The Fingerpoke of Doom
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The Fingerpoke of Doom is the common nickname for a pivotal storyline in American professional wrestling history that happened on January 4, 1999 on WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of World Championship Wrestling. The show took place at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
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[edit] Setup
In the storyline, champion Kevin Nash was scheduled to face Goldberg in a rematch for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Goldberg was undefeated until Nash beat him for the title, and this was going to be their anticipated rematch. However, Goldberg was arrested mid-show and accused of "aggravated stalking" by Miss Elizabeth (he was originally going to be accused of rape, but Goldberg refused to go along with that particular storyline). He was released when Elizabeth couldn't keep her story straight. Meanwhile, Hollywood Hulk Hogan returned to WCW after a hiatus and challenged Nash to a match, which Nash accepted.
[edit] Match
The match started with the two men circling each other. Hogan then poked Nash in the chest, and Nash quickly fell to the mat on his back. Hogan then covered for a pin, and was declared the new WCW World Heavyweight Champion. After this occurred, Scott Hall (who accompanied Nash) and Scott Steiner (who accompanied Hogan) entered the ring and celebrated with Nash and Hogan to reform the nWo. After their actions, Goldberg ran out, only to be jumped by Lex Luger (who turned heel) and then was beaten down by the nWo as the show ended.
[edit] Impact
After this episode, WCW's TV ratings steadily went down, only reaching a 5.0 rating or higher twice (it drew a 5.7 on February 8, 1999 because RAW didn't air that night). In retrospect, many observers inside and outside the pro wrestling business noted that this storyline turned off numerous fans for several reasons:
- It devalued the WCW World Heavyweight Title by having Nash simply lie down and give it to Hogan with no effort.
- The nWo by that time was very stale. Reforming it made many fans even more tired of it.
- nWo Wolfpac became the "elite" group, yet WCW continued to allow nWo Hollywood (which was dubbed the "B-Team") to exist despite the lack of fan support.
- By this time, WCW had developed a reputation for consistently putting heels over faces, no matter the circumstances. This incident reinforced that perception in the minds of many fans.
- Goldberg was a huge fan favorite because he represented something fresh and new for WCW. By having the nWo beat him up like any other person lent the impression (which was building for months) that Goldberg was never going to be the number one figure in WCW. Fans felt that, no matter what, Goldberg was going to be put on the backburner for Hogan and Nash forever.
- The only positive came out of the incident was how effectively Goldberg fought other members of nWo. When nWo members were celebrating their reunion, Goldberg had just reached the arena and he was told by somebody in the backstage as to what actually just happened between Nash and Hogan. He ran toward the rings where he confronted Hogan, Nash, Hall, Steiner and Bagwell. He had the better of them until Luger entered the scene, presumably to help-out already dominating Goldberg, but instead Luger attacked him and placed him in the Torture Rack.
- Another thing which has been largely unnoticed was how poorly WCW executed a match that could have been a big draw. Vince McMahon once made a reference to the incident by commenting that the Hogan-Nash encounter deserves to be in a Wrestlemania or StarrCade placing which would make the company millions of dollars, but WCW management opted to book the match on Monday Nitro instead, which unfortunately adding insult to injury, the execution and length of the match was very poor.
- The only other time Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash were pitted against each other was at Road Wild 1999, where Hogan successfully defended his World Title in a Retirement match. The match was not highly regarded in terms of impact, build-up or quality wrestling.
- Many internet fans or smarks saw this as a vulgar display of backstage power since it was well known that Nash was the booker in WCW and Hogan had a creative control clause in his contract.
- This was also the night that the arch-rival WWF would air a pre-taped match directly opposite Nitro on RAW in which Mick Foley (as Mankind) would win the WWF Championship. Earlier that night WCW found out about what was going to occur, and spoiled the results on their broadcast. On orders from an infuriated Eric Bischoff, WCW announcer Tony Schiavone gave away the result of the match before it aired, sarcastically adding "That'll put a lot of butts in the seats." Within minutes, Nielsen ratings showed that several hundred thousand viewers switched channels from Nitro on TNT to RAW on the USA Network, many of whom wished to see a guaranteed title change. After Mankind won the title, fans then switched back to Nitro, which still had 5 minutes of air time left, suggesting that WCW had a show that the fans wanted to see and had WCW not given away the RAW main event results, WCW could have emerged the victor on that night. The final ratings for the night were 5.7 for RAW, and 5.0 for Nitro. Incidentally, during the year following the incident, WWF fans would bring signs to the shows, saying "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat."
- Several times throughout the night, the WCW announce team talked about how they had a "real main event" and how the main event for the show was what "wrestling was all about."
- Also damaged was the credibility of the company itself, which did not present the match that had been advertised (a Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash rematch from Starrcade '98), as well as what was perceived to be an underhanded way of selling out the arena for that night's telecast.
[edit] Legacy
While the Fingerpoke of Doom was far from the only factor in the downfall of WCW, the circumstances surrounding that event and that night may well have been the most pivotal factor of all.
[edit] Trivia
- On the July 25, 2005 edition of RAW, Shawn Michaels (while talking about his match with Hogan at SummerSlam) said "Watcha gonna do, when the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels won't lay down for you?" While this was a play on Hogan's signature catchphrase and goes into Michaels' saying that he is "a doormat for absolutely nobody", it was also a subtle reference of the incident.
- When asked about the Fingerpoke incident, Kevin Nash once replied "If Hogan had given Goldberg the Fingerpoke of Doom, it would've killed him!" Nash is made fun of himself for the same thing as a result of an injury he sustained on WWE RAW in 2002 just from running.
