
Shaun Nichols: (Against) There is a reason why Sting vs Hogan at Starrcade 1997 was the most successful WCW PPV of all-time by a large margin, it was a match that was bulit over a long period of time and when it came down to it people paid their money to see it. Rather the match was executed well is irrelevant and while I agree with Matt that the match failed, the build up did not. Even though 1998 is seen overall as a year that WCW performed well there is clear signs that the writing was about to be put on the wall, WCW became obsessed with using stars outside of professional wrestling and used such greats as Karl Malone, Dennis Rodman, Kevin Greene, Jay Leno followed by none other than the Ultimate Warrior as PPV main eventers. Goldberg beating Hogan on Nitro is simply down to panic, the show itself drew 39,000 fans before anything was announced such was the drawing power of WCW as a brand at that point. Hogan wanting to impress Turner execs wanted to face Goldberg in a dark match where he would lose in front of such a large audience confident that they would believe that it was Hogan that drew the crowd even though that was false. Infact once that WCW announced Hogan vs Goldberg would take place they sold a mere 2,000 extra tickets so well short of a sell-out. Bischoff running scared of the WWF now benefiting from Steve Austin, felt that he had no choice but to put Hogan vs Goldberg on TV. Yes it popped a great quarter rating but in a matter of weeks counted for absolutely nothing. WCW fell behind the WWF when it came for Monday Night ratings, Hogan continued to be the center of attention and although he had the belt, Goldberg was seen by WCW as very much as an afterthought. I must also point out that this match took place more than 3 months after Wrestle Mania XIV so I see that argument as very weak but must point out that because Steve Austin reached his pinnacle by winning the WWF title on PPV it solidified him as a TV draw as became evident in the months and years that followed. Goldberg also would have benefited from winning the title on PPV and so would WCW as they missed out on an easy PPV money. WCW chose to win a weekly TV rating rather than make money and in less than three years they paid the penalty for such a ridiculous strategy which they continued to repeat and they ended up going to out of business.
Hit me up on twitter @WLHSTU as none of the guys have twitter accounts with your thoughts or via email wlhstu@aol.co.uk
I have to agree with Shaun on this (sorry Matt)I personally think WCW showed just how naive they were, it was choices like this that paved the way for them going out of business. There is no way shape or form that this match should of taken place on free TV. This match would of done enormous numbers on PPV due to the fact Goldberg was white hot at the time and pretty much all WCW fans except those die hard nWo/Hogan fan wanted to see Goldberg destroy Hogan.
ReplyDeleteThat's my take on it.