Backstage news and notes post Souled Out ‘99
Change at the top of WCW
While on-screen there has been a big change in WCW in the last few weeks, with President Ric Flair taking power behind the scenes there have been some big shifts too. Eric Bischoff is still very much the head honcho of WCW however from a creative point of view he’s taken a back seat to a new booking committee that’s been formed. Kevin Nash had been booking the promotion for the last couple of months of 1998 however following the decision to put the world title on himself and ending Goldberg’s streak at Starrcade the higher ups at Turner intervened and asked Bischoff to assemble a committee to book the shows going forward.
The committee is a group of WCW veterans including Kevin Sullivan, Arn Anderson and Tony Schiavone. Turner however also put one of their top creative minds on the team to have an outside perspective and try and turn the flagging WCW around after the company had a poor end to 1998. All we know about this person is his name is ‘Mach.’
Souled Out was viewed as a reset show for the promotion. It established the nWo as a heel stable once again with Luger joining the group. The committee have realised that the nWo has been stale for a while now so there is going to be one final concerted push to finish the faction’s story off properly after multiple botched decisions ranging back to Starrcade 97. The decision to disband the LWO was also made to streamline the nWo brand. The committee also thought it was not productive to have the vast majority of all the luchadors in the company under one banner.
WWF continues to win the ratings war
The WWF has continued to edge the ratings war vs Nitro. The December 28th post Starrcade episode received a 4.6 to Raw’s 4.9, the Georgia Dome Nitro narrowly lost to Mick Foley winning the title with Raw getting a 5.5 and Nitro a 5.2. The January 11th Nitro also lost by the same margin with a 5.1 to 5.4. PPV buys continue to be strong however as Starrcade received 460k buys while Souled Out got a very health 390k buys up on last year’s event. Many are attributing the big Thundercage main event for this.
Nitro moves back to two hours starting January 18th. Not only does this mean that the programme gets one hour unopposed to Raw as Nitro runs 8-10 while Raw airs 9-11 but its hoped the quality of the shows will go up because of this. Also Thunder’s ratings on TBS have been stagnating so it’s thought that brining Nitro down to two hours will mean more notable things can now occur on the company’s second show.
Relationship with New Japan continues
The last few weeks since the new booking committee came in has seen WCW renew its relationship with NJPW. Jushin Liger appeared on Thunder while Great Muta joined Hogan’s nWo.Neither will be a permanent fixture on TV but will pop in for occasional matches when allowed. WCW will also send more stars over to the company for one off shows, although there has been talk of sending a major star over there for the majority of the Spring.
Randy Savage’s future in doubt
The legendary Macho Man has not been seen since the summer of 98 due to the two knee surgeries he had to undergo. There has been some talk that he may never wrestle again due to the extent of these injuries but either way it appears we will not be hearing from Randy Savage for some time.
PPV Schedule Changes
After three years at the world famous motorcycle rally WCW will not be returning to Sturgis for Road Wild this August. The decision has been made due to the lack of ticket sales the venue has generated in previous years. The cancellation of this event will see Great American Bash move to July and Bash at the Beach moved to August. This leaves the June PPV slot vacant but there are rumours that WCW could be running a huge PPV event at The Georgia Dome on June 13th.
Bret Hart to take time off
The Hitman has been working through injuries since November and it is believed he will be taking time off in the coming weeks to heal up. Hart is only expected to be out for a couple of months.
New matches added to Nitro
We can exclusively reveal more of Nitro’s lineup for tomorrow night. Alongside the three announced matches Goldberg will take on The Barbarian, after defeating his partner Meng last week on Nitro. There will also be some six man cruiserweight action taking place as Rey Mysterio Jr., Chavo Guerrero Jr., and Cruiserweight Champ Billy Kidman will face Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis and La Parka. Plus the new nWo and Kevin Nash will be in the building.
Card for WCW Nitro, January 18th @ Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio
WCW US Championship: DDP (c) vs Bam Bam Bigelow
SuperBrawl Showdown qualifier: Booker T vs Bret Hart
SuperBrawl Showdown qualifier: Chris Jericho vs Steve McMichael
Goldberg vs The Barbarian
Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis and La Parka
Plus the nWo and Kevin Nash will be in the building