The Piledriver Report 09.02.09: The Best Era in Wrestling- The Mid-Eighties vs. The Monday Night Wars

There have been three grand eras of professional wrestling. You had the Golden Age of Wrestling in the 1950s and 60s when television was fresh and new. Stars like Gorgeous George and Antonio Rocca lit up the screen. The next big era in sports entertainment occurred in the mid-eighties. It was the conclusion of the territorial days. Hulk Hogan was a household name, and Ric Flair was in his prime. The last great era in wrestling was the late nineties. The Monday Night Wars era where ECW, WCW, and the WWF were all going strong.

I can’t comment on the 1950s-60s era of wrestling, as I wasn’t even born yet. To me, it all comes down to the mid-eighties (from 1984- July 1990 when Sting won his first World title) against the late-nineties (from 1997-2000) as what the greatest era in professional wrestling is.

Uniqueness of the era

Mid Eighties: The “Rock n’ Wrestling Connection officially began on January 23rd, 1984. On that date, Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik for the World Wrestling Federation championship. At the time, Vince McMahon was slowly picking apart the other territories of their best talent, with the goal of making the WWF a national promotion. Through the WWF marketing machine, Hulk Hogan became a larger then life professional wrestler. He was seen with celebrities, like Mr. T, and even went to the Grammy Awards with Cyndi Lauper. To the media and the non-wrestling fan, Hulk Hogan WAS professional wrestling. Vince created the Rock n’ Wrestling Connection to bring in celebrities that would give Hogan a rub, and get the WWF noticed by outsiders who would view the WWF as the new in-thing to see.

The WWF wasn’t the only federation to go “national.” Through their 6:05pm Saturday evening time slot on the TBS Superstation, Jim Crockett’s Mid-Atlantic promotion was able to follow the WWF’s lead. Where the WWF focused on style and flash, the soon to be WCW was all about the steak. Athletes like Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Magnum Terry Allen, and Barry Windham gave the fans matches that focused on the sport side of wrestling. Each math felt like a competition, as opposed to “sports entertainment.”

Even though the territories were dying, and professional wrestling was becoming the latest fad, there was another element that made the mid-eighties unique. More then any other era in the history of professional wrestling, the mid-eighties were the golden era of tag team wrestling. From the Road Warriors and Rockers in the AWA, to the Midnight Express and Rock n’ Roll Express in the NWA, to the Freebirds and Von Erichs in World Class, to the British Bulldogs and the Hart Foundation in the WWF, each promotion pushed tag team like big time acts. More on tag teams later though.

Monday Night Wars Era: The shot heard around the world in professional wrestling occurred on July 7th, 1996 when Hulk Hogan turned heel and officially formed the New World Order with newly arrived Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. The wrestling world hadn’t seen a heel Hogan since the early eighties. This was unchartered territory. Despite getting booed out of the building, and having garbage hurled in their direction, a funny thing happened with the n.W.o. The group became “cool heels.” No longer was it cool to root for the good guy to win in the end. Instead, Hall, Nash, and Hogan made the fans want to see the men in the black hats continue on their path of destruction.

At this time, a small independent group based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called Extreme Championship Wrestling, was slowly making their presence felt. Unlike the children friendly WWF and WCW, ECW focused on the forgotten male adult demographic. The used scantly clad ladies, profanity laced promos, and exciting hardcore violent matches, mixed in with the beauty of technical masterpieces, and lucha libre daredevil acrobatics.

The WWF was stuck behind the times at the beginning of the Monday Night Wars. However, the WWF eventually woke up, and used ECW’s formula on a national scale to narrow the gap on World Championship Wrestling. DeGeneration X, Steve Austin, and the Hart Foundation helped to slowly usher in the “Attitude Era” in the WWF. It would be a formula that would turn the WWF into a near-billion dollar corporation. The uniqueness in the Monday Night Wars era was the philosophy change from children oriented to a more adult product.

Announcing

Mid-Eighties: During this era, the WWF had three main announcing teams. There was Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura, who hosted “All-Star Wrestling” and most of the WWF’s pay per views at the time. Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon (with Bruno Sammartino before he left the company) hosted WWF Superstars of Wrestling, as well as the Saturday Night’s Main Event television series. Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan paired up to host WWF Wrestling Challenge. Other announcers on their roster included Lord Alfred Hayes, Gene Okerlund, and Pat Patterson, among others in syndicated shows and arena house shows.

Over at Jim Crockett Promotions, you had some form of Gordon Solie, David Crockett and Tony Schiavone doing the announcing of WCW Saturday Night TBS show. When WCW purchased the Mid-South UWF territory, Jim Ross eventually joined Schiavone as the two man announcing team for World Championship Wrestling.

Monday Night Wars: The main announcers for the WWF during the Monday Night Wars Era were Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Throughout the “wars” era, Vince McMahon, Kevin Kelly, and Michael Cole would also ply their trade in the announcers booth on Monday Night RAW. Jim Cornette, Michael Hayes, Kevin Kelly, and Michael Cole provided commentary at different point in time during this era for Sunday Night Heat. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler provided the main commentary for most SmackDown! telecasts. On pay per view, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross covered most shows, with Michael Cole also getting the nod at times.

In WCW, Monday Nitro had several announcers throughout the Monday Night Wars era. Eric Bischoff hosted from Day One until he became more involved in the n.W.o storyline in 1996. Bobby Heenan was a co-host from 1995 until 2000. Tony Schiavone was a host during Monday Nitro’s entire run. Other hosts included Steve McMichael, Mike Tenay, Larry Zybysko, Scott Hudson, and Mark Madden. On WCW Thunder, the original broadcast team was Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Lee Marshall. In Fall 1998, Mike Tenay replaced Lee Marshall. On April 8th, 1999, Larry Zbyszko replaced Bobby Heenan. In December 1999, Scott Hudson replaced Zbyszko.

ECW was a one man show. That man was Joey Styles. Occassionally, Joey Styles had others to announce with him. When ECW had their national television show on TNN called ECW on TNN, Styles was joined by Joel Gertner, and later Don Callis. However, when anyone thinks of announcers and ECW, Joey Styles is the only name in the game/

ADVANTAGE: Mid-Eighties era. While the “Attitude Era” had the greatest announcer in the wrestling history (Ross), and the man who should have taken his throne in Joey Styles, the 1980s gets the win. The mid-eighties had the greatest announcer up until that point in time, Gordon Solie. They had the greatest heel announcer in the history of the business with Jesse Ventura. Jim Ross was just making a name for himself. The funniest commentator in wrestling, Bobby Heenan, was in his prime as an announcer.

Celebrity Involvement

Mid-Eighties: The mid-eighties were filled with celebrity involvement. In 1984, Cyndi Lauper helped launch the “Rock n’ Wrestling Connection.” At the first WrestleMania, Liberace, Billy Martin, and Muhammad Ali joined Lauper in the festivities. However, the biggest star of the night was Mr. T, who was in the tag team main event with Hulk Hogan against Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper. Celebrity involvement, especially at WrestleMania would became a wrestling staple during this time. However, Mr. T would be the only celebrity to have an active in ring role.

Jim Crockett Promotions would also use celebrities. In their early Great American Bash tours, they would use country music stars to hold concerts along with the wrestling card. I remember there was also one house show in the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ when Lawrence Taylor got involved in the show. Who could forget when RoboCop showed up for the Capitol Combat pay per view?

Monday Night Wars: If the mid-eighties used celebrities to a small degree to drum up publicity in their product, the Monday Night Wars era hit people over the head with celebrities. World Championship Wrestling was famous for their celebrity involvement. Unlike most of the celebrity usage from the eighties, this time these stars were getting into the ring. Reggie White, Kevin Greene, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman all had at least one match in a WCW ring. That was fine, because they were all athletes from another sport. Unfortunately, once Jay Leno fought in the ring, and actually had offense in the match against Hulk Hogan, all celebrity involvement from this point forward was a joke. If Leno wasn’t bad enough, WCW later had David Arquette win the WCW World championship. Mix all of this in with other celebrity involvement from KISS to Master P, and WCW’s use of celebrities was OVERKILL.

The WWF also got in the act on using celebrities. From WrestleMania XIV until WrestleMania 2000, Pete Rose had a three Mania feud with Kane. When the WWF introduced Test to the WWF audience, they announced that he was a bodyguard for Motley Crue, and had the Crue perform on RAW.

Take all of the celebrity involvement by the WWF and WCW during this era, and nothing pales in comparison to the WWF bringing in Mike Tyson in early 1987. Mike Tyson’s involvement in the wrestling gave the WWF publicity from the mainstream media that they hadn’t received from the press since the days that Mr. T was involved with the company.

ADVANTAGE: Monday Night Wars: If it wasn’t for celebrity involvement in the WWF in the mid-eighties, there probably wouldn’t have been a boom in the industry at that time. The WWF, and more specifically, Hulk Hogan would not have become household names. Cyndi Lauper, Mr.T, and M-TV helped changed the industry in the eighties.

However, thanks to Mike Tyson, the “Monday Night Wars” era gets the nod here. Tyson did more to garner outside interest in the product then any other individual before or after. I remember SportsCenter and many entertainment outlets discussing on the air on what kind of involvement Tyson would have at WrestleMania XIV. Not only did he draw in the media and viewers, but also these fans stayed after WrestleMania XIV. For that the, Monday Night Era gets the advantage.

Big Shows

Mid-Eighties: Professional wrestling always staged big shows. From Christmas night spectaculars to the Showdown at Shea, all the way up until the first Starrcade, professional wrestling territories have a history of super shows. In the mid-eighties, the WWF and the NWA took the idea of the super show up a level. On the heels of the first Starrcade, World Class Championship Wrestling presented the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions in May of 1984. The WWF countered with the first WrestleMania on March 31st, 1985, and the WWF Wrestling Classic singles tournament. In September of that year, the NWA and the AWA joined forces to co-promote SuperClash I, which would later be an AWA only super card, followed by an AWA-World Class joint card for SuperClash III.

Both the NWA and the WWF created more super shows as the decade of the eighties neared a close. Aside for Starrcade, the NWA added the Great American Bash, and the Bunkhouse Stampede. The WWF added the Survivor Series, the Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam.

After the advent of pay per view, the WWF and Jim Crockett Promotions also aired non-pay-per view super shows. The WWF had Saturday Night’s Main Event and The Main Event. The NWA had the Clash of the Champions show.

Monday Night Wars: During the Monday Night Wars, the rise in the number of pay per views, and the increased importance on the weekly television shows caused the cable TV super shows, like the Clash of Champions to become extinct. Instead of these shows, we got monthly pay per views from the WWF and WCW. Extreme Championship Wrestling even got into the mix with Barely Legal in April 1997, and held pay per views several times a year as well.

ADVANTAGE: Mid-eighties. In the mid-eighties, when a promotion held a super card, they were few and far between. When WrestleMania or the Great American Bash came around, it felt like a huge event. In the late-nineties, when every month featured a “big” event, the impact of exactly how big the event was become less and less. For that reason, the mid-eighties win this category.

Television Shows

Mid-Eighties: The mid-eighties featured a ton of different wrestling shows on TV. The AWA had a weekly show on ESPN, as did World Class Championship Wrestling. The NWA/WCW gave us their WCW Saturday Night show on TBS, as well as some syndicated programs. The WWF was loaded with syndicated television and cable shows. There was All-American Wrestling, Tuesday Night Titans, Prime Time Wrestling, Wrestling Challenge, Superstars of Wrestling, and Wrestling Spotlight. Most of the matches on these shows consisted of squash matches between a star and a preliminary wrestler. These one-sided contests were used to put over the pushed wrestler, and get angles over for the upcoming house show circuit tour. Occasionally, these shows would provide a main event match that featured “name” wrestlers in it to close out the show.

Monday Night Wars: During the Monday Night Wars, there were five main professional wrestling television shows. ECW’s syndicated show was the must see ECW weekly telecast. They also had their national TNN show late in the Monday Night Wars era. WCW presented Monday Nitro, which was the first live wrestling show that was broadcast weekly. They presented main event matches that you previously only saw on pay per view shows. Due to the success of Nitro, WCW would later add WCW Thunder on Thursday night’s on TBS. WCW also had their WCW Saturday Night show, as well as some syndicated programs.

With the creation and success of Nitro, the WWF was faced trying to keep up with WCW. The WWF eliminated the lopsided matches from RAW, and inserted competitive matches featuring the star wrestlers of the company. The WWF then turned RAW into a live weekly show, as well as adding a second hour of RAW programming each Monday night. As the WWF started to defeat the WCW in the ratings war, other shows were added to the schedule. Thursday’s become the home of WWF SmackDown!, and on Sunday night’s they added Sunday Night Heat. The WWF’s top syndicated program was Saturday Night Shotgun.

ADVANTAGE: Monday Night Wars. Matches featuring Jake Roberts against Barry Horowitz, or matches featuring Steve Austin vs. the Big Show and Hulk Hogan vs. Goldberg. While I loved the old syndicated shows, and the TBS NWA studio show every Saturday night, I would have to go with the competitive broadcasts that you saw every week during the Monday Night Wars.

Tag Teams

Mid-Eighties: This may be the most lopsided category in this article. The eighties had tons and tons of great teams. The NWA featured the Fantastics, the Fabulous Ones, the Midnight Express, the Rock n’ Roll Express, the Road Warriors, the Fabulous Freebirds, the Steiner Brothers, the Russians, Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff, Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, the Sky Scrapers, and DOOM. The WWF featured the British Bulldogs, Demolition, the Hart Foundation, Strike Force, the Rockers, Killer Bees, Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo, the Wild Samoans, the Moondogs, the Funks, Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake, and the Rougeau Brothers. The AWA had acts like the early Road Warriors, the early Midnight Rockers, the Demolition Crew, Bad Company, and Scott Hall and Curt Henning. Many of these tag teams can fill up their own wing in a wrestling Hall of Fame.

Monday Night Wars: The mid-eighties aren’t the only period in wrestling to feature great teams. ECW led the way in showcasing tag teams in the late nineties. They featured the Eliminators, the Dudleys, Sabu and Rob Van Dam, the Gangstas, Justin Credible and Lace Storm, the Pitbulls, and the Public Enemy. WCW countered with Rick and Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and Harlem Heat as their top teams. The WWF had a nice group of tag teams as well. The Hardy Boys, Edge/Christian, the Dudleys, the Road Warriors, the New Age Outlaws, the APA, and The Rock n’ Sock Connection. In the WWF, the Hardys, Edge/Christian, and the Dudleys would go on to create a tag team renaissance in the company.

ADVANTAGE: Mid-Eighties. Despite having some great teams in the late nineties, the tag title scene in this era was filled with top single stars that would pair up in short run tag teams. The mid-eighties featured high-level tag teams that actually teamed with each other for the long term. They were teams in the truest sense of the word. The tag team depth in the eighties was above and beyond anything that was available in the late nineties.

Feuds

Mid-Eighties: The mid-eighties featured some of the most legendary feuds in wrestling history. The NWA provided Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger, Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA, Ricky Steamboat, and Terry Funk. Tully Blanchard feuded with Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA. The Road Warriors battled the Midnight Express, Blanchard and Anderson, and the Sky Scrapers. Rock n Rolls feuded with the Midnight Express. Nikita Koloff went to war against Magnum TA. Sting had a great rivalry against the Great Muta for the TV title.

The WWF featured Hulk Hogan against Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, John Studd, Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, the Big Bossman, Ted DiBiase, Randy Savage, and Sgt. Slaughter. Jimmy Snuka feuded with Roddy Piper. Sgt. Slaughter battled the Iron Sheik. Ricky Steamboat had wars against Don Muraco, Jake Roberts, and Randy Savage. The Ultimate Warrior feuded with Rick Rude, Hercules, and Dino Bravo. Perhaps the greatest feud of the mid-eighties featured a rivalry that wouldn’t see either man face the other until 1992. That rivalry is Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan. The question of “Who would win between Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan?” was one of the most debated questions in wrestling in the industry in the eighties. This made the Hogan/Flair rivalry the biggest feud of that era.

Monday Night Wars: The Monday Night Wars had their share of memorable feuds. The Rock battled Triple H. He had a World title feud with Mick Foley. He also feuded with Steve Austin. Steve Austin battled Mick Foley, the Undertaker, Kane, and Triple H. There was the three-way tag team war featuring the Dudley vs. Edge and Christian vs. the Hardys. The Hart Foundation battled Steve Austin.

In WCW, there was Sting vs. Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg vs. Hogan. The Giant vs. Kevin Nash. There was the nWo Wolfpac vs. nWo Black and White. Let’s not forget the cruiserweight division. Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio Jr., La Parka, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Juventud Guerrera all had fast paced wars with each other.

ADVANTAGE: This is a tough call. In the mid-eighties, there was any number of feuds that you could rank as the top feud. It all depends on the era. During the Monday Night Wars, each federation was defined by one feud each. WCW’s main feud was the New World Order vs. WCW. In ECW, there was Tommy Dreamer against Raven in the best feud in the entire history of that organization. The WWF’s feud of the era was Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon.

However, neither of those feuds could be called the greatest feud of the Monday Night Wars era. That feud was the war between the WWF and WCW. It’s the reason why the “Monday Night Wars” were going on to begin with. In the eighties, a WCW/WWF war was manufactured by the media and the fans. In the late-nineties, the WCW/WWF feud was no longer manufactured. It was a living, breathing corporate feud that both sides recognized. That’s why the advantage here goes to the Monday Night Wars.

World Champions

Mid-Eighties: In the mid-eighties, there were 3 World titles, the AWA, NWA and WWF World Championships. The AWA World title was passed around almost once a year. Only two wrestlers held the title on more occasion. Nick Bockwinkle and Larry Zybysko each had two reigns. Rick Martel had the longest title reign when he held the AWA World title for fifteen months from May 13th, 1984 until December 29th, 1985.

The World Champions during the mid-eighties in the NWA were Harley Race, Ronnie Garvin, Dusty Rhodes, Kerry Von Erich, Ricky Steamboat, Sting, and Ric Flair. Out of all of these men, only Ric Flair had more then one World title reign. He held the belt on six different occasions in the mid-eighties. In that time frame, a wrestler not named Ric Flair held the NWA World title a total of less then a half of a year.

In the World Wrestling Federation, the mid-eighties were dominated by one man Hulk Hogan. In this period, Hulk Hogan held the WWF World title on two occasions for just over five years. Randy Savage held the belt fir a little over a year. Andre the Giant held the belt for one day. According to my time frame, the only other wrestler to hold the World title was the Ultimate Warrior, who won the title on April 1st, 1990.

Monday Night Wars: If the Monday Night Wars can be known for one thing when it comes to it’s champions, it would be that the companies liked to hot shot the title around. From 1997- the end of 2000, WCW had 38 different World title reigns. The WWF claimed 27 World title changes. ECW had 14 World title switches. In the Monday Night War era, there were way too many hands in the World title cookie jar.

ADVANTAGE: In the mid-eighties, when you think of the dominant World Champions, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan immediately come to mind. When you think of the World Champions during the Monday Night Wars, any number of names comes to mind. There’s The Rock, Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Booker T, Jeff Jarrett, Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Sting, Mick Foley, and Triple H can be looked at the top titleholder in the era depending on the year. Due to this reason, I need to give the advantage to the mid-eighties era.

The 411: After tallying up the 7 areas, the Mid-Eighties beat the Monday Night Wars Era by a total of 4-3. One thing I have learned from all of this is that the debate is way too close to call.