10 Times KARMA WAS REAL In Wrestling

1. January 4, 1999

Shawn Michaels
WWE

While January 4, 1999 was hardly the beginning of WCW's inexorable and fatal decline, it was the moment that underscored their complete inability to arrest it.

Nitro emanated from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, pulled in a monster crowd of 38,809, and was hyped, massively, via a first-ever meeting between Hulk Hogan and. Kevin Nash battling for supremacy of the nWo, which had been split into Hollywood and Wolfpac sub-units.

For the second consecutive year, WCW gave away vast sums of would-be pay-per-view money in the exact same building, but they at least got the result right in 1998. In 1999, bereft of any ideas, the nWo, a dead group that had done rather too effective a job of killing WCW, was reformed when Nash infamously poked Hogan in the chest. The angle was dire in and of itself. New World Order fatigue was profound, and what's worse, the WCW fandom had lost total faith in the promotion's ability to pay it all off.

Almost like Eric Bischoff couldn't oversee one of his beloved stories.

Meanwhile, on the taped WWF Raw, Mankind won the big one in one of the loudest, chaotic and heartwarming angles in the history of US wrestling. At his most arrogant, Bischoff instructed Tony Schiavone to bury the development.

"That'll put the butts in the seats," Tony was instructed to scoff, as...

...600,000 viewers changed the channel from TNT to USA, and WCW never again won a single battle in the Monday Night Wars.

In truth, the WWF had dominated October '98, but there was nothing in the December 28 battle, which Raw narrowly edged 4.9 to 4.6.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!