Your Unremarkable Shows

[James Casey]

All I'm saying is when WCW decided to blow their big matches on television in 1998, they were making a mistake then, and would be now.

 

Goldberg vs Hulk Hogan alone if saved for Starrcade could've balanced their books enough to keep them alive.

 

They could've spent 4 years building up to Goldberg vs Sting, Goldberg vs Nash, Nash vs Hall, Giant vs Hogan. They blew all those in a few months.

 

Another example: How long would AEW last if they blew their big matches on television within the first month?

 

My understanding is that WCW had an odd deal with TBS/Turner so that profits from pay-per-view buys didn't go to WCW. They made their money as a division of TBS, so as long they were riding high in the ratings, they were fine to continue operating.

 

In terms of simple narrative sense, though, Goldberg/Hogan absolutely should have been saved for a big PPV - Starrcade being the favourite for obvious reasons.

 

But Bischoff and co became obsessed with the Monday Night War, as though ratings aren't cyclical, that they threw away arguably their biggest possible match on TV. From memory there was no build to it at all - it was announced on the day, or even during the show itself.

 

It was an incredible moment, no question, but it was just that - maybe WCW's last truly great moment. It didn't lead to anything, there was no groundwork laid for Goldberg as champion, and inside of six months the nWo would be rebooted, you'd get the fingerpoke of doom...

 

Bah, I could go on, but it's neither the time nor the place!

[Makhai]

My understanding is that WCW had an odd deal with TBS/Turner so that profits from pay-per-view buys didn't go to WCW. They made their money as a division of TBS, so as long they were riding high in the ratings, they were fine to continue operating.

 

In terms of simple narrative sense, though, Goldberg/Hogan absolutely should have been saved for a big PPV - Starrcade being the favourite for obvious reasons.

 

But Bischoff and co became obsessed with the Monday Night War, as though ratings aren't cyclical, that they threw away arguably their biggest possible match on TV. From memory there was no build to it at all - it was announced on the day, or even during the show itself.

 

It was an incredible moment, no question, but it was just that - maybe WCW's last truly great moment. It didn't lead to anything, there was no groundwork laid for Goldberg as champion, and inside of six months the nWo would be rebooted, you'd get the fingerpoke of doom...

 

Bah, I could go on, but it's neither the time nor the place!

 

The match was decided on when they booked the Georgia Dome about a month beforehand. And it was booked officially the Thunder before Nitro. They spent the whole night building up the match, so to see Hogan agree to be treated like a bug on a windshield for Goldberg is still insane to me. People keep bringing this up as if it mattered. It didn't. Besides Bash 96 and War Games a few months later this is probably the biggest success story they've got.

 

Whether it was on a PPV(which weren't doing big numbers and likely isn't seen by many people) or on Nitro, the problem isn't what they did, it's what needed to happen next. The beginning of the end isn't here, it's Starcade when Nash goes into business for himself and then finger-poke of dooms WCW into a swan dive.

[d12345]

The match was decided on when they booked the Georgia Dome about a month beforehand. And it was booked officially the Thunder before Nitro. They spent the whole night building up the match, so to see Hogan agree to be treated like a bug on a windshield for Goldberg is still insane to me. People keep bringing this up as if it mattered. It didn't. Besides Bash 96 and War Games a few months later this is probably the biggest success story they've got.

 

Whether it was on a PPV(which weren't doing big numbers and likely isn't seen by many people) or on Nitro, the problem isn't what they did, it's what needed to happen next. The beginning of the end isn't here, it's Starcade when Nash goes into business for himself and then finger-poke of dooms WCW into a swan dive.

 

Even if Goldberg vs Hogan was set to happen on TV - build up to it for a few weeks. Make sure all those WWF fans are watching in the month leading up to it.

 

Surprises were great and what kept me tuning in but everyone knew Goldberg was coming for Hogan once the streak became a big deal. They didn't capitalize and quite honestly they blew it.

 

I really believe that was the beginning of the end. The finger poke of doom was a symptom not a cause of the impending doom.

[TLCJR4LIFE]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="RatedRKO16" data-cite="RatedRKO16" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="46978" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Could your TEW promotion go global with 4 Events and one weekly tv show? That to me would be modern booking. 4 super shows and monthly championship defenses on TV... where titles actually change hands. Save only the "once in a lifetime" matches for PPV.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Sure.</p><p> </p><p> You could also just run your events as commercial TV shows since actual TV shows aren’t even terribly important to run, they are nice however as a platform to be able to book guys without worrying about their popularity moving all over the place.</p><p> </p><p> This is also essentially going to be your problem if you don’t book events as well, guys won’t get over. At least within a time frame I’d consider reasonable.</p>