| Fingerpoke of Doom | |
|---|---|
 The Fingerpoke of Doom:Hollywood Hogan tapsKevin Nash on the chest while refereeBilly Silverman looks on | |
| Promotion | WCW |
| Date | January 4, 1999 |
| City | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Venue | Georgia Dome |
| Attendance | 38,809 |
ThenicknameFingerpoke of Doom[1][2][3][4] refers to an incident in Americanprofessional wrestling which occurred on January 4, 1999, at theGeorgia Dome inAtlanta,Georgia, during a live broadcast ofWCW Monday Nitro, the flagshiptelevision program ofWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW).
The incident occurred during the main event ofNitro, featuringWCW World Heavyweight championKevin Nash, who was the leader of the Wolfpac faction of theNew World Order (nWo), andHollywood Hogan, the leader of the Hollywood faction of the nWo, with whom Nash and his group had beenfeuding since April 1998 when the original faction split up and Hogan had retired from wrestling. The Wolfpac faction werebabyfaces (heroes) while the Hollywood faction wereheels (villains), as was the original nWo. The match saw Hogan poke Nash in the chest with his index finger, prompting Nash to theatrically throw himself onto the mat and allow Hogan topin him; the victory marked the reunion of both nWo factions into one villainous group.
Earlier in the same broadcast, WCW commentatorTony Schiavone gave away the results of theirMonday Night War rivalWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF)'sRaw is War (which was taped six days earlier, and aired at the same timeNitro was being broadcast live), revealing that former WCW wrestlerMick Foley was set to win theWWF Championship. Although this revelation was meant to deterNitro viewers from switching toRaw is War, it instead reportedly prompted 600,000 viewers to change channels in order to see Foley's victory, with most viewers only tuning back in toNitro when there were five minutes left in the broadcast, in which the Fingerpoke of Doom occurred.
The Fingerpoke of Doom was so named both for Nash's deliberateover-sell of the finger poke, and for the negative ramifications the incident had for WCW as a whole, with some wrestling journalists crediting it as the beginning of the company's ultimate downfall and loss of the Monday Night War.[5]
The match was directly related to a controversial main event that occurred atWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW)'s pay-per-view eventStarrcade in December 1998, during whichKevin Nash pinnedGoldberg to win theWCW World Heavyweight Championship. At the time of the match, Goldberghad been undefeated in his WCW career, and his defeat came about due to the interference of Nash's formertag team partnerScott Hall, who had used an electric cattle prod to incapacitate him, as well as interference from two other wrestlers,Bam Bam Bigelow andDisco Inferno.
On the subsequent episode ofWCW Monday Nitro, Nash professed dissatisfaction with Hall's interference and offered Goldberg a rematch for the following week. However, Goldberg was (kayfabe) arrested halfway through the three-hourNitro at theGeorgia Dome and accused of "aggravatedstalking" byMiss Elizabeth (Goldberg was originally to have been accused ofrape, but refused to go along with that particular storyline).[6] Although he was later released when Miss Elizabeth could not keep her story straight, Goldberg would not make it back to the arena in time to compete against Nash; it was noted inThe Death of WCW byR. D. Reynolds andBryan Alvarez that the entire skit was proven to be nonsensical after it was revealed that the police station was across the street from the Georgia Dome.[7]
Meanwhile,Hollywood Hogan showed up for the first time since declaring his retirement from wrestling one month prior.[8] Hogan and Nash had been in afeud since April 1998, when Nash became a fan favorite by breaking away from Hogan'sNew World Order (nWo)stable in order to form his own rival faction, nWo Wolfpac; Hogan remained aheel, leading his own nWo faction, nWo Hollywood. In Goldberg's absence, Nash offered the title shot to Hogan, who accepted the offer.
Hogan came out to the ring accompanied byScott Steiner, who had taken over the leadership role in nWo Hollywood. Nash came out next, then revealed a surprise to Hogan and the crowd by stopping at the end of the entrance ramp and pointing backwards. The surprise was Hall, who had been a part of nWo Hollywood for most of the previous seven months and who entered wearing a Wolfpac T-shirt. This marked the reunion ofThe Outsiders, who had broken up as a tag team atSlamboree in May 1998.
The match opened with Nash and Hogan slowly circling each other. After a few moments, Nash shoved Hogan into the corner of the ring and further taunted him. In response, Hogan prepared to throw a punch at Nash, only to stop and casually poke Nash in the chest instead. Nash fell on his back in a theatrical manner, which has been compared to "getting hit in the chest with a cannonball".[9][10] Hogan then covered him to get thepinfall and was declared the new WCW World Heavyweight Champion.
After this occurred, Hall and Steiner entered the ring and celebrated with Nash and Hogan to signify that the Wolfpac and Hollywood factions were reuniting again.[2] As Hogan had done before each time he had won the title since August 1996, he spray-painted the belt's faceplate with "nWo". However, to signify the reunion with the Wolfpac, Hogan used red spray paint instead of the usual black. Meanwhile, the dissatisfied crowd began pelting the ring with food and other debris.
Goldberg then re-entered the building and ran to the ring to attack the reunited nWo members. Wolfpac memberLex Luger followed him, appearing to assist him, but instead jumped Goldberg from behind and showed he was also part of the reunited nWo. Goldberg was handcuffed to the ropes, repeatedly shocked with ataser, and had "nWo 4 Life" painted in red and black paint all over his back. A loud "We want Sting!" chant erupted from the fans, hoping thatSting would come to rescue Goldberg and even things up for WCW. However, Sting had been out sinceBret Hart attacked him at the previousHalloween Havoc, and would not appear again until after Hogan dropped the belt toRic Flair at theUncensoredpay-per-view event ten weeks later. By that time the nWo reunion story had largely petered out in favor of Flair taking control of WCW, and most of the nWo members had been sidelined due to injuries.
AfterNitro went off the air, team members of the1998 Atlanta Falcons came to accompany Goldberg.[11]
Airing oppositeNitro that night was an episode ofRaw is War, in which former WCW wrestlerMick Foley (as Mankind) won theWWF Championship for the first time fromThe Rock.[12] As per their procedures at the time, theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE) had taped this particular episode ofRaw is War six days in advance of the program's airing and even acknowledged the title change on their website immediately after the taping had concluded. Earlier that night, armed with knowledge of the match's outcome, WCW commentatorTony Schiavone, acting on orders fromEric Bischoff, gave away the result before it aired:
"Fans, as Hollywood Hogan walks away and you look at this 40,000 plus on hand, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, fans, do not, because we understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here one time as Cactus Jack, is going to win their world title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh!"[13]
Within minutes, as shown byNielsen ratings, over half a million viewers switched channels fromNitro onTNT toRaw is War on theUSA Network.[14] After theSteve Austin run-in, the title match finish, and the post-match celebration, many fans then switched back toNitro,[15] which still had five minutes of air time left. The final ratings for the night were 5.7 forRaw is War and 5.0 forNitro.
The next week onRaw is War, there were signs in the crowd that said: "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat".
InWrestleCrap: The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling, Reynolds says of the Fingerpoke of Doom, "That was that. Fans had been burned one time too many by WCW and the nWo. From that point on in 1999, ratings steadily dropped for the company".Nitro's rating, which had been competitive with WWF despite losing the ratings lead, plummeted and never recovered. The broadcast rating of 5.0 was only bettered once, during an unopposed airing that saw WWF delay theRaw go-home show for theSt. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House pay-per-view to Saturday. One year later the January 3, 2000 episode ofNitro drew a 3.3 rating againstRaw with 6.4. The ratings slide continued until the promotion became defunct.[14]
WWE refers to the match as "one of the most scandalous title changes of all time" and states that "shocking does not even adequately describe this moment".[16] According to wrestling writers Brian Fritz and Christopher Murray, the event insulted fans, with the near 40,000 strong crowd cheated out of the expected Goldberg featuring main event, upset viewers and alerted other wrestlers in WCW of problems. They draw a direct link between the title change and the drop in ratings that took place in its aftermath.[5] InThe Death of WCW, Reynolds and Alvarez expand on this link, stating that the January 4 incident "more than any other, started the ball rolling towards the company's inevitable doom". They believe that the "now-legendary" event made the episode "the single most destructiveNitro in the history of the company" and call it a "disaster of epic proportions."[17] TheNew York Daily News stated that the match "is widely considered the beginning of the end for WCW".[18]
In an interview with RF Video, Nash claimed that he had nothing to do with thebooking of the Fingerpoke of Doom. When discussing the incident,[4] Nash said that Goldberg was the one who caused that rumor to be spread and that he had not begun booking until February 1999. InThe Rise and Fall of WCW, Goldberg said that the incident was Hogan and Nash playing their own little games against the wrestling world.[19] Furthermore, Reynolds and Alvarez contend inThe Death of WCW that the actions of Hogan and Nash, from the time Goldberg beat Hogan in Atlanta until their own match in the same venue six months later (including the match itself), were part of an ongoing plot between the two wrestlers.
In his autobiography,Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Hogan rejected the idea that the Fingerpoke of Doom was pivotal in WCW's fall. He claimed that "watering down the whole concept" of the nWo by splitting the group and creating spinoffs such as theLatino World Order, and an inability to compete with the WWF's more risqué "Attitude style", were more responsible for WCW's downfall. Bischoff's autobiographyControversy Creates Ca$h includes a chapter entitled "The Turning Point That Wasn't", in which he claimed that singling out the Fingerpoke as the reason WCW went under was an oversimplification. Bischoff did acknowledge that people switched from watchingNitro toRaw Is War after Schiavone's remark about Foley winning the WWF Championship, but claimed that "the tide had turned so significantly that us talking about one match didn't matter".[20]
On the August 31, 2009, episode ofRaw,Dusty Rhodes,Shawn Michaels andTriple H were shown watching and discussing footage of the Hogan–Nash match backstage.[21][22]
While WWF solidly won the title match head-to-head battle, as most of the Mankind vs. Rock match did a 5.9 rating to the Hogan-Nash match doing only a 4.6, WCW did gain a slight bit of moral satisfaction because its over-run, when Bill Goldberg showed up, picked the rating up to a 6.5 while WWF, with the Steve Austin run-in, the title match finish and the post-match celebration fell to a 5.1. WWF won all eight quarters . . . .
The 'match' - in which Hogan poked Nash in the chest with his finger before Nash collapsed for the three-count - is widely considered the beginning of the end for WCW.
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