Speaking of ratings, I never knew WCW used to regularly beat WWE's cable ratings well before the debut of Nitro. Furthermore, I didn't know that when Bischoff brought in Hogan and a bunch of other 80s wrestlers that ratings dropped. Though PPV buys obviously increased. The things you learn from reading old copies of Wrestling Observer.

From watching Russo Era Nitro, which might as well have been branded Extreme Attitude, it's easy to see why ratings declined so much, yet remained steady compared to the Rhodes/Nash and Sullivan Eras. It was a foolish mistake trying to copy what WWE had made their own style. Amongst the chaos, there's some really good overlooked stuff from this time. Surprised they never signed Vampiro or gave Shane Douglas another chance back in 2001.

How old were you in 1999?? The web was already huge. Freeserve started in 1998 for crying out loud!

Wrestling message boards were a big deal in '99 and before. Except then, there was actually interesting stuff (and three promotions) to talk about

I've been using Internet message boards since 1996 when they first took off, mailing lists since 1993 and Bulletin Boards since 1987. Now that's established me as all knowing... Hazy, you're an idiot.

1999? Bless. Of course to keep this on track, that was when E-Feds had taken off. Anyone else old enough to remember them? I was EWF Champion

Really excited about this.

As mentioned several times, I'd wait to see what happens on Sunday morning.....

I feel bad for Banks, she'll probably win the title in her first singles match on PPV against Charlotte, and then lose the belt against Bayley at Summerslam.

Id love her to get a 6 month run with the belt like she should have got at mania but with this draft thing happening im betting Bayley will go right into the title picture.

I think sasha will title at summerslam and Bayley will face aska at takeover and if I was wwe I would have sasha vs Bayley at mania

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bayley win it back to become the first 2 time NXT Womens Champion.

NXT always shows why their matches are miles better than the current WWE product each week.

Alexa Bliss must be the most overratted Diva in NXT. Over the past few weeks it seems like every Diva has jobbed to her when some of the people that lost to her obviously deserved the win. Well until Bayley beat her.

Not sure what everyone here thinks of Bliss but I dont think she deserves the push shes getting.

I was always under the assumption that reason ratings dropped was because The New Blood sucked, a terrible group and no one wanted Jeff Jarrett or Scott Steiner as World Champion.

At the time everyone thought McMahon sent Russo to WCW to kill the company.

WWE wasted a good opportunity on this. They should have had some sort of altercation on Raw where Brock says no one wants to face him then Orton shows up thus confirming the match.

Apart from the fact that Lesner is quite busy at the moment and the cost of appearing of Raw would be a waste of money for something they could just announce like they have done with the same outcome

That's good WWE thinks he's gonna pass his drug test. Good for them lol.

I'm not getting at you personally but this logic baffles me. Absolutely BAFFLES me.

Why do you watch wrestling? To be entertained, surely?

So WHY would you defend a huge, first-time match like Orton/Lesnar being announced in the way it was, as opposed to being given a proper storyline build-up and feud?

"The outcome will be the same" and "It will save them money" are the sort of arguments the businessmen and women behind WWE should be making, NOT THE FANS!

While yes Lesner making a appearance is good entertainment is not reason enough to ignore the logic behind them going down this route.

Lesner is busy at the moment preparing for a major non WWE event and its not logical that he would take time away from preparing for it just to make an appearance such as suggested.

Lesner also has a contract which is very costly to the WWE (according to reports) and again it makes very little logic for the WWE to pay out such a cost for again such an appearance.

Just because something is entertaining is not enough to ignore the facts of the situation.

While we want to be entertained that should not mean we ignore the realities of the situation and the reasoning behind the decision.

Even as fans we should not be ignoring the business aspect of it.

I cannot vehemently disagree enough.

Too many fans are obsessed with the business side of things, to the extent that they are able to - in your case - gloss over and justify an absolutely terrible creative decision.

I don't care about the business side of things. I care about the creative side and the creative side only. If WWE doesn't entertain me, I don't watch it. And that largely explains why I haven't watched it since Extreme Rules.

But surely when considering what path to go down creatively you have to look at the reality of the situation?

What we wants as fans surely has to be based somewhere in reality? Some fans might want Hogan to come back in reality that is not going to happen, Some fans might want the PG rating to end again that is not going to happen.

There was no way Lesner was going to make an appearance so it was either go down this route or not have the match or maybe go down the route of Randy coming out on Raw and challenging him. With them wanting to push Smackdown you can see why they wanted to use Smackdown as the way of getting the announcement out there.

Caring about the creative aspect is great but is pointless if you don't at least base creative decisions in reality

In context it was still very much in its infancy. There were around 250million global users compared to 3.5Billion now.

Looking at it today, a lot of it is way ahead of its time. 16 years ago and with a WWE at its best it would be confusing to most of the audience. From a booking standpoint it's bad because the PPVs aren't appealing and the New Blood only really served to make Hogan, Nash, Flair, Sting etc seem even more important. From a TV standpoint it's entertaining and more logical than I expected.

The build up of making Jarrett, Booker T and Scott Steiner actual headliners is decent enough. The balsa guitar shots made Jarrett seem even more midcard - it doesn't work when Triple H (his heel rival) was using a sledgehammer. They totally screwed up Goldberg's money making potential back then though, not so much with the heel turn but how they handled his character afterwards. No wonder he hates Russo.

Poor UFC fans, with Lesnar now headlining UFC 200 that means that a fake WWE guy has headlined their two biggest PPV events in history.

Have you seen Kevin Sullivan's Death of WCW Shoot Interview? Its really a great piece of work how he describes what he wanted to do with Goldberg and build up a Sid/Bill feud and using the New Blood as guys to feed to Bill because of the whole NWO was finished and wanted Fresh People.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssrfZyTK_Tw

I liked how WCW built up Booker T but not so much Scott or Jeff. Is it really 16 years ago? Blimey seems only like yesterday when they closed. Mind you even 16 years now Ive no idea what they were smoking when they did that Mean Gene Okerlund goes old school on the New Blood.

Of all the people they could bring back, really?

Watching smackdown Owens is amazing and why they don't said who Brock will face at summerslam

They announced Brock/Orton on Canadian tv, not Smackdown.

[quote=JCR;83080119]They announced Brock/Orton on Canadian tv, not Smackdown.[/QUOT
Yes I know on raw they said they would announce it on smackdown but according to Dave meltzer it was not edited on to the Canada or uk version of smackdown which is weird