If you attended Smackdown or Thunder last night, please send in a report! Thanks!
Looks like the preseason Monday Night Football did indeed take a small chunk out of wrestling. Just a little bit. By the way, this years first preseason ABC game is down from last year's. Well, anyway, the WWF continued their momentum this week, while WCW might have to look for answers. Nitro should get a little higher than a 3.0 in the first hour, but the second hour of the game probably hurt them this week. Then, Nitro was tanked to a 2.3 in their second hour, the one where Sting wrestled twice, and we had a Nash vs. Steiner match. Not good at all for WCW.
Nitro's ratings were so low, and Heat ratings jumped past the 3.0 mark for the first time in a while...thus, the WWF's 3rd rank show gets the win over WCW's first rank show. Heat even had a preseason game to contend with, you know, the one where the Steelers of all teams, crushed the Cowboys by 28! That's about as likely as the Brooklyn Brawler defeating Triple H! Oh wait, that happened!
Livewire did its usual rating of low 1.0s, but somehow, Superstars gained in ratings. Superstars is a truly horrible show in my opinion, as I used to just shake my head when I did results of it a few times. Livewire is a much more organized show, which you can watch to get caught up on anything you missed. Superstars just recycles what Livewire did, and other stupid stuff.
We do have an ECW on TNN victory this week! With the 1.0 rating, they defeated WCW Saturday Morning's ratings of 0.8! This is kind of big news, especially since Livewire barely edged out ECW. Just think if 2 of 3 lower end shows would go down to ECW. However, WCW Saturday Morning is still kind of new....but it does get its plugs on WCW Nitro or especially Thunder, and I've seen TBS advertise WCW Saturday Morning a good bit. Then, we have the Friday/Saturday morning scenario, where everyone is partying. Many are out at 8:00 pm on Friday Nights, and are "sleeping in" on Saturday Mornings. So I think you can factor those out, BUT remembering that the WCW show is geared towards little children waking up, watching television on Saturday mornings. Plus, it's at 11 am, a little later than say a Livewire or a Superstars.
So good job ECW on TNN! But wait, Billy Corgan gained it extra attention....hmmm.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE Booker T fan. However, the use of the "Rock Bottom" or "Book End" is ridiculous! Every hardcore WWF fan I've talked to, just laugh at how WCW is "trying" to mimmick the Rock by having their own World Champ finish opponents with it. In a way, I somewhat agree, especially when the "Book End" was just a regular move, and when he wins the World Title, he all of a sudden has it as his finisher? Bring back the Harlem Hangover! Use the missle dropkick...anything but the Rock's finisher please!
I don't know about you, but I'm disappointed in WCW about Sting. They were saying that Sting would come back with a NEW look when he takes off his mask, since he was "burnt" on a Pay Per View. What happens though? He returns as Crow Sting, and no sign of being burned. Who knows, maybe WCW will start rumors of changing Sting's image again, now that he was burned in Demon's casket on Nitro.
I'll have more on WCW in tomorrow's column, WCW Day.
As for the WWF being a force in voting? Oh my, I don't know....they say 14 million voters, BUT a lot of viewers are underage and can't vote yet. However, if they run ads, to encourage voting, it could be rather large. Remember, nobody thought the renegage Mtv could influence younger voters to come out with their "Choose of Lose" campaign, so what says younger wrestling fans won't buy into the "Choose or get the Smackdown Layed on Your Candyass" campaign by the WWF? Works for me.
Back to the PTC. I haven't been to their site recently, but looking at it now, I see a complete section on WWF Smackdown. In fact, all over the page, you'll see content on the WWF's programming, and NO OTHER SHOWS. It shows you what they are exactly after, as their little cult isn't cleaning up ALL of television....just the WWF. Isn't that their purpose? If you lose Smackdown, you'll have many other shows with much worse content. I bet they wouldn't go after advertisers on their shows.
KOLTERSHOCK is the site of Jaymz, which is very interesting. I'll warn you now so you don't come screaming later that some content might not be suitable. Be sure to check out the WTF videos for good wholesome fun!
@That's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow with Thunder thoughts and other goodies. Just chill...till the next episode.
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Take Care, and Thanks, as always, for Reading.