>>17413975"Tradition Bites" ring a bell? I dispute the argument that the FPOD devalued the WCW title as it was congruent with the nWo ethos; they never respected tradition or titles (as emphasized by the spray-painted belt). The nWo's disrespect of tradition during the FPOD also laid the foundations for Hogan's feud Flair - & who was better than Flair to represent tradition?
RAW (2 hour show)
QH #4: D'Lo vs. Edge [1st Schiavone Foley comment] (5.2)
QH #5: Kane vs. Patterson/Brisco [2nd Schiavone Foley comment] (5.7)
QH #6: Road Dogg vs. Al Snow (5.7)
QH #7: Rock vs. Mankind (6.2)
QH #8: Rock vs. Mankind (5.9)
Overrun: Rock vs. Mankind (5.1)
NITRO (3 hour show)
QH #8: Hogan interview [1st Schiavone Foley comment] (5.1)
QH #9: Steiner vs. Konnan [2nd Schiavone Foley comment] (5.1)
QH #10: Wrath vs. Bigelow (4.7)
QH #11: DDP vs. Brian Adams (4.1)
QH #12: FPOD (4.6)
Overrun: FPOD (6.5)
“While the big switch of audiences to see The Rock vs. Mankind is much remembered, what is forgotten, is a Goldberg run-in on NITRO & a Austin run-in on RAW were going on at the same time for the overrun. Goldberg saw NITRO bring its audience back, going from a 4.6 to a 6.5 (7.75 million viewers), taking many of those viewers back from RAW which went from a 5.9 to a 5.1. The growth of the final segment of NITRO, was an incredible 2.1 million viewers, among the biggest growth periods in history. Between the two shows on that night during the overrun, there were 8,642,000 homes & 13,827,000 different viewers watching wrestling.” - Dave Meltzer [Wrestling Observer Newsletter - 31st July 2012]
FPOD edition of NITRO drew a 5.0 rating - the highest NITRO rating since Oct 21, 98. THUNDER 3 days later drew a 4.3 rating - the joint 2nd highest rating in the history of that show. NITRO on Jan 11, 99 also drew a 5.0 rating - if FPOD had a negative impact then how come it had enough interest to draw same huge rating the very next week?
