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Best weekly TV run?


SmartMark15

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2004 was a really strong year for RAW in terms of match quality. Too much HHH, but still very good overall. The first half of 2007 stands out as pretty good, too. I also really liked 2005 before the draft, after which everything was built around guys who didn't seem quite there yet like Carlito and Masters.

Man I remember starting a thread here in early 2007 asking if WWE was close to another boom period that's how well the product was being received at the time. Agreed that it was a forgotten strong period for the company

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Yeah, I wonder what happened...

 

My favorite era of wrestling period is WWF 2000. I'll admit the weekly TV wasn't as interesting as it was 3 years prior and that the match quality wasn't SD Six tier, but Loss nailed it: there was a sense of upward mobility that we've rarely had since. Rikishi and Val Venus feuded over the IC title and it seems ridiculous now but, at the time, their blowoff in a cage was heated and one of the night's better matches.

 

I also have an affinity for Hardcore TV in '96 and ICW Worldwide from around Grado's rise (IIRC, 2012?). I actually prefer the Worldwide format (cribbed from Hardcore TV, serving as more a highlight reel than a full card) over the current Fight Club shows, as giving off little tastes of the product only made me want more v

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Yes! The night after WM30 really put a lot of new things on the table in a way that I thought they were moving forward. It seemed like they had taken some risks in a bold effort to finally create some new stars, with Bryan, Lesnar, Cesaro, and The Shield all positioned well.

People were quite high on the Wyatts at that point as well, and Bad News Barrett was a fun midcard gimmick. It's ridiculous that they squandered that so quickly really, but Bryan getting hurt really killed the vibe. As well as HHH booking himself front and centre of course.

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Remember early 2007 was when Hunter re-injured his quad and was gone for 8 months. This was the time when Cena unequivocally became the top guy in the company. No question about it. People really liked his program with Umaga and it got him over as a tough guy who could survive a fight

 

The Trump stuff was panned at the time and obviously seems shameful in retrospect but it did record Mania business and got the company tons of mainstream coverage.

 

Seems silly now but WWE felt like a red hot company in the first part of that year

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2004 was a really strong year for RAW in terms of match quality. Too much HHH, but still very good overall. The first half of 2007 stands out as pretty good, too. I also really liked 2005 before the draft, after which everything was built around guys who didn't seem quite there yet like Carlito and Masters.

Man I remember starting a thread here in early 2007 asking if WWE was close to another boom period that's how well the product was being received at the time. Agreed that it was a forgotten strong period for the company

Remember early 2007 was when Hunter re-injured his quad and was gone for 8 months. This was the time when Cena unequivocally became the top guy in the company. No question about it. People really liked his program with Umaga and it got him over as a tough guy who could survive a fight

The Trump stuff was panned at the time and obviously seems shameful in retrospect but it did record Mania business and got the company tons of mainstream coverage.

Seems silly now but WWE felt like a red hot company in the first part of that year

I remember seeing all that talk as well. Big money Mania and a legendary run from Cena establishing him as the true ace. If he had actually managed to lead the company to somewhat of a business boom that would really solidify his case as potentially the best ever in WWE. I think the week to week stuff from that period is probably worth a re-evaluation project, though I understand why this may be uncomfortable considering what ultimately derailed the buzz at the time.

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Watching some Raws from post-Rumble 2000. As fantastic as the top stories are--HHH as the heel champ and Rock chasing at him, Big Show playing the #2 heel, the red hot tag division--the stuff that doesn't age well ages miserably. Specifically, anything involving women on these shows is most likely absolute dogshit. Chyna seems to be the only one for the most part immune from it.

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Watching some Raws from post-Rumble 2000. As fantastic as the top stories are--HHH as the heel champ and Rock chasing at him, Big Show playing the #2 heel, the red hot tag division--the stuff that doesn't age well ages miserably. Specifically, anything involving women on these shows is most likely absolute dogshit. Chyna seems to be the only one for the most part immune from it.

Well, if you watch late ‘97/early ‘98 you can see her not be immune when HBK and HHH call attention to her new breast implants repeatedly.

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Agreed on the mentions of 2004 and 2007 for RAW. For 2004, I really liked the period around Survivor Series with Orton, Jericho, Benoit, and Maven as the top babyfaces opposing Evolution. Recently rewatched the Raw after on the Network where they build the show around Maven challenging for the title or joining Evolution, really fun stuff. In 2007, the Cena/Federline feud was so great, I wish K-Fed stuck around to do more. I'd also throw a mention to mid/late 2008 for RAW, there was some excitement there from when Punk cashed in MITB through to Jericho's reign having some solid big time TV matches.

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Depends what part of 2012. I remember that year's BFG Series being very solid, at least, and the Beer Money split/feud was a company highlight (or was that 2011?).

 

They split in late 2011 and feuded into/throughout 2012.

 

Oct 2011 - Oct 2012 would be my favorite run in company history. (Oct 2011 being the Beer Money split, Oct 2012 being the street fight Storm finally won in, plus the cage match in between was aces) Roode's title run to Aries big win until BFG 2012 was full of great stuff. Along with Aries, Roode, and Storm doing great stuff there was Bully Ray having his career year, Samoa Joe having excellent performances, the Angle/Styles vs Daniels/Kazarian series was awesome... along with the Daniels/Styles last man standing match being my favorite match of theirs. Definitely an exciting weekly TV run there.

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WCW October 1990 to May 1991 Saturday Night is pretty good along with some Main Events sprinkled in as follow ups to angles and matches that are promoted. I am sure with the Dangerous Alliance coming up (Just getting to October), the television will continue to improve with all of them involved.

 

Probably a good place for me to say that Run The Gauntlet is one of my favorite TV booking ideas ever.

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WCW October 1990 to May 1991 Saturday Night is pretty good along with some Main Events sprinkled in as follow ups to angles and matches that are promoted. I am sure with the Dangerous Alliance coming up (Just getting to October), the television will continue to improve with all of them involved.

 

Probably a good place for me to say that Run The Gauntlet is one of my favorite TV booking ideas ever.

 

 

Just looked it up and it is a rather clever idea. Simple but a good use of TV with just enough kayfabe stakes.

 

Speaking of gauntlets, I rather enjoyed the Smackdown Title Contender Series on the post-SummerSlam 02 SD! Winner of each match moves on to meet another opponent and so on and so on until the last winner gets a shot at Brock. Great episode plot that gave us a good series of matches including a strong Eddie-Edge opener and a really fun Benoit-Angle-Taker main event.

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2002 Smackdown is the epitome of this for me because there was a strong cast of wrestlers and characters who could be paired up in a variety of ways to make entertaining matches. The Smackdown Six, plus Brock as champ, plus the cruiserweights offered a lot of fun options. You could start with Cena's debut, Rey's debut, or Benoit/Eddy jumping from Raw but post-Summerslam seems right. I think this five-six month period afforded Heyman's booking a lot of good will later on well past it was deserved.

 

I also really like the first four to six months of Nitro with the various debuts and Lex Luger having dream matches with Hogan and Savage. Plus the Horsemen-Sting battles and the debut of The Giant. Hogan, Luger, Sting, and Savage as the top faces is an amazing group, but then Luger also ended up aligned with Jimmy Hart and the Dungeon leading to his best character work since 1989. Add in Benoit, Eddy, Malenko, Sabu, and the NJPW guys at the end of the year and early Nitro is a great one hour show.

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2002 Smackdown is the epitome of this for me because there was a strong cast of wrestlers and characters who could be paired up in a variety of ways to make entertaining matches. The Smackdown Six, plus Brock as champ, plus the cruiserweights offered a lot of fun options. You could start with Cena's debut, Rey's debut, or Benoit/Eddy jumping from Raw but post-Summerslam seems right. I think this five-six month period afforded Heyman's booking a lot of good will later on well past it was deserved.

 

.

The only time Heyman has really had booking power since then was OVW and the WWECW run that lead to him quitting because he hated the product so much.

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Smackdown in 03 had that never ending Vince v Stephanie angle that lasted for 6 months and was super creepy a lot of the time. It pretty much started when Heyman was fired from creative. Can't remember who took his place but it got way worse. Was it Lagana?

I think it was. Yeah we went from SD feeling like this fresh young exciting show to Vince feuding with Stephanie/Hogan/Gowen.

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