Monday Night War - January to June 1996 (Podcast Question)

[JaymeFuture]

This week we'll be recording Part 2 of our History of the Monday Night War series, where we go through the timeline of shows and break down the key stories with backstage notes from Observer newsletters of the time.

In this podcast, we'll be covering the first six months of 1996, and I want to get some feedback of people's memories, particularly if you were watching at the time, of your experiences watching.

- What were your viewing habits and feelings on both shows at the time?
- What do you feel was the high point of this period?
- What do you feel was the low point of this period?

As always, we'll be reading the best feedback on the air and crediting you accordingly to discuss your comments. So what do you think?

(and if you're interested in the series, you can listen to Part 1, covering 1995 here: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/feznb8/SCGRadio22-TheMondayNightWarin1995.mp3)

[BigBadMick]

Well, since you went ahead and took it on......

 

I wasn't watching either group at the time (just had a nice old auntie taping PPVs for me) but have since given the Raws the good look through.

 

Good - Bringing in Mankind, Austin, Mero, Goldust, Vader. They weren't all necessarily immediate hits, but over time they found useful spots in the roster and contributed something positive (to say the very least).

Build to Bret-Shawn was great, but it was the biggest match they had and by God did they let you know about it.

 

Bad - Billionaire Ted. Vince lost Hogan and Savage and he just had a very hard time getting over it.

Warrior. Every last moment on screen was horrible, or else went nowhere ultimately.

Ahmed Johnson. He wasn't very good in the ring.

[Petey]

I was 9 years old.

 

I watched Nitro almost exclusively, thanks to Hulk Hogan. I started watching wrestling really young and Hulk was my favorite. I distinctly remember Elizabit's high heel OF DOOM. I only followed the WWF through the recap shows. I didn't have the internet yet or anything, so I was a total mark.

 

The high point was the early Outsiders stuff. The episode of Nitro where Hall and Nash bought tickets to the show but jumped the rails and then Team WCW ran out and they had a small army of police officers separate the two stuff was just incredible (I had actually forgotten about that specific angle until I rewatched it a couple of years ago... it also might have taken place in July but I think it was June).

 

I was pretty stoked about Ultimate Warrior returning to the WWF as I was a huge Warrior fan. I don't have a ton of WWF memories from that time since I was pretty locked into WCW.

 

I can't really give you a low point. I've been rewatching 96 WCW on The Network and I'm finally into June. I guess the super cage match at Uncensored was just awful, and it really was, but none of that overly cartoony Hogan stuff bothered me at the time. If I were 20 years old, it probably would've been different, but 9 year old me was fine with all that stuff.