Hey Scott,
The question from earlier today on the blog about what five wrestlers' careers would you take if you were stranded on an Island got me thinking about it in terms of years. What year of wrestling would you want to watch on loop. Not specifically for one company or another, but rather just a calendar year's worth of content from across the globe.
Thanks a lot.
Gotta go 97 or 98. You've got Attitude Era WWF in full swing, the peak of WCW, ECW still going relatively strong, and awesome stuff in Japan with the Misawa/Kobashi crew tearing it up.
I was also thinking 1989, but holy hell would WWF's weekly TV be tough to sit through. Although I could always catch up on Memphis, I suppose.
From an industry perspective, it's gotta be 1997: great Attitude era stuff, the buildup of Sting-Hogan, ECW still going fairly strong. From an individual company, WWF 2000. Or, better yet, WWF from Westlemania 16 to 17.
ReplyDeleteI'd go '97 for the same reasons, plus this: it was right before I started really watching, so as much of it as I've seen, still mostly new to me in terms of watching it sequentially.
ReplyDelete2000 would be next.
I was going to say 1989... All the great NWA stuff and the Hogan/Savage storyline, the emergence of Warrior etc... 1997 is right there also, good wrestling in WWF and the nWo/sting era stuff in WCW.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar question to a friend of mine: you have Rip Hunter's Time Sphere and you can pull any wrestler from any year to build the ultimate Wrestlemania card. The catch is you can only use one guy once (so, Flair in '89 against Bret in '94 means you can't use those guys again): who do you use and what's the card order?
ReplyDeleteObviously 1997 but you also have to look at 2004 or 2005. 2005 you had the WWE doing a lot of good things, Joe, AJ, and Daniels in TNA, and Punk in ROH.
ReplyDeleteThink of all the "No Holds Barred" hype you would miss by skipping '89!
ReplyDeleteI'm so tempted to want to say late '93 to early '94, since that's when Bret finally regained the title and WCW was on the rise after bringing back Flair. But man, there is a LOT of crap in that timeline, mostly involving Taker or Hogan. Shame too, because a lot of it was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteWas WWE really doing a lot of good in 2005? After Vengeance that year, both Raw and Smackdown became unbelievably boring and stagnant thanks to misused storylines and stale characters.
ReplyDelete1997 is the obvious choice, and for good reason, but to play devil's advocate, I'm going to go somewhere else. 1983.
ReplyDeleteThe last real year of the territory era, and it had lots of good stuff. Crockett had the first Starrcade, WCCW was on fire with the Freebirds vs. Von Erichs, Mid-South was charging along, AWA had Hogan, Ventura, Heenan and a bunch of others, Stampede did some great stuff, and Savage invaded Memphis. WWF wasn't doing anything special, but they weren't awful either. It's pretty hard to go wrong with all that.
Too complicated/would take to long to think about
ReplyDeleteIndustry-wide, 2000 would be rough.
ReplyDeleteYes it's the WWF's best year top-to-bottom, but WCW's death throes are mostly sickening and the less said about Justin Credible the better.
Not sure whether Japan was still hot in 2000 or not, that was pre-NOAH just barely, right?
1997 Raw is the greatest television wrestling has ever produced, so it's an easy answer.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with Scott on this one. 1997-1998 are my favorite years too. I have old VHSs from those years that are funny to try and watch back because they're so unorganized. There's one that this running order: an episode of ECW Hardcore TV, an episode of WCW Saturday Night, Bret Hart on MadTV, and a Monday Night Raw. What the heck do ya even label a tape like that?
ReplyDeleteGotta go with 1985 or 1986 Here's why:
ReplyDelete1. You never want to run OUT of material, so instead of 3 or 4 feds, you'd have something like 22 different products to choose from. If you mean everything, this would include WWF, NWA/WCW, WCCW, AWA, etc.
2. Mid 1980s UWF or NWA would more than be adequate substitutes for what you might miss out on in ECW (not to mention MEMPHIS!)
3. The WWF would be mostly squash matches, but I would say those 2 years in part for Macho's I-C title run
4. If for no other reason, All-Japan.....with Bruiser Brody??????? (New Japan wasnt bad either in the 80s)
1998 easily. WWF was taking off with Austin/McMahon and lots of new faces. WCW's main event was bloated with NWO madness but the undercard was spectacular. And ECW hadn't completely fallen off the rails yet. Great time to be a fan.
ReplyDeleteAnd didn't Scott already post something like this a while back, which led to BOD discussion? I might be wrong, but I seem to recall it.
ReplyDeleteI love 1998, but I also love 1997 mostly for the real Attitude the WWF had. It wasn't a marketing ploy yet, but rather true aggression that made it just feel so fresh. In addition, the nWo were still very hot in 1997 and hadn't yet burned out like it started to in 1998.
ReplyDeleteAiming for guys who never had a big program, or at least I don't really remember it:
ReplyDelete87 Hogan vs. 99 Austin
89 Flair vs. 01 Rock
13 CM Punk vs 88 Macho Man Randy Savage
06 Cena vs 97 Bret Hart
07 Undertaker vs 02 Kurt Angle
93 Vader vs 12 (that match with cena) Brock Lesnar
04 Eddy Guerrero vs 97 Shawn Michaels
98 Chris Jericho vs 87 Ricky Steamboat
Eh, I'd watch it.
2006 - I'm a Daniel Bryan mark, so the year of his ROH reign would be great to watch over and over again. TNA had some good matches that year, as did WWE. Plus PWG, Japan, Mexico, and other indy stuff I've never seen from that year.
ReplyDelete"Rasslin" "More Rasslin" and "Fuck Yeah"
ReplyDeleteI think we've had a couple of posts with a similar conceit over the years.
ReplyDelete97 hands down, but 93 is a sleeper for me. That was the year I started watching wcw and I still love going back and watching that era. You had vader, sting, Austin/Pillman, Foley, Sid, Steamboat and Flair later in the year. On the wwf side of things, people tend to only remember how shitty mania was that year, but the early raws were a blast. You also get ecw in its infancy. Was global still going on? Plenty of good stuff in 93.
ReplyDeleteI would probably say the year between Wrestlemanias IV and V, the build with Hogan-Savage, some great NWA stuff, etc. Plus, if I got hours of Prime Time Wrestling in there, I'd be a happy camper. I could never get enough of Monsoon and Heenan.
ReplyDeleteI might be remembering wrong, but I'm pretty sure Global was still running in 93. 1993 really is an underrated year.
ReplyDeleteWith the exception of the Austin/Hart wars, there's not a lot about 1997 Raw I like. Too much Ahmed Johnson and the "Gang Warz" for my liking.
ReplyDeleteYeah between the two I prefer 1997. I feel like WWF, WCW and ECW were all better in 1997 than 1998. And that's not a knock on '98 because the WWF was still great, WCW had some good stuff and ECW was still fine, but '97 was better quality for sure.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Besides the Hart Foundation, Taker/Bearer stuff and DX at the end of the year there's lots of deadwood.
ReplyDelete1992. You have all four WWF PPv's being rock solid or better, WCW kicked ass for a large portion of the year, flair being flair, Hart's rise, rude at his peak and a bunch of other stuff.
ReplyDelete06 or 97.
ReplyDelete1984 for me. The WWF, AWA, Mid-South, Crockett, World Class, etc, were all pretty great that year. Plus it was the national expansion year for the WWF which was great in it self with probably the four greatest feuds they have ever had in a calendar year.
ReplyDelete