Even though the nWo gimmick had only been around for less than a year, Eric Bischoff and WCW management viewed it as the reason for the promotion's success. After all, nWo merchandise was the biggest seller, and fans saw the renegade group as cooler than their WCW counterparts. For this reason, Bischoff decided to promote a January Pay-Per-View dedicated to the faction. Starrcade 1996 had pulled a buyrate of 0.95. Hopes were high that an entire Pay-Per-View based around the infinite drawing power of the New World Order could top that. Sadly, nWo Souled Out on January 25th, 1997 was a miserable failure, and actually posted one of WCW's lower buyrates all year. Souled Out posted a 0.45 buyrate, the worst of 1997. From a commercial standpoint, the event hadn't been a success. Worse yet, fans were far from excited by the one-sided nature of the program, which made WCW look like idiots compared to the slick nWo. Bischoff had been trying to experiment with the possibility of running both WCW and nWo Pay-Per-View, but this failure nipped that idea in the bud.
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.
