The Fingerpoke Of Doom: A Live Perspective

The Fingerpoke of Doom is not only one of the most infamous moments/booking decisions in modern wrestling history, it’s also one I saw live with my own two eyes at the now razed Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.

When people try to explain to you that it “wasn’t that bad,” you need to understand that “context is key” because running that out there in front of your home crowd was a baffling decision.

For me, it was even worse in that I was so completely burnt out and done with Hollywood Hogan that his return alone was a dark cloud over the show. When it escalated into what it did it created a very powerful “Why do I support this stupid company?” feeling in me. That is where folks who justify it as smart booking or good heat get it wrong. It was 100% the wrong decision to try to pull that on what is your most loyal crowd there in Atlanta.

Beyond that it was the second example of WCW failing to payoff a major story correctly. In pivoting to nWo Hollywood versus nWo Wolfpac after botching the Starrcade 97 main event between Sting and Hogan, you already failed to bring any sort of satisfying conclusion to the WCW vs nWo storyline.

At least you have the babyface Wolfpac to look forward to, right?

Wrong.

It’s insane to me that the “powers to be,” as Vince Russo, might say thought that it was a good idea to burn their hometown crowd like this.

The Georgia Dome will always be a “best of times, worst of times” venue for me as a wrestling fan as we went from the jubilation of Goldberg winning the WCW Title from Hogan on July 6, 1998 to this debacle roughly six months later.

I’ll never understand it, and I’ll never forget the visceral reaction I had in that arena in that moment. 20 year old me was honestly pretty angry, and 46 year old me is just disappointed that my beloved WCW flushed so much potential down the toilet like they did over the years.

The Fingerpoke of Doom will always be the best and most hilarious example of their dysfunction to me.