Your "Perfect" Wrestling Promotion

[KrisZ]

All the stuff that Parv brought up in the Old School vs. New School thread had me thinking of subject matter that could get a wide variety of discussion going so this one come to mind. All of us on here have varying degrees of wrestling fandom some of us go back 40 years some go back maybe 5 years but everyone has that one promotion and that one point in time that they go back to and say this is how wrestling is supposed to be so I'm putting it out there to you folks as former ESPN anchor Bill Pidto would say "Whaddya Have"

 

 

After some hard thinking I think mine would be the evolution of Mid-South Wrestling to Universal Wrestling Federation starting in December 1985 to the end of 1986. Mid-South Wrestling was always a great promotion to watch especially after Bill Dundee took over the book in December 1983 but the time they left Irish McNeill's Boys Club and went to the revolving door of Tulsa/Oklahoma City for TV tapings it made the promotion seem major league in every way. The TV presentation was great and the booking was top notch in many ways plus you had guys at the top of their games like DiBiase, Doc, Duggan, Taylor, Freebirds, One Man Gang, Gilbert, Fantastics, Sawyer, Slater, Jake, Murdoch, Sheeps the list goes on and on. The hot angles that would close TV with Jim Ross losing his mind was crazy for the era because while Crockett had that type of TV heat as well their matchups at time where highly lopsided towards more jobber matches while Watts booked names vs. names most of the time.

 

Your turn now.

[Karl]

UWF/Mid-South is a great call. It had such a perfect balance of everything I love about wrestling - would absolutely be my choice also.

[Zenjo]

I couldn't make do with just one perfect fantasy promotion. Switching through 3 or 4 different styles each card would be too weird.

 

For sure there would be 1980's fans.

 

Seeing as this is meant to be stuff that actually happened, then my favourite year by any promotion would be AJW 1993. You had a super talented roster, most of whom were in their prime. Long matches as standard with many shows available in complete form. Everyone had so many opportunities to produce strong matches, and the output was phenomenal. Having the interpromotional shows gave the fans completely fresh dream matches featuring every great great female wrestler from the era. It could never last for long, but was close to perfection whilst it did.

[KrisZ]

I couldn't make do with just one perfect fantasy promotion. Switching through 3 or 4 different styles each card would be too weird.

 

 

What your idea of a perfect promotion is what it is....it could be all Death Matches or whatever...it all depends on what you prefer.

[JerryvonKramer]

This is a really difficult question. There are five different promotions that I am completely "at home" and happy in, but they aren't necessarily compatible.

 

(no particular order)

1. WWF circa 85-93. The flavour pre- and post-87 is slightly different as we've discussed recently, but it's a universe I'm completely comfortable with. To the extent where you can pick more or less any match from any time in that stretch and I could probably tell you not just the year but the time of year based on shit like the colour of Dino Bravo's hair. I am a total mark for this period, especially the non-wrestling aspects like Fink as ring announcer, Vince & Jesse / Gorilla & Bobby, Mean Gene on interviews, Sean Mooney in the control centre with Kevin Dunn in the background, etc. etc. I love the presentation. I love Vince shouting himself hoarse at the start of PPVs. I think the storytelling, especially at the main event level, is criminally underrated.

 

2. Mid-South. My immediate thought when I read the title of the thread. Especially the period 83-5. Love the studio. Love the old man in the front row. Love the logical booking. LOVE Watts himself on commentary. Love the sorts of characters who are around the promotion, especially DiBiase of course. Love the intensity of the work inside the ring and "meat and potatoes" / "blood and guts" feel of the place.

 

3. Crockett circa 85-7. Ole-era Horsemen. Techwood studio. Schiavone with a mustache. Flair and Dusty cutting gold promo after gold promo in front of that "World Championship Wrestling" set with the planet on it. Bob Caudle saying things like "Well Jim". David Crockett losing his shit at every near fall. The flags in the studio. Ron Garvin's chops. Flair saying "Wahoo McDANiel".

 

4. All Japan pretty much any time from 70s to 90s, but more towards the late 70s and 80s feel. Especially The Funks coming out to this music:

while more confetti than humanly imaginable showers down on the ring. Stan Hansen charging through the crowd like Godzilla as the fans scatter and he throws a chair or two into the ring. Jumbo coming out this music:

and pumping his fist while four girls stand with 8 massive boquets of flowers and a 10-foot trophy.

 

In various ways, they are all completely "perfect" to me. And mixing and matching any of them doesn't feel right, y'know?

 

Edit: oh and the fifth is WCW in 92.

[KrisZ]

This is a really difficult question. There are five different promotions that I am completely "at home" and happy in, but they aren't necessarily compatible.

 

(no particular order)

1. WWF circa 85-93. The flavour pre- and post-87 is slightly different as we've discussed recently, but it's a universe I'm completely comfortable with. To the extent where you can pick more or less any match from any time in that stretch and I could probably tell you not just the year but the time of year based on shit like the colour of Dino Bravo's hair. I am a total mark for this period, especially the non-wrestling aspects like Fink as ring announcer, Vince & Jesse / Gorilla & Bobby, Mean Gene on interviews, Sean Mooney in the control centre with Kevin Dunn in the background, etc. etc. I love the presentation. I love Vince shouting himself hoarse at the start of PPVs. I think the storytelling, especially at the main event level, is criminally underrated.

 

2. Mid-South. My immediate thought when I read the title of the thread. Especially the period 83-5. Love the studio. Love the old man in the front row. Love the logical booking. LOVE Watts himself on commentary. Love the sorts of characters who are around the promotion, especially DiBiase of course. Love the intensity of the work inside the ring and "meat and potatoes" / "blood and guts" feel of the place.

 

3. Crockett circa 85-7. Ole-era Horsemen. Techwood studio. Schiavone with a mustache. Flair and Dusty cutting gold promo after gold promo in front of that "World Championship Wrestling" set with the planet on it. Bob Caudle saying things like "Well Jim". David Crockett losing his shit at every near fall. The flags in the studio. Ron Garvin's chops. Flair saying "Wahoo McDANiel".

 

4. All Japan pretty much any time from 70s to 90s, but more towards the late 70s and 80s feel. Especially The Funks coming out to this music:

while more confetti than humanly imaginable showers down on the ring. Stan Hansen charging through the crowd like Godzilla as the fans scatter and he throws a chair or two into the ring. Jumbo coming out this music:

and pumping his fist while four girls stand with 8 massive boquets of flowers and a 10-foot trophy.

 

In various ways, they are all completely "perfect" to me. And mixing and matching any of them doesn't feel right, y'know?

 

Edit: oh and the fifth is WCW in 92.

 

When push comes to shove though out of the 5 if you absolutely had to pick one which one would it be

[JerryvonKramer]

Alright, probably Crockett.

[Karl]

Historically I would always have said AJPW as my perfect promotion and from an in ring perspective, perhaps it is - but man cannot live on bread alone - and I love promos and overt angles too much. Watts seemed to offer that, as well as great in ring action & so much of peak Mid South is iconic, as is also the case with Crockett. Crockett is a whisker behind simply because Watts seemed to use his TV time better, although I could certainly argue the toss on that one. Watts and Crockett set the standard for me.

[KrisZ]

Alright, probably Crockett.

 

That was my 2nd choice as well.....it's hard to deny that when JCP & Watts were strong which were 1985-86 they were amazing promotions

[Johnny Sorrow]

Memphis from 1982-1987 is my choice.

[KrisZ]

That's a pretty wide net there Johnny and one year or two in particular rank at the top.

[dawho5]

For me it would be such a ridiculous mixed bag.

 

I loved the WCW cruiserweights, even the bastardized lucha libre. Goes without saying I was a workrate guy at that point. And you had midcard guys like Regal, Finlay, Benoit doing great stuff, DDP coming up through the ranks. The Sting storyline was booked really well for most of 97. Of course then the shit hit the fan. And I'd have to deal with Schiavone on commentary.

 

Late 1990s Battlarts will always be something I love to death. Such a great mix of everything shoot and pro wrestling that somehow worked.

 

MPro circa 1996 was something else with the 10 man tags done about as well as you'll ever see them done.

 

Speaking of 96, anything involving Kawada in the ring with Akiyama or Misawa was dynamite.

 

But my choice is fairly obvious. All Japan from 93 to mid 95. Things hadn't gotten way overblown yet and Hansen was still ripping it up with Kobashi and Kawada. So much great stuff from that two and a half year period that it's hard to ignore. All Japan from 10/19/90 through mid 92 would come in second. I know it's not universally loved, but I think it's incredible stuff.

[Johnny Sorrow]

That's a pretty wide net there Johnny and one year or two in particular rank at the top.

Right.

[WingedEagle]

All Japan in the 90s (lets say 92-95) would be my pick for top-flight in ring action. But watching that stuff over and over would get very draining. It may be a cop-out, but I might go with WCW+WWF at the height of the Monday night wars. The chaos of having both shows live and flipping channels back and forth with such different presentations was really something. You had the cruiserweights doing their thing on TNT when it was new to me and completely unlike anything on USA. You had Hogan and the NWO as ultra hot heels, a new Sting that was somehow hotter than ever without doing a damn thing for over a year. The Hart Foundation, Austin, Vince and Rock on the way up. Those were fun times. I've seen better wrestling that took place before and after, but not sure any point was more addictive on a week to week TV basis.

[victory]

I would probably go with WWF 84-85. The roster was really stacked, plus you had some of the hottest feuds like Piper vs Snuka, Valentine vs Tito and Sarge vs Sheik. They also had a fresh and motivated champion in Hulk with a great variety of opponents.

 

The presentation was pretty good as well with only World Class being better at the time.

 

83 World Class would be my second choice if I could have one.

[shoe]

I'm going Mid-South 1985. I loved Watts presentation of wrestling. We'd still get Flair here and there. So many great programs. I like my wrestling to be presented as believable. They did it better than anyone.

[KrisZ]

1985 Mid-South is the perfect appetizer to 1986

[Matt D]

I love 84 mid south and 85 Crockett. I love 79-80 Memphis before Lawler goes down with the injury. I'm such a sucker for Dangerous Alliance era WCW.

 

But i'd be 79-80 Portland instead. It's this perfect mix of a really intimate promotion that feels like family with the same sponsors and Sandy Barr's flea market and what not, but you still get the champ and Andre and bigger names coming in now and again. Everything's centered around Buddy Rose and his army. What we have from the Saturday TV is just awesome, each and every week, and we don't have the Tuesday shows which is where all the blow offs were. I love the 2/3 fall style, and even the under card was made up of fairly enjoyable wrestlers.

[Parties]

Watts is the best booker.

Memphis had the most compelling episodic TV.

Eighties NJ is the best sports presentation, with peak World of Sport as close second.

The other UWF (Maeda/Fujiwara/Yamazaki/Funaki) had the best crowd reactions, and probably the best matches.

AJW had an exceptional connection with fans, and is underrated as a great "total package" of work, style, and presentation.

Great lucha is the most fun.

 

My "perfect" promotion would be the aforementioned Dundee-booked era of Mid-South, with more guys brought in from Mexico and Japan. Bringing in a young Fuchi and Onita to work Dundee/Lawler and Eaton/Gilbert is pretty much the coolest stuff that ever happened: more things of that nature would elevate prime Mid-South/UWF to the zenith.

[Mad Dog]

It's not a perfect era but I really loved that 96-97 era of WCW. The booking had glitches but I loved the weekend shows. You just never knew what kind of odd ball matches might happen on any given week. I also loved the variety you might see on a given week. High flying the next minute to a wild brawl the next. I liked how the whole Sting thing played out. The way they built Luger up and paid it off. Sure, they screwed it up at the end of the day but it was a great ride on a weekly basis.

[Graham Crackers]

Probably 1982 Memphis or 1986 New Japan.

[Wade Garrett]

JCP 76, 77, and 78.