Brooklyn Brawlin 01.07.09: Where Will 2009 Rank in Wrestling History?

Posted by Dan Torkel on 01.07.2009

Let's play word association: 1995 - MABEL!, 1998 - STONE COLD!, 1986 - HORSEMEN!, 2009 - ????

Greetings and Happy New Year to all. 2008 is long since passed and everyone is already rushing out his or her laundry lists of predictions for the 2009-wrestling season. Well instead of making predictions, I will be asking… what type of year will 2009 be for the world of professional wrestling?

One word, I think that can sum up 2008 is "rebound." 2007 was a disastrous year for the world of wrestling, as sports entertainment was thrust into the national media upon the worst possible circumstances. The Benoit double murder/suicide was part of the blackest sky to ever fall upon the wrestling world as the WWE was on the front page of every paper and top story in every outlet for all the wrong reasons. That was then coupled by the forthcoming steroid scandal that saw many members of the roster cut or removed from TV due to Wellness suspensions. Vince and company also took tons of flack for running a "tribute" show to Benoit before the details us his soulless act were totally in place.

Last year the WWE went back to the men who brought them there, so to speak. While there were some breakout new stars (CM Punk), the WWE relied on the older guard to carry their product. Stars like Triple H, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, and Edge were featured in nearly every major angle, and while many waited a long time for the Hardys to break through, they have still been in the company since the late 1990's. The result was a very good year storyline-wise (carried mostly by Jericho/HBK) but somewhat boring as we were treated to many rematches and retreads of former feuds (Triple H/Jeff at 3 ppvs, JBL/Cena at 3 ppvs with one more to come). The Ric Flair retirement angle, with Wrestlemania's sendoff match and Raw farewell will be the moments to remember from 2008, which leave 08 infinitely better than 07. So what then for 2009? How will it compare to the best and worst years in wrestling history? Let's find out!

WORST

1995 – WWF/E –

1995 was not a banner year for the World Wrestling Federation. The Royal Rumble was shortened to make the "fastest Rumble ever!" Unfortunately that took away from Shawn Michaels' should-have-been incredible feat of winning it from # 1. Wrestlemania XI was the true definition of a "blah" show. Bret Hart, who spent a year as WWF Champion was reduced to a 10-minute "I Quit" match with Bob Backlund. The match should have been a bitter fight but instead was rushed and awkward. Other "memorable" matches included King Kong Bundy losing to an Undertaker clothesline, Razor Ramon winning by DQ in an IC Title match, and former main eventers British Bulldog and Lex Luger beating the Harris Brothers (Blu's). The Main Event featured Bam Bam Bigelow vs. NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor. That's right, an NFL player main evented Wrestlemania.

The Clique's control over the WWF and Vince was never more evident than in 1995. Diesel ruled as World Champion for 11 months of the year, while Shawn and Razor feuded over the IC Title during the summer. Diesel main evented Wrestlemania against Shawn and the year ended with Shawn being groomed for his 1996 superman push. All the while, Clique hater Bret Hart spent most of 1995 feuding with Jerry Lawler (since 1993) and his array of henchmen, including Isaac Yankem DDS (Kane). Bret only received the Title back from Diesel late in 95 as a transitional reign before Shawn would get it at WM XII.

Oh yeah… I knew I forgot something. The word that describes 1995 in a nutshell: MABEL! That's right… King of the Ring 1995: The Worst WWE ppv of all time featuring the beginning of the reign of King Mabel. The former Men on a Mission tag team champion and Vince as an unstoppable monster pushed 500 pounder to the moon. Worse off, he then received main events at Summerslam; and a feud with Undertaker later in the year. This is one of the longest running jokes in WWF history.

1995 WCW –

1994 saw WCW transition from Flair to Hogan and all his cronies. Hogan had run Flair out of the company and put his lackey Ed "Butcher, Man without a Face, Zodiac, Barber" Leslie in the main event of Starrcade with him. 1995 started with more Flair humiliation. The face of NWA and WCW since the early 1980's was treated to countless clean jobs to Hogan and Macho Man. Hogan then turned his attention to feuding with the Dungeon of Doom; the biggest bunch of scrub jobbers ever assembled. A 1980's WWF fan would have loved 1995 WCW as along with Hogan and Savage we got tons of Avalanche (Earthquake), Big Bubba Rogers (Bossman), Jim Duggan, Ed Leslie, Meng (Haku), etc.

WCW gave King of the Ring competition in the Worst PPV Ever race with Uncensored 95, a show designed to have NO RULES, though had one of the main matches ending in a DQ. We also were treated to the King of the Road match with Dustin Rhodes against Blacktop Bully (Barry Darsow). Both men bled and were subsequently fired!

In a booking move that was so bad it makes me cringe even now… Arn Anderson lost the WCW TV Title to Hogan's fake Ultimate Warrior clone: The Renegade. Arn called this the worst moment of his career, I believe.

1999 –

WWE – The year started so promising with Mankind winning the World Title from the Rock in a classic Raw moment. But it was all-downhill from there as the Vince's ran wild. Russo booking and McMahon domination ruled the screen to the point where any viewer with a shred of common sense and capacity for logic would be forced to compulsively vomit. Let's examine some of Vinnie Ru's classic booking moves in 1999…

- New Age Outlaws are split up. Bad Ass goes into IC Title hunt, feuds with Champ Ken Shamrock and contender Val Venis. Road Dogg spends over a month fighting for Hardcore Title. Right before Wrestlemania, Russo flip flops them, has Gunn win the Hardcore and Dogg win the IC Titles. Huh!?

- Does anyone remember Wrestlemania XV? How about the tag title match featuring the put-together-on Heat tag team of D-Lo Brown and Test? How about Chyna turning from corporate heel to DX face and back to corporate heel in 20 minutes?

- Every title is devalued by rampant title switches. The WWF Title changes hands 4 times before March's Wrestlemania. The IC Title is destroyed by lower midcarders holding and trading the belt in 2-week increments. Val Venis, Road Dogg, Golddust, Godfather, Jeff Jarrett, D-Lo Brown, etc.

- How are these, for some angle related questions… 1) Who is the Higher Power?
2) Who raised the briefcase? 3) Who ran over Austin?

- Vince is Higher Power…meaning that he kidnapped his own daughter, lied about it, blamed Undertaker (who he was working with), cost him the title to his mortal enemy (Austin) all to SURPRISE… Austin! WHAT!?!?!

- There was also the super push for MR. ASS Billy Gunn that included the KOTR win and a feud with the Rock for Summerslam.

Vince McMahon was the star attraction in 1999. Don't believe me… let's examine his year: He wins the Royal Rumble, Main Events February's ppv against Austin, was center stage in the big angle (Higher Power), main events King of the Ring with Shane against Austin, WINS WWF TITLE against Triple H, main events Armageddon in 40 minute match with Triple H.

Finally, Vince made an unforgivable error in judgment. After Owen Hart tragically fell to his death at the Over the Edge ppv, Vince let the show go on despite his wrestlers obviously being in no condition to continue.
WCW – One phrase that pays…FINGERPOKE OF DOOM! Ten years later, the moment that led to the demise of a once great company as Hogan and Nash spit in the faces of everyone in the industry (fans included) and ruin WCW for good. It was literally all downhill from there as ratings plummeted and piss poor booking followed. When it finally seemed like they were righting the ship, Hogan again pulled political games, and a Goldberg kick ended Bret Hart's career a month after finally being given the strap.

1993 – THE WORST YEAR IN WRESTLING

WWE – So much bad. Bret Hart and Yokozuna are collectively shit on by Hulk Hogan as he waltzes in and wins the WWF Title to end Wrestlemania IX in less than a minute. It was the most insulting end to the worst ppv of the year and far and away worst Wrestlemania of all time. We suffered through nearly a year of Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez, the Lex Express, and Yokozuna title reign. Meanwhile, despite helping to carry the company in 1992 as IC and WWF Champion, Bret Hart spent 93 feuding with Jerry Lawler only for that feud to be put on hold as Lawler was involved in a sex scandal forcing him out of the blow off at Survivor Series. The whole Hulk Hogan title reign was the worst offense of the year though as he "won" the belt and immediately took a hiatus to make movies.

WCW – OY! What a disgraceful year for this company. With Vader as Champion, they needed a top draw for Starrcade. First choice: Sid Vicious; a former WCW star with a huge cult following coming off a good stint in WWF, which saw him main event Wrestlemania VIII. Problem – Sid and Arn Anderson get into an altercation in a hotel and Sid stabs Arn with scissors nearly killing him. Second choice: Get a former WWF star who is big enough to be a legit threat to the 400-pound Vader. The man was Fred Ottman, who was famous as Tugboat/Typhoon. The gimmick was the infamous Shockmaster! Introduced as Sting's mystery partner at Fall Brawl (wow wasn't that an appropriate name for the show), Ottman crashed through the wall… LITERALLY! He fell through the wall and landed on his face, and it was being shown LIVE! They finally had to go back to old faithful Ric Flair who pulled out the #1 ranked Starrcade match ever according to the new DVD set.

Other hilarities from WCW in 93 included the ridiculously long and expensive movies they made to promote Vader and Sid vs. Sting and Bulldog, and the White Castle of Fear match. The crack squad running WCW also f'ed up main title matches with their weekly tapings. See, they taped weeks of shows in advance and showed new tag champs Paul Roma and Arn Anderson. Problem is when they went to have the title match at a live show, tag champion Brian Pillman was injured. But due to the weeks of stock footage they could not delay the title switch and thus the super awesome Hollywood Blondes were screwed out of their title reign when Austin had to team with Steven Regal. And speaking of that… PAUL FUCKING ROMA in the 4 HORSEMEN!!! Are you kidding? The former Young Stallion was brought into the most elite group in wrestling history?!?! Like I said at the beginning, OY!

BEST

Ah, no more negativity…let's look at the bright side of life.

1992 –

WWE – Simply put, this was a phenomenal year for wrestling. It was also the year where Vince and company moved away from Hulk Hogan and let the wrestlers wrestle. Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, and Shawn Michaels dominated the year. Flair was the "Real World Champion" and proved it by winning the quintessential Royal Rumble from #3, lasting over 60-minutes. Wrestlemania VIII was one of the best featuring 2 ****+ matches (Bret/Piper, and Savage/Flair). It also included the surprise ending when Ultimate Warrior made a grand return to save Hogan from a beat down. It would eventually lead to Summerslam in Wembley Stadium highlighted by the 5-star classic between Bret and his brother in-law British Bulldog. Shawn Michaels would dethrone Bulldog and end the year feuding with Hart for the World Title.
Other great matches and angles commenced with Savage and Mr. Perfect uniting against Flair and Razor Ramon, as well as Undertaker turning face and feuding with Jake the Snake.

WCW – More great wrestling from WCW as Sting finally got to carry the ball without Ric Flair and the Horsemen around to bother him. He feuded with the Dangerous Alliance leading to one of the great matches ever with War Games, and began his monster feud with Vader. That would lead to Vader becoming World Champion and reigning as one of the most dominant champions in WCW history. He would lose the title to Ron Simmons, which proved historic as he became the first African American to win a World Heavyweight Title.

1997 –

WWE – Thanks to WWE 24/7, I have been catching up on every Raw/Nitro of 1997 in the television section. 97 was a great and historic year for wrestling. Stone Cold vs. The Hart Foundation was THE feud for nearly the entire year. There were many peaks and no valleys. The "I Quit" match, the Canadian Stampede 10-man tag, and Owen/Austin. There was Shawn Michaels losing his smile, returning for the Bret Hart feud, which became the Undertaker feud, which led to HIAC! The birth of DX, the introduction of Kane, the 3 Faces of Foley, the rise of Ken Shamrock, and the heel turned Rocky Maiva becomes The Rock!

WCW – The NWO/WCW rivalry dominated TV as the entire year served as a slow build to Sting/Hogan at Starracde. The kept viewers constantly on edge by bringing in the likes of Curt Hennig, Rick Rude, Bret Hart, and other talent as well as celebrities. WCW also highlighted its unreal core of midcard talent with the likes of DDP, Eddy Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, etc. Guerrero and Mysterio would have one of the most talked about and overall great matches of all time at Halloween Havoc. There was also the entrance of Raven and rise of his Flock, and oh yeah, this guy named Goldberg debuted and began some type of streak. The Flair/Hennig Horsemen angle was great as was Lex Luger's shocking Nitro World Title win over Hogan in August. Yeah, there was a lot of NWO running wild but for the most part it was a fun year in WCW.

1989 – THE BEST YEAR IN WRESTLING

WWE – 4 words  THE MEGA POWERS EXPLODE!!! One of the defining angles of my childhood, as after years of hating each other and feuding Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage joined forces to become the best duo in wrestling with Savage ruling as WWF Champion. A year of tagging and sharing the managerial talents of Miss Elizabeth lead to Macho getting crazy jealous. It all boiled over at the Main Event in February 1989 when Hogan left Savage alone to care for Elizabeth backstage in a tag match with Bossman and Akeem, the Twin Towers. Savage was brutalized for almost 10 minutes till Hogan came back and saved him. Savage then left him alone out of spite and attacked him backstage later on. It was awesome! It lead to WM V and a phenomenal **** main event. It lead to Hogan's movie enemy Zeus coming in at the behest of Savage and feuding for a Summerslam tag match. Hogan also had a monster feud and cage match with Big Bossman, and by year's end had a new enemy in Mr. Perfect.

1989 was also the year of Ultimate Warrior's feud with the Heenan Family culminating with Ravishing Rick Rude's IC Title shocker at Wrestlemania and rematch at Summerslam. We also had the Demolition/Powers of Pain feud spilling over from Survivor Series 88, and a years worth of Rockers/Brainbusters matches. Curt Hennig milked the Mr. Perfect gimmick into the main event scene and his promos were legendary.

NWA/WCW – Perfection multiplied by 3! Flair and Steamboat: two names united in history by three perfect wrestling matches in the winter and spring of 1989. In Chicago, in February, Ricky Steamboat shocked the world by dethroning Ric Flair and becoming World Heavyweight Champion. He defended against Flair in a 55-minute 2 out of 3 falls classic in April. And in May at Wrestle War, the two had their trilogy completed when Flair wrestled the belt back in another 30+ minute epic. In Flair's recent biography on WWE 24/7 someone said it was the closest sports entertainment came to being pure sport. Once finished with the trio of epic matches, Flair jumped immediately into another phenomenal blood feud with Terry Funk. One great match at the Bash was followed by a classic at Clash where we were blessed with Gordon Solie's famous: "5 letters, 2 words: I Quit." Flair defeated Funk here and joined forces with an unlikely ally, Sting. As 1989 was ending, we were left wondering if Sting would get to be a Horsemen (of course it was all a plot to turn on him), but the angle was flawless. Lex Luger morphed from top face to cowardly heel and we were treated to the freshest and hottest new star in wrestling with Japan's Great Muta who sizzled in a feud with Sting. And the Steiners joined together for the first time. 1989 NWA provided one of the greatest ppvs ever with the Great American Bash featuring classics between Flair/Funk, Steamboat/Luger, Muta/Sting, and the debut of the Steiner Brothers as a team.

So will 2009 in pro-wrestling be a disaster of epic proportions like 1995, 1999, or god forbid 1993? Will it be a year to remember like 1992, 1997, or perhaps even 1989? We can only sit back, watch and find out. It will literally take one year to answer these questions. Until then, have fun storming the castle.