9 Ways WWE Raw Broke GOOD Ratings Records 20 Years Ago

9. WWE's (First) Highest Ever Rating For A Raw OR Nitro - February 22nd 1999

Raw would go on to break this record repeatedly as the remaining years of the Monday Night War progressed, but hadn't ever been able to lay claim for one that smashed anything either company had been capable of during the 1990s boom.

Across the 83 weeks Nitro held all the cards, WCW set new record highs it'd take years for WWE to surpass. In February 1999, they finally managed it. As reported in the Wrestling Observer, Raw's 5.9 on the 22nd of the month was the best number either show had ever achieved since going head-to-head five years earlier.

Ironically, by the time Raw scorched the opposition (Nitro's 3.9 was apparently enough to trigger utter panic in Atlanta), they didn't really have much time to toast it. The flagship became a juggernaut almost instantly in the wake of breaking Nitro's streak a year earlier. Back-and-forth battles were kicked into a cocked hat by the controversial Hulk Hogan/Kevin Nash "Fingerpoke Of Doom" clash on January 4th, clearing the path for WWE to do this far more comfortably than they'd perhaps ever imagined.

Week after week, the company's stratospheric rise continued undaunted by something that no longer even resembled opposition. Literally one week after claiming this big "W", they took another one...