Even the officials are fighting! By Matt Duma After years of cold-blooded fighting for ratings supremacy during the famed Monday Night Wars, it’s only natural for die-hard World Wrestling Federation loyalists to give a bitter cold welcome to the WCW Superstars now invading Vince McMahon’s company.   Being surrounded by a stadium full of hecklers may easily intimidate the most experienced of performers. But at least one WCW icon doesn’t mind hearing a chorus of boos from the crowds when WCW takes over the Federation’s ring. In fact, WCW referee Nick Patrick seems to enjoy gathering heat from the audience.   "That’s the whole thing about wrestling," Patrick told WCW.com. "It’s controversial. Sometimes having people not like you is as good as having people like you."   Patrick became the first referee to officiate a WCW match on Federation television July 2 when Booker T defended his WCW Championship against Buff Bagwell in Tacoma, Wash.   "It went real well I think," Patrick said. "I didn’t realize the WWF fans could be so hostile. Personally, I kind of like that."   Coming on board as one of WCW’s premier officials is the latest mark in the long career of Patrick, who grew up surrounded by the sports-entertainment business. His father competed as Jody "The Assassin" Hamilton and later become a production worker in WCW. Patrick formally broke into the business in 1980 during his first year at Missouri Western College.   Although the presence of top superstars often dominates fans’ attention, officiating matches adds an important element to presentation. A top official, Patrick said, goes virtually unnoticed until his hand slaps out pin counts.   "A good ref brings ring awareness and adds to the flow of the match," Patrick said. "He’s there when needed without being in the way. He needs to have good camera awareness. It’s not like the old days when you could just concentrate on the ring."   But things don’t often go as smoothly as planned. An overanxious ring bell operator caused Patrick’s heart to flutter a bit during a past broadcast of Monday Nitro when the bell erroneously sounded on just a two-count.   "I counted almost three, but stopped just in time when all of a sudden the bell rang. Everybody stopped working while I stood up and waved the bell off. But there were like 10 seconds where we were like ‘Oh my God! What are we going to do?’   "Things happen all the time," said Patrick with a slight laugh.   Patrick says he hopes to become the top referee in the new WCW. He certainly seems at the forefront to take over those duties as he engaged in a heated dispute with the Federation’s senior official, Earl Hebner, in the locker room during the most recent episode of SmackDown!   But by and large, Patrick said, the atmosphere backstage is vastly different from the old WCW locker room.   "Morale-wise, things are a lot better," he said. "Everybody’s in a real positive mode. There’s more teamwork. In the old WCW there were a lot of ‘Me’ guys. We function much more as a unit than we did in the old days."   Patrick and the rest of the WCW roster revisit the past Monday night when RAW IS WAR broadcasts live from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, WCW’s former headquarters.     "I’m anxious to see how people respond to us," Patrick said. "We may have some people on our side, as opposed to Tacoma where we had maybe three or four."