Wrestling before or after 1996?

[SirEdger]

Perhaps the eventual departures of The Elite from ROH could be a blessing in disguise for Ring of Honor; time to give the opportunity to new people on the card; find new talent to breed and develop under their umbrella. I'll admit myself that I almost watch robotically ROH lately and there are even times I skip watching altogether.

[War is Raw]

Turned out it was ROH's demise.

[SirEdger]

Yeah, that post of mine didn't age well at all.

[BigBadMick]

Thought I'd bump this in light of the PWO appreciation going on now - my very first post.

 

The original question posed - if you could only watch wrestling from before or after 31st December 1996, which would you choose? 

 

Pre 1996 was the overwhelming favourite when I first asked  - always interested to see how things stand now.

[Matt D]

Right now I’d only watch 50s French Catch

[Ricky Jackson]

Nothing has changed for me, still overwhelmingly pre-1996 

That said, I'm much more into modern stuff than I was in 2014. I'm a big fan of NWA, AEW, check out New Japan big matches from time to time, and was a weekly viewer of NXT from 2015 until around the start of the Wednesday War when I finally burned out on the epic match main event scene. My heart is still with the old stuff though

[SirEdger]

I'm still more of a nostalgic guy so I'll tend to favor the pre-1996 stuff, from any promotion. But I still don't mind revisit more recent matches.

[Loss]

I'd still probably go pre-1996 if I absolutely had to make that choice, but I'd be more sad about it than I would have been in the past. In a vacuum, it's pretty likely that there have been more great matches that have made tape since 1996, but I do still care about other things too, and I still don't think there's enough variety in wrestling post-1996.

[fxnj]

I'd say the pre-96 choice has actually been made easier over time. It's going to hurt a lot losing late-90's AJPW, RINGS, BattlArts, and 2000's WWE, but not nearly as much as it hurts losing the rest of Baba's AJPW, 80's NJPW, UWF, WoS, 50's US, French catch, etc. I understand some people here dig AEW and NJPW, but I consistently find myself far more excited about the prospect of newer matches pre-96 being discovered than I do by any wrestling taking place in current day. I find older matches to be both far more in line with my tastes and much more rewarding to revisit than most new shit. That Bert Royal vs. Tony Oliver French match that just showed up, for example, blows away anything from the 2010's for me.

[Slasher]

There's something tragic about choosing to box yourself into an era that is long gone. I'd take the future any time on any day. 

[Laz]

I'm sticking with post-1996 because my favorite stuff is still from the late 90s to the late 00s. I don't like what most wrestling has become, but there are enough signs that the pendulum is going to swing back in the region I enjoy most (at least on a cult, niche-within-a-niche sense) that I'll keep looking ahead.

[El-P]

Funny how my answer is gonna be the polar opposite of what it was. As of this day, I'd be ok if I never watch anything from the past, ever. I'm only interested in the now, and tomorrow.

[Matt D]

58 minutes ago, El-P said:

Funny how my answer is gonna be the polar opposite of what it was. As of this day, I'd be ok if I never watch anything from the past, ever. I'm only interested in the now, and tomorrow.

Or 50s French wrestling so you can help us work out all the cultural bits?

[El-P]

3 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Or 50s French wrestling so you can help us work out all the cultural bits?

Dan is doing an AWESOME job with this BTW. I barely have seen anything from that period. Yeah, maybe that one because basically that was the pro-wrestling my father used to watch for a while. I recognize some of the names. Yeah, maybe one day, but that's very specific. That's the one Roland Barthes wrote about, too.

[Matt D]

2 minutes ago, El-P said:

Dan is doing an AWESOME job with this BTW. I barely have seen anything from that period. Yeah, maybe that one because basically that was the pro-wrestling my father used to watch for a while. I recognize some of the names. Yeah, maybe one day, but that's very specific. That's the one Roland Barthes wrote about, too.

He is. I'm glad you're reading along to his thoughts at least.

[cactus]

It's got to be post-96 for me. I get a lot of enjoyment watching matches from before I was born or super young, but there's nothing like watching a Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania as it happens. I have a lot of nostalgia for anything WWE 1999-2004. I'd also miss out on the incredible first few years of NOAH and ROH.  

[Dav'oh]

On 4/17/2020 at 7:58 AM, El-P said:

I'm only interested in the now, and tomorrow.

I want to know what happens next. I have to turn the next page in this book I've been reading since I was nine.

Initially, I thought this was an easy question - pre 1996, for sure. But then I realised that as much as I love history, wrestling to me has always really been about what happens next. What happens next in a match or a sequence within a match; what happens next in an angle or feud; what happens in the next match or show; what happens next to AEW or NJPW or WWE in covid times; what happens next to Ric Flair - that sort of stuff.  So, yeah, I can say that I prefer the earlier product of my youth (and stuff that predates me), but I'm compelled to follow it today and every tomorrow, 'cos I wanna know whodunnit, so to speak.

[BigBadMick]

Bumping this - I think it's always nice to get an occasional gauge on what the mood is like here.

I'm firmly entrenched in 1992 WCW at the minute. As for contemporary viewing,  I watch Roman's segments and matches on Smackdown, and Danielson and Punk in AEW.

[Steenalized]

It's still interesting and tough. Seven years ago, I opted for post-96. I subsequently burned out of wrestling fandom in 2016 (for like the fourth time in my life, it'll happen again) and have not really had interest in watching anything from the attitude era on. When I have watched things in the intervening years, it's been pre-96, mostly pre-90, so that pushes me towards saying "pre-96". That said, my wrestling fandom is still largely social, I want to talk about matches with people or read/hear other people talk about matches. Watching current and future wrestling is more conducive to that. Even more so since the podcasts I listened to on old wrestling aren't ongoing anymore or I haven't found replacements. Final answer... 96 and before.

[strobogo]

I have to go before 1996 not because I necessarily think the wrestling is better or worse than after, but because there's so much fucking terrible programming post 1996 (particularly 1999 on) and so much of it is from one company whereas there's so much shit from so many promotions prior to 1996 and I have built in nostalgia for much of it that just doesn't exist for me in the past 20 years or so. 

[Mad Dog]

Post 1996. I love the 80s and early 90s stuff but I have been having a blast with modern wrestling the last decade. There's just so much good stuff out there suited to whatever taste you might have in this decade. Ring of Honor, Chikara, AEW, PWG, CWF Mid-Altantic, CWF Hollywood, Powerrr, NWA Anarchy, OVW, Kaiju Big Battle, New Japan, DDT, DragonGate, Stardom, Ice Ribbon, Tokyo Joshi Pro and Sendai Girls. That's not even getting into lucha or promotions like GCW or AIW that I just haven't watched a ton of.

[MrMoonlight]

I'd choose PRE '96 by a fair margin. To me Joshi peaked before,, puro peaked before, US peaked before and I'd have actual european wrestling (both French and British). I don't really know about Lucha though but it feels like the stuff I would like the most would be from the 80's and early 90's.

It's pretty crazy to think that but the only way I'd choose post 96 is to think that eventually, after some years, the amount of great stuff will be at least even at some point. But to be honest, the current products feel less organic and more repetitive so I would not cut myself from what is likely to remain the highest points of most of the styles in my book and the stuff with the highest rplay value to me.