The greatest night in the history of televised wrestling

[deslok]

the Raw where Austin Vs. Big Show felt pretty damn big. while not the most epic, I think it had the highest rating of Raw, ever. (8.0) I remember thinking at the time, they probably should have saved that one for a big pay per view.

[Waylon Mercy]

I think the night Mick Foley won the title was historically one of the greatest nights in televised wrestling. WCW inadvertently lost the Monday Night Wars thanks to feeding spoilers about him winning the title. They had no idea just how many people wanted to switch channels to see Mrs. Foley's Little Boy live out his boyhood dreams.
I also think the night Bret Hart finally came home to the WWE on Monday Night Raw and made his peace with Shawn Michaels was one of the greatest moments as well. There was such a palpable tension in that crowd when Shawn stepped out from the curtains, and it was surreal. I don't remember ever being so excited to tune into Raw than I was on that night.

[dukes07]

Originally Posted by Waylon Mercy

I think the night Mick Foley won the title was historically one of the greatest nights in televised wrestling. WCW inadvertently lost the Monday Night Wars thanks to feeding spoilers about him winning the title. They had no idea just how many people wanted to switch channels to see Mrs. Foley's Little Boy live out his boyhood dreams.
I also think the night Bret Hart finally came home to the WWE on Monday Night Raw and made his peace with Shawn Michaels was one of the greatest moments as well. There was such a palpable tension in that crowd when Shawn stepped out from the curtains, and it was surreal. I don't remember ever being so excited to tune into Raw than I was on that night.

Actually the whole changing channel thing is a myth. Nitro would not have won that night. In fact most viewers switched back to Nitro during the overrun and the final hour had a larger number of viewers than normal: 4.9 (5.5,4.6,4.8). The week before had a 4.3 and the week after had a 4.6 final hour rating.

http://www.twnpnews.com/information/WCW/wcwnitro.shtml

Meanwhile RAW received a 5.7 and 5.8 for the two hours.

As for my favorite moment, the Piper v. Hogan with the War to Settle the Score was awesome. So was Hogan v. Andre.

My favorite two moments: The Lawn Dart Nitro is still one of the all time greatest shows. But Goldberg v. Hogan was the biggest moment. Most fans remember that specific incident. So many shows and PPV's bleed together. This will always be remembered and considered a great if not seminal moment on TV. Everyone can say it was for ratings, which it was. But it was also near once in a lifetime opportunity with Hogan dropping the belt cleanly to Goldberg. The largest Monday night crowd ever and the fans were on FIRE. If anything it could have paid off with increased interest in Nitro and they gain money through new fans and merch etc. Also Bash at the Beach had a huge buyrate. And if you look at the ratings from the month or so before and the next two months, interest in Nitro grew.

9/14/98 4.5 (4.8,4.0,4.8)
9/7/98 5.5 (5.1,6.6,6.2)
8/31/98 6.0 (5.0,5.6,5.9)
8/24/98 5.2 (5.5/4.9/5.5)
8/17/98 4.9 (5.0/5.0/4.9)
8/10/98 4.65 (4.6 / 4.7 / 4.6)
8/3/98 4.2 (4.3 / 4.0 / 4.3)
7/27/98 4.7 (4.6 / 4.7 / 4.7)
7/20/98 4.4 (4.7 / 4.2 / 4.2)
7/13/98 4.46 (4.7 / 4.0 / 4.7)
7/6/98 4.8 (4.4 / 4.5 / 5.6)
6/29/98 4.1 (4.0 / 3.8 / 4.1)
6/22/98 4.1 (4.0 / 4.0 / 4.2)
6/15/98 4.0 (3.8 / 4.1 / 4.2)
6/8/98 4.1 (4.3 / 4.0 / 4.0)
6/1/98 3.75 (4.0 / 3.4 / 3.8)
5/25/98 4.2 (4.1 / 4.2 / 4.3)

[The Brain]

Honestly, I don’t know why people are comparing weekly Raw and Nitro shows to the show mentioned in the OP. The WWF was so hot in the late 80s that a rematch between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant was given a prime time spot on NBC. I know it’s not exactly fair to compare a ratings system from 1988 to 1998 but you guys are comparing shows that did 4s and 5s to a show that did a 15.2 rating. The Monday night shows that have been mentioned were great shows but they were just among all the other shows that aired every single week in their regular time slots. The Main Event was a special show with a very energetic feel to it. You could feel the atmosphere from the arena pour through your television set. You just knew something special was going to happen. We saw Hulk Hogan’s four year title reign come to an end in one of the most famous angles of all time. 33 million people decided to give their Friday night to the WWF.

[I hate Cena]

Originally Posted by Wally Dangerously

That was a great night of wrestling. I was 8 years old and I remember watching it live. I balled my eyes out when Hulk lost because of the evil Hebner twin. The Honkey Tonk/Macho Man match was good also. If I recall, Macho Man took his boot off during the match for some reason, and I remember The Hart Foundation holding Savage while Honkey smashed him over the head with the guitar. Good stuff.

I remember staying up late on most Saturdays just hoping that SNME would be on instead of SNL. It seems like Main Event was only on 3-4 times per year, and my family didn't get TV Guide, so I was always excited with anticipation on Saturday nights and I would go nuts when SNME was actually on.

*sigh* The good old days....

The Main Event was only on once a year.

How ironic that today's WWE Main Event is nothing like the WWF's Main Event. Today it's a C show, whereas it was a special Road to Wrestlemania opener back then.

And I 100% agree with the OP. Few moments in pop culture history tops the 1988 Main Event. It's the wrestling equivalent of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Where were you when Hulk's 4 year reign ended?

[Toroc102]

I'm going to go a different way than you guys, imo wrestling was never ever bigger than the first 2 years the nWo were in WcW, its may be stupid but I think there might be 12 legendary Nitro's in that period that felt like you were watching breaking news, from episode with the infamous Rey Mysterio "lawndart incident" where the Outsiders destroyed the entire WcW, to "Sting" being revealed as a member of the nWo, when they started spray painting people, I truly think that if the nWo hadn't come first, The Attitude Era wouldn't have had the popularity that it did, those Nitro's dragged fans back to wrestling for WWF to feed off of.