David Hunter
The Monday Night Wars: Ratings Above All
Anybody who was a fan growing up in the 1990s of either the (then) WWF or WCW knew all about the ratings war starting in 1995 with the introduction of WCW’s new flagship show: Monday Nitro. Monday Nitro debuted with a surprise appearance of Lex Luger and a foreshadowing sign as it beat out the rating for Monday Night Raw 2.5 to 2.2.
The WWF had debuted Monday Night Raw in January of 1993 and it had helped set up angles and create matches for Pay Per View in addition to its other flagship program, WWF Superstars which aired on Sundays. WCW had been bucking heads with the WWF since 1991 (and was part of the NWA prior as Jim Crockett Promotions) and WCW finally, officially, went head to head with their introduction of Monday Nitro. This was the first real battle that would have ramifications throughout the wrestling industry including talent jumping ship from one company to the other along with the heavy emphasis, still ongoing, in winning the ratings.
The now named WWE even published their own DVD, appropriately entitled, “The Monday Night War.”
It was such a bitter feud on both sides that Eric Bischoff, then on-air acting President of WCW, constantly made snide remarks about the fact that WCW Monday Nitro often ran live whereas WWF was taping their shows, “There’s even a rumor that our competition will be live next week!” This also led to situations where Eric Bischoff would openly spoil the event results of Monday Night Raw in an effort to make people stay on WCW or get an edge over the WWF’s revealing a highly hyped angle. This memorably backfired on him when Mick Foley would win his first ever WWF Title.
Worth noting is that WCW largely dominated the ratings from the get go with the exception of a handful of shows, particularly around April of 1996 when the WWF countered Monday Nitro’s start by starting Monday Night Raw three minutes before their common 9:00 PM Eastern airing time. The April and May Monday Night Raws had started the build up after WrestleMania 12 for their In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies show highlighted by Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel in a No Holds Barred Match and the Ultimate Warrior vs. Goldust.
The brief momentum that the WWF had been carrying would vanish with WCW Monday Nitro’s tactical approach, deviating from the then standard one hour episode. On May 20th, 1996 WCW’s Monday Nitro was aired for 90 minutes. The next week, May 27th, was the very first two hour edition which also featured a main event of Sting squaring off against Scott Steiner and also featured the shocking debut of Scott Hall, formerly the WWF’s Razor Ramon. WCW would pull off a 3.1 for the May 20th episode before starting to consistently pull in 3.3s or higher compared to WWF’s struggles to reach the upper 2s.
The wars continued to rage as Kevin Nash debuted while the WWF gradually countered with the debut of Mankind and the eventual evolution of Steve Austin from “The Ringmaster” to “Stone Cold” to try and counter the consistency of Monday Nitro which had catapulted itself even further in the minds of fans thanks to the Great American Bash Third Man reveal to team with Kevin Nash & Scott Hall before riding the tails of the newly formed nWo.
WCW’s reveal of the New World Order and genius turning of the then stale Hulk Hogan heel to Hollywood Hogan managed to tear away even more viewers from the WWF. By the summer and fall of 1996, the WWF was struggling to consistently remain at 2.3 or 2.4 whereas WCW was nearly almost always a full point higher to the concern that the WWF would possibly fold as a company.
Despite the obvious dominance in the ratings war, the WWF was slowly clawing their way back and started managing to get back to a consistent level of 2.5 to 2.8 by April and May of 1997, which included the debut of future wrestler Ken Shamrock as the special guest referee for the WrestleMania 13 tilt between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart.
Then the swerve heard around the world or at the very least, Canada and the United States. Survivor Series 1997 came on November 9th and the shockwave of the main event would reverberate immediately through both the WWF and WCW in the Monday Night Wars. The WWF would immediately record a then best 3.4 the night after but WCW was riding their own wave of storytelling and that story was Crow Sting going after Hollywood Hogan. Starting in August of 1997, WCW had been pushing the ratings to seemingly astronomical highs now generating in the low to mid 4s and doing so consistently despite the WWF’s push and gradual headway. WCW even hit the 5.0 barrier on August 25th.
The war was now officially on with WCW reveling in its year long storyline and the new addition of Bret Hart, another key cog jumping ship that had become commonplace throughout 1996 to 1997. WCW also began raiding ECW’s roster and would gradually bring in talent such as Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio Jr., Raven, and Perry Saturn. WCW was on cruise control in January and February of 1998 including the second instance of their Pay Per View called Souled Out that would include Chris Benoit vs. Raven, Bret Hart against Ric Flair, and Kevin Nash against The Giant.
Then came Steve Austin as WWF Champion and it was essentially over for WCW. The week before, the WWF had gotten closer than ever to WCW drawing a 3.8 to Monday Nitro’s 4.2 but WCW remained ahead. That all changed on April 6th. Steve Austin and Vince McMahon would completely ensure that nothing was ever the same for the Monday Night Wars and it was all thanks to an antagonistic Evil Boss and protagonist Redneck Beer Swilling Anti-Authority Champion. WWF would draw a massive 4.7 and from then on, the two companies would engage in back and forth slugfests up through September of 1998.
By October, the WWF had clearly taken over the Monday Night landscape as had wrestling as a whole as both companies were putting up 4.5s or higher like they were the new normal 3.0 rating. A lot of people point to Mick Foley’s WWF Title win aired on January 4th, 1999 as the day the tide turned but that really undersells what the WWF was putting out in October and November of 1998. Foley’s win helped launch the WWF into a ratings stratosphere that may not ever be seen again, including mind boggling 6s and 7s but it was really October that was the jump start the WWF needed. October 26th was their last loss to Monday Nitro which would precede massive wins of 4.8 to 4.1 on 11/2, 5 to 4.1 on 11/9, 5.5 to 4.3 on 11/16, and 4.9 to 4.3 on 11/23. For WCW, it was over.
WCW would try to use random hot shot events, most memorably Bill Goldberg defeating Hollywood Hogan in Atlanta on the July 6th, 1998 Monday Nitro, which did lead to the WWF recording their lowest rating of 4.0 since March 30th but especially by October it was too little too late and the WWF would proceed to run roughshod over Monday Nitro including a stretch of dominance from February 15th, 1999 through the final episode of Monday Nitro on March 26th, 2001.
In a lot of ways, the Monday Night Wars allowed for the very best of the WWF and WCW including memorable feuds, angles, and matches. Despite common lore, Mick Foley’s title win did not surge the WWF ahead of WCW in the ratings war but merely led the WWF into its modern day world wide global phenomena status and in effect would later help kill off WCW. By April 26th of 1999, WCW would be struggling to pull in any numbers greater than 3.5 while the WWF was the toast of the global town.
Maybe this was how the story had to end. The WWF had been getting their butts kicked throughout the mid 1990s including a stretch from June 17th, 1996 through March 30th, 1998. The end of WCW was merely a tilting of the scales, allowing for the WWF to bask in the ratings war as WCW were seen as the little company that couldn’t. There was only going to be one winner in this fight and the WWF turned out to be the tortoise, not the hare.
Credit panelsonpages.com for feature image
