#interviews where Dave won’t say a word vs those where the interviewer can’t get a word in edgewise..

[cecillewhite]

Starting a Customer Education Program: What You Should Know

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Occasionally, we invite learning community experts to share their advice with our readers. Today we feature a post by Adam Avramescu, Head of Customer Education & Training at Checkr and Co-Founder of the CELab blog/podcast. He also authored the new book, Customer Education: Why Smart Companies Profit by Making Customers Smarter.

  Are you thinking about starting a customer education program?

Perhaps you want to support broader customer success or marketing strategies. Or maybe your support team spends so much time training customers that a dedicated position seems justified. Or possibly you want to differentiate yourself from competitors who might otherwise beat you to the punch. These are all valid reasons to offer standardized customer education.

As a specialist in this discipline, I’m seeing increased interest from organizations of all types, especially startups. It’s a smart move. Why? Because early investment in customer education helps young companies scale successfully.

My industry colleague, Dave Derington, agrees. In fact, we believe most organizations start too late. That’s why we recently launched Customer Education Lab – a website that helps professionals connect and share ideas about how to structure, launch and manage customer training and education.

In our first podcast episode, we discussed key factors to consider as you lay the groundwork for this function. Specifically:

1) When to invest in a customer education program 2) How to win support from executives 3) What to expect after launch 4) How to get started

To help you dig deeper, I’ve also outlined each of those topics below…

  1) When to Invest in a Customer Education Program

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Many companies are operating in an ad-hoc prison that seems hard to escape. We call that “Ad-Hoc-Atraz.” Everyone provides their own version of training – from account managers and project leads to customer service managers and support reps. No two people use the same materials. And they redesign and customize training content every time.

Why is this such a common issue? Limiting beliefs are often the primary culprit. For instance:

“There’s not enough time.” Everyone is so busy creating custom training for each customer, no one takes the time to develop standard materials. We would argue that you don’t have enough time not to invest in standardized training. Your team is actually wasting precious time answering the same questions and delivering the same core content over and over. If you take this burden off of each individual’s back, they can focus on issues that truly need custom solutions.

“We’re providing white-glove service by customizing everything.” This is a commonly held belief in startup settings, but it usually isn’t true. You may be responding to whatever customers say they want, but it may not always be what they actually need. This puts your team in an endless reactive mode where they’re continuously taking orders, but not truly partnering with your customers.

“Our CSM should be able to do it all. They are our trainers.” Think about that. Most likely you hired your CSMs and account managers for their relationship management or project management skills. Some may be phenomenal at delivering training, but unless you hired them specifically to document and facilitate training, you can’t expect them to be good at customer education tasks. In fact, they may not even enjoy these tasks, but they inherited the responsibility by default.

Startups shouldn’t expect to roll-out a full-scale customer education function on Day 1. But once your organization has hired more than a few CSMs, you’ll want to get ahead of “Ad-Hoc-Atraz” by delivering customer education in a consistent and scalable way.

How do you know if you’re ready? Calculate your all-in CSM headcount or cost-per-ticket totals for a specific timeframe. Then estimate the dollar value of the time your people spend on ad-hoc documentation and training during that same time interval. The total may very well be more than the cost of a full-time resource, already.

2) How to Win Support From Executives

REPLAY THIS WEBINAR NOW!

If you’re making a business case for customer education, we encourage you to speak the same business language your board uses. For example, many SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses focus on CAC/LTV ratio — (Customer Acquisition Cost vs. Customer Lifetime Value).

In contrast to selling on-premise software or other types of products in an upfront purchase transaction, SaaS models are usually based on subscription payments that accrue over time. This means vendors spend more on marketing and sales to acquire a customer than they actually receive at the start of a relationship.

In other words, SaaS companies must continue delivering value over the life of each customer, so total investment in their product increases over time. Ideally at some point, they earn back the money spent on CAC – and hopefully much more. Jason Cohen’s “smart bear” blog effectively illustrates this concept:

Although your senior executives may not care exactly how many hours of training you deliver or what kind of customer satisfaction scores you receive, they do care about your CAC/LTV ratio. They may also care about your product’s Time to First Value (TTV) for new customers. And they almost certainly care about your overall customer retention, customer expansion and churn numbers.

This means your customer education charter should be to help drive these metrics at scale, by enabling customers to adopt and use your product successfully in their space.

Luckily, there are industry benchmarks to help you establish some objectives. For example, research from the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) found that trained customers are:

68% more likely to use a product more

56% more likely to use more features and functions

87% more likely to work more independently (not submit as many tickets)

They also renew at a higher rate than untrained customers (92% vs. 82%). Customer learning platform provider Thought Industries paired these statistics with research from Bain & Company and found that a 5% increase in renewal rate increases profit by 60-228%. Analysis based on this kind of logic will help win the confidence of your senior decision makers.

Keep in mind that customer education is hard to measure. It requires an upfront investment that pays off over time. Most teams don’t recover the cost in their first years, even if they sell training at a premium. But if you measure training’s impact on product renewal leading indicators like increased adoption, you can build a strong case for establishing and maintaining a customer education team.

3) What to Expect When You Launch

When Dave and I launched customer education programs at Gainsight and Optimizely, respectively, we required about eight months to move from zero content to a fully functioning first version. Now at Azuqua and Checkr, we’re trying our hands at this again.

One thing we’ve found is that the process is iterative. You should expect to develop three or four “first versions” before a working program is in place.

REPLAY THE WEBINAR NOW!

In addition, it’s important to be realistic about how long it takes to develop effective learning experiences. Bad training is created quickly. Good training takes longer, but it will serve you well over the long-haul.

Just how long should it take to create training content, anyway? In 2017 Robyn Defelice and Karl Kapp addressed this question in an article published by the Association for Talent Development (ATD). They found that developing 1 hour of content requires:

38 hours for traditional classroom training

28 hours for virtual instructor-led training

42 hours for passive elearning (no interactivity)

71 hours for e-learning with limited interactivity

Although average training development time has decreased in recent years (thanks largely to improvements in course authoring technology), it still takes longer than most people think!

We recommend starting with materials that are relatively quick and easy to prototype and update – for example, articles and recorded sessions. But it’s important to move toward learning experiences that scale with your business and evolve with your customers’ needs. So over time, you’ll want to add more interactivity to make the content more effective.

If you’re delivering ad-hoc training now, it’s probably not highly interactive. For example, to build a basic product tour, you may decide to insert a few Q&A slides into an existing feature deck. But this kind of passive introduction doesn’t actually engage customers with your product. It’s like trying to teach people to play the piano by telling them to imagine how great they’ll sound when they touch the keys.

Ad-hoc training tends to be more interactive for trainers. They need to do a lot of talking, and a lot of work to customize the content. But effective customer education is actually more interactive for customers. You’ll want to provide opportunities for participants to try their skills, reflect on their learning experiences and ask questions that are pointed and relevant to their situation.

4) Getting Started

If you’re just beginning to think about customer education, it can seem overwhelming. We recommend starting with these first three steps:

•  Clarify what customer education looks like today How do your customers learn to use your product, and who delivers this educational experience? Interview or survey your team to understand the role that CSMs, support reps, project managers and others play in delivering customer training and other educational materials.

•  Quantify the time spent on ad-hoc documentation and training How many hours do each of your team members spend preparing and delivering customized materials that won’t be reused for others?

•  Define the business value metric that customer education should drive Investigate the key performance indicators that matter most to your business. Product adoption rates? Customer satisfaction scores? Time-to-value? Net retention or renewals? Something else? Also evaluate the “leading indicator” metrics you can measure today and track over time to verify customer education progress. This could be something like support ticket volume or NPS scores.

Summary

Hopefully, this introduction has sparked your interest in investigating customer education strategies more deeply. For more details about how to start a program, listen to Episode 1 of CELab or check other content at Customer.Education.

As champions of customer education, our philosophy aligns with John Leh and the team of extended enterprise technology analysts at Talented Learning. We’re excited to share our experience and ideas with this community, and we welcome your feedback anytime.

  WANT TO LEARN MORE? REPLAY THIS WEBINAR!

To Charge or Not to Charge? Strategies for Pricing Customer Training

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How much should customers pay for training? How should you choose the best price? And when does it make sense to educate customers at no extra charge?

Join experts John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, and Barry Kelly, CEO and Co-Founder at Thought Industries, as they clarify the economics of customer education. You’ll learn:

The true cost of content: free vs. fee

Where the “freemium” fits in

Why timing is a key factor

How to test your price points

The value of bundles and other packaging methods

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Starting a Customer Education Program: What You Should Know original post at Talented Learning

[meraenthusiast]

Money Mindset – 3 Steps From Poor To Rich Mindset

Money Mindset – 3 Steps To Shift From Poor To Rich Mindset

It seems the more I learn, the more I realize that if we want to achieve or improve at anything in life, including our financial life, it starts with a mindset shift.

Most docs and other high-income earners that join our Passive Investors Circle tell me that it took a mindset shift to get rid of limiting beliefs, actually a money mindset shift, to motivate them to start focusing on passive income creation.

Recently, I was reminded just how important our mindset is when pertaining to our money beliefs after watching an interview between Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Cashflow Quadrant) and Garrett Gunderson (author of Killing Sacred Cows). 

If you have time to watch the interview, you won’t be sorry:

The Millionaire

In 1996, my senior year in college, I first read the book, The Millionaire Next Door.

Kiyosaki’s book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, was released shortly after in 1997.

If you’ve read both books then you know that they’re polar opposites of one another.

The Millionaire Next Door, similar to Chris Hogan’s Everyday Millionaires, surveyed thousands of millionaires regarding their success habits.

If I had to use “one word” to sum up the habit the majority of millionaires have it would be “Frugal“.

Related Article: 7 Unexpected Habits Of a Frugal Millionaire

Frugal vs Cheap

Whether you realize it or not, there’s a difference between being frugal vs cheap.

When someone is living frugally, this means that they’re intentional with their money. Because they want to have more, they look to get the most value from the dollars spent.

For instance, if they had to choose between a gas station selling gas for $1.79/gallon vs one at $2.27 a gallon, the choice is clear, the lower price wins every time.

Are Frugal People Cheap?

The short answer is “no.” Frugal people want to save money but also value others where cheap people don’t.

I personally know someone that berates others when it comes to money. He’s the definition of “cheap.”

Not that long ago I walked into our local pizza restaurant where he was seen belittling the person behind the counter because they wouldn’t accept his expired coupon.

Cheap people think that EVERYTHING is overpriced.

The bottom line is that cheap people don’t like to spend money, constantly complain about how much stuff costs, lack honesty and moral principles.

Know any cheap peeps?

What Is A Money Mindset?

A money mindset is your beliefs about how money works in the world. Basically, it’s your attitude about your money situation.

Your money mindset guides you on a daily basis about:

what you can/can’t do with money

how much money you’re entitled to

how much you’ll be able to earn

how much you should spend

the way you use debt

how much you give (practiced gratitude)

your ability to invest

This mindset drives how you make key financial decisions each day which can impact your ability to achieve your goals.

Most successful people will tell you:

“If you change your mindset about money, you’ll tend to make better choices about how to overcome challenges.”

Money Mindset Example

Here’s a perfect example of how having a negative experience with negative feelings growing up can affect your money mindset.

Let’s say you grew up in a household that constantly fought about money and your parents always said things like:

“we can’t afford that“

“that’s too expensive“

As a result, this constant bickering might cause you to subconsciously associate money with anger and conflict.

There’s a good chance that in this household, these same parents may have taught that people with money are evil, materialistic, greedy and selfish people.

Do you see how growing up like this could affect your money mindset and cause you to have a terrible relationship with money?

Scarcity Mindset

The example above is one of the main reasons millions of people are walking around with a scarcity mentality about money that prevents them from getting massive amounts of it.

People with this type of mindset believe that there will NEVER be enough to go around.

They try to cling to everything they have for fear of coming up short. Their thoughts and actions arise from a place of lack.

When resources (money, opportunity, recognition) are perceived to be limited then that allows fear and paranoia to take over.

When you have this type of mentality, all decision-making is based on the false notion that there isn’t anything else coming your way.

Or that there’s no more money out there to be made other than what they make each month.

Do me a favor. Take out your wallet and pull out some cash and place it in front of you.

Now ask that money this question:

“Hey money, yeah you sitting there on the table. Do you care about how much money I make? What? You don’t know anything about me? Well I’ll be…”

Look, money doesn’t care or know anything about you or me. It flows to where it wants to go….mainly to who wants it bad enough and has an abundant mindset.

Abundant Mindset

2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

Real estate guru Grant Cardone constantly talks about how having an abundant mindset can change your life…in a good way.

His definition of abundance is a very large quantity of something. It means having plenty of the good things of life.

“Overflowing” is his word he likes to use to describe abundance.

He says that the WORSE thing we can do with money is have it in a stagnant place such as a savings/checking account or under your mattress!

“Money has to circulate in order to move and grow and it can’t do that sitting still.” – Grant Cardone

Here’s what Stephen Covey the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says about the abundance mindset:

“The Abundance Mentality flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.“

Those with an abundance mentality are able to focus on the long-term and realize that just because you don’t have something NOW doesn’t mean you can’t get it later.

(Just because you aren’t a millionaire NOW doesn’t mean you won’t become one later.)

3 Steps To Change Your Money Mindset

1) Forget about the past….let it go

As we discussed earlier, your money mindset more than likely started during childhood.

If you were around parents or relatives that constantly discussed having a “lack” of money, then you more than likely have a negative view of money.

The first step to change your money mindset is taken from a line from one of my all-time favorite movies First Blood.

It’s the scene where Rambo pins Sheriff Will Teasle against a tree and tells him to……”Let it go…”

For those of you that aren’t quite the violent type, you may resonate better with a popular Disney tune that also teaches you to “Let it go…”

Either way, letting go of the past is key. These negative statements has helped create a negative belief system about money.

I believe that we’re all born rich. This doesn’t mean we all come from wealthy families, but we all have what it takes in us to make a lot of money.

So no matter where you come from, your past doesn’t define your future.

Let it go….

2) Stop comparing yourself to others

Dave Ramsey many times tells his listeners to stop trying to keep up with the Jones’s because they’re broke too!

I couldn’t agree more.

Studies show that 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck as they don’t have an emergency fund. 

Basically, that means almost 8 out of 10 people probably can’t afford their home and car they’re driving.

And don’t get me started on social media. It’s way too easy to get sucked into comparing yourself with others as they flaunt pictures of  exotic vacations or new car purchase.

You don’t know the details of the other person’s finances. Yes, they could be enjoying the high-life but it could be fueled with mounds of credit card debt. Thanks, but no thanks. Not all that glitters is gold.

Whenever you find yourself making comparisons to others and notice that you’re lacking, you’re diverting attention away from focusing on your own finances and goals.

3) Become a sponge for knowledge

Proverbs 13:20 states, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”

Another way to look at this is, “If you want to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys.”

I don’t think we can get anymore straight-forward advice than that.

If you’re going to be wise, you’ve got to have wise people in your life.

You need people who build you up, not tear you down—those who are wise, not fools.

The people you spend the most time with are going to have an impact on who you become and what you value, so be wise about who you choose to spend your time with.

Final Thoughts

Once you take the above three steps then you’re ready to take action. After step #3, you’ll realize that your old way of thinking about how money works was probably wrong.

I know mine was.

After recently speaking at a dental conference in Florida about building wealth with passive real estate, a dentist approached me with a look of excitement on his face.

He said, “Dr. Jeff, you have no idea how much you’ve opened my mind to other ways to reach my financial goals. Thank you!”

This doc (and others in the room) were still under the impression that the only way to wealth was to work until they had reached their “magic number” and hope that they didn’t outlive their savings.

Now that they know there’s more than one way to skin a cat, it’s started to change their money mindset and make their future much brighter than before.

Are you ready to take the next step to transform your money mindset to prepare for your financial future?

Join the Passive Investors Circle to begin to change your financial situation for good.

The post Money Mindset – 3 Steps From Poor To Rich Mindset appeared first on Debt Free Dr..

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[welcometowcwmondaynitro]

WCW Monday Nitro 29/07/1996

 Here we go boys and girls...

You know, I just realised I have no idea what that “Q” shape in the top right hand corner actually means. To Google! 

OK well, I had a brief check and I still don’t know. Answers on a postcard. 

Something else I just noticed...

Hogan’s screaming face right next to a building that says “prescriptions”... I don’t think I need to comment any further.

“WCW Monday Nitro ignites once again!” screams Tony Schiavone as we get a high shot of the WCW set at Universal.

The magic kingdom has never been more magical.

As always we are welcomed by Mr Schiavone and “Living Legend” Larry Zbyszko. They’re both wearing Mickey Mouse shirts which is somewhat appropriate. Larry doesn’t look best pleased about it.

Tony informs us that there are two title matches tonight. The Giant will be defending his World Heavyweight title against Arn Anderson, whilst Rey Mysterio Jr will be defending his cruisweight title against Eddie Guerrero. I’m guessing one of those matches is going to be far more entertaining than the other. Tony also hypes the American Males Vs the Steiner Brothers, but... meh. The American Males suck. 

Tony brings up that WCW has recently been under attack from the New World Order. Larry refers to them as the “new world odor”. Very clever, Larry. Zbszko says the nWo are in control and picking their spots. Really they’re just being allowed to do pretty much whatever they want. WCW could have these guys thrown out in their asses for all sorts of shit, but nope. Nobody ever questions why.

We go to footage that Tony says was sent to them (not established by who) of Hall and Nash standing outside some kind of building looking a little bit high.

Next up we see footage of Luger and Sting coming out the back of some arena. Apparently this is a WCW Saturday Night taping. I assume the Outsiders filmed this footage or had somebody film it for them, as you can hear them saying mostly unintelligible shit in the background. Luger gets called away, leaving Sting by himself. 

At this point the Outsiders attack Sting from behind, shove him half way into the boot of a car and slam the door onto his back. They then beat Sting up some more before running off. This is all being filmed. Larry and Tony express minor disgust, as if they aren’t literally watching a guy getting the shit beaten out of him on tape, and say it’ll be dealt with at the Hog Wild PPV. 

Obviously another way to deal with it would be to, I don’t know, send this tape to the police? A blatant, pre-meditated assault filmed in its entirety before and after. You aren’t going to get much more clear-cut evidence. But, y’know, wrestling.

Tony calmly states that Sting is OK and suffered “minor injuries”. Well, that’s fine then. 

Some vaguely old school Western movie music plays and out comes the former Mauler, Mike Enos, aka one half of the worst named team in the world, “Rough ‘n’ Ready”. I think he was Ready.

His opponent is the ultra patriotic numbskull Jim Duggan. “Not Hacksaw” sighs Larry, and I’m with you living legend. Why? Why?

Mike “Ready” Enos Vs “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan

What a way to start the show. And yes, that was heavy, heavy sarcasm. For fuck’s sake. Couldn’t we have started with Rey Vs Eddie? Maybe just not had this match at all?

There are some contrasting emotions in the crowd as Hacksaw comes out...

The guy on the right seems happy to see Duggan. The guy on the left looks like me when I realised who was coming out. Come to think of it, I think that guy on the right was the dude aggressively booing Konnan last time. Loves ultra patriotic Jim Duggan, hates Mexican konnan to the point where it looked like his head was about to explode... pretty sure this guy is now a Trump supporter. I’ve just dated this blog, but for reference we’re in 2018, so that’s a relevant thought for at least another few years.

The crowd start chanting “USA” straight away. I think they’re both from the States so it’s not a chant that favours either man. Hacksaw is instantly furious, for some reason, and wants to start beating up Enos before the bell event rings.

The ref is like “bro, bro... calm down. We’re at Disneyworld.”

Duggan clotheslines Enos over the top rope after about a minute. Remember how last week Norton got disqualified for doing the exact same thing to Dave Taylor? No such luck here. Damn it.

I notice Enos has “Rough and Ready” on the back of his sleeveless jacket..

.What’s the snake meant to represent? Are snakes known for being rough or ready?

Enos and Hacksaw give each other some pretty nasty looking headbutts...

What’s funny is that Enos’s headbutt was more of a leaning his head in and pushing, whereas Hacksaw just went charging in there and smashed their heads together. Looked brutal. Also Hacksaw is fucking thick. And I don’t mean “thicc”, I just mean thick. Stout. Rotund.

Larry repeats his “new world odor” phrase for about the fifth time already. It’s not that original or funny Larry, give it a rest.

Look how empty the front row is. Where the hell is everybody? Normally that front row is full, and usually with really strange people too. I wonder if the black guy in the bottom left still has his “hulkster” shirt, or whether that’s now been disposed of...

Enos is putting on this really shitty looking chinlock.

It doesn’t look remotely painful. He’s literally just cupping Hacksaw’s chin in his hands. I mean, to go from those brutal headbutts to this is silly. This goes on forever. Even Larry basically says the chinlock is bullshit and not being applied properly.

This match has been going on for about 6 minutes and Duggan looks like he’s run a marathon.  

Duggan comes off the ropes and goes for a roll up...

Did not want or need to see Enos’s arse crack, thanks. Sometimes I wonder if WCW understand their audience is predominantly heterosexual males. I mean, between this and that baywatch-esque clip from a few shows ago with Jim “Jobber” Powers, Alex Wright, etc stripping off their clothes in slow motion... I’m starting to wonder.

Tony actually calls attention to the four empty seats in the front row and wonders whether they’re for the new world order. I suppose it’s possible, and I can’t blame them for deciding against watching this classic.

Match ends when Enos is arguing with the ref, allowing Duggan to tape up his fist and crack Enos over the head.

Check out the black guy in the upper right. He’s loving this way more than I am.

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan defeats Mike “Ready” Enos via Pinfall.

Expert shit-stirrer Mean Gene is in the ring to interview Duggan. 

Poor Hacksaw looks like he’s ready to go to bed.

Okerlund asks Hacksaw for his opinion on the nWo. Not sure why anybody would be particularly interested in what Duggan has to say on the subject, but whatever. Hacksaw gets unusually serious as he asks people to listen. 

Hacksaw asks “Hulk, what have you done?” 

He reminds Hogan about the kids who look up to him, and brings up going with Hogan to the make-a-wish and special olympic events. Duggan asks why Hogan would turn his back on everything he loved, and everyone that loved him. Duggan says Hogan has held his children, and the first word his oldest child said was “hulkster”. That’s not weird at all. Duggan says “Hulkster, you’re a great technical wrestler” - lol - “but I don’t want to wrestle ya, I wanna beat ya up”. Broadly the same thing but OK. Gene says, referring to Hogan, “if you put a good apple into a basket of bad apples... enough said”. I guess so.

Hacksaw’s promo here was actually pretty good. He conveyed his emotions well, and his facial expressions really sold what he was saying as genuine. Just a shame I had to watch a match with him involved first.

We see footage of Arn creepily peering into a random limo last week...

Totally normal behaviour.

WCW loves showing this shot of Mickey. Maybe they were contractually obliged to do it.

Ric Flair’s music hits, and out come three of the four horsemen, plus the ladies.

As of yet no explanation has been given for Flair’s no-show last week. The horsemen don’t seem overly bothered by it though. 

Sting’s theme music hits, and out come the Stinger, Lex Luger, and the Macho Man.

I’ll admit to having a bit of a soft spot for the “Man Called Sting” theme song. I actually like a lot of those older WCW songs - Man Called Sting, Steinerized, American Made... I have an eclectic taste in music. Don’t judge me.

Tony repeats that Sting only suffered “minor injuries” after being attacked and he thinks the Outsiders were “just trying to send a message”. Uh, no. If they were sending a message they maybe would have shoved him over, or yelled some threats, or something else vaguely threatening. The pair of them quite literally punched Sting repeatedly and slammed a car boot against his back. I love how the commentators don’t see this as anything major. Just another day in the crazy world of wrestling. Larry calls it “a game of chess”. Most people would call it criminal assault.

Well anyway, these guys waste no time, a brawl starts...

And the match is on.

Ric Flair, Steve McMichael & Chris Benoit Vs Sting, Lex Luger & Macho Man

The match starts with mostly brawling outside of the ring. Sting and Flair are in the ring fighting for about twenty seconds but they’re soon out on the floor as well. We have to go to a break, and during that break we see...

Remember how I noted the dates had been dropping from the “coming soon” part of Glacier’s promo? Now even COMING SOON has gone. Maybe eventually it won’t even show “GLACIER” any more, it’ll just be the symbol in the background. Then a black screen. Then maybe it’ll just become a Mortal Kombat advert. Would have been a better idea than what eventually happened, but let’s forget about BLOOD RUNS COLD for now.  

We come back and the bell sounds. Things are finally under control.

We start off with Sting and Benoit. Sting takes charge and Benoit rolls over towards Flair and Mongo. Flair holds out his hand for a tag...

And comes in. Sting is going to tag Macho in but Flair knocks Macho off the apron before Sting can make a tag. Soon Flair and Savage are fighting on the floor, near that stupid unnecessary VIP table. The ridiculous candlestick in the middle gets knocked over...

Good. Although they’re lucky it wasn’t lit, or that shit could have ended up on fire. Meanwhile Savage picks up the bowl of fruit and dumps it onto Flair. 

Fruit all over the floor. What a waste.

Flair runs back into the ring but immediately eats a press slam from Sting.

As you can see, the crowd are loving it.

Macho gets tagged in, which leads Flair to drop to the outside and plant a kiss on Miss Elizabeth. This angers Macho who runs over, but gets caught out and double-teamed by Flair and Mongo. The advantage doesn’t last for long though, and soon Savage is back on top. Annoyed by how useless he is at fighting, Flair walks off.

Bye, then.

For some reason Flair stops walking away, sees Savage coming after him and just drops to his knees begging off. This never works and I don’t know why he didn’t just start running. Schaivone says Flair was trying to hide, but if so that was a pretty shitty place to try and hide. Savage throws Flair into the metal bleachers. As he leads Flair back to the ring, I’m sure I hear someone in the crowd say “Macho, put some cheese on it”. What? He might have said “Nacho” instead, so I guess that is kind of a burn, but... not really. I suppose it’s possible he was advising a friend how to best serve nachos, very loudly, and just happened to get picked up on camera. You gotta put cheese on nachos, no doubt.  

Next up Mongo and Luger are tagged in. Oh joy. The fans chant “Luger”. Say what you want about Lex, but until mid-1998 or so he was consistently over with WCW fans.

As Larry is talking about Mongo having “great teachers” in Flair and Anderson, Mongo completely botches running into the ropes and somehow falls through them.

Look at the faces on Lex, Benoit and Flair. W T Fuck? Mongo - unable to run the fucking ropes without botching, but still a member of the Four Horsemen. Both hilarious and tragic. The announcers cover for this by saying that Luger threw Mongo out of the ring through sheer strength. It’s not a bad save in fairness.

Thankfully Mongo tags back out to Flair, who is able to run the ropes without falling outside the ring. He just gets beaten up again though. Flair is just the worst fighter. He so rarely gets in any offence. Benoit comes in and kicks the shit out of Luger. Savage comes in and takes Benoit down, even though he isn’t the legal man. 

Tony mentions that the Dungeon of Doom have “literally” put a bounty on Benoit’s head. I assume that’s just to beat him in a wrestling match, not actually kill him, but it’s the Dungeon of Doom so... who fucking knows. It might be to shave Benoit’s entire body. According to the Giant that’s what the Dungeon like doing.

Flair takes a brutal superplex from Sting. 

That image is a second or so after they landed. Some serious impact. They both literally bounce up like they’re on a trampoline. Mongo is then tagged in again - uh oh spagettios. He basically clotheslines Sting in the corner, executes a tame looking backbreaker, and tags back out to Benoit. Good idea.

Eventually it’s back to Flair and Sting. Slick Ric puts Sting in the Figure Four.

Sting isn’t really selling it much. He looks mildly inconvenienced. Flair starts slapping Sting in the face.

This just annoys Sting, who ends up reversing the Figure Four. Flair tries locking it in again but Sting counters into a rollup.

Flair kicks out and tags in Benoit. The Crippler attacks Sting’s leg and hits him with a snap suplex. Sting kicks out at two. Benoit then puts Sting in a nasty looking Lion Tamer.

He struggles to get full extension on it due to the height difference but it still looks uncomfortable to say the least. 

Luger comes in and breaks the submission up. Benoit tags Flair back in. 

Suddenly Jimmy Hart comes running out, yelling at the cameraman that “we need help” and for him to “come to the back”. 

What good is a cameraman going to do if you need help? 

Drunk?

Well, regardless, the cameraman decides to listen to this lunatic and starts running towards the backstage area. Hart gets up on the apron and tries to get everybody’s attention.

Hilariously the wrestlers just totally ignore him, even though he’s going berserk on the apron. 

Hart finally gets Luger’s attention and yells at him that they need to get to the back.

Who’s on the bottom of Jimmy’s insane tie by the way? I want that tie.

We cut to the back where the cameraman has assumedly ended up, and we see Arn Anderson is down. Hall and Nash are hanging around with baseball bats.

Not sure what that stain is down by Arn’s foot. Not sure I want to know.

I love how these two are just smashing the shit out of people with baseball bats, and still... no thought to call the police. I feel like at this point these two could literally cave somebody’s head in with those bats, murder them live on TV, and Tony would say they’re “sending a message”, Larry would say it’s a “game of chess” - where you smash the fuck out of your opponent’s pieces, apparently - and they’d try to settle it at a PPV. 

Anyhow, the other guy laying on the ground is Marcus Bagwell. 

His tag team partner Scotty Riggs comes out and turns his back to the Outsiders, oblivious to the fact they are obviously the cause of his partner’s injury. What a dunce. He’s also standing like he’s got rickets. 

Hall cracks him over the head with something like light rigging. The camera turns...

And we see Rey Mysterio is standing on the rails here like it’s a turnbuckle. He tries a flying cross body onto Nash, but the big man catches Rey like he’s a small child, aims him towards the trailer and...

Tosses him into the side of it like a lawn dart. One of the more iconic moments of the original nWo invasion, one that everybody remembers. It looked like a rough bump to take, but kudos to Rey for taking it.

The Outsiders get back into their limo just as the Macho Man arrives. Savage dives on top of the limo and reaches through the sunroof as it starts to drive off...

This won’t end well. 

The limo literally drives off with Savage riding on top. Nice knowing you, Macho.

As Savage rides off into the night atop of the Outsiders’ limousine, the backstage area is now filled with wrestlers and yellow shirt security. Just where the fuck were these fuckers when the Outsiders were beating the shit out of people? Obviously the wrestlers in the ring had a reason not to be there, but what were these security people doing? It’s a bit late to be out there now, assholes.

We come back from a break and Woman is cradling Arn like he’s about to die.

Liz and her boobs are there too.

A fire truck arrives. What incompetent idiot called for a fucking fire truck? You have three choices and the only wrong choice would be to call a fire truck. Yet here we are. What are the firemen going to do, hose everybody down? 

Rey is on the ground, holding his head and yelling that “there were four”. Well, unless he’s counting the baseball bats as members of the nWo there were definitely only two. I suppose you could count three if you include the limo driver, but the assumption is that he was just a random dude hired to drive, rather than an nWo member.

An ambulance turns up. That’s more like it. 

I’ve just realised this fucks the rest of the card. Eddie Vs Rey ain’t happening now, neither is American Males Vs the Steiners or Anderson Vs the Giant. Why do I get the feeling the replacements in these matches are going to be a significant downgrade?

Mysterio is having a neck brace put on, and during this time Alex Wright is yelling “Hey Rey! What do you mean by four? What do you mean by four?” ... dude, the guy just got thrown head first into the side of a fucking trailer. Screaming questions at him probably isn’t the best thing to do right now. The medics take Rey’s mask off to treat him. Tony acts shocked by this and says that in Mexico masked wrestlers never take their masks off. Of course, in Mexico they probably aren’t propelled head first into trailers either, so, you know. Hard to treat a head injury when the entire skull is covered by a mask, Tony. 

 Benoit appears to be crying over Arn’s condition. 

Eddie wants to go to the hospital with Rey, but Alex Wright reminds Eddie he’s got a match, and he’ll go instead. The match was with Mysterio so actually Eddie doesn’t have a match anymore, but whatever. If I was Rey I wouldn’t want some German guy sitting next to me yelling “WHAT DO YOU MEAN FOUR?” over and over but the ambulance crew evidently don’t see a problem with it. 

Benoit is still on the verge of tears. He looks like a little boy who’s just seen a dog get run over. Larry says “I know how much Benoit looks up to Arn. This is disheartening”. Disheartening? Is that the best word you can come up with, Larry? Disheartening would be if Arn forgot a conversation they’d had last week. The guy just got attacked and apparently severely injured by two big guys with baseball bats and all you can say is it’s “disheartening”? Jeez.

For some reason Benoit starts getting into it with Meng...

Good thing those ambulances are there. Benoit’s going to need one as well if he starts on Meng.

We go back to Tony and Larry who look a little lost. How boring must this be for the fans out there? As far as I’m aware there’s no screen anywhere showing them what’s happening out the back, so they’re just sitting there looking at an empty ring. I appreciate the tickets were free, but still... 

We go to a break, and when we come back there’s still nothing of note happening. 

Bischoff and Heenan (wearing the same shirt as Zybszko) have arrived, but Tony and Larry haven’e gone anywhere yet. I’m surprised the crowd are still hanging around to be honest. It’s surely been at least twenty minutes for them now.

Heenan says he’s not going to do the broadcast tonight unless he can be guaranteed he won’t be physically hurt. Probably a conversation that should have happened off-air, but whatever. Bischoff says he can’t give Heenan any promises and he should do whatever he feels he has to do. So Bobby leaves. 

Tony says “the wheels are falling off here”. Bischoff says that “fortunately” the fans in attendance can’t see what happened or is happening in the back. Yeah, Eric, I’m sure they would much prefer to stand around staring at an empty ring for half an hour. What a fun time.

A funny thing to note whilst this shit continues to go down - apparently during this incident somebody legitimately did call the emergency services as they thought a gang fight had broken out. At Disneyworld. I’d like to know which gang has claimed the Disney/MGM studios as their turf. Going around spraying Mickey Mouse graffiti everywhere. You don’t fuck with the DisneyWorld Baseball Bat Crew.

Understandably, there’s a loud “BORING” chant from the crowd. Eric says the crowd are “anxious”, Tony points out more astutely that it’s because they’re not seeing what’s going on backstage and nothing is happening in the ring. Of course they’re fucking bored. This is a really cool angle on TV, don’t get me wrong, but those poor fuckers in the crowd are being screwed over big time.

An “nWo” chant breaks out. We see Arn Anderson getting loaded into the ambulance. Bagwell is then loaded into the same ambulance. Sting is holding one of the baseball bats that the Outsiders used. Bischoff calls it “evidence”. Should probably be handing that over to the police, although it only appears that an ambulance and fire truck have shown up. It’s almost like in the world of WCW police simply don’t exist. They’re never mentioned and never seen. The best we get are security guards who are absolutely useless. Remember a few Nitros ago when it took about a hundred security guards to get Hall and Nash out of the arena, and half an hour later the Outsiders were still backstage fucking shit up? WCW hires terrible security and has no understanding of how to file a charge with the police. No wonder Heenan ran off.

Fireworks inappropriately go off behind the WCW sign as we go into a commercial break. That’s the most exciting thing that crowd has seen in about half an hour or so. 

It looks like High Voltage are replacing the American Males.

They’re both yelling stuff that makes no sense.

These kids have become so bored that they’re screaming in excitement for High Voltage of all teams. 

“Here’s a story of two brothers, Rick and Scott...”

Scott’s gigantic arms are covered by his Michigan jersey. The Steiners come out looking quite subdued, with Rick constantly looking behind him. The Outsiders drove off in a limo with Macho Man on top, guys, I think you’re OK. Macho hopefully isn’t laying splattered on a pavement somewhere. Nobody really seems bothered that they saw Savage hanging onto a moving vehicle as it drove away. 

Even though Rick is clearly bothered by what’s happened, he’s still barking. But it’s kind of a sad, tentative bark. You could argue that he shouldn’t be barking at all, but, that’s another story. A lot of things happen in WCW that make no sense.

The Steiner Brothers Vs High Voltage

Scott Steiner starts off dominating Chaos. Fireworks are still going off. Rick Steiner is still totally distracted and won’t get up on the ring apron.

Scott is starting to get pissed off. 

Rick gets tagged in. He barks a few times, then turns away from Chaos and starts pointing towards the empty entranceway. Chaos takes advantage and hammers Rick with a few punches. Rage gets tagged in, and he and Chaos hit a double drop kick on Rick Steiner. Fireworks are STILL going off behind the WCW sign. I have to assume WCW has no control over this.

Rage hits Rick with a flying shoulder block from the top turnbuckle. Rick kicks out at two. The crowd bark in unison to try and lift Rick Steiner.

Chaos goes up to the top turnbuckle, and I think Rick is supposed to reverse Chaos’ jump into a powerslam, but Rick instead just kind of ignores Chaos and does a half-hearted slam motion as Chaos flips over him and crashes to the mat. Made Chaos look like a total chode.

Scotty gets tagged back in and hits Rage with an underarm suplex. For some reason Scotty tags Rick straight back in. Questionable decision considering Rick seems to be struggling to focus unless the crowd is barking “woof woof woof” at him.

Well anyhow, Rick tags Scotty back in after hitting a few moves on Rage and knocking Chaos off the apron. Scott picks Rage up in a Falcon Arrow type position, holds him there for a few moments...

Then drops him right on his head.

It’s basically the Falcon Arrow but way more hardcore. 

Scott gets the three count and this one is over. Low Voltage.

The Steiner Brothers defeat High Voltage via Pinfall.

The crowd are very happy with this outcome. Two guys in the front row exchange a double high five. I guess they wouldn’t mind getting Steinerized.

Yeah... sorry. Anyway.

We’re back to the broadcast position and Bischoff calls it “A heck of a broadcast so far”. Yep. As long as you aren’t in the crowd it’s been a fairly good show.

Tony and Larry look like they’ve just been told Christmas is cancelled. Cheer up guys. Bischoff says “half of WCW have left in ambulances”, which is a pretty significant exaggeration. Bagwell, Riggs, Rey and Arn. That’s four. So unless WCW only has an official roster of eight people I think we can say that an estimate of half is wildly out. I suppose you can count Alex Wright, Sting and Flair as well, since they hopped into the ambulances too, but still.  

I think Tony and Larry are supposed to be looking upset/irritated, but Tony just looks fucking depressed and Larry looks like a kid who’s just been given a time out. Eric says the Outsiders will go “wherever there isn’t security, wherever the weakness of WCW is. That’s where they’ll be”. Well, to review, they’ve come through the crowd and into the ring without being stopped. They’ve ended up at the broadcast booth multiple times without being stopped. They’ve been able to commandeer a live microphone and talk trash multiple times without being stopped. They’ve draped banners over the WCW logo without being stopped. They’ve broken into the production truck and fucked around with the broadcast without being stopped. They’ve powerbombed Bischoff off a stage on PPV without being stopped. They’ve attacked Sting after a Saturday Night taping without being stopped. And they’ve just beaten up multiple people with baseball bats without being stopped. So, yeah, WCW’s weaknesses are basically everything and I’m not convinced they even hire genuine security. If they do then they should probably look at hiring another company.

Oh, here comes Rey’s replacement.

You’ve got to be kidding. How is Big Bubba an appropriate replacement for Rey Mysterio? He weighs about five times as much as Rey and has about a fifth of Rey’s ability in the ring. The name graphic makes it look like Jimmy Hart is “Big Bubba”, which did make me chuckle.

Out comes Eddie.

Eddie Guerrero Vs Big Bubba

This match goes on for a while. I’m skipping towards the end because who cares about any match involving Big Bubba?

I skip ahead and get this visual.

Imagine waking up with that hovering over your face. Terrifying. He mumbles “Big Bubba Rogers” but I can’t make anything else out. 

Match ends when Jimmy Hart attempts to throw Bubba his megaphone to use as a weapon. 

Hart also hugs the referee. 

Bubba lets go o the megaphone, which goes flying into the air, as Eddie grabs him in a rollup. Eddie gets the three, and that’s that. 

Eddie Guerrero defeats Big Bubba via Pinfall. 

We come back from the break to “the following announcement has been paid for by the New World Order”.

Cool. I think this is the first time we’ve had one of these on Nitro. The Outsiders and Hogan are in some kind of studio. The camera cuts randomly between them as the nWo music plays in the background. The video begins like a computer game struggling with inconsistent framerate. 

Hogan says “it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it”. Nash says “people wonder who’s gonna be next? Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. “Yeah,” says Hall. “It’s invitation only, chicos”. 

We get a shot of the three nWo members, whilst video highlights of Hogan play behind them. Hogan says there’s a new world order, and he hopes that’s okay, because there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Nash lists “power, fame, money, and now our own corporation” as the positives. Hall says “think about it, nWo, we’re new, we’re taking over World Championship Wrestling, and we’re giving all the orders”. Not sure the nWo name really needed an explanation, but OK, sure. Hogan yells “it’s the new way, is that OK, billionaire Ted?” ... not sure if he intended to rhyme or not. Hogan quotes humpty dumpty be saying all of Ted Turner’s horses and all of his men won’t be able to put WCW back together again. That’s the second promo in recent times that’s referenced humpty dumpty. First the Giant, now Hogan. Coincidence, I guess? Or the WCW locker room really loves that nursery rhyme.

Hall starts talking about who the fourth or fifth member of the nWo is going to be, and Hogan starts laughing really loudly. A typical evil villain type laugh which kind of throws Hall for a second.

Nash is trying not to laugh at Hogan’s cartoon-villain cackle. Hall says that Sting and Luger have gotten soft at “billionaire Ted’s country club”. He says that he and Nash have had to claw and scratch for everything they’ve got, and that they want Sting and Luger. In the ring, I assume/hope. 

Hogan says he almost forgot that he’s wrestling the Giant at Hog Wild for the world title. Liar. He says that he finds it ironic that WCW could be so weak to have to beg for the Giant to save them from the nWo. Hogan says on August 10th the Outsiders will become the Insiders, and with 500,000 “vroom-baa Harley Davidsons” by their side the nWo “will establish itself as the greatest wrestling organisation on the Earth, brother”. 

OK. The nWo is not exactly a wrestling organisation. It’s just a faction with three dudes in it. Later on you could argue it’s more of an organisation, but right now? No. 

Hall calls Sting a “painted face punk” and says “don’t sing it, bring it.” Nash says they call it “Armageddon” and that “Genesis has begun. It’s the beginning of the new world order”. Didn’t expect a shout out to the bible in here but there you go. Hogan finishes the promo by saying that as the Outsiders take care of the “top talent” in WCW, the Giant will crumble at his feet.

It’s amusing how in these promos Hogan is still basically in Hulk promo mode, yelling, hollering and using big words that don’t necessarily mean what he thinks they mean. Hall and Nash have much calmer, cooler delivery which contrasts quite sharply to Hogan’s more 80′s approach. They pull it together well by editing a lot of Hogan’s stuff to make it more succinct and to the point.

Eric Bischoff has left the broadcast position, leaving Tony and Larry to handle the last fifteen minutes or so of the broadcast. They recap events from earlier in the night. The crowd have had another long wait, between the end of the last match, the nWo promo which none of them would have seen, and now this recap of events earlier in the night that they’re also not seeing. Oh, and they had to sit through long matches involving Jim Duggan, Mike Enos and Big Bubba. I know they got into this show for free, but they still deserve a refund. 

Still, we have the main event left. This is WCW’s chance to replace Arn Anderson with somebody exciting, somebody fresh, somebody who can get the crowd on their feet, somebody who...

Oh.

Greg Valentine.

Greg “charisma” Valentine.

I mean, if this was 1986 then this would have been a decent replacement, but it’s not. These poor fans. 

On the plus side this is unlikely to lost long.

The Giant Vs Greg “the hammer” Valentine

It’s for all the gold. The WCW world title looked so awesome. 

The Hammer manages to rock the Giant early on with a few chops to the chest and clotheslines. 

Doesn’t last long though. Giant knocks Valentine down, picks him up, smashes him across the back, then puts him into the corner and chokes him with his boot. Giant then throws Valentine across to the opposite turnbuckle, goes for some kind of weird splash/elbow but misses in a move very obviously telegraphed, yet somehow the cameramen miss it anyway. 

Valentine heads up top and hits a double axe handle. Giant is momentarily dizzy, but as Valentine scrambles up to the second turnbuckle to try another move, Giant drops the strap on his outfit, runs over and puts his hand around Valentine’s neck.

Uh oh.

Splat. Unsatisfied, Giant roars a few times then picks Valentine up and hits a second chokeslam.

Thanks for coming, Greg. Hey, I’ve just noticed, the dude in the middle on the left with the tash has definitely been at previous shows. So has the woman three to the right from him. I remember her dancing with her daughter to the Nasty Boys theme. The daughter doesn’t appear to be there this time. No Nasty Boys, no interest, I guess. I had no idea WCW had repeated customers for these shows, I always assumed it was just random park guests turning up.

As an aside, check out the guys on the bottom right. Either doing the most awkward wave ever or vicariously living through the Giant chokeslamming poor old Greg. 

The Giant defeats Greg “the hammer” Valentine via Pinfall.

Post-match, Giant leans into the camera and says “I want you to listen real close Hulk Hogan. Pay attention, and listen real close”. He then walks away. I assume he’s going to be interviewed?

Yes, indeed, Mean Gene is in the ring with the Giant. Haven’t seen much of Gene-o tonight. I kind of missed the shit-stirring bell.

Giant is either ripping a major fart or mocking Hogan’s poses. Hopefully the latter, although Jimmy Hart’s expression suggests it could be the former.

Gene asks Giant about Hog Wild. Giant continues mocking Hogan by saying “well you know something Mean Gene, I’ve been to the top of the mountain brother, I’ve walked through the valley of the shadow of death...” Gene pulls the mic away and asks if the Giant has lost his marbles. “That’s a knock off on Hogan!” - no shit, Gene. 

Giant laughs. He says Hogan “conned America”, because he didn’t believe the things he preached. Giant says Hogan started the nWo because he knew he couldn’t be “the big fish in WCW”. Giant says that whilst Hogan has been making movies, he’s been defending the title. Giant says if WCW doesn’t hang together, then they’ll all hang separately, and he’s got a chokeslam noose that’ll fit around Hogan’s neck.

For some reason Okerlund gives the mic to Jimmy Hart, who appears to have taken a shitload of High Voltage’s uppers. He’s all over the place, ranting about “living wrestling 24/7″ and says sometimes he lies so much he believes in his own lies. 

Hart says that one day he’ll have to pay for the things he’s done, but at Hog Wild, they’ll take Hogan out. Well... OK, then. Sounds like Jimmy is involved in some pretty shady shit.

Gene bids us goodnight from Orlando, and WCW decide to show the Outsiders beating the shit out of the WCW guys one more time. Because why not, I guess? They show a slow mo of Rey getting lawn darted into the trailer, and the show ends with a still shot of this as the Nitro music plays in the background.

Nice. I’m sure Rey appreciates that.