The Most Important Year in Wrestling

Is 1999 classed as the one of the most important years in wrestling?

This is not just in terms of a particular promotion, but in terms of what was going on in wrestling all round.

I was having a conversation last night with a friend of mine about the best eras in wrestling. We both agreed on the same ones (like the NWO and Attitude eras for instance), which largely involved around the times we were both interested in wrestling the most. We also agreed that our favourite match was Rock vs Austin in Wrestlemania XV. I had remembered about this time that WCW had just finished its amazing run of of 80+ weeks of trampling WWF in the dust. At that time I was a big watcher of Thunder and Nitro and the Wrestlemania match got me interested in WWF again.

As it turned out 1999 seems to be have been a big year in wrestling altogether:

WWF: Wrestlemania XV, containing perhaps the best match in wrestling history, took place on March 28th 1999

WCW: After the Monday Night Wars dominance, Vince Russo came on board in October 5th 1999, to become head writer. This in my opinion was the start of a decline in WCW and its evential death.

ECW: ECW held their Anarchy Rulz Pay-per-view drawing the largest live crowd in original ECW history. This was the first pay-per-view after Heyman had signed a contract with TNN in the hopes of raising awareness of the company. This began on August 27th 1999

Japan: The Giant Baba, the co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling, died on January 22nd 1999.

Now we all talk about greatest eras in wrestling, or the ones we most enjoyed. But what about actual years?

Maybe it was because of one particular instance or match. Maybe it is the year you most watched wrestling or went to a particular PPV. It could also be for a particular personal reason (In 1999 I was doing my GCSE's, so watching some wrestling after studying was a way I chose to unwind. Nothing better than watching grown men getting their heads kicked in!)

Over to you guys. The most important year for wrestling and why.

Hard to look past 2001 for me. Vince buying all major competition, establishing guys like Jericho and Angle as main eventers, Triple H at his peak, Austin Rock Taker Kane all around.

Having said that 2002 was pretty important, with the brand split and WWE probably had more huge stars then than its ever had (Rock Austin Hogan HBK HHH Flair Taker Kane nWo Angle Jericho etc)

Good article.

For me 1996 was the year that it all started to change.

Shawn Michaels becoming World Champion.
The birth of Austin with the 3:16 speech at King of the Ring.
Scott Hall appearing on Nitro and the birth of the NWO.
Debut of The Rock at Survivor Series.

I'll go with 1996.

I saw this article and my instant reaction was that it has to be 1999.

So I was glad you agreed! I think it was the year that encapsulated the attitude era and the monday night wars. It had Austin dominating WWF/E, had Taker, The Rock, Mankind, HHH and Kane all involved in the best angles.

I think 2000 is my second favourite in that it established WWE as the number 1, and wrestling just felt exciting to me.

1997?

Montreal Screwjob leading to the creation of the Mr. McMahon character, really ushering in the attitude era.
The real start of the Monday Night Wars.

Technically I don't think I can argue for any other year than 1985 being the most important year in wrestling, the year of the first Wrestlemania and the arrival of the WWF as the one national US wrestling promotion.

That said 2002 was probably my favorite year in wrestling with HBK's return and subsequent feud with HHH being the highlight

In hindsight I should have added a poll, which I have now rectified. I have started with 1985, it being the first Wreslemania, as mentioned by the good doctor.

97 for me was the best year but 96 is where it began, overall though you have to go back to the beginning of the Rock n Wrestling era and back to Hogan and Piper in 85 throw in Mr T Cyndi Lauper and MTV and Pro Wrestling had arrived on the main stream

In terms of wwe 2005 was pretty big, eddies last year.

WM21 cena and batista both won the major titles ushering in a new era.

Most important year, 85 for what it started

My favourite year, 2001, Austin wins the Rumble, Mania X-7, Invasion angle

I went for 1996.

The Austin 3:16 may not be highly regarded with some people but I felt it was the start of many a good thing to come in the WWF/E

Although it is early days in the poll, it seems 1996-2001 is the most dominant response.

From this can we assume:

a) Across all promotions, this was the "Golden Era" of wrestling?

b) Wrestling as an entity (regardless of McMahon's attempts to rebrand it as "entertainment") has been declining since 2002?

Or it has just been fairly steady with no need to have any huge changes?

invincibleILeak (CL-6WF) wrote:Or it has just been fairly steady with no need to have any huge changes?

So because WWE has had no real rivals for 10 years, it has made the need for huge changes not warrented? I fully agree with this. I don't expect many people, if at all, to choose the last 3 or 4 years as their favourites.

Then again, if you have a 12 year old massive Cena fan, then you could say this is their golden era. Because most of us are in the 20-30 bracket and can remember "better" times, that we are blinded to what has happened in the WWE over the last 3 years? Will these years even be mentioned if I ran this poll in 10 years time, even from that now 22 year old Cena fan?

There is a big difference between the most important year, and your favourite year though.

It would be hard to argue that the past 5 years have been the most important, I like The Awesome Giz's argument, but it doesn't really compare to the late 90s or 85 in terms of importance. The WWE have a formula now, which works and means there is no need for a revolution as such.

But I am sure there are plenty of people who will say their favourite year has been the last five years.

voted 2005, Cena and Batista won titles at Wrestlemania 21 against who were the top older heels in the business at the time. Throughout the year given mass exposure to them as champions.

Orton was on the rise having lost his world title he was given the Undertaker at Wrestlemania. The death of Eddie as well, it all caused a big change in WWE's direction

You can't look past the birth of Wrestlemania in 85. Vince has rolled the dice big time if that hadn't of come off who knows where Wrestling would be today?

What year was cable television evented in the states? I'd say this was an important time?

The last most important years in wrestling were 96-97 everything began to change from here

Mr H wrote:Good article.

For me 1996 was the year that it all started to change.

Shawn Michaels becoming World Champion.
The birth of Austin with the 3:16 speech at King of the Ring.
Scott Hall appearing on Nitro and the birth of the NWO.
Debut of The Rock at Survivor Series.

I'll go with 1996.

you took the words right out my mouth