JaymeFuture Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 So, I'm taping another podcast later this week, and the subject for discussion is looking at the wrestling landscape in 1994, and the good, bad and ugly elements that comprised it, a fun way to do a year in review, and I figure this will be especially good here with the yearbooks breaking down different stuff. The idea being that out of everything that happened on a worldwide basis in this year, what ONE thing epitomises each for you personally (if you had to choose a match, promo, angle, feud, theme or company that summed each up), and why? For example, if we were talking 93, we could say: The Good - Kobashi Vs. Hansen matches The Bad - Hogan plunger raping Bret at Mania IX The Ugly - Big Sky, Charlie Norris, Shockmaster, Equaliser and others stinking up WCW. Apply for 1994, and please go into as much depth on why things were the best or the worst as you'd like. As always I'll read the feedback and credit the fine folks who do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 It's worth talking about Tonya Harding, OJ Simpson and the Singapore canings. All of the promotions were exploiting current events like crazy. It was like the news was tailor made for pro wrestling at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 The Good - WCW before Hogan comes in. They go on a PPV hot streak. Superbrawl IV has Arn Anderson vs. Lord Steven Regal and Vader vs. Flair rematch. Spring Stampede has Regal vs. Pillman and the last version of Flair vs. Steamboat, Slamboree has the Funk vs. Tully legends match. The Bad - WCW about 4 or 5 months after Hogan comes in after he's gobbled up Flair and we get to the point that Starrcade is being headlined by fucking The Butcher aka Brutus Beefcake. The Ugly - The Fake Undertaker. In fact, everything involving Undertaker in 94 from the awful casket business at Royal Rumble right through to the abomination that is the rematch with Yokozuna at Survivor Series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 The Good - I think a *lot* of people became tape traders in '94. The Big Two were probably at their lowest points (WCW had lower points commercially, but there were many, *many* smark fans who found the product utterly depressing once Hogan took over). ECW, for all its faults, was like a hot underground rock band or "Video Nasty" just waiting for some kind of commercial breakthrough, and it epitomized almost everything that was missing in the WWF and WCW. You also had Smoky Mountain having a fine year with a "you've gotta see this" aspect with the debut of the Gangstas and New Jack's crazy interviews, while also appealing to the more old-school fan with more relatable characters. The Super J-Cup was in '94 and was probably the first Japanese tape for many people (myself included, years later). Coupled with the burgeoning online community and you had a "coming-together" of disillusioned fans fed up with shitty mainstream wrestling and looking for something better. The Bad - Big Two wrestling characters were the absolute shits. Vince was picking gimmicks out of a Vocational Guidance Encyclopedia and WCW was just pushing the absolute wrong people, epitomized by Evad Sullivan. I think the only "new" character in either company worth a damn was Mr. Backlund, because despite his over-the-top screaming act he stlll felt like a real human being and not a cartoon character. The Ugly - Some of those venues the WWF was using for television. The "Road to Wrestlemania" special from the legendary Sullivan Community Center in Loch Sheldrake, NY stands out--it looks like an industrial basement. ROH would look at it and say, "show me something better." A true sign of how far the company had fallen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidebottom Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 The Bad - Hogan plunger raping Bret at Mania X That was 1993. Evidently Bret had a great Mania in 1994 with Owen in the opener and closing the show winning the World title in a nice throw back to the year prior. That was a "good" that is strong in my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FedEx227 Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 I think there's far more good around the world in 1994 than bad. Speaking specifically in America, I really enjoyed WWF's main event offerings all year including a perfectly built Owen/Bret half-year long feud, Yokozuna's last run on top and a lot of decent matches on Raw featuring Razor, 1-2-3 Kid, Diesel's rise, HBK's continued rise and more. 1994 WCW, yeah, first half is a lot of fun then Hogan's bros come in and it kind of goes to shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 ^ How much was Undertaker on top in 94 though? I distinctly recall the tapes that year having Taker on the front cover rather than Bret. Taker vs Taker felt like the main event of Summerslam, Taker vs. Yoko is the main event of SS. I think 94 is a major knock on Taker in general as a main event draw, it's just an awful year for him and not just because of the booking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 I thought Summerslam '94 actually drew pretty well by the standards of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 Owen vs. Bret feels like the top feud of the year throughout. The Lesile Nelson stuff is snippets and definitely had some tv time, but Owen vs. Bret were given extended interview time and many different nuances to their feud throughout the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 What sort of fiigures did it pull Charles? And do people tend to attribute the figures to Taker or to Bret? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 I've always read Summerslam used as proof that Undertaker vs Underfaker drew. It did 315,000 buys, up considerably from the year before which got way more mainstream hype with the Lex Express (250,000). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrainfollower Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 Taker did main both Summerslam and Survivor Series. Slam drew particularly well, but Bret-Owen was drawing decent money in a lot of places. It was certainly more successful than what came after it until at least early 96. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chief Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 Taker was gone for almost all of 1994, I can imagine people were pumped for his return. Bret vs Owen was a pretty hot program too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 Looking at the live gate, they did 20,000 in Chicago, not bad at all. Quite surprising to me because I always think of 94 as being real dark ages. I guess the interesting thing would be to look at events headlined by Bret when Taker wasn't around to see if there's a real difference. But okay, I take it back, it's not a knock on Taker. I do think it's some of the worst shit he ever did though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 SummerSlam was also the grand opening of a brand-new downtown arena, which probably drove local interest and helped the live gate somewhat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaymeFuture Posted July 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 The Bad - Hogan plunger raping Bret at Mania X That was 1993. Evidently Bret had a great Mania in 1994 with Owen in the opener and closing the show winning the World title in a nice throw back to the year prior. That was a "good" that is strong in my mind. Yeh it dawned on as soon as I read it back that I missed the I before the X (it was in reference to 93). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steenalized Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 Looking at the live gate, they did 20,000 in Chicago, not bad at all. Quite surprising to me because I always think of 94 as being real dark ages. I guess the interesting thing would be to look at events headlined by Bret when Taker wasn't around to see if there's a real difference. But okay, I take it back, it's not a knock on Taker. I do think it's some of the worst shit he ever did though. Of course this is purely anecdotal evidence from a 20 year old memory, but growing up in Chicago as a 5 year old at the time, I'd say that wrestling was still very popular here. Not Attitude era big and it probably fell out with adults, but wrestling draws well here. Plus it was at a brand new stadium as the United Center opened less than two weeks before, so that had to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 How much did Starrcade 87 kill wrestling in Chicago though? I thought Chicago was considered a dead town for a while after the Road Warriors didn't win the tag titles there. I'd be interested to see a list of shows and gates run in Chicago after 87 to see how long the numbers stayed down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 That's always seemed like a bit of a myth to me. The match was really just thrown out there. It wasn't even hyped that much in the build to Starrcade. Most of the hype for the show was Flair going for number five and Dusty possibly being banned for a few months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 It's usually brought up as the major knock on Dusty as a booker and as a kind of final nail in the coffin of Crockett who went on to have a horrible 88 box-office wise. However, given how much Meltzer hated Dusty as a booker and in general, I wouldn't be surprised if it's significance had been inflated over time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 It was a classic year for All Japan, with the Misawa-Kawada feud reaching full flower and Doc hitting his peak as the top American. In New Japan, Tenryu beat Inoki at the Dome and then blew off the WAR-NJ feud in grand fashion by jobbing to Hashimoto in a great match. It was a sneaky good in-ring year for WCW, with the strong shows in the first half of the year and the Dustin-Stud Stable feud carrying into the fall. Love it or hate it, the Big Egg joshi show on 11/20/94 was quite the spectacle. You had Vader invading UWFI to fun effect. In lucha, the 11/6/94 PPV was a gateway drug for some U.S. fans, whether you think the main event holds up as a classic or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawho5 Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 How are we 20 posts in and 6/3/94 has yet to be mentioned specifically? Super J Cup 94 was pretty fun as well. I need to watch the finals and the semis again to see if they hold up. Didn't watch WCW or WWF at the time. I really want to hit WCW from 1989 on, but that's a massive project and I have other stuff on the table first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 The Good -- Owen vs. Bret, Larry Z vs. Regal and Dustin vs. The Stud Stable, three of my favourite feuds of the 90s. The Bad -- CMLL being in the doldrums while AAA wasted all of Mexico's talent with shitty booking, and the hubris of Big Egg and the decline of Joshi. The Ugly -- Hogan era WCW, Tony and Bobby on commentary and UWF-i, which may well be the 'Hogan era' of shoot style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayfabe1984 Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Let us not forget Art Donovan at the 1994 King of the Ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eduardo James Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Let us not forget Art Donovan at the 1994 King of the Ring. All three rolled into one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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