One Match From Each of the First 10 WrestleManias

Today is WrestleMania. Well, tonight is the first part of the 40th WrestleMania, which now comes in two parts, because there is no greater master than money, and they can sell out two nights in a stadium with ease, or come so close that it doesn’t matter they didn’t; the point is these things make a lot of money for a company that could, just once, sacrifice bonus money for something special, but obviously they will not.

I don’t watch wrestling much anymore. This will change sometime, in one way or another; I have increasing doubts I will ever follow current wrestling the way I have in the past, though I did watch ACTION’s DEAN~!!! show on Thursday and the Ring of Honor show on Friday, and enjoyed both other than simply not having the desire to spend four hours watching wrestling shows anymore. It’s actually not that I have a lot else to be doing, but I do have other things I could do.

Marty Jannetty & Razor Ramon vs Sid & 1-2-3 Kid (WWF, 12-17-1995)

WWF In Hour House: Seasons Beatings, Hershey, PA

A request! I actually watched this about seven months ago in one of the Time Travel deals, but happy to do it again, in part because it’s a different way of watching A Match, instead of me bopping through a full week of TV wrestling.

Also I like the money part of watching it again, and it’s not super long, and I do think there’s some interesting stuff in this match to look at.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger & Sting vs Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & nWo Sting (WCW, 9-15-1996)

WCW Fall Brawl, Winston-Salem, NC

A request! It’s WARGAMES! And for the first time in a while, this truly feels like something big. The prior year’s WarGames was Hulk Hogan and Dungeon of Doom horseshit. The year before that did fucking rock, but the year before that had the Shockmaster, and really it’s been since ’92 when something felt like, you know, THE BIG THING in the company. The ’94 WarGames was like the last gasp of The Real WCW before the Hogan parade fully took over and it ruled, but it was really just a “Hogan doesn’t work the September PPV” thing in terms of company scope and all that.

Here we’re two months into the nWo taking over. On the nWo side tonight you have Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and, apparently, Sting. On the WCW side you’ve got Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Lex Luger confirmed. It was going to be the Four Horsemen, but Luger and Sting wanted in, and Flair and Anderson complied. And then Sting, they think, turned traitor on them.

So the nWo are coming in with a mystery fourth man, and so is WCW, by default.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

TAPE’s Time Travel: This Week in TV Wrestling, Jan. 1-7, 1996

A new year!

IN THIS SET:

• WWF Monday Night Raw (Jan. 1, 1996)
• WCW Monday Nitro (Jan. 1, 1996)
• ECW Hardcore TV (Jan. 2, 1996)
• ECW House Party (Jan. 5, 1996)
• WCW Worldwide (Jan. 6, 1996)
• WCW Pro (Jan. 6, 1996)
• WWF Superstars (Jan. 6, 1996)
• WCW Saturday Night (Jan. 6, 1996)
• WCW Main Event (Jan. 7, 1996)

Notes: I just don’t have the Jan. 6 Prime, but whatever, and I do not have any USWA until Jan. 20.

TAPE’s Time Travel: This Week in TV Wrestling, Dec. 18-24, 1995

IN THIS SET:

• WCW Prime (Dec. 18, 1995)
• WWF Monday Night Raw (Dec. 18, 1995)
• WCW Monday Nitro (Dec. 18, 1995)
• ECW Hardcore TV (Dec. 19, 1995)
• WCW Worldwide (Dec. 23, 1995)
• WWF Superstars (Dec. 23, 1995)
• USWA Championship Wrestling (Dec. 23, 1995)
• WCW Saturday Night (Dec. 23, 1995)
• WCW Main Event (Dec. 24, 1995)

TAPE’s Time Travel: This Week in TV Wrestling, Dec. 11-17, 1995

IN THIS SET:

• WCW Prime (Dec. 11, 1995)
• WWF Monday Night Raw (Dec. 11, 1995)
• WCW Monday Nitro (Dec. 11, 1995)
• ECW Hardcore TV (Dec. 12, 1995)
• WCW Worldwide (Dec. 16, 1995)
• WCW Pro (Dec. 16, 1995)
• WWF Superstars (Dec. 16, 1995)
• USWA Championship Wrestling (Dec. 16, 1995)
• WCW Saturday Night (Dec. 16, 1995)
• WWF In Your House (Dec. 17, 1995)

TAPE’s Time Travel: This Week in TV Wrestling, Dec. 4-10, 1995

IN THIS SET:

• WCW Prime (Dec. 4, 1995)
• WWF Monday Night Raw (Dec. 4, 1995)
• WCW Monday Nitro (Dec. 4, 1995)
• ECW Hardcore TV (Dec. 5, 1995)
• WCW Worldwide (Dec. 9, 1995)
• WCW Pro (Dec. 9, 1995)
• WWF Superstars (Dec. 9, 1995)
• USWA Championship Wrestling (Dec. 9, 1995)
• WCW Saturday Night (Dec. 9, 1995)
• WCW Main Event (Dec. 10, 1995)

TAPE’s Time Travel: This Week in TV Wrestling, Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 1995

A new week! No pay-per-view extravaganzas or supercards! Just good, old fashioned televised professional wrestling — with a new show in the rotation!

IN THIS SET:

• WCW Prime (Nov. 27, 1995)
• WWF Monday Night Raw (Nov. 27, 1995)
• WCW Monday Nitro (Nov. 27, 1995)
• ECW Hardcore TV (Nov. 28, 1995)
• WCW Worldwide (Dec. 2, 1995)
• WCW Pro (Dec. 2, 1995)
• WWF Superstars (Dec. 2, 1995)
• USWA Championship Wrestling (Dec. 2, 1995)
• WCW Saturday Night (Dec. 2, 1995)
• WCW Main Event (Dec. 3, 1995)

TAPE’s Time Travel: This Week in TV Wrestling, Nov. 13-19, 1995

A new week, and this one has a pay-per-view extravaganza from the World Wrestling Federation, one of the old Big Four, AND I’m putting in an ECW supercard that didn’t, technically, in original form, air on TV in full, but whatever. I just want to watch it.

IN THIS SET:

• WCW Prime (Nov. 13, 1995)
• WWF Monday Night Raw (Nov. 13, 1995)
• WCW Monday Nitro (Nov. 13, 1995)
• ECW Hardcore TV (Nov. 14, 1995)
• WCW Worldwide (Nov. 18, 1995)
• WCW Pro (Nov. 18, 1995)
• WWF Superstars (Nov. 18, 1995)
• WCW Saturday Night (Nov. 18, 1995)
• ECW November to Remember (Nov. 18, 1995; I know this wasn’t on TV in full alone but I don’t care)
• WCW Main Event (Nov. 19, 1995)
• WWF Survivor Series (Nov. 19, 1995)

TAPE’s Time Travel: This Week in TV Wrestling, Nov. 6-12, 1995

I used to do threads on Twitter where I was watching old shows in order; it started with just doing WWF TV of 1994, then obviously I couldn’t not watch the PPVs, then I added ECW, then I added WCW, and before you knew it, it was a whole thing.

I haven’t done it in about nine months, leaving off with the Nov. 4, 1995 edition of WCW Worldwide. Part of this is my wrestling watching goes in spurts. A bigger part is doing all the GIFs and video clipping and whatnot is really time-consuming; watching a one-hour show turns into two-and-a-half hours at best.

But now that I’m just doing whatever with this Blog Site, I thought I’d pick up. I didn’t want to go right from where I left off, so we will start with a new week, just two days later but skipping some B-shows on the weekend.

IN THIS SET:

• WCW Prime (Nov. 6, 1995)
• WWF Monday Night Raw (Nov. 6, 1995)
• WCW Monday Nitro (Nov. 6, 1995)
• ECW Hardcore TV (Nov. 7, 1995)
• WCW Pro (Nov. 11, 1995)
• WWF Superstars (Nov. 11, 1995)
• WCW Saturday Night (Nov. 11, 1995)
• WCW Main Event (Nov. 12, 1995)