by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

[Note from the present day: it was an annual tradition, first at WrestleManiacs and then at WrestleLine, for me to publish a RAW vs. Nitro retrospective every September to commemorate the start of the Monday Night Wars on September 4, 1995.  Then, WCW went out of business in 2001, and the tradition died.  But here, on our usual sanctioned "OOld School" day, we're gonna go back and revive it!

My detailed final edition of the the Monday Night Wars feature will be published in serial fashion over the next few Thursdays.  The publication schedule means that the final parts will be posted here at OO on Thursday, September 4: the exact 8 year anniversary of the beginning of the RAW vs. Nitro battle!

I've been meaning for almost two years now to publish this feature at OO, and having a weekly throwback column has finally motivated me to dust it off, reformat it, and present it here for posterity.  It has been polished and corrected a bit since 2001 -- most references should be current, though I refused to change "WWF" to "WWE" at any point along the way -- and should stand as my "final word" on the Monday wars.  Enjoy.]

Year Four:  What's good for the Goose.... 
August 31, 1998 - August 23, 1999 (Part Five of Eight)

YEAR FOUR MONDAY NIGHT WAR SNAPSHOT 
Click Here for Head-to-Head Ratings Chart for Year Four 
Head to Head Battles: 48 
Nitro Wins: 2 
RAW Wins: 46 
Draws: 0 
Nitro Average Rating: 4.0 (down 0.3 from Year Three) 
RAW Average Rating: 5.7 (up 2.0 from Year Three) 
Combined Average Rating: 9.7 (up 1.6 from Year Three) 
Unopposed Nights: 4 (three for Nitro and one for RAW) 
Highest Head to Head Rating: 7.2 for RAW (on May 23, 1999) 
Largest Margin of Victory: 3.7 for RAW (on July 26, 1999) 
Longest Winning Streak: 41 weeks for RAW (spanning November 2, 1998 - August 23, 1999)

RAW came roaring back in Year Three, but at the end of the third year, Nitro made a mini-comeback of its own, winning the last three head-to-head battles... and Nitro looked to be serious about reclaiming its role of undisputed #1 on Monday nights as they also won the first battle in Year Four.

On the strength of Ric Flair's memorable and emotional return to WCW on September 14, 1998, Nitro beat RAW by a tally of 4.5 to 4.0. WCW also won the night on October 26, 1998, the night they aired the previous night's DDP/Goldberg PPV main event for free on cable TV.

They lost all other 46 head-to-head battles in Year Four. It was a total turn-around from Year Two and the first half of Year Three. Pick your favorite cliché: "Turnabout's fair play," or "What's good for the goose is good for the gander," or "What goes around comes around".... they all apply.

Instead of building on the strength of Flair's return, WCW instead pushed Flair to the back burner almost immediately, hyping the Hogan vs. Warrior feud (to consistently diminishing ratings as fans got sick of the Warrior's pathetic super-hero shtick). They could have built on successes, but instead got their only other ratings win of Year Four thanks to a cheap ratings gimmick (giving away a PPV match for free).

It should be noted, however, that WCW remained very strong for the rest of calendar 1998, and even into the first two months of 1999. In fact, over it's four year run, Nitro scored a 5.0 or better only six times, and three of those came in January '99. Nitro was still alive, kicking, and extremely healthy even six months into the WWF's dominance.  Fans may have made RAW the industry's #1 show, but they were still supporting Nitro and WCW's general direction as they pushed Goldberg as their champ and kept some interesting things going on underneath.

But as 1999 continued, WCW began hemorrhaging viewers. With the WWF dominating the top spot for the latter three months of 1998, WCW decided that Goldberg was part of the problem, and removed him as champ in favor of the recently "retired" Hulk Hogan. Goldberg went from undefeated monster to just another guy when Kevin Nash beat him for the title, and then Goldberg was dropped to a mid-card feud with Scott Hall, while Nash dropped the title to Hogan. Just like that, the Goldberg mystique -- built up over 18 undefeated months -- was dead.

Ric Flair also lost his sizzle. He had gotten strong crowd responses as the "living legend" leader of the babyface Four Horsemen, but was slowly phased into more and more ludicrous matches against the less-than-credible Eric Bischoff.  Because of this slip-shod booking, Flair's legitimacy as a top contender was completely shot by the time he finally got his main event shot to feud against Hogan for the WCW Title; crowd responses in those matches actually had the effect of jump-starting a Ric Flair heel turn (where his character would become even further bastardized) and planting the idea in Hulk Hogan's head that he could make another run as a babyface.

Fellow geriatric Roddy Piper was also brought back for a run and pushed into an important role, first as a babyface foe to Ric Flair, and then as his heel compatriot. And fans didn't really care.  It seemed they had finally caught on to the fact that the Hogans and Pipers of the world weren't Established, Veteran Megastars; rather, they were Washed-Up Oldtimers responsible for holding back more interesting (if not necessarily younger) performers.  Kevin Nash, Goldberg, Sting, and Bret Hart, arguably four guys who fans cared about and could have helped WCW out of its funk were out of the spotlight, either nursing injuries, taking personal time off, or languishing in underneath programs. Chris Jericho got huge crowd responses with his riffing on Goldberg, but was told he wouldn't get a shot at the big man because he was not a "credible" opponent; he began getting buried on TV, and after an injury, never appeared on TV again until it was time to debut for the WWF, late in Year Four (joining WCW's other promising under-30 performer, Paul "Big Show" Wight in making the jump). It was inconceivable that WCW would want to tank on purpose, but their handling of their talent roster in the first three months of 1999 really makes you wonder.

In January '99, Nitro would regularly pull upper-4's and even banged out a few 5's. Just two months later, they were lucky to average a 4.0 for the month of March. And a few weeks after that, on April 19, Nitro scored a 4.1, the last time the show would break the 4 barrier. On the last Monday of Year Four, Nitro earned only a 2.9, marking the first time since March of '97 that Nitro failed to break a 3.

By contrast, the WWF scored a 4.9 on December 29, 1998, and  scored a 5.0 or better every week for about the next two years (until a jump to a new network contributed to a drop in viewership). At the same time WCW began slumping badly, the WWF was gearing up for WrestleMania 15. In late '98, upper 4's were standard for RAW. As the build-up to the big WM PPV continued, RAW was steady in the mid-upper-5's. After WM, RAW's audience only grew, as the WWF would routinely score ratings in excess of 6 on Mondays. RAW has even broken the 7.0 barrier; they did it first on the night following Owen Hart's tragic death, but proved that it would not take such a morbid occasion to garner a huge audience when they duplicated the feat on many later dates.

As hot as the WWF was, and as cold as WCW had started to run, it was only a matter of time before something had to give. Ted Turner's deep pockets notwithstanding, WCW would not be permitted to lose money and have itself thrashed at the hands of their rival to the north.

In the latter part of Year Four, Eric Bischoff's last big push to rebuild WCW as a success entailed massive use of "crossover" stars, as the company featured various musical performances and in-ring participation of non-wrestlers. These decisions met with sub par ratings, proving that on a wrestling show, fans expect to see the wrestlers as the stars. Even more mind-boggling is that when things seemed at their worst, Bischoff turned to rapper/businessman Percy Miller (a/k/a "Master P") to become a major performer for WCW. Master P led his "No Limit Soldiers" faction in WCW, and they flopped so badly that P and his huge contract were cut from WCW inside of a few weeks. Underscoring just how badly Bischoff and WCW had calculated: the erstwhile heel foes of the No Limit Soldiers -- the West Texas Rednecks led by the late Curt Hennig -- became a mild babyface sensation because of their tormenting of the rappers.

If Bischoff's use of crossover stars marked Year Four's most obvious use of the desperation "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" philosophy last used years previous by the WWF, then WCW would set new standards for desperation and backstage chaos in the coming Year Five. Ted Turner's wrestling company would do ANYTHING to reverse their fortunes and unseat the WWF... as you'll see as this series continues, in Year Five, they even did some of those things twice.

MILESTONES AND MINUTIAE: Wrestling's combined audience first topped a 10.0 on January 4, 1999.... RAW and Nitro went on to combine for a 11.0 for the first (and ONLY) time on May 24, 1999.... the first 6.0 rating in head-to-head battle came when RAW scored a on March 1, 1999 (they actually pulled a 6.4).... RAW also scored the first 7.0 in straight-up competition, with a 7.2 on May 24, 1999....

Continued in "RAW vs. Nitro: Year Five"...

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