kingliam Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 It is very rare that I start topics here, but I thought a lot of you were insanely well qualified to answer this question: Which year offered the best TV (in your opinion), either in the form of a specific show that a promotion ran, or just an overall promotions TV output? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dedhemingway Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 This might be a little out of the box, but I'd go with ECW's Hardcore TV in 1995. It was, arguably, the best year for the promotion, and the television was a work of art, everything cut together to make it look even better than it was. The characters were on point, you had serious stuff, funny stuff, random stuff. It was one of the most entertaining wrestling programs ever put together, which, in the end, is what matters to me. Top that off, you had what was probably the best in-ring product ECW put out, early in the year you still had Guerrero, Benoit, Malenko, which is what puts it over the top for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 There was one year in the 90's, in AJPW where it was mind blowing how high the quality of their television was. Bit by bit I ended up buying almost the entire year - not by design, but I just kept getting tapes based on match recommendations from people I trusted, and then when I sat back and indexed my stuff, I realized that I was getting close to an entire year of TV. Off the top of my head, without going back to check my VHS tapes and indexes, I'm 90% sure it was 1993. So I'm going to say 1993 AJPW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Mid South/ UWF in 1986 was week to week pretty awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parties Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 1982 Memphis is in the running. Lawler and Dundee still tagging a bunch. An incredible episode of TV built around Lawler-Flair. Two of the best American feuds ever in Lawler-Dutch and Lawler-Bockwinkel, the latter of which led to one of the greatest promos of all time. Bobby Eaton and Koko Ware tagging. The emergence of the Fabulous Ones, Adrian Street, and Jimmy Hart, who at his peak was one of the most gifted TV performers in wrestling history. The show was innovative and massively popular, with Lance Russell, Jerry Jarrett, and Lawler all at the top of their game. Memphis was awesomely built for studio TV, but at no point did it better exemplify the "Muppet Show" world-building concepts that TomK and others have described in defining why it was so special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Lacelle Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 1992 WCW was cranking out awesome matches on multiple shows each week. Heck, you could make several compilation sets on this year & promotion alone. Arn Anderson, Vader, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zybszko, Ricky Steamboat & Rick Rude had his career year. As close to perfect as one can get. Not talking about their gates, purely from the perspective of a viewer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 AAA TV in 1995 was insanely good. Also ECW Hardcore TV in 1995 was a whole bunch of fun too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingliam Posted June 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 1992 WCW was cranking out awesome matches on multiple shows each week. Heck, you could make several compilation sets on this year & promotion alone. Arn Anderson, Vader, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zybszko, Ricky Steamboat & Rick Rude had his career year. As close to perfect as one can get. Not talking about their gates, purely from the perspective of a viewer. What was the TV structure like (A show? B show? etc) Not very familiar with early/mid 90s WCW tv. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Main show was Saturday Night and then you had Worldwide, Pro, Main Event and Power Hour as B shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 1983 World Class was pretty awesome. Solid matches,great angles and superior production compared to other promotions at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Main show was Saturday Night and then you had Worldwide, Pro, Main Event and Power Hour as B shows. Only Worldwide wasn't truly a B-show and Pro / Main Event often had longer featured matches between top stars. Just as some random examples, Ricky Steamboat vs. Arn Anderson was a match that happened on Pro. Steamboat vs. Eaton and Rude vs. Cactus Jack on Main Event It's not like the "B-shows" were just Koko B. Ware over jobber matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 You can all call me wrong and an idiot, but I love WCW Prime in 1995 more than life itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 I'd be happy to take 1993 All Japan to the desert island. First show has Hansen bouncing the chair off Kawada's head to set the tone of one of the major feuds in the year. The Last Match of the Year has Kawada's sublime performance and Kobashi's biggest win to date, putting an exceptional wrap on the year. In between are a load of watchable singles, tags and six mans, with a variety of performers. Old storylines fading away, and new storylines starting. The only thing missing is Jumbo, especially the big Jumbo-Misawa Triple Crown with Misawa defending. On the other hand, Jumbo & Co. vs. Misawa & Co. would have entered it's 4th calendar year. With Jumbo out, we instead got the fresh Misawa & Kobashi & Co. vs Kawada & Taue & Co. feud. Not a bad trade off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingliam Posted June 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 You can all call me wrong and an idiot, but I love WCW Prime in 1995 more than life itself. .....never even heard of that show! Loosely, perhaps. Any particular reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 I dunno what it is? Probably the mixture of Dusty Rhodes and Chris Cruise's hilarious commentary, and just loads and loads of fun matches. There's a match between Bunkhouse Buck/Dick Slater vs The Lightning Express which is legitimately one of my favourite matches ever. It's just a totally fun show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingliam Posted June 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 What was the syndication like for WCW 1992? Just looking at dates - it seems like they had four shows on the 4th of January - how does that work from a TV perspective? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Worldwide and Pro were syndicated. Do you would get those shows either on Saturday or Sunday. Saturday Night and Power Hour were two Saturday shows. So depending on your market you would get Power Hour, Worldwide, Pro and Saturday Night on Saturday and then get Main Event on Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Guitar Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Raw 1997. The undercard is not good. The mid card is a barren wasteland. But the main event scene is fantastic and produces a bunch of great matches and angles which lifts the whole company up to heights it hasn't seen in half a decade and lays the groundwork for a big money run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 JCP 85-86 is right up there, say what you will about Dusty booking but there were strong angles up and down the card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artDDP Posted June 14, 2015 Report Share Posted June 14, 2015 I dunno what it is? Probably the mixture of Dusty Rhodes and Chris Cruise's hilarious commentary, and just loads and loads of fun matches. There's a match between Bunkhouse Buck/Dick Slater vs The Lightning Express which is legitimately one of my favourite matches ever. It's just a totally fun show. I loved watching the Prime shows back then. For us in the States it was usually stuff we'd already seen a week or so ago but the commentary made it must-see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InYourCase Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 1993 All Japan would have to be at the top of my list. I'd put Dragon Gate Infinity from 2011 a step behind that. I wouldn't really consider Infinity a TV show anymore (I don't vote for it in the WON Awards) because it's nothing more than a live event with an Infinity logo slapped on, but 2011 was still in a TV format. Some of the booking with Junction Three got a little goofy, but the in-ring quality was so outstanding. The best year for Dragon Gate, in my opinion. Mochizuki working on top, PAC/Dragon Kid/Ricochet doing amazing things in the midcard, Tozawa coming back into the fold and being amazing. Awesome year for the company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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