https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXGLUCN3AJk The WWF and USA had a long, succesful history together. Dating back to the 80s, you could find WWF programming on their network at a variety of dates and time. And it was Vince McMahon's flagship show, Monday Night Raw, that debuted on the network in 1993 and turned into a ratings juggernaut as the years went on. It felt like the perfect pairing. That all changed in 2000 when the WWF left USA to join TNN. It seemed like an odd fit as the network had, until that time, been known as The Nashville Network. Suddenly, millions of dollars were poured into the fledgling channel as they re-branded to The National Network (and later once again to Spike TV). Gone with all the country music videos, and in with the bodyslams. To make a big impact their first night in, the WWF loaded up the card on their new home to entice viewers to make the jump with them. Their biggest draw that night was Steve Austin's return to Raw for the first time in 10 months. He came back with a vengeance to kick the whodunit storyline into a higher gear. He was out to find the man, or woman, who ran him over with a car, and of course, everyone was a suspect. It was a fun mystery, and exciting to see The Rattlesnake back. That night he was mixing it up with a variety of wrestlers who were elevated during his time away. Of course it wouldn't be an Austin return if he didn't dish out a few Stunners, which he did to Kurt Angle, William Regal and Chris Benoit. Besides Stone Cold's return, we also had Raven making his Raw debut, The Hardys defeating Edge and Christian in a ladder match, and in the main event we had The Rock defeating Chris Benoit in a WWF Title match. It was overall a hot show. WCW tried their best to try and capitalize on viewer confusion for fans who weren't aware that Raw had switched channels, and loaded up their own show...with Vince Russo vs. Booker T in the main event. What were they thinking? Well, the WWF found a new home, and fans were happy to follow them. It absolutely helped make the switch easier for fans that their first night on their new network was a great one.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
