Thoughts on the following wrestling eras

[Tim Cooke]

Majority of ROH will age badly. But as they continue to move towards regular heels vs. faces, the more matches that will hold up.

 

But again, it is going to be Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson matches that hold up, not the schmucks who open the shows.

 

Tim

[World's Worst Man]

Who thinks the lame, spotty opener matches are any good to begin with though?

 

Guys like Joe and Danielson are different because their matches are looked at as really good by wrestling critics in general, and I don't think that was the case with ECW's stuff. In 10 years, I think the critics will still think their matches were good. Whether the general "smark community" does or not is another story though. Depends what's "in" in 10 years.

[goodhelmet]

I think the exception to what you are talking about MGQ is the RVD-Lynn series which had people swearing up and down they were watching the 2nd coming of Flair-Steamboat. I know it didn't happen in 1996 but that is one instance of ECW fans claiming that ECW had super matches to appease the workrate freaks.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Well, uh, yeah. I saw this earlier today and wanted to post when I had some more time to collect my thoughts. I come back and see it's a step or two away from a cyber showdown. My thoughts are probably going to be a bit anti-climatic at this point.

 

1992 WWF

 

As someone who grew up watching this as his sole outlet of wrestling, I love it. This was the first full year of wrestling that I watched as it happened and up until the latter stages of the year, I have nothing but praise. I look at WWF 1991 and 1992 and it's like night and day. The company was virtually changing overnight.

 

You look at the WWF in mid-1991 and then mid-1992 and it's like watching two different promotions. With the former, we had:

 

- Hulk Hogan, WWF champion

- The Ultimate Warrior still main eventing

- The Undertaker still a fairly one-dimensional heel character

- Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart still mixing it up in the tag team ranks

- Fan favorite Jake "The Snake"

 

 

Then we look at the company a year later and we've got:

 

- No Hogan

- No Warrior

- A face and somewhat more interesting Undertaker

- Bret Hart already a solidified singles star on the cusp of the main event; Shawn Michaels becoming one of the most over heels in the early '90s at a breakneck pace

- The emergence of Ric Flair and recharged career of Randy Savage

 

Simply put, I'm reiterating what others have already said. The company sucked financially at the time, but everything outside of the tag team division was thriving.

 

The Savage/Flair storyline was HOT. I'm still amazed at how they went from manuevering away from the Hogan/Flair dream match and created an angle that was more intense than anything they could've realistically accomplished between Hogan and Flair. I still remember the "she was mine before she was yours" angle unfolding in on WWF TV in the weeks that led up to Wrestlemania VIII. Let's not forget the brilliant marketing strategy of building up the angle that promoted the company's magazine by making it the basis of the drama.

 

When the match finally took place, you could just feel the tension. It was like you thought Savage was going to literally kill Flair when he finally got his hands on him. Probably one of my favorite storylines, just because it's 14 years later and it's still fresh in my mind and could still work now.

 

Then we had Bret and Shawn making the midcard seem legit again. I never found Mr. Perfect as the IC champ to be that great, probably since he wasn't working with a whole lot. The belt just regained a lot of its prestige when Bret won it and Michaels came into the picture.

 

The end of the year was foreshadowing for what was to come, but I still consider 1992 to be my personal favorite year in wrestling.

[Guest DylanWaco]

Fuck this, I still love ECW and in fact I like 96 better than any other year in the companies history.

 

There are likely two very personal reasons for this.

 

The first is that I traveled to a live ECW show for the first time in early 96 (IIRC).

 

The second is that I first got ECW tv in 96, though I had tapes prior to that.

 

I will be the first to admit that my enjoyment of that ECW era could be just nostalgia but when I go back and watch the stuff now I still enjoy it. At the time ECW was part of the bigger package of that year with Michaels title defense's, the emergence of Austin, the WCW cruiserweights and the NWO. It was an awesome year. Still ECW was easily my favorite fed that year.

 

Among the things that I enjoyed from that year, that I still really enjoy when going back and watching now:

 

Brian Lee/Tommy Dreamer feud.

Random Terry Funk return.

Taz at his best as a charactor.

The Eliminators/Gangstas feud.

2 Cold Fucking Scorpio as one of the best five wrestlers in America.

The "Matter of Respect" card having two very good matches, one of which was the best in the companies history.

The fourway match.

The Douglas/Pitbull angle.

The Bruise Brothers/Raven v. Douglas/Dreamer/Sandman clusterfuck.

Rob Van Dam making his first appearances and having mysteriously good matches with Sabu that still hold up reasonably well.

 

IIRC random guys like Spicolli, Johnny Smith and Gordy also made their apperances/mini-runs that year. Plus you had Kroffat and Furnas, including the Rob v. Doug match that I still like way more than most people.

 

You can call me a fucking idiot but I still love ECW from 96

[Resident Evil]

Douglas vs Scorpio was awesome.

[Guest Mike Campbell]

What made ECW "great" in 1996, was that a lot of the stuff they were doing was very unique at the time. Plus they still had good workers like Jericho, Scorpio, Furnas, and Douglas. Not to mention Raven putting his workboots on in order to make Terry Gordy look like he was still in his prime (in what IMO is ECW's best match ever). The top guys like Dreamer, Taz, Sabu, Raven, and Sandman were all over huge, as well as the feuds and angles they were in.

 

What did them in was Heyman's inability to actually run a promotion resulting in several of them leaving, being unable to follow up the hot year they had, and the fact that WCW/WWF took a lot of what made ECW a unique product and with their huge budgets made it look so much better.

[Slasher]

 

You can call me a fucking idiot but I still love ECW from 96

Nah I can't call anyone an idiot for enjoying something. I went overboard with that particular statement.

[anarchistxx]

I don't think ROH could get to the level ECW was at even if they wanted to. They're better staying where they are, and not going into debt.

 

ROH is a hugely niche product, whereas ECW was only niche to an extent. As well as the crazy stuff, they still has superb angles, and at times good wrestling, especially before WCW took the talent. ECW's promos were awesome as well, most promos I see in ROH, with the exception of a few like Cabana really aren't that good. CM Punk's supposedly 'one of the greatest promos ever' at DBDIII was pretty average from what i saw, but then again, that whole match was totally blown out of proportion.

[Guest Some Guy]

I don't think ROH could get to the level ECW was at even if they wanted to. They're better staying where they are, and not going into debt.

 

ROH is a hugely niche product, whereas ECW was only niche to an extent. As well as the crazy stuff, they still has superb angles, and at times good wrestling, especially before WCW took the talent. ECW's promos were awesome as well, most promos I see in ROH, with the exception of a few like Cabana really aren't that good. CM Punk's supposedly 'one of the greatest promos ever' at DBDIII was pretty average from what i saw, but then again, that whole match was totally blown out of proportion.

I agree. The niche that ROH appeals to is that of people who really like in ring professional wrestling. That niche is very, very small. ECW appealed to those people to some degree, as well as those who like blood, guts, and ultra violence, in addition to those who love the "fuck the world" attitude that ECW had. As well as the fact that ECW was booked in a non-stop, no lulls fashion that made it hard to stop watching. As has been said one match flowed into another. Like Russo's booking, when something never stops it's hard stop yourself and think about what you just saw. That's why I loved ECW in 96 and WWF and 98 and 99 but now I look back on it and it just doesn't hold up.

[Guest savagerulz]

edit. wrong thread.

[shoe]

1988 NWA was a really fun year for a fan of wrestling. You had Flair putting on good matches with the like of Luger,Hawk,Nikita, and Hawk. You had a really heated feud with the MX/Fantastics. Barry Windham joining the Horseman was excellent. Tully and Arn were haveing good matches with everyone thrown in their path. A lot of this talent were the reasons for haveing really killer COTC, and ppvs.The whole card was stacked with good workers, and guys with a lot of charisma.

[shoe]

1996 ECW on television was really fun to watch. It had a real intimate feel, and flowed really well. The promotion doesn't hold up well at all especially if you're only watching a match here or there. The promotion in retrospect had tons of flaws. To cover for a roster full of average workers(their are exceptions to this) the most interesting aspects of ECW was their angles and storylines. To cover sub par work they had to be creative with smoke and mirrors.Loss summarized best when saying ECW needs to be watched in full to enjoy, not by watching individual matches.