The Fingerpoke Of Doom | War Stories 

Idk, sounds like WCW backstage was kinda convoluted, wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't remember.

I agree. He can remember who was responsible for all the good things that happened, but gets amnesia with all the negatives. What a coincidence.

Hogan wanted to win the belt, but knew he couldn’t beat Goldberg. Kevin the fall guy, literally fell from a finger.

I agree. That was the Hiroshima AND Nagasaki of late 90s wrestling. No way you don’t remember who was behind the decision. If the Fingerpoke of Doome was a hit you’re damn sure Bischoff would be talking about how brilliant he was.

*cough* Russo *COUGH*

@@Squadala9001 I was talking in general. I didn't mean they turned her heel in 1999. But I still stand by my opinion that she was never meant to be a heel. There's a reason why she barely spoke in WWE. Even despite this she was over as a babyface manager/valet. It wasn't her fault, she was never that good at promos or dialogue and WCW making her heel didn't change that

Same could be said about hogan if the nwo didn’t work if miss Elizabeth’s heel run was good nobody would’ve called it a bad idea

Easy to say from your 2022 high horse.

@@uncommonsence153 What? I'm not sure you know what a high horse is 😄

Yeah but they also made her a lot hotter in wcw the black look was nice

How did they react to the Bischoff and Flair segment earlier on?

Indeed, always quality in this series

Agreed

This is a close second for me, I still hold a very soft spot for the WTF moments

@@Kleetus_Van_Damm Yes. I miss them. At least we get the ones for the PPVs. So we get one in 8 days time

@@franklingoodwin can’t come soon enough, I need Ross yelling “it’s John o’clock ya bah-studs”

The podcast is part of my weekly routine at this point lol, but this is definitely top 3

Yeah, WCW had a good amount of young talent they could've pushed. And made new stars of, but it was still the same old guys on top. Creative really dropped the ball with Goldberg that was the beginning of the end.

Very well put.

"After forever changing the business, WCW couldn't figure out how to evolve to keep fresh" WCW truly were the Sega of professional wrestling.

That was beautiful

That's a good post but I don't agree with the claim that the storyline would have worked in any other context than wrestling. No matter what the genre or medium you can't tell the same story over and over again and not expect people to get tired of it.

@@BiggieTrismegistus facts they ran that nWo heels winning so much it got old. nWo shoulda ended with Sting toppling them but that starcade match wasn’t what it shoulda been with the botches and hogan being a crappy wrestler. Shoulda been sting cleaning nwo out and winning in dominant fashion instead of that Brett hart “we’re not having another screw job” BS that was awful. They messed up letting hogan have creative control he was so outta touch with what people wanted to see at that point I don’t even wanna think about the warrior feud with the bathroom scene

The problem with wcw by 1999 is that they only had goldberg as a rising star,while their other young stars had moved to wwe because the bigger older stars of wcw wont give way.the fans got sick and tired of wcw having same old dudes duking it out while wwe keep putting out new fresh young talents and actually letting them shine well...

@@mikeguce7959 I've always wondered if WCW saw the pop that Jericho got on his WWF debut and thought "shit".

Nope I do got to say that the finger point of Doom was the beginning of the end of WCW. The only thing you can say about the hulk Hogan vs Goldberg match was they did not put that on pay-per-view

😊=artt5 ❤🎉 & .

It was stupid what was Orginal plan. Wouldn't fly then & surely wouldn't fly today. WCW made several critical mistakes that night

By January 1999 I know my friends and I were pretty much only watching Raw. As you say, it's not like we made a conscious decision about it or anything; we just thought Raw was more entertaining. There were two guys in WCW that I thought were worth paying attention to though: Chris Jericho and Goldberg. I remember being annoyed that Goldberg lost the belt at Starrcade 1998 to Kevin Nash but was still intrigued to see where the story was going to go. Then the Fingerpoke of Doom happened and WCW was right back to the nWo status quo I was so tired of by that time. That, combined with Jericho's move to the WWF, completely killed off any interest I had in WCW. By mid-99 the only reason to tune into Nitro was to laugh at how terrible it had become.

I get your perspective, and it makes sense. It is very different from those poor souls who sat through Bash 96 to Starcade 97 and beyond. That loss, bait and switch, followed by that moment was hard to swallow. You didn't have the baggage of all that unpaid off bullshit and then realize. 'oh, the good guys never get to win again... yay! What's on the other channel?'

Bret vs Benoit great technique in both sides maybe not the best talkers but both great wrestlers

VERY well put! For me, it wasn't one singular thing that put WCW out of business. It was a combination of multiple issues (politics, wasted talent, and yes, the Fingerpoke of Doom) that led to WCW bleeding out.

@@User-qp6cw I remember. I was in 10th Grade watching Nitro with my baby brother who was in 5th Grade at the time. We both Expected Goldberg to be put over and for him to finish Nash easily. The Fingerpoke Part was just plan STUPID, but the Straw that broke the Camel's back for both of us was when NWO and Bischoff stripped Goldberg of the WCW Championship and spray painted "NWO" on the Belt. My Brother and I just sat there in complete silence for 3 minutes. A couple of Commercials Ran through before he bellowed "What In the Heezy? What was that?" I then went "What The Hell just happened? Are they Seriously going to Drag the NWO Angle on like a Dying Horse? I can't watch Nitro anymore, I'm done. We'll watch Thunder." He then replied "Yeah, That was incredibly stupid. I can't take Nitro seriously anymore. If Hogan is going to run Monday Nitro, then we're just wasting our times. I'm Out Bro, Thunder and Raw for me". Even my Classmates were mortified. I remember seeing ones with NWO Shirts prior, they went up to and told me they either will give them away to Value Village or sell them on eBay. Monday Nitro was Mortally Wounded by this debacle. So many quit watching it. Although Owen's Death did hurt RAW significantly in Ratings and helped WCW somewhat, Nitro sorta flatlined and soon became a Loss Leader. WCW Thunder was becoming the thing that was keeping the Promotion alive. Sure in Late 2000, WCW's Promo dept FINALLY came to their senses and gave Scott Steiner and Booker T Big Pushes and made them Main Event Rivals(Which what they SHOULDA done in the first place in 1999 instead of kowtowing to Bollea's Creative Control ) but by '00-01, it was too little,too late. Russo had already driven the final nail in the Coffin for Nitro throughout the year 2000.

@@User-qp6cw My Brother and I watched this in Early 1999. We sat there in Silence for about 3 minutes. I then turned to him and said "They just Cost Turner the Monday Night Ratings War. WCW is about to take a turn for the Worse".

@@Tornado1994 How right you were. Did you see much of WCW after this, or wrestling at all?

@@User-qp6cw Didn't watch WCW for a good 3 months after this. Watched WWF until Owen Hart's death, and Quit WWF for good After May 31,1999.

What a mark

How does this video "counter the long-running narratives"? If anything it does the exact opposite.

@@BiggieTrismegistus In this case, the long-running narrative is that everything was going great for WCW until the Fingerpoke of Doom. The reality, as talked about in this video, is that WCW was already falling apart well before that. Raw had spent most of 1998 not only closing the ratings gap but regularly beating Nitro, and the Fingerpoke was just the latest in a steady stream of WCW’s bad creative decisions that led to more and more of their fans changing the channel.

@@MrBeardsley Gotcha. I wasn't sure if you were saying that or saying that the Fingerpoke of Doom had nothing to do with the decline of WCW. I agree with the former but not the latter. The Fingerpoke of Doom absolitely accelerated a decline that was already in progress.

I've noticed that same thing. Even the WWE's defenders have started to sound like WCW fans circa 1999.

yeah, grew up watching wwe but for years now i only watch a couple ppvs and the raw after mania per year. now u got aew doing what they r doing (and no, havent watched that many shows by them but have yet to be disappointed when i do), its actually really nice. and ive had this thought where i wondered if this is what wcw fans felt/went through those last few years. dont know if wwe now is as bad cuz i didnt watch wcw back then but it does kinda hurt to see a product i grew up loving becoming what it is today. dont think they will go under cuz they r the undisputed top dog in the industry, but they better be careful. just cuz its not likely dsnt mean its impossible

They are not nowhere near, in the last 7 years WWE has been absolutely outstanding certainly better than they were between 2010 and 2015.

The current state of WWE also reminds me a lot of WCW during its decline. Even the WWE's defenders have started to sound like the WCW fans at the time.

😂😂😂😂😂

The tide had been turned at least maybe in March of '98 for WWF that finger point of doomed for do WCW was the beginning of the end for WCW. Bishop and his lack of balls for not renegotiating hulk Hogan's contract and demanding that he put other wrestlers over and take a lesser role with him fearing that he's going to go back to WWF.