Jimmy
Grimlock
Posts: 13,317
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Post by Jimmy on Jan 8, 2013 19:19:11 GMT -5
But the long-awaited Hogan vs. Flair feud did pretty good PPV numbers for WCW (though it was definitely the law of diminishing returns) and that led Bischoff to assume that Superhero Hogan = ratings, even though a large portion of the WCW audience HATED Flair being made to look like a buffoon, and once Flair was retired, WCW did bad numbers (wasn't the buyrate for this Starrcade absolutely horrible, considering it was supposed to be WCW's biggest show, which led to a very quick de-push of the Butcher?). It wasn't a horrible buyrate compared to a lot they they were doing pre-Hogan, but considering it was their biggest show of the year and Hogan was coming off two big, 1.0+ buyrate matches with Flair just months before it definitely was considered a bomb.
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Post by cabbageboy on Jan 8, 2013 19:27:48 GMT -5
Yeah WCW went through a real dreary down period post BATB 1994 and it really lasted up until the debut of Nitro. They had some clunker shows then too but at least they were trying harder. WCW in the first half of 1994 was actually quite good as others have noted, but in retrospect I think Bischoff let guys just do whatever until he could debut Hogan. Cactus Jack wants to have violent hardcore brawls? Sure, why not. He'll be gone in a few months anyway. Flair has a lame duck run with the belt and has solid matches? Why not?
That said, having Beefcake main event this PPV was absurd. That's sort of what happens though when you hotshot the biggest rivalry you have (Hogan/Flair) however. There wasn't enough time to go full blown into Hogan/Vader, which they did in the first half of 1995. I do think Hogan's drawing power in his early WCW days is undervalued though. When they put him against guys that had any sort of drawing power, it usually did a very good buyrate. The Flair matches drew well for that era. The Vader matches in 1995 drew as well, even if some of the PPVs like Uncensored were train wrecks. The amusing irony to me is that Bash at the Beach 1995 with the Hogan/Vader blowoff did a better buyrate than the celebrated 1996 show with the NWO formation (I think like .82 to .71).
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h
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 5,734
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Post by h on Jan 13, 2013 1:50:47 GMT -5
They were trying to get WWF viewers to switch over. It makes total sense to highlight Hogan vs. Beefcake, since that would get a lot of WWF viewers interested. They gave people faces that they knew from the WWF, but they did something different with them. It was a huge switch from the Hogan-Beefcake friendship in the WWF, so it was intriguing.
That being said, I eventually stopped watching WCW, so I had no idea that Zodiac was a spy.
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