What was the worst year in the WWF in the 90's?

[Datdude2485]

As I was watching old wrestling tapes the other day (most of which took place in the 90's) it had me thinking that there was a lot of great moments from that decade but also very horrible moments from that ten year span. And as I sat back and thought about it I feel imo that 1995 was the worst year in the 90's for the WWF.

The WWF in 1995 was pretty awful. I mean it had its good moments with Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon in a second ladder match at that years Summerslam. Or Bret Hart vs. Diesel at the 1995 Survivor Series that year for the wwf title was pretty good. But other than that besides maybe Shawn Michaels winning the Royal Rumble and how he won it with both feet not hitting the floor than coming back in to eliminate the British Bulldog after drawing # 1 I can't really think of anymore great moments.

But theres a lot of awful moments that pop off from my head. Wrestlemania 11 wasn't that great imo. And having Lawrence Taylor fight Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event was horrible. Mabel getting a push and winning King of the Ring that year and then main eventing at Summerslam fighting for the wwf title against Diesel sucked! Barry Horowitz getting his little push by actually winning matches while fueding with Skip was pointless. And plus the wwf was stuck in their cartoon world with the characters they had. Jean-Pierre Lafitte, Isaac Yankem D.D.S., Dean Douglas, Waylon Mercy, Henry Godwinn, and Eli and Jacob Blu just to name a few. What do you think was the single worst year in the wwf in the 90's? Thoughts???

 

[The Brain]

This is easy for me. 1999 was easily the worst year in the 90's. I know a lot of people thought that was a great year, but I thought it was terrible. It was all about pointless swerves and stupid angles that never went anywhere. Also there weren't really any good matches in 1999 either.

The year started with the worst Royal Rumble ever followed by one of the worst, if not the worst WrestleMania ever. We had stupid stories like Undertaker abducting Stephanie McMahon, Vince as the higher power, and Austin vs. the McMahons for control of the company. In July Austin beat Taker at Fully Loaded. As a result Vince had to stay off tv forever. Now I know in wrestling there's no such thing as forever, but Vince was back after only two months.

Not only were the rumble and mania bad, but I'd say 99 also produced the worst King of the Ring and worst Survivor Series. The only decent ppv of the year was SummerSlam and even that wasn't all that great.

The matches were horrible too. Most main event matches were nothing but brawls. The participants would literally brawl up the aisle or through the crowd before hitting the ring for a bogus finish. I think the world title changed hands 12 times in 1999. That's not good.

1999 gave us Mark Henry admitting to having sex with his sister, the hell in a kennel match, us learning Kane was impotent, an evening gown swimming pool match, Billy Gunn's ass obsession, and other stupid storylines I'm thankful to have forgotten. That's a bad year. Thank goodness Jericho and Angle came in toward the end and Benoit and Guerrero came in early in 2000 to bring things back up.

I know there are people who love 1999 because they love swearing, middle fingers, sexual innuendos, bikini contests, and toliet humor, but I think I've made a good case for 1999 being the worst year. Give me Aldo Montoya, Henry Godwinn, and Barry Horowitz of 1995 any day because at least I get Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith with them.

 

[The Mizard of Oz]

This is easy for me. 1999 was easily the worst year in the 90's. I know a lot of people thought that was a great year, but I thought it was terrible. It was all about pointless swerves and stupid angles that never went anywhere. Also there weren't really any good matches in 1999 either.

The year started with the worst Royal Rumble ever followed by one of the worst, if not the worst WrestleMania ever. We had stupid stories like Undertaker abducting Stephanie McMahon, Vince as the higher power, and Austin vs. the McMahons for control of the company. In July Austin beat Taker at Fully Loaded. As a result Vince had to stay off tv forever. Now I know in wrestling there's no such thing as forever, but Vince was back after only two months.

Not only were the rumble and mania bad, but I'd say 99 also produced the worst King of the Ring and worst Survivor Series. The only decent ppv of the year was SummerSlam and even that wasn't all that great.

The matches were horrible too. Most main event matches were nothing but brawls. The participants would literally brawl up the aisle or through the crowd before hitting the ring for a bogus finish. I think the world title changed hands 12 times in 1999. That's not good.

1999 gave us Mark Henry admitting to having sex with his sister, the hell in a kennel match, us learning Kane was impotent, an evening gown swimming pool match, Billy Gunn's ass obsession, and other stupid storylines I'm thankful to have forgotten. That's a bad year. Thank goodness Jericho and Angle came in toward the end and Benoit and Guerrero came in early in 2000 to bring things back up.

I know there are people who love 1999 because they love swearing, middle fingers, sexual innuendos, bikini contests, and toliet humor, but I think I've made a good case for 1999 being the worst year. Give me Aldo Montoya, Henry Godwinn, and Barry Horowitz of 1995 any day because at least I get Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith with them.

I don't think 1999 was by any means, the WWE's worst year of the 90's, I do think that it was the year where things started going downhill.

'99 was great to me, up until SmackDown became a weekly television series. That, IMO, weakened the quality of RAW tremendously. No longer were all the great angles advanced on just one show. And the breakneck pace that, IMO, made the Attitude Era so great, was gone forever.

As someone that personally loves swearing, middle fingers, sexual innuedndo, bikini contests, and toilet humor, I appreciate 1999 as one of the greatest years in wrestling history, as it took place at the absolute height of my fandom. However, I also look back on it as the year when Monday Night RAW stopped being the most exciting show on television.

 

[twiztid jay]

now i agree with you that in 1999 alot stories went no where but that was the best selling year in the wwf. raw had its highest ratings ever scoring a 8.1. but at least in 1999 there stories were different and more unpredictible, look at wwe today everything is predictible. it makes me sick.. alot of people liked to see brawls and women in bikinis it was more fan active to people got to be part of the show for things, it was entertaining.. people knew about the wrestlers knew what they were all about causing people to care about them, and them cussing made it seem more like REAL wrestling.. i think 1999 was prolly one of the best years if not the best from the 90's.

now worst year, i'd have to say 94-95.. everything didn't seem believeable more like a fantasy happy ending cartoon in my opinion. there were a few good moments,but thats it. nothing really stuck out to make you remember them years.. some extremely horrible gimmicks that were pointless and stupid, they never should have been done, kind of like how dull wwe is now. pointless and stupid.. HBK retire? yeah right just like ric flair is retired.. stupid..lol

 

[The Con Volt]

Im gonna say that collectively, 96-97 was the worst part of the 90's for the WWE. Not based on content or anything like that, some of my favorite matches are from this exact period, but this is when WCW was wooping WWE's ass not only in ratings, but merch, storylines, etc. It was just more interesting. Not to say that I didn't hate 95 more, but this is when WWE looked like they might not make it. And based simply on how damaging this period ultimately was for them, I'm sayin' 96-97.

 

[pessimism101]

1994 was the worse year, in my opinion. This is the year that feature such horrible gimmicks as The Quebecers, Kwang, the Smoking Gunns, the Million Dollar Corporation, Crush (the Kona Version), Doink the Clown, Men on a Mission, Bob "Sparky Plugg" Holly, Bastion Booger, Man Mountain Rock, Lex Luger's Bodyslamming Yokozuna campaign, Dink the Clown, the Heavenly Bodies, the Tatanka/Lex Luger "who sold out" angle, almost all of Survivor Series 1994, and the infamous Undertaker/Undertaker angle. This led into 1995 which featured the likes of Mantaur, but 1994 was far worse.

 

[Razz]

94-96 were the worst years for WWF in the mainstream. If you look at the WWF PPV buyrates they almost all decreased steadily every year from 94-96. Wrestlemania in fact had its lowest buyrate ever at 1997, which was a turnaround year, but it reflected that alot of the mainstream crowd had been lost and then began coming back in 1997. Bret vs Austin and Austin vs Mcmahon revitalized mainstream wrestling and also what WCW was doing on their side. But to a hardcore wrestling fan to me no year was unbearable but to mainstream fans 94-96 seemed of lesser and lesser interest. Even though those years had some bright moment, matches etc. thanks to Bret, Shawn, Undertaker, Owen and others. I think this period went a little to cartoony with some of the overtop gimmicks which were not working anymore. I also agree 1999 went a little too much in the other direction now that I look back at it.

 

[realblackhart]

This is easy for me. 1999 was easily the worst year in the 90's. I know a lot of people thought that was a great year, but I thought it was terrible. It was all about pointless swerves and stupid angles that never went anywhere. Also there weren't really any good matches in 1999 either.

The year started with the worst Royal Rumble ever followed by one of the worst, if not the worst WrestleMania ever. We had stupid stories like Undertaker abducting Stephanie McMahon, Vince as the higher power, and Austin vs. the McMahons for control of the company. In July Austin beat Taker at Fully Loaded. As a result Vince had to stay off tv forever. Now I know in wrestling there's no such thing as forever, but Vince was back after only two months.

Not only were the rumble and mania bad, but I'd say 99 also produced the worst King of the Ring and worst Survivor Series. The only decent ppv of the year was SummerSlam and even that wasn't all that great.

The matches were horrible too. Most main event matches were nothing but brawls. The participants would literally brawl up the aisle or through the crowd before hitting the ring for a bogus finish. I think the world title changed hands 12 times in 1999. That's not good.

1999 gave us Mark Henry admitting to having sex with his sister, the hell in a kennel match, us learning Kane was impotent, an evening gown swimming pool match, Billy Gunn's ass obsession, and other stupid storylines I'm thankful to have forgotten. That's a bad year. Thank goodness Jericho and Angle came in toward the end and Benoit and Guerrero came in early in 2000 to bring things back up.

I know there are people who love 1999 because they love swearing, middle fingers, sexual innuendos, bikini contests, and toliet humor, but I think I've made a good case for 1999 being the worst year. Give me Aldo Montoya, Henry Godwinn, and Barry Horowitz of 1995 any day because at least I get Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith with them.

I agree with 1999 but for one reason and one reason only, that's the year Owen Hart died. My favorite wrestler by far at that time, and watching the Over the Edge PPV and the RAW the monday after is something I will never forget.

 

[zone3og]

Id say that 94 had to be the worst year if for nothing else it was the year that Vince went to trial and you didnt know if WWF was going to be on much longer. Not only did his biggest star testify against him but he debuts in WCW the very same week to when their world title!!! The only good thing about 94 for the WWF was Bret vs. Owen. After Wrestlemania 10 everything started going downhill that year.

 

[Upgrayedd]

What do you mean the story lines didn't go anywhere in '99? That was the year of the whole higher power/Ministry of Darkness storyline which saw a beginning and end with McMahon being the higher power in charge of the Ministry. It also saw the end of Austin vs. McMahon. It was the year that Triple H finally broke out and became a main event wrestler... same with The Rock. There were many awesome segments and shows back in '99. The entire show where Austin was the co-owner of the WWF was one of the funniest/best shows in WWF history.

So no... 1999 is far from the worst year of the WWF in the '90s. Pretty much anything Jim Cornette helped write/book in the mid '90s for the WWF was garbage.

 

[The Brain]

What do you mean the story lines didn't go anywhere in '99? That was the year of the whole higher power/Ministry of Darkness storyline which saw a beginning and end with McMahon being the higher power in charge of the Ministry. It also saw the end of Austin vs. McMahon. It was the year that Triple H finally broke out and became a main event wrestler... same with The Rock. There were many awesome segments and shows back in '99. The entire show where Austin was the co-owner of the WWF was one of the funniest/best shows in WWF history.

So no... 1999 is far from the worst year of the WWF in the '90s. Pretty much anything Jim Cornette helped write/book in the mid '90s for the WWF was garbage.

Please remind me what the point of the higher power storyline was. I remember it being very underwhelming and pointless. Austin as the ceo is one storyline why I think 1999 was a bad year. As wrestling fans we pretty much have to dismiss logic to get into storylines. Some are just too silly even for wrestling. We should believe that control of a multi million dollar company was to be decided in a wrestling match? Lame.

The mid 90's gave us a lot of cheesy gimmicks, but the good outweighed the bad. Thanks mostly to Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels we got to see a lot of great matches in the mid 90's. That was something that was sorely missing in 1999.

Attitude was fun for me at first too. I enjoyed the second half of 1997 and most of 1998. By 1999 I was tired of attitude and missed the good quality matches.