The nWo's 5 most memorable moments in WCW and WWE history

#4 The "Fingerpoke of Doom"

Hey. I never said these would be good moments. Just memorable.

At the beginning of 1999, World Championship Wrestling was in a weird state. Kevin Nash was both WCW Champion - having defeated the until-then undefeated Goldberg at Starrcade the previous December - and leader of nWo Wolfpac, the babyface splinter group of the once villainous faction. Nash had won the title thanks to interference from his then-rival and former partner Scott Hall. Still playing the good guy, Nash offered Goldberg a rematch for the belt immediately during an episode of Nitro.

Because of storyline reasons way too stupid to get into right now, Goldberg wasn't able to make it for the match.

Meanwhile, the same month Nash won the title, his former stablemate "Hollywood" Hogan had announced his "retirement" from wrestling (and even declared he was running for President of the United States). However, he was in the building for that episode of Nitro, and Nash offered him Goldberg's spot in the match. Hogan accepted.

And then this happened...

This incident is often credited as the "beginning" of the end for WCW, especially considering that literally hundreds of thousands of viewers changed channels to WWE television to watch Mick Foley win the WWE Championship because WCW sarcastically told them it was going to happen. Ratings began to steadily drop following this episode and WCW never really recovered, eventually going out of business in 2001.

The New World Order may have been a major part of the reason that WCW overtook WWE in popularity in the late 90s - but it was also a major part of the reason why they lost that popularity. The "Fingerpoke of Doom" was a prime example of that.