WWF Best of 1990s (32 hours)
I started this set mostly because I was bored, but after a little while, I started getting into it. Then it occured to me that most of my friends in college liked wrestling, and because of this, we always get together to watch PPVs and stuff. However, we are not going to be in school forever. Since I have a MUCH larger tape collection than any of my friends, after they graduate and move on, they won't be able to stop over and just borrow a tape off of me any time they want. So I figured, what better gift than to make this set so that they can have the Best of the WWF whenever they want it? And trust me, making a set like this is tough. Giving consideration to all the possible candidates, trying to make sure you don't leave anything out. After finding all of them, deciding what goes on and what stays off can be VERY tough. And, if I didn't have a certain match that I wanted, I had to go out and find it, which put the whole set on hold until the match got here, because I wanted to go in chronological order throughout the set.
Ah well....that paragraph probably didn't mean much to anybody but me and my friends. I just hope that everyone who wants this set realizes what it takes.
Except for when I forgot to put the DX/Nation parody before the Rock/HHH ladder match at Summerslam 98, everything in the set is in chronological order. For the people who want to know what criteria I used for what went on here...well....honestly, I didn't really have a set of rigid criteria. The only restriction that I placed on myself was that I wouldn't put anything that wasn't on WWF TV or WWF video (which eliminated, for example, the Bret/Owen Ironman match from a house show recorded on a handheld camera, a ***** match). Also, Bret/Owen had almost every single kind of match during 1994 at house shows, most of which show up on Coliseum vidoes somewhere and are ****+, but I showed some restraint and didn't put any of those on there. Their two PPV matches are more than good enough....I didn't want to overkill them. Otherwise, they'd face each other about six times on the set. Mostly, I felt that the match/segment had to be entertaining, but I didn't have star rating requirement for anything. Basically, I made this set for ME, keeping in mind some stuff that I knew my friends would like, and keeping an open mind as to original concepts/classic moments that should be included...for example, Austin destroying Jake and his 3:16 speech. The match wasn't that great, but it IS a classic. Or the 6 man tag from Summerslam 93....not the best match technically, but I've always found the match entertaining. Or Owen at the Slammys taking the award for Best Bowtie. I just find that segment hilarious.
I'm going to put some stats about the set after the matchlists, and any individuals match comments will be in orange, of course. Preceding each match, there was usually a recap that explains the events leading up to the match, so keep in mind that those segments last anywhere from a minute or so to 5 minutes, so keep that in mind. I thought that would help everyone if they couldn't remember exactly what led to the matchup. Keep in mind, I don't HAVE to justify why I put certain things on here, but I figured it might give some insight into what I think about wrestling. Well, here we go....
Tape 1
1. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF and Intercontinental Title for Title Match WrestleMania VI ***
2. Hart Foundation vs. Demolition Tag Team Titles Match Summerslam 1990 ***1/2
3. Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior Retirement Match WrestleMania VII ****1/2
4. Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect Intercontinental Title Match Summerslam 1991 ****
--Some clips I put together on the Hogan/UT/Flair controversy from Survivor Series 91 and TTT, leading up to RR 1992
5. 1992 Royal Rumble Match Winner gets vacant WWF Title Royal Rumble 1992 ***** (I never get tired of this match....incredible performance by Flair and Heenan's commentary is absolutely priceless)
6. Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage WWF Title Match WrestleMania VIII ****1/2 (I was always a Savage mark back in the day, so it was good to finally see him get a moment of WWF glory without Hogan there trying to overshadow him)
7. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels Ladder Match Intercontinental Title unknown house show 7/21/1992 ***3/4 (I had to search for the exact date, but this is off the Smack 'Em Whack 'Em tape, and is also the first ladder match ever in the WWF)
8. Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF Title Match Summerslam 1992 **** (good match with the added element of the Flair/Perfect "Whose side are they on?" angle going on at the same time....of course, Flair was on his own side....that's why he's The Man)
9. Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog Intercontinental Title Match Summerslam 1992 *****
10. Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair WWF Title Match House Show from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 10/12/1992 ****1/4 (also off the Smack 'Em Whack 'Em tape, Bret's first world title win)
11. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels WWF Title Match Survivor Series 1992 ****
12. Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty Intercontinental Title RAW 5/17/1993 **** (this was supposedly the match that Meltzer named Match of the Year for 1993, but I don't think it's THAT good, although 93 did happen to be a fairly shitty year....this was off the Monday Night RAW Prime Cuts tape)
13. Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect KOTR Semi-Final Match King of the Ring 1993 ****1/2 (everyone talks up their first matchup from Summerslam 91, but I've always felt that this was the much better match between the two)
14. Steiner Brothers vs. Heavenly Bodies Tag Team Title Match Summerslam 1993 ***1/2 (crowd is massively behind the Steiners here since this show was in Detroit...not a superb technical exhibition but entertaining, and probably the Steiners best WWF PPV match)
15. Bret Hart/Jerry Lawler angle Summerslam 1993 (they have a match but it wasn't even important, this was more for the angle than the match anyway, since I'm a big Bret mark)
16. Bam Bam Bigelow/Headshrinkers vs. Tatanka/Smoking Gunns Summerslam 1993 **** (I know what you're thinking...with these 6 guys involved, how could this possibly be this high...answer is, lots of energy and some cool double and triple team spots, good match...besides, there was only about 10 minutes left on tape 1, and this fit in perfectly, and it let me start off with the Harts/Steiners to begin Tape 2)
Tape 2
17. Hart Brothers vs. Steiner Brothers unknown house show 1/11/1994 ****3/4 (this was the very brief period when Bret and Owen tagged together before their big split, and this dream match was the result....crowd is seriously split here....this is from the Wrestlefest '94 tape, and would be ***** if not for the EXTREMELY shitty ending...must be seen to be believed)
18. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart WrestleMania X ***** (I don't think I need to add anything here)
19. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon Ladder Match Intercontinental Title WrestleMania X *****
20. Owen Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid KOTR Semi-Finals King of the Ring 1994 **** (unfortunately, this match is only about 6 or 7 minutes long....we can only imagine what they would have done with 15-20 minutes....I also included Owen's coronation as King after this just because he rocks)
21. Alundra Blayze vs. Bull Nakano WWF Women's Title Match Summerslam 1994 ***1/2 (yeah, yeah, it's a woman's match, but being a GOOD one on WWF programming is so damn rare, I figured I'd give it some love...besides, Bull rules it!)
22. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart Cage Match WWF Title Summerslam 1994 *****
23. Alundra Blayze vs. Bull Nakano WWF Women's Title unknown house show, date unknown ***1/2 (this is from the Wham Bam Bodyslam tape....Bull has awesome road uniform on here....interestingly, if anyone has the Big Egg Wrestling Universe show from 1995, these two work THE EXACT SAME MATCH, move for move...the only difference is in the last minute or so, with Alundra going over here, in the States, and Bull going over in Japan)
24. Shawn Michaels vs. Jeff Jarrett Intercontinental Title Match In Your House II ****3/4
25. Barry Horowitz vs. Bodydonna Skip Summerslam 1995 *** (this was Barry Horowitz's one moment of glory, and the pop he gets for his win is unfuckingbelievable....I thought it would be kind of cool for Barry Horowitz to have as many matches in this set as Hulk Hogan, and it's even a decent match)
26. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon Ladder Match Intercontinental Title Summerslam 1995 ****1/2
27. Alundra Blayze/Sakie Hasegawa/Kyoko Inoue/Chapparita Asari vs. Aja Kong/Bertha Faye/Tomoko Watanabe/Lioness Asuka Women's Survival Match Survivor Series 1995 **** (good match, Hasegawa hits the only Sky Twister Press I've seen on WWF programming, and it's always nice to see Kong beat the hell outta Blayze)
28. Bret Hart vs. Diesel WWF Title Match Survivor Series 1995 ****1/4
29. Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels #1 Contender Match In Your House VI ****1/4
30. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels IronMan Match WWF Title WrestleMania XII *****
--Austin at King of the Ring 1996. I included the match w/Roberts for the hell of it, but this is mostly about the speech
31. Mankind vs. Undertaker Boiler Room Brawl Summerslam 1996 ****
32. Shawn Michaels vs. Vader WWF Title Match Summerslam 1996 ****1/4 (very good match, just wish it were a cleaner victory, no matter who won....the multiple false finishes always leave a bad taste and I almost left this match off because of that, but finally relented and put it in here)
Tape 3
33. Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind WWF Title Match In Your House 10: Mind Games *****
34. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin Survivor Series 1996 *****
35. Owen Hart/British Bulldog vs. Doug Furnas/Phil LaFon Tag Team Title Match In Your House 13: Final Four ****1/4
36. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin vs. Vader vs. Undertaker Match for vacant WWF Title IYH 13: Final Four ****3/4
--Clips of Mick and Owen at the 97 Slammys...hilarious...listen for Paul Bearer for the one-liner of the night
37. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin I Quit Match WrestleMania 13 *****
38. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin In Your House 14: Revenge of the Taker ****1/4
39. Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels King of the Ring 1997 ****1/4
40. TAKA Michinoku vs. Great Sasuke In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede ****1/2
41. Hart Foundation vs. Steve Austin/Ken Shamrock/Goldust/Legion of Doom In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede ***** (this is one of my favorite matches of all time, great match, great crowd, great story....in a perfect world, this is the way Bret would have left the WWF)
42. TAKA Michinoku vs. Great Sasuke RAW 7/7/1997 ****1/2 (I don't think it was quite as good as their match the night before at Stampede, but Sasuke busts out the Space Flying Tiger Drop on North American TV, which is worth a 1/2* by itself)
43. Mankind vs. HHH Cage Match Summerslam 1997 ***1/2
44. Bret Hart vs. Undertaker w/HBK as special ref WWF Title Match Summerslam 1997 **** (a pretty good match, but what makes this match special is HBK as the special ref...the tension and barely contained hatred between the 3 guys gives the match something extra....also Bret's 5th and last WWF Title win)
45. Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker Hell in the Cell In Your House 18: Badd Blood *****
46. Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels WWF Title Match WrestleMania XIV ****
Tape 4
--Clips from RAW 3/30/1998, night after WM 14 Austin/Vince, X-Pac returns (which, make no mistake, was HUGE at the time, no matter how much people hate him now), Mick/Terry Funk vs. New Age Outlaws
--Clips from RAW 4/6/1998 Mick Foley interview (setting up his heel turn to face Austin), the Corporate Austin skit
47. Steve Austin vs. Dude Love WWF Title Match Unforgiven 1998 ****1/2 (very good match to complement the Austin/McMahon angle)
--Clips from RAW 4/27/1998 DX "invades" WCW...somewhat stupid now, but still harmless and reminds ya of what seeing this for the first time was like
48. Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk #1 Contender Match Falls Count Anywhere RAW 5/4/1998 ***3/4
49. Steve Austin vs. Dude Love w/Vince as special ref, Pat Patterson as ring announcer, and Gerald Brisco as timekeeper WWF Title Match Over The Edge 1998 ****3/4 (great match, great angle, when the rebel vs. owner storyline was still fresh)
50. Mankind vs. Undertaker Hell in the Cell King of the Ring 1998 ****3/4 (no match stirs up more debate when in comes to a rating, but the sheer brutality and incredible nature of the match makes it this high for me....ask Big Dave, he was there....he even has pictures LOL)
51. Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock Dungeon Match Fully Loaded 1998 ***1/2 (check out Owen's rana off the pipe in the dungeon...only Owen F'n Hart would think of something like that....and then Shamrock tries it and gets powerbombed...awesome)
52. Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock Lion's Den Match Summerslam 1998 **** (it was hard to assign ratings to the last two matches due to the stips involved....just a cool slice of something different, which is always nice)
--RAW clip, 7/6/1998, DX parody of the Nation
53. The Rock vs. HHH Ladder Match Intercontinental Title Summerslam 1998 ****3/4
54. The Rock vs. Mankind vs. Ken Shamrock 3 Way Cage Match for #1 Contender Breakdown 1998 ****1/4
55. Steve Austin vs. Mankind WWF Tournament Semi-Finals Survivor Series 1998 ***1/2 (only a good match, but this is Sportz Entertainment done CORRECTLY)
56. The Rock vs. Mankind I Quit Match WWF Title Royal Rumble 1999 ****
57. The Rock vs. Mankind Last Man Standing Match WWF Title St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1999 ****1/2
58. Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon Cage Match St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1999 ***1/2 (great performance by Vince, getting his ass kicked all over the ring)
59. The Rock vs. HHH vs. Mankind vs. Kane vs. Big Show vs. British Bulldog 6 Pack Match for vacant WWF Title w/Austin as special enforcer Unforgiven 1999 ****1/2
--RAW 9/27/1999 Rocky, This Is Your Life (highest rated TV segment in the history of RAW...it's even holds up fairly well 2 1/2 years later)
60. Hardy Boyz vs. Edge/Christian Tag Team Ladder Match to win the Terri Invitational No Mercy 1999 ****1/2 (you know, it's amazing what only 2 years can do to a match....at the time, this was revolutionary, groundbreaking shit.....a few TLC matches later, this seems almost childish by comparison...still, a helluva match)61. Choice Match--- There's about 15-20 minutes of space (MAYBE 25 minutes) at the end Tape 4, so if there is a match that you would like that is not on the set, I will add it onto the end for ya. Just because I'm a nice guy.
Some Not So Important Stats--
Matches Seriously Considered But For Whatever Reason Left Out
Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper Wrestlemania VIII (a **** match, but it's already on my Bret comp and Bret is already on here 18 times)
Bret/Owen vs. Quebecers Royal Rumble 1994 (good match, but they recap what happens before Bret vs. Owen at both WM and Summerslam so it's kinda redundant)
Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund Survivor Series 1994 (mostly the same reasons as Bret/Piper, but also, this match is REALLY long and NOT for everybody....lots of mat work that can be boring if you're not really into the story)
Bret Hart vs. Diesel Royal Rumble 1995 (a decent match, especially by Nash standards, but their match at Survivor Series is already on here and they are similar enough to leave this off)
Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog In Your House V (a tough cut....a ****1/4 or so match, entertaining, but this is also on my Best of Bret tape....Bret became a victim of his own success when making cuts on this set)
Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemeies (a ****3/4, I REALLY wanted this on the set, but my copy is only Fair and tough to watch even now, and it would never survive another dub....a cut of necessity rather than choice)
Owen/Bulldog/Vader vs. HBK/Ahmed Johnson/Sid IYH 9: International Incident (a good match, fairly entertaining, but just not good enough to be included)
Furnas/LaFon/Godwinns vs. Owen/Bulldog/Janetty/Leif Cassidy Survivor Series 1996 (I really like this match and there's some good quality, but I needed to get other stuff on the set and didn't have room....a regretful cut)
Owen/Bulldog vs. Austin/HBK RAW 5/25/1997 (another ****3/4 match, exact same situation as HBK/Diesel)
Owen vs. Austin Summerslam 1997 (a worthy match, ****+ and definite inclusion if Austin didn't get his neck broken...you can hardly include that in a Best Of...)
HBK vs. Undertaker IYH 17: Ground Zero (about ****, but they recap this situation before Badd Blood...sorta like the Bret/Owen RR 1994 situation)
Vader vs. Owen One Night Only 1997 (good, would probalby have been on here had it been maybe 5 minutes longer)
Bret vs. UT One Night Only 1997 (I traded for One Night Only specifically for this match to put on this set because I heard it was about ****1/4 to ****1/2, but for whatever reason, it was not included on the show...it's the WWF Home Video version too....can someone help me out on this one? did the WWF leave this out on purpose for some reason?)
Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels Survivor Series 1997 (you know....looking at this objectively, this match starts off with about 10-15 minutes of very intense brawling outside the ring, and a pretty good match occurs in the ring before the screwjob happens.....this was at least a **** if it continued, and with any kind of good finish it's about ****1/2. With the good match quality until the screwjob, and its sheer importance, I considered including it. However, no matter how much benefit the WWF ultimately got from the fallout of this, I can't in any good conscience put it in a Best Of series)
Test vs. Shane McMahon Summerslam 1999 (good match, good angle, but Tape 4 was running out of room and I didn't want to start a new tape simply to put two matches on it....just a victim of space)
Austin vs. HHH vs. Mankind Summerslam 1999 (same situation as the previous match)
Chris Jericho vs. X-Pac Unforgiven 1999 (good match, I still squeeze it onto the end because there is about 15-20 minutes of room left on Tape 4....but right now it's a victim for the same reason as the above two matches....besides, is the world desperately clamoring for more X-Pac)
Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart various Coliseum tapes (there's about four or five matches on Coliseum videos that could go on here....a cage match, a lumberjack match, a falls count anywhere just to name a couple off the top of my head, and they are all ****+. But as I said above, I showed some restraint.)
Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels Coliseum tape (this was a cage match, sometime in 1992 I believe....these two are already on here a combined 31times, so I figured I could safely cut it even though it is a good match....oddly enough, this match is basically a template for the Bret/Owen cage match...some of the same spots are used, and the finish is even the same, with Shawn getting his leg stuck in the cage and Bret dropping down to win it)
Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair Coliseum tape (this was a match for Bret's IC title....a ****1/4 match, but again, there's enough of Bret on the tape, and I've always hated the ending....if Flair didn't have anything on the set, I would definately be in here, but he has two singles matches and one of the top 5 WWF performances ever in the 92 Rumble, so this was a safe cut)
Steve Austin vs. The Rock Backlash 1999 (you know what....I honestly and sincerely just totally forgot about this one, and I meticulously went through every single PPV event during the 90s to make sure I didn't miss anything. For some reason I just did not write it down....much better IMO than their WrestleMania XV match. Just my bad.)
Appearance Roster
(note--these only include matches participated in, not interview segments. I didn't count anybody from the 92 Rumble, cause I didn't feel like going through all 30 guys. The Women's Survival Match will be included in one group to facilitate easier counting. For some of the top guys I included some stats for them.)
Bret Hart -- 18 Appearances Average Match 4.5 stars (he could easily have had over 25 matches on here, if I included some of the above Cut matches, which are all around **** and worthy to be on here)
Shawn Michaels -- 13 Appearances Average Match 4.44 stars (HBK could have had over 20 matches, and SHOULD have 15 matches, being the victim of tape quality twice)
Mick Foley -- 12 Appearances (9 Mankind, 2 Dude Love, 1 Mick Foley) Average Match 4.27 stars
Steve Austin -- 11 Appearances Average Match 4.4 stars
Owen Hart -- 9 Appearances Average Match 4.5 stars
Undertaker -- 5
The Rock -- 5
British Bulldog -- 4
Ken Shamrock -- 4
Ultimate Warrior -- 3
Randy Savage -- 3
Alundra Blayze -- 3
HHH - 32 Appearances each-- Jim Niedhart, Mr. Perfect, Ric Flair, Steiners, Razor Ramon, Bull Nakano, Vader, Taka Michinoku, Great Sasuke, Terry Funk
1 Appearance -- Hulk Hogan, Demolition, Marty Jannetty, Heavenly Bodies, Bam Bam Bigelow, Headshrinkers, Tatanka, Smoking Gunns, 1-2-3 Kid, Jeff Jarrett, Barry Horowitz, BodyDonna Skip, Diesel, Furnas/LaFon, Brian Pillman, Goldust, Legion of Doom, Vince McMahon, Kane, Big Show, Edge, Christian, Hardy Boyz, Women from the Survival Match
Random Stats--
***** Matches -- 11 (Counting the 92 Rumble, Bret was in 7, Shawn in 5, Austin, Owen, Bulldog 3 each, and either Bret or Shawn was involved in every single match)
****3/4 Matches-- 6
****1/2 Matches-- 11
****1/4 Matches-- 8
**** Matches-- 9
under ****-- 12There were 25 non-title matches, 19 WWF Title matches, 9 Intercontinental Title matches, 8 tag team matches, 5 ladder matches, 4 Tag Team Title matches, 4 cage matches, 3 #1 Contender matches, 2 I Quit Matches, 2 Hell in the Cell Matches, 2 Women's title matches, one retirement match, and one Ironman match.
For the entire set, the match average was 4.275 stars
The best tape, according to match average, was Tape 3, with an average of 4.5
The most common opponents were Bret Hart/Steve Austin (5 times) and Rock/Mankind (4 times).
Who was the WWF's MVPs in the 1990s? It has to be Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Bret or Shawn are in 30 of the 60 matches on the set.
Bret Hart makes 18 appearances, his first in Summerslam 90, his last in Summerslam 1997, a span of 7 years. Steve Austin's 11 appearances occured between Survivor Series 1996 and St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1999, a span of only 2 1/2 years. Granted, Austin would have been in Summerslam 99 if I had more space, but that's still very impressive.
Do the WWF workers really step it up for the big shows? Well....
Royal Rumble matches-- 2
WrestleMania matches-- 8
King of the Ring matches-- 4
Summerslam matches-- 17 (this was really surprising, I thought....out of the Big 5 PPVs, Summerslam almost beat the others COMBINED!!!)
Survivor Series matches-- 5
RAW matches-- 3
In Your House/others-- 21If you only have the money to buy one PPV per year, you want to buy Summerslam. Except for 1999, there was a Summerslam match every single year, and there wasn't one for 1999 simply because I ran out of room. 2000 and 2001 would also support the one PPV per year theory, as they both had several worthy matches. We'll see if it holds up in 2002.
The longest space between matches in the set was between Summerslam 1994 and In Your House 2, about 11 months or so.
The best year for matches was 1997, with 11 matches. The whole breakdown went...
1990-- 2 matches (3.25 stars)
1991-- 2 matches (4.25 stars)
1992-- 7 matches (4.35 stars)
1993-- 5 matches (4 stars)
1994-- 7 matches (4.46 stars) (without the women's matches which drag it down a little, it's an otherworldy 4.85!)
1995-- 5 matches (4.1 stars)
1996-- 6 matches (4.58 stars)
1997-- 11 matches (4.45 stars)
1998-- 10 matches (4.17 stars)
1999-- 5 matches (4.2 stars)
Well, that's all I got for stats right now. Use these only in the service of good.