Focus i' not sure that i understandwhat you mean 'Major reversal for the Watchtower imminent'
In the November 1 1995 Watchtower on page 19 it says,
Therefore, in the final fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy today, "this generation" apparently refers to the peoples of earth who see the sign of Christ's presence but fail to mend their ways.
I think this was when they changed the understanding of the generation. (I had almost left by this time) I think this was also when they changed the masthead (I believe it's called, in the Awake magazine) Which you can find here.
www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/180367/1/1995-Generation-change-Awake-Masthead-change#.U7-z_ZRdV8E
On the same thread from 4 years ago there is a Watchtower question from readers that is quoted. I do not have the Watchtower myself and so copy and paste from the thread.
It must be acknowledged that we have not always taken Jesus’ words in that sense. There is a tendency for imperfect humans to want to be specific about the date when the end will come. Recall that even the apostles sought more specifics, asking: “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at thistime?”—Acts 1:6.
With similar sincere intentions, God’s servants in modern times have tried to derive from what Jesus said about “generation” some clear time element calculated from 1914. For instance, one line of reasoning has been that a generation can be 70 or 80 years, made up of people old enough to grasp the significance of the first world war and other developments; thus we can calculate more or less how near the end is.
However well-meaning such thinking was, did it comply with the advice Jesus went on to give? Jesus said: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. . . . Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”—Matthew 24:36-42.
In the book "The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah- How?" (WTB&TS 1971) on page 65 it says.
They recognized that the real kingdom of God had been established in the hands of Jesus Christ in the heavens at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, and now more vigorously than ever they undertook to preach it "in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations" They did so with the additional help of The Golden Age (now the magazine Awake!)
I think the Awake magazine probably played a major part in the preaching of the good news with it's masthead.
This is in the chapter 4 'Commissioned to speak in the Divine Name' andwhere on page 58/59 it asks the question
'Who, then, are the group of persons who, toward the beginning of this "time of the end," were commissioned to serve as the mouthpiece of and active agent of Jehovah?'
Page 61 another question
'Whom could the real "chariot" of Jehovah's organization roll up to and confront that He might bestow upon this qualified one the commission to speak as a prophet in the name of Jehovah?'
My wife made a note in the book when she studied it 'remnant since 1918' ( I think that was probably the right answer)
In the book "Man's Salvation Out Of World Distress At Hand" on page 29 it says.
"After all that we have gone through since 1914, our generation would be, of all generations the "most to be pitied". (bold mine)
Think of it, though! Worthy ones of this generation of mankind will be saved alive out of the rest of this world distress so as to survive the worst of it and enter into God's Messianic new system of things and not need a resurrection from the dead to life on earth! This is a valid hope well founded on what was said by Jesus Christ..."
the words 'most to be pitied' is taken from Pauls words at 1 Corinthians 15:18,19. In the same book on page 28 it says.
So much depended on Messiah's resurrection, and the apostle Paul had suffered so much persecution for preaching it, that if Paul were a liar, then, as he wrote... (1 Corinthians 15:18,19)
In 1 Corinthians 1:17 Paul says 'For Christ dispatched me, not to go baptizing but to go declaring the good news...' I think I could say he was commissioned by Christ.
and in 1 Corinthians 15 he tells us this
Now I remind you, brothers, of the good news that I declared to you, which you also accepted, and for which you have taken your stand. 2 Through it you are also being saved if you hold firmly to the good news I declared to you, unless you became believers for nothing. For among the first things I handed on to you was what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, yes, that he was raised up on the third day according to the Scriptures; and that he appeared to Ce′phas, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still with us, though some have fallen asleep in death. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. But last of all he appeared also to m as if to one born prematurely.
In my view it would be like the apostle Paul changing his preaching regarding the resurrection of Christ the changing of the teaching on 'the generation' that occurred in 1995. Because a link was made regarding Paul's words about the resurrection and generation. but that is just my opinion.
Earlier on page 48 in the same publication it states
“In the face of the relatively small proportion of the world’s population that has put faith in the “thing heard [from] us” or proclaimed by us, it can truthfully be said: “They did not all obey the good news.” This explains the saddening state of a the world of mankind today
This was after quoting Paul's words at Romans 10:16,17
