20 Most Horrifically Stupid Things That Ever Happened In WCW

3. The Fingerpoke Of Doom

Eight days after Starrcade 1998 (more on that in a bit), on the first Nitro of 1999, Kevin Nash was scheduled to defend his newly-won WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Goldberg in a highly anticipated rematch. The Georgia Dome, in WCW's backyard of Atlanta, was filled with fans eager to see the clash of these two superstars - and maybe see Goldberg get his title back.

Only the match never happened. Goldberg was detained by police earlier in the show for allegedly stalking Miss Elizabeth (all storyline, in case I'm not being clear), so Hollywood Hogan took his place in the match. Seconds into the Hogan-Nash encounter, Hogan poked Nash in the chest with the tip of his finger. Nash went down, Hogan pinned him to win the title, and the two men celebrated.

As the ring flooded with WCW's top heels (and Goldberg, who arrived a bit too late and was beaten down), it became clear what had happened: the New World Order had reformed. Fans at the Georgia Dome (and watching on TV) were completely turned off by the blatant bait-and-switch - what was supposed to be as big a bout as WCW could deliver had turned into an exercise in masturbation, delivered by two of the sport's all-time biggest egos. WCW would never draw the same number of fans at the Georgia Dome after this debacle.

To add self-inflicted insult to injury, earlier in the Nitro broadcast, announcer Tony Schiavone revealed (on the orders of Eric Bischoff) that Mankind would be winning the WWE Championship on the taped edition of Monday Night Raw airing simultaneously on the USA network. The plan was intended to dissuade viewers from changing the channel, but it backfired immensely - nearly a million wrestling fans switched to Raw to watch the universally-loved Mick Foley become a world champion for the first time.