Writing in one of his books, Chris Jericho notes that there were occasions during which wrestlers paid attention to the opposition's show whilst sitting backstage at their own. On the night Jericho made his debut with the WWF in August, 1999, his buddies - including Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit - were watching on a monitor backstage at Nitro, all before being told to turn it off by WCW management. A similar situation likely happened when Kevin Nash and Scott Hall waltzed onto WCW's product in 1996, as wrestlers from the rival promotions probably couldn't help themselves and wanted to see what was going to happen. One thing is for sure, there were people watching Nitro backstage at Raw during the fateful night of March 26th, 2001, because the WWF had made sure to set up TV screens around the arena. Matt Hardy told during an interview a few years back that it was such a surreal thing to be doing, sitting watching Nitro at a WWF show, then seeing Vince McMahon appear live on air. Citing the reactions of many of his fellow WWF stars as proof that nobody knew what would happen, Hardy says there were worries amongst talent about how their schedules would be affected by the WCW acquisition.
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
