On Sunday night, I watched Wrestle-Mania 30 from home as 75,000 folks watched from inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
During the event, WWE honored its Hall of Fame Class of 2014, featuring Scott Hall, Mr. T and the Ultimate Warrior. The supposed jewel of this class is the Ultimate Warrior, but Mr. T and Scott Hall had more impact on the sport.
Mr. T was part of the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" in the 1980s that the then-WWF (now WWE, aka World Wrestling Entertainment) had with budding MTV. Singer Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T had major parts in the first WrestleMania. The WWE even had an NBC show called "Saturday Night's Main Event," and Hulk Hogan and Mr. T hosted Saturday Night Live before WrestleMania I. WWE's connections fizzled out by the early 1990s, and wrestling's mainstream appeal waned for a period of time.
When Ted Turner got into the wrestling business with World Championship Wrestling, the Monday Night Wars between the WWE and WCW began.
One casualty of the war was ABC's Monday Night Football. Despite today's popularity of the NFL, from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, wrestling put the smackdown on professional football.
Scott Hall had a major part in this new age of professional wrestling as a founding member of the New World Order with Hogan and Kevin Nash for WCW. WWE countered with Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Degeneration X. The war between the federations made wrestling must-watch TV, and the sport dominated the coveted advertising demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds.
All good things end, and wrestling's Monday night dominance was over by the mid-2000s. In 2001, Vince McMahon bought out WCW. WWE had won the Monday Night War, but the damage was done to Monday Night Football, which moved to ESPN due to low ABC ratings.
The NFL learned from its mistakes and began scheduling better Monday-night games. McMahon and WWE, however, haven't reached the same appeal since WCW folded.
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