Unless you were strictly a WWF, being an ECW, FMW or WCW fan must have been frustrating to stay tuned and stay in one promotion. WCW have kept teasing about the “death of NWO” when they should have ended it at Starrcade 1997. At this point, we only got behind the Wolfpack in hopes that NWO was going to officially end (except that it’s the red version of NWO). WCW was lucky to still be consistantly victorious in the television ratings when they spewed out hot garbage like Ultimate Warrior “saving” WCW, not using Bret Hart properly after the Montreal Screwjob, and the Cruizerweights couldn’t get any higher in the hierarchy. ECW continue to lose more and more of their big stars and I don’t know why Paul Heyman couldn’t get figure out how to make a good show in this year (except for one really good show). FMW’s their joshi division was dead and could only survive with Hayabusa as the face of the company. All-Japan Pro Wrestling & New Japan Pro Wrestling was in a stand-still doing the same business as they always did. WWF in 1998, however, was perhaps is one of the best year in the company’s history. This was Stone Cold Steve Austin’s year and having the company push him further than any star they had made him an icon. Like wise, WWF was making new stars like The Rock getting pushed to the main event scene, Kane was more than just being Undertaker’s brother, Undertaker’s character have the most development in his career, Mick Foley’s Hell in a Cell King of the Ring match make him a new face of WWF, Triple H was able to proved himself to be more than a sidekick but a leading force, Ken Shamrock made wrestling dangerous, Sable’s sex appeal got fans tuning in, and so much more. What WWF started with the Attitude Era has kept a consistancy of quality storytelling and wrestling. Sure not everything in 1998 for WWF were perfect like Legion of Doom 2000 was the Road Warrior’s worst run together as a team, Big Van Vader was buried from his main event status, and Shawn Michael retired this year (and didn’t return until 2002). All things considered, I’d love to go back to 1998 WWF and revisit everything offered this year.
The Year 1998 Wrestling Rewards
- Wrestler of 1998: Stone Cold Steve Austin
- Underrated Wrestler of 1998: Raven
- Feud of 1998: Undertaker vs Kane
- Wrestling Match of 1998: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa – October 31, 1998
- Wrestling Promotion of 1998: World Wrestling Federation
Whatelse can I cay about wrestling 1993 that hasn’t already been said. It was one of the worst years in professional wrestling. Both WWF & WCW struggled in getting fans interested and have a top star help run each of the companies. WCW finally had Flair return but unfortunately, even without Jim Heard around, the level of cheesiness won’t stop there. Remember those dumb movie-like video packages with Vader’s White Castle Of Fear and awful gimmick of Shockmaster? It was that best. And it wasn’t any better for the WWF. WWF lost Hulk Hogan in summer of 1993, but was going down hill because of the reputation of Vince McMahon and his trail for drug scandal. This trial nearly ended Vince McMahon and the WWF and because he came out of that trail victorious is why he changed the WWF’s direction into the New Generation Era. ECW (Back when it was called [Eastern] Championship Wrestling) did start to do more hardcore wrestling style, but they had yet made a show worth watching. This was the end of Golden Age of Professional Wrestling as we know it. And instead of having a Silver Age or Bronze Age, the Pro Wrestling industry went directly to the Dark Age. Not all of 1993 was bad, it’s just really hard to find anything good come out from this year. Now that Wrestlers aren’t on steroids and were able to manuever better making better match quality. We were seeing smaller guys getting chance because of it. Many of the midcards got a chance to raise to the top and make a name for themselves. But back in the 1990s when drug-phoebia was around, Vince McMahon lost so much of his audience because of it. But that still doesn’t excuse how bad this year’s shows were (especially Wrestlemania IX). How could the quality of wrestling sunk so low this year? As bad as 1993 was, let’s take a look at what were the best nights of wrestling in 1993. 
1992 for wrestling has got to be a major stepup for the business. That’s becasue both WWF & WCW cleaned up their acts and finally delivered in proper wrestling booking and engaging storylines. Vince McMahon realized how messy he ended 1991 for his company so he envisioned wrestling without Hulk Hogan because he too can see that Hulkamania was becoming stale. You can see that the New Generation Era was about to begin and the Golden Age of Wrestling closed this year. WCW finally got Jim Heard out of his leadership role and World Championship Wrestling was able to be the wrestling company that it started as. Even despite not having Ric Flair in their roster, they were able to make the most with many of their talents like Sting, Big Van Vader, and the rest. Wrestling in 1992 was a big shift of change and it got wrestling fans, who were turned off from the cartoonish direction and booking, return with interest and envestment. Sure not everything was perfect in 1992 for both the WWF & WCW, but you have to admit that shifting away from how cheesy and badly booked 1991 was is a better option. 
Ever wondered with this many matches that the wrestling industry provided, which are the ten that are the best? A better question is what does it take to make the best match of all time? Is it workrates? Spots? Kicking out of finishers? Blood and weapons? So many flips and bumps? No. The simple answer is the rivalry build-up and how they showcase their hatred in front of a crowd to do ALL they can to prove that they are the better competitor. Wrestling has forgotten that now that WWE doens’t want to make any more stars and the delusion of winning and losing doesn’t matter is complete bullshit if I ever heard one. It’s true that its all about engaging crowd but it’s also delivering on a promise that the match will have a conclusion. The anticipation of having a wrestler win and the other to have their comeuppins (based on how the heel pissed us off) is why we care about winning and losing so much. That’s why storylines are created to elavate the feud that actually pay money to see the live result is what makes the industry last as long. No matter how many critics will argue that the match is fake, there’s no arguing that these storylines is what made wrestling so unique and engaging. And when selecting these ten matches, it has to be ten that deliverse on its promise in the most satisfying way possible. Also, there’s a rule in the list of having one wrestler per match! So get ready to see what are some of the best matches in wrestling history!
Professional wrestling is the only sport that does not offer the same rules in every one of the matches that’s scheduled. That’s what’s so very special about this form of entertainment. This industry has always been violent soap opera and for a predetermined sport that everyone knows it’s not real. However if it is not real then you cannot sell me the same kind of rules, stipulations, and results with every single match. As a scripted entertainment they have to constantly change things up. That’s why its brings so much excitement for fans when there’s an announced different rules or gimmick towards a particular booked match. You cannot sell me the same exact match-rules for every rivalry like you could with Andre-Hogan. You have to make all future matches in rivalries have a different level of challenge with each other if you want to maintain interest. Wrestling certainly has created a long list of different matches types over the years and only the ones that still garner an audience and/or keeps rivalries going still are used over and over again. Sure the spots may be similar to the last and many are trying to reach towards to the ultimate messuring stick to what the match type is even about, but one thing you cannot deny is if they worked on one rivalry, they can work on many more that deserve to be booked in one.
Even though the Monday Night Wars is the center point of the battle between WWF and WCW, it’s really the Pay Per View buys that makes the most money. The attitude era would have been nothing without these pay per views that many episodes of Raw did their damnedest to promote! Without the edge and excitement going around Raw is War each week, it wouldn’t encourage us to buy these shows. As stated in the last blog, The Attitude Era was a huge pond filled with big fishes and if you wanted to see these stars put to the test, more times than not the Pay Per Views in the Attitude Era certainly delivered their fullest potential. You could never see so much recklessness and variety match ups before with many of these pay per views and modern wrestling today lacks all excitement and entertainment value that these shows form this era upholds. It was an ultimate party that everybody wanted to see and the show certainly delivered many of things that we don’t get a chance to see on Raw like title changes, impact moves that really cause a huge reaction to the crowd, and match finishes that were incredibly creative and given an everlasting impression more so than any other television broadcasting. And that’s why I’m here to count down the ten of the best pay per view shows in the Attitude Era that everyone needs to see!
The Top Lister 