Best Five Years For The WWF/WWE?

[The Marquis]

'84-'88

Heel Piper, Babyface Piper, Hulkamania, Savage v Steamboat, "Lust in your eyes".

85-89. I’m not a fan of 89, but THE angle happened that year and basically “made em ‘come’” as Austin would say.

The late 90’s didn’t have the 5 strongbyears. Maybe 3… and 99 was trash.

Can we do an NWA/WCW one? (It’s the same)

 

[JackSlater]

85-89. I’m not a fan of 89, but THE angle happened that year and basically “made em ‘come’” as Austin would say.

The late 90’s didn’t have the 5 strongbyears. Maybe 3… and 99 was trash.

Can we do an NWA/WCW one? (It’s the same)

Maybe 1988-1992 for for NWA/WCW. 1996-2000 for WCW exclusively, even with the crazy crap in the latter years.

 

[The Marquis]

Maybe 1988-1992 for for NWA/WCW. 1996-2000 for WCW exclusively, even with the crazy crap in the latter years.

My favorite years are 88-92 for WCW for sure, though I’d say unquestionably their best two years were 1986 and 1989, so they’ve got to be in the range, right?. 85-89 would be the best in my opinion, since 1990 was a little transitional I’ll leave it out in favor of 85. Formation and prime years of the Horsemen, 1989 in ring stuff being the best. 1987 had the best Bash tour ever. Good stuff. I personally enjoy 1990-1992 better but it wasn’t as good as 85-87.

As for post Crockett WCW, too hard as any range including their peak 96-98 has to include 95 or 99 or maybe 00 which were horrible. But I’d go 94-98 because 94 WCW rules.

Anybody know AWA enough to do one? Lololol. ECW?

 

[JackSlater]

My favorite years are 88-92 for WCW for sure, though I’d say unquestionably their best two years were 1986 and 1989, so they’ve got to be in the range, right?. 85-89 would be the best in my opinion, since 1990 was a little transitional I’ll leave it out in favor of 85. Formation and prime years of the Horsemen, 1989 in ring stuff being the best. 1987 had the best Bash tour ever. Good stuff. I personally enjoy 1990-1992 better but it wasn’t as good as 85-87.

As for post Crockett WCW, too hard as any range including their peak 96-98 has to include 95 or 99 or maybe 00 which were horrible. But I’d go 94-98 because 94 WCW rules.

Anybody know AWA enough to do one? Lololol. ECW?

That is the trick with WCW... you need 96-98 so you either take the pre-NWO Hogan era or the craziness. I prefer the craziness personally since there was still some good stuff (Steiner, DDP, some decent cruiserweights) going on in late era WCW.

I can't really speak to it personally as I've only seen some 1980s stuff, but I'd guess that some point in the early to mid 1980s would be the most watchable AWA period. Bockwinkel replaces Gagne as the focal point, the short but huge rise of Hogan, the pre-exodus with Ventura, Schultz, Okerlund, Heenan, and company still around in the early years, then the later years with new blood like Martel, Hennig, The Road Warriors, and Hall. So I'd say 1981-1985 to capture all of Hogan's time plus the rise of Hennig with Bockwinkel as the man on top.

 

[The Marquis]

That is the trick with WCW... you need 96-98 so you either take the pre-NWO Hogan era or the craziness. I prefer the craziness personally since there was still some good stuff (Steiner, DDP, some decent cruiserweights) going on in late era WCW.

I can't really speak to it personally as I've only seen some 1980s stuff, but I'd guess that some point in the early to mid 1980s would be the most watchable AWA period. Bockwinkel replaces Gagne as the focal point, the short but huge rise of Hogan, the pre-exodus with Ventura, Schultz, Okerlund, Heenan, and company still around in the early years, then the later years with new blood like Martel, Hennig, The Road Warriors, and Hall. So I'd say 1981-1985 to capture all of Hogan's time plus the rise of Hennig with Bockwinkel as the man on top.

I grew up watching Portland Wrestling, but would catch both AWA and World Class from time to time in the mid 80’s. AWA was a lot like WCW in that it had some poor years around their best years, but I’d say 85 and 86 were their best ever. Picking 5 is tough because 87 has some very good stuff, as did 88, but their business was waaaay down so it looked like people thought it’s sucked. Their classic period was like 81-84, but the wrestling wasn’t quite as good. I’d probably go 83-87 then. You get the Bockwinkel years, the Midnight Rockers/Somers&Rose feud, the entire Freebirds and Road Warriors run, the Hennig title run, Stan Hansen’s run, the end of Hogan. Yeah. That’s the best era of the AWA. I don’t think anybody would debate World Class (82-86). I know what I’m doing tonight. Bustin out my AWA tapes.

 

[sabremike]

For ECW I'd say from mid 1993 when Paul E took over as booker until mid 1998 when the company lost tv in the NY market until 1999. Quality didn't really fall until 2000 and most of that was due to talent loss and Paul having to devote most of his energy trying to save the company in the wake of the TNN debacle.

 

[Voight]

For ECW I'd say from mid 1993 when Paul E took over as booker until mid 1998 when the company lost tv in the NY market until 1999. Quality didn't really fall until 2000 and most of that was due to talent loss and Paul having to devote most of his energy trying to save the company in the wake of the TNN debacle.

Agreed.

Thats also when guys like RVD & Dreamer made their debuts and when Sandman went mainstream (amongst others).