PARANoIR said:
Those guys all jumping is all well and good, but when they all jumped, WWE/WCW were both established, well known promotions.
When Luger jumped, WCW had barely kicked off, and now with Angle, not a great deal of people watch TNA and Angle will get the show on the map - the number of people that will watch TNA just to see Angle will be huge.
Not true.
WCW can trace it's legacy back decades. It basically was a roll off of the old National Wrestling Alliance, more pertently the Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling annex of it, which was the stamping ground for Jim Crockett Jr and Sr Promotions.
Monday Nitro had barely kicked off, that is true, infact Lex Luger was on the first show which went up unopposed against RAW which was pre-empted that week. However, WCW had WCW Saturday Night going for years before that, Flair, Hogan, Vader, Arn Anderson, Stan Hansen,
Bret Hart's defection was huge news at the time. Monsterous.
Luger appeared on the first Nitro, the show that began the Monday Night Wars, so yes, there was significance there, but not long after in 1996 Scott Hall joined WCW and his presence, through the establishment of the Outsiders, and the New World Order, had a far greater impact on the ratings. You could also there was large significance in Madusa throwing the WWF Womens Title in a WCW trash can, or Ravishing Rick Rude appearing on Nitro live the same night he appeared on a taped Raw. Truth be told though, Scott Hall's ground breaking arrival completely reshaped WCW far greater than the arrival of Lex Luger did. While Luger's introduction showed legitimacy, Hall's arrival showed there was a real war on, and perhaps some of this was actually real. The ratings that followed Luger's first few months compared to Hall's first few months definitely point to Hall having the greater influence.
The Nitro's immediately following Luger's arrival scored:
2.5
2.4
1.9
2.7
2.5
2.6
2.2
2.6
2.3
When Hall arrived;
2.8
3.0
2.6
3.4
3.3
3.3
3.5
3.4
Bret Hart's arrival had figures similar to Hall's in terms of growth.
