10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Raw From 1996

7. The Significance Of 8 April

vader yokozuna.jpg
WWE.com

According to guys like Kevin Nash, Vince McMahon no-sold every damaging episode the WWF suffered. If the boss wasn't going to sell a federal government investigation, then he damn sure wasn't going to let his roster see how much pressure WCW was putting him under by 1996.

Privately, it was a different story.

McMahon could see that Eric Bischoff was getting the jump on him by putting Nitro's start time forward by three minutes to 8.57pm. So, Vince had a chat with suits at the USA Network and convinced them to do the same for Raw. On 8 April they did, but the show ran unopposed.

Nitro was pre-empted that night and didn't air, so the ploy probably only succeeded in making regular viewers miss the first few minutes. Late-comers tuning in at the usual 9pm slot would've seen a Yokozuna vs. Vader match in progress.

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