We’re lucky that we have the internet and streaming media now because televion cable and pay per view providers were the only way to watch the competition between WCW, WWF, and ECW in 90s North America. Though Streaming services are absolutely convenient, it took the magic away. Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, and Paul Heyman were absolutely fierce about keeping their pormotions alive. However the true experience of revisiting 1990s wrestling is how it is the most transformative period in wrestling. Not only was it the end of the Gold Age of Wrestling (1984 – 1992) but we had the dark age of wrestling with New Generation Era and WCW-Hogan era (1993-1996), and we also had a renaissance with the Attitude Era and NWO era (1996 – 1999). Both WCW, WWF, and ECW would ever get noticed if they didn’t take influence from Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling’s hardcore wrestling style, All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling’s gender alternative, or All Japan Pro Wrestling & New Japan Pro Wrestling’s invasion angle. Because wrestling fans from the 1980s already grew up, wrestling had to do the same as well. There’s no wonder why many of us wrestling fans look fondly with this era. Even taking off our nostalgia glass, this period of wrestling is so much better than what we have now. We didn’t rely on just spotfests or high flying gymnastics, we had grappling, starpower, epic moments, and storylines to not only help build our characters but also the business as a whole. As a wrestling historian, I had absolutly fun going back and top a Top 10 Best shows of each year of the 1990s decade. It’s because lost so much today that back thin had everything. If I could go back and relive all of these moments I would. After experiencing almost earything that ’90s wrestling offered, what was the best night of wrestling in from 1990 – 1999?
Continue reading Top 20 Wrestling Pay Per Views of the 1990s
Here’s a question, is 1995 in Professional Wrestling really that bad? (Is the pope Catholic?) Of course it’s has been debaded as one of the worst years of professional wrestling. It’s bad enought that 1993 – 1994 had a lot of inconsistency, but this is the pit when it comes to the qaulity of wrestling, characters, and storylines (meaning not good at all). This is the era where booking that’s meant to appeal to children has gone way too far. None of these childish characters could ever get over becasue nobody wanted to see this awful stories being told nor did they had any attachment to the cringiest of characters. This was the year where the competition between WWF & WCW started to do monthly Pay Per Views because they wanted to put their stars into more action hoping that they’ll gain more credibility. Who really wanted to even pay for any of these shows if they were going to oversaturate this piss-poor quality of “sports entertainment.” The Kliq were in sufferable with thier bullying and being the boss’s ear that they couldn’t get save themselves in the television ratings or sell as many tickets. It’s no wonder why Diesel is seen as the worst WWF Champion in history. Nearly everything he’s done during his reign as the company’s top champion has been putrid. And all of these midcard characters from 1993 – 1994 and debuting characters in 1995 were just trash. Minotaurs, evil pirates, , magicians who stole underwear (seriously),dentists, plumbers, and more. It was the last gasp of the previous era and it went out kicking and screaming. WCW was equaly as bad if not worse for creating the Dungeon of Doom faction who’s only purpose was to destory Hulk Hogan. You couldn’t get any more phony than this. This was when any illusion of pro wrestling being real turned out to be fake after all and they didn’t even try to make it real. Hulk Hogan made the second half of 1994 for WCW insufferable and it got worse in 1995. Do you see why 1995 is that bad of a year in wrestling? It was so hard to find good wrestling this year. But, like every bad year, there has to be merits, right? Well that’s where thetoplister comes in to show you what was actually good in the worst year in wrestling. Be surprised to see that there are some good stuff in this mountain shitpile.
There has to come a time where a site that talks about wrestling has to make a good argument to who’s the greatest wrestler of all time. There just wouldn’t be wrestling without the wrestlers, but who really deserves all the praise? Every wrestling fan has their own personal favorite wrestling that they mark out to, so thetoplister has to make a credible pick in deciding who really is the best grappler/performer in professional wrestling. Here on thetoplister, we do really care about giving so many people recommendations, but it has to be the best recommendation, not the most popular one. Otherwise, having Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Shawn Michaels would have been too predictable to the point where we’re being dishonest. When you’ve been wrestling as long as we have (watching so many different promotions and all) you should know that there are better out there. So what really is the criteria to be an all-time great wrestler? Here are your criteria.
![Amazon.com: WWF: Backlash 1999 [VHS]: Steve Austin, Dwayne Johnson ...](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71XMNQ7BCHL._AC_SY445_.gif)
Like I said in my worst PPVs list, that it’s tiring for bookers to make a pay per view on a monthly basis. You have to somehow keep fan interest from weighing out and you don’t want to give everything unless it’s your biggest show of the year. So how about the wrestling shows that aren’t the promotion’s big ones but somehow ended up being better than anyone expected? With so many wrestling shows released, where do we begin? When you ask your average joe, they’ll usually pick a random show that they grew nostalgic for but does not hold up. Other cases, they’re shows that didn’t deliver the goods because their storylines had to be on-going after this show. Rarely does a promoter want to end an on-going storyline in the middle of the schedule unless something better is planned ahead. And even if it was a promotion’s big show, there are some who just do not talk about the flagship show. Too often do was see other shows overshadowing some of the good ones that it goes over wrestling fans’ heads. And that’s why you’re all here today. You want to see wrestling shows that nobody talks about and you want to exercise your variety. I’m here to let you know that thetoplister got you covered with welled booked cards that deserve your attention.
With Kayfabe officially dead the only thing that can make wrestling relevant and worth watching is the focus on match quality. Now being in touch with current events, wrestling promotions everywhere pressured their performers to reach (the overrated) Dave Meltzer’s top score. While focusing on just one individual should NEVER be wrestling priority, diversity was. Never before have we seen women’s wrestling destroy the term ‘Diva’ and made high-quality matches that are more entertaining than the men’s division. Indie wrestlers from last decade (like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Tayler Black, and Keven Steen to name a few) have became major promotions’ top stars. Japanese wrestling have never bee so recognized in the west as it was here. And gimmicks and characters have been at an all-time low measure (for better or for worse). Audience’s expectation when going to see a wrestling show is to have great technicality, taking bumps that no ordinary human can take, and highjacking shows by booing the hell out of wrestlers that don’t deserve the spotlight (Roman Reigns). I would say wrestling, for the most part, had a good decade (with the exception of TNA/Impact Wrestling becoming an unwatchable program). Now with WWE, AEW, and NJPW carrying on the industry, let’s see what were the best matches that this decade had to offer!
The Top Lister 
You must be logged in to post a comment.