10 Things You Didn't Know About Stone Cold & Brian Pillman Gun Angle
8. It Took Place During The First RAW To Air At 8PM EST
During the Fall of '96, WCW was on fire with the nWo having just formed that past July. Vince was desperate to gain any sort of advantage he could against Monday Nitro's rapidly increasing ratings, as well as mitigate any disadvantages that could've been hurting his flagship program.
One of McMahon's strategies was to negotiate an earlier time-slot on the USA Network.
As of the previous May, TNT had increased the length of their Monday Nitro television show to 2 hours beginning at 8 PM EST. Since RAW's debut on the USA Network in January of 1993, the Monday Night wrestling show had always begun at 9 PM EST. In Vince's mind, the fact that Nitro was starting an hour earlier did RAW ratings no favors as it allowed pro-wrestling fans to get their weekly dose a little early. Even casual viewers, Vince believed, may have intended to tune into RAW at 9 PM but forgot about it while watching Nitro.
In addition, the lead-in for RAW went from being Murder She Wrote to the much more male demographic-friendly Walker, Texas Ranger.
To kick off this new start time, Vince had planned this major angle which would surely get people talking - including the USA Network.