Speaker 1: Welcome back wrestling fans to another edition of The Fall Count.
Speaker 1: I am your host t Fall and today we are
Speaker 1: hopping into our wrestling time machine and setting the coordinates
Speaker 1: for January fifteenth, nineteen ninety six. Buckle up now. If
Speaker 1: you're a wrestling fan on this specific Monday night in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, chances are you might not have even
Speaker 1: been watching this show. The Monday Night War was raging
Speaker 1: in WCW. Nitro was broadcasting live and absolutely firing on
Speaker 1: all cylinders. Meanwhile, the World Wrestling Federation rolled out a
Speaker 1: taped episode of Monday Night Raw from the Bob Carpenter
Speaker 1: Center in Newark, Delaware. On paper, it looked like just
Speaker 1: another mid January building to the upcoming Royal Rumble pay
Speaker 1: per view. In fact, in the television ratings, this show
Speaker 1: didn't just lose to WCW. It got absolutely crushed. And
Speaker 1: we will get to those brutal numbers in just in
Speaker 1: a little while. But here is why we do this show.
Speaker 1: With thirty years of hindsight, this specific episode of Raw
Speaker 1: is a gold mine. It is a monumental piece of
Speaker 1: pro wrestling history. This is the night where the microscopic
Speaker 1: scenes of the attitude error were planted. We are talking
Speaker 1: about the in ring raw debut of a man who
Speaker 1: would become the biggest star in the history of the business.
Speaker 1: We are talking about the very first televised singles encounter
Speaker 1: between two men who would go on to anchor the
Speaker 1: company for decades as the Brothers of Destruction. And we
Speaker 1: are talking about a backstage, real life political rivalry that
Speaker 1: boiled over into one of the stiffest, most uncomfortable, wildest
Speaker 1: parking lot brawls in the mid nineties. So sit back, relax,
Speaker 1: let's get going. This is the breakdown of WWF Monday
Speaker 1: Night Raw from January fifteenth, nineteen ninety six. Before a
Speaker 1: single wrestler even walks down the aisle, the WWF establishes
Speaker 1: right out of the gate that the cultural landscape of
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six is shifting. The broadcast kicks off with
Speaker 1: a very well done video package narrated by Vince McMahon
Speaker 1: celebrating the legacy of doctor Martin Luther King as this
Speaker 1: particular Monday marked the national holiday. It's a classy, traditional
Speaker 1: touch from the WWE. But immediately following that things get classic,
Speaker 1: because the classic revolutionary force in sports entertainment signature roles
Speaker 1: that a massive warning label What's what's happening? It flashes
Speaker 1: across our television screens. It reads warning, the following program
Speaker 1: contains action of a graphic nature. Viewer discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: What now? If you're a viewer in nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: you are thinking, oh boy, we are getting a bloodbath?
Speaker 1: Is ECW gonna show up when we see some sort
Speaker 1: of crossover between New Japan or WW coming over here
Speaker 1: with a blood Beth? No, oh no, no, no, not quite.
Speaker 1: The nature they're warning you about isn't violence, it's seduction.
Speaker 1: We cut to a vignette of Sonny lying incredibly sexual
Speaker 1: on top of a pool table backstage. Clearly Vince Russo,
Speaker 1: we're starting to he was starting to gain a voice
Speaker 1: in Vince McMahon's ear. They realized they had an incredibly stunning,
Speaker 1: charismatic woman in Sonny, and they decided that sex appeal
Speaker 1: was going to be their new weapon to combat WCW's
Speaker 1: surging ratings, and honestly, not a bad choice. It's a
Speaker 1: complete departure from the family friendly new generation marketing. Now
Speaker 1: looking back, it's bittersweet and honestly a little tragic at
Speaker 1: the beginning of Sonny's career, knowing how chaotic her real
Speaker 1: life will become. But damn it, But on this night,
Speaker 1: she was the focal point of WWF's brand new adult direction. Now,
Speaker 1: who's uncommentary? It's Vince McMahon and Jerry the King Law.
Speaker 1: They wake up, welcome us to the show, hyping up
Speaker 1: a massive main event between the Undertaker and his brother. Wait, wait,
Speaker 1: hold on, let me check my notes, Let me check
Speaker 1: my notes. Nope, not his brother yet, it's Isaac Yankom. Dds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: We're also gonna see a bizarre interview from Goldust. But
Speaker 1: before we can even get to the ring, Doc Hendricks
Speaker 1: WHOA pops up backstage with a frantic update. Hendris claims
Speaker 1: that his sources are telling him the Inner Kyle Champion
Speaker 1: Razor Ramone, is actively en route to the arena and
Speaker 1: he is out for blood. The hunt is on, The
Speaker 1: hunt is on. Let's get to our opening contest, though,
Speaker 1: we got Marty Jeannetti won half of the New Rockers,
Speaker 1: squaring off against the King of Hearts Owenhart, who's accompanying
Speaker 1: to the ring by Jim Cordnett. Now, this is a
Speaker 1: dream for many fans because Owenhart Marginny two of the best. Now,
Speaker 1: Owen Heart, though, he's walking around with an immense amount
Speaker 1: of arrogance because just a few months ago he hits
Speaker 1: Yawn Michaels with the in zagury that caused HBK to
Speaker 1: collapse on live television. Now we have Owen fighting Martin Janetti,
Speaker 1: Sean Michaels's former tag team partner. Now at one point,
Speaker 1: Jenny launches Owen over the top rope to the floor,
Speaker 1: and Vince McMahon screams on the commentary that if this
Speaker 1: happens on Sunday, Owen is eliminate Ah, reminding us that
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble is this weekend. Let's scamp right to
Speaker 1: the finish. Jennity Jannetti try to bring Owen back into
Speaker 1: the ring from the apron with a vertical suplex, but
Speaker 1: owen Hart hooks his feet, slides down the back of Jenetty,
Speaker 1: flips him down to the canvas and locks him in
Speaker 1: a tight cradle pin. The referee counts to three. Owen
Speaker 1: Haart wins. Just a master class of an opening match.
Speaker 1: And owen Hart was inredible here when you put him
Speaker 1: in the ring with the wrestlers like Marty Jeannetti. At
Speaker 1: this time, magic happens bust. We're built into Owen Hart
Speaker 1: heading to the Royal Rumble while getting a big win.
Speaker 1: Time he needed this. But next up we head over
Speaker 1: to the WWF Slam Jam segment hosted by Todd Pettengale.
Speaker 1: Todd is doing his absolute best to hype up the
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble and he's hilarious incredibly dated pulp culture references.
Speaker 1: He says that the upcutting of Royal Rumble Free for
Speaker 1: All pre show is going to be bigger than TLC's
Speaker 1: hit song Waterfalls. Don't Go Chase It, Waterfalls, I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Petangale explains a unique stipulation for the pre show.
Speaker 1: Two Royal Rummel participants are going to draw lottery blanks.
Speaker 1: Those two superstars will have to fight on the free
Speaker 1: for all, with the winner entering the Rumble match at
Speaker 1: number thirty in the loser being forced to enter at
Speaker 1: the dreaded number one spot. Who will get it? We
Speaker 1: then get a couple of intense promotional videos. First Diesels. Here,
Speaker 1: Big Daddy Coole says that while everyone else's back staged
Speaker 1: gossiping about Sean Michaels and the newly arrived Vader. They're
Speaker 1: forgetting one crucial thing. When the Royal rumble rolls around,
Speaker 1: It's going to be Diesel time. Next, we get a
Speaker 1: terrifying hype video for Vader, labeling him the Prince of Power,
Speaker 1: establishing him as a monster wrecking ball ahead of his
Speaker 1: official WWF debut. After another quick backstage cheese from WHOA
Speaker 1: Doc Hendricks warning us that Razor Ramona is getting closer
Speaker 1: and closer to the arena, we see a quick video
Speaker 1: of Sonny sitting in a bubble bath reminding everyone but
Speaker 1: everybody likes it raw. Excuse me, I'm parched. Then we
Speaker 1: transition into another edition of Billionaire Ted's Wrastlin War Room. Now,
Speaker 1: if you don't remember this parody sketch series, this was
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon's highly desperate, highly public, and highly petty attempt
Speaker 1: to mock WCW owner Ted Turner, Eric Bischoff, and the
Speaker 1: aging stars who jumped ship from the WWF. In this
Speaker 1: week's skit, Billionaire Ted is sitting around a corporate conference
Speaker 1: table with his executives, alongside parodies of Hulkogan called the
Speaker 1: Huckster and Randy Savage. Being called the Natcho Man, and
Speaker 1: of course mean Gene Okle is here, but he is
Speaker 1: scheme Gene. Billionaire in Ted is whining saying, look, I
Speaker 1: bought a cable network, I bought a World Series Baseball team.
Speaker 1: I bought a library of classic movies and Colorizo. Why
Speaker 1: can't I bother WWF. Then one of the executives, who
Speaker 1: was actually played by a young Vince Russo says, well, Ted,
Speaker 1: the WWF has better younger athletes. All we have over
Speaker 1: here are disloyal, greedy has been from the eighties, at
Speaker 1: which point the Nacho Man yells out, hey, I started
Speaker 1: in the seventies. Billionaire Tech concludes meeting by suggesting they
Speaker 1: try to buy the WWF's new generation talent, and even
Speaker 1: suggests renaming the Huckster the boy toy. A booming voiceover
Speaker 1: cuts into declare the new WWF generation, it's not for sale. Now,
Speaker 1: looking back at this, it is pretty funny, but it
Speaker 1: completely reeked of desperation. The week prior to the wwframe,
Speaker 1: one of these skits insinuating that WCW didn't have a
Speaker 1: drug testing policy. The week before that, I talked about
Speaker 1: scheme gam giving away the results. Thence McMahon hated WCW
Speaker 1: and they clearly got under his skin. But now we
Speaker 1: get to the piece of the show that makes it
Speaker 1: a historical landmark. Making his way to the ring accompanied
Speaker 1: by the Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiassi is the reigning
Speaker 1: and defending a wait wait, oh wait, I guess he
Speaker 1: doesn't defend it million dollar Champion the ring master, and
Speaker 1: standing across the ring from him is a young, lean,
Speaker 1: completely unknown twenty one year old local development talent named
Speaker 1: Matt Hardy. Little trivia for you. Steve Austin his first
Speaker 1: match on Raw as against Matt Hardy, who let that
Speaker 1: sink in for a second, folks. This is the official
Speaker 1: televised in ring Monday Night Raw debut of a man
Speaker 1: who would later on become stone Cold Steve Austin wrestling
Speaker 1: in a singles match against a former excuse me, a
Speaker 1: future multi time world champion, world champion in different organizations
Speaker 1: as well, Matt Hardy in nineteen ninety six. Man. It's
Speaker 1: like a rare photograph of two historical figures before they
Speaker 1: change the world together. Austin is out here with short
Speaker 1: blonde hair, wearing the green and black trunks, saddled with
Speaker 1: the completely lifeless ring master gimmick. But even here you
Speaker 1: can see the sheer brilliance of Steve Austin. He takes
Speaker 1: down Hardy with a crisp side headlocks, but Hardy, showing
Speaker 1: the natural baby face fire even back, then manages to
Speaker 1: roll them up for a quick two. This makes the
Speaker 1: ring master go berserker crazy. Austin unloaws on him with
Speaker 1: vicious lou fez press, grinding his fist into Hardy's face.
Speaker 1: He chops him brutally in the corner, drops knees before
Speaker 1: his forehead, and snaps him in with a hard souplex.
Speaker 1: Now with Hardy days, Austin stalks him from behind, wraps
Speaker 1: his arms around Hardy's neck and locks in the devastating
Speaker 1: million Dollar Dreams sleeper hold. Hardy fades fast his arms drop.
Speaker 1: Referee Tim White is forced to call the bill. Now
Speaker 1: after the bell, though, DBS slides in the ring, gleefully
Speaker 1: handling handing Austin the Million Dollar Championship, and Austin lands
Speaker 1: a few more cheap shots on Hardy just to drive
Speaker 1: the point home. It is absolutely wild to watch this match,
Speaker 1: seeing that so cold Steve Awston is right in front
Speaker 1: of me. He came off a great run in WCW
Speaker 1: is stunning Steve Auston with the legendary tag team with
Speaker 1: Brian Pillman, the Hollywood Blondes cutting promos, then went to
Speaker 1: ECW cutting and these realistic promos. Everyone in the business
Speaker 1: knew at Steve aast and could talk. But now we
Speaker 1: have Ted Dibiassi as his manager and you've sucked all
Speaker 1: of the personality out of him. Still making history though.
Speaker 1: Following that historic debut, we get an incredible, powerful, emotional
Speaker 1: baby face video package dedicated to Shaw michaels I wonder
Speaker 1: who's going to win the roy Rumble. Hbka sits down
Speaker 1: and discusses his impending return at the Royal Rumble. He
Speaker 1: talks about how he has always been an athlete who
Speaker 1: lays everything on the line to give the fans something
Speaker 1: they've never seen before. But then he addresses the dark
Speaker 1: side of his story. He talks about being brutally ambushed
Speaker 1: and beaten by nine thugs outside a nightclub in Syracuse,
Speaker 1: New York. He talks about the absolute heartbreak of being
Speaker 1: forced to give up the Inner Continental Championship. Sean admits
Speaker 1: that his ego took over and he rushed back into
Speaker 1: the ring against doctor's orders, his family's orders, his closest friends.
Speaker 1: That arrogance led to disaster when he collapsed live on television.
Speaker 1: But now he says, the fans have given him a
Speaker 1: second chance at life, this second chance at his dream.
Speaker 1: He declares that the road to the WWF Championship goes
Speaker 1: directly through the Royal Rumble in Fresno, where he vows
Speaker 1: to outlast twenty nine other superstars and punch his ticket
Speaker 1: to the main event of WrestleMania. And hold on a second,
Speaker 1: did he win last year too? Ah, that doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: This was a masterful piece of television production. By the
Speaker 1: time this package finished airing, I was crying. But Backstagezo,
Speaker 1: we're going to Doc Hendrix, who's practically hyperventilating. He tells
Speaker 1: us that Razor of moons Car has officially entered the
Speaker 1: Arena parking lot and the bad guy is hunting for
Speaker 1: gold dust. Before we get to that, we get to
Speaker 1: a very brief, strange non title tag team match. It's
Speaker 1: the raining WWF Tag Team Champions, the Smoking Guns. It's
Speaker 1: Bart and Billy. They're taking on a mask duo known
Speaker 1: as the Spiders. The Spiders, Bart tags Billy back in
Speaker 1: the match, they grab one of the Spiders, set them up,
Speaker 1: and execute their signature finishing maneuver, the sidewinder, which is
Speaker 1: a sidewalk slam combined with a diving leg drop. Billy
Speaker 1: makes the cover and the referee counts to three who
Speaker 1: thought that the Spiders We're gonna win? Who? It was
Speaker 1: a quick, harmless television win for the tag team champions.
Speaker 1: Though it's funny because nearly a month prior to this,
Speaker 1: these matches were taped in December of ninety five. The
Speaker 1: creative team realized during post production that they were running
Speaker 1: very short on time, so they chop this match down
Speaker 1: to just the absolute bear essentials to keep the main
Speaker 1: storylines flowing. So somewhere we will someday be able to
Speaker 1: watch the full Spiders versus Smoking Guns match. We will
Speaker 1: have our day. We will have our day for the Spiders.
Speaker 1: But now we get to gold Dust. Vince McMahon is
Speaker 1: standing in the ring and gold Dust comes on down. Now,
Speaker 1: Dustin Rhodes had completely transformed himself into this Golden Movie obsessed, bizarre, flamboyant,
Speaker 1: strange character. Made confused as soon as he gets into
Speaker 1: the ring, gold Dust steps right into Vince McMahon's personal space.
Speaker 1: He starts gently rubbing Vince's chest, stroking his hair, glowing
Speaker 1: us kiss us. You can see Vince is a shrinking back,
Speaker 1: looking a little disturbed, little irritated. Vince tries to get
Speaker 1: the interview back on track. He looks at gold Dust
Speaker 1: and asks a very direct question, do you actually mean
Speaker 1: the things you say? Or are you simply preying upon
Speaker 1: the homophobic fears that most men possess? WHOA Goldust looks
Speaker 1: at him, tilts his head and delivers a shocking line.
Speaker 1: He says, missed television announcer, Is that an extra microphone
Speaker 1: in your pocket? Or are you just happy to see
Speaker 1: me Vince McMahon. The character looks second. Goldust continues, stating
Speaker 1: that while there are plenty of men out there, he's
Speaker 1: incredibly selective, he said, as he searches for the one
Speaker 1: man who can give him the absolute worst time imaginable,
Speaker 1: and that is when he strikes. He looks directly into
Speaker 1: the camera and delivers a haunting message to his royal
Speaker 1: Rumble opponent, Razor Ramone. Razor Ramone, I want you so bad,
Speaker 1: bad guy, more than any man or a woman could
Speaker 1: ever want another human being. You look into these eyes,
Speaker 1: oh bad one. I am gold Dust, and this is
Speaker 1: our little secret. Don't you ever forget the name of
Speaker 1: gold Dust. He blows a massive kiss of gold glitter
Speaker 1: into the air and strikes his pose. Now, looking back
Speaker 1: at this segment, it is a wild time to think
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen nineties television was this. The WWF was
Speaker 1: leaning heavily into the real world, deeply rooted into homophobia
Speaker 1: of the era to generate massive heal heat for gold Dust.
Speaker 1: On one hand, Dustin Rhodes executed the character with absolute perfection.
Speaker 1: He made himself the most uncomfortable character in villain in
Speaker 1: the entire industry. On the other hand, he's just using
Speaker 1: cheap stereotypes to make audiences chant her terrible slurs at
Speaker 1: the performer. It's exactly what wrestling fans love about the
Speaker 1: Goldest character. He lives on both sides of the world.
Speaker 1: But that brings us to our marquee main event of
Speaker 1: the evening. It's the number one contender for the WWF Championship.
Speaker 1: It's the Undertaker accompanied by Paul Bahar. They're taking on
Speaker 1: the evil dentist Isaac Ginkom dds. This is another match
Speaker 1: that carries historical weight. Just like Ve Austin and Matt
Speaker 1: Hardy standing in the ring are the future Undertaker in
Speaker 1: future Caine Brothers. Like we have Taker who's already established,
Speaker 1: and now we have a dentist who eventually becomes Kine.
Speaker 1: This is the very first televised singles match between these
Speaker 1: two men who would go on to defy supernatural powers,
Speaker 1: monster mythology, smoke screens, explosions, caskets, twenty years, twenty years
Speaker 1: of storylines, but at this point Glenn Jacobs was still
Speaker 1: trapped in that awful dentist gimmick. Now throughout the commercial
Speaker 1: throw the match, Vincic Mann is suddenly dropping very strange
Speaker 1: forced legal disclaimers on commentary. So we have a main event.
Speaker 1: Here's Vince, folks. Folks, we want to clarify that gold
Speaker 1: Dust does not represent the gay community, or any other
Speaker 1: community for that matter. His alleged sexual preference does not matter.
Speaker 1: What matters is he is harassing Razor Ramone solely to
Speaker 1: gain psychological advantage. Now this felt completely out of left field.
Speaker 1: We just watched a segment with gold just talking to
Speaker 1: Vince aboue microphones in his pants and saying he only
Speaker 1: wants Razor ramone A while I guess somebody got to
Speaker 1: see this episode early and realize, whoops, we gotta cover
Speaker 1: our asses because clearly there is gonna be some network
Speaker 1: backlash from USA weird weird stuff. Let's get to the ending, though.
Speaker 1: Undertaker sits up completely re energize from getting beaten down.
Speaker 1: He decks a clothesline, hits the top rope, drops a
Speaker 1: massive elbow. He scoops up the three one hundred pound dentists.
Speaker 1: I am a dentist, drives some headfirst into the canvas
Speaker 1: with a picture perfect tombstone, and Undertaker wins. Remember this
Speaker 1: coming weekend, Taker versus Brett Hart because Undertaker celebrates his
Speaker 1: big victory in the ring with Paul Bear looking completely
Speaker 1: just completely scary. That man gave me the hebgb's big time.
Speaker 1: But Taker looks pretty unstoppable as he prepares to challenge
Speaker 1: Brett Hart for the WWF Championship at the Royal Rumbull.
Speaker 1: What's fascinating here, though, is how much offense they gave
Speaker 1: to Isaac Yankom Isaac yankin the dentist beat down Taker,
Speaker 1: who's getting a world title shot this coming weekend. That
Speaker 1: makes sense, but folks, the show isn't over because we
Speaker 1: head backstage to Doc Hendri, who is standing with gold Dust.
Speaker 1: Gold Dust is casually stroking his own chest, talking about
Speaker 1: how he's going to capture the Inner Continental title from
Speaker 1: Razor Ramone this Sunday and how he's going to face
Speaker 1: Brett Hart the following night on RAW. Suddenly the doors
Speaker 1: fly open and a completely unhinged Razor Ramone comes into frame.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say a word. He tackles Goldust to the
Speaker 1: floor and unleashes an incredible amount of violence, like realistic assault.
Speaker 1: Razor hurls Goldust's face first into steel barricades, throws him
Speaker 1: into a heavy door, grabs a massive metal trash can
Speaker 1: and smashes it directly over Golddust's head. He tosses him
Speaker 1: into the catering table. WWF officials are screaming trying to
Speaker 1: pull Razor away, but Goldust manages to land a desperate
Speaker 1: low blow to buy himself some time to escape. Now
Speaker 1: we go to a quick commercial break, but when we return,
Speaker 1: the camera is fine a heavily breathing, furious Razor Amone
Speaker 1: pacing the hallway while officials are trying to calm him down.
Speaker 1: Goldust is nowhere to be found, and Vince and Jerry
Speaker 1: Lawler quickly run down the rest of the Royal rumble
Speaker 1: Card trying to restore order. We cut back to doc
Speaker 1: Hendricks outside the arena in the freezing cold. A battered
Speaker 1: and limping Goldust is trying to make his way to
Speaker 1: his car out of absolutely nowhere. Razor Emone sprints out
Speaker 1: into the snow and bludgeons gold Dust from behind. Razor
Speaker 1: is stiff here, throwing heavy shots. He grabs Goldust and
Speaker 1: launches him directly into a giant metal electrical fuse box
Speaker 1: on the wall. The impact is so violent and unexpected
Speaker 1: that doc Hendrix completely forgets he's on televis and screams out,
Speaker 1: oh shit, right into the microphone. And because the show
Speaker 1: was taped, the editors somehow missed it and aired it
Speaker 1: completely uncensored on national television. The brawl spills directly into
Speaker 1: a massive freezing pile of snow in the parking lot.
Speaker 1: They are throwing live punches at each other. Razor grabs
Speaker 1: a heavy steel snowshovel, winds up and tags gold Dust's
Speaker 1: head off with him. I'll tell you what, man, this
Speaker 1: stuff's crazy. Goldust dives into a passenger seat of a
Speaker 1: waiting car. Razor picks up a heavy plastic garbage can
Speaker 1: and hurls it directly at the vehicle as it speeds away.
Speaker 1: Just like, what the hell's happening? We had the spiders
Speaker 1: versus smoking guns. Now someone's trying to kill someone whoa
Speaker 1: just like whoa like? This is one of the most weird.
Speaker 1: It is just chaotic, dangerous, feeling brawls in the history
Speaker 1: up to this point, and yet no one talks about it,
Speaker 1: and there's obviously real life drama attached to this. It
Speaker 1: was It was not in a secret in the locker
Speaker 1: room that Scott Hall Raisor mone did not like the
Speaker 1: storyline and was miserable. He was traditionally an old school guy,
Speaker 1: and he did not like homophobia, suggesting the nature of
Speaker 1: the Goldens Angle being in love with Raizor Ramone. Razor
Speaker 1: would say, he has kids, kids are watching him at home.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want this, He told Vince McMahon many different times.
Speaker 1: He can play into the click complain backstage this is
Speaker 1: in new news. But when you watch this parking lot brawl,
Speaker 1: it looks less like a pro wrestling angle and more
Speaker 1: like Scott Hall taking his real life frustrations out on
Speaker 1: Dustin Rhoads. It was incredible. You can feel the real
Speaker 1: life hostility radiating through the screen. So we'll trap this up.
Speaker 1: What did we learn from the January fifteenth, nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: sixth episode of Monday Night Raw. Huh? On the surface,
Speaker 1: if you look at the history books, this episode is
Speaker 1: recorded as a total failure. It was a tape show
Speaker 1: that got demolished by Nitro Nitro three point five. It's
Speaker 1: live taped USA two point four. This was the widest
Speaker 1: margin of victory for WCW Nitro since the Wars began.
Speaker 1: But when you look at this episode through the lens
Speaker 1: of history, it is one of the most vital episodes
Speaker 1: the company ever produced. This was the night the seeds
Speaker 1: of future were planted. You had the raw debut of
Speaker 1: Steve Austin, you had Undertaker and Kin, you had adult
Speaker 1: warning label featuringing sex appeal like Sun. People forget the attitude.
Speaker 1: Era wasn't just one night boom, We're here. It took
Speaker 1: a long time to get there. Vince mcmn was losing
Speaker 1: the ratings war, but on this night he was building
Speaker 1: a foundation to take down Ted Turner, and there you go. Folks,
Speaker 1: what are your memories of the Ring Master's debut. Did
Speaker 1: you flip the channel to Nitro back in ninety six
Speaker 1: or you riding high with the WWF. Let me know
Speaker 1: your thoughts of the comments replies below. If you enjoy
Speaker 1: this deep dive and make sure to smash that subscribe button,
Speaker 1: leave us a five star review and share the show
Speaker 1: with a friend. For the Fall count, I'm Steve Fall.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for hanging out and I will catch
Speaker 1: you next time. Stay safe and keep it wrong.