The best in-ring talk show in the WWE ever?

[CM Steel]

Back in the days of the the WWF, "Hot Rod Rowdy" Roddy Piper hosted the infamous in-ring talk show "Piper's Pit". With some of the most infamous moments in WWF history at that point. But after Piper's pit, which future WWE superstar had the best in-ring talk show? Let's take a look back at some...

-Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel
-Edge's Cutting Edge
-Christian's Peep Show
-Miz's MizTV
-MVP's VIP Lounge
-Carlito's Cabana
-Matt Striker's Classroom

AW's talk show on the old ECW brand doesn't count, he wasn't even a wrestler. But in your own opinion's, which is/was the best in-ring talk show ever?

 

[Nate DaMac]

Piper's Pit was leagues above any of the others. I guess the only one even slightly above garbage was the Highlight Reel seeing as something interesting did actually happen once in a while. The other ones were wastes of time.

 

[Raito]

2 Very big ones that fill that gap have been missed.

Paul Bearers Funeral Parlour

HBK's Heartbreak Hotel.

Both of these had more eps, and built more stories that all of the ones listed, spare maybe the highlight reel.

 

[Judah's Lion]

Piper's Pit was definitely amazing and trail-blazing.

as far as other interview segment shows since then... i always appreciated how they gave guys with good mic skills a chance to talk. Christian's Peep Show, Edge's Cutting Edge, Carlito's Cabana, MVP's VIP Lounge and even Dude Love's Love Shack.

my only issue with the those segments is that hardly anything ever happened on any of those. in fact, i can only remember a handful of different segments from all of them combined. they were helpful and useful in giving those guys something to do and a chance to show off their work on the stick, but not much happened ever.

as for the shows i liked besides Piper's Pit? probably Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake's Barber Shop. HBK throwing Jannetty thru the window stands as a memory i'll never forget and arguably launched the career of HBK, so props there. also, i even liked when Jake "the Snake" Roberts revealed his new python, Lucifer, on the Barbershop after Earthquake had kayfabe killed Damien. and speaking of Jake...

Jake "the Snake" Roberts' Snake Pit was also pretty amazing. the bit i remember most from there is Honky Tonk Man hitting Jake with the guitar setting up and leading to their feud at Mania 3.

great thread idea.

 

[Jaffa]

Pipers pit as an all time one for sure I mean the coconut incident with superfly is down in the annals of WWE history. In more recent time I would have to say the highlight reel after all it did provide us with the best feud of 2008 Jericho vs Michaels.

 

[Dagger Dias]

There have been many talk show segments in the WWE over the years. Piper's Pit set the standard for all the segments that would follow in more recent years. Part of how enjoyable the talk show segments are depend on which wrestler(s) are involved with it. For example I liked Christian's Peep Show but disliked Carlito's Cabana. I like Christian as a wrestler and I hated Carlito. If you like/dislike a wrestler then chances are you'll like/dislike a talk show segment that they host. It isn't JUST the wrestler involved, the booking and the storylines need to be good too. I do like MizTV but not The Miz himself, for example. However for most of these talk show segments, if I haven't liked the wrestler(s) hosting it, then I usually disliked the talk show segments themselves and vice versa.

Out of all the ones mentioned by the threadstarter I liked Piper's Pit the best. As I said in the above paragraph, it set the standard for the rest. Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel and Edge's Cutting Edge come in 2nd and 3rd for me. Jericho and Edge were great hosts who used their promo skills to make the segments more interesting and therefore helped feuds become more important with the guests they had on their shows. I also recall more memorable segments from those shows than the others that were listed. They also always seemed to have the most controversial guests, making for better segments.

Next would be Abraham Washington's show. Sure he never actually worked a match on ECW (from what I recall anyway) and his show mysteriously vanished at one point, but I enjoyed it. Washington himself was hilarious and Tony Atlas as his sidekick was funny too. It was often one of the parts of ECW that I anticipated the most. Next is MizTV. I'm still not that big of a fan of Miz himself but it's becoming a better segment and has potential in the long run. Then we have Matt Striker's Classroom and MVP's VIP Lounge. They weren't as good as Jericho's or Edge's talk show segments but still served their purpose. Dead last is Carlito's Cabana. I hated Carlito, therefore these segments were a complete waste of time to me.

 

[sdelfin]

I saw it mentioned a couple of times that very few memorable things happened on certain talk-show segments. But that applies to all the shows. Sure, we may have so many fond memories of the big things that happened on the Barber Shop, Piper's Pit or Brother Love, but most of the time they were just good interview segments. These things were a good way for people to further develop their characters and try to get over. Marty Jannetty can't fly through a glass window every week. These days, you'll hear Cole announce the return of The Highlight Reel or The Peep Show, but since those don't run regularly it's obvious it's just an excuse for an angle.

 

[BigLuther]

Piper's Pit was really the first, but I wasn't watching while Piper was around and doing the shows regularly so I can't personally choose it as the best. The best to me is Jericho's Highlight Reel just because you knew it would ALWAYS be entertaining. Jericho is the right personality to have a talk show-type thing on WWE TV. Always hilarious, always on top of his game, they always advanced storylines and it wasn't just a filler segment like many of the talk shows that followed him.

 

[HeenanGorilla]

The title of the thread says "in-ring". Piper's Pit was held in the ring enough to count. But, since people are going with segments that were not held in the ring,--Barber Shop, Snake Pit, etc--I will join them.

The Funeral Parlor gave me the creeps...but in a good way. Never knew when Taker would pop out of a coffin to attack. Barber Shop, aside from the predictable Michaels kick/attack on Jannetty, was forgettable. Actually, Sid snapping was pretty cool. Snake Pit looked really cool, but aside from the botched guitar shot from Honky, nothing of substance there.

I think the Brother Love show had a lot of story-advancing moments. He was obnoxious, always instigating..but got results! I thought it was the blandest of stages, but as far as substance goes, Brother Love gets my vote.

 

[The Butcher]

Piper's Pit. Next question.

Sure, I liked The Snake Pit, The Brother Love Show, The Funeral Parlor, The Barbershop, A Flair for the Gold, The Highlight Reel, The Peep Show, and I was probably the biggest Abraham Washington Show fan in the world while that was a thing, but Piper's Pit wipes the floor with each and every one.

It's not even one of those "original must be best" arguments a la Sean Connery as James Bond. Far from it. Piper's Pit is simply better, more entertaining, home to more memorable moments, and for me, holds more nostalgic value than any of the others. Piper's Pit was and still is a segment that I anticipate greatly. Other shows had their own charms, to be sure, but Piper's Pit is simply better than them all.

 

[donfryeismyhero]

You forgot some notable show's like the Heartbreak Hotel, The Body Shop, Flair for the Gold, the King's Court, Barber Shop, Funeral Parlor, Snake Pit to name a few but there was nothing better then Piper's Pit. It's what kicked off the Rock 'n' Wrestling connection, the coconut cracking over Superfly Jimmy Snuka's head, the Hogan/Andre feud beginning all happened on Piper's Pit.

 

[zhaff2004]

i never got a chance to really see Pipers Pit in its pomp so for that reason, i'd go with the funeral parlour. That segment was really creepy... I still remember Jake Roberts going on it and how amazed I was watching both him and Paul Bearer go back and fourth in a way only they could

 

[Wolf Pac]

After Piper's Pit, I'd say Highlight Reel. Obviously Highlight Reel is nothing compared to Piper's Pit, but there have been some interesting segments that took place on the show like Cena's Raw debut, Jake Roberts' confrontation with Randy Orton, Jericho's heel turn on HBK, I remember Jericho & Piper were talking trash about each other on their respective shows on Raw & Smackdown in mid-2003, and there have been a few more good segments on the Highlight Reel. And quite a few feuds were developed on the show and made more interesting & important as Dagger Dias mentioned in his post.

As for the other shows, either I've never seen em apart from a few clips I've seen on TV or not enough interesting things went on there for me to give a shit (mostly referring to the newer shows).

The King's Court

Agreed. Very underrated show and one of my personal favourites. 1993 and 1994 were really shitty years for Raw and wrestling in general, but the best part about Raw during those times was The King's Court. Sure, there weren't really any memorable segments that happened on the show, but everytime Lawler hosted he would always crack hilarious insults and jokes about his rivals or the commentators or his (babyface) guests, and that alone is what made King's Court so entertaining. Remember that episode where Lawler brought out that skinny dude, dressed as Roddy Piper?

 

[The Perfect Max]

Piper's Pit was fantastic as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper himself was a brilliant talker, arguably the best ever, and there wasn't really ever a bad Piper's Pit, but it definitely had it's fair share of great moments that will never be forgotten. Since then, any guy will admit talk shows since haven't been as good. Maybe it's because it was the original, or maybe the desire wasn't there.

Still. Chris Jericho's "The Highlight Reel" was my favourite. Because Jericho was my era, I prefer this to any other talk show, but I do still respect Piper's Pit. I think Chris Jericho is also arguably one of the best talkers of all time. I think that it depends on who is on the talk show as to whether it goes good or heads south. For me, the one that stands out is at Insurrexion in 2003 or 2004, something like that. Jericho had "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff as guests. For me, it was fantastic and showed off Y2J's improvisation and true entertaining skills. Obviously Austin was good, as he always was, and Bischoff held his own during the segment. If that wasn't the case, yeah, it probably wouldn't have been that good. And that is the problem, it depends who is on the show.

The Peep Show, The Funeral Parlor, The Cutting Edge and The Abraham Washington Show were also favourites of mine. I enjoyed the entertainment aspects of all of them, and if you look at those guys, they're all decent talkers at worst, so it is no surprise they were a success. For AW, it's a shame it didn't go over to Raw or SmackDown, I found it hilarious.

So for me, it has to be The Highlight Reel as it was my generation. But, I still respect Piper's Pit and I very much enjoy it too.

 

[Food Library]

I saw it mentioned a couple of times that very few memorable things happened on certain talk-show segments. But that applies to all the shows. Sure, we may have so many fond memories of the big things that happened on the Barber Shop, Piper's Pit or Brother Love, but most of the time they were just good interview segments. These things were a good way for people to further develop their characters and try to get over. Marty Jannetty can't fly through a glass window every week. These days, you'll hear Cole announce the return of The Highlight Reel or The Peep Show, but since those don't run regularly it's obvious it's just an excuse for an angle.

Yeah, but how awesome would it to have been if every week the Barber Shop ended with Jannetty flying through the window? Would have been awesome. lol

As for my favorite I'd have to go with the Highlight Reel (after Piper's Pit of course). There have been some really great interview segments on there and of course the Michaels thing is classic. I have a question though. Didn't their first feud at WM 19 start on the Highlight Reel also? I remember the match as one of my all time favorites but can't remember where the feud started. I remember video packages of Jericho in the indies imitating Michaels as someone he idolized.

 

[Pedigree1]

Pipers Pit set the standards for wrestling talk shows! That show was amazing and Piper was a trailblazer best since and ever IMO! Pipers Pit is here and well far far away next universe that comes closest is the Highlight Reel.

Jericho is an excellent talker on the mic Junior! I like Jericho. He is Funny makes fun of people like Kurt Angel etc etc! But Dagger Dias is right if you like or dislike a wrestler chances are you will feel the same about his talk show! I do miss the Highlight Reel i really do but WWE needs to get a little edgier IMO for the highlight reel to really work IMO! But Pipers Pit definitely the best of all timez

 

[HBsam31]

I agree with Dr. I am not one of those original is always best people either, but Piper's Pit is definitely my favorite. I liked The Barber Shop, and The Funeral Parlor, and I have to admit I loved The Abraham Washington show. All that said none of them can top Piper's Pit.

 

[lowandmighty]

I always liked the Highlight reel. I can see why people always liked Piper's Pit but having a bit of Scottish heritage myself I was always a little embarrassed by the Canadian "Scot".

Jericho was funnier than Piper to be honest too. I want them to bring back the Highlight reel.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

I agree with most of the others here. Piper's Pit is still the standard that any subsequent show has ever aspired to be. Out of all the others, Jericho's Highlight Reel has probably been the best one... and that still doesn't hold a candle to the Pit.

One thing I want to add though, and I could be wrong about this... but I don't believe Pipers Pit was the original talk show. I think it was in either '81 or '82, but Buddy Rogers has "Rogers Corner" on WWF TV. He was working as a manager at the time... I want to say for Snuka before he became a baby, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure that was the first one, since Piper didn't go north for a year or so after that.