bad WCW was getting by 1998, with the split NWO and such, and I agree, but new viewers looked to be tuning in to see it and stuck around until March 1999. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Guys, look at this: Why is there a peak every September? You can see in Sept 98, Sept 99 and Sept 00 Nitro pulled bigger than average ratings and Raw's ratings for those weeks took a dive. Why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Guys, look at this: Why is there a peak every September? You can see in Sept 98, Sept 99 and Sept 00 Nitro pulled bigger than average ratings and Raw's ratings for those weeks took a dive. Why? The USA Network had coverage of U.S. Open tennis, which pre-empted Raw or moved it to another night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Wow that's interesting. So even in 2000 there were still a whole ton of wrestling fans who'd rather watch WCW than no wrestling at all on a Monday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm funk Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 The 3/15/99 RAW was 2 weeks before WM and had 3 title matches, a steel cage match, Shane McMahon v. Patterson & Brisco, and an Austin & Mankind v. The Rock & Big Show WCW's booking didn't help, but it coincided with arguably the hottest period of the attitude era, the peak of Austin v. McMahon, when Rock was firmly becoming a superstar on Austin's level and Mankind was established right below that level. WCW could have been well booked and I don't think they could have competed with all that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Pete got to it before I did. Those always were "throw them out" ratings, just like the Dog Show week. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 The 3/15/99 RAW was 2 weeks before WM and had 3 title matches, a steel cage match, Shane McMahon v. Patterson & Brisco, and an Austin & Mankind v. The Rock & Big Show WCW's booking didn't help, but it coincided with arguably the hottest period of the attitude era, the peak of Austin v. McMahon, when Rock was firmly becoming a superstar on Austin's level and Mankind was established right below that level. WCW could have been well booked and I don't think they could have competed with all that We can talk about this till the cows come home I guess, but with one of the most amazing rosters of talent ever assembled both on the mic and in the ring, I think a well-booked WCW could have matched or even beaten what WWF was doing. In 1999, on paper at least, WCW arguably possessed the best roster of all time. Drop all the NWO bullshit and book solidly and just by virtue of who they had something good should have come of it. There's all sorts of shit they could have done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Austin & Mankind v. The Rock & Big Show Nothing to do with the original topic but man it's fucking weird to think that The Big Show is nearing in on being a 20 year vet, I still remember his debut clear as day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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