TMC
05-13-2004, 05:04 PM
The Classic Federation Years (1983-1986):
-The "Superstars" TV program debuts in syndication
-Hulk Hogan begins about a five year reign as World Champion
-The very first Wrestlemania is held in 1985
-"Prime-Time Wrestling" (the precursor to "Monday Night Raw") makes its debut
-"Saturday Night's Main Event" begins its run on NBC
-The WWF would cross-over to Saturday Morning TV w/ the debut of "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling " cartoon series in 1985
-Jack Tunney would begin his roughly ten year reign as the figure-head President of the WWF
-Wrestlemania II would be the first and so far only pro wrestling PPV to be held in three different venues (New York, Chicago, and LA respectively) at the same time
The Classic Federation Years (1987-1993):
-Wrestlemania arguably comes of age w/ Wrestlemania III (which showcased the epic confrontation between Hulk Hogan & Andre the Giant as well as the now legendary IC Title match between "The Macho Man" Randy Savage & Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat) in the Pontiac Silverdome
-Hulk Hogan "passes the torch" (albeit, temporarily) to the Ultimate Warrior at the "Ultimate Challenge" for Wrestlemania VI at the Toronto Skydome
-Sgt. Slaughter wins the World Title during the now infamous angle in which one-time All-American hero Slaughter became an Iraqi sympathizer
-Ric Flair, who was probably the biggest icon/money drawer (besides Hulk Hogan) in all of pro wrestling at the time jumps ship from arch-rival WCW/NWA to the WWF
-Sid Vicious (or Sid Justice or "Sycho" Sid) would "break script" by kicking out of Hulk Hogan's leg-drop (Sid apparently figured that he had nothing to lose since he was getting fired anyway for failing a drug test) at Wrestlemania VIII
The Classic Federation Years (1993-1996):
-A few months after his "surprise" World Title victory against Yokozuna at Wrestlemania XI (which was the first and so far, only time that WM was set at an outdoor venue), Hulk Hogan would be "turfed out" of the WWF (thus ending an important era)
-New stars like Bret Hart, Lex Luger (at least, for a little while), Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Diesel, and the Undertaker (and eventually, the Rock, Steve Austin, Triple H, and Mick Foley) would fill-in the void that was left by 1980s stars such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant, the Ultimate Warrior and various others, who would eventually jump-ship to rival WCW. Several "old school" stars like King Kong Bundy & Bob Backlund would make their returns for a little while around this same period.
-"Monday Night Raw" would make its debut on the USA Network in January of 1993
-The WWF started to produce their infamous "Billionaire Ted Skits" which was targeted at WCW (more specifically, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, one-time WWF commentator "Mean" Gene Okerlund, and WCW owner Ted Turner)
-Vince McMahon & company would become embroiled in a bitter legal battle/indictment over steroids in 1993
The Attitude Era (1996-1997):
-In an effort to combat against WCW, the WWF would begin a run in which they would attempt to "push the envelop" for w/ their more "adult oriented" story-lines & gimmicks (Degeneration-X w/ Shawn Michaels & Triple H is a prime example)
-An outgoing Razor Ramon (AKA Scott Hall) & Diesel (AKA Kevin Nash) appeared w/ then World Champion Shawn Michaels and up & comer Triple H in a now infamous video tape at Madison Square Garden. Basically, the four men broke character while embracing each either since Hall & Nash were about to jump-ship to WCW and start historic NWO angle.
-A marketing craze is born when 1996 King of the Ring winner "Stone Cold" Steve Austin coins his "Austin 3:16" phrase
-Dwayne Johnson makes his debut as Rocky Maivia which would in return, practically make him the most hated baby-face on the planet
-In one of the most shocking and controversial moments in sports-entertainment history, Vince McMahon would double-cross (or screw) an outgoing Bret Hart by telling the referee to ring the bell early (even though Bret never tapped out to Michaels application of Bret's own Sharp-shooter) during a World Title match against Shawn Michaels at the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal
The Attitude Era (1998-2001):
-"Smackdown" would make its debut on UPN in 1999
-Shawn Michaels, who had to go into a pre-mature retirement because of a bad back, passes the torch (in terms of being the "main man" in the company) to Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XIV
-Owen Hart would tragically fall to his death in a stunt gone wrong at the "Over the Edge" PPV in 1999
-The Rock would become an house-hold name (and arguably the Hulk Hogan of his era in terms of being able to transcend into the main-stream) as he would his first World Title at the "Deadly Game" tournament from the 1998 Survivor Series
-As a way to capitalize off of the genuine heel heat that he created after "screwing" Bret Hart, Vince McMahon created a new on-screen persona in the form of a corrupt, megalomaniac wrestling promoter
-Vince McMahon's kids Shane & Stephanie received on-camera roles in various story-lines
-In sort of an end of an era, the WWF would leave the USA Network in favor of Spike TV (which was then known as TNN) in the year 2000
-Mick Foley's status as a "Hardcore Legend" would increase during a "Hell In the Cell" match w/ the Undertaker at the 1998 King of the Ring
-Vince McMahon would start the XFL (or eXtreme Football League) which unfortunately, only lasted one season
-Steve Austin would turn heel after his long time nemesis Vince McMahon would aid him to a World Title win against the Rock at Wrestlemania X-7
-Both Rena "Sable" Mero & Jerry "The King" Lawler would walk out on the company in disgust at one point (Sable in 1999 & Lawler in 2001 respectively) before eventually making amends
The Brand Split (2001-Present):
-Vince McMahon would purchase his one time arch-rival WCW in March of 2001. In the process, Shane McMahon would appear on the very last edition of WCW's "Nitro."
-After losing a bitter legal battle w/ the World Wildlife Fund, the World Wrestling Federation would change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (or WWE)
-The WWE would stage the "Invasion" angle which was a dream cross-promotional feud between the WWE, WCW, and ECW. Unfortunately, the angle would turn out to be likely the biggest flop of professional wrestling history (which is a story all by itself).
-Hulk Hogan would get a another chance to close out his WWE career on the right note (after his pathetic fifth World Title reign and subsequently embarrassing job to Yokozuna at the 1993 King of the Ring) w/ a hard fought match against the Rock at Wrestlemania X-8
-The WWE would start producing the "Raw" & "Smackdown" TV programs as separate entities (almost as if they were rival promotions like WWE VS WCW)
-The "Survivor" like reality TV program "Tough Enough" would make its debut on MTV and run for about three seasons
-Shawn Michaels would make his return to the ring after almost a five year hiatus
-Eric Bischoff, who was at one point Vince McMahon's biggest promotional opponent back in WCW, makes his debut as the General Manager of "Raw"
-The "Superstars" TV program debuts in syndication
-Hulk Hogan begins about a five year reign as World Champion
-The very first Wrestlemania is held in 1985
-"Prime-Time Wrestling" (the precursor to "Monday Night Raw") makes its debut
-"Saturday Night's Main Event" begins its run on NBC
-The WWF would cross-over to Saturday Morning TV w/ the debut of "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling " cartoon series in 1985
-Jack Tunney would begin his roughly ten year reign as the figure-head President of the WWF
-Wrestlemania II would be the first and so far only pro wrestling PPV to be held in three different venues (New York, Chicago, and LA respectively) at the same time
The Classic Federation Years (1987-1993):
-Wrestlemania arguably comes of age w/ Wrestlemania III (which showcased the epic confrontation between Hulk Hogan & Andre the Giant as well as the now legendary IC Title match between "The Macho Man" Randy Savage & Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat) in the Pontiac Silverdome
-Hulk Hogan "passes the torch" (albeit, temporarily) to the Ultimate Warrior at the "Ultimate Challenge" for Wrestlemania VI at the Toronto Skydome
-Sgt. Slaughter wins the World Title during the now infamous angle in which one-time All-American hero Slaughter became an Iraqi sympathizer
-Ric Flair, who was probably the biggest icon/money drawer (besides Hulk Hogan) in all of pro wrestling at the time jumps ship from arch-rival WCW/NWA to the WWF
-Sid Vicious (or Sid Justice or "Sycho" Sid) would "break script" by kicking out of Hulk Hogan's leg-drop (Sid apparently figured that he had nothing to lose since he was getting fired anyway for failing a drug test) at Wrestlemania VIII
The Classic Federation Years (1993-1996):
-A few months after his "surprise" World Title victory against Yokozuna at Wrestlemania XI (which was the first and so far, only time that WM was set at an outdoor venue), Hulk Hogan would be "turfed out" of the WWF (thus ending an important era)
-New stars like Bret Hart, Lex Luger (at least, for a little while), Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Diesel, and the Undertaker (and eventually, the Rock, Steve Austin, Triple H, and Mick Foley) would fill-in the void that was left by 1980s stars such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant, the Ultimate Warrior and various others, who would eventually jump-ship to rival WCW. Several "old school" stars like King Kong Bundy & Bob Backlund would make their returns for a little while around this same period.
-"Monday Night Raw" would make its debut on the USA Network in January of 1993
-The WWF started to produce their infamous "Billionaire Ted Skits" which was targeted at WCW (more specifically, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, one-time WWF commentator "Mean" Gene Okerlund, and WCW owner Ted Turner)
-Vince McMahon & company would become embroiled in a bitter legal battle/indictment over steroids in 1993
The Attitude Era (1996-1997):
-In an effort to combat against WCW, the WWF would begin a run in which they would attempt to "push the envelop" for w/ their more "adult oriented" story-lines & gimmicks (Degeneration-X w/ Shawn Michaels & Triple H is a prime example)
-An outgoing Razor Ramon (AKA Scott Hall) & Diesel (AKA Kevin Nash) appeared w/ then World Champion Shawn Michaels and up & comer Triple H in a now infamous video tape at Madison Square Garden. Basically, the four men broke character while embracing each either since Hall & Nash were about to jump-ship to WCW and start historic NWO angle.
-A marketing craze is born when 1996 King of the Ring winner "Stone Cold" Steve Austin coins his "Austin 3:16" phrase
-Dwayne Johnson makes his debut as Rocky Maivia which would in return, practically make him the most hated baby-face on the planet
-In one of the most shocking and controversial moments in sports-entertainment history, Vince McMahon would double-cross (or screw) an outgoing Bret Hart by telling the referee to ring the bell early (even though Bret never tapped out to Michaels application of Bret's own Sharp-shooter) during a World Title match against Shawn Michaels at the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal
The Attitude Era (1998-2001):
-"Smackdown" would make its debut on UPN in 1999
-Shawn Michaels, who had to go into a pre-mature retirement because of a bad back, passes the torch (in terms of being the "main man" in the company) to Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XIV
-Owen Hart would tragically fall to his death in a stunt gone wrong at the "Over the Edge" PPV in 1999
-The Rock would become an house-hold name (and arguably the Hulk Hogan of his era in terms of being able to transcend into the main-stream) as he would his first World Title at the "Deadly Game" tournament from the 1998 Survivor Series
-As a way to capitalize off of the genuine heel heat that he created after "screwing" Bret Hart, Vince McMahon created a new on-screen persona in the form of a corrupt, megalomaniac wrestling promoter
-Vince McMahon's kids Shane & Stephanie received on-camera roles in various story-lines
-In sort of an end of an era, the WWF would leave the USA Network in favor of Spike TV (which was then known as TNN) in the year 2000
-Mick Foley's status as a "Hardcore Legend" would increase during a "Hell In the Cell" match w/ the Undertaker at the 1998 King of the Ring
-Vince McMahon would start the XFL (or eXtreme Football League) which unfortunately, only lasted one season
-Steve Austin would turn heel after his long time nemesis Vince McMahon would aid him to a World Title win against the Rock at Wrestlemania X-7
-Both Rena "Sable" Mero & Jerry "The King" Lawler would walk out on the company in disgust at one point (Sable in 1999 & Lawler in 2001 respectively) before eventually making amends
The Brand Split (2001-Present):
-Vince McMahon would purchase his one time arch-rival WCW in March of 2001. In the process, Shane McMahon would appear on the very last edition of WCW's "Nitro."
-After losing a bitter legal battle w/ the World Wildlife Fund, the World Wrestling Federation would change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (or WWE)
-The WWE would stage the "Invasion" angle which was a dream cross-promotional feud between the WWE, WCW, and ECW. Unfortunately, the angle would turn out to be likely the biggest flop of professional wrestling history (which is a story all by itself).
-Hulk Hogan would get a another chance to close out his WWE career on the right note (after his pathetic fifth World Title reign and subsequently embarrassing job to Yokozuna at the 1993 King of the Ring) w/ a hard fought match against the Rock at Wrestlemania X-8
-The WWE would start producing the "Raw" & "Smackdown" TV programs as separate entities (almost as if they were rival promotions like WWE VS WCW)
-The "Survivor" like reality TV program "Tough Enough" would make its debut on MTV and run for about three seasons
-Shawn Michaels would make his return to the ring after almost a five year hiatus
-Eric Bischoff, who was at one point Vince McMahon's biggest promotional opponent back in WCW, makes his debut as the General Manager of "Raw"