WWF booking from 1992-1996

[Strummer]

Wow All American was still on the air in 1993! (it lasted till 94) I don't think I ever watched an episode past 1989.

 

did Scotty Levy co host with Gorilla? If so then maybe I caught a few episodes but that might have been them hosting another show. I remember them playing a game of horse. Freaking Raven had suprisingly awesome chemistry with Gorilla!

[Matt D]

It was Todd and Dibiase for a while at the end. It's a lot easier to find 1993 footage than from the few years previous, I'll tell you that. Graham's site doesn't even have results for a lot of those years.

 

http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/allamerican.htm

 

There are a bunch of fun matches in 93:

 

Bigelow vs Backlund, the surreal 2/3 falls match between Tatanka and the Steiners and Doink and Money Inc, 123 Kid vs Martel and Marty vs Martel. A Super random Marty vs Pat Tanaka match.

 

There's probably a ton of goofy Heenan/Lord Alfred footage from 92 too. There is apparently a Razor Ramon vs Gary Jackson match that was both on the 9/12 Superstars and the 9/13 All American, so there seems to be more original content in 93 than 92 but this is all guess work. If there's a better list out there I don't know about someone like me.

 

Apparently there's a Taker vs Shane Douglas match from the 2/3/91 All American that was taped at a Wrestling Challenge taping. It's listed on Graham's site from the 1/8 Wrestling Challenge taping, but not as part of the All American taping. I don't see it aired anywhere else.

 

There aren't a lot of obvious choices for All American matches that didn't air elsewhere on the next few Challenge tapings though.

 

I did see a Koko vs IRS match for Wrestling Spotlight, though.

 

What the hell was that?

 

And at some point in Feb 92 apparently The Natural Disasters & The Nasty Boys vs. The New Foundation/Sgt. Slaugther/Jim Duggan was aired. Anyone ever see this? The idea of Owen teaming with Slaughter is surreal to me.

[cm funk]

I did see a Koko vs IRS match for Wrestling Spotlight, though.

 

What the hell was that?

http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimate...ic;f=1;t=101446

 

I saw that show exactly one time, in I think 1994, when I was spending a few weeks during the summer with relatives in Rhode Island. They had one of those old antenna TVs that would pull in about 5 channels, maybe a couple more if you were persistent enough or depending on the weather/time of day, and this WWF show I'd never seen before popped up on a local UHF on a Saturday afternoon. I only caught the last 15 minutes or so which mostly consisted of local promos for upcoming house shows, and I never saw it air anywhere else again. Even then I got the sense that it was the lowest rung of local WWF tv. I assume it mostly just aired on small north east/new england stations to promote house shows.

[Guest Andrews]

I think 1996 was probably the last year Vince had longterm booking plans, until Rock/Cena. Egos, injuries and WCW seemed to put the kibosh on everything in 1996/97.

Summer of 97 and the seeds of Kane right through to the first match in 1998.

Batista slow face turn on HHH in late 04 through to spring of 05.

Jericho / Trish / Christian love triangle

Brock vs Angle was subtly being built from mid 2002 'till the payoff in Spring 03.

 

They are just a few off the top of my head...

[Matt D]

I did see a Koko vs IRS match for Wrestling Spotlight, though.

 

What the hell was that?

http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimate...ic;f=1;t=101446

 

I saw that show exactly one time, in I think 1994, when I was spending a few weeks during the summer with relatives in Rhode Island. They had one of those old antenna TVs that would pull in about 5 channels, maybe a couple more if you were persistent enough or depending on the weather/time of day, and this WWF show I'd never seen before popped up on a local UHF on a Saturday afternoon. I only caught the last 15 minutes or so which mostly consisted of local promos for upcoming house shows, and I never saw it air anywhere else again. Even then I got the sense that it was the lowest rung of local WWF tv. I assume it mostly just aired on small north east/new england stations to promote house shows.

 

I kind of love the local nature of WCW Pro Chicago, so I'd probably dig it if I could see some of it.

[rzombie1988]

I did see a Koko vs IRS match for Wrestling Spotlight, though.

 

What the hell was that?

http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimate...ic;f=1;t=101446

 

I saw that show exactly one time, in I think 1994, when I was spending a few weeks during the summer with relatives in Rhode Island. They had one of those old antenna TVs that would pull in about 5 channels, maybe a couple more if you were persistent enough or depending on the weather/time of day, and this WWF show I'd never seen before popped up on a local UHF on a Saturday afternoon. I only caught the last 15 minutes or so which mostly consisted of local promos for upcoming house shows, and I never saw it air anywhere else again. Even then I got the sense that it was the lowest rung of local WWF tv. I assume it mostly just aired on small north east/new england stations to promote house shows.

 

I kind of love the local nature of WCW Pro Chicago, so I'd probably dig it if I could see some of it.

 

There's very little of Wrestling Spotlight available. Someone taped the first run parts of the show from 1990-1991, though it's not even near half-complete. There's a few episodes floating around at the end of 87 into 88 but it's all matches shown from other shows with a segment in between at times. I know someone will wonder why so little exists but just think, how many people record the WWE Experience or AM Raw each week?

[Matt D]

Anyone with 94 observers or a knowledge of this stuff:

 

There's a surreal episode of Raw in early February (the second of a pair of tapings) with Bastion Booger announcing with Vince, where they set up Jannetty/Ramon vs Quebecers as the second show of the next tapings.

 

Basically, it's a pretty weird segway/interface/transition between feuds.

 

-Marty and 1-2-3 Kid had been feuding off and on with Johnny Polo/Quebecers due to Polo's bragging. It started with a Jannetty vs Polo match on Raw where Levy hilariously worked an action-packed match instead of a cowardly manager match and peaked with the Kid/Jannetty title win on the 1st anniversary show (which was then followed by a great Owen/Bret interview where Owen was really pissy as they had previously had the title shot at the Rumble). Quebecers won the belts back a week later at MSG but they were still going to run a Kid vs Polo match post-rumble. Kid ended up out for a few weeks with an injury (which took him out of the Rumble too).

-IRS had been feuding with Razor Ramon (and had repossessed his gold chains). Michaels, around a mini feud with 1-2-3 Kid, had made a pretty impressive attack on Razor at the end of 1993 (hitting a Razor's edge on the floor) and was coming out with his own IC title. Ramon defeated IRS at the Rumble in a restarted match after IRS got the fake fall due to Michaels interference.

-Post Rumble, IRS had been announcing during a Raw with the 1-2-3 Kid and during a Jannetty vs Johnny Polo match, Kid steals the chains back and Jannetty gets into it with IRS. Ramon/Jannetty/Kid enter into an alliance of sorts.

-The next week (second show of the taping) it's IRS vs Jannetty. Quebecers come out. Beat on Marty and get sent out. Polo comes out. Ramon comes out. Quebecers come back out and get in Ramon's face. Polo trips Jannetty to lead to IRS winning. Ramon gives Jacques the Razor's Edge post match and they announce that in two weeks it will be Jannetty/Ramon vs Quebecers for the belt.

-Marty steals a bus in Europe and gets fired.

-Two Weeks Later (the week after is the dog show) they run Ramon/1-2-3 Kid vs Quebecers on Raw and Michaels interferes, shifting Ramon's attention on him solely leading into the ladder match at Mania.

-Quebecers move on to Men on a Mission for Mania.

-1-2-3 Kid ends up in the destined-to-be-cancelled 10 man tag.

 

My question is this: If Jannetty hadn't been fired, does anyone know if the initial plans were different?

 

Even if not, i think it was a pretty interesting swath of booking for WWF, showing how they dealt with weekly tv demands, attempts to pop ratings/house show attendence, balancing ppv feuds and matches with their weekly stuff, and switching in and out on the fly due to injuries/firings.

[Bigelow34]

I did see a Koko vs IRS match for Wrestling Spotlight, though.

 

What the hell was that?

http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimate...ic;f=1;t=101446

 

I saw that show exactly one time, in I think 1994, when I was spending a few weeks during the summer with relatives in Rhode Island. They had one of those old antenna TVs that would pull in about 5 channels, maybe a couple more if you were persistent enough or depending on the weather/time of day, and this WWF show I'd never seen before popped up on a local UHF on a Saturday afternoon. I only caught the last 15 minutes or so which mostly consisted of local promos for upcoming house shows, and I never saw it air anywhere else again. Even then I got the sense that it was the lowest rung of local WWF tv. I assume it mostly just aired on small north east/new england stations to promote house shows.

 

I am in RI and for so long I thought Spotlight was a figment of my imagination until years and years later when I confirmed it on Graham's site. I was relieved.

 

This thread is pretty awesome.