Rewatching The Last Wrestling Show To Beat WWE Raw In The Ratings

This week saw WWE hit yet another record low rating for Monday Night Raw, pulling in just over 1.5 million viewers for its most recent red brand output.

It's becoming a scary recurrence to see Raw continue to hit record low after record low, and it's clear that WWE has to make some major changes if it's to stop this worrying trend. When you're the only wrestling show in town for 20 years, TV ratings are taken as a given. But now, with AEW breathing down WWE's neck, not to mention the huge TV deals in place with USA Network and FOX, this new lows surely have to force WWE's hand in regards to significant chance being implemented.

Not just did WWE hit a record low this past Monday, but the show was actually toppled in the key 18-49 demographic by the previous Wednesday's AEW Dynamite. Given WWE's monopolistic grip on the wrestling industry for two decades, it's been a while since any wrestling company can lay claim to getting a ratings win over Vince McMahon's sports entertainment company.

To be precise, it's been 22 years since WWE was on the receiving end of a ratings defeat - that coming courtesy of the October 26, 1998 episode of WCW Nitro.

Having sat down to revisit that particular Nitro - which came hot on the heels of Halloween Havoc - here's ten things that you quickly pick up on.

Interestingly, the October 26, 1998 Nitro came one night after that year's infamous Halloween Havoc PPV.

If you remember, the broadcast feed of that PPV was cut off in millions of homes before the event could conclude. For those homes, that meant that the last thing they saw was Diamond Dallas Page about to lock up with Goldberg as DDP challenged for Da Man's WCW World Championship.

Desperate to make it up to its audience, WCW replayed Page vs. Goldberg midway through this particular Nitro. The match itself holds up to this day as a barn-burner that was was a highlight of both men's careers, and the spot where DDP reverses a Jackhammer into the Diamond Cutter will still generate a huge pop from anyone who revisits this bout.

In spite of Tony Schiavone's constant reasoning that airing this PPV match on free TV had absolutely nothing to do with any ratings war, it is interesting to note that WCW opted to air the match just as Raw was starting.

Page would follow this stellar Halloween Havoc bout up by dethroning Bret Hart as United States Champion in this Nitro's main event.