Feud of the year

[Loss]

NWO vs WCW won in the Observer, but I feel like that's too vague, and I'm not sure it's what I would pick anyway. It had some great moments, but the players on the WCW side rotated too much. Sting, Savage, Flair and Arn were all major players in the early days of the angle and fell out of the picture over time. It was a success and I enjoyed it, so I don't mean to downplay it. I just think of a feud as something more concrete.

 

My pick is probably Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue. They had a series of matches which were all great, there was a clear progression from match to match, and the year ended with a nice payoff in perhaps the greatest match of all time.

[Tim Evans]

I'm going to go with Bill Dundee vs Wolfie D. So many twists and turns happened in that feud. PG13 loses a loser leaves town match and comes back under masks. Before that was the great angle with Dundee coming back and screwing with Randy Hales. Of course you have the Jerry Lawler Heel turn and the angle with him writing Cyberpunk Fire a check but needing his real name. I also liked the Flair/Savage feud. But that was more 95 than 96.

[MJH]

It was always going to be WCW vs. nWo at the time. But, as you said, Loss, Misawa/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue had four of the best tag matches of the year, capped of with either the best or second best tag match ever. I can't watch the WCW/nWo stuff now without knowing what happened in the end. By contrast, the AJPW tags work as well as ever.

[jdw]

I'm a fan of the Misawa & Jun vs Kawada & Taue feud, but I'd go with Hogan (and nWo) vs WCW. Match quality wasn't relevant to it, and the angles & mic work might not totally hold up. But it changed the game in US wrestling: WCW became a true rival for #1 via that feud.

 

John

[Loss]

Angle of the year, no question. But feud of the year is where I get stuck.

 

To me, a feud needs to have the same participants from beginning to end. So then it becomes Hogan/Hall/Nash vs ... um ...

 

If the WCW side had been presented stronger and had there been anyone besides Luger who was consistently there from beginning to end, it would be my pick.

 

I just don't like the idea of entities being feud of the year. To me, it should be wrestlers.

[KrisZ]

Flair/Savage needs some love here.

[jdw]

Angle of the year, no question. But feud of the year is where I get stuck.

 

To me, a feud needs to have the same participants from beginning to end. So then it becomes Hogan/Hall/Nash vs ... um ...

 

If the WCW side had been presented stronger and had there been anyone besides Luger who was consistently there from beginning to end, it would be my pick.

 

I just don't like the idea of entities being feud of the year. To me, it should be wrestlers.

I think it's akin to Tenryu vs New Japan in 1992-94. We can try to put it over as WAR vs New Japan, but really it was Tenryu. There were some other short feuds in there (like Muta-Kabuki), while the Liger-Dragon never took off. It's not like Tenryu focused on any one opponnt. We can't even go Tenryu-Hash as it wasn't sustained: it popped up when it needed to pop up, then Tenryu moved on... and game back to it six months later.

 

In a sense, Tenryu was fighting _all_ of New Japan.

 

That's what the nWo was: Hogan & Co. against everyone.

 

One could include Hall & Nash in it, since they played a role. But it really was Hogan driving that steam train.

 

It wasn't even "an" angle. There were a series of angles that ran through the year, in other words a continuing storyline... a feud.

 

I'm the AJPW fan, so I should be arguing for it. But watching the weekly stuff, it just wasn't a feud in the sense of Misawa & Co vs Jumbo & Co or the Four Corners or the Olympians vs the Revolution.

 

John