The best year for <<INSERT PROMOTION>> was...

[DC 536]

Taking on board the comments from another thread about which year was the best in TNA history, I thought we could stretch it out to cover a number of promotions.

 

To that end, which calendar year (i.e. January 1st to December 31st) do you believe was the best for the following promotions from an in-ring / creative stand-point (and I've split WWE and WWF)?

 

• World Wrestling Entertainment
  
• World Wrestling Federation
  
• World Championship Wrestling
  
• Extreme Championship Wrestling
  
• Impact Wrestling (TNA)
  
• Ring of Honor
  
• New Japan Pro-Wrestling
  
• All Japan Pro-Wrestling
  
• Pro-Wrestling NOAH

[Guest Ciaran The King]

WWF - 1997 or 2000, I can't decide between the two

WWE - 2009 (because of Orton)

WCW - 1998, the year I most remember

TNA - 2005

ECW - 1999

[GENE 86]

World Wrestling Entertainment-I stopped watching the WWE from 2006 untill about mid way through 2011 so my choice is limited on this. I'm going to say 2003 as at the time i was a total fan boy and they could do no wrong.Survivour Series,Vengeance and Wrestlemania that year were all top rate shows that year, hell i used to love watching Velocity and Heat back than just to see guys like Chuck Palumbo and Garrison Cade wrestle because i loved wrestling so much.

 

World Wrestling Federation- I haven't seen many entire years worth of matches from the 1980's etc so i'm going to say 1999 for me.

 

World Championship Wrestling-Got to be 1997, The NWO, hell looking back and watching the best of Nitro dvd's everything about the NWO was cool that year. When i see Hogan coming to the ring playing the air guitar,with the NWO sprayed on the belt and Bischoff bowing in front of him he just seems like the coolest bad ass on the planet at the time. Plus i mean you have the whole Sting build up, Macho Man and DDP had a brillaint feud that year, the cruiserweights were tearing the house down. So yeah 1997 easily.

 

Extreme Championship Wrestling-I'm going to say 1999, yes ECW was probably past its peak but anything pre 1997 doesn't interest me at all, and 1999 has Anarchy Rulz which in my opinion is probably the best ECW PPV ever. Also 1999 has a few Awesome vs Tanaka matches and RVD is at his peak as the TV champ.

 

Impact Wrestling (TNA)-Like i said in the other thread 2005, TNA had a killer X-division roster at the time who all seemed motivated, they also had a healthy tag team division at the time unlike now where they have none of these.The only thing they lacked was a good main event scene, can anyone explain to me why they never put the belt on Monty Brown? What was the PPV that had Joe vs AJ in the finals of the Super X Cup, and i'm sure it had Danials against Aries? that was a phenomenal PPV.

 

Ring of Honor-2005 hands down, where do i start? James Gibson? amazing that year, Roderick Strong either tagging with Evans or Aries or going solo amazing that year, Summer of Punk? Joe vs Kobashi? Generation Next vs The Embassy? amazing year.

[Maxximus 353]

• World Wrestling Entertainment - 2004
  
• World Wrestling Federation - 1987, 1999
  
• World Championship Wrestling - 1997
  
• Extreme Championship Wrestling - 1997
  
• Impact Wrestling (TNA) - 2005
  
• Ring of Honor 2005
  
• New Japan Pro-Wrestling - Ugh, this is hard. The late 90s
  
• Pro-Wrestling NOAH - 2004ish
   
  

[Guest John Hancock]

WWF/E - 1997, 1998 and 2000 (probably in that order if I really had to choose just one)

WCW - 1997

ECW - 1995

TNA - 2005

RoH - 2004

NJPW - 1996

PWN - 2006

[Guest The Beltster]

WWF - 1987 - 1990. My favourite was 1990 personally, but its hard to disregard the Hogan/Andre and Hogan/Savage years. Tough choice.

 

WCW - If its just WCW and not the NWA, I'd go for 1996. If its the NWA too, I'd jump at 1985 - 1988, somewhere in there. Lots of great stuff.

 

ECW - 1999

 

I dont care about the rest.

[King 277]

WWF - 1987

 

NWA - 1987

 

WCW - 1996

 

TNA - 2005

 

ECW - 1995

[Dead Crow 370]

World Wrestling Federation - 1997

World Championship Wrestling - 1997

Extreme Championship Wrestling - 1997

Impact Wrestling - 2005

[Guest Dillkid]

WWF - Easily 2000. The roster was pretty much as perfect as you could want for the style they presented, massive main event stars, an excellent mid card and the best tag tam division you will ever see. The TV that they put out is so refreshing compared to most of the headache that 1999 is. A lot of it is down to that guy that took over for Russo up until September (when the brilliance calms down a little). Every PPV except for Wrestlemania and Survivor Series for me is really really good.

 

WWE - Probably 2002. I know Raw in 2002 after the draft isn't spoken too highly of because of stuff like Katie Vick, 'Hot Lesbian Action' and Triple H being crap. However Smackdown around this time holds a special place in my heart, I really enjoy the Smackdown six stuff. Hell, Summerslam, No Mercy and Survivor Series were all great PPVs, and I just love the time period.

 

WCW - 1998 for me. The roster is packed, just look at all of the names that you have on those '98 shows.

 

ECW - 1999. I enjoy the later time period over the much talked about 95/96 stuff because I think the quality of the shows have aged better. The 99 PPVs I have seen I really enjoyed.

 

TNA - 2006, though the whole existence of the company is pretty much a 12 year migraine. If it hit any sort of peak (content wise) it was when Angle showed up.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Dillkid

[Guest The Beltster]

the best tag tam division you will ever see.

WHAT?! Not a chance. Not even close! It was good, but reality is, aside from the Dudleys, E&C and the Hardy's, the other teams were crap! RTC, APA, Too Cool...junk! The whole division was held up by those three teams I mentioned before, the rest was made up of trash, guys who were over the hill or guys just thrown together for quick fixes.

[Guest Ciaran The King]

True, it was a division kept alive by three teams

[dsrchris 190]

WHAT?! Not a chance. Not even close! It was good, but reality is, aside from the Dudleys, E&C and the Hardy's, the other teams were crap! RTC, APA, Too Cool...junk! The whole division was held up by those three teams I mentioned before, the rest was made up of trash, guys who were over the hill or guys just thrown together for quick fixes.

 

Awww, I liked the APA & Too Cool. :(

[Guest The Beltster]

They were good for a laugh, but they weren't great teams. I preferred Too Cool when they were Too Hot, pre-Rikishi when they were smarmy heels and BC would get off with his biceps :lol

[Dead Crow 370]

I wouldn't put Too Cool in that group. They were stupidly over in 2000, especially Scotty with the worm. The others are fair game, though. Who else was there? The Outlaws were long past it, APA were better backstage than in the ring, the Radicalz weren't even a team really, and who else was there other than the top three?

 

I'm not huge on the 80s, but there were sh*tloads of better teams back then.

[Guest The Beltster]

APA, Outlaws were not only past it but to the point of X-Pac annoyance, The Hollys, I think they brought in the LOD here and there and alot of teams were just singles guys thrown together like Rock and Sock, Kane and Taker, , Kane & X-Pac, stuff like that.

 

The 80's WWF tag division was ridiculous. Hart Foundation, Demolition, Bulldogs, Brain Busters, Strike Force, Can Am...it was so jam packed on top that great teams like the Rockers and even decent teams like the Rougeaus or Orient Express never even got a look in as anything more than jobber fodder or midcard nobodies who never got title reigns.

 

Even the worst teams in that era, Powers of Pain, Bushwhackers, Rhythm and Blues, Bolsheviks, Twin Towers, Killer Bee's and so on were at least memorable.

 

Those 20=man/10-team tag matches at the 87 and 88 Survivor Series really show the depth of the tag division in those days.