Luke Owen reviews the fifth episode of The Monday Night War on the WWE Network…
Read the previous episode review here.
Following the rather preposterous previous episode that claimed silly things about the influence D-Generation X had on the ratings war between WWF and WCW, we get a rather sweet look back at the career of Mick Foley and the impact his work and performances had on the turning of the tides.
This episode, titled Have a Nice Day!, at times doesn’t feel like an episode discussing The Monday Night War and is instead the first few chapters of a much longer Mick Foley DVD as it looks at his humble beginnings in WCW, being fired and jumping to ECW before finally making the leap to WWF where he would become a household name. But while it may seem as pointless as the D-Generation X episode, Have a Nice Day! actually does serve a purpose as Foley was instrumental in two episodes of Raw that really helped turn the tide against WCW’s Nitro.
As with every episode of The Monday Night War, you will have heard all these stories before and none have been told more so than the January 4th 1999 episode of Monday Night Raw where Mick Foley won the WWF Championship from The Rock. In a blunder that will go down in history as one of the biggest tactical errors made during the ratings battle, WCW’s Tony Schiavone gave away the result of the taped Raw on the live Nitro broadcast, causing a mass exodus of viewers to switch channels to see the firm fan favourite “win the big one”. This segment of Have a Nice Day! is certainly one of the strongest and the comments from all involved including Foley, Triple H as well as Schiavone really give a great recap of one of the biggest moments in the War. And while this has always been labelled as a “turning point” in previous documentaries, it means so much more here as its given context.
Foley had a strong opening run in WWF with his bizarre promos and maniac style, but he was quickly becoming irrelevant as the “hardcore” era of wrestling started to take over and his work was fitting in rather than standing out. However, a Hell in the Cell match from King of the Ring 1998 changed all of that. Much like the January 4th episode of Raw, this is a match that has been covered on so many documentaries and DVDs that you can almost recall the commentary verbatim and the comments from everyone add no new perspective, apart from the additional views from the likes of Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Jericho who worked at WCW at the time. But this match being covered in great detail gives substance to the impact that the January 4th title win had on the Monday Night War and the ratings battle. Without it, Mankind winning the WWF Championship from The Rock is just mere moment. But with this context, it’s so much more.
This is what the D-Generation X episode was missing. Have a Nice Day! doesn’t feel like a nostalgic masturbation session for these wrestlers to relive the glory days and instead feels like a genuine documentary that gives an account of The Monday Night War. The stories of Foley’s early career are justified because you need to see his journey to understand why January 4th and the This is Your Life segment (one of the highest rated segments in Raw’s history) had the impact they did.
Perhaps this is the first time that The Monday Night War has felt like its found its feet. Even the history revisionist ideal of WWE doesn’t feel so omnipresent in this episode and there are no overt fudging of facts. It’s by far the strongest episode of the series run and a really well put together and produced show that chronicles the career and work of one of the most loveable men in sports entertainment. With that said, one would like to hope that the next few episodes will look at some WCW aspects of the War as it’s starting to feel a little WWF heavy. The last three episodes have looked at WWF trying to regain their footing between 1997 and 1999 but it would be interesting to see something from the other side of the coin like the Cruiserweights, WCW’s use of celebrities or – even better – the disastrous Vince Russo era where watching Nitro was like pulling teeth. Hope we must as The Monday Night War is looking to get interesting.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
