The end result of the most important weekend for television in this industry in more than four years told a few things about a few companies.
As it turned out, the biggest story of the weekend was not the ratings, but the game behind them. One of the key elements of the Monday Night Wars, going back-and-forth, was the "dirty tricks," and both sides did everything they could legally and on occasion, bordering on illegally, to one-up the other. The only "dirty trick" that actually happened was Spike's buying time in many markets, most notably New York and Chicago, during the live Raw, plugging the Ultimate Fight night special going on at the same time. USA or WWE also bought time locally in some cable systems, including some in New York, during Spike's Ultimate Fighter show to tune into Raw. However, that paled in comparison to the one that Vince McMahon nearly pulled off.
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