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Your Favourite Era For Wrestling?


David

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88-93 only just started watching old wcw around 92

 

1988 mega powers, mosnster boss man, 20 man tag at survivor series

1989 mega powers explode, rise of the ultimate warrior, beginning of mr perfect, demolition, harts , brain busters, dibiase all in top form

1990 ultimate challenge, demoloition 2 became 3(good idea originally) lod, harts, lean and mean rick rude

1991 warrior vs savage fued, jake heel turn, bossman mountie fued,rise of the undertaker, jake savage fued, arrival of the nature boy and sid and of course the mighty virgil

1992 rise of bret hart, money inc, hbk vs janetty, summerslam 92, arrival of razor ramon

1993 bret, hbk, diesel, razor,money inc,123 kid, bam bam, quebecers, steiners, great year(not as good as 91 though)

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Even though the business was on it's arse in the US, 1992-1999 is my favourite era - Puroresu was just amazing with NJ, AJ, AJW, FMW, W*ING, IWA, UWFi, Michinoku Pro all putting on great shows. ECW growing, and AAA simply being must see TV in 1994-1996. Also I was partial to the original monday night wars. Good times.

 

It's shit now really.

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Absolutely loved the early brand split era, particularly Smackdown from 2002 till 2004. It was great fun, with exciting storylines, good wrestling, interesting characters (as opposed to the bland as fuck "new generation" coming through in WWE right now) and a sense of two strong rosters competing, as opposed to the dilluted product the split gives us now.

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1990-1994 was when I first started watching wrestling so I've got fond memories of that period, especially around Summerslam 92, doing matches in the garden with our figures and my WCW ring with the cage. My favourite PPVs are 2000-2001 though, some amazing moments in those couple of years

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I can only break this down into the years I liked as I believe that there were a lot of periods which were particularly poor in between eras. Ill also have to say which I preferred as a main event scene and a midcard scene.

 

Main Event -

1997,1998 , 2000 and 2001 - loved these years for their main events. I always loved the Hart Foundation heel/face period as well as Takers second reign in 1997 (barrin his match with Sid at WM). 1998 may have been the best year from a storyline perspective and I thought the highway to hell was the most gripping piece of main event television they have ever done. 2000 had some class matches esp with HHH vs Foley, Rock vs HHH and others and I enjoyed the main event scene in 2001 too.

 

 

Mid Card - I loved some of the more recent years from a mid card perspective. . I do believe that 02-04 have been better from a midcard perspective compared to 98-99 or even the years prior. If you look at the matches now, the athletisism is amazing. Comparing Angle n Benoit vs Edge n Mysterio to Jarrett vs D-Lo Brown (as an example) you can see why. Sure the actual characters and storytelling has declined in recent years but imo the in ring work has improved.

 

I do believe the rose tinted glasses effect definitely makes people feel some eras were better than they were. For example for all the awesomeness of Austin, Kane, Taker and Mankind in 1998 there was the oddities, Nation of

Domination and Marc Mero/Goldust. Same as the squash matches in the 80s and early 90s. People seem to forget all of that because of the main event scene. I personally couldn't stand the Hogan/Warrior eras because I couldn't relate to them. But I loved Hart, Michaels, Taker, Vader, Bulldog and Mankind several years later.

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It's a cliche, but I think there literally was something for everyone during that period. There were great mic workers, like Austin, Rock and Vince, with Foley, Angle and HHH also doing some fantastic promos during that time. There was top quality wrestling, involving all of those mentioned (maybe not Vince) plus Benoit, Jericho, Guerrero, Edge, Christian and the Hardys.

There was also a good mix of comedy (genuinely funny comedy, like Angle's little promos and Edge and Christian's skits) and serious stuff, while I think they did a far better job of targeting viewers of all ages than they did in the early Attitude era or the PG era of the last few years - they ran some edgier angles with HHH, the Dudleys and Jarrett, while Crash Holly and Too Cool/Rikishi were better kids' characters than Hornswoggle has ever been.

 

As seems quite often the case, I agree with Magnum here completely.

 

Actually funny material in the mid-card and genuine twists, excitement and cool stuff going down at the top of the card. A killer Tag Division and everyone was over, pretty much. Fantastic. WWF 1999/2000 was the Shit.

 

I have a real fondness for most of the WWF years really, as I watched it all as it happened. Even the Dark Days of 93 to 95 with the likes of Lex and Diesel sucking balls as Main Eventers, you still had Owen & Davy tagging, Michaels and Hart having good matches with everyone, and world-class workers like 123 Kid, Hakushi, Vader etc doing their thing.

 

For overall Pro Wrestling greatness, the period from the start of the nWo to the death of WCW pretty much covers my favourite period. The whole Monday Night Wars deal was amazing, as was the nWo and the DX Hart Foundation stuff. All the while you also had ECW kicking ass on the other station. Just... WOW. We won't ever see those days again. 1996 -2001, how I miss you so.

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For me the most enjoyable period was when Nitro was on TNT in the UK for an hour before RAW on a friday night, I remember watching Nitro until RAW started, then watching RAW but flicking back to Nitro during any ad breaks or boring moments and seeing what Nitro had on. Was from around 1996-early 99 as far as I remember. What grabbed me in that time was that in the UK there was no way of watching WCW PPVs live whereas WWE nailed the UK audience.

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I do believe the rose tinted glasses effect definitely makes people feel some eras were better than they were. For example for all the awesomeness of Austin, Kane, Taker and Mankind in 1998 there was the oddities, Nation of

Domination and Marc Mero/Goldust. Same as the squash matches in the 80s and early 90s. People seem to forget all of that because of the main event scene.

I think people do forget a lot of the shit that went on. It's easy, all these years later, to only remember the good stuff or at least to remember the shite in a fond way. There's people who recall 2004 (an awful year in wrestling) being good just because that murderous autistic fella won the world title.

 

Main thing about the attitude era though, they didn't waste as much TV time on absolutely nothing back then. In 2000, if you were getting twenty minutes a week on Smackdown, it was because you were over as fuck or involved in a hot storyline. In 2010, if you were getting twenty minutes a week on Smackdown, it just meant you were on the roster and you weren't injured. It might just be that I was younger, but the big feuds in those days always seemed like they mattered.

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I do believe the rose tinted glasses effect definitely makes people feel some eras were better than they were. For example for all the awesomeness of Austin, Kane, Taker and Mankind in 1998 there was the oddities, Nation of

Domination and Marc Mero/Goldust. Same as the squash matches in the 80s and early 90s. People seem to forget all of that because of the main event scene.

I think people do forget a lot of the shit that went on. It's easy, all these years later, to only remember the good stuff or at least to remember the shite in a fond way. There's people who recall 2004 (an awful year in wrestling) being good just because that murderous autistic fella won the world title.

 

Main thing about the attitude era though, they didn't waste as much TV time on absolutely nothing back then. In 2000, if you were getting twenty minutes a week on Smackdown, it was because you were over as fuck or involved in a hot storyline. In 2010, if you were getting twenty minutes a week on Smackdown, it just meant you were on the roster and you weren't injured. It might just be that I was younger, but the big feuds in those days always seemed like they mattered.

2004 started quite promisingly on the Smackdown side of things, but yeah, as the year got on there was some terrible moments. Personally I couldn't have given a monkeys about the Benoit/HHH feud, the momentum had been building towards a Benoit/Lesnar 'Mania match, so what actually happened was an unwelcome curveball at the time. However, 2004 started strong with Paul Heyman as Smackdown GM and Eddie winning the title. After that there was an initial dip when Kurt Angle became Smackdown GM, but things picked up. The JBL title run was hugely entertaining for me and that honestly carried the year. I loved The Cabinet, and I loved his various feuds, and he played a strong part in the build of John Cena - their title feud was fantastic.

 

On the RAW side of things I actually quite enjoyed the Eugene character, and Evolution were pretty damn interesting. Randy Orton may have tanked as a face, but the rise of Batista was a pretty gripping plot. I think 2004 is actually quite an underrated year in wrestling, given the stars it created it was actually pivotal in the make-up of the WWE roster for years to come.

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Absolutely loved the early brand split era, particularly Smackdown from 2002 till 2004.

 

It really was good wasnt it? for me that time period is about as perfect as a wrestling product can be.

 

Some people refer to it as the Brock Lesnar era or Ruthless Aggression Era, I dare say I prefer that era over the Attitude Era, it was still an edgey product but removed alot of the over top storylines(this is for SD!) because RAW still had stuff like Katie Vick lol, In fact for me SD! was must watch TV everyweek since 1999 upto around 2004.

 

I have to agree with King Pitcos about 2004, WM XX is where I actually signed off watching wrestling, a shitload of big names left and then all of sudden JBL is the guy on SD! and That other chap on RAW, I couldnt buy into any of that.

 

I think the Attitude Era that being 99-00 usually comes out on top because the entire roster was pretty much over, the moment you switched it on you were glued to the TV, compare that to now where you have only a handful of guys over, it just seems piss poor in comparison.

 

The show wasnt just about The Main Event or what random guest would be showing up on Raw.

 

I'd have to give a massive nod to the Monday Night Wars Era namely 97-99, you have two massive wrestling companies putting out great shows, You have a choice of RAW, SD!, Nitro and Thunder, god thinking about it we were spoilt rotten back then, again compared to now where you have an odd good RAW when WWE can be assed, SD! which some people joke is booked by a random computer, and Impact wrestling.

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I'm going to be utterly predictable and say 1996-98 for me. The big two were both producing great characters/entertainment/storyline arcs and a decent amount of great matches too. I even dabbled in EcW due to the Raven/Sandman storyline and the Taz/Sabu stuff, and I thought the Triple Threat were a decent Horsemen clone. Some of the stuff seemed so cutting edge to me - Hogan's turn and the nWo "invasion" seemed so novel, Bret Hart trying to be a hero worldwide while the States hated him, Shawn Michaels transforming into the obnoxious prick we always knew he was inside, the cruisers tearing up Nitro, Macho Man losing his mind, Sunny and to a lesser extent Sable, Owen and DBS rescuing the WWF tag team division, Goldberg, the rise to glory of Disco Inferno.

 

It was just... better than any time since for me.

 

EDIT -

 

I agree with everything Magnum said underneath. Admittedly after last draft, it's not even just a SmackDown problem any more. I really am not interested in seeing Kofi or JoMo wrestle Swagger, Ziggler or McIntyre ever again. And of course, the much-maligned never-ending Mysterio vs Del Rio. Even though the characters are established and the match quality usually decent, it's become as monotonous as when the Harts were beating the Usos every week.

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Main thing about the attitude era though, they didn't waste as much TV time on absolutely nothing back then. In 2000, if you were getting twenty minutes a week on Smackdown, it was because you were over as fuck or involved in a hot storyline. In 2010, if you were getting twenty minutes a week on Smackdown, it just meant you were on the roster and you weren't injured. It might just be that I was younger, but the big feuds in those days always seemed like they mattered.

 

There's no doubt about it, but I still think the latter effect is a consequence of the brand extension. If, say, people got bored of Tazz in 2000, they could just take him off TV for a month or so and stick Raven, Hardcore Holly, Saturn, Regal, Val Venis in his place. That's without taking into consideration all the other midcarders who were on TV every week like Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, X-Pac etc, plus all the tag teamers who could have a decent midcard singles match if necessary.

 

Today, each show seems to have a very limited roster by comparison, limited mobility among the mid/lower carders, and 2hrs to fill every week. The Smackdown midcard almost feels like the Divas division now with seemingly the same 6 or 7 people having the same matches in rotation for months on end.

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