What Do You Remember About the WWF, AWA, WCW and WWE up to 2016?

[AmericanMusic]

Call me a dinosaur that's ok I was watching in the early 80's the AWA wrestling. I believe that Nature boy Ric Flair was World Champion.. The Moondogs Rex and King were a tag team and pretty funny too. Some of the wrestlers from the NWA moves to the WWF. First was AWA and WWF came on next on another channel. The Iron Shiek was World Champion when I started watching the WWF. In a Championship match the Iron Shiek put the camel clutch on Hulk Hogan. Of course he broke the hold and won the match. He remained champ for a couple years. The Ultimate Warrior once beat Hulk Hogan in a championship match. Ultimate Warrior didn't win the belt though because he had the Intercontinental belt. They said it was against the rules to have 2 belts at one time. Even though he didn't get the beslt I consider him to be the winner.

As for the WCW I started watching this in the 80's also. At first it didn't have as many wrestlers as the WWF. As far as I know Sting whose real name is Steve Borden i believe originates from the WCW. His original look was blond hair flattop no shirt and wrestling pants. In the 90's he went to the Goth look black hair and white face. In the 90's within the WCW was a group that was started The NWO. Scott Hall aka Diesel aka Razor Ramon and Kevin Nash were starting members. I didn't like them at all. But you know in wrestling someone has to be the bad guy.

In 2002 WWF turned into the WWE because they said wrestling was entertainment which is the E in WWE. I don't know this one as much as the ones before this. One thing I do remember though is Vicky Guerroro was giving Edge a bad time. She was didtracting him by yelling trying to make him lose. At first it was working. But soon later the Edge ignored her and won the match. Edge a bit later had to retire because he had a number of injuries to his back and the doctors told him he needed to retire because it was too much of a risk to keep wrestling. He announced his retirement in the ring and you knew he was serious because he was almost crying and you can see little pain.

This post is memories of wrestling. Share your memories of the WWF,AWA, WCW and WWE up until the year 2016.
Why do I say 2016? Because this post is about memories and anything after 2016 would not seem like a past memory but a more recent one. Just to remind you that you can talk about wrestlers, managers, owners, commentators, referees, Pipers Pit, Elizabeth, interviewers, cage matches, battle royals, royal rumbles anything at all that you remember even matches.
WWF Saturday Night Event Raw is War, Smackdown, NWO and Nitro. And don't forget about props that were used.
If you want to share video clips and articles that's fine also.

OK let's go to the storeand get our wrestling action figures. I once had 3 of them. Who would like to post next?

 

[EdgeHead]

A few things that I need to correct you with this post:

-While Ric Flair was trained by Verne Gagne at the AWA wrestling school, he wasn't an AWA star by any means, although he wrestled Rick Martel in Quebec City to unify the AWA & NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1985.

-Ultimate Warrior did beat Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VI to win the WWF Championship. He vacated the Intercontinental Championship afterwards and Mr. Perfect won a tournament to crown a new champion by beating Tito Santana in the finals.

-Sting doesn't originate from WCW. While he spent the bulk of his career there, he broke in the business with Mid-South Wrestling/UWF, which was bought by Jim Crockett in 1987. Crockett then was bought by Ted Turner and this is how WCW was formed.

-Scott Hall = Razor Ramon. Kevin Nash = Diesel

-Edge's injury that forced him to retire wasn't a back injury but a neck injury.

 

[Millz]

If I were to write down all my memories of past years of wrestling I would be sitting here for days...actually months...trying to type it all out. I started watching in late 1990, took a break after WrestleMania 9, and came back in September of 1997. And haven't looked back.

The first PPV I saw live was WrestleMania 7 in 1991. Thanks Uncle Bob. We bought every PPV in 1991, 1992 and then Rumble 93 and Mania in 93 until we stopped all together. I thank John Heet from high school is getting me back into it in 1997 after we finally got cable TV and could see RAW on the USA Network. He told me there was this guy named Steve Austin who was awesome and that there was cussing, violence and hot chicks...stuff I didn't see in 1993. I didn't even know what ECW was until 1997 and did watch a little WCW back in the day.

I actually remember where I was when I found out the NWO was formed...my sister's soccer game, thanks Mr. Tietjens. I had no idea Vince McMahon owned the WWE until 1997. I guess I heard about the steroid trial in 1994 but didn't care enough to think much about it.

The best show I ever saw live and in person was the Survivor Series 1998...when the Rock won the WWF title for the first time.

I guess that's enough memories for now haha

 

[Konshentz]

I remember flipping through channels on a Monday night and finding Nitro. NWO & Sting. I knew about wrestling but had never watched it. I was totally sucked in. I loved it. At some point in the future, I found Raw. Stone Cold. The Attitude Era. I never looked back. I was obsessed with wrestling for a solid 4-5 years. I got my mom into it, my uncle, my best friend. I got every PPV. And then I dropped it cold turkey in 2001 as The Invasion storyline began. I've bought Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble a few times in the following 16 years but I've never been able to stick with it or enjoy for an extended period since.

That's the short version. But I could probably write all day about all the amazing stories and moments I watched during those handful of years. Thinking about it, man, I kinda miss it. Haha.

 

[EdgeHead]

The advantage we had in Canada during the Monday Night Wars was that RAW and Nitro didn't air on the same day. As I remember, TSN was airing RAW on Monday nights with the replay on Tuesday at 4 PM. Nitro would be airing on Wednesday at 4 PM and then 3 PM when they switched to 3-hours. So I could watch both shows in their entireties.

Which makes me think now...we complain about RAW being unwatchable for the most part for 3 hours but yet, during the Monday Night Wars, we didn't even bat an eye at WCW doing the exact same thing. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed more Nitro than RAW from 1996 to 1999, until the Fingerpoke of Doom.

 

[CubsMascot]

While I don't remember specific matches or events, I do remember wrestlers I've seen. I saw these wrestlers in the early 80's in the WCW. Tommy and John Rich..Brad and Bob Armstrong, The Freebirds (Michael PS Hayes, Terry Bam Bam Gordie, and Buddy Jack Roberts) they were Champions on and off, Tom Prichard, Jake the Snake Roberts, NWO which consisted of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Buff Bagwell, and X-Pac, The 4 Horseman which consisted of Ric Flair, Arn & Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard and later Steve McMichael ex-Chicago Bear. Dusty Rhodes, Curt Hennig, The Road Warriors. I will make another list later.

Did anyone see any of these wrestlers?

One things stands out more than others was when Owen Hart aka The Blue Blazer fell to his death in 1999 in the Over the Edge PPV and when Chris Benoit murdered his wife and strangled his son and then commited suicide in 2007.. Another list to come later.

 

[EdgeHead]

You're mixing a lot of things in that first paragraph, so I'll try to clear the air a bit:

A lot of those names you mentioned didn't necessarily wrestle for WCW in the 80s (in fact, WCW didn't officially become WCW until 1989 and even then, they didn't separate from the National Wrestling Alliance until 1992 or 1993 I believe). Some came from the territories like Georgia for the Richs and Armstrongs. While the Fabulous Freebirds did wrestle in WCW, this wasn't the original (and best) version. Hayes/Gordy/Roberts worked for World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas and they had a very brief stint in WWF in 1984. The NWO was far more than the wrestlers you just named and Steve McMichael became a Horsemen in the mid-90s. To me, the best version was the 1988 version: Flair, Arn, Tully & Windham. Shame that backstage jealousy lead to Arn & Tully leaving.

Also to answer what @AmericanMusic asked me in private:

AWA = American Wrestling Association, founded in the 60s in the Chicago/Minneapolis area by Verne Gagne and Wally Korbo

NWA = National Wrestling Alliance, founded in 1948. WWE used to be a part of it until 1963 when they broke off to become World Wide Wrestling Federation.

UFC = Ultimate Fighting Championship. The WWE of MMA. Nothing to do with pro wrestling although many stars crossed over from both universes.

 

[Shooting_Palanx]

I was one that was such a fan of Wrestling, that I watched just about everything to do with wrestling, even back in the territorial days, luckily the Network has a ton of content on it, so it was good to learn how far the industry has come, and to learn of it's roots. Very cool to say the least. I started watching wrestling when I was 4, first pay per view I saw live on television was Survivor Series I think early 90s, I remember Rock vs Triple H for the IC title in a ladder match. It was awesome. My dad would rent a ton of videos from Blockbuster showcasing Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. Too much for me to talk about, but that was just the beginning.

 

[EdgeHead]

Yeah, those were the days. I was so excited every time my uncle would pick me up to rent WWF VHS and we would watch it together. We even watched a best of AWA compil VHS at one point.

Another uncle used to have a huge video library of wrestling tapes and he got rid of all of them. I was so mad because I would've taken every single one. All the old Wrestlemanias, Rumbles, Survivor Series, Summerslams, he had them all. Even some obscure tapes like WrestleFest and stuff like that.

 

[Millz]

I remember the days of going to Blockbuster video and renting VHS tapes...man, I wanted them all but parents only let me get one at a time.