Scott Hall ran in and tased Goldberg with a cattle prod, enabling Nash to pick up the win, end Goldberg's streak, and become the champion. The main event finish was universally panned by critics. On the January 4, 1999, episode of Nitro, a Starrcade rematch between Nash and Goldberg was booked. However, Goldberg was kayfabe arrested by the police for stalking Miss Elizabeth and was replaced by the returning Hogan, who had been absent from WCW for several months prior after he claimed to retire from professional wrestling. Prior to the match, play-by-play announcer Tony Schiavone, under direction from Bischoff, revealed that Mick Foley, portraying his "Mankind" character, would be win the WWF Championship on a taped edition of Raw, sarcastically saying "huh, that's gonna put some butts in the seats". Foley had worked for WCW but left in 1994 after deciding Bischoff would never give him a prominent role in the company. Nielsen ratings indicated that over 300,000 households changed the channel to watch Foley's victory. The Nitro main event saw Hogan poke Nash in the chest. Nash oversold the poke in the chest by forcefully falling to the mat and allowing Hogan to pin him for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. This effectively united the two separate nWo factions into a new faction, the nWo Elite. Goldberg made his way down to the ring along with Lex Luger during the celebration, only for Luger blindside the former and Hall taser him again. The segment became infamously known as the "Fingerpoke of Doom", with critics and retrospective reviewers condemning WCW for their bait-and-switch tactics which ultimately damaged the credibility of the company as a whole. Decline (1998–1999) 1998 saw WCW slid into a period of creative decline, leading to a loss of viewership. The company was criticized for their overuse of celebrities in pay-per-view matches, such as Dennis Rodman and Jay Leno, and frequent product placement, such as Rick Steiner trading barbs with Chucky in a segment promoting the 1998 film Bride of Chucky. WCW was well known for having popular, young midcard stars; such as Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Raven, Billy Kidman, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Perry Saturn, Booker T., and Rey Mysterio They were also credited for their cruiserweight division featuring high-flying stars from Mexico and Japan, where the style of wrestling was popularized. In spite of this, WCW did not promote its younger