Quote:
Originally Posted by Vito Cruz
January 1999 was pretty much the end. Eyes were still firmly on the WCW product after Starrcade 1998. Nash and the Wolfpac were ridiculously over and people were interested in seeing where Goldberg went next with the streak gone.
Then the Finger Poke of Doom rendered the ending of the streak completely meaningless and on that same night WWF had Mick win the belt on free TV. That was the night the tide turned and it never went back.
Some would say WCW died even earlier, at Starrcade 1997 or with Goldberg winning the belt on free TV in July 1998...but the Finger Poke of Doom was way worse IMO.
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The Fingerpoke was definitely the beginning of the end for WCW.
With regards to the streak it was a bad move allowing Goldberg to lose at Starrcade given that imo 1998 was his year and he should have been allowed his Starrcade moment and to end 1998 as Champion and perhaps the run should have extended.
However when he was due to lose I'd rather it was to a face so Nash was the only option at the time given he had already beaten Sting and DDP on Nitro and Halloween Havoc respectively. Personally I'd have preferred to have seen Benoit built up and faced Goldberg at the following Starrcade or maybe Bash at the Beach and beaten Goldberg against the odds but sadly nobody in WCW had the brains to figure that one out.
I cut Nash et al slack (as he was the booker at the time) the NWO was one major storyline, Goldberg was shit hot and having him lose the way he did via interference in no way harmed his "invincible" persona.
then again these are the guys that thought having Goldberg beat Hogan for the belt on Nitro was a good idea and decided to overrun Havoc and hence numerous fans missed out on arguably one of WCW's best matches not only of that year but probably of the 90s.