Favourite Year in Wrestling History

[EdgarTheSlouch]

1995 - for many reasons

 

First of all staying up to watch the the Rumble despite the fact I had school the next day. Trying to contain my excitement whilst not waking my parents. Yet still waking up at 6 am to do my paper round whilst still reading stuff like this

 

 

Reading about the Bulldogs heel turn in Power Slam but not being able to see it as Raw only started on Sky a month later.

 

Occasionaly buying ECW/FMW from Glen Radford and shocking the hell out of my schoolmates with it

 

Great times

[Jimmy Boy]

1997! Fucking brilliant year! Hart foundation, stone cold, nwo! I loved my Friday nights, banished to the kitchen cos everyone else hated wrestling, flicking between raw and nitro!

[TapOut Tapes]

Off topic but, that picture of Bulldog from the magazine was used by All Star for his cancelled UK tour in 2001, I just assumed thats what he looked like around that time?

[Jimmy Boy]

1995 - for many reasons

 

First of all staying up to watch the the Rumble despite the fact I had school the next day. Trying to contain my excitement whilst not waking my parents. Yet still waking up at 6 am to do my paper round whilst still reading stuff like this

 

 

Reading about the Bulldogs heel turn in Power Slam but not being able to see it as Raw only started on Sky a month later.

 

Occasionaly buying ECW/FMW from Glen Radford and shocking the hell out of my schoolmates with it

 

Great times

 

I used to get tapes off that guy! Wonder if he is still trading lol

[Bellenda Carlisle]

My favourite year is 2002 without a doubt,

 

The rise of Brock Lesnar, I instantly bought into him and he was my favourite thing in wrestling for his whole first run. The American Badass Undertaker, it was great seeing Taker get a second wind and do promos and stuff in a different less occult style. Kurt Angle, my all time favourite wrestler was still on top and working great matches and the return of another legend Shawn Michaels starting a second run noone expected to be so great.

Amazing year, also my favourite match ever Brock vs Undertaker (the Hell in a Cell, not the no contest from the month before obviously) happened that year.

[Mr. Levity 84]

I can't decide between 1996 or 1997.

 

I first started watching WWE in 1996, and the Iron Man Match at Wrestlemania XII captivated me. I'd never seen anything like 'Wrestling' before, and I was instantly hooked. Looking back, I still can't believe the first match I saw was the Iron Man. What a strange bout to get me addicted to wrestling ... I'll be the first to admit that although it's still my favourite ever match (partly due to nostalgia), it was a bit slow going until the last 20 minutes or so. Also in 1996, you had the great King of the Ring moment with Austin, and HBK's fantastic title reign and defenses against Bulldog, Mankind, Vader and others. Finally, the Undertaker vs. Mankind feud was compelling viewing, and Austin vs. Bret at Survivor Series was a classic.

 

1997's Canadian Stampede was a great PPV, and the whole Hart Foundation vs. USA storyline was amazing. Wrestlemania, while poor for the most part, had *that* match pitting Austin against Hart, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest bouts in the history of Pro-Wrestling. Undertaker's title reign was good, and Shawn Michaels was hilarious throughout most of the year. Owen vs. Bulldog for the European Title was also great.

[NEWM]

1995. Yeah fuck you. I remembered posting this in a Raw thread, so here it is.

 

I don't think anyone's posted anything from 1995 yet.

 

1995 was class on toast. Somebody mentioned the Raw main event that lead to HBK, Diesel and Taker getting destroyed by all the major heels. A fantastic match with a brilliant end sequence tying in all the big angles at the time.

 

In fact, Michaels was in the form of his life at this point, so if he was on the show, you were getting a great match at least. Here's some stuff from 95 that sticks out to me without any major thought whatsoever.

 

Sid "turns heel"

Okay, so they treat him like the biggest face in the world when it happened, but Sid murdering Michaels during the ads was a lovely idea, with the viewer coming back to see the previously mouthy Michaels dead and flat on his face. Until Big Daddy Cool made the save, the fans didn't clock that Sid was the baddie, but upon his heroic return, Michaels was suddenly the top face in the industry. Great segment.

 

Shawn is dead

It's HBK on his arse again, but it's so bad that Lawler and Vince are off headsets and shitting themselves. Even Cornette's waving Owen off. This angle has lost a lot of its shine from the millions of reruns with other people, but the original was brilliant. Centred in the reality of the kicking Michaels took from the 14,563 marines as Bulldog and Kid shat themselves in the car, it was believable and expertly performed by the best drama guy they have. He was wearing black gloves in this segment too, because if you weren't, you were getting your fucking head kicked in...

 

Diesel slams the suits

...because the real Big Daddy Cool was back, and not giving a fuck! One of the first to dabble effectively with the tweener role, talking to Vince on air as his gaffer and not just the announcer, and shoulder-barging stagehands because he good, Nash cut the work-shoot promo of his life the night after his title loss to Bret, insisting that it was time to stop being such a soft cunt. The coolest guy on the show made himself even cooler, and was instantly about three times more relevant a character than everybody else on the show.

 

 

Sick to the back teeth of the Hitman!

Nah, only kidding, that was shite.

 

Other things that were ace about 1995 Raw:

 

- The debut of the R A W set. I think.

- Raw on the Roof! My favourite Raw credit sequence. A big roster of colourful-outfitted weirdos mixing with four or five of the greatest talents in the history of the industry, a fucking massive inflatable Undertaker for some reason, a battle royal set to music, and all on the roof of Titan Tower! Where's this kind of daft shite nowadays?

- Bret Hart vs every daft cunt going, and it all being brilliant. Backlund, Lawler, Hakushi, Yankem, Jean-Pierre Lafite, he'd get into all sorts of silliness and nearly all of it yielded some decent matches or segments.

- The Bulldog's heel turn. Mid 90s WWF turns were my favourite turns. Turns were amazing around that time, maybe Vince acting like the apocalypse was upon us on the headset made the difference, I dunno. The 123 Kid too. The fucking little bellend.

 

1995 was the nuts.

 

1997 was great too (for the collective awesome from both major companies), and 2010 (creeping into 2011 with fucking DIESEL in the Rumble) was brilliant. The epic January 4th experience, the inflated yet entertaining collapse of TNA as we knew it as it began morphing into what it is today, the phenomenal few months of TV building up to Mania, the last of Batista, Nexus, The Miz cashing in (yeah yeah) and loads more. 2010 will age brilliantly, you watch.