Your Favourite Year in Pro-Wrestling *Poll*

Charisteas

As the title says, which year would you pick as your favourite of the past 25 years?

Seems like around here there are a fair split between Attitude Era fans as well as fans of today's PG era product, and to mention the OSW early 90's vodcast has a good following here too.

Personally 1998 was my all-time favourite. Monday Night Wars, Tyson and Austin, DX feud with Nation of Domination with heel Rock, Taker/Kane feud when the Kane character actually meant something, Hogan and nWo in WCW, those 3 hour Nitros, Goldberg undefeated streak, cruiserweights division in both WWF and WCW getting pushed, both products putting more t!ts on TV, and Wrestlemania 14 was one if not the best WM ever, and ECW were putting on amazing PPV's. There were three brands to choose from, and all of them had a great variety of what I want to see in a wrestling product.

That being said, 2000 is high for me on the nostalgic scale as that's the year I got Internet at home and thus became a lot smarter to the business and enabled me to view the product from a different angle. Unfortunately though, by this time WCW and ECW were dying, Austin, Taker and Michaels were all injured, and WM16 was a bit of a let-down.

So what is everyone else's best year and reasons why?

1998

I voted 1997 - The year I started to watch wrestling (Around the time of the final four PPV)

But I can only vote in terms of WWF because I never had the channels that showed WCW.

A few reasons why.
- Bret Vs Shawn Feud
- The Hart foundation (Getting booed by the Americans and cheered by Canadians was brilliant)
- The rise of Stone Cold
- Bret Vs Austin at WM 13
- The Mankind interviews with JR
- The other 2 faces of Foley - Dude Love and Cactus Jack appearing for the 1st time in WWE
- 5 on 5 match at Canadian Stampede
- My favorite WWE match of all time - HBK Vs Taker (HIAC)
- Debut of Kane

I could think of a lot more but thats just a few off the top of my head.



The year 2000 would be a close second though.

DEFTLEFTHAND

2002

I went with 2001, I actually enjoyed the whole Invasion angle. I never thought we'd see it, granted it had the potential to have lasted longer and it could have been booked better but I still marked out seeing WCW wrestlers signs and shirts on monday night Raw.

The year also included Wrestlemania 17 which in my opinion was the greatest ever.

Mr.Nice Guy

2001

I love the year 2000. Rock coming into his own as the top babyface in Austin's absence, Hunter phenomenal as the top heel in the McMahon-Helmsley regime, the wars between the McMahon family, Kurt Angle at his most hilarious, Austin returning and launching his own investigation into who ran him down by hitting stunners on everyone etc. One of their best years and my personal favourite.

ciano316

The answer to this is impossible.

starviewadams

2002

2001.

Great lead up to Wrestlemania 17 with Rock vs Austin,Vince vs Shane and Taker vs HHH feuds.

'Two Man Power Trip' storyline after Mania was a blast and it was cool to see Jericho,Benoit and Jeff Hardy (very briefly!) elevated into main event scene feuds.

Loved the Invasion angle,and seeing new guys I'd only ever read about appear on WWF TV.Angle's initial babyface run was very entertaining too as was RVD's massive growth in popularity.

Was cool to see an undisputed champion being crowned at the end of the year too.

chopperbyrne

1998

1997

Both WWF and WCW were brilliant that year.

gimmick

2003 for me. Smackdown 6 were on fire. WM19 was very good but very under rated. It was, all in all, a very watchable year. Probably my peak of interest in my adult life.

Penn

2001

Tough call between 2000 and 2001 for me (the only years I properly watched wrestling). Went with 2000 because The Rock was on fire and could pretty much do no wrong. The return of Austin (and his appearance at Backlash) were incredible. Triple H was at his very best. The Undertaker was one of the coolest things ever. 2 HIAC matches. Foley as commissioner. Hardys/Dudleys/E&C. The midcard was incredible with Benoit, Jericho, Angle, Guerrero, Kane, even Tazz. The Rock V McMahon-Helmsley/DX faction is still one of my favourite ever feuds.

It just felt like almost everything they did in 2000 worked. I know I'll probably be proved wrong on that in the following posts, but from what I can remember of it anyway, it pretty much all worked and was brilliant.

CastorTroy

Unfortunately I couldn't pinpoint a year. I missed out on pretty much the entire Attitude era and only came back into WWF through Sunday Night Heat on Channel 4. By the time I got to see any of the other shows outside of PPVs the era was over(around 2001 or 2002).

Though if I was to base it on a memorable moment, it would be the year Benoit and Eddie hugged and celebrated in the ring as world champions in 2004 at WMXX.

DM_7

I always loved wrestling and have been a fan since around 1989 but never go to watch regularly until 2006 when I moved out of home. So I can't pick a year from that period as I just have random matches or storylines I remember.

Thats probably why I am such a fanboy now, I love being able to watch what I like when I like now so I watch everything! Also I am paying for sky sports so I am going to get my moneys worth.

That being said 2012 is my favourtie year (almost by default 2011 was close with MITB and Mark Henry's Hall of Pain) so many cool things happened. Finally gettting to see not just read about people that returned as well was great for someone like me.

The Rock's return to single's competition - Cena v Rock
Brocks return - Brock v Cena and Brock v HHH
Punk getting his title run
Jericho v Punk
Punk v Bryan
Rock - Punk -Bryan in the ring and on the mic was brilliant
Bryan as WHC
Bryan and Kane (most fun I have had in those 6 years)
Taker v HHH II
Irelands Sheamus becoming a huge favourite and excelling with his in ring work
Rybacks Rise
Sandow's epicness
Cesaro looking important
Ziggler breaking out from the pack and passing likes of Miz
Paul Heyman back in WWE
The Shield's 'shocking' debut
Tag Team wrestling actually having a purpose
Excellant TV matches on RAW and Smackdown
JBL back in WWE
RAW 1000

I am sure I left a few more things I liked off that list.

Ando's Saggy Bottom

1998

1997 was just immense. Bret at his most interesting and the seeds of attitude being sown too. Watched it all back there a while ago and was enthralled.

1992 is one I have a huge soft spot for too. More for nostalgia reasons and the fact myself and the brother's interest was at its pre-smark height. The roster was ridiculous at that stage too, culminating in the best Rumble ever.

eh i dunno

Pete Campbell wrote: »

1997 was just immense. Bret at his most interesting and the seeds of attitude being sown too. Watched it all back there a while ago and was enthralled.

1992 is one I have a huge soft spot for too. More for nostalgia reasons and the fact myself and the brother's interest was at its pre-smark height. The roster was ridiculous at that stage too, culminating in the best Rumble ever.

My 2 favourite years too Pete. Great main events in 92 because they had so many big names esp at wm8 and loved Summerslam in Wembley too

GTR63

What year was The Wrestling Channel launched used to love watching that. A ppv every Sunday night iirc. Watched that channel religiously, now I have to motivate myself to watch Raw, Smackdown and Impact in the week, relying on Sky+.
Always wanted to see more of 1997 over any year I missed.

Ando's Saggy Bottom

1998

GTR63 wrote: »

What year was The Wrestling Channel launched used to love watching that. A ppv every Sunday night iirc. Watched that channel religiously, now I have to motivate myself to watch Raw, Smackdown and Impact in the week, relying on Sky+.
Always wanted to see more of 1997 over any year I missed.

Was it 2003 TWC started? Gave the first tantalising glimpses of ROH.

Stereomaniac

1998

I think it was around that time, yeah. I never had it in my place though but it looked cool.

GTR63

Stereomaniac wrote: »

I think it was around that time, yeah. I never had it in my place though but it looked cool.

Got my sky dish moved to get a better signal just so I could watch it with a good signal.