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COVER STORY by Wade Keller from PWTorch Newsletter #494 - May 16, 1998...

Eric Bischoff has switched gears from a cocky industry leader to a brash, in-your-face underdog. Bischoff may come across as overly confident on TV, but he has been shaken by the WWF's recent ratings resurgence. This week that came across on live television as Bischoff challenged Vince McMahon to a match this Sunday at Slamboree. The story behind Bischoff's challenge, and the potential long-term and the actual short-term ramifications of the challenge, have been the primary topic of conversation within the industry in the hours since.

The actual short-term ramifications of Bischoff's challenge are that it doubtless led to Nitro viewers switching to Raw when it began to see if McMahon would respond. It may not have been the primary reason, but it influenced Raw gaining its biggest ratings victory over Nitro in over two years -- 4.8 to 4.2 in the two concurrent hours. (Nitro drew a 4.3 rating when factoring in the first unopposed hour.)

By challenging McMahon and taking shots at Sean Waltman ("X-Pac") during the first hour of Nitro, it served as a commercial of sorts for Raw. Throughout the night in both the WWF and WCW locker rooms, wrestlers and executives were responding to Bischoff, and with a few exceptions, the dominant opinion was "Bischoff has lost it," or "What a boneheaded move." When the ratings came in the next afternoon and Raw beat Nitro in all eight quarter-hours, it validated those thoughts.

The past two years when Nitro was preempted from its usual timeslot for the NBA playoffs, when Nitro returned to its normal timeslot it immediately picked up where it left off with convincing wins over Raw. This year it was different. Nitro defeated Raw 5.1 to 4.4 three weeks ago, ending Raw's winning streak (4.6 to 4.2) at one week. But in the two weeks afterward when Nitro was preempted from its usual slot, Raw drew the two biggest ratings in the history of Monday night cable wrestling (5.7 and 5.5). With Nitro head-up against it this week, Raw retained 87 percent of its viewers from the week before.

The week after Raw beat Nitro, WCW countered with a sure-fire rating draw as its TV main event -- Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage. The strategy worked. That match drew a 6.5 rating, crushing Raw which drew a 3.8 in that final quarter, and helped Nitro gain an overall win. This week they went back to that match, but this time the result was different. Hogan vs. Savage drew a solid 4.4 rating, but Raw's main event of Steve Austin & Vince McMahon vs. Rocky Maivia & D-Lo Brown drew a 4.7.

The impact of a match starring Austin and McMahon outdrawing a match starring Hogan and Savage -- and also involving Roddy Piper, Giant, Kevin Nash, and Sting -- is incredible. That means WCW can no longer rely on overwhelming the WWF simply with their star-power. WCW is going to have to work a lot harder and be a lot more creative in order to fend off Raw's compelling storylines.

The long-term ramifications of Bischoff's challenge to McMahon on Nitro are potentially huge. When McMahon watched Bischoff issue the challenge on a monitor backstage before Raw went on the air, his immediate response to those around him was, "He's playing right into our hands." He meant two things by that. One, it confirmed to McMahon that he had successfully put Bischoff on the defensive. McMahon also saw it as a ratings boost for Raw, a virtual commercial for the McMahon-Austin-Dude Love storyline. But most of all, McMahon saw it as a huge coup for his lawsuit against WCW. By challenging McMahon to face him on pay-per-view, Bischoff may have been "confusing the marketplace" by giving the impression that if you order WCW's PPV, you might get to see Bischoff vs. McMahon.

Bischoff was apparently aware of that, since he went out of his way to tell viewers -- as soon as he issued his challenge -- not to buy the PPV merely for that reason since McMahon wouldn't have the guts to accept the challenge. However, whether or not that disclaimer would be enough to negate any legal problems, when Bischoff's challenge was replayed a total of three times during the last two hours of Nitro, they left out Bischoff's disclaimer. McMahon was in a good mood the rest of the night because he realized he had gotten to Bischoff, who just over a month earlier had talked about how the WWF wasn't competitive enough to make Monday nights fun.

Bischoff was driven to issue his bizarre challenge for a number of reasons. One reason is his general frustration with Raw's ratings success and the clear momentum the WWF has gained since Wrestlemania. But the more immediate inspiration was that the WWF showed up with a camera crew at WCW headquarters earlier that afternoon. Hunter Hearst Helmsley, X-Pac, Road Dog, Billy Gunn, and Chyna (along with Bruce Prichard) showed up in Smyrna, Ga. at WCW's new headquarters (about 15 minutes from CNN Center in Downtown Atlanta). They asked to talk to Eric Bischoff, an apparent follow-up on DX's visit to WCW Nitro at the Norfolk Scope a couple of weeks earlier. They also paraded around CNN Center, drawing a crowd of DX fans in the lobby (including a former WCW employee who works elsewhere in TBS now who hammed it up with DX).

WCW called 911 claiming that there were wrestlers dressed in fatigues with a cannon attached to a military Jeep trespassing onto their property -- all of which was true. The police showed up, but when they didn't immediately arrest DX, some WCW office employees accused the police of being "paid off" and wanted more police officers to be dispatched. They also wanted DX handcuffed and arrested, but the police wouldn't do that.

However, WCW did press formal charges against DX for what they did, and everyone involved will probably have to show up in court within the next couple of months.

Bischoff wasn't at WCW headquarters in Smyrna when DX showed up -- he was in Kansas City, Mo. for Nitro -- but when he heard what happened he was livid. He was also upset the police didn't handcuff DX and take them to jail. WCW has an open-and-shut case that DX knew they were trespassing since the WWF showed Hunter pointing to the "Private Property: No Trespassing" sign on the front lawn of WCW headquarters (something Hunter wasn't pleased about when he saw it made it on TV). Having DX go to CNN Center was McMahon's idea, not just for ratings reasons but because he has a near-obsession with Ted Turner.

With Raw's decisive victory over Nitro, WCW will go from hot-shot mode to full-fledged panic mode. Top wrestlers who have been around Bischoff the last six weeks have sensed a change in his attitude and approach. Conveniently, the scheduling for Raw just happened to fall into a pattern where they are live two weeks in a row, which means next Monday both shows will be live again. The WWF will continue to build toward the May 31 pay-per-view, although there might be a bit more of a swagger to Jim Ross's commentary. WCW, on the other hand, has some major issues to deal with since Raw's win on Apr. 13 was not the one-week blip that Bischoff predicted it was going to be. Will WCW attempt to hot-shot some rating again next Monday, such as featuring Hogan vs. Nash, Goldberg vs. Lex Luger, and Bret Hart vs. Sting? Or will WCW sign Ultimate Warrior (as has been rumored to be close to happening in recent days) and hotshot him into a match against Hogan on Nitro? Nothing is unfathomable.

More than anything Bischoff wants to be able to say Raw's momentum was a two-month fluke and he will do whatever it takes on Monday to make sure that momentum stops. He has more weapons at his disposal, but are they enough to compete with Austin and McMahon, as hot as they are?

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