WWF Saturday Night's Main Event III (November 1985)

Original Airdate: November 2, 1985

From Hershey, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura.

WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event II (October 1985)

Original Airdate: October 5, 1985

After the success of the first Saturday Night’s Main Event in May – with the WWF still running wild in the thick of the Golden Age – they came back for another late night special on NBC that fall.

From East Rutherford, New Jersey; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura.

WWF Saturday Night's Main Event I (May 1985)

Original Airdate: May 11, 1985

With the WWF reaching unparalleled levels of success and mainstream exposure with Hulk Hogan, the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection, and the first WrestleMania, they secured a deal with NBC to air 90-minute specials throughout the year, in place of a Saturday Night Live rerun. It was a tremendous ratings success – a win for both the WWF and NBC – and would run until 1992, when a general slump in the wrestling business resulted in cancelation.

From Uniondale, New York; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura.

WCW SuperBrawl (May 1991)

In 1991, WCW introduced a new pay per view to their lineup in an effort to create a non-NWA associated flagship show: SuperBrawl. Over the next few years, WCW would push to establish SuperBrawl as its flagship blowoff show – turning Starrcade into a non-blowoff concept card for ’91 and ’92 – and even releasing a videogame named after the event.

The first SuperBrawl was less this structure of a new flagship program (as WCW had just run Starrcade a few months earlier), but built around a rematch between WCW World Champion Ric Flair and NWA World Champion Tatsumi Fujinami – after Flair had lost the latter title to Fujinami in a WCW/New Japan cross promotional event in March.

From St. Petersburg, Florida; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Dusty Rhodes.

WCW / NJPW SuperShow (March 1991)

The SuperShow was an interesting cross promotional, east-meets-west event held in Japan by WCW and New Japan in March 1991 – though it wouldn’t air in North America until the next month, and in edited form. It took place in front of over 60,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome, and was actually promoted as ‘Starrcade’ in Japan. I’m covering it today as an introduction to the upcoming SuperBrawl series, as this card is the catalyst for the main event of the first SuperBrawl.

From Tokyo, Japan; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone in North America – though my copy is the full Japanese version of the show, with Japanese announcers.

WCW Spring Stampede 1994

For 1994 WCW decided to add a new pay per view to their calendar, for the first time producing an event for the month of April, to bridge the gap between SuperBrawl in February and Slamboree in May. It was an interesting period for WCW, as this was one of the last shows produced before their fateful signing of Hulk Hogan in June, changing the direction of the entire promotion.

I wasn’t a WCW fan yet when the event was first held (in fact, only becoming a wrestling fan at all a few months before), but I did acquire a VHS copy of the show in the late 90s (from Amazon.com!), based on good word of mouth, and the reputation of Ric Flair v Ricky Steamboat matches.

From Chicago, Illinois; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan.

WWF Over the Edge 1999

Over the Edge ’99 is, without a doubt, the WWE / WWF’s most infamous show. For me, as a fourteen year old hardcore WWF supporter, it was one of the most surreal, visceral moments in my wrestling fandom.

I didn’t order the show live, as the monthly pay per view wars were too pricey for my family to compete in, but I heard about the death of Owen Hart that same night, on the local news. It was indescribably devastating, as Hart had always been one of my favorite Superstars – and, in fact, one of the reasons I turned on to the product to begin with in early 1994. I was heart broken not only as a fan, but thinking of how his family must be feeling – especially parents Stu and Helen, and brother Bret. I stood in front of my bedroom television set shocked – it couldn’t be true – and in an era before DVR, I couldn’t go back to make sure. Unfortunately, the internet quickly confirmed what the newscaster had said.

The next day at school, classes happened to be put off for an end of the year field trip to a local amusement park. It was the first opportunity I had to talk to my ‘wrestling buddies’ about what had happened. Everyone was shocked, not at all in the mood to go on rides, or have any real fun. I remember talking of the incident, and general Owen memories, at the picnic table lunch over our peanut butter sandwiches. It was very overwhelming – and maybe more so for me than some of my friends, as I had recently lost a close family member, and Owen’s death brought on a flood of memories. Fittingly, it rained all day.

Watching Over the Edge ’99 is not a part of the usual process, especially for review. Obviously, it isn’t the type of show we watch for the purpose we usually tune into wrestling: enjoyment and escapism. To suspend disbelief. Watching Over the Edge is the wrestling equivalent of watching the Zapruder film. Of watching a Holocaust documentary. It isn’t entertainment… but it’s a major part of the pseudo-sport we love – one of the most tragic.

From Kansas City, Missouri; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WCW Slamboree 1996

After taking a look at the nWo‘s formation, I thought we should pull back and take a peek at the last WCW pay per view to take place before Scott Hall’s fateful appearance on Nitro the next week.

For 1996, WCW scrapped the ‘Legends Reunion’ theme from Slamboree – instead digging up Dusty Rhodes’ BattleBowl/Lethal Lottery concept (not used since November 1993) to advance some angles without having to pay them off, as well as push Diamond Dallas Page.

My interest in the show was minimal, as I had become a WCW fan after Hogan and Savage’s entrances in 1994 – but only to a point. Everything from fall 1995-nWo invasion blends together, as I was mostly watching the WWF – almost every week of which I remember vividly.

From Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes.

WCW Fall Brawl 1996

With the nWo running wild, the annual Fall Brawl seemed like a perfect place for WCW to get some revenge – booking a hot War Games main event. However, since the nWo only had four active members at that point (and one – The Giant – was busy wrestling in another match), it led to another promise of a mystery partner, as well as the introduction of Sting as the lead foil for Hollywood Hogan, and the nWo.

From Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes.

WCW Hog Wild 1996

Hog Wild 1996 was an interesting show for many reasons. It was WCW’s first effort at programming an August pay per view into their increasingly competitive schedule, which they decided to hold outdoors at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, with tickets given to bikers for free in the midst of the hottest angle they’d ever stumbled onto with the nWo. The result led to a disinterested crowd (many of whom actually sat on their bikes for the duration of the show) filled with non-fans who grabbed free tickets to a random wrestling show on their vacation, but had little/no knowledge of the participants or angles presented.

From Sturgis, South Dakota; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes – trying their best to fit in, and not recreate Altamont.

WCW Bash at the Beach 1996

Ever since Memorial Day 1996, when Scott Hall showed up unannounced on Nitro as an ‘invader’ from a rival promotion – the wrestling world was abuzz. At The Great American Bash, he (and fellow ‘Outsider’ Kevin Nash) attacked WCW’s Eric Bischoff – powerbombing him through a table – and spent the next month reeking havoc on the entire roster, running in during matches, and attacking everyone in sight. The angle was extremely hot, turning all heads to WCW (and Nitro – which would dominate the WWF’s RAW in the ratings for over 80 weeks), and the first ‘blowoff’ to the angle was scheduled for Bash at the Beach, where the Outsiders (along with an unnamed third man), would do battle with three of WCW’s foremost stars.

As a kid, this was big. Everyone knew who Razor and Diesel were, and seeing them show up on Nitro, destroy sets and punk out wrestlers was like a bizzaro world. It didn’t have the same feeling as seeing Barry Windham or Dustin Rhodes show up in the WWF with a new gimmick – it felt real, and was extremely well done. The ‘who is the third man’ question also plagued us for weeks going into this – with all sorts of rumors of who was going to come over from the WWF next.

From Daytona Beach, Florida; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes

WCW The Great American Bash 1996

The Great American Bash 1996 is remembered as one of the primary steps in WCW’s quest to transition from ‘that wrestling on the other channel’ to the undisputed #1 promotion in North America. The card on paper going into the show certainly didn’t imply such (it was essentially stranded WCW fare for the period), but the events that would unfold drove forward a storyline that would, for the first time, not only make WCW a contender against the WWF (which they first truly achieved with the signing of Hulk Hogan (and, to a lesser extent, Randy Savage) in 1994) but the premier wrestling promotion in North America.

From Baltimore, Maryland; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes

NWA (WCW) WrestleWar 1989

WrestleWar ’89: Music City Showdown! (a showdown in Music City!) isn’t one I saw live (I was four), but in the late 90s, after ‘smartening up’ about the wrestling business and becoming more interested in the art of wrestling, it was one I sought out – as it featured the legendary showdown (in Music City!) between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat that was heralded as one of the greatest of all time.

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.

WCW Starrcade 1997

Starrcade 1997 is one of WCW’s most famous, and certainly their most notorious show. It broke all previous pay per view commercial figures for the company (breaking Hulk Hogan’s debut show – Bash at the Beach 1994’s record), and – aside from multiple feuds promised to be paid off on the biggest blowoff show of the year – was the culmination of the Sting v nWo angle that had been the focus of WCW programming throughout 1997.

In addition, Bret Hart – fresh off of his rocky departure from the WWF after the Montreal Screwjob – was set to make an appearance. The signing of Bret Hart – one of the WWF’s biggest international stars of the 90s – was a huge triumph for WCW, and with the WWF reeling, his addition to Starrcade only added to the level of intrigue. It was certainly big bait for me, as Montreal had turned me off of the WWF completely for a while, and I was eager to see what WCW would do with my hero, the Hitman.

The show was poised to become WCW’s knockout blow to the staggering WWF, but is now remembered as one of the turning points in the Monday Night Wars, as WCW mishandled and blew the potential of this show so badly, it began the downward spiral that would not only help the WWF overtake them in ratings and revenue by 1998 – but lead to their eventual demise only three years later.

From Washington, D.C. – Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Dusty Rhodes.

WWF Survivor Series 1998

By 1998, the WWF was resurgent – finally finding the overarching storyline they needed to overtake WCW with Steve Austin v Mr. McMahon – and in the fall, Mr. McMahon won a major battle in his endless war against Stone Cold, getting the WWF Title off of him. Unfortunately for him, his plan (kayfabe) to put the title on The Undertaker or Kane had failed when Austin interfered – leaving it vacant – and compelling the formation of a fourteen-man single elimination tournament (known as, The Deadly Games) to declare a new champion. McMahon lined up his troops – determined the night end with the title on Corporate stooge Mankind – while Steve Austin and newly christened ‘People’s Champion’ The Rock prepared for the obstacles McMahon would throw on their way to the title.

From St. Louis, Missouri; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF Survivor Series 1996

As an eleven year old mark, I have very fond memories of watching this show on pay per view. The WWF was getting killed financially by WCW at the time, and they built this card nicely, with the blowoff to the Mankind/Undertaker feud, Shawn Michaels defending the WWF Title against Sid, and, probably most intriguing of all, the return of Bret Hart – after eight months of absence, and worries that he would also jump to WCW – to finally face off with Steve Austin, and his mouth.

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jim Ross.

WCW Starrcade 1996

1996 was a return to form for Starrcade, as WCW promoted the card back to flagship status, after spending most of the 90s either running concepts shows, or promoting it as just another event in their ever expanding lineup.

With the nWo storyline in full swing, I had become a somewhat devoted WCW fan by the end of 1996 – Nitro getting about a 50% share with RAW in the channel surfing battle. The WWF was, unquestionably, still my main source of wrestling programming – but even a loyal eleven year old mark superfan would be hard pressed to turn a blind eye at what was going on over on TNT.

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes – along with Mike Tenay (he knows Cruiserweights!) and Lee Marshall (he knows Women!) for a couple of matches.

WCW Starrcade 1995

1995 once again saw WCW running Starrcade as a concept show – which they had previously attempted with BattleBowl in the early 90s – this time holding a ‘World Cup of Wrestling,’ though the only two countries competing were ‘Japan’ and ‘WCW’ – which, to be fair, did have the budget of some smaller countries at that point. The concept was not entirely unlike the Iron Man tournament they ran on the show in 1989, or the Pat O'Connor Memorial International Cup Tag Team Tournament (try saying that five times fast), held in 1990 – though the promotion for it was strange. Because of the time difference, WCW’s main American television platform – Nitro – was not the primary way to sell Starrcade to the Japanese audience, and episodes of Nitro building to Starrcade placed very little focus on the World Cup – which dominates this card. Most of the build took place on WCW’s scarcely watched syndicated programming – which aired at more convenient hours for the Japanese – to help market Starrcade.

Other than the tournament – which, as noted, was fairly irrelevant to American audiences due to WCW’s promotion – there would also be a match for the WCW World Title, featuring champion Randy Savage defending against the winner of a Triangle Match between Ric Flair, Sting, and Lex Luger. This angle was properly promoted for American audiences. My personal, ten year old interest in the show was limited, as I had been following WCW as an occasional WWF alternative since Hulk Hogan’s signing the previous summer, but the fact that he had decided to take time off – sitting Starrcade out – left me numb on the buildup, and I didn’t even bother to ask my parents about ordering the show.

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes.

WCW Starrcade 1994

By 1994 – after a return to form in ’93 promoting Starrcade as its flagship event – WCW had once again demoted its longest running series to filler status. Having blown their Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair dream match load in Hogan’s WCW debut back in July – and already drying up all of the opportunities for rematches to the point that Hulk had put Flair ‘into retirement’ at the previous pay per view – the buildup going into Starrcade mainly focused on Hogan battling the evil Dungeon of Doom, specifically former best friend/member ‘The Butcher’ – best known for their WWF relationship, where he wrestled as Brutus Beefcake.

As a kid, WCW didn’t exist to me until Hulk Hogan signed with them in the summer of ’94, and I started tentatively tuning in – though mostly only whenever the Hulkster was on – as the dream match with Flair was a good lure, and he was one of the few stars they had I was familiar with. My local video stores stocked very little WCW – mostly sticking to more popular WWF shows – and I wasn’t familiar with them other than occasionally coming across Saturday Night while channel surfing, and realizing it wasn’t WWF programming. Going into Starrcade, I wasn’t intrigued by any of the matches (the Dungeon of Doom storyline didn’t even do much to captivate the imagination of a nine year old), but very interested in the news that Randy Savage would make an appearance – promising to either ‘shake Hogan’s hand, or slap his face.’ Savage jumping ship is what effectively legitimized WCW as an alternative to the WWF for me, and was a crucial signing for them in what would become the Monday Night Wars.

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan.

WWF Survivor Series 1995

Survivor Series 1995 is one I never actually saw live, but I did hear live – sitting in front of our ten-inch kitchen TV, listening in to all the pay per view action – back in the days when that was still something you could do. You’d think three hours of listening to McMahon, Ross, and Perfect prattle on by medium meant primarily for visual enjoyment would be tedious – but as a ten year old mark – I was in heaven. Occasionally, the picture would even descramble, and I’d get a five second glimpse of the action – while my mother worried it was getting too close to bedtime on a school night. Listening in was plenty exciting – but it was the results of the main event that truly left me near hysterics. 

From Landover, Maryland; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect – making his return to the WWF.

WCW Starrcade 1993

For 1993, WCW – after spending the last couple of years turning their traditional flagship show into a platform for Dusty Rhodes’ BattleBowl gimmick – decided a return to form was needed for the 10^th Anniversary show. As in the old days, they booked Starrcade as the capital blowoff event of the year – focusing on building feuds, and a major main event.

From Charlotte, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura

WCW Starrcade 1991

1991 was an interesting year for Starrcade. WCW had recently disassociated itself with the NWA for 1991 – as well as lost its biggest star, Ric Flair – though the two are somewhat unrelated. Traditionally, Starrcade was considered NWA/WCW’s ‘WrestleMania’ – their flagship blowoff show – but for 1991 they decided to run a concept show. Devised by Dusty Rhodes, wrestlers names were entered into a lottery (the ‘Lethal Lottery!’), and drawn at random (though actually rigged) to set up ten tag matches throughout the night. The winners of the matches would then advance into a two ring battle royal (BattleBowl!), the winner of which… wins. And that’s it. No blowoff matches, no undercard – just the Lethal Lottery and BattleBowl for the biggest show of the year.

In reality, after the break from the NWA, WCW initially sought to shift the flagship banner away from Starrcade – associated so closely with the NWA days – to SuperBrawl. They would waver on that decision many times in subsequent years – in ’93 using Starrcade as the flagship for its 10^th Anniversary – until finally settling back on it in ’96, by which time they were in fierce competition with the WWF, and no one but wrestling geeks gave a shit about their history with the NWA anymore.

From Norfolk, Virginia; Your Hosts are Jim Ross, and Tony Schiavone – along with Eric Bischoff, Magnum TA, and Missy Hyatt doing the drawings.

WWF Survivor Series 1994

For 1994, the WWF – perhaps noting that the return to the standard series format in ’93 did nothing to effect the commercial response to the show – decided to mix things up again, taking the familiar elimination match format, and the well received changes made in ’91 and especially ’92 – and creating a hybrid, with two cogent main events, as well as several elimination matches to both settle, and advance angles.

As a nine year old kid – just under a year into my blissful markdom, and completely unaware of anything going on backstage, let alone buyrates and format changes – I was beyond pumped for this one. My grandparents had agreed to order the show, and while I was into all the angles (yep – all – even Doink/Lawler… I was that much of a mark), nothing compared to my enthusiasm for Bret Hart defending the WWF Title against the deranged Bob Backlund.

From San Antonio, Texas; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Gorilla Monsoon – in his last appearance calling a WWF pay per view event.

WWF Survivor Series 1993

This is one that took place just before I officially became a fan, when I would check Superstars out once in a while (I still wasn’t allowed to stay up for RAW!), but hadn’t gotten ‘sucked in yet.’ I would by early January – with the Hart Brothers angle – which begins with this show.

This year, after taking a much welcome and well received break from the elimination match format in 1992 – but doing poorly commercially – the WWF brought the old standard back in dominant form for 1993. The return to form didn’t help them in terms of receipts, as the show did even lower number than ‘92 (the lowest buyrate in Survivor Series history, to that point), though realistically, the low numbers both years didn’t have as much to do with match format as a general slump in popularity for professional wrestling, post-Golden Era, and pre-Attitude Era.

From Boston, Massachusetts – Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan, along with Gorilla Monsoon and Jim Ross on Radio WWF!

WWF Survivor Series 1992

Survivor Series 1992 saw the WWF reboot the entire concept. This year, instead of adding a standard match to the elimination festivities – they ran a standard card, with only a token elimination match – instead deciding to give fans more satisfying conclusions to ongoing feuds.

From Richfield, Ohio; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan – because where better to reboot Survivor Series than the same arena the entire concept started out to begin with?