The Finger Poke of Doom: The Next Step In WCW's Destruction

[George Steele's Barber]

From a personal perspective, what stands out the most with FPoD for me was the impact it had on my opinion of the Kevin Nash character and WCW's opinion of their audience. Nash was a big dude that was a cool heel. He was the glue on that show and could carry segments with his mic work. Him handing over the title just made little sense for a cool heel who was kind of a face but mostly just cool and definitely full of PRIDE. By handing Hogan the title he just came off like a little bitch. I'm not even a guy who really cares who holds the title, but for Nash to give it up was an insult to what I thought about his character. On top of that, the FPoD just felt like a slap in the face to the fans who were very emotionally invested in seeing Nash and Hogan go toe to toe. It didn't help that some of those same fans felt cheated by the cattle prod the night before.

I didn't stop watching the show after that but my already waning interest continued to go down. WWE and ECW were putting on a better product and my lust for all wrestling didn't have as much room for commitment to WCW.

So FPoD and the aftermath were bad for WCW but there was no magic bullet that sunk the ship. It was a jagged path of embarrassment that met it's end like most other businesses that can't recover from too much negativity.

 

[sikkbones]

what was and the biggest thing that Vince acquired from the Wcw sale? (after the tape collection obviously)

the NWO merchandising rights, they still produce shirts and license figures that sell well featuring the NWO, it was right up there in the late 90s with Stone cold tshirts in terms of crossover appeal...

vince doesn't want you to remeber that part.

there's a reason he mocks the LWO even tho that shirt was made to market to the latino demographic.. something vince wouldnt do for years until after wcw collapsed.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Wasn't The Finger Poke of Doom at the beginning of the show? I seem to recall it being announced then they (Hogan and Nash) had a laugh about it in the lounge in the back during the show. I don't think it was the Main Event of the evening.

 

[#tamale]

No immediate impact. Eventual impact possibly, but the effect was certainly not felt immediately. If the angle was such a disaster the "immediate" impact would have been, ya know, immediate. 4-5 months is an eternity in pro wrestling. If no one wanted to see the nWo again, the ratings on Jan. 11 would have been a 3.0, not a 5.0. They actually went up 0.1 from the previous week's FPOD episode.

And they would have surely tanked by early March, which they did not. So no immediate impact here, and the argument could still be made that once the nWo Wolfpac Elite angle ended, so did WCW's success, because they had nothing else to turn to in May, 1999.

You're looking at it like Vince Russo would. One week of data is not enough evidence to back up your claim. Also, I'm not sure where you get your data, but the ratings did drop in March. They were at a 5.0 by the end of January, but by early March they dropped to a 4.4 ending the month with a 3.5.

The NWO reformed in January screwing over WCW's top babyface. From January 99 to May 99 while the NWO was dominant throughout WCW programming the ratings, house show attendance, and PPV buyrates dropped. So the Fingerpoke of Doom was a step in WCW's destruction because it lead to the events that followed afterwards.

It wasn't the only problem though. WCW stopped caring about their midcard at the time, and Goldberg for some weird reasons was barely around during those months.

Wasn't The Finger Poke of Doom at the beginning of the show? I seem to recall it being announced then they (Hogan and Nash) had a laugh about it in the lounge in the back during the show. I don't think it was the Main Event of the evening.

It was at the end of the show. Raw was taped with Mankind winning the WWF Championship from The Rock, and WCW had the overrun which was live. I still remember watching Mankind win the championship from The Rock then switching back to WCW to watch Nash/Hogan. I went from interested to just turned off by the whole thing. People don't remember that not only did the NWO reform, but they made Goldberg look really bad in that segment.

 

[nwojeff]

The Ratings websites do not all agree for some reason, but I am mainly going off this one: http://editthis.info/wrestling_ratings_wiki/WWF_Raw_vs._WCW_Monday_Nitro.

On March 8, it says Nitro got a 5.7, and even on March 22, it got a 4.8. Plus we are still glossing over February, which by any way you measure it, was an extremely successful month for WCW.

And sure, there was a drop off in March and then a little more so in April, but May is the dramatic drop off where things really fell apart. So I see your point, that it took a while for this slide to gain negative momentum, and people to tune out. I don't totally buy the "watching out of habit" argument that was used in an earlier post, but I get what you're saying overall here.

I still say there is as much of a chance that the angle coming to an end is the cause of the business going down, rather than the angle itself, but that's hard to say conclusively.

Anyway, my main point in this thread is that a lot of fans frame their argument against the FPOD to say that it led to a fast, immediate downfall of the company, and some even believe it happened that night, or shortly thereafter, like within weeks. But that's not really how it played out.

And I do agree, that if it was indeed a bad idea, it was far from the only problem in the company at that time. The things you mentioned and just plain old out of control spending are things that aren't often talked about but were definitely contributing factors to WCW losing all that money by the end of 1999.

 

[FlairFan2003]

You're looking at it like Vince Russo would. One week of data is not enough evidence to back up your claim. Also, I'm not sure where you get your data, but the ratings did drop in March. They were at a 5.0 by the end of January, but by early March they dropped to a 4.4 ending the month with a 3.5.

The NWO reformed in January screwing over WCW's top babyface. From January 99 to May 99 while the NWO was dominant throughout WCW programming the ratings, house show attendance, and PPV buyrates dropped. So the Fingerpoke of Doom was a step in WCW's destruction ....

The NWO storyline ended in March though, there was no reformed NWO storyline in April & May. Hogan turned face, he & Nash essentially split (multiple vignettes between them showing them not on the same page & teasing Nash might side with Flair against Hogan), Steiner & Bagwell went their own way and had nothing to do with the NWO storyline really from late Feb on (Post SuperBrawl PPV), Hall inexplicably disappeared from TV and never did return full time, just sporadic returns, some of which made no sense (why was he in the mental hospital with Flair??)...

The idea the continuing NWO reformed storyline was a drag on WCW in the Spring of 99 is false simply because that storyline ended at UnCensored PPV in March, by April and May DDP as champion/heel turn, Nash's face turn, Hogan leaving, all were big storylines but the NWO angle as debuted in Jan was already scrapped at that point.

I do agree & have posted before Goldberg was nonsensically demoted down the card, out of the title picture, out of the top storylines, after Starrcade 98 and was a non factor by The Spring of 99 (he ended up taking time off anyway but had been pushed down the card so much it wasnt a huge loss to existing stories of that time).

 

[FlairFan2003]

From a personal perspective, what stands out the most with FPoD for me was the impact it had on my opinion of the Kevin Nash character and WCW's opinion of their audience. Nash was a big dude that was a cool heel. He was the glue on that show and could carry segments with his mic work. Him handing over the title just made little sense for a cool heel who was kind of a face but mostly just cool and definitely full of PRIDE. By handing Hogan the title he just came off like a little bitch. I'm not even a guy who really cares who holds the title, but for Nash to give it up was an insult to what I thought about his character. On top of that, the FPoD just felt like a slap in the face to the fans who were very emotionally invested in seeing Nash and Hogan go toe to toe. It didn't help that some of those same fans felt cheated by the cattle prod the night before.

I didn't stop watching the show after that but my already waning interest continued to go down. WWE and ECW were putting on a better product and my lust for all wrestling didn't have as much room for commitment to WCW.

So FPoD and the aftermath were bad for WCW but there was no magic bullet that sunk the ship. It was a jagged path of embarrassment that met it's end like most other businesses that can't recover from too much negativity.

This would have been a great move (The FPOD) if the end game was a Hogan-Nash split, with Nash pulling a power play and kicking out Hogan after Hogan lost the title, say Hogan drops the belt to Flair as Goldberg is marching through hoops nearing a re match with Nash & Hogan, Nash deciding Hogan is no longer good enough to hold the top spot in the group (the NWO already lost control in the office since Bischoff lost the Presidency, the World Title was only power play they still had).

This would have been a great way to explain Hogan's eventual absence for knee surgery. Nash could not only have booted Hogan, upset he basically ended the The Streak and gave the belt to Hollywood to "get the band back together" and HH screwed it up, but Hogan's return would have been the perfect time for his face turn, especially if Nash won the title with Goldberg looming.

As it was making that sacrifice to get Hogan back and re unite the team was for nothing as the storyline was dropped 2 months in (essentially over by the end of March) and there never was a full fledged Goldberg-NWO feud (an amazing fact given how over GB was and the fact the NWO had major long programs, sometimes multiple runs, vs Sting, Luger, DDP, & Flair).

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

One thing to take note is that before the Finger Poke of Doom and for the latter half of 1998 it's apparent the two biggest babyface stars in the company were Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page.

Goldberg was the awesome kicka$$ indestructible monster whereas DDP was more as the everyday guy that people just loved.

For some reason during the period of the Finger Poke of Doom and afterwards they decided to cool down Goldberg by ending is streak and putting him some not so good situations like stalking Miss Elizabeth where as DDP turned heel a few months after I think.

Then afterwards guys like Nash, Hogan, Savage, and in a way, Sting, and even Sid started to take over the spots Goldberg and DDP had.

1999 should have been the period where Goldberg and DDP would be your top baby faces and went over huge with Nash, Hogan, Sting, etc putting these two over.

As yes, as I said, DDP should have been one of the candidates to end Goldberg's streak. While Bret Hart would have been another good option.