Rick Martel or
Tito Santana
Martel - This guy was one of the smoothest in ring performers of all time, he's up there with Steamboat & Flair in the 80s - also Martel was AWA World Champion before he came to WWE, he was an established singles star of a higher magnitude than Santana, a solid mid carder in multiple companies who's best run was his IC Title reign and subsequent feud with a just arrived Randy Savage. Niether guy was all that special on the ic so I'll take Martel on the other factors.
That other guy:
Marty Jannetty or
Brian Pillman
This one doesnt seem fair, Jannetty, both in the AWA and WWE was pretty much just the sidekick to HBK. Pillman on the other hand spent much of his time in singles fueds, although he did have two memorable, albeit brief runs in The Horsemen & The Hollywood Blondes with Steve Austin. Better question since Jannetty is an 80s guy would have been Jannetty vs Robert Gibson (Rock & Rol Express w/ Ricky Morton, the team the Rockers were originally based upon)
Feud:
Bret Hart vs Owen Hart or
Shawn Michaels vs Chris Jericho
Hart vs Hart - this was Brother vs Brother, at one point practically the whole family was in this, I still remember when Owen cost Brett the title to Bob Backlund. HBK vs Jericho produced some good matches but Hart vs Hart was a bigger fued with higher stakes and lasted longer. It also gave Owen his big push into the top tier. HBK was already one step away from retirement when he feuded with Jericho who was already an established top tier guy
NWO Red and Black or
NWO Hogan
Splitting the NWO in 1998 was one of the most convuluted, confusing, non sensical things ever. Basically this gave WCW a chance to let Kevin Nash be a good guy for awhile and recruit practically every WCW star except for Goldberg into the NWO Brotherhood, Sting, Brett Hart, Lex Luger, Im surprised they didnt bring in DDP. Meanwhile the NWO Hogan or NWO Black & WHite basically consisted of Hogan & Steiner surrounded by mid carders and jobbers. Scott Norton, Virgil, NWO Intern Disco Inferno, Horace Hogan. Occassionally Curt Henning would wrestle (he was in and out due to injuries in 98) and Buf Bagwell was at times comical but both groups sucked. By default because they had a roster that looked dangerous I'll take Red & Black
Smokey Mountain Wrestling or
ECW
Smokey Mountain gave us a more traditional product, much better wrestling talent. ECW was a creative gimmick that expanded into an actual company, it was initially brilliant marketing, but much of the roster where untalented bruisers incapable of doing anything but take big falls and bleed (Sandman, Sabu, etc). They werent wrestlers, they couldnt talk, they couldnt entertain beyond one certain aspect of the gimmick (willingness to bleed & get hurt). Say what you will about Terry Funk & Mick Foley but Funk wrestled virtually every kind of match in his day from ECW Hard Core to 60 minute Iron Man Style matches all over the world, he worked as both a god guy & villain and was highliy entertaining on the mic. Foley is one of the most entertaining characters all time and even with his limited skill set he easily outdoes 2/3 of the ECW Roster. ECW was a bigger phenom, I'm voting Smokey Mountain
Wrestlemania X or
Wrestlemania XX
Niether one was earthshattering, they were solid if not transcendant events. I'll take XX
Better year in WWF:
1992 or
1997
1992 was the beginning of a big transition for WWE, the year started with long time 80s Icons Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Randy Savage heavily involved in the main event scene with the likes of Roddy Piper & Sid Justice. The return of The Ultimate Warrior was also on the horizon. By the end of the year WWE was scrambling, Hogan & Piper were gone along with some lesser known talent as the Federal Steroid Investigation kicked up & Vince started distancing himself from wrestlers linked with it, Savage was basically semi retired, uninterested in working much in the wake of his real life separation and divorce from Elizabeth. Flair missed most of the fall, ruining the building Flair-Ultimate Warrior feud with injury (suffered at the hands of a careless Warrior no less) and of course Warrior's return was a dud, his initial feud with the newly created Papa Shango character, much like Shango himself, never gained any ground. Savage wanting out of the ring ruined any long term viability to that fued, Flair's injury basically was the last straw for him. Wether it was failed drug tests or arguments about money (the two most common reasons people give) he was fired that fall and really never was a big factor in WWE ever again. Thus the "New Generation" era was beginning, which basically meant smaller ratings, declining attendance, but it did create HBK & Kevin Nash as legit main event stars, elevated The Undertaker into the top tier, and gave Brett Hart's his greatest career run.
Likewise 97 was the beginning of The Attitude Era, WWE's take no prisoners appraoch to shock jock style programming trying to combat the success of WCW. Most of 97 however was really just a continuation of the the New Generation era, Attitude and the subsequent change in booking and programming philosphy really doesnt take complete hold till mid year. Business wise 92 was probably better, the last year of the "Golden 80s Era" where as WWE spent all of 97 looking up at WCW trying to figure out how to catch them. Business was ticking up at year's end however.
Both were transformative for different reasons, and each one gave us moments that as wrestling fans we never thought we'd ever see (Ric Flair as WWE Champ at WrestleMania and The Montreal Screwjob). I think 97 was a little more entertaining but I'll vote 92 because THAT'S the best Royal Rumble ever, an all star cast better than any other ever assembled for the event with one of the most surprising and memorable victories of all time (Flair's 60 minute miracle, which captured him the WWE Title)
Cactus Jack or
Mankind
That's tough, I think Mankind had crazier matches but Cactus Jack could be pretty crazy in the ring. I'll vote Cactus Jack because he also could be very funny, Mankind was more dark. Cactus could be both.
WCW TV title or
WWF European title
Really this is two different eras, the TV Title after the early 90s was non existant while the European Title really didnt come into being until the mid to late 90s. For me The European Title was almost equal to the IC Title, kind of like the nonsense in WCW with The International Title and WCW World Champion in the mid 90s. The TV Title was never portrayed as being equal to or bigger than the US Title in the old NWA but it did have a unique gimmick, the fact it was supposed to be defended routinely on TV, usually against better competition. This was the era of wrestling TV heavy on promos and outside the ring confrontations with almost exclusively jobber matches. Outside of rare circumstances did any of the major promotions give quality matches on TV outside of occassional specials. The TV champion howver usually fought upper level to main event caliber guys on free TV fairly often. For that I'll take the TV Title
Vader or
Bam Bam Bigelow
Both were big, fairly agile for their size, heelish villains. Vader I think had a more "unbeatable force" quality to him, he was a better bully, thus a more frieghtening bad guy. I think he was better in the ring too (those off the top rope sunset flips Vader Bombs were pretty impressive for a man that size). Plus Vader was a main eventer in both WCW & WWE and headlined with Flair, Sting, Hogan, and HBK among others. I'll vote Vader.
