Everything You DIDN’T KNOW About WCW’s Final Days

14. The Ratings War Was MUCH Closer Than You Think

You might think that the last time WCW Nitro defeated WWF Raw in a domestic ratings battle was in December 1998. The infamous ‘Finger Poke of Doom’ Nitro of January 4, 1999 is widely remembered as a tipping point of the Monday Night War. This is not entirely inaccurate - the big Hulk Hogan Vs. Kevin Nash match felt enormous, and indeed drew the strongest Nitro number since August - but the reality is that Raw had outdrawn Nitro by near enough or over a full ratings point multiple times across November and December.

The last time Nitro defeated Raw head-to-head was on October 26, 1998.

The war was a massacre in 1999, so much so that it would be fascinating to know precisely when Vince McMahon stopped asking to look at the Nitro numbers. Remember that gag in Austin Powers, where Will Ferrell’s character takes an eternity to die and describes the process in excruciating, drawn-out detail?

That was WCW; doomed in 1999, mercy-killed in 2001.

Incredibly, the ratings war was somewhat competitive. Not in 1999. In December 2000!

…in Germany!

It gets even more bananen, ja - WCW Thunder, in late 2000, which varied between the worst and least essential professional wrestling show ever produced, pick your poison, was very close to equalling Raw numbers: Thunder drew 200,000 in the last week of December, where Raw drew 230,000.

It is a gross and offensive stereotype to remark that German folk lack taste. David Hasselhoff was a great recording artist under-appreciated in his own time, and WCW Thunder in December 2000 was a compelling wrestling broadcast promoted by a company firing on all cylinders.