Grilling JR - WCW Monday Nitro 01.19.98 Watchalong [Show Notes] (Patreon)

WCW Nitro on January 19, 1998 happened at the Superdome in New Orleans.

The show drew the second largest crowd in company history--20,644, with 18,201 paying $354,635 and another $135,469 in merchandise.

News and Notes

Juanita McMahon, who was Vince McMahon Sr.'s second wife, passed away on 1/17 from liver cancer at the age of 81. She had been in poor health for more than one year. Vince McMahon Jr. was the product of a previous marriage and was raised in his youth by his mother. Her death was noted at the beginning of Raw.

Do you remember Vince speaking much of Ms. Juanita or this having a big effect on him?

There was a tag team called Big Time that got a try-out (in WWF). Southern California indie wrestlers Mick Tierney, who has wrestled as the Irish Assassin, got a try-out beating Christopher Daniels. Aguila had a match and after his win was jumped by Christopher. The minis apparently had a great short match (Max vs. Torito)

The minis were getting a lot of screentime during this time in the Federation but they would be phased out within the next year or so. Why was that?

I know it’s a long shot but any memories of the names above?

They've been doing hotline teases based on trying to make money off false stories in wrestling, and there is certainly never going to be a shortage of that. Last week they teased to call about Hogan in the Rumble, and then indignantly said he wasn't and there had been no negotiations. The Savage hotline story went exactly the same

Do you know what the story or plan was on this hotline segment? Was the company trying to fight Mean Gene’s hotline with a taste of their own medicine?

As mentioned in the Mexican section, Sean Morley signed (with the WWF) this past week.

Adam Copeland went to Japan for New Tokyo Pro Wrestling. The feeling after the camp is that Morley and Copeland are going to be major stars and get a huge push once they debut on television. They're internally called the two "blue chippers."

Sean Morley, who desperately needs to delete his Twitter, is better known as Val Venis. And of course, Adam Copeland is Edge. Why did you want Edge to go to Japan? Gain new experience and seasoning?

Davey Boy Smith was backstage at the WCW show. His WCW start was held up a few weeks as there were complications in his getting his release from WWF. As it was all settled, Smith & Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart will have the right to tag up, but not to use the Hart Foundation name which is owned by the WWF. At one point they were considering, and probably still are considering doing a feud with Flair & Benoit & Steve McMichael vs. the can't use the term Hart Foundation, but there was some concern because the idea was to use Hart & Smith as faces and in this program they would be the heels. Smith and Neidhart were both dressed in their ring gear but the decision was made not to use them on television because even though Flair worked as a heel in the angle with Neidhart and Hart, everyone cheered Flair and they didn't want Smith to debut getting booed. I'll presume Smith will be on within the week

Do you have memories about Davey trying to get out of his contract? Was there hesitation about letting him out? And, how cool would it have been to see the Harts vs the Horsemen?

Perry Saturn suffered a concussion in his match with Booker T on 1/12 Nitro. He will end Rick Martel’s career later in the year. We know he injured Stone Cold in 2001 on the night he debuted. Etc. Etc.

At what point do you decide that a wrestler is dangerous and needs more training?

Hulk Hogan has not signed his new WCW contract, which we've been led to believe would be for three years, nor do I expect he will sign any time soon as being a free agent at this point gives him some major leverage. He could leave, although I don't think there's much to the idea of his leaving right now. WWF sources vehemently deny there have even been preliminary talks with him and WCW sources insist he's going nowhere. His not signing still leaves questions unanswered. Randy Savage is under contract through the end of 1998 so there's nothing to those rumors at all. The Giant's contract expires in March and WWF is very interested in him and his name did come up behind the scenes at WWF over the weekend, more as something hoped for as opposed to something expected.

We’ve heard from Bruce about how Hogan was actually looked at to come in and work Mania with Austin this year. Austin, Tyson, Hogan. Would you have wanted to see that match? Would it have been better than Austin/Michaels, or just as good, considering?

How would Hogan coming in have changed things?

Negotiations with the WWF for the 5/1 Tokyo Dome show took place on 1/24 in Tokyo with Bruce Prichard and Gerald Brisco representing the WWF and Shohei Baba, Johnny Ace and wrestling writer Fumi Saito of Weekly Pro Wrestling magazine representing All Japan. The 90-minute meeting that afternoon at Tokyo Capital Tokyo hotel ended with nothing even close to decided. Baba told the Japanese press the next day that the two sides couldn't come to a financial agreement with some media stories noting how Michinoku Pro had paid WWF something like $60,000 for Undertaker and Sunny for the Sumo Hall show in October and that being blamed for part of the reason Michinoku was in such horrible financial straights after that point. From what we understand, the two sides really didn't come close on financial terms and there may have been some creative differences as well. There was also a huge problem in that Prichard and Brisco arrived in Japan just as photos and stories of the Tyson-Austin angle were on the front page of the sports sections with a huge color photo in many papers, but then in the meeting, were told by Saito how the general public fans in Japan really don't know the WWF stars and know the angles because the penetration of the television is limited to just those with satellite dishes which is far fewer than the number of fans with dishes in the United States. It's somewhat similar in that the super hardcore fans of Japan know what's going on in the U.S. similar to the super hardcore fans of the U.S. know about Japan (actually more Japanese would know about the U.S. than visa versa but from a general public standpoint the point is consistent) but to the casual fan the names themselves aren't a big deal except in the ability to make an All Japan show seem something special if they bring in outsiders from the WWF.

What did the WWE want to do with Japan in early 1998 that you couldn’t make happen?

The working plan is still for a Mero vs. Butterbean match at Wrestlemania. Butterbean is contracted for one more WWF PPV appearance and there is some discussion to holding that match off until the April or May PPV depending on how the chips fall when the Mania line-up is finalized

Butterbean and Mero had faced each other at IYH: DX in December. So, they were originally meant to have a program at Mania? What happened?

Dan Severn will definitely be billed as NWA world heavyweight champion when he comes in and be managed by Jim Cornette, probably debuting in mid-February. My feeling is the only shot Severn has to get over is to be like Bill Goldberg and just destroy everyone with intense power moves, and there's no guarantee that'll work because Severn doesn't have that look. But unlike Shamrock, who they didn't start off correctly but had enough charisma and was a good enough worker to overcome it and is now near the top of the ladder, if they make the same mistakes with Severn, he won't be able to overcome it as well

As an MMA fan, it really did seem cool that Dan Severn was coming into the company...but nothing ended up happening with him. Why was that? And how could you have used him that WOULD have worked?

Weekend WWF house shows saw 1/16 in Anaheim draw 12,783 and $208,761 and 1/17 in Las Vegas drew 3,822 and $68,479. Merchandise for the weekend was $358,001 or $8.82 per head

Reports from both shows were pretty bad. The new policy appears to be very short matches with not much of a work rate, which may be to protect against the injury problems that plagued the company last year. Lots of complaints again about Michaels in LA. Apparently he spit in a fan's face first according to several witnesses, then the fan spit back and was tossed. Jarrett was back in action for all the weekend shows

Should that fan have been kicked out? And is this just another example of how out of control Shawn was?

The deal with the house show matches all being short is WWF policy to try and keep the cards between two hours 15 minutes and two hours 30 minutes total and with ten matches booked on most cards, that necessitates short matches. None of the matches on house shows last ten minutes any longer. Wrestlers are noting that the road agents consider it more important to have the matches end in the prescribed time than to actually have good matches, in fact the feeling is the reports the office gets will list the match as being good as long as its kept short even if the match actually is bad, but if they go longer than usual and it makes the match better, it won't get as positive a review

Do you recall the logic behind the decision to book shorter house show matches?

PaxNet, which is attempting to become the seventh broadcast TV network specializing, in get this, family type programming, has signed a deal to start broadcasting WWF programming at 11 a.m. Saturdays nationwide on a show called "11 at 11" starting on 2/11. The show will air on the network's 56 stations, which includes major markets like New York (where the show has been airing and has done very well in the ratings called WWF New York), Philadelphia and Los Angeles, mainly on weak UHF stations that don't draw much of a rating on their own, which makes WWF pro wrestling, with a built in cult audience, tremendous programming for a station of that type. The decision hasn't been made as to what the show will entail, as it'll either be a show like Superstars on USA, with highlights of all the various shows during the week, or a remade version of the Shotgun Challenge show that already airs in syndication. Since the show airs at the same time in every market, they'll be able to hype things on syndication, unlike in the past where you're limited in how specific you can hype because shows air at different times in different markets. It's amazing that there really has been little backlash in the new direction (see what good ratings do for you) and that a family network is putting WWF on as Saturday morning programming

Once upon a time, your syndication shows was the place where all the storylines were advanced. Now, it’s a watered down recap show. Did the company benefit off of producing these programs and how?

Michaels and Vader were both out of action with injuries this weekend. Michaels lower back stiffened up stemming from that first backdrop where his lower back hit the casket early in the Royal Rumble match with Undertaker. They are hopeful he'll be back on 1/31 although it's a day-to-day deal. Vader appeared to have been injured in the angle from Davis, CA against Kane, as Kane lost his control of Vader and appeared to drop his head too low when using the tombstone, not quite as scary as Owen Hart's deal with Steve Austin but it actually looked worse, just not emphasized on TV, than the Nash-Giant deal. He was holding his head big-time from the move and apparently a plate he has near one of his eyes due to injuries from a famous Tokyo Dome match years ago with Stan Hansen was dislodged. He's scheduled for the Kane match in Houston, which will probably be kept very short, and isn't booked again until March

Brian Adams (Crush) and Mike Gossett (Mike Graham) were backstage at the Thunder tapings on 1/15 in Lakeland, FL. Adams just got his WWF release and should be starting here imminently, while Gossett may got his old job back as a road agent/booker

Why did Brian Adams leave the company? Upset about Montreal or something else?

Bobby Duncum Jr. will be getting a try-out next month. He's improved to where he's a little below average uncharismatic 6-5 guy, which also describes a good percentage of the company's roster these days

Do you remember if the company looked closely at Duncum?

Dory Funk was also signed to a contract with WWF to serve as a trainer and coach. There is no definite date set for another camp but everyone was to positive about it that they'll definitely be doing them regularly. It was said to have been a cross between a Japanese dojo type training and some drills from college football with everyone spending four or five hours per day in the ring

Is the company still trying to build a proper developmental system here?

1997 a booming year for wrestling

It's already well established that 1997 was a big year for American wrestling. Just how big? Both WWF and WCW reached high marks for the past six years when it came to attendance. WWF increased attendance by 19.4% over 1996 and television ratings by 1.1% However, the WWF started the year doing poorly overall on television ratings, and largely through forces having little to do with the WWF (better quality lead-ins on Saturday and Sunday) and some that did (an increase in Monday Night ratings in November and December), showed substantial increases in the fall over last year. Overall both attendance and ratings are trending upward as the year came to a close leading to the current boom period for the company.

So we’re out of the low-point of business now and starting to see returns on the effort to invest in good characters and stories. Does it just take a LONG time of doing things right before you see the results in the ratings?

World Championship Wrestling had a phenomenal year, showing a 59.1% increase in attendance, even more impressive since it was coming off a year that had a 56% increase from the year before. The increase came during a year that WCW greatly increased ticket prices across the board. WWF actually showed a greater percentage increase in attendance in 1996 than WCW, with a 61% increase. Although WWF continued going up in 1997, it was not at the same level. Ironically, in 1996, the year the WWF showed such a huge attendance increase, the perception of the industry in many cases due to people paying so much attention to Monday night ratings, was that the WWF was losing to WCW "for the first time ever." The ironic part is that using the Monday night ratings, which WCW has won in every head-to-head match-up since the summer of 1996, ignores that WCW has traditionally always for the one year period been ahead of WWF when it came to cable ratings, it was just that before 1995, nobody really paid this kind of attention to ratings. For the entire year, while WCW came the closest it ever has during a one year period to the World Wrestling Federation in attendance, it still trailed by a few hundred fans per show. Despite the success of Nitro, which for the year increased 15.6%, overall WCW ratings declined 1.8% because weekend numbers had never reached the low levels they achieved this year. With the addition of Thunder in prime time combined with the elimination of the company's two poorest rated shows, Pro and Main Event, television ratings will show a huge increase in 1998.

Things looked really good on paper for WCW here. But...were the cracks beginning to show?

As a fan of WCW from the time, my perspective was that we never got satisfying finishes to matches or programs which made it feel hopeless to watch or care about. What do you see as WCW’s biggest error in the treatment of fans?

Event Summary (Observer)

Nitro on 1/19 at the Superdome in New Orleans drew the second largest crowd in company history--20,644, announced on television as Schiavone's weekly Monsoonian attendance figures as more than 25,000 (trailing the 1/5 Georgia Dome record which is now being exaggerated to 33,000 and no doubt will be 50,000 some day), with 18,201 paying $354,635 and another $135,469 in merchandise. It was a pretty hot show with good matches underneath and good interviews, and some pretty hideous top matches with names.

Rick Martel beat Eddie Guerrero in 3:16 of a fast-paced good match with the crab. What year is this?

(I wish we had gotten more time with these two! How did you like this?)

Eric Bischoff and Hogan came out for an interview and Bischoff had Sting's bat, and gave it to Hogan who said the NWO had a pecking order and he was the boss (to tease more dissension). Right now the feeling seems to be that they'll use his NWO dissension for ratings but aren't going to shoot the big angle yet, although everything is done on the fly and anything can change depending upon the shifts in the ratings.

(We’re seeing the seeds being planted of an nWo split that will give us the Wolfpac. Where were you on having two nWo’s?)

Chris Benoit beat Marty Jannetty in 4:09 with the crossface. Jannetty seemed a step slow, but after the match when Raven's nest interfered, and Jannetty helped Benoit in running them off, the post-match was really hot with Jannetty doing a pescado on Scotty Riggs and Benoit destroying Lodi with a head-butt off the top.

(Fun little fact: Jannetty’s superkick was called the “Showstopper.”)

Ernest Miller beat Jerry Flynn with a kick off the top rope in 3:21. Lightning foot (Flynn's nickname) didn't strike twice as this was awful and fans didn't buy it either.

(Was this Eric’s fascination with karate coming to fruition?)

Scott Hall came out for an interview and said that when Larry Zbyszko was AWA champion, it was because his father-in-law owned the company and that the company then went out of business, and then said that Dusty Rhodes was a better wrestler than Zbyszko was. Well, he was a bigger star. As for who was the better wrestler, that argument would be as silly as arguing over who is more honest between Inoki, Hogan and Vince.

(Did the WWF ever consider bringing Larry back while you were there or was that bridge just burned too much?) (See Below) He continued to feud with Hall and his lackey, Louie Spicolli, culminating in a match between Zbyszko and Hall at Souled Out 1998 on January 24, 1998. Zbyszko won the match by disqualification after Dusty Rhodes betrayed him, joining the nWo.

Steiners beat Konnan & Marcus Bagwell. Actually Scott worked the whole match, they played up the dissension big, and pinned Konnan with the SSD in 5:27 of a good match. After the match Ted DiBiase yelled at Scott for never tagging out and he walked away from both DiBiase and his brother.

(So we’re seeing the Steiner’s begin their break-up angle here. But...isn’t that the reason the Steiners left the WWF - over a proposal to have them break-up and feud?)

The Giant did an interview, leading to Hogan and Kevin Nash coming out. Savage then came out and Hogan kind of belittled him and told him to leave. He acted like he would, and then shoved Hogan into Giant. It wound up with Hogan destroying Giant with the bat until Sting made the save and dropped Hogan with the Scorpion death drop and took the bat back.

(I want to know what the voice of wrestling thinks about this and the Sting character...pretty awesome stuff, right?)

Booker T kept the TV title pinning Mortis in 4:27 of a very good match. They invented a couple of new moves and there was one sick spot where T dropped Mortis almost on his head doing a power bomb off the middle ropes. Booker T was really over with the crowd as well because he did a lot of local promotion in New Orleans for this show.

(Is it every match?)

Then came another Ric Flair-Bret Hart segment. Still think they're rushing their first meeting but it was probably the best part of the show again.

Chris Jericho beat Juventud Guerrera in 4:47 with the crab. Jericho didn't get as much reaction as you'd think. He continued to attack Guerrera afterwards until Misterio Jr. ran in. Misterio Jr. & Guerrera did some double-team moves (now are they teaming or feuding or does anyone really keep track?) on Jericho that were tremendous including Guerrero basically throwing Misterio Jr. into the air and he hit a Frankensteiner off the top on Jericho that was amazing.

(We have to wonder if the Rock saw this match, considering he would ask Jericho about being a jabroni named “Juventud” in their opening promo. What did you think about the match?)

Lex Luger beat Hall via DQ in 7:44 when Randy Savage interfered in a DUD match including the worst reverse atomic drop of the past five years (usually Luger's miss by about a foot, but this missed by far more than that). Zbyszko tried to make the save, but he was double-teamed until Luger made the save for him.

Finally Giant pinned Hogan with a choke slam in 6:07 when Hogan was distracted by Savage. Of course the wrestling was beyond horrible. Nash came out and attacked both Giant and Savage. Nash went to jackknife Savage but it was broken up by Giant, but it wound up with the entire NWO beating on Giant and Luger until Sting made the save and the three of them cleaned house. After the show was over they did an impromptu match with Luger & Giant & Sting beating Konnan & Bagwell & Hogan & Savage

It feels rare seeing a Nitro end with a clean finish and even rarer that Hogan took a pin from the Giant. Did Hulk just like and respect Paul Wight that much, you think?

Do you think we got too much nWo at the end of this show?

Ratings

For 1/19, Monday Night Raw drew its largest rating since the Monday night wars began, doing a 4.00 rating (3.78 first hour; 4.23 second hour) and 6.04 share, peaking with a 4.7 rating (3,381,000 homes) for the final 15 minutes when Tyson and Austin, who had both been held off appearing except in teases up to that point, had their confrontation. Still, that figure wasn't enough to beat Nitro, which registered a 4.44 rating (4.95 first hour; 4.04 second hour) and 6.63 share.

Did you expect to beat Nitro and were you surprised?

Nitro peaked before Raw got on the air drawing a 5.2 rating (Steiners vs. Bagwell & Konnan) from 8:45 to 9 p.m. The largest total audience watching American wrestling at one point in the history of Monday night wars (to this point) and since WWF lost NBC was from 10-10:15 p.m. when WCW had the Hogan vs. Giant match do a 4.7 (3,413,000 homes) and WWF countered with DX roasting weenies getting a 4.1 rating (2,934,000 homes) or a combined 6,347,000 homes watching wrestling during that time period.

In the 79 minutes the two shows went head-to-head, Nitro drew a 4.04 to Raw's 3.84, a very close margin, including having the advantage for the first 15 minutes head to head by a 4.1 to 3.5 margin which no doubt was over the curiosity revolving around Tyson. However, the second quarter saw WCW ahead 3.8 to 3.6 and it remained ahead the rest of the head-to-head slot. In addition, the WCW Nitro replay came just shy of its all-time record doing a 2.26 rating and 4.57 share.

That’s super interesting because it indicates more people who were regular Nitro viewers missed the first airing and then caught the replay. So...Tyson worked, in that regard...but did he work as well as expected, worse, or better?

While Tyson proved, in his WWF television debut when his novelty and curiosity value would be the highest, to be worth about .5 to the total rating, even the novelty of Tyson wasn't enough for Raw to beat Nitro. The truth was, that the Hogan vs. Giant singles match which went opposed by Raw had more viewers than the Tyson-Austin angle despite that going unopposed with Nitro already off the air. But both companies probably could make a strong case for being thrilled with the 1/19 numbers, WWF because they did show a strong increase and had their largest audience since the summer of 1995 and largest ever in a competitive situation on cable; WCW because even with Tyson on the other show, they still drew more viewers and drew a great rating both for the live show and the replay, prompting one WCW exec to say that if WWF couldn't win on that night, they'd never be able to win.

Everyone had a reason to be happy on 1/19. But the next week, the WWF would be getting some bad news...

One side shouldn't have been happy on 1/26. The WWF. Coming off a week world wide publicity the likes of which the federation hasn't received in more than a decade and when it left the air with a cliffhanger of Tyson challenging Austin following what will go down as an all-time classic angle, its rating fell to a 3.48 rating (3.50 first hour; 3.45 second hour) and 5.25 share, a very good number on the surface, but actually lower than it did the week before the Tyson angle took place.

Questions

Fernando Diaz

Hypothetically had Owen Hart jumped to WCW at this time, how different would their cruiserweight division had looked like? 

Dead_by_dave

What would you have done differently with Bret Hart if you was over creative. He had all the hype in the world being him after the Montreal screwjob.

Thenceforth Franklin

People can say what they want the tier was always. Hulk Hogan, Sting, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Randy Savage, Rick Rude, Dusty Rhodes and so on. All I can say is when Lex Luger wrestled people watched. Not everyone can be Hulk Hogan with the charisma he had. LEX DESERVES CREDIT!

Thenceforth Franklin

Lex Luger, was the best when he was on. Once he left the 4 Horsemen people got behind. When he beat Hansen, people cheered. When he went to WWF and slammed Yokozona, people had faith. When the NWO came with their 'Hostel Takeover' Lex Luger had fans believe in wrestling again.

Devin Aschenbrenner

Did JR have have a conscience approach to the way he appoarched his dilevery on Nitro compaired verses they way he would on Raw?

Kyle Smith

if Eric Bischoff contacted you in 1994 to jump to wcw commentary, would you have considered it? What would it have taken to pry you away from the WWE

Matt Guerra

How did JR feel that even with Stone Cold winning the Royal Rumble and the Mike Tyson/Stone Cold scuffle that Raw was still not able to pull out a ratings victory? 

Drew in LA

Did JR ever cringe during an awkward segment or bad botch? What was the most awkward moment he can remember? Signed, Drew in West LA   

Taylor Schiffman

I love Scott Steiner’s slow building heel turn here especially the pose off. How would JR would’ve liked to book Scott at this time if he were in the wwf?

Suns of Blindness

When Bret left WWE how did you think he would do in WCW? He was coming in hot and they cooled him really quickly.

Joe Wright

Has JR ever worn a nWo t shirt or done the 2 sweet hand gesture? 

radiomccall

How would you have handled Bret coming into WCW? By this point, he's just getting his feet wet in his first feud with Flair. 

Rajiv
In your opinion, who made for a better heel authority figure, Vince or Eric, and why? 

Adam Leason

Did Jr and the rest of Vinces inner circle watch wcw the night after regularly?

David R Otto

I always enjoyed Kanyon's matches. Thought he was never used properly by either promotion. What did you think of his Mortis character and do you think that he was held back due to his sexual orientation? It wasn't socially as accepted then as it is now. 

Ken Brzezinski

Do you think Jerry Flynn could have fit in the WWE somewhere? He always seemed like an "enhancement guy" who had a bit of personality

Who would you rather call a match with Larry or Mike Tenay?

Did the era of the "cool heel" do more HARM to the business than good? Can any heel get REAL heat anymore or are we just a different society now?

What did JR think of Juvi here vs his Mexicools gimmick?