goodhelmet Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 I am resurrecting an old topic because there are several new "regulars" who may not have participated in threads similar to this one in the past. For me... All Japan (1990-97) --- For me, this promotion single handedly made me interested in wrestling again when I was bout to give up on it for good. In late 99- early 2000, I was fed up with both WWF and WCW and really didn't have the love for wrestling that I once did. I get on the net, start seeking out recommended shows, read up on the history adn become an instant convert. Instead of putting my money into WWF PPVs, I star tpurchasing All Japan tapes adn become obsessed with wrestling all over again. Mid South 1984-86 --- I loved watching UWF as a kid and attended a show before its demise. When I picked up Barnett's Mid South set, I not only revisted my youth but found a new appreciation for guys like Butch Reed, Jim Duggan and Dick Murdoch... guys I never paid much attention to before. WCW 1996-97 --- I had stopped watching wrestling fo about 6 years when I turned on an episode of Nitro, saw these guys dressed in black t-shirts coming out to this catchy as hell theme song, talking shit... and is that Hulk Hogan, WTF? The nWo got old quick but by that time, I had watched enough Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio matches to be hooked... and Dean Malenko. I loved Dean Malenko. To see how the company pissed away a good thing is still a bitter pill to swallow. WWF 1997 --- This is almost entirely due to one poster... Some Guy. He converted nearly every episode of RAW for me from 1997 and this was some of the greatest episodic TV from an American company I have ever seen. I watched it live in 1997 but I was much more interested in WCW at the time. When I watched 40 episodes of RAW back to back to back, it took on a whole new meaning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dangerous A Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 New Japan 1991-1996 Starting from the 1991 G-1 Climax all the way through and climaxing with the NJPW vs UWFi feud, I was loving me some NJPW. The junior work as well as heavies was just excellent during this period and Choshu booking wasn't as selfish as he is now. (even booking himself to win 96 G-1 is forgiveable) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 NWA 1989 Terry Funk's heel run might be my favorite. It just shows you how good Flair was that he could turn a forgotten past his prime legend into the biggest heel in the company in a matter of 5 seconds. On top of that you got Sting/Muta and Flair/Steamboat. WWF 1988-1992 The wrestling wasn't so hot but nostalgia does a lot. WCW 1996-1998 Cruiserweight action, the nWo and Chris Jericho's heel run. This was the era that turned me into a hardcore wrestling fan and I doubt that any will ever entertain me in the same way again. WCW 2001 The cruiserweight division returns and the Mag 7 storyline. WCW was already dead but they really had some good storylines going on and there was some great talent like Shane Helms, O'Haire and Jett starting to climb the card. WWF 2000 The only year that McMahon really got it as far as running a wrestling company. Just so much talent on the rise. It saddens me to think none of the up and comers ever got a shot. New Japan 1991-1995 The big three were still capable of great things and you had some great gaijen in the Steiners, Benoit and Eddie hanging around. The G-1 Climax Final in 95 is when New Japan started to go downhill as Mutoh stopped giving a shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World's Worst Man Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 You brought up All Japan, so I won't mention that. WCW ~1991-1997 I really liked WCW in the early 90's. You had Vader running around killing guys, MVC and the Steiners tearing up the tag division, Liger having memorable matches with Pillman and a bunch of fun angles/stables, like the Dangerous Alliance feuding with various people. Then in 1995, the Macho vs. Flair feud was really good. This one doesn't get the credit that it's due, but this is what started WCW's turn around, and then obviously the NWO took it to another level. 1996-1997 everyone knows, the NWO at it's peak, with fantastic junior matches on the undercards. Just an all around great promotion at this point. ROH April 2004-December 2004 Probably the best run of high quality matches that's been seen since the mid-late 90's. The shows that didn't have MOTYCs usually had multiple good-very good matches, and then of course you had the 5 or 6 super strong MOTYCs. Just an unebelievable string of wrestling, with Samoa Joe in particular really maturing into a legitimately great worker. Dangerous A already mentioned New Japan, so I won't say anything more about that other than it was really, really friggen good. All around, they were better than All Japan, even if AJPW's best was better than NJPW's best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted October 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 By all means, bring up All Japan!!! I just gave my reasons for why it remains one of my favoritwes. We each have unique experiences in that regard. Hell, I didn't even touch on the match quality! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 World Class 1985-1988 This is what got me into wrestling, the Von Erichs-Freebirds feud was one of the hottest in wrestling. It's even more amazing when you consider almost everyone in the promotion was coked out of their minds the entire run. UWF 1986-1987 I got into this when World Class was starting to run out of gas. Bill Watts' booking with talent that never really performed at the level they did here anywhere else. Except for that guy with the painted face who was Eddie Gilbert's bodyguard. I hear he was pretty good later on. NWA 1989-1990 For obvious reasons, but even the undercard was better than what WWF was offering for main events. WWF 1997-1999 The last time WWF TV was truly Must See TV. Between Austin and DX, you really didn't know what to expect each week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World's Worst Man Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 By all means, bring up All Japan!!! I just gave my reasons for why it remains one of my favoritwes. We each have unique experiences in that regard. Hell, I didn't even touch on the match quality!Well, All Japan is an interesting story for me. It's kind goes back a ways too. I was basically a nice little WWF mark back in 1998 or so. I really liked WCW too. Then I started wanting something more out of wrestling. And to be honest, at that point I wanted to see more moves and bigger spots. So what was the next logical step? ECW! Yes, I became a big ECW fan, and that never really changed, other than I became more "realistic" about the product as years went on. So after a year or so of ECW love, I started getting around in the wrestling community more, and was hearing about Japanese pro wrestling. I remembered seeing clips of it on WCW in the early 90's and realized that those promotions also had moves and spots I'd never seen before. So I started getting the standard starter stuff, J-Cup's and the big AJPW triple crown matches. This was when I first started to become a workrate fan, although the problem was that I thought all good wrestling was done in the slow build -> tons of near falls style (since that was the first "high quality wrestling" that I was really exposed to). This unfortunately led me to not appreciate other styles of wrestling nearly enough, but I was 15 at the time, so I have a good excuse Then I basically stopped watching wrestling for 3 and a half years, and then came back with a new perspective and a new appreciation for every style of wrestling. So originally, the main reason I liked AJPW was for all the big nearfalls and crowd heat at the end of the match. But now, I appreciate the smaller things, like struggling for moves, the selling, learned spots, playing off of past matches, and just general storytelling. I realized that the nearfalls and big moves themselves didn't make the match better, it was how they were built to and how they were worked into the match that counted. And I've yet to see any matches that combine all the elements of a good pro wrestling match, that were better than a certain handful of matches that AJPW put on in the 90's. Huzzah! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resident Evil Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 STAMPEDE 1979 to probably sometime when DK turned face though I'm not quite sure Yes, it's clipped like anything and there's not much footage of it but I don't think there's anything I enjoy watching more and it's almost all because of one man. The Dynamite Kid. Heel Dynamite in Stampede was amazing on so many levels. Wrestling never feels more real to me than when DK is in there. The passion and the innovation were unmatched. Than you had the rest of the cast along with all the imports they'd bring in. Some of the roughest wrestling you'll ever see but not stiff in the normal way we think of stiffness. It didn't come off as contrived stiffness. It just felt like what wrestling would be like if two tough Canadian wrestlers used to the agonising cold and windshield would happan to wrestle. AJW/JWP 90s The charactors, the wrestling, the emotion, the intensity, the moveset. AJPW 90s What more needs to be said? Really a lot of it comes off as long grueling boxing fights except it's done wresting style. That's what I love. Kobashi vs Misawa 1/20/97. That's enough reason there. Kobashi was the guy who got me interested in AJPW. You could just feel the passion emenating from his presence on the screen into the living room. It was contagious and I have never looked back NJPW Early 1980s to 1997 thereabouts I can't pinpoint a time here where I enjoyed the product the most. The junior division was almost always strong wether it was Fujinami, DK, Tiger Mask, Cobra, Koboyashi, Takada, Hase, Owen, Yamada/Lyger, Sano, Pegasus Kid or Ohtani. Watching the history of the New Japan junior heavys is pure awesomeness. WCW Late 95 to 97 thereabouts When everything seemed to be going "right". The angles were entertaining and the wrestling in the undercard was so much fun with all the junior action WWF -- The time when Bret Hart was on top and feuding with Austin and Michaels. Bret was so the man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sass Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 All Japan 1989 to 1995: Jumbo & Co. vs. Tenryu & Co., Misawa & Co. vs. Jumbo & Co., and Misawa & Co. vs. Kawada & Co. are some of the best feuds and story telling I've ever seen done in wrestling. When Kobashi, Akiyama and Omori couldn't handle running with the ball, along with the head-drop-a-thon nonsense building up, the wonderful succession of great story telling ended in AJ. Giant Baba is one of *the* best bookers of all-time. I thought it was such a damn shame him and Choshu didn't hook back up after Choshu botched New Japan's feud with UWF-i, which should have saw a longer period of great cash coming into NJ. Tenryu or Onita should have also tried to get work with AJ in 96ish after Onita had "retired" from FMW so a new group of guys could feud with Misawa and the AJ loyalists. I just thought Baba and his crew dropped the ball after Misawa and Kobashi disbanded their team in '95 because Akiyama was just not as compelling of a worker as Kobashi was when he teamed with Misawa. This company had one of the best booked heavyweight divisions of all-time for several years and I just think it's still amazing what these 200 + pound guys were able to do in the ring with one another. They really worked hard at their craft and it showed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 WWF 1986-1988 (favorite era ever, yes I know the wrestling sucked, but nostalgia rules) WWF 92 WCW late 95-96 WWF 97-2000 ECW 95-97 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 I've really, really enjoyed Ring of Honor in '05. It's the most fun I can remember having watching wrestling since the Monday Night Wars, that's for sure. Actually, it's probably what I'd put as my favorite but there's still a couple of months left. I'm just a mark. I liked ECW up until right before they started the Network angle. I loved all the Raven/Dreamer shit anyway. I was high on Steve Corino too. WWF in '98 was fun with DX, Austin & The Rock all in full swing. WCW around the same time with the nWo Vs. Sting and cruiserweight curtain jerks, Raven's Flock & Goldberg squashes were fun too. I've not seen enough Puroresu to compare them on a yearly basis. I know that 90's AJPW put out some good matches but I've just seen the matches not everything surrounding them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SweetMama Scaat Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 WWF 85 WWF 88-91 GWF 91-92 WCW 91-93 WWF/E 98-01 ECW 97-99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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