Jim Cornette on USA Network's 1997 Focus Groups On WWE

From Episode 257 of Jim Cornette's Drive Thru
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
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[@justinsayswtf]

“Shawn Michaels turns the title in and relinquishes his smile” Funniest thing I’ve heard today lol

[@Abcdefgx-u9g]

You don't get out much huh. Lmfao 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@justinsayswtf]

@@Abcdefgx-u9g I said “funniest thing I’ve today”, not “funniest thing I’ve heard ever in my life”.

[@justinsayswtf]

“Eddie Gilbert and Kevin Sullivan. Maybe you could make them the team of Gilbert and Sullivan.” The creativity is blowing my mind.

[@impalaman9707]

I actually remember WTBS doing a promo for that match on the WCW Sunday night show in the early 90s and making fun of the idea of "Gilbert vs Sullivan"---and playing the Gilbert and Sullivan music for the promo and making them dance! I guess that went off without a hitch, unless that was one of the many times they weren't pre-empted by Atlanta Braves baseball!!

[@invisible.fatman]

It's all about duty ... Or should that be doodie 🤔💩

[@Caolan114]

When they said "Such as.. mexicans" I couldn't stop laughing It made me think of that south park episode where you can hire a mexican to do anything Need good wrestlers, call the mexicans

[@JumpingJackFlash1989]

I wrote my essay back home and he wrote me back.

[@josephwedding9839]

$200 to send a whale to the moon!

[@claytonjones8358]

When Corny say Caca pops me all the time.

[@MichaelSmith-fq6hz]

Doing the jobs American wrestlers refuse to do

[@sweetpepino1907]

I don't know why the idea of USA telling them to bring back Bruno Sammartino because probably one old Italian guy told them he misses the old days is so funny to me

[@Rickshaw323]

Agree or disagree with Jim his knowledge of professional wrestling has to be among the top 1%

[@TK-mf2fr]

Might be #1....the stuff he remembers is pretty amazing

[@Cruising_On_Lake_Havasoma]

@@TK-mf2fr And if he doesn't remember he's probably got some paperwork handy to remind him, he says he's saved everything since he was a ringside photographer in high school. Dude must have a room full of file cabinets or something.

[@TK-mf2fr]

@@Cruising_On_Lake_Havasoma exactly! He is a wealth of wrestling knowledge...it's very entertaining

[@VegetabIeMan]

The reason to which to listen to him. Nothing more, nothing else

[@richardremick1639]

He is the 1% only. Nobody eise. Jim is 1%

[@Double0Inside]

When Corny starts looking through his archives you know it's gonna be good shit lol

[@Saddison01]

"So you want a realistic, down-to-earth show...that's completely off the wall and swarming with magic robots?"

[@TheCharlesChase]

And also, you should win things by watching!

[@jasonlevesque6340]

"You kids don't know what you want. That's why you're kids, because you're stupid."

[@rodjohnson6408]

To be fair to Shawn Michaels, being in Lowell, Massachusetts would make even Mona Lisa lose her smile

[@VodkaVodoka]

I've been following the Reliving the War series, and some of the notes from this focus group really explains the changes that were happening in 1997. Particularly the note about mayhem, that probably resulted in the gang war shit with all run-ins of multiple people happening constantly. Man, that shit is just miserable to see now.

[@antwhezzy]

I’ve been following the Reliving the War series on Wrestling Bios as well and was thinking the same. But it’s also interesting that once WCW went out of business that Vince went right back to the same boring shit that people in the 90s complained about

[@jusbertmeza4424]

looks like AEW every week. They hotshot everything and do too much every match has an afterbirth or pre match mayhem even with the nobodies

[@Brando-Lee3725]

Ive watched every Reliving the War . Good stuff . I watched most as it happened but its super cool to watch those re caps as ive forgot a bunch !

[@patrickmcneil9180]

As much as I also laughed at the "bringing back Pedro & Bruno" line, it's worth noting Pedro Morales was younger in 1997 than Goldberg was wrestling this year.

[@DefendYoungstown]

In an alternate universe, the "Pretty-Boy" Bret Hart becomes the tag partner of HBK in a early version of "The Two Man Power Trip". Hottest heel tag team in the history of our sport! Their entrance is Shawn's theme, but the lyrics are sung by Bret. Tremendous!!

[@JM1993951]

Virgil: Ted, am I a hanger-on? Dibiase: Hell, Virgil. I’m a hanger-on

[@Artsensei86]

I was 11 in 97, I remember speeding home on mondays getting all my homework done just so I could be ready for 8 pm. I would flip between Raw and Nitro when commercials popped up. I think that is the bulk of kids watched wrestling back in those days.

[@gregweisal5542]

I was 10 did the same thing cept I went with WWE eventually when stone cold was STONE COLD!!!!! Goldberg was fun for stupid kids like me but when they beat him I was done with wcw. That and the finger poke of doom.

[@Artsensei86]

@@gregweisal5542 I agree even as a kid I could see the stink of Russo all over WCW , Goldberg was super over then it just abruptly ended once you could see he only knew 3 moves. You cant have squash matches forever. Also the fumbling of Sting was a huge let down. But that being said 97-98 was such a great time for wrestling

[@shaunsmith5732]

I watched WCW mostly because of Sting,growing up in the south,and watching Nwa/WCW as a kid

[@gregweisal5542]

Sting never should have joined the wolfpack. Yes I had a red and black sting action figure but really sting should have always been the lone wolf pun intended. Him joining nwo anything was stupid. Don't get me started on Bret Hart in wcw. Talk about wasted opportunity

[@shaunsmith5732]

@@gregweisal5542 WCW was a disaster by that point honestly though.Sting looked so out of place.But yeah I agree,it didn't last long though and he was back to the loner Sting routine.Jim Cornette said you have to be crazy to get into wrestling,I'm starting to believe him honestly.These wrestlers are either grifters or not wrapped too tight.Still love the Stinger though.I met him once in Greenville South Carolina and I was nervous as hell.

[@patrickearles471]

This reminds me of that Simpsons episode where they did the focus group for Itchy & Scratchy "So you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?"

[@SpiralPoliFemboy]

Literally just Evangelion

[@mikeyoutubeaccount7120]

That was a good thing about this era as well as it adding more realism,the top guys had more than just one feud going on at one time which made it easier to change things up when things unexpectedly happened behind the scenes changing plans.

[@stephenrogers4537]

"That's not going to work for me" BROTHER ! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@rollojehova3606]

Fascinating! I would listen to a hundred hours of content like this. Jim is sitting on a goldmine

[@marknadratowski5728]

It's funny that every Shawn Michaels temper tantrum ended up being the best thing for the company.

[@billythompson3382]

Do you have any other examples?

[@bricemckeel255]

It ended up being the best thing for Sean Michaels as well. He got sober, found Jesus, he mended a lot of past relationships, and he came back to a monster run that made his previous run better in hindsight. We all laugh at “lost his smile” but that really was as close as you can get to divine intervention

[@alexello1189]

@@bricemckeel255 “people seem to find god when no one else will talk to them” a quote from Jim himself. If Shawn really turned his life around thanks to god you think he would have let McMahon turn it into an angle?? Shawn’s a hypocrite he’s just learned to keep his mouth shut

[@undefeateddynasty7974]

@@alexello1189 exactly and it worked . I get hell online for not "letting old stuff go" like this dude didn't kill my favorite wrestler as a kids (Vader) career

[@jamirimaj6880]

CM Punk and The Elite can learn a thing or two

[@user-do2ev2hr7h]

The 4 Horsemen did exist in 1997. It wasn't the good version from the 80's, but they existed.

[@Sky_Blaze]

Like most wrestling.. watered down versions of the past

[@lodi70005]

I would say that group was the 4th best version of the Horseman, if you count every single change as a new version. For me, the 97 version was bested by the original, Ole out and Luger in, Luger out and Wyndham in.

[@EmmaBonn96]

I always kinda liked Benoit as a horseman.

[@Downerfunk]

I thought he fit well with Anderson.

[@DamnitDave87]

Facts!

[@ModernDayRenaissanceMan]

Travis... This is your best work. I didn't understand how we were going to get there... But ohhh boy when we did!!! 🤣

[@IanSane]

Not only does it seem like the WWF took these results to heart but it actually kind of worked in the short term. I was in high school in 1998-99 and it was like 90% of the students watched wrestling and the vast majority of them were not watching in 96 or 97. And those kids very much liked sexy babes and wanton destruction and chaos and mayhem. So if you wanted that audience as a fad for a few years, the advice from this survey is dead-on. You weren't going to create a new generation of lifelong wrestling fans but if you wanted to be hot for a few years it was a good plan.

[@pmfg11]

It definitely created a new generation of wrestling fans lmao, when it got bad a lot of them just stopped watching

[@orangemaniabrother2232]

It created fair weather fans

[@pmfg11]

@@orangemaniabrother2232 Lmao odd complaint that time period didn't create absolute marks that would watch the product no matter what because they have nothing else in life

[@lodi70005]

@@pmfg11 Exactly. WCW and the NWO created a ton of new wrestling fans out of thin air. When it got dumb, they abandoned the product overnight. I know this for a fact because I turned about 10 of my friends into fans for a few years.

[@orangemaniabrother2232]

@@pmfg11 that period attracted fans that would never have bothered with it in the first place who then left it within a year or 2 or stuck with it but complain all the time cos it's not like the era they got in to it which was an anomaly anyway. I thought that at the time, what happened happened, and I think that now. I wasn't super in to the attitude era, it felt like tv for casuals

[@JebeTheGreat]

Hilariously the "What RAW/Nitro should do" sounded like exactly how AEW operates.

[@tomb9420]

Man I remember when I first discovered wrestling on television 📺, Saturday morning on USA , eventually it was Monday night raw. Who remember bam bam bigalow!

[@ravensmythe1]

"the same way people might watch German porn" has to be one of the greatest lines JC has ever used!

[@ericbanks693]

This survey is gold. Love this stuff. In 1997 I started watching Nitro along with my usual watching of Raw. It was the more entertaining show but WWF had the better product in terms of wrestling in my opinion. The best things about the Attitude Era were that the feuds, matches, and promos mattered and were more realistic, and the World Title mattered.

[@jonathanross3883]

reb be tune u y n

[@drunkensailor112]

Wcw imo was far superior in the ring. At least half the card produced non stop 4 to 5 star matches.

[@kamfisher1714]

@@drunkensailor112 Not from 1998-2001

[@josephmatthews7698]

In ring? Better main events: WWF Better undercard: WCW Winner: WCW The cruiserweights and mid carders like Guerrero, Mysterio, Benoit, Hennig, Malenko, Jericho just run away with it. But main events at wwf with Bret, Shawn, prime taker, Foley regularly put on incredible matches.

[@alkin4389]

Love it when Mike finally can't help but ask an adult question skeptically and then cornette has to hit the Page turn audio on the computer while obviously making something up

[@garywest2250]

the cover art makes me laugh every fuckin time...lol

[@JagerLange]

This, a hundred times this. I haven't even started listening and I'm already laughing after realising what's going on here.

[@impalaman9707]

That last point from the focus group, Tony Khan took and ran with in the early days of AEW--Give old wrestlers from the past a new life in the present, by turning them into managers! So that's where AEW got the idea for having Arn Andersen, Jake Roberts, Sting, Matt Hardy, Tully Blanchard, etc--managers for new wrestlers

[@LucasIsHereYT]

While I may not agree with some of Jim Cornette's opinions (especially on short wrestlers), I listen to him because he's like an encyclopedia of wrestling. Seriously, if he can narrow down something to a month based off the gimmicks of people involved and their position, he can tell you anything.

[@NDiddy]

"Such as Mexicans 😀" 😂😂

[@davidstephan5116]

I had two tvs setup on mondays. The mute button was used depending on who was on at what time

[@ktd522]

I can't get enough of Jim's 90s WWF files!

[@brandonkohlmeier2382]

Now I know how Tony Kahn gets feedback on his product! It all makes sense now!

[@SuperbNProsper]

This survey worked for WWF overall tho

[@jasonaustin1038]

Hocus Pocus for focus group

[@eamonwright7488]

Seal cub clubbing club

[@manningbaxter889]

Austin vs. Hart, was the match that really put Austin Over, it's not often that the supposed heel can Galvanize the fans the way that he did

[@daleva187goligo]

the usa network was awesome in the mid 90s, we had raw on mondays and duckman and weird science on wednesdays

[@C-Lyfe85]

The USA Network at that time was not exactly a great Network to broadcast from. They would cancel shows from Monday Night Raw for tennis and dog shows. Then by the early 2000s they were happy that the WWF left for tnn. Then to not only later on beg them to come back. The crazy thing is during the Monday night Wars raw was only 2 hours. But when they had no competition to battle against, no Monday night wars, then they want to give them 3 hours, for what?

[@GodLovesYou828]

Duckman was great

[@danthemancushecan]

I do not consider AEW the more "exciting" show. AEW is more of "let's watch to see how bad it will be".

[@travisheckel3788]

Correct

[@stephendavis6561]

Antimark?

[@oldmate5779]

Was Tony Khan one of the kids that attended the focus group survey?

[@KushnKayfabe]

Cornette is literally a living breathing wrestling library. Dude is pure gold. Can't wait to hear his take on Kenny Omega coming back and the free PPV match on Dynamite between Punk and Plumber Moxley.🤞🏿

[@markcampbell2702]

Yeah the free tv match with Punk and Moxley had me cringe. Reminds me of the same hot shotting concept WCW did with Hogan vs Goldberg on Nitro. The only way I can see this justified is if something big happens like a returning MJF getting involved somehow

[@MattKeller]

Punk vs Mox will end in shenanigans. You're still gonna see it at the ppv.

[@erikstorm8935]

Hotshots Mox/Punk on free TV. And Omega returns randomly on free TV. And this dude was Booker of the Year? You save that for a PPV. Or at least a big Dynamite special where the matches are HYPED. Oh and not have Omega return in a Six Man match lol. What in the actual hell?

[@anonamatron]

Maybe he'll call Kenny Twinkletoes the Mummy now.

[@anonamatron]

@@erikstorm8935 Kenny came back in the six man match because it's a tournament. He needs to be there so the Elite can become the trios champs. What if instead they had Brandon for the opening rounds, but some heels, maybe Adam Cole's group, reinjure Brandon's face, causing the team to be down a member for the last match. The Bucks want to replace him but the other finalist team calls bullshit. It's against the rules. Something happens... Balding Buck needs to beat one member of the other team in some sort of gimmick match to earn the right to change their team in the finals. Buck gets "injured" in this match, but finally does come out on top. The Bucks get Hangman to finally rejoin them, but Hangman gets jumped backstage right before the finals match of the trios tournament. The Bucks are really pissed but go into the finals match 2 on 3, handicap. FINALLY, when the Bucks are really down in the match the other team goes to cheat, with a chair or weapon of some sorts, when suddenly someone jumps out of the crowd and rips the chai out of their hand. He's wearing a Lucha Bros match or something so it's not obvious who he is immediately, but he hits the guy with the weapon he took and then puts him up on his shoulders and does the One Winged Angel.. oh shit... it's Kenny Omega isn't it? He rips off his mask and the crowd goes nuts. Kenny Omega is back and he's the Buck's new partner, and this all happened at the big PPV! Or you could just have him come back at the start since it's more fair for the tournament.

[@altruisticscoundrel]

Jerry Jarrett offerred $70 MILLION for WCW, Turner AOL decided they wanted to lose more money and said NO... What might have been?

[@CtKEngage]

AOL must have hated wrestling that much that they wanted it to die, even though WCW was still the highest rated Turner program in the 90s and 2000. Honestly, it may have given wrestling another chance at long term life, but the indie wrestling would have still made its way into both companies to the semi-detriment of it.

[@ryan4372]

Primary school in the late 90s (elementary) in the UK, everyone watched wrestling. We pretended to be wrestlers in the play area and cut up socks for knee pads/elbow pads night before to bring in and drew custom belts Every story was spoke about. It was “mainstream”. When stone cold got run over in survivor series, my whole school was in mourning.. a primary school, in east London UK.. lol. When HBK lost to stone cold, the shock around my school over Tyson turning. We’d all record raw and the ppvs What I’m getting at, those couple years (as someone else said), it did work in a weird way… everyone had shirts from HMV, it was seen as “cool” (whereas now you’d be called a nerd or geek for saying you watch wrestling, even at that age). I don’t recall anyone every watching WCW lol.. Off topic, why I think fashion is a huge deal in pro wrestling for mainstream purposes.. to kids/teens, you have to be ‘cool’. Watching road dogg and Billy Gunn run about in South Park attire for example, the boots and jean combo they all wore..

[@kingslayer2999]

Waiting for Cornettes reaction to the return of Kenny TwinkleToes Omega 😂🤣😂

[@MattKeller]

He's gonna shit all over it and rightfully so it was an AWFUL introduction.

[@erikstorm8935]

Inquiring minds want to know: did he twinkle his toes more than usual? xD

[@erikstorm8935]

@@MattKeller Another example of hotshot booking. They should have saved his return for a PPV. Or at least one of those Dynamite specials where its a big one on one match. Instead he was booked in a random six man. And they're not even running head to head with NXT anymore lol.

[@MattKeller]

@@erikstorm8935 bucks handed the ring announcer a piece of paper with the worst announcement in history written on it, followed by a weird entrance with nakazawa and don callis. Don then joined commentary and annoyed everyone for the rest of the show

[@MattKeller]

@@erikstorm8935 I told everyone this week they should have hyped it instead of pretending it's a surprise because ratings just came out and it went down a little since last week.

[@Callsign_skulls]

As a female attitude era wrestling fan, I was NEVER attracted to the pretty boys. I was attracted to Steve Austin and Taker... hell, I still am! Lol

[@mckali9999]

Yeah, men usually struggle with what women find attractive

[@tsb3208]

@@mckali9999 Power. Whatever way it is manifested, women are statistically proven to overwhelmingly be attracted to power. Whether that's great looks that make other men look worse next to a guy, muscles and strength, confidence, money, wit, charm or whatever alternate manifestation, women are attracted to power.

[@mckali9999]

@@tsb3208 Couldn't have said it better

[@herzkine]

OK , but how much money do you maje wirh wonen. The teenage girls back then loved Bret in pink, and you could sell them stuff.

[@autobotstarscream765]

@@herzkine Bret was so masculine he made pink manly and Canada cool! Part of the whole point of his feud with HBK was that Shaun came across as the spoiled Kliq pretty boy and contrasted with Bret so much.

[@jovanss2361]

Tony Khan built his company on trying to be the antithesis of this survey

[@AlwaysOnDeck]

Sid and Undertaker were being teased from as early as December 1996, and heavily so in January 1996.

[@_NoDrinkTheBleach]

I remember seeing Undertaker vs Sid in a dark match at a tv taping in 1995, and it being an unremarkable 7-8 minute match. If you had told me back then that it would be the main event at Mania two years later, I would have been very confused.

[@michaelmarino7391]

1997 was the year that the seeds for the Attitude Era were planted. Bret vs Austin at WM 13. The Hart Foundation as an established heel stable. Sid vs Taker. Mick Foley as Mankind/Dude Love. HHH winning King of the Ring.

[@cb3648]

Yeah they still had some bad gimmicks, but 97 in terms of quality was better than 96. Such a shame Bret couldn't stay, his heel persona and promo work was fantastic, should've been Hart vs Austin 2 for the World Title in 98, maybe Last Man Standing or in the Cage.

[@jayglenn82]

The best year ever IMO

[@mmabuff101]

Rocky maivia becoming the rock

[@silverdarlin]

It's very easy to argue that the attitude era started at Survivor Series with the screwjob. 97 is one of the most influential years in wrestling history

[@michaelmarino7391]

@@mmabuff101 Kind of glossed over it because The Rock was injured & didn't come into his personal until 1998.

[@thedoctor3528]

He should read more things like this

[@johntarver5684]

The artwork to this is perfect!

[@tmoore2010]

1997 watching for me both nitro and raw; weekly- simultaneously. Smackdown and Thunder too iirc. ECW Sunday. Maybe WCW Saturday night if I was broke that weekend. 1 ppv per month. I was 19 and this was my peak.

[@SportPhilosophies]

That bit about 'too many moves' is actually spot on in my opinion. A very small 'meltzer' portion of the wrestling audience actually watches to see great technical wrestling, or gymnastic wrestling for that matter. They watch for riotous showdowns, story and characters. This is one thing the survey seemed to understand that wrestling promoters still dont get today.

[@lawrence142002]

Too many moves reminded me of the bit in Amadeus where Emperor Joseph II goes to see one of Mozart's opera and praises it but says it has "too many notes" and Mozart is baffled by this.

[@SportPhilosophies]

@King Crab exactly that is really well put. A good wrestler is able to tell a story obviously through promos but most importantly in the ring. If they can’t convey a story, a struggle and a triumph or tragedy it doesn’t matter how many flashy gymnastics moves they pull off. Wrestling is about investing the crowd and making you lose yourself in a story being told in the ring, that does not require every (obviously choreographed) move in a wrestlers arsenal.

[@robertgriffin5703]

100% HHH gets it though. Guys learned how to get over and stay over like Seth and Moxley

[@maxdecphoenix]

I always thought Dean Malenko had a bit of a foot in both camps. He could do the chain wrestling, in a way I always thought didn't look blatantly rehearsed like the other guys, but would occasionally interrupt it with a big slam like a powerbomb or back breaker. But I always hated the lucha style, SORRY FOLKS, it's horrible. It didn't even pretend to not look fake and robotically rehearsed. Rey and Eddie eventually found a good balance of lucha, technical, and power. Eddie particularly. Most of the others just made it look like a floor routine. Dean just suffered from a complete lack of personality unfortunatly. I think that may have served him better in earlier eras but during the Dew infused hotshotting in the late 90s he just couldn't seem appealing. When not even Jericho carrying 110% of the personality in a feud can make you look interesting, it kinda stalled his career i thought. Still liked his work.

[@LoPhatKao]

was there any Hocus Pocus in that Focus group? 😉

[@OmegaRedFan]

15 followers since 2007 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 gtfo

[@troystaunton254]

Also Jim complaining that it was casual fans, yeah they’re the ones who grow the business. Your rusted on fan is already there. The casuals that can be engaged to the point of passionate fan is how you expand. It’s

[@JoeMercersWay]

Didn't realise USA interviewed Tony Khan and his vice presidents.

[@tylerbushong3452]

Say what you want about Shawn “blowing” the chance for a WM12 rematch, let’s be real. There’s no way it would have been as good as the Iron Man match. It was like when Razor and Shawn had another Ladder Match. Can’t top the original. Plus, it would have come across to a LOT of smart fans that Bret only dropped the belt just so he could take it back. Finally, Taker deserved a run with the belt more than Bret did.

[@jacobpitsenbarger4763]

Plus we got Austin/Bret instead. No way they would have had a better match.

[@lordcommander3224]

Mick Foley, “the blood was fake?”

[@dxmanforlife]

As soon as he said they interviewed pepole from atlanta and Missouri i said "oh my god" and giggled lmao

[@Jilktube]

I really liked the Final Four match. One of the more memorable in your house ppvs imo

[@guardianofchaosBD]

Corny finally said it, “CHAOS”!

[@televiper11]

I don’t care how great HBK could be in the ring, I can never respect him for the sheer number of times he refuses to drop a title in the ring with the “losing his smile” version being the most egregious.

[@trevorkenny]

HHH has made it more appealing in my books.

[@addidaswguy]

Absolutely, since he took over, I've watched multiple FULL Raws and Full Smackdowns. I was excited for Cody and liked that stuff, I was def excited for Punk's return but got bored really quick. But I haven't watched multiple full WWE shows back to back since the Ruthless Aggression Era

[@mykoniichistorychannel]

Much more.

[@michelartois807]

The four way chase for the championship seemed fun

[@TheFrogballz]

Jim needs to do a episode on the Monday night wars...For the 25 year anniversary.

[@andisuge1119]

Tony Khan hears this and I'm expecting Nick Gage on tv next week😂😂😂😂😂

[@drunkensailor112]

Lol @ the background picture about the german porn 😂😂

[@GamingKing-nl8rs]

The bring back Morales and Sammartino is preposterous, but so is the fact we've never quite seen the back of Austin and DX. I'm nostalgic for when there was no nostalgia

[@Trill_4_Life]

Thursday Raw Thursday February 13th 1997, when Shawn lost “his smile”

[@erikstorm8935]

Id lose my smile too if I were postponed by dogs! xD

[@adrianostafford8240]

I did when they were.

[@carlosr6462]

Tony Khan said in an interview that Warner media gave him a book of strategies to compete and be a challenger brand ... this makes a lot of sense

[@jabrockobiden9434]

"Vince is gone" lol

[@bdr113080]

WWF and WCW were around about the same time . It’s just one used to be WWWF and one used to be Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling

[@watchmman3408]

I'm from Atlanta and my family were all big fans of both. Until WCW went defunct we would usually watch Nitro and tape Raw to watch Tuesday night and we would buy and record all the ppvs of both

[@Cobralalalala]

"Pretty boy" sounds like a bunch of these guys were mad at who the women in their lives enjoyed seeing.

[@azapro911]

"Steve Austin is not one of the names that fans tune in to see." By Spring '97, that has to be bullshit.

[@ZBR_ProXP]

Gotta admit, as a kid I did not like Bret because all the little girls liked him. They would show them in the crowd crying and stuff. I mean I loved Hart Foundation and even as Intercontinental, but I wasn’t a huge fan of him solo until 96ish, when he became my #1 fav over Bulldog

[@baileyslife3469]

So we have Sean Micheal’s to think for the rise of Vince Russo

[@KaiTakApproach]

I don't think the demand for "chaos" ruined Wrestling. It saved it. Viewership was dropping like a stone and WCW (and ECW) hotshotting brought teenagers and guys in their twenties back. It may have killed WCW but it launched the WWE's own Attitude Era into the stratosphere. There is no doubt in my mind that this kept Wrestling relevant to popular culture long past the due date of the old way of doing things, as youth culture had changed. Listen to what those casual fans wanted, and realize that the Rock and Steve Austin gave it to them long aftet the nWo gambit sputtered out. nWo 4lyfe!

[@CamSTL]

And you're WWF Champion Bret "Pretty Boy" Hart!!!!! 😂😂

[@UnitedWarGamers]

What is that in the background with Vince?

[@travisheckel3788]

German porn Man

[@mikemck4796]

Bret hart was a guy who wore pink and my sister and her friends had a crush on. Certainly I would have called him a pretty boy. The guys I know assumed him gay.

[@vict4451]

Another artistic gem by Travis

[@MilMaska]

"If It Wasn't For Hulk Hogan, You People Wouldn't Be Here" - Hulk Hogan

[@natwolf687]

He was the right gay guy at the right time.

[@coreyhall1150]

@@natwolf687 Lol...... BAHAHAHAHA I laugh myself to sleep when I watch that.

[@GodLovesYou828]

If it wasn't for Vince u wouldn't have Wrestling

[@hitomisalazar4073]

Gotta love when a report says "This report is actually useless but we're going to pretend it isn't" in fancier terms.

[@CadChamberlain]

As bad as the approach taken to getting subjects for a wrestling focus group, the information from it were spot on in hindsight.

[@MatadorMedia]

WWE still hasn't figured out to use Mexican wrestlers or have a Cruiserweight division... they never learn.

[@planetschlock]

It's pretty funny that WCW lost $60 million and that's seen as one of their death knells, but you fast forward to today and Vince has probably spent that much just as hush money to all the women with whom he's fucked around.

[@The_Shiny_One]

$60m then was a lot of money to a company. $60m now is pocket change for a company. Hell, ROH just got bought for $30m.

[@michaeldownstairs]

They need a focus group in 2022 to tell them the WWE has gotten boring

[@MrLawyer711]

Funny Jim mentions the undercard storylines being garbage as opposed to the main event storylines, because according to Russo, Vince didn’t really care a whole lot about the undercard stuff and what he was doing with them, but he was very hands on when it came to the main eventers

[@williammitchell4417]

For someone experienced in market research, yep you betcha this survey is like Jesse's man on the street interviews on Fox

[@curtisbryant6252]

This is fascinating

[@sinistermaniac966]

Sounds like they're talking about Raw 2022!

[@josephpatti2835]

That letter was sent on my 16th birthday.

[@EarthdogGFX]

" when BRUCE WAS AROUND " ... the ratings still sucked Jim ..

[@duaneshank6788]

I could never understand why Michaels was allowed to relinquish the title in February, 1997, but Hart wasn't allowed to in November, 1997 🤷🏻

[@irontaylor9992]

I liked both WWF and WCW

[@lloyd9710]

the problem with wcw is that hogan didn’t wrestle enough all he did was talk on the mic

[@drunkensailor112]

That was actually the best thing.

[@picklesmcmillan217]

@@drunkensailor112 Lmfao

[@davidstephan5116]

Sounds like Reigns

[@invertedname3099]

Any focus group worth a damn would obviously note Kenny Omega as the driving force behind viewership, thus calling for an increase in Kenny Omega content to increase eyes on the product. Had the focus group simply told the truth in 1997 we’d have had even more Kenny Omega than we do now!!!!

[@BigFredMachine]

You are wrong Jim, WCW was not hot-shotting anything in 1997. They began hot-shotting in '98 IN RESPONSE to WWF doing that first.

[@alexm2930]

Before shit stain I agree WWF had some lowls but when it came to the good matches and storyline they were great. I think shit stain was suppose to deal with the lowls while the good stuff was kept up. So I cam understand why shit stain working with the main stuff did not work.

[@JUYAN16]

WCW definitely had better wrestling overall back then. WWF just had better entertainers.

[@jasonlevesque6340]

And oddly enough WCW had most of the talent first and did nothing with them.