10 Awful Wrestling Commentary Calls That Took Away From The Moment
3. Tony Schiavone Turns People Off (Nitro 04/01/99)
The decidedly dastardly tactic of reading out the competition's taped results during your live broadcast aside, WCW commentary perpetually suffered from a startling short sightedness when it came to their priorities.
During the Monday Night Wars, It was far from uncommon to hear the commentators tout a company triumph in the ratings or snigger at WWE’s storylines. For those who believe in Karma, or those who believe that the trend forced WWE to up their game and deliver some real surprises, the results were the same.
WCW would end up shooting themselves in the foot, with one example standing above all others as a vindictive shot that backfired in the worst way possible.
During the January 4th edition of Nitro, viewers heard announcer Tony Schiavone say:
Fans, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, fans, do not. We understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here one time as Cactus Jack, is going to win their world title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh.
An approximate 600,000 viewers changed the channel to see Mankind become WWE Champion at the top of the final hour. It should be noted that most of those homes did turn back to WCW for the overrun of the main event to see a much hyped match between Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash.
A finger poke of doom and pointless brawling later, viewers were left with a sour taste in their mouths over WCW’s product and a sense of surprise and joy about WWE.