The week of August 24 was the stuff of legend. The two shows set a new combined ratings record: 9.72 in 7,169,000 homes. Meanwhile, on ABC, the debut of Monday Night Football, featuring a Green Bay Packers versus Denver Broncos preseason Superbowl rematch, did a 9.5. Realistically, because network TV is in more homes than cable, football actually beat wrestling 9.3 million homes to 7.2 million. However, it soon became “common knowledge” (read: “urban legend”) that pro wrestling was so hot that it was beating Monday Night Football in the ratings. Even at its peak, this was never the case.
But wrestling was legitimately hotter than a lot of other sporting acts and concerts, as evidenced by folks who tried to sell tickets to these events in classified ads over the summer. In the San Antonio market, for example, 75 percent of fans used Nitro or Raw in their bold headlines. “WCW NITRO,” the ads would begin, and then underneath it would read: “Yes, Elton John.”