Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #244 July 17th-18th, 2000 The Opening Word: About six weeks ago I talked about the WWF's TV ratings slumping, and how they needed to spice things up, or they were going to look vulnerable going into the network switch this fall. For weeks now RAW, when up against Nitro, seems unable to crack the 6.0 ratings barrier (though when Nitro is done for the night RAW gets a huge boost in viewers). RAW seems to have lost a good ratings point worth of viewers--and they haven't been picked up by WCW mind you, as their 2nd hour ratings up against RAW have been miserable lately. RAW, which had been churning out 2nd hour quarters in the high 7's and low 8's just a few months ago now has to struggle just to crack the 7.0 barrier late in the show. Things look even worse for SmackDown!, which has taken an even larger ratings hit over the last two months. The show is now down to a 4.0 network rating, more than a point down from where it was at its peak. Going into the summer there was an expected temporary dip in ratings for all the shows as TV viewer habits were briefly altered. But traditionally wrestling does very well as the summer progresses, picking up new viewers because of the lack of first-run programming on the other networks. This summer, for the first time in years, that hasn't happened. Looking at all the other aspects of the WWF's business they're plugging along as strongly as ever. It's reasonable to assume, then, that the drop in TV ratings has more to do with the loss of casual viewers rather than devoted wrestling fans. In other words, the great wrestling boom looks like it's about over. The general public's fascination with wrestling, fueled by a media caught off guard by the industry's success, has finally worn off. It's just not big news anymore that wrestling draws good cable ratings. The TV industry, which once marveled at the performance of SmackDown! on UPN, has other things to be more excited about and interested in. Many of the more colorful aspects of wrestling, such as the NWO, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and the more adult direction of the WWF, have either disappeared or been toned down. Wrestling simply isn't as interesting as it was a year or two ago. Having shed the loose layers of casual viewers, wrestling is now drawing on the more devoted fans. Whether they stick around depends on what the WWF (and WCW) does to keep them interested. We're about six weeks away from another turning point in the wrestling business. Come the fall wrestling almost always suffers a drop in ratings, as once again there are TV viewers pattern disruptions (mostly from people going back to school), and the other networks resume airing new shows. Wrestling takes a direct hit from the return of Monday Night Football. On top of that, the WWF makes the move from USA to TNN. No matter how hard the WWF advertises the move, for at least a week they're going to lose some viewers. WCW, assuming Hulk Hogan's departure is part of an angle to bring him back this fall, has a plan up their sleeve to exploit the opening the WWF is giving them. Should a WCW split or NWO invasion or whatever take place, they'll be the talk of the wrestling world, just as the WWF struggles to acclimate their fans to the network switch. The WWF has to come up with something pretty quick to make sure that doesn't happen. Maybe the lull in recent WWF programming indicates they've been holding back, saving something for then. Maybe they're banking on Steve Austin coming back. And maybe, preoccupied with switching networks and launching the XFL and just generally being a huge corporate entity, their focus is such that they don't have ANY big plans in the works, and they've been hoping to coast until such time as they can devote more attention to the wrestling product. I sure hope it's not that last one. --- Nitro is preempted this week by a made-for-cable movie. It airs live Tuesday night instead. Because of that Thunder will live this Wednesday as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Albany, New York. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Jerry "The King" Lawler. WWF RAW: - Opening 20 Minute Interview: Commissioner Mick Foley comes out to give his thoughts on the current state of things in the WWF. He's decided Triple H will face Chris Jericho in a "Last Man Standing Match" at the PPV. He's interrupted by the Undertaker, who wants a match with Kurt Angle tonight. Kane comes out and says Foley should do what his brother says. Angle appears on the Titan-Tron and once again tries to apologize to the Undertaker. Foley says he's thinking of putting Angle in a tag match with Triple H, who then appears on the screen and says he neither likes nor can trust Angle. That match established, Foley is then interrupted by the Rock, who wants a piece of Chris Benoit. Benoit, Edge, Christian & Shane McMahon all come out. Fast forward--Foley makes a six-man match with the three Canadians versus the Rock & the Acolytes. The Rock the brawls with Benoit & Co. until the referees can break it up. There were some entertaining moments during all this, but twenty-one minutes is just too much talking. I guess Foley was speaking the truth when he said we'd never hear another boring 20 minute Triple H interview. Now we get boring twenty minute Mick Foley interviews! - THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. THE HARDY BOYZ (w/ Lita) When the Dudleyz go to set up some tables Steve Richards comes out and confiscates one. The Hardyz throw a ladder in the ring. Jeff Hardy does a dive off the top turnbuckle to the floor, wiping everybody out. T & A and Trish Stratus then attack. The remaining table and ladder are set up in the ring. Lita is set on the table. Trish gets in position to come off the ladder and put Lita through the table, but Lita gets up and climbs the ladder. The two struggle, and Lita ends up knocked backwards off the ladder, busting the table. The Hardyz attend to Lita as they cut to a commercial. - Lita refuses to be stretchered out. - The Godfather comes out with his Ho's and does his thing. He's scheduled to face Steve Blackman for the Hardcore Title, but Steven Richards comes out instead. Richards says he's going to censor offensive things like the Ho's because the people don't know what's good for them. The Godfather calls him into the ring. Richards says violence doesn't solve anything, and that the only way he'd fight is if it was self defense. The Godfather chases him up the ramp, only to be attacked by Bull Buchanan (dressed like Richards). I guess Bull is now Richards' flunky. Can you go any lower on the ladder than that? Kurt Angle says his hugging Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley on SmackDown! meant nothing, and gives Michael Cole a hug to illustrate his point. - The Godfather tells Michael Cole he'll prove to Steven Richards that pimpin' ain't easy. - D-GENERATION X vs. TOO COOL X-Pac pins Grandmaster Sexay in a quick match. Shane talks strategy with his troops. The Rock and the Acolytes are on the move. WWF WAR ZONE: - THE ROCK/THE ACOLYTES vs. CHRIS BENOIT/EDGE/CHRISTIAN This match builds to Benoit and the Rock coming into contact with each other. When they do they go to the floor, where Benoit whacks the Rock with a steel chair. He then nails Faarooq just as he's bouncing off the ropes. Edge gives Faarooq a DDT and covers for the pin. - The Rock is backstage looking for Benoit, carrying a chair. He finds him, Edge & Christian in a dressing room. He hits Benoit in the head with the chair, then fights with the other two as Benoit and Shane escape. After taking out Edge & Christian he resumes his chase of Benoit, who is out in the hallway almost being carried by Shane, blood covering the Canadian wolverine's head. The Rock slams Benoit's head into a locker, then into a soda machine. Referees split the two up. Rock goes back into the dressing room to retrieve his chair (decking Edge once again). He then chases Benoit almost entirely out of the building, catching up to him by Shane's limo. He tosses Benoit onto the hood of the car, then gives him a the Rock Bottom! - Lengthy replays of the previous segment. - Dean Malenko comes out with a couple of ladies. In the ring he says the only thing he likes nothing more than wrestling women is wrestling TWO women, and challenges Jacqueline & Ivory to a match. Chyna & Eddie Guerrero come out instead. Chyna says Jackie & Ivory aren't there, and asks if she'd do instead ... CHYNA (w/ Eddie Guerrero) vs. DEAN MALENKO Perry Saturn comes out and attacks Eddie, giving him a powerslam on the ramp. Chyna goes out to check on Eddie and gets counted out. Saturn stands up on the stage with Terri Runnels (huh?), gloating. I think I missed something somewhere along the line. Triple H tells Kevin Kelly he doesn't like Kurt Angle, and that Stephanie can't stand him either. A look at Tazz walking backstage. - Tazz comes out to cut a promo. He says since the day he came to the WWF he promised the Mood Was About To Change. Then it did, and the fans want to know why? He says he's going to keep kicking ass until the WWF can come up with someone man enough to beat him. Out comes Mick Foley, who says he hasn't been happy with Tazz doing run-ins on his matches (that sounds familiar). Tazz will be in a match at Fully Loaded, providing Foley can come up with an opponent for him. Cue Al Snow and Head. Snow says Tazz's problems can't begin to compare to the misery he's felt being Steve Blackman's tag team partner. Tazz jumps Al when he isn't looking. Foley breaks it up, and books the match between the two for the PPV. Stephanie emphatically denies any kind of relationship between herself and Kurt Angle. Rikishi's ASS! - Clips of wrestling fans across southeast Asia making fools of themselves in Mick Foley's presence. - RIKISHI PHATU vs. TEST Barely a minute into the match Rikishi gives Test the Stinkface. Trish jumps up on the apron and Rikishi goes over to jaw. Test charges, but Rikishi moves, and Trish is knocked to the floor. One Samoan Drop later and Rikishi gets the pin. In comes Albert and Val Venis. They, along with Test, smash the ring steps into Rikishi's head. Too Cool make the save, with everyone pairing off to brawl. Albert and Scotty Too Hotty wind up on the stage. Scotty hangs from the bottom of the Titan-Tron and kicks Albert. He then gives him the Worm. Val Venis charges up the ramp and grabs Scotty, tossing him off the stage! Scotty bounces when he lands--backfirst--on the floor below. Ross and Lawler sell it as a crippling drop to the concrete, but it looked like Scotty flew maybe eight feet onto a mat or pad covered by a black cloth. - Val Venis cuts an intense promo, saying he used to be just like Rikishi in that he played up to the fans and such. Val says he's going to destroy Rikishi in their Steel Cage Match at Fully Loaded. Kai En Tai are whooping it up at WWF New York. Angle and Triple H come to an uneasy truce. Angle asks if he'd like to shake hands, or if he'd rather have a hug? Triple H stares daggers into him and warns him not to screw up. Kane passes the Undertaker his bag of chewing tobacco. - KURT ANGLE/TRIPLE H (w/ Stephanie) vs. THE UNDERTAKER/KANE Angle starts off and his little success against Kane. Triple H comes in. When Angle tags back in he gives the Undertaker one punch, then quickly tags himself back out. Angle and the Undertaker eventually lock up, like Benoit and the Rock, down on the floor. Angle is sent into the announce desk. The Undertaker then chases him out of the arena. Triple H, meanwhile, is about to Pedigree Kane, when Chris Jericho comes out. Jericho is being held back by officials. Triple H, momentarily distracted, gets backdropped by Kane, who follows it up with a chokeslam and covers for the pin. Jericho breaks through the ref and attacks Triple H. Triple H escapes to the floor, where he and two refs are wiped out by Jericho doing a spinning plancha over the top rope! The show ends with Triple H heading up the ramp and Jericho standing in the ring. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I liked a lot of little bits in this show: a line here, a move there, and the backstage brawl between the Rock and Benoit was alright. As a whole, though, the show--like last week's show--was pretty boring. Typical PPV hype show. Here's the card for Fully Loaded: * The Rock vs. Chris Benoit for the WWF Championship. * Triple H vs. Chris Jericho. "Last Man Standing Match." * The Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle. * Edge & Christian vs. the Acolytes for the Tag Team Titles. * Val Venis vs. Rikishi for the Intercontinental Title in a Steel Cage. * Tazz vs. Al Snow. Expect another two or three matches to be added before the PPV, possibly this Thursday on SmackDown! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Tuesday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Auburn Hills, Michigan. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden & Stevie Ray. HOUR ONE: - Video package showing what a lunatic Scott Steiner is. Steiner has been suspended for attacking Mike Tenay on Thunder. - Steiner is outside the building trashing a red sports car with a pipe. Stevie Ray--why, oh why is he back doing color commentary?--says the car belongs to Booker T. - Nitro Girls. - Commissioner Ernest Miller makes his way to the ring. He announces the U.S. Title Tournament will take place tonight, and lists the first round matches. Having been thoroughly booed, Miller starts ripping on the fat and ugly fans at ringside. Backstage Scott Steiner, along with Rick Steiner, decides he's heard enough of the Cat. Steiner comes out and demands a title shot. Booker T comes out and he and Steiner go at it. Miller calls Steiner a "bitch" and says he'll face Goldberg tonight. Judy Bagwell, wearing a neckbrace, walks through the back with son Buff. - Jeff Jarrett bashes a guitar over Stevie Ray's head. "Chosen One ... stroke ... slap-ass ..." and so forth. Why couldn't he have hit Madden instead? (Stevie Ray actually wasn't that bad doing commentary on Thunder last week--not that I wanted to hear him again tonight.) Scott Hudson is apparently under the weather. - "POSITIVELY" KANYON vs. MIKE AWESOME Kanyon has now died his hair blonde so he doesn't have to wear that DDP wig anymore. Buff & Judy Bagwell come out to do color commentary. (You know, Judy is a former World Tag Team Champion.) Very quickly Awesome sets up a table outside, which he himself goes through when Kanyon gives him a Kanyon Kutter. Judy then attacks Kanyon, to little effect. Kanyon throws her down. Buff then grabs him, throws him in the ring, and gives him the Buff Blockbuster. Somehow the referee misses all this and Awesome goes for the cover. Kanyon kicks out. Memo to Johnny Ace: you don't have to put near-pinfalls in EVERY match you put together. A few moves later and Awesome gets the pin. (So why do the false finish 30 seconds earlier? It didn't add anything to the match.) A huge pair of women's underwear is tossed into the ring (Awesome's new gimmick is that fat chicks love him). Chalk up one bad tournament match. Pamela tells Lance Storm he's cut. He blows her off and disses "sports entertainment," then does his "Calgary ... Alberta, Canada" line. I hated that schtick in ECW. - Buff asks his brother John to take Judy to their car. We then see Smooth talking with Kanyon. - BUFF BAGWELL vs. LANCE STORM Storm chews out the fans for turning their back on him. This is so WWF circa 1997. Bagwell attacks Storm during the Canadian anthem. The two trade chops and, for the first time I can remember, the fans forget to go "whoo!" Suddenly a satellite photo of the Bagwell family appears on the Turner-Tron. Smooth lures John Bagwell away from Judy, or something. Before whatever is supposed to happen even plays out, Storm rolls Bagwell up and put him in the half crab. Bagwell immediately submits, and limps up the aisle (even though he was in the hold all of three seconds). Make that TWO bad tournament matches. The Cat is hitting on some girl when he hears the mysterious Oriental music. The girl can't hear it, even though we at home can. Miller is attacked by the Jung Dragons, doing all their karate moves with exaggerated facial expressions and loud "hee-yah!" cries. Stevie Ray steps in and pulls them off. He demands a piece of Jeff Jarrett. Miller says he can have him if he'll go away and let him and his "boys" play. - A replay of the video from before shows Kanyon attacking Judy Bagwell. Bagwell was supposed to see that, but because he and Storm screwed up the timing, the video didn't get a chance to play long enough. - Steiner tells Midajah to leave the building. - They show a brief video package of the Great Muta. - THE GREAT MUTA vs. VAMPIRO (w/ the Insane Clown Posse) Why? Dear god, why? Muta does his theatric mannerisms. Vampiro does hardly anything. Johnny Ace throws in a couple of near-falls just so the Net fans will rave how much better the matches are. Muta then hits a moonsault out of nowhere and scores the pin. THREE bad tournament matches. Vampiro takes out his frustrations on the Demon. I hereby extend a preemptive middle finger to anyone who tomorrow says "it's nice to see the ICP back in WCW!" Steiner attacks Ralphus & Norman Smiley. - SHANE DOUGLAS (w/ Torrie Wilson) vs. BILLY KIDMAN Franchise & Torrie kill a few minutes blabbing on the mic. The match starts and right away the two go to the floor, fighting there for a long time without being counted out. Back in the ring Kidman goes into the ropes. Torrie trips him, and Douglas does the Pittsburgh Plunge. Kidman kicks out. JOHNNY ACE STRIKES AGAIN! The next few minutes are MOVE, COVER, KICK-OUT, REPEAT. Douglas finally does his shitty new finisher and gets the pin. Not a bad match, but not a very good one either. 3 Count is carrying a ladder backstage. Goldberg has arrived. HOUR TWO: - Goldberg is talking with someone as Steiner sits not too far away, waiting to attack him. So why doesn't he do it? - Tank Abbott introduces 3 Count. Schiavone confirms that these guys will be facing the Jung Dragons at New Blood Rising in a "Ladder Match." I bet that match isn't anywhere near as good as people think it will be. (Why do I say that? Because THIS SHOW hasn't been anywhere near as good as people figured it would be.) The Jung Dragons break up the 3 Count song. Wait .. is this a match? JUNG DRAGONS vs. 3 COUNT What the hell? THIS is the "Ladder Match?!" One of the Dragons gives one of 3 Count a superplex off a ladder balanced on the top ropes. The ladder is then set up and Karagias is knocked all the way to the floor (where Abbott misses catching him). The ladder is set up again and the Dragons retrieve the suspended gold record, winning the match. Huh?! Goldberg and Steiner finally cross paths and go at it. - Steiner throws a fit as his brother Rick and Midajah try to calm him down. - MIKE AWESOME vs. THE GREAT MUTA Straight to the floor they go, where again they should be counted out but aren't. Awesome then tells Madden he's going to put Muta on the announce desk. Awesome ends up whipped into the desk, drawing a (bleeped) profanity from Madden. Muta blows the green mist, but Awesome ducks, and Madden gets it all over him. Madden "passes out," but because he's so INCREDIBLY FAT he carefully lowers himself to the ground. Back in the ring an Awesomebomb earns Awesome the win. Bad match, bad angle, very bad show thus far. Madden leaves to change his shirt. Bagwell pounds on Smooth until he's attacked from behind by Kanyon. - Madden becomes infatuated with Kiwi. - SHANE DOUGLAS (w/ Torrie Wilson) vs. LANCE STORM Lots and lots of near-falls, but they're more palatable this time because Douglas and Storm actually mix in a lot of wrestling moves. Storm wins with the half crab. Kidman, who had been watching the match on the stage, comes in with a chair, intent on giving Torrie a spanking. Storm comes in, but Kidman does a Van Daminator with the chair. The first decent match of the tournament. Awesome vs. Storm for the U.S. Title. Rick Steiner is cooking up a scheme with Midajah. Stevie Ray is on the move. - Schiavone announces a few New Blood Rising matches: Sting, making his in-ring return, vs. the Demon; Franchise vs. Kidman; a four-corners match for the Tag Titles (defended by Kronic). - JEFF JARRETT vs. STEVIE RAY A minute or two into the match Rick Steiner runs out, distracting the referee. On the other side of the ring Midajah comes off the top, hitting Stevie with a double axehandle. Jarrett finishes him off with the Stroke. Booker T runs in for the save. Scott Steiner is tearing apart his dressing room. - LANCE STORM vs. MIKE AWESOME "Turn that sh*t off!" Awesome barks as the Canadian anthem is being played. Yup ... more near-falls. Storm and Awesome botch a tornado DDT. Madden blames it on Awesome's mullet. Storm wins with half crab reversed out of an Awesomebomb attempt. Okay match. I was sure Awesome was winning the U.S. Title. Storm now gets to do the angle they did with Bret Hart where the United States Champion is a U.S.--hating Canadian. Miller knocks on Booker T's door, saying he'd like to talk to him. Booker T looks around to make sure no one but the cameraman is there to see them. - SCOTT STEINER (w/ Midajah) vs. GOLDBERG Booker T comes out to do color commentary. Ernest Miller is the special referee. Goldberg and Steiner take turns doing power moves on each other, as the announcers proclaim this one of the most incredible moments in the history of WCW. Are we supposed to remember this match took place if they headline Starrcade with it? Steiner knocks Miller top the floor, bringing Booker T over to and into the ring. Goldberg tries to catch Booker with a spear, but Booker leapfrogs him, and Goldberg spears Steiner instead. Cue the Wolfpac music. Kevin Nash comes out, swigging out of a beer bottle. He enters the ring and gives Goldberg a Jackknife. The same for Steiner. He gives Booker a tough look and leaves. Interesting way to avoid giving us a finish, I guess. Hot finish to an otherwise lame show. - This Wednesday: Thunder will be live. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Silly me, I got suckered into believing this would be a blow-away show. Like the WWF, having the entire wrestling audience to itself, it was assumed they were going to pack this show with big matches, delivering a strong U.S. Title Tournament and much-anticipated main event. Like the WWF, WCW fell short in what they delivered. Match after match clocking in at between 2-4 minutes each, some with barely any wrestling, with lots of pin attempts and kick-outs to make them seem better than they really were. Storm had the best matches, and those were the last two of the tournament. Even those who liked the matches would have to admit too many of them, were too short. The wrestling was better than RAW on Monday, though, I'll give them that. A correction from last week: it turns out it really was Sting on the show last Monday and not a stand-in. I got fooled along with most everyone else. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: One might ask "Which is more important: TV ratings or PPV buyrates?" The WWF believes it's buyrates, as was evidenced by the above installment of RAW. Running unopposed the WWF had a rare opportunity to deliver a monster show which no one would ever forget. They had the entire Nitro audience to itself, and the chance to convince those people why it would be foolish to watch Nitro next week when the shows would be back to competing with each other. The WWF didn't do that, and just maybe the TV ratings suffered because of it. The above RAW drew a 6.2 rating. The first hour was slightly up from recent opposed shows, but the second hour was actually down. The verdict? Casual wrestling viewers have indeed stopped watching wrestling. If I had to guess I'd say the *total* wrestling viewing audience today would generate somewhere around an 8.0 rating. Maybe less. Look at any Monday night lately and you'll see somewhere around 3.0 of that audience watching the unopposed first hour of Nitro, and a little more than double that watching the second unopposed hour of RAW. Wrestling viewership hits its peak when the two shows are on. Most wrestling fans, even when they have the chance to watch Nitro, won't, and wait until RAW starts. When it does, Nitro often loses upwards of a quarter to a third of its audience. When Nitro ends another chunk switches over to RAW, but there's still some who won't watch it (though not as many as there used to be). And that one or two ratings point worth of viewers who used to push the combined viewership up around the 10.0 level ... they've just vanished. RAW, with a 6.2 rating, was still seen by more people than most RAW's prior to 1999. So is that a bad rating? Yes and no. No, because it'll still make RAW the most-watched show on cable this week. Yes, because it was unopposed, failing to draw nearly a quarter of the overall wrestling audience we know is out there. The rating was also down from what RAW earned at its peak, but I think it's time we recognize that we've come away from that peak. The days of drawing a 7.0 opposed rating on a Monday night are probably over. Which brings us back to the debate of TV ratings versus PPV buyrates. Was it smart of the WWF to deliver a lesser show on TV to hype the PPV? Well, maybe "smart" isn't the right word ... more like "prudent." After all, with the TV audience clearly shrinking, there's no guarantee that a blow-away show put on by the WWF would have drawn much better than the 6.2 rating it did. WCW, on the other hand, almost has to concentrate on making the TV bigger than the PPV's. While they desperately need the PPV's to make money, no amount of build towards them will mean anything if the fans aren't watching the TV shows. get more people to watch the shows and naturally more *should* buy the PPV's. Of course the ideal strategy is to build BOTH the TV ratings and PPV buyrates at the same time. WCW hasn't figured out how to do that, though, so for them their first priority has to be to turn the TV around, then work on the PPV's. Even if that's the wrong strategy to employ, it does seem to be the one WCW is following. As troubling as the ratings dip has been for the WWF, it's something WCW can't just turn a blind eye to. It would be one thing if the WWF was losing viewers to WCW, but that hasn't been the case. WCW's ratings, at best, have been staying at the same low level. Some weeks it goes up a nudge. Other weeks it drops to all new low levels. The overall audience is shrinking, for both shows, at a time when most fans feel the two companies are putting on good TV. Was WCW too bad too long to turn things around now? Was the WWF too complacent for too long? Some have tried to compare the recent WWF run to WCW when they got lax and coasted on the success of the NWO. The difference, unfortunately, is that while WCW was going down in the ratings, the WWF came on strong and went up. Thus far WCW hasn't been able to capitalize on the WWF's sagging ratings. Is an unopposed 6.2 rating something the WWF should be panicking over? Probably not. Still, you can bet it shook some people up in Titan Towers. The last few times they went unopposed on a Monday night they drew some huge ratings. This time, it was just average. It's worth noting that last week, as best as can be determined, the WWF passed WCW's 83 week ratings winning streak. The streak Eric Bischoff once said could never be matched has, in fact, been beaten--and continues to be extended. This week didn't count, of course, but things should be back to where they were next week, and even with the WWF's rating going down, WCW has yet to show they can make a run at catching up to them. It's a sad reminder of how low WCW has fallen, and a warning to the WWF about their possible fate. We're not likely to see another big wrestling boom anytime soon where both promotions can draw huge ratings. If WCW somehow lucks onto a viewer-drawing formula, like they did back in 1996, it will most likely come at the cost of WWF fans. All the WWF has to do to fend off WCW is do what they've done best: deliver an exciting, innovative and unpredictable product, with an eye cast towards the fans and their tastes. Here's hoping we see some more of that after Fully Loaded, as they gear up for SummerSlam, and the jump to TNN after that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 2000 by John Petrie, and all opinions expressed therein are his own, and not those of "USLink". Check the "Slobberknocker Central" main page for info on how to receive the "Recap" free via E-Mail every week. Volume One, Number 244 of the "Monday Night Recap", July 17th-18th, 2000.