Best of the 90's - Years

[IrishCanadian25]

With Old School Wrestling running away with the "Best Wrestling Thread" vote in the WZ awards (located in the Wine Bar - vote today!), I figured now was as good a time as any to feature the triumphant return of "Best of the 1990's", a poll thread looking at the golden decade of professional wresting.

This time around, I want to look at which YEAR of the 1990's was the best in terms of matches, significance, activity, etc. It's a straightforward decision, no "other" category to vote for.

1990. Featured Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 6, which is often considered one of the most important title changes of all time. Also featured the height of the Ric Flair vs Sting war, including the much malinged match between Sting and "The Black Scorpion" at Starcade. The match at the Great American Bash was a classic. Other notables include The Texas Tornado's Summerslam win over Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental Title in a short, shocking match and Hulk Hogan's return from injury and victory over Earthquake.

1991. Best remembered for Hulk Hogan's emotional win over Sergeant Slaughter for the WWF Title. Often also known for Bret Hart's legendary win over Curt Henning for the Intercontinental Title at Summerslam, the debut of Sid Justice in the WWE as referee in the Hogan and Warrior vs Iraqi sympathizers, and Sting and Lex Luger teaming up to lose to the Steiner Brothers at Superbrawl. Also featured Hulk Hogan winning the Royal Rumble by eliminating Earthquake and Sergeant Slaughter's victory over The Ultimate Warrior at Royal Rumble for the WWF Championship. Also featured The Undertaker's Wrestlemania debut, as well as his shocking WWF Title win over Hulk Hogan at the Survivor Series in the 1st ever 1-on-1 Series match.

1992. Probably best known for Ric Flair's awesome Rumble win for his first WWF Championship. Other notable matches included: Davey Boy Smith defeating Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Title at Summerslam in what many feel was the greatest match of all time, Brian Pillman's highflying match with Jushin "Thunder" Liger, The return of The Ultimate Warrior and the departure of Hulk Hogan, the face turn of Mr. Perfect at Survivor Series after Warrior's departure, Bret Hart defeating Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania 8, and the classic Randy Savage vs Ric Flair title match at Wrestlemania 8 for the WWF Title.

1993. Highlighted by the Rocker return of Marty Jannetty and his ensuing classic matches with Shawn Michaels at Royal Rumble, the upset-laced arrival of the 1-2-3 Kid, the heated feud between Big Van Vader and Cactus Jack, The return of Hulk Hogan and his surprise win over Yokozuna at Wrestlemania 9, and the meteoric and short-lived rise of Lugvig Borga. Also known for the Lex Luger "Bodyslam Heard 'Round the World" on the deck of the Intrepid.

1994. A huge year best remembered for The Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon ladder match, Hulk Hogan's move to WCW and ensuing title win over Ric Flair, Owen Hart defeating brother Bret just hours before Bret's 2nd WWF Title win, and the Bret Hart / Lex Luger co-Rumble win.

1995. Featured Shawn Michaels winning the Royal Rumble as the #1 entrant, finally eliminating The British Bulldog who was the #2 entrant. Also featured the true start of the WCW Cruiserweight Division, The Vader vs Hulk Hogan feud, and Bret Hart vs Diesel's No DQ Title Match. 1995 also featured such debacles as "The Dungeon of Doom" and "Bam Bam vs LT."

1996. Where to start? Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels Ironman Match. Sabu vs Rob Van Dam's ECW classic. The Return of The Ultimate Warrior defeating HHH. Also featured the first match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin. 1996 is best known for the formation of the nWo and the heel turn of Hulk Hogan to Hollywood Hogan - possibly the most significant event in recent wrestling history.

1997. The true advent of Stone Cold Steve Austin as a major star in his matches with Bret Hart. Also featured the first Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, as well as the true ascension to the main stream of the Cruiserweight division with such matches as Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio Jr. and the rise of Guerrero and Chris Jericho in the TV and US Title pictures in WCW. The end of 1997 saw the year and a half wait for Hogan vs Sting finally culminate, the Montreal Screwjob - another one of the most significant events in wrestling history, the heel turn of Rocky Maivia into "The Rock," and Owen Hart breaking Steve Austin's neck at Summerslam, shortening his career by several years.

1998. With the Monday Night Wars in full swing, 1998 featured the fateful Mankind vs Undertaker Hell in a Cell match and the top of the cell toss, Shawn Michaels vs Steve Austin at Wrestlemania culminating is Austin's 1st title reign, the ascent of Bill Goldberg and his first title reign on Monday Night Raw over the uber-heel Hollywood Hogan, ECW classic between Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow, the start of the Kane vs Undertaker feud, Steve Austin's 2nd straight Royal Rumble win, The Rock's 2nd heel turn at the Survivor Series tournament to win his 1st WWE Championship, Kevin Nash winning his 1st WCW title by ending Goldberg's streak, and the sad fact that Jay Leno, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman headlined 2 WCW Pay Per Views.

1999. Jerry Lynn and Rob Van Dam truly put ECW on the map, The Rock and Mankind start a surprise feud, involving the 1st title reign of Mick Foley and the Tony Schiavone "That'll put butts in seats" debacle, Vince McMahon winning the Royal Rumble (also the first time the song "No Chance in Hell" was used), the hanging of The Big Boss Man, the debut of Kurt Angle, the WWE debut of Chris Jericho, Ric Flair winning his 14th Championship over Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart's final wrestling match as a head kick from Goldberg causes bad post-concussion syndrome, and the tragic death of Owen Hart at an event aptly named "Over the Edge."

Simple question - which year was truly the best year of the 1990's?

 

[bambam]

1997

1997 was the best year in wrestling BAR NONE! I'm going to get to WWE's great year and the the Montreal Screwjob , and start with the GREATEST WRESTLING COMPANY EVER ECW.(I must admit my recalls of WCW and WWE will be ALOT less then ECW because I am a child of HARDCORE!) {ECW! ECW! ECW!}
'97 was one of the biggest years in ECW history! This is the year Shane Douglas broke Pitbull #1's neck and ended his career. This was also the year RVD started becoming a house hold name (if you liked ECW). In April of '97, we saw Terry Funk win the ECW title over Raven, and then in June(on his way to WCW) Raven was finally pinned by Tommy Dreamer( Dreamer never owned a Singles win over Raven for 5YEARS!!!) at the Wrestlepalooze PPV, also in that PPV Taz beat Douglas in a 3 minute tap-out challange, right after he was just in a crazy match with Sabu. Also in that night, the second greatest moment in wrestling histoy (screw job is number one in my book) saw Jerry Lawler invade ECW, with Sabu, RVD, and Bill Alfonzo, and cause mass havoc in the ring, beat up Dreamer after his biggest win, and take on pretty much the whole locker room! Then in August, at the Born to be Wired PPV, in the GREATEST/BLOODEST/MOST VIOLENT barbed wire match, Sabu beat Funk for the ECW world title(in the match that Sabu ripped his biscep off, and Funk nearly died because the wire rapped around his neck). This year also saw one bad ass feud go almost all year in Sabu and Taz! ECW was so great....DAMN WWE!

Now on to WCW: one of the greatest ideas in wrestling history when WCW had one of the greatest feud come back in Piper vs. Hogan and made Piper the Face and Hogan the Heel(that was great!) Eddie Guerrero's ladder match with Syxx( X-Pac), Dean Malenko vs Beniot feud was awsome, Steve McMichael vs Reggie White was great too! '97 was also the year Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, and Ray Mysterio really started to shine! It was also the birth of Goldberg, Bret Hart/Raven join WCW, and the best thing about WCW in 1997........drum roll please........Sting vs. Hogan!

WWE: Greatest year on the books for WWE! Austin won the Rumble, was set to face Michaels at WM13, But Michaels gets hurt, and sets up Undertakers longest title run if his great career( March to August) Winning it at WM wntil the match of Taker vs. Hart with Micheals as the ref at Summerslam( the match that saw Hart spit on Michaels, Michaels grab a chair, miss Hart and cost Taker the title) which sets up the greatest event in history to this date the Montreal Screwjob! But, before that, you see the Greatest heel birth of Michaels career, he cost Taker the title, beat the British Bulldog in the UK for the European Title, and goes into Canada, uses the flag to blow his nose, and take down there home town hero, Bret Hart! Michaels is so great! GREAT GREAT GREAT! In the year also saw the Owen/ Austin feud( in which Owen broke Austins neck) come to an end, and Austin start a feud with The Rock in the end of the year!

GREATEST YEAR IN WRESTLING HISTORY, 1997!!!!! AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE....CUZ BAMBAM SAID SO!!!!!!

 

[RVDgurl]

1995 - The Year of Violence in ECW. "The Summer of Blood" as Axel Rotten refers to it. ECW went from being an underground promotion to being the #3 company in the country. This was year that RVD became a major player in ECW, the Sandman v. Raven fued was in full swing, Tommy Dreamer wasn't fat yet and the Ian v. Axel Rotten fued got completely out of control. 1995 saw more barbedwire baseball bats then any other year and there was the one and only Tapei Death match. Whata great year!!

 

[FireAtWill]

I was really torn on this one. But I voted for 1998, for the plain simple fact of the monday night wars. Wrestlers jumping ship, pulling my hair out trying to figgure out which show to watch. But if you jump backwards a few years, ECW started making their big mark. I would say all in all though the entire 90s was probablly the best decade in wrestling history.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

I can't believe more people on this board don't want to jump on the chance to compare the years of the best decade in wrestling history with one another. Come on, everyone, so far it's been mostly ECW marks getting involved to tout the ascension of The Art of Hardcore! Where are the old school regulars?

 

[Shocky]

1997: By far the best year of the 90's. This is the year that got me back after being driven away in 1995.

ECW: ECW really solidified itself this year as the number 3 promotion in the United States. Thanks to the WWF Invasion early in the year, ECW got the exposure they needed to get a shot on pay per view. Some would say that this Invasion angle on Raw, and that this episode in particular, was the unofficial beginning of the Attitude Era on Raw.

Rob Van Dam solidified himself as the talent to watch, and that includes Steve Austin. RVD and the monicure of Mr. Monday Night began, which has stuck with him to this day. You had Raven's final match in the company, you had Terry Funk recapturing world gold, and you had Shane Douglas solidify the Franchise persona.


WWF: Where do you begin? You start the year with controversy as Stone Cold wins his first Royal Rumble. Michaels drops the belt because he lost his smile, while others believe that he dropped the belt to avoid having to job to Bret at WM 13. This was the revival of a bitter personal feud that would ultimately culminate in the biggest event in wrestling history.

WM 13 sees the Undertaker get a legit world title reign. WM 13 has one of the best matches of the decade with Steve Austin and Bret Hart in the legendary I Quit Match. Raw goes to two hours, and the WWE introduces the European championship.

Bret Hart completes his heel turn and brings the world what we wanted, a New Hart Foundation. The most successful Canada vs. USA angle begins, which has yet to be emulated as well as in 1997.

Summerslam 1997 was perhaps the most under rated pay per view ever. Owen Hart breaks Steve Austins neck, but Austin wins his first singles gold in the WWF. It sees Michaels lay out the Undertaker allowing Bret to win the WWF championship for a fifth time. This event sets up two huge angles, Hell in the Cell, and the Screw Job.

Hell in the Cell I, easily the best of the cell matches, watches the WWE take their matches to a new level of violence. This match ultimately ends with the culmination of stoyline that had been built up for the better part of the year, the introduction of Kane.

Then you have the Montreal Screwjob, but honestly, who needs to elaborate on this, if you don't know, read something.

WCW: The NWO vs. Sting, perhaps the feud of the decade. WCW's under card is the best under card in the history of the business. Guys like Guerrero, Jericho, Benoit, Malenko, Mysterio, Hennig, Jarrett fill the under card with wonderful matches, and for the most part, people forget how god awful the main events were.

Hogan solidifies himself as not only a guy that was a number one face, but easily a number one heel. The NWO is despised and loved by the crowd throughout all of 1997. Sting begins to hunt the NWO, striking quickly from the rafters, attacking with the baseball bat, and disappearing again. This culminated in probably the most hyped match of all time, Sting vs. Hulk Hogan, WCW's best buy rate ever.

Easily 1997. I know a lot of people pick 1998, but I felt that year in ring wise, was horrible. I despise a company focusing all of the attentino on one guy, and I'm not the biggest Stone Cold fan in the world anyway. Plus, WCW tried this with Goldberg. The emphasis of the business went away from in ring matches, which were very good in 1997, and focused on shitty shock TV. Guys like Goldberg and Warrior getting big feuds is a sign of a bad year.

 

[Nin]

Firstly i want to say this is a great thread.
Right the only way i'm going to be able to choose here is by a process of elimination.

1990
This is a bit before my time but i've never been a fan of the big guys and couldnt care less about Hogan and Warrior.

1991
Pretty much the same as before

1992.
Getting better now. Hart against Bulldog was probably the first match i ever watched.

1993.
Now we're starting to get somewhere. The Kid beating Ramon was a "What!" monent in a good way. Michaels against Jannetty was great.

1994
You say WWE 1994, i think of the ladder match. For me thats probably the moment the "New Generation" established themselves and the WWE moved away from the muscleheads. It's also set the tone to this day of extreme gimmick matches. Of course you also cant forget Owen Vs Bret. I think it also started moving the Undertaker towards a darker direction. I remember him being ambushed during a casket match with Yokozuna.

1995.
Aside from the royal rumble and subsequent wrestlemania, i cant remember much about this year other than it was dominated by Diesel. I enjoyed it at the time but looking back now, it was only passable. Of course there was still the 2nd ladder match. Oh and that awful awful King of the Ring tournament.

1996.
The Ironman match pretty much overshadows everything from 96 apart from the emergence of Austin. I liked the Undertaker Diesel match at WM XII. Shawn and the Undertaker pretty much carried the entire year.

1997. Hart Vs Austin, Michaels Vs The Undertaker, Hart vs Michaels. You only need to look at the names. Add in the best introduction ever with Kane, the emergence of The Rock, NoD, Ken Shamrock. It was a great year.

1998.
The injury to Michaels at the rumble puts a black mark over the entire year for me. It cut short DX in it's best form and robbed the audience of what would have been an absolute classic at WM XIV. I still cant watch that match without wincing everytime Shawn landed on his back.
Otherwise you have a very memorable HIAC match thanks to the questionable sanity of Mick Foley,the continued rise of Austin and a truly dark Undertaker. Just a shame they never used Kane properly. Somethings never change...

1999.
The death of Owen, the career end of Bret, the accension of Vince McMahon. As far as i'm concerned this is where everything started to go a bit wrong. Things have never really recovered from the adding of a 2nd show and HHH found his shovel. For all the talent that turned up, the product didnt do it justice.

First look 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 98 and 99 are out. So i have left 94, 96 and 97.
Hmmm 96 goes because aside from the Ironman match, it doesnt have anything defining.
94 Vs 97
* Thinks it over for a minute or two *
I'm going with 94. As much as i thought 97 was great, 94 was the emergence of so many things that still continue to this day and i think it's matches just edge it.

 

[bambam]

IrishCanadian25: I can't believe more people on this board don't want to jump on the chance to compare the years of the best decade in wrestling history with one another. Come on, everyone, so far it's been mostly ECW marks getting involved to tout the ascension of The Art of Hardcore! Where are the old school regulars?

The "CHILDREN OF HARDCORE" Own the old school board! Mostly because ECW's time was in the '90s and 2000. The WWE's ECW now and days is KILLING THE LEGACY THAT IS ECW!

But enough of that, I thought i would add to the reasons as to why 97' was the GREATEST!
I will start with...WCW... In '97, It was the star of the NWO vs. NWO WolfPac. Also say the Greatest angles with Sting...is he still WCW, NWO, NWO Wolfpac? And, of course, he joined Wolfpac with Luger( Luger was Wrestler of the year). The Fued of Luger vs. NWO (Hulk and Savage). Luger even won the Title off of Hogan before joining the Wolfpac. What about DDP vs Savage Feud( named feud of the year).Great stories going on in here!

In WWE(WWF)....I never even thought to remember, mostly because of the screwjob, What was called the match of the year, Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin. This feud made Austin a true threat to any title, at anytime! And this, I think, was Undertakers greatest year. The Nation of Domanation? GREAT STABLE! Rock's big starting year! GREATEST YEAR for WWE bar none!

ECW:

Paul Bearer: ECW: ECW really solidified itself this year as the number 3 promotion in the United States. Thanks to the WWF Invasion early in the year, ECW got the exposure they needed to get a shot on pay per view. Some would say that this Invasion angle on Raw, and that this episode in particular, was the unofficial beginning of the Attitude Era on Raw.

Rob Van Dam solidified himself as the talent to watch, and that includes Steve Austin. RVD and the monicure of Mr. Monday Night began, which has stuck with him to this day. You had Raven's final match in the company, you had Terry Funk recapturing world gold, and you had Shane Douglas solidify the Franchise persona.

Very Nice! Funk was named Most Inspirational Wrestler in '97. And one of the greatest matches of this year is often forgotten....Funk vs. Sandman vs. Stevie Richards... the match Funk won, then went on to win the title... AWSOME!! And I believe it was Douglas's best year! And this was the year the Dudley boyz really took over as a major heel tag-team! ECW's BIGGEST YEAR!

What did I say before?
GREATEST YEAR IN WRESTLING HISTORY, 1997!!!!!

Paul Bearer: 1997: By far the best year of the 90's. This is the year that got me back after being driven away in 1995

Thank you!

 

[sc2004]

gotta go with 1998, what a year! The Nitro, Raw fued was at its peak. The mcmahon, Austin fued took off, Sable was hot, The undertaker turned, Kane was credible, DX and the nation were at war and of course, Mark Henry got blown by a tranny. lol. Seriously though, 1998 had the best Wrestlemania of the 90's, the greatest King of the Ring event ever and in my opinion, the best Summer Slam ever.

 

[Mad Metal]

I always thought 1997 was the best year ever and at the same time, was an under rated year.

The WWE was probably delivering the best product at the time. The promotion was filled with MANY great performers; Steve Austin, Bret Hart, The Undertaker, The British Bulldog, Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, Shawn Michaels, etc. Even though this isn't the main focus, but I actually liked how the entrance set was back in 1997 for RAW. It didn't look over done or anything. It looked good and basic. The time when Austin was rising to the top and starting to take over the WWE by taking out Bret Hart and the Hart Foundation really made things very entertaining.

WCW was excellent as well. They were at their all time high with the New World Order taking over the WCW with some good "star power" as well as the Cruiserweight division. The WCW wasn't "over doing" their product to the point of failure and everything seemed new and entertaining.

And in the other hand you had ECW that was rising.

 

[blackhart07]

1997 without a doubt. Bret Hart and Stone cold had some classic matches. The Undertaker had a great run with the title. The final four was a great match. HHH wins the king of the ring, and follows with a good feud with mankind. Kane debuts, first Hell in the cell match. DX debuts. 1997 really kicked off the whole attitude era.

 

[rockofhysteria]

I voted for 1992 as the best year of wrestling in the 90's and Here are couple of my opinions on why it was

as far as momentous occasions go there was Ric Flair winning the 1992 Royal Rumble with help from Hulk Hogan of all people to capture his first of 2 WWF world titles.

The Rockers big split it was a Super Kick heard round the world when Shawn Michaels super kicked long time partner Marty Janetty through the window of Brutus Beefcake's Barbershop and Launching his now legendary singles career.

I know this may not count as a event to some but I consider The Great Muta's win at WCW Starcade 92 Battlebowl a event it proved that He was indeed a great wrestling talent.


August 2 1992 a groundbreaking day in Wrestling Ron Simmons became the Jackie Robinson of Wrestling becoming the first Black man to hold a World Heavyweight title in Pro Wrestling when he defeated Vader for the WCW World title.

1992 also brought us the true emergance of the Excellence of Execution as a Top Tier wrestler in the WWE Bret Hart started beat Roddy Piper to win the Intercontinental Title at WM 8 in a match that in my opinion was better than the main event Hogan vs Sid. Later in the year at summerslam he defended the Intercontinental title against his brother in law Davey Boy Smith although he lost to Davey it was a shining moment of glory for hart and lets not forget that 1992 saw Bret Beat the Nature Boy Ric Flair to win his first of 5 WWE titles.

The 1992 survivor series saw the formation of a dream team whe Randy Macho Man Savage teamed with Mr Perfect to take on Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. also the 1992 survivor series saw Bret Hart Defend the WWE title against Shawn Michaels (Gee who would have thought that their first and last wwe title battles against each other would be exactly five years apart)

Again this might be a event to some but i consider The Ultimate Warrior getting Fired a second time a Joyous occasion.

Well people there are my reasons why I think 92 was the best year of the 90's

 

[LuigiNyc84]

I voted 1997. The Summer of 1997 was my favorite period of wrestling from most recent time. I actually really looked forward to RAW every week. The whole Austin/USA vs Bret/Canada angle was AWESOME! The 3 on 3 Flag Match with Austin,Taker,Dude Love vs Bret,Owen,Bulldog was great.

 

[midgensa]

I personally think it is 1998 hands down ... with four big time names getting their first title runs ... Stone Cold, Goldberg, The Rock and Mankind (of course his win didn't air until Jan. 4th, but semantics) ... Hollywood Hogan still running wild and more and more fans turning on their sets for the Monday Night Wars.
From the new DX forming and stalking Nitro to the stunning world title changes ... this years saw the forming of so many stars it is unbelievable. And led to the build up of the first great WM match between Stone Cold and the Rock. 1998 might have been the best year in wrestling history ... period.