The Glory of 1991

[The Reverend]

We may have done this before, but hey, when is wrestling original anyway? Following on from another thread has got me all in a retro look at 1991, particularly the WWF of that year. A few years afterwards it seemed to pale in comparison to 1992, but looking back now it really was a glorious time. 

There's a number of stars I've forgotten popped up - Shane Douglas being one, and also the under utilised Dustin Rhodes. I think he could've had some good matches that year if he'd stuck around a bit longer. There's also some strange anglers - Damian getting squished by Earthquake and the Brutus 'Masked Man' Beefcake angle. 

So over to you for your recollections, and particularly any forgotten/rare gems. There's a few from me if you haven't yet seen them that are nice little oddities: 

The Hart Foundation vs LOD and also The Rockers vs LOD. There's also a forgotten (by me anyway) nice little match from the sole SNME that year of Bret Hart vs Dibiase. 

[davertfnewman]

It wasn't important anywhere else but here, however this was definitely a case of the first strike while the iron is hot:

 

[Chili]

The Sid/El Diablo angle is remembered but probably not as much as all the other notables in 1991. But it's a classic, also love that crowd being into Sid. 1991 was when I started watching, just before Summerslam 1991 so it did Hulk Hogan (as a kid I liked him, but he was never a proper favourite) no favours when Sid turned up looking cooler and more of an arse kicker than Hogan, with that AMAZING "I'm gonna kick your fucking head in" theme music. Great angle, always wandered if the Duggan save at the end was ever meant to be for Ultimate Warrior originally. I'm such a mark for that Sid pose where he drops to one knee. 

Great year, plus Herb Abrams put on UWF Beach Brawl in June. Lovely stuff.

 

Edited August 10 by Chili

[AshC]

There are some quite traumatic angles in 1991, eh?!

Hulk taking a fireball. Damian getting squashed. Warrior getting locked in the coffin. Liz finding a snake in the gift box. Bret getting electrocuted. Savage being bitten by the python...

I don't know if I could remember that many angles from the last 20 years, combined.

Edited August 10 by AshC

[tiger_rick]

The Mania 7 opener is my most underrated match of all the times. I bloody love it. It's so good and is even better on every rematch. The Rockers were the best team in the division by that point. 2 of the best 3 workers in the whole company if we're honest. And Haku and Barbar are such a delight. Individually, they're boring as fuck but, together, I love them. 

The Rumble match and this one would make the top 5 in my list of best openers ever. The SummerSlam one would also be high on my list of favourite openers. 

Speaking of the Rumble, it doesn't matter how many poundshop versions of it they roll out, that Virgil/Dibiase angle will always be unmatched. Genuinely one of the greatest pops in company history. For one night only, Virg was treated like prime Stone Cold.

WWF Magazine is the other crucial mention for me. I read way more about the WWF than I watched for a long time. The WWF mag, particularly the covers, are a huge nostalgia hit for me.

What a year. Imagine they don't exploit a war and Hogan owns up on Arsenio Hall? Boom extended.

[alanchiz]

I started watching in December 91, so just got the very tail end.

When I would look back at 91 videos though, it seems strange to me ho many things never really paid off.
I remember in the playground people talking about the Undertaker locking the warrior in a casket, that seemed a big storyline, but outside house shows I dont think it had a payoff?
Same with Ric Flairs big debut and wanting to put his belt up against Hogan's. I can understand they got cold feet for Wrestlemania, but surely they could have had a high profile match somewhere else (Instead of having the rumble for the vacant title, just have Flair win the belt due to Sid interference?)
Same with Macho Man/Jake. Massive feud that didnt go anywhere really. I know they had the big Tuesday in Texas match, but that was continuing the feud, even at the Rumble Savage was still chasing Jake around.
I know there were obviously fewer PPVs then, but it just seems strange to build up these top feuds with no real plan to end them on TV.
Was Bobby Heenan/Big Boss Man even paid off on TV?

[Chili]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

The Mania 7 opener is my most underrated match of all the times. I bloody love it. It's so good and is even better on every rematch. The Rockers were the best team in the division by that point. 2 of the best 3 workers in the whole company if we're honest. And Haku and Barbar are such a delight. Individually, they're boring as fuck but, together, I love them. 

The Rumble match and this one would make the top 5 in my list of best openers ever. The SummerSlam one would also be high on my list of favourite openers. 

Speaking of the Rumble, it doesn't matter how many poundshop versions of it they roll out, that Virgil/Dibiase angle will always be unmatched. Genuinely one of the greatest pops in company history. For one night only, Virg was treated like prime Stone Cold.

WWF Magazine is the other crucial mention for me. I read way more about the WWF than I watched for a long time. The WWF mag, particularly the covers, are a huge nostalgia hit for me.

What a year. Imagine they don't exploit a war and Hogan owns up on Arsenio Hall? Boom extended.

The spot from Rockers/Barbar & Haku where Rockers hip toss and double elbow Haku, double kip up and then both get absolutely leathered by Barbarian with a double clothesline as Shawn & Marty do that inside out flip bump in perfect sync os one of my favourite sequences ever. It's so visually satisfying especially the OOOO from the crowd when Barbarian clatters them. It's a fantastic match. The Rockers are great, but the Faces of Fear absolutely earned their dinner in that one, they're great bases and foils for all The Rockers spots.

[tiger_rick]

2 hours ago, alanchiz said:

Was Bobby Heenan/Big Boss Man even paid off on TV?

They had house show matches, at least one of them is on a home video release. The TV element of the feud was Bossman running through the family though, beating Barbar at the Rumble and Perfect at Mania. I dunno.if it would have gone on but Heenan was done so it couldn't and had no real reason to.

Taker/Berzerker was the biggest angle that didn't lead to much. Taker and Warrior were drawing great houses off their angles.

[wandshogun09]

5 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

It wasn't important anywhere else but here, however this was definitely a case of the first strike while the iron is hot:

 

“Jimmy Snooker”

2 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

WWF Magazine is the other crucial mention for me. I read way more about the WWF than I watched for a long time. The WWF mag, particularly the covers, are a huge nostalgia hit for me.

What a year. Imagine they don't exploit a war and Hogan owns up on Arsenio Hall? Boom extended.

I honestly think WWF Magazine was more responsible for me learning to read than school ever was. I couldn’t get enough of that stuff. Every word, cover to cover. So many of the PPVs from that time I actually experienced through the PPV reports in the magazine first. Just looking at the pictures and imagining what the matches were like. Then when I’d get one of those tapes or see it in Blockbuster or whatever, it was magic watching those pictures come to life. Mad to think looking back now. A kid who loves wrestling now has access to everything immediately, and there was me in the early 90s studying and scrutinising pictures of matches that happened months ago in the magazine, hoping my old man might see the tape in a shop one day on his travels and bring it home. 

[SpykeDudlei1]

Late 1989 to 1992 is my peak favourite time for watching WWF (plus whatever WCW I could get my eyes on) with 1991 being a particular standout and almost everything mentioned above is a big reason why.

WWF Magazine was a big go-to every month from the first one I ever bought (August 1990 - UK edition as it in a diagonal banner in the top corner) - pink cover with Hart Foundation on the front.

I actually found it in an Asda in Morecambe as my mam and dad had stopped there for supplies before we got to Pontins holiday camp for a week’s holiday. When I got back home, the local newsagents at the end of my road was the first place I visited to get it on monthly order.

And I’m 100% with @tiger_rick, the Rumble 91 and Mania 7 openers are still on my repeat watchlist matches all these years later.

Simpler times being a fan (aside from the merciless ridicule from kids at school if they didn’t like it and found out you did).

Edited August 10 by SpykeDudlei1

[Chico Torres]

I’ve talked about 1991 at length in a number of other threads but needless to say I consider it the peak of what the WWF was supposed to be, full on cartoon with outrageous characters, superheroes, supervillains, insane heat angles even by their standards, gimmicks galore, great TV and PPVs, bursting with colour. And obviously associated with the time it became huge here, proper over the top American nonsense and the WWF as a fully formed entity.

Obviously fully agree with the greatness of WWF magazine too.

I love WCW in 1991 too, just as much as WWF. It’s the perfect contrast to WWF who had the slick production and featured on Sky with The Simpsons as one of their flagship shows, while WCW was for the common man shunted around different timeslots inconsistently on free TV. Darker, grittier, had the proper lad wrestlers like Arn and Barry and Bobby Eaton and Dustin Rhodes and Steiners and Cactus and their like, had a bunch of silly gimmicks that were never quite as polished as the WWF versions. Everything was perfectly done in WWF, they rarely made mistakes whereas WCW was chaotic. And the good thing about WCW was that they weren’t afraid to get the blade out every now and then and have brawls in a way that didn’t happen in the WWF, and the actual wrestling itself was something I clearly recognized as better than their rivals.

As far as the big shows go, I think Wrestle War 1991 is one of the greatest shows of all time, Superbrawl 1 is great and I love Halloween Havoc for the incredible Chamber of Horrors, the Halloween Phantom unmasking as Rick Rude and kicking off one of the greatest promotional runs ever with the Dangerous Alliance, and the Total Package Lex Luger as the arrogant champ with this attitude adjustment.

It was great having two clearly distinct promotions and one of them had amazing shit like this

[The King of Old School]

8 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

I love WCW in 1991 too, just as much as WWF. It’s the perfect contrast to WWF who had the slick production and featured on Sky with The Simpsons as one of their flagship shows, while WCW was for the common man shunted around different timeslots inconsistently on free TV.

My mind might be playing tricks on me in my old age, but I'm sure WCW was on Sky too around this period.

A show called "WCW Power Hour" ?

[davertfnewman]

Yeah, Power Hour or whichever one was a bit of a repackaging of Worldwide.

[Snitsky's back acne]

2 hours ago, The King of Old School said:

My mind might be playing tricks on me in my old age, but I'm sure WCW was on Sky too around this period.

A show called "WCW Power Hour" ?

Was it Sky or ITV Late Night?

My family didn't get Sky until about 93 so you could be right but I seem to remember WWF being on Sky Movies and WCW being on ITV Late Night around 1991-1992.

[davertfnewman]

Bit of this, bit of that: WWF was on Sky One, Eurosport, Sky Movies+, Sky Sports, while WCW was on Sky Sports for a bit as well as being on regional ITV until the spring of 1992 on a Saturday afternoon.