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Best TV wrestling shows

We were talking about it in another thread and I thought it might make for good discussion...What are some of your favorite/best Raw, Nitro, or ECW, tv episodes?

97 WWF and Nitros had some great ones.  A personal favorite is the Raw where they essentially reset everything after the Invasion, and bring in Flair as co-owner.

Discuss.

Comments

  1. This is why you shouldn't let people drink and post threads.

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  2. I'd have to say my favorite episode of Raw was from 2001 when the Alliance was formed. The ECW guys getting together and attacking Kane & Jericho ranks up there with Y2J's debut and The Radicalz as one of my favorite markout moments. They ruined it afterwards with the McMahon family drama, but that one episode was jus awesome.

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  3. The ECW episodes leading up to the big shows in '95-'97 were great and made everything seem important. The shows with the "November Rain" montages are still some of my faves.

    I know ECW is an acquired taste, but I always felt like I missing something special since a 11 year old kid in Kentucky couldn't go to the ECW Arena. Paul E's hype ability hooked me young.

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  4. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryMarch 29, 2014 at 1:27 PM

    Pretty much any of the SD Six stuff where Heyman would give two-to-six of those guys the final 45 minutes of SmackDown to just go out and tear the house down; ditto RAW 2004 where the main event was some combination of babyfaces vs. Evolution. I also loved the SD episodes in 2002-2003 and 2008-2010 where they had no Main Event Promos or diva filler but just had a stacked two-hour wrestling show with just a couple of quick backstage segments to advance angles and have a quick breather. It was almost like having a mini-PPV, esp. considering how good their roster was at those times.


    I also liked some of the month-long RAW arcs like the 2005 Gold Rush Tournament (seriously, we need more fucking tournaments) or when Bischoff took a month off and handed the GM reigns to the winning Survivor Series team (hey, SVS actually meant something!)


    'Course, all the requisite moments that get played over (beer truck, milk truck, cars being destroyed), but I also have a soft spot for the Billy & Chuck Wedding. That shouldn't have worked, but goddamn, it did. Ditto for Eugene as a one-night GM; the musical chairs segment was one of the funniest things they've ever done (and the Canada crowd was MOLTEN LAVA HOT for Jericho) and it featured HHH falling out of Eugene's bouncy-jump castle.

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  5. Any love for the 1994 WCW Saturday Night with Flair vs Steamboat? The whole run of that show from February to Hogan's arrival was pretty amazing.

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  6. Austin ambulance episode of Raw. Mysterio lawn dart episode of Nitro.

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  7. Some of the 97 Raws are the GOAT

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  8. Bischoff revealing himself during the Billy/Chuck wedding might have been the biggest legit WTF moment in wrestling history. I was watching that and figured WWE had just hired a really crappy actor who was hamming it up for some Vince-style comedy, and then he busted out the 'three minutes' line and my jaw just dropped open.

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  9. I know! Where's the picure of knomes kissing and three paragraphs of exposition to set up a simple question?

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  10. Nothing. Just a chance to make a drunk Farva joke. You only get the opportunity 13 times a day, gotta make the most of it.

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  11. YES! The WWE trolls who spy on the blog need to read this and up this episode of Raw up on the Network right fuckzing now.


    I serioulsy was in mark-out city for that whole show. It's a shame it went downhill so far so fast.

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  12. Don't worry about Farva, focus on getting past Jobber so that after BoD Mania you too can be... SAVED

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  13. I should have done it in the Murphy gimmick "Hdyeuejs Hu dug heh hayw €÷€÷€"

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  14. The Rock/Foley/2-Cool/Riksihi v. HHH/X-pac/Radicalz ten-man tag was fan-fucking-tastic.

    The Raw where Austin was "fired" the night after Judgment Day with "Bang 3:16."

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  15. That 10 man is a forgotten classic. One of the better tv matches in that era IMO

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  16. The one where they stacked the odds against John Cena only to have him overcome them

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  17. That first episode of Nitro was groundbreaking and had a pretty unforgettable setting and atmosphere. Also the shocking Luger appearance and some pretty good matches.

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  18. Can't wait for the 10 man tag episode to go up on the Network

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  19. Its almost as good as the one where HHH was the only one who looked strong

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  20. Benoit was a big part of that, I wonder if it will make it up there and how little hype it will receive when it does.

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  21. I like the one where Hulk Hogan cuts the promo and says "brother in it."

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  22. Also, the fans were able to go shopping after it ended.

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  23. Also, the 2000 Raw where Vince came back to help The Rcok beat the Big Show and get into the WWF Title match.. or for that matter the following week when they had the Triple Threat, HHH won and Linda McMahon brought back Mick Foley.


    I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed WrestleMania 2000.

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  24. While we're at it, the Nitro where DDP calls people "Scum!" is a forgotten gem.

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  25. And enjoy Hulk Hogan's pasta~!

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  26. The nitro raw simulcast was amazing and surreal. The episode post wm28 was amazing hmm this is tough so many great moments but breaking down to specific episodes is tough.

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  27. Yeah I really enjoyed 1997 Raws. Especially the hart foundation / Austin feud. Unforgettable.

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  28. IT WAS ME FARVA! IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!!!

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  29. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryMarch 29, 2014 at 2:23 PM

    Yeah, I'm still amazed that I never even thought it was Bischoff until he dropped the "three minutes". And 3MW cleaning house was equally fun. The crappy angle and wedding stuff in general should've made this segment horrible, but they made it as awesome as it could've possible been.

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  30. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomeryMarch 29, 2014 at 2:25 PM

    I love watching the opening of Pastamania on Youtube, particularly the part where Hogan shills the healthiness of it (this is a place where you can order pasta with pasta on the side) and that he suggests that you eat there three times a day during a marathon shopping outing. God bless Hogan.

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  31. 1997 had a host of blowaway Raws. I wish I was watching back then, because I bet for smarks, the segment from the July Raw where Bret attacked Vince after HBK was named the ref of his title match with Undertaker must have been the craziest, most unpredictable thing to happen on a wrestling show.

    Really, 1997 in general was surreal in how kayfabe and reality blended together. The Montreal Screwjob was a work (allegedly) but it perfectly bookended the paranoia that fictional Bret Hart had displayed ever since he returned in late '96. That crazy Raw after the Royal Rumble where he threw a temper tantrum and quit the WWF after Austin cheated was prophetic in a way.

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  32. The Nitro at the United Center to start 1997. The whole Macho Man 'sit in' thing was really awesome out of the box stuff at the time and I believe that was the first Sting repelling from the rafters moment as well.

    That's also when you knew WCW was big time and for real too. After not doing a show with more than 10,000 paid fans in the building since like 1989, they pulled a huge advance and crowd at a major arena that was total WWF territory, when they were ecstatic just to be slumming it up in the Rosemont Horizon which they only got access to in 1994.

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  33. That one HHH segment where he tried to turn Eugene against William Regal was hilarious.


    "Wow, William, you should be ASHAMED of yourself! ANYBODY who would try to manipulate a guy like Eugene in order to get what they want has to be a real scumbag!"

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  34. The wedding was another one of those segments where my mom was in the background commenting on the sheer absurdity of it.

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  35. I dunno, I've always preferred the one where Austin says "ass."

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  36. I was watching something from Chicago today and it got me thinking... why hasn't the WWF run in the United Center more. They basically did Summerslam 94 there and never went back. Why? Isn't the United Center a much bigger building?

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  37. Those three hour Nitros were too much to sit through (maybe someone should learn that a three hour show is death?) but I remember the night Ric Flair returned in 1998 as being pretty damn awesome.

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  38. Yeah, the '97 Raws that got trounced in the ratings but were better shows comparatively was a killer run.

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  39. What happened to Murphy?

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  40. It kind of was. They had begun subtly acknoweldging that Vince was in fact the man in charge throughout 1997 (starting at the Royal Rumble and Bret "quitting" Raw the following nigth) and Bret going after Vince was the first time that he was acknoweldged as the owner in a physical angle.

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  41. I really Raws from 1998 and 2001 during the Invasion. HHH coming back ruined it for me. I hated his as a face so much.

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  42. There was a lot of good stuff after Hogan's arrival, too.

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  43. Stranger in the AlpsMarch 29, 2014 at 3:05 PM

    I forgot you had posting privileges, Farva. Where was your rant on CM Punk and contract law several weeks back?

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  44. Maybe it's caused I just watched it, but the Steph/Test wedding from 1999 was fantastic.

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  45. CM Punk's pipe bomb promo was one of the best moments of the last few years.

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  46. I came so close to posting one but it was SO obnoxious.

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  47. JUST watched that a few days ago. If they would have followed through on it, it would be in the top pantheon of angles. It was set up SO well

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  48. Followed through in terms of having Test and HHH feud? Because it turned out just fine with how it actually played out.

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