ECW Heatwave (August 1998)

For 1998, with their popularity and exposure rising, ECW brought the annual Heatwave event to pay per view – and, for the first time, the event was held outside of their Philadelphia home base ECW Arena, moved to a much larger venue in Ohio.

From Dayton, Ohio; Your Hosts are Joey Styles, Shane Douglas, and Francine’s tits.

WWF WrestleMania X-7

WrestleMania X-7 came during a very interesting time for the WWF, as they had finally outgunned and sunk rival WCW (outright buying it in the process), and effectively ended the Monday Night Wars. With all this taking place just weeks before WrestleMania, and over 60,000 fans set to pack the AstroDome in Houston for the pay per view, anticipation was high – X-7 becoming the most commercially successful WrestleMania to that point.

Though they didn’t know it at the time, WrestleMania X-7 also came to be known as the finale of the Attitude Era. With WCW finished, the business as a whole started to decline, and the WWF’s product began gradually shifting away from the racy Attitude towards the modern product – this WrestleMania the last true supercard of the era.

With the end of the era also came the end of my wrestling obsession. While many outside factors played in (when you’re sixteen, cars and girls start trumping wrestling), the mishandling of the forthcoming ‘Invasion’ angle left such a bad taste in my mouth, I lost interest in the product over the course of the year – only casually following  from then on.

From Houston, Texas; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Paul Heyman – in front of a massive crowd. Throughout the year, observers openly doubted whether or not they would be able to pack the AstroDome (many anticipating a repeat of ten years prior), and seeing it full was a huge validation after living through the downturn of mid-90s. This is also the debut of the gigantic entrance sets – which I loved at the time, but have grown thoroughly sick of since.

ECW Hardcore Heaven (August 1997)

After the success of Barely Legal in April, ECW returned to pay per view in the summer of 1997, bringing their annual Hardcore Heaven live event into the pay per view market – the buildup focusing on an cross-promotional match between ECW mainstay Tommy Dreamer and the WWF’s Jerry Lawler.

From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Your Host is Joey Styles.

WWF WrestleMania 2000

Going into WrestleMania 2000 (which is going to create a real problem in the year 3984),  the WWF was resurgent with a new kind of Attitude. With head writer Vince Russo (credited for many of the ideas that buoyed the Attitude Era, and helped the WWF overtake the competition) jumping ship to WCW, and foremost superstar Steve Austin out for nearly a year with an injury, many observers believed it to be a sign of the end for the WWF. Instead, the product improved significantly without Russo – more cohesive, logical angles presented, and more focus put on showcasing the in-ring talents of the promotions significant roster.

Even without Austin, the expanded roster led them to extend the show to over three and a half hours for the first time since settling on a three hour format in the early 1990s, as well as packing the card with multi-man matches – not a single one-on-one match offered other than a ‘catfight’ on the undercard.

The WWF also offered a flawed ‘WrestleMania All-Day-Long’ pre-show (on pay per view, for an extra fifteen dollars) that started at noon, and featured eight hours of WrestleMania history. While fun in theory, sitting through eight straight hours of wrestling, before a four hour show was just too much – leaving me (and pretty much anyone who sat through it) quite burned out by the time the actual show came on the air.

From Anaheim, California; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Lilian Garcia sings the Star Spangled Banner to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania XV

With 1998 focused on Steve Austin’s epic feud with Mr. McMahon, WrestleMania XV was focused on a blowoff between Austin and McMahon’s ‘Corporate Champion’ The Rock. Though the show was highly anticipated and commercially successful (including very much so by me – at fourteen years old, and a smartened up mark for Attitude), it has since become known as a prime example of the excesses and mistakes of Vince Russo’s erratic writing style that dominated the Attitude Era.

Still, for all its flaws, the WWF sold the show on the well built foundation of a strong main event. After Steve Austin had won the WWF Title at WrestleMania XIV, his main rival became Mr. McMahon – who spent the entire year trying to get the title off of him (with varying degrees of success), and onto a champion in line with his more conservative views. He finally managed to do so at Survivor Series, and now Austin was gunning for revenge – and the title. It was simple, well booked angles like these that helped fans relate to Attitude, and kept them tuning in – even when surrounded by nonsensical goofiness.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. Boyz II Men sing America the Beautiful to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania XIV

If WrestleMania 13 set the stage for the Attitude Era, WrestleMania XIV is where the curtain rose. In the months after Survivor Series, the WWF became like a phoenix rising from the ashes of Montreal – Steve Austin set to finally ascend to the WWF Title at WrestleMania. With more and more fans getting behind Austin and his Attitude, anticipation was high – and it became the most commercially successful WrestleMania since the 1980s.

The show also marked a changing of the guard, as an injured Shawn Michaels wrestled what many believed to be his last match (and what would be his last until 2002) to pass the title and torch to Austin. Over the course of less than six months, two of the biggest stars of the 1990s (Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels) were gone from the WWF, and still untested stars like Steve Austin, the Rock, and Triple H left to carry the promotion.

For me, it was a terrible time. Seeing Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels (two of the guys most responsible for my fandom) pushed aside so unceremoniously in such short order left a bad taste in my mouth, and I turned the TV off before the show was even over – having no interest in seeing Steve Austin win the WWF Title. While I would later get on board with Attitude, it would take the brilliant Steve Austin/Vince McMahon saga – the overarching storyline the WWF finally needed to counter WCW’s nWo angle – to do it.

From Boston, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF WrestleMania 13

If Vince McMahon has nightmares, I bet a lot of them still revolve around booking WrestleMania 13. Between the multiple booking changes, shrinking profits, and stiff competition from WCW (now in the thick of the nWo angle), this became one of the most ill-fated WrestleManias before it even went on the air.

The original booking saw WWF Champion Shawn Michaels facing off with Bret Hart in an anticipated rematch from the year before. However, a month before the show, Shawn forfeited the WWF Title (citing a knee injury – and triggering a series of events that would lead to Bret Hart leaving the WWF in the fall, and then years of real life animosity with Michaels), and WWF quickly scrambled to rebook the card – passing the title to Sid. What they ended up with was one of the dullest WrestleMania cards presented (the promotion and atmosphere comparable to an In Your House show), with very little in the way of intrigue – the only real exception being the epic feud between Hart and Steve Austin – the two set to clash on the undercard.

From Chicago, Illinois; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.

WWF WrestleMania XII

With a thin roster going into 1996, the WWF tried something different for WrestleMania XII: selling the event on a card filling sixty-minute Iron Man match between Shawn Michaels and WWF Champion Bret Hart, and leaving the celebrities behind – one of the first WrestleManias not to feature any celebrity involvement whatsoever, despite taking place in Southern California. Instead, the show was sold entirely on Shawn Michaels’ efforts  to realize his ‘boyhood dream’ of winning the WWF Title – with no other title matches booked on the card.

Watching live as an eleven year old mark, the buildup absolutely worked. Like the WWF, I didn’t care much about the rest of the card, but I remember being absolutely pumped at the notion that my two favorite wrestlers were going to battle for an hour, and my buddy and I were pulling hard for Shawn Michaels – one of the very few times I wasn’t fully behind Bret Hart in a match.

From Anaheim, California; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

WWF WrestleMania XI

Facing stiff competition from a now Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage led WCW, and shrinking profits across the board, the WWF changed directions in late 1994 – taking the title off of Bret Hart, and putting it on the still unseasoned (but popular) Diesel. With the move back to a ‘big man’ champion, the WWF hoped to recapture the glory of Hulkamania, but in the process, neutered everything the fans loved so much about Diesel to begin with – turning him into a bouncing babyface, rather than an unstoppable monster.

Not sure how the untested Diesel would draw against an equally untested Shawn Michaels as the main event for the biggest show of the year, McMahon went back to the basics that made the WWF a mainstream phenomenon during the Golden Era, and packed the show with celebrities – even having NFL great Lawrence Taylor scheduled to step into the ring and main event. While Taylor’s involvement did give the WWF a short term boost, unlike Rock ‘n’ Wrestling, it didn’t do much for the flailing promotion in the long run, and the WWF continued to struggle to compete with a reinvigorated WCW.

From Hartford, Connecticut; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler. Kathy Huey sings America the Beautiful to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania X

Timing is everything. After a few stutter-steps, I finally got into the sport of wrestling in early 1994 – just in time for the march to WrestleMania X. Over my youth, it became my absolute favorite show – initially for sentimental reasons, and later for an appreciation of the match quality, and the masterful storytelling featured.

While WrestleMania X wasn’t considered a commercial success, it was critically lauded from the moment it went off the air – and continues to be today. With Hulk Hogan no longer a part of the WWF, the first WrestleMania without the Hulkster was both a nod to the history of the show, and an ushering in of a new era for the promotion. The actual buildup of the main event focused on a mini ‘tournament’ for the WWF Title, as Yokozuna (nine months into his reign of terror as WWF Champion) would have to defend the title against Royal Rumble co-winners Bret Hart and Lex Luger.

For Luger, it was his last shot at the title he had failed to win at SummerSlam. For Hart, a shot at redemption after losing the title to Yokozuna one year earlier – the stage set for WrestleManias anniversary return home to Madison Square Garden.

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler. Little Richard sings America the Beautiful to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania IX

Going into WrestleMania IX, the WWF’s direction was veering wildly. While the main event scene of 1992 had been dominated by Ric Flair, Randy Savage, and the Ultimate Warrior, by 1993, Flair was back in WCW, Warrior had bailed on the promotion, and Randy Savage was (perplexingly) regulated to broadcast duty.

Fearing that his main event of Bret Hart and Yokozuna clashing for the WWF Title wasn’t enough of a draw (both were still relatively untested – Hart only recently elevated to main event position, and Yoko a mere six months into his run), Vince McMahon called upon his most historically reliable draw – Hulk Hogan – to save the day. While he wasn’t technically booked in the main event, his return (Hogan had stepped away from the WWF after WrestleMania VIII) was heavily promoted – teaming with pal Brutus Beefcake to take on WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc.

From Las Vegas, Nevada (outdoors at Caesars Palace – one of the greatest wrestling sets ever designed); Your Hosts are Jim Ross, Randy Savage, and Bobby Heenan – in Ross’ WWF debut.

WWF WrestleMania VIII

WrestleMania VIII will forever be remembered as one of the WWF’s biggest missed opportunities. Over the summer of 1991, longtime NWA/WCW Champion Ric Flair joined the WWF after a falling out with the rival promotions management, and a showdown with Hulk Hogan seemed inevitable – Flair calling Hogan out from his first appearance. With Flair winning the WWF Title at the Royal Rumble, it looked like wrestling fans were finally going to see the big dream match in the most proper setting – the WWF even advertising it – but in the final stretch of promotion, they suddenly changed gears: programming Hogan against former pal Sid, and having Flair change his tune to calling out Randy Savage instead of Hulk Hogan.

While the WWF has since officially citied the reason for the change as ‘unimpressive business’ for the Hogan/Flair house show matches they ran during the buildup, it had much more to do with the looming government steroid trials – Hulk Hogan ducking for cover under the guise of ‘retirement’ after WrestleMania. WCW would later take advantage of the folly when Hogan debuted for them two years later – immediately programming him against Ric Flair, and drawing their biggest numbers to that point.

WrestleMania VIII was also almost the first WrestleMania one I saw. While I would get into the sport once and for all in early 1994, around the spring of 1992 I did occasionally catch WWF weekend programming, and remember being excited for the big show they were promoting. A family friend was a big fan, and planned to order the show – kindly inviting me over to watch – but I hadn’t been properly bitten by the wrestling bug yet, and seven year old me decided to stay home and play.

From Indianapolis, Indiana; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. Reba McEntire sings the Star Spangled Banner to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania VII

In the days before WrestleMania was guaranteed to sell out massive stadiums every year, the success of the show still heavily relied on the product itself – as well as the state of the wrestling business. With the Golden Age dead, and wrestling in an undeniable slump during the early 1990s, Vince McMahon made the grievous error of deciding to run his flagship show at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – coolly estimating 100,000 people would turn out for the event.

After a year of business declining, hoping to ensure success, McMahon put his most bankable star (Hulk Hogan) in the main event, and ran a hot (though still controversial) angle where American hero Sgt. Slaughter turned heel, becoming an Iraqi sympathizer during the first Gulf War. Unfortunately, days before the show, tens of thousands of tickets remained unsold (the building was booked over a year in advance – promotion beginning as far back at WrestleMania VI – but only some 15,000 actual seats had sold), so, citing ‘security concerns’, the WWF moved WrestleMania to the smaller Sports Arena.

From Los Angeles, California; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan (with Regis Philbin, Alex Trebek, and Marla Maples as WrestleMania ‘guest hosts’ – doing various backstage duties). Willie Nelson sings America the Beautiful to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania VI

WrestleMania VI saw the WWF take their flagship show in a slightly different direction. After holding the last two editions in the slightly depressing Trump Plaza in Atlantic City for a crowd of casually interested fans (as part of a cross promotional deal with Donald Trump) the WWF decided to take their show on the road again – this time crossing the border for the first time for WrestleMania – holding the event in Toronto’s magnificent SkyDome.

With over sixty thousand seats to fill in an era before WrestleMania was guaranteed to sell out big stadiums on name value alone (a lesson they would learn the hard way the next year), the WWF promoted one of the biggest dream matches of the era – a rare face/face confrontation between WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior – with Hogan set to pass the torch to the man Vince McMahon believed capable of carrying the WWF into the 1990s. In an effort to guarantee maximum attendance, McMahon shrewdly cut closed circuit outlets in the Toronto area out of airing WrestleMania, forcing local fans to either buy a ticket, or wait for home video.

While the event is considered one of the biggest of the Golden Era, it also has become known as the effective conclusion of it, as Warrior’s title win (much like Sting’s over long time NWA Champion Ric Flair later the same year) ended up failing to meet anyone’s expectations, and business went into decline for years until the Attitude Era.

From Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura (in his last WWF pay per view appearance in this role). Robert Goulet sings O Canada to kick things off.

WCW Great American Bash 1995

After a two year hiatus, WCW brought the Great American Bash back as part of its beefed up pay per view lineup for 1995, the main event set up at the previous months Slamboree, where Ric Flair attacked Randy Savage’s father Angelo (at ringside as part of the ‘Legends Reunion’), reigniting their feud for a WCW audience – the blowoff appropriately scheduled to take place on Fathers Day.

From Dayton, Ohio; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan.

WCW Great American Bash 1992

In early 1991, WCW began distancing itself from the NWA – becoming an independent national promotion (as opposed to an NWA ‘territory’) – and in turn, absorbing all of the NWA’s main titles into their new lineages. By mid-1992, the NWA – reeling without their main territory – began desperately working to reestablish itself, starting with reinstating their own world tag titles. In a bit of cross promotion (see: leeching off of WCW), the NWA titles would be decided through a tournament on WCW programming, the last three rounds scheduled for the Great American Bash – with a tournament to establish a new NWA World Champion (the title – which had been unified with the WCW Title for most of 1991 – vacant since Ric Flair’s WWF jump the year before) scheduled for the next month.

The Bash came during the very thick of Bill Watts’ (often misguided) 1992 run booking WCW. Among many, many other things, Watts was strongly against promoting the NWA, and though this show was sold almost entirely on seeing new NWA tag champions crowned (only one other match was promoted – Sting’s WCW Title defense against Vader), Watts planned to bury the titles (and the NWA) – which he would do for the entirety of his run.

From Albany, New York; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Magnum TA, with Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura on commentary – in front of a small, heavily papered crowd.

WCW Great American Bash 1991

After the failed start of the Sting-era to carry the promotion into the 1990s a year earlier, WCW decided to give it another try with their second choice – headlining the Great American Bash with Lex Luger’s long awaited clean victory over longtime rival Ric Flair to win the World Title.

Unfortunately for WCW, world champion Ric Flair (the most reliable draw in the promotion) was in the middle of heated contract negotiations with Turner executive Jim Herd – with whom Flair had a notoriously contentious relationship. Herd’s strategy of lowballing (as well as his feeling that Flair was past his prime, and needed to be put out to pasture jobbing for guys in the midcard) led to Ric balking, and walking out on the promotion – the physical title belt in tow.

What resulted is one of the most legendarily bad shows of all time. With Flair’s bailing two weeks before the card killing the main event (and Luger’s planned torch-passing world title win moment), WCW was left quickly scrambling to elevate non-contender Barry Windham to main event level for Luger to win the vacant title from – all while they trying to lure Flair back. The fans didn’t buy it one bit, however, and the Bash turned into a sit-in – the crowd firmly behind Flair in the dispute, and chanting for him through the entire show in protest.

From Baltimore, Maryland; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone – both of whom waste no time in burying Ric Flair.

NWA (WCW) Great American Bash 1990

The start of the 1990s was met with a great atmosphere of change in the wrestling world. After a few stutter steps in the spring, the Great American Bash was supposed to be the ushering in of a new era for WCW – where perennial World Champion Ric Flair (who had essentially held the title since 1983) would put over younger superstar Sting once and for all, setting him on a path to carry the promotion into the 1990s, before riding into the sunset (the midcard).

Much like the WWF’s similarly themed WrestleMania VI a few months prior – which featured their perennial champion Hulk Hogan putting over their face painted superhero the Ultimate Warrior in grand fashion – WCW hoped a bold change in direction away from the ways of old would improve business (particularly among kids – the area WCW most lagged behind the WWF), as well as reduce the influence of Ric Flair, who some in management perceived to be aging and out of touch. But, as Vince McMahon was already learning with his new world champion, sometimes things don’t quite go as planned.

From Baltimore, Maryland; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.

NWA (WCW) Great American Bash 1989

At WrestleWar, Ric Flair regained the NWA World Title in a legendary match with Ricky Steamboat – only to be attacked after the bout by ringside judge Terry Funk, when Flair denied him a title shot. Funk’s attack on Flair (which included a piledriver onto a table) put the champion on the shelf and rocketed Funk into a main eventer again, leading to a showdown at the Great American Bash – Flair’s return to face Funk, the title on the line.

Though not producing box office receipts to match the Hulkamania fueled WWF, WCW was in the midst of a creative renaissance – producing intriguing angles and satisfying pay per views – with many considering the 1989 Bash the climax of their potential, frequently coming up in discussions of ‘best shows of all time.’

From Baltimore, Maryland; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.

NWA (JCP) Great American Bash 1988

Now in on the pay per view game, the NWA took the Great American Bash off tour for 1988 (though house shows were still marketed as ‘Bash tour stops’ throughout the summer), and held a single event to air on pay per view – the show built and sold on NWA Champion Ric Flair facing off with up-and-coming superstar Lex Luger, recently ousted from Flair’s Horsemen stable, and looking for revenge.

The show came during a period of transition for the promotion, as Jim Crockett’s failure to compete with the WWF on a national level, as well as his excesses rapidly catching up to him, forced him to sell the promotion to Ted Turner only a few month later – the Bash something of a Hail Mary to try and salvage things.

From Baltimore, Maryland; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone.

NWA (JCP) Great American Bash Tour 1987

For 1987, the NWA once again took the Great American Bash on tour for the month of July, introducing one of their best remembered match concepts along the way: WarGames. The tour was a tremendous success, and Jim Crockett released another two hour compilation of highlights for the home video market.

My local video store carried very few NWA/WCW tapes in the mid-90s (when I started watching wrestling, and looking back), but this Bash Tour tape was one of the few available, and the promise of WarGames had me eagerly renting it.

Your Host is Tony Schiavone.

NWA (JCP) Great American Bash Tour 1986

After the success of Starrcade, the NWA introduced a second supercard to their lineup for the summer of 1985: The Great American Bash. The first show drew well, packing some thirty thousand into Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, so for 1986, they took the concept ‘on tour’ – with events across  Jim Crockett’s territory billed as the ‘Great American Bash’ throughout the month of July.

Because there were over a dozen local ‘Bashes’ that year, the NWA released a compilation of the event on home video, promising highlights from the tour – mostly focusing on two separate stops in North Carolina, one of which saw Dusty Rhodes finally win the NWA World Title from nemesis Ric Flair.

Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and David Crockett.

WCW Slamboree 1994

The spring of 1994 marked an interesting time for WCW – rumors heavily swirling that Hulk Hogan would be joining the promotion any day, and fans abuzz. Slamboree marked WCW’s last pay per view effort before Hogan officially signed his big money contract the next month (and was pushed to an immediate WCW Title win at the next pay per view), but that didn’t stop them from playing up on the rumors – promising a ‘six foot seven, blond, former World Champion’ mystery challenger to Ric Flair’s WCW World Title.

At the time, WCW also had something of a working relationship with still up-and-coming ECW (loaning talent like Cactus Jack and Terry Funk, who were instrumental in the promotions early success), and with Slamboree held in Philadelphia (home base of ECW) the small crowd was filled with their vocal, bloodthirsty fan base.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan.