The Wrestling Observer Yearbook '97: The Last Time WWF Was Number Two

by Dave Meltzer

  The current working ideas for the WWF, all subject to change, is if the two-hour live format goes into effect on 2/17, the road schedule would change completely. Shows that already have advertising out and international tours will go on as scheduled. They are attempting to book Monday night dates where none exists in buildings near to where the Sunday live event matches are being held, so the idea that most of the tapings will be done at the Manhattan Center isn’t the case. The scheduled Tuesday Superstars tapings in cities where advertising is already out, such as 2/18 in Birmingham, AL, should the changes be made, would turn into regular house shows, although eventually the shows where there is no advertising out that have been planned as Superstars tapings would likely end up being canceled.

  Over the long run, the plan would be for all house show tours to last from Friday until Monday, with the wrestlers then off until the next Friday, although it will take some time under any circumstances where this will be fully implemented. The Monday show would be a live two-hour Raw taping followed by a one-hour Superstars taping for the show that airs six days later so everything on Superstars would become more current, and a dark main event match or two to keep the crowd from leaving during the Superstars taping. Superstars would contain fewer matches than in the past, maybe around four, and they’d last longer. The two-hour Raw would contain longer matches than Nitro and the attempt would be made because of that to have a better match quality, exemplified by the 2/3 show which had six matches as opposed to WCW which has anywhere from eight to 11 matches. Numbers aside, neither side succeeded that night when it came to match quality.

  No final decisions have been made provided the switch to two hours live goes through, but it is believed it would also affect the weekly Shotgun Saturday Night tapings, that are done generally in New York. There has already been a lot of complaints from the wrestlers that work the Shotgun tapings, because the top stars are under downside guarantees that basically mean their price per show averages out to $1,300 to $1,700 per night minimum (even though payoffs in some cities may not reach that level, it averages out to that level if not quite a bit higher).

  Between appearing on shows that look shabby and minor league, payoffs of only a few hundred dollars, most of which is eaten up in road expenses of having to say overnight in expensive New York City, poor locker room facilities and having to work past night screwing up the already screwed up sleep patterns, you can see the complaints. The fact the shows have generally been poor doesn’t help matters.

  Shotgun was done to give WWF a live weekly television show, but if Raw goes like weekly, the idea that the production staff would have to put together a midnight show on Saturday, a live Superstars taping the next Sunday morning and then go on the road for a live shoot every Monday is a killer in many ways and ups to the potential for Monday night live screw-ups caused by fatigue. Because of that, there is talk of taping several Shotgun shows at a time. But none of this is confirmed because the USA deal hasn’t been completed.

  If the deal is completed, Raw will be taped live on 2/17 in Nashville, 2/24 at the Manhattan Center, the 3/3 show will be taped from Berlin, Germany on 2/26 presumably headlined by the European title tournament championship match, 3/10 will be live from Worcester, MA, 3/17 will be live from Syracuse, NY and 3/24 will be live from Rockford, IL.

  FEBRUARY 17

  The World Wrestling Federation and USA Network officially confirmed on 2/10 what had been negotiated on and had been largely expected the past few weeks—a two-hour generally live Monday Night Raw would become a fixture.

  If there had been any trepidation going in, the rating results on 2/3 would have ended them as the taped two-hour Raw from Toronto’s Sky Dome came closer to Nitro’s dominant ratings than any week in months, trailing by a 3.04 to 2.64 margin. In addition, for the first time since the two shows debuted, USA Network’s prize new show, “La Femme Nikita,” paced by the stronger lead-in of the second hour of Raw, beat TNT’s prize new show, “Robin Hood” by a 1.5 to 1.3 margin, for the first time. The two sides had been negotiating on what percentage of the added costs, believed to be in the range of $100,000 per week, would be picked up by USA as opposed to WWF.

  The first live head-to-head shot will be on 2/17 when Raw emanates from Nashville the day after the Chattanooga In Your House Final Four show, while Nitro takes place as part of the State fair in Tampa. Raw will be live every week through 3/24 with the exception of 3/3, when the show will air on tape coming from Berlin, Germany. As of press time, no final decision has been made regarding the Raw shows on 3/31, 4/7 and 4/14 while the WWF main crew will be out of the country touring South Africa, India and Kuwait. Raw will be done live from 4/21 in either Binghamton and every week thereafter for the foreseeable future.

  As reported here last week, and has since been confirmed, both Raw and Superstars will be done together every Monday, with the one-hour Superstars show that airs on Sundays being taped after the completion of the live Raw show. The Tuesday shows that were originally scheduled as Superstars tapings that advertising is already out on will become regular house shows. The WWF is attempting to reschedule its tours so that when the transition period is completed, there would generally be no house shows Tuesday through Thursday every week, so wrestlers would be booked on a weekly Friday through Monday schedule.

  Shotgun Saturday Night is being “reinvented,” but a final decision as to what that entails hasn’t been made. At least one new format idea under discussion would be to air a combination of matches from the previous weeks Raw and intersperse the show with TNT (as in the mid-80s Tuesday Night Titans television show, not the current Turner Network Television) like skits that would be taped earlier in the week at the Titan TV studio. There has also been talk of taping the show less frequently but having first-run matches. At least at present there are no more tapings scheduled which lends credence to the former as opposed to the latter.

  The show on 2/8 was basically a complete throwaway featuring some 31:00 of the Godwinns, Crush and Faarooq to where there were large chants of boring the second time the two teams faced each other on the same show (first in a regular tag, second after interference as part of a six-man tag). The “boring” chants from the Penn Station crowd were so loud that Vince McMahon had to acknowledge them on the air and tried to act as if the fans were bored with the NOD. In addition, there was no announcement as to where a 2/15 show would emanate from, which theoretically would have to be in the Chattanooga area since the entire crew by Saturday night would already be in town for the PPV which means this week’s show will probably combine taped matches with hype for the next day’s show.

  I don’t know what the end result of the head-to-head two hour Monday night war is going to be as far as an ultimate winner and loser. It should, and probably will be, in the short run, the best thing for wrestling fans because both sides will be forced to put on more competitive shows. But I do believe the costs, more than monetarily, on the personal lives and sanity of those in the thick of the battle will be more than anyone has considered up to this point.

  The WCW Nitro on 2/10 showed key people self destructing, either from the pressure or lack of perspective (depending upon whom we are talking about) already. The show was totally devoid of direction and it was obvious by one interview after another going nowhere that nobody has a clue where they are going. Some people have some nasty habits that they better get in check or far bigger problems than losing in the ratings are ahead. And the battle doesn’t even start for another week.

  MAY 19

  The ever-changing Monday night wrestling wars will begin yet another chapter in August with the USA Network moving the time slot of the WWF’s Raw in War show.

  Due to network programming changes, which are not believed to be primarily due to any situations within pro wrestling, USA Network is moving La Femme Nikita to Sunday nights, and opening up its prime time Monday night schedule with reruns of the Chuck Norris show, “Walker: Texas Ranger.” This will result in Raw most likely being move
d to a 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. time slot beginning on 8/4. Neither USA network nor WWF would confirm this at press time as being official, although within the industry everyone believes this to be the most probable scenario. In theory it would enable the show to get more risqué with the later time slot. Although nobody has said as much, the belief seems to be that if the WWF was left to make the choice on its own, this wasn’t a decision it would have made.

  At press time, the story is so fresh that there is no definite response from WCW or feeling one way or another on what will happen. The initial feelings we’ve heard is that WCW won’t follow WWF and move one hour later because the feeling is the earlier time slot is superior because of the ability to draw more of a kids audience both for television and to the live event which would have to end at 11 p.m. (or later for the live crowd if they were to present dark match main events) on a school night.

  Eric Bischoff, at a meeting with the wrestlers on 5/12, did hint at the idea of Nitro going three hours although never expressed as they would do so to give WWF competition as much as because TBS wants a prime time wrestling vehicle and due to the work load and costs, at this point the idea of doing a second live show on another weeknight has been on hold. If Nitro expanded to three hours, the possibility would be that the third hour would be on TBS instead of TNT, that way TBS gets its live weekly prime time wrestling show to boost ratings, and the added costs of running another live taping every week would be avoided.

  USA Today in its 5/12 edition reported on the time change without even mentioning the Raw show, reporting it as the network struggling with its new shows on Mondays and Saturdays this season and is going to focus its promotion on its Sunday night line-up, which is why La Femme Nikita, one of the first-run shows the network has pushed hard, is moving to Sundays starting on 6/22.

  JULY 21

  There is expected to be some major changes when it comes to WWF television come the fall season in September. Exactly what this entails hasn’t been confirmed, but the belief at press time was that Raw would switch from being a live show weekly to taping two shows every other week since going live weekly has quadrupled expenses of doing the show without any significant movement in ratings. How that would affect the Shotgun show wasn’t clear. WCW is also discussing minor changes for Nitro for the fall season to possibly counter the expected unopposed 10-11 p.m. second hour of Raw, particularly after the success WWF had during that hour for the experiment on 7/14.

  The biggest news that is confirmed was the shocking 3.75 rating and 6.43 share drawn in the 10-11 p.m. time slot on 7/14 by the WWF’s SummerSlam special. The show aired highlights of SummerSlam shows dating back to the first show in 1988 with Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase & Andre the Giant in Madison Square Garden.

  The show, built in advertising around the biggest names in wrestling of the past decade, most of whom are now in WCW with Hogan’s name leading off the advertising, drew a lot of speculation within wrestling. Some felt that WWF would try in updated commentary to bury the former headliners or show them in an unflattering manner, neither of which turned out to be the case.

  The show aired interviews and angles along with the original commentary on the finishes of the headline matches at the previous nine SummerSlam PPV shows, along with news clips from the same time period. Besides clips of Hogan, Savage and Elizabeth, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Curt Hennig (as Mr. Perfect), Scott Hall, Lex Luger and Kevin Nash (as Razor Ramon and Diesel), all of whom are now in WCW, also prominent on the show either on clips or in commentary were announcers Gene Okerlund, Bobby Heenan and Tony Schiavone and even on the first SummerSlam, in commentary, the voice of Superstar Billy Graham, not to mention a wrestler they are involved in legal action against in Jim “Ultimate Warrior” Hellwig.

  It was a strange nostalgic look at WWF wrestling over the past decade, with the main impressions being just how roided up the top guys were up through five years ago, how much worse the main events were in those days, and the fact that overall the crowd heat, as impressive as if often seems today, was generally even more impressive on those clips.

  What that number means is the big question. Is it only an affirmation to the masses that all the big names in WWF have gone to WCW, making it the “place to be?” Did it show that WWF can draw a big rating in an unopposed 10-11 p.m. Monday night time slot in the fall? Did it show WCW’s headliners to be generally small and much older as compared with in their “WWF” prime? Does it mean in a battle of star power, that WWF will in the future roll out the archives in the ratings war? Was the rating largely drawn (as quarter hour breakdowns indicate) by people who tuned in from TNT after Nitro ended, and then slowly watched the nostalgia and by midway in the show were tuning out? And in the long run, aside from one very impressive rating, does this mean anything in the weekly wrestling war?

  JULY 28

  The World Wrestling Federation confirmed last week the story mentioned in last week’s Observer that starting in September they would no longer be taping Raw live every Monday night.

  In addition, the In Your House concept has been dropped effective immediately and the WWF will go to monthly nearly three-hour long shows all with a $29.95 price tag. The change will be effective with the 9/7 PPV from Louisville.

  The 7/21 live Raw is War show from Halifax, Nova Scotia, going unopposed since Nitro this week aired on 7/22 due to a TNT mini-series, drew a 4.1 rating and 6.1 share. The rating would be the highest for a Raw show in more than one year and among the company’s biggest television audiences for any show in several years. The show drew a 3.8 in the first hour and grew to a 4.3 for the second hour, headlined by a capture the flag on a pole match with The Hart Foundation vs. Steve Austin & Undertaker & Dude Love.

  While the rating may have been slightly higher than expected, the WWF was expected to do a monster rating because all of wrestling has been geared this year toward Monday nights and Raw was the only game in town this week. The figure represents 66 to 70 percent of the combined audience the two shows would receive on a typical Monday night.

  TNT can’t be unhappy about the preemption because the Civil War mini-series drew a 4.1 rating as well, which is well above what Nitro does in that time slot. Nitro ratings weren’t available as of deadline but nobody believed, even unopposed, that the number would come close to the Raw rating because Tuesday isn’t the night where four plus million homes are patterned to watch wrestling at 8 p.m.

  The new television format, effective with 9/8, would consist of television tapings on alternate Mondays and Tuesdays. For example, the 9/8 live Raw from Cincinnati, OH would be done exactly as in previous weeks with a Shotgun taping for 9/13 and a live Raw shoot. However, instead of taping on 9/15, that Raw show and the 9/20 Shotgun show would be taped on 9/9 (site hasn’t been finalized for this show at press time) and it would continue that way with tapings on 9/22 and 9/23, no taping on 9/29 and tapings on 10/6 and 10/7. Raw will be continuing in its two-hour format, but moving back one hour from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the USA network starting on 8/4.

  That’s not the only format change in wrestling as WCW will, to counter in some part the change in the Raw schedule, implement a semi-regular series of three-hour Monday television shows called Nitro-plus, running from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time. The current idea is that Nitro-plus shows would take place about once per month, with little warning in advance as to when they’ll take place. The first Nitro-plus will take place on 8/4, which not coincidentally in the least, is the first week WWF’s Raw moves back one hour. This plan to do shows like this was discussed before the shocking WWF rating came in for its taped SummerSlam special on 7/14, although no doubt that rating sped the wheels into motion that much faster.

  The reason for the change in the WWF live every Monday format was largely budgetary cost cutting. WWF has been trying to cut back on expenses both in running live every week and also in transportation which, depending upon where the taping is held can run from $15,000 to $30,000 per week. Because the Tuesday shows would be boo
ked in arenas within driving distance of the Monday shows, it would cut flight expenses for personnel not already on the tour doing house shows in half with the new format.

  There are numerous signs of late that the WWF is taking the financial situation very seriously. For example, for the 7/21 show in Halifax, NS there were many regulars who are always brought to Raw tapings that weren’t flown in as a cost-saving measure and lots of regular wrestlers were featured instead in taped segments rather than brought in to do live new material. Those who were flown in (and I believe this includes Vince McMahon himself) were brought in on Saturday as opposed to Sunday to get the benefit of the cost-savings of a Saturday stay over flight.

  The Friday-through-Monday road schedule that the WWF has been following the past several months, since the move to live weekly two-hour Raw tapings, has also been overhauled. There is no set guidelines as to how the schedule will be done. The feeling is that because of the time and expense of flying wrestlers to and from their homes, that it doesn’t make sense either economically or for the stress level of the wrestlers themselves, to fly wrestlers home-and-back for just a two day break. So for the weeks where tapings will be on Mondays and Tuesdays, either they will add Wednesday and Thursday house shows making it a ten-day run, or they’ll cancel Friday house shows and the wrestlers would have Wednesday through Friday off and return on Saturday and continue the tour with Mondays. There will be situations where WWF will be running a live house show on Monday night going head-to-head with its taped Raw show on USA.

  A lot of people will talk about these changes as like a throwing in the towel in the highly (and largely over) publicized Monday night ratings war, ironically coming during the same week when the group drew its best rating in more than one year. The change is in a sense an admission that it wasn’t the fact that WCW was live every week and WWF wasn’t as to why WCW was drawing significantly better ratings each week. WWF up until this past week didn’t make a significant difference in the ratings being live every week nor could it cut a significant amount into WCW’s weekly margin of victory despite offering a largely better product than it had even a few months back and spending a lot more money to do so.