Fingerpoke of Doom
Professional wrestling incident / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Fingerpoke of Doom?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The nickname Fingerpoke of Doom (FPOD)[1][2][3][4] refers to an incident in American professional wrestling which occurred on January 4, 1999, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, during a live broadcast of WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship television program of World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
Fingerpoke of Doom | |
---|---|
Promotion | WCW |
Date | January 4, 1999 |
City | Atlanta, Georgia |
Venue | Georgia Dome |
Attendance | 38,809 |
The incident occurred during the main event of Nitro, featuring WCW World Heavyweight Champion Kevin Nash, who was the leader of the Wolfpac faction of the New World Order (nWo), and Hollywood Hogan, the leader of the Hollywood faction of the nWo, with whom Nash and his group had been feuding since April 1998 when the original faction split up and Hogan had retired from wrestling. The Wolfpac faction were babyfaces (heroes) while the Hollywood faction were heels (villains), as was the original nWo. The match saw Hogan poke Nash in the chest with his index finger, prompting Nash to theatrically throw himself onto the mat and allow Hogan to pin him; the victory marked the reunion of both nWo factions into one villainous group.
Earlier in the same broadcast, WCW announcer Tony Schiavone gave away the results of their Monday Night War rival World Wrestling Federation (WWF)'s Raw Is War (which was taped six days earlier, and aired from tape at the same time Nitro was being aired live), revealing that former WCW wrestler Mick Foley was set to win the WWF Championship. Although this revelation was meant to deter Nitro viewers from switching to Raw Is War, it instead reportedly prompted 600,000 viewers to change channels in order to see Foley's victory, with most viewers only tuning back in to Nitro when there were five minutes left in the broadcast, in which the Fingerpoke of Doom occurred.
The Fingerpoke of Doom was so named both for Nash's deliberate over-sell of the finger poke, and for the negative ramifications the incident had for WCW as a whole, with some wrestling journalists crediting it as the beginning of the company's ultimate downfall and loss of the Monday Night War.[5]