Did you watch the Friday Night Wars?

Butch Cassidy

Remember the Monday Friday Night Wars? I was just inquiring over in the Broadcasting forum about a few satellite channels appearing on Cablelink around May-August of 1996. I never had satellite but one of these free channels you could tune in was TNT which came on after Cartoon Network. TNT of course showed Nitro and it was then that I was fortunate enough to be able to watch at least part of (up until about August) the Monday Night Wars.

In school we all talked about this "new wrestling" programme where there aren't any weeds (jobbers/enhancement talent). It was a glorious watching the Outsiders invasion, beginnings of NWO and crusierweight matches while the WWF on Monday Night RAW had Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson vs the Smoking Guns. Of course as time went on Nitro got worse and RAW is War became a great programme. Did anyone else here have a satellite dish to be able to get TNT for the full Friday Night Wars?

chordtype

I was also one of these chaps that had a satellite dish and got TNT. I started watching wrestling around 1996 and even though I was only six but I can still remember loads of the memorable angles that happened around that time. I was amazed that I was allowed up until 10 or 11 to watch wrestling when I think back on it. Anyone else remember the little running sketch that cartoon network would play before it went off the air. Also if I remember correctly once Sky Sports 1 went off the air after Raw is War there was some 'adult content' on. I remember taping one episode and getting a nice little treat when I watched it back.

I remember watching WCW during the early NWO angle and boy was it good stuff. That Hogan and Sting feud was a personal feud but I really loved the cruiserweights at the time as well.

I didn't start watching WWF until my brother brought home a video of Wrestlemania 13 and then we discovered that Raw was on Sky Sports so we started watching this. It was the RAW after the first Hell in the Cell match that I started watching first. Kane came out and beat up Ahmed Johnson if I remember correctly. From there I watched both shows up until the Austin - Mc Mahon feud took off in 1997 and then my interest in WCW decreased a little. Still tried to watch both every week but with the exception of a few guys on WCW (Jericho was so amazing) most of my favourites were now in WWF.

Vince135792003

I never got the Cartoon Network. It bugged me how some towns in Kildare had it and were able to watch WCW but I wasn't able to.

waltersobchak

I had a satelite dish until about 1997 and remember seeing some episodes of Nitro, i also remember WCW on ITV on a Saturday afternoon circa 1992 and late on a Saturday night on ITV also..

Vince135792003

waltersobchak wrote: »

i also remember WCW on ITV on a Saturday afternoon circa 1992

I remember that too. As a kid I remember it looking very different as a show but enjoyable nonetheless.

Ruu_Old

We got Sky around 96 and although we didn't buy a top package, stumbled onto TNT which was unscrambled. Used to watch ITV on Saturday as well previously, it was on earlier in the week but at 1am or something so had to catch the Saturday time. Ron Simmons beating Vader for the title was a big one, remember Tony Schiavone on WCW Magazine with a special report.

waltersobchak

Vince135792003 wrote: »

I remember that too. As a kid I remember it looking very different as a show but enjoyable nonetheless.

Absolutely.. i remember thinking the WCW guys where tiny compared to the WWF guys at the time:pac:

Butch Cassidy

waltersobchak wrote: »

Absolutely.. i remember thinking the WCW guys where tiny compared to the WWF guys at the time:pac:

And people wonder why 'roids were so rampant in WWF. Vince's magical formula to draw people in - make em look like giant carnival freakshows :rolleyes:. So many wasted lifes....




WCW on UTV in the early 90s, yeah I can vividly remember watching a Sting match. I'm not too sure how much I watched. Around 1992 or 1993 Sky 1 was dropped from Cablelink over a dispute or something - there was an RTE magazine with Bart on the front advertising his "return" to Irish TV screens. So at some point there around 92/93 I wasn't able to watch wrestling and I'm not sure if I watched the WCW. Damn shame as there was surely some good stuff on it worth watching what with Sting, Austin, Pillman, Cactus Jack, Steamboat, Rude, Snake Roberts

flahavaj

Vince135792003 wrote: »

I remember that too. As a kid I remember it looking very different as a show but enjoyable nonetheless.

Distinctly remember this as well. I remember Vader and his big robot suit and thinking it was savage.

johnn

It was awesome when one of my friends who had sky sports when i was about 10 got into wrestling. I used to watch the shows like mania and superstars on sat mornings but it was amazing getting to see the full shows for the first time without only getting bits and pieces on them sat morning shows.

Its funny that there was much more risque angles and language in wrestling when i was 10-12 years old than there is now that im in my 20's its like a kids programme!

Another friend of mine had tnt and taped a few episodes of nitro, i never really got into it as i didnt really have to much interest in guys like flair at the time, the production also seemed pretty cheap compared to wwf. I saw a few episodes of nitro around the time flair was president, and there was a struggle among a load of lower carders to be leader of nWo, i think hogan and most were on hiatus at this stage