10 Things Only 90s Wrestling Fans Will Understand

It happens to us all, life moves on, and you're stood there thinking, what on earth happened

And why does nobody play with a pog anymore? You better embrace it though, because it is coming

And if you were loving wrestling in the 90s, well let me perk you up a little bit

because here's 10 things only you will understand. Number 10, Survivor Series being important

So the good news is that this is finally changing. Although for about two decades, WWE did not care about the Survivor Series, Triple H does

Sounds like it's going to be the permanent home of war games, and in 2023 CM Punk returned, the love is back

To stress how much Vince McMahon went off this event too, he actually thought about scrapping it all together at one point

That's right. November was planned to welcome a brand new named pay-per-view, before thankfully we saw sense

So many gimmicks were thrown at it too, like the whole Raw vs Smackdown madness, but I tell ya, if you wind back the clock, you will find something else entirely

I mean, back in 1991, The Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWE title

Bob Backlund did something similar in 1994. And of course, we all know about 1997

Nobody shuts up about it. There is a reason, after all, he got cemented as one of the top four

But again, in the modern day, I feel like it's going to be treated as such

And thank goodness for that. The Survivor Series rules. Number nine, must see Monday Night Raw

So the three hour length has affected this. That's just a long time to do anything

Much like the Survivor Series, however, recently, Raw has become a really good show again

We've got stars, stories, drama. It's fun. There is no doubt that it would be better and more watchable at two hours, though

And when you throw in a crazy hype crowd and sheer mayhem, well, this was Raw in the late 90s

It really did become a major event that people would chat about the next day. And even though today a lot of it is questionable

you can't complain about that atmosphere. It's incredible. To balance the books, you do have to go through a very bad period around 1995

but you also get the debut in 1993 and that wonderful transitional year in 1997 that still holds up Without this crazy period as well Raw wouldn be the institution it is right now so let just hope the current momentum continues It really has been quite the turnaround

I get very excited about Monday nights. 8. 5 Pay-Per-Views Max It was WCW who decided to take pay-per-views to one a month though, and because WWE had to copy

everything they did, they did it too. People at the time thought this was nuts as well. No way fans

would pay for all of these. We are talking more about the early 90s here, and this is why the Big

Four were called the Big Four. The WWF would use the Raw Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and the

Survivor Series as huge tentpoles to look forward to and make them must-see events. The In Your House

series changed all that, and it's why in 1993, the King of the Ring was a huge deal. A brand new

pay-per-view that was a tournament? Wow. There's no way the company would ever go back to this today

because the structure is in place and works, and even AEW is edging more towards this

Whatever makes money. There was a genuine fear if you were a kid during all of this though

Your wallet was about to get a lot lighter, and you didn't have any money to begin with

Number seven, the importance of VHS boxes. This is quite timely. Silver Vision, who made these

home videos, recently announced that there's no more DVDs, there's no more Blu-rays, meaning we

have come to an end of an era. When the VHS tape was the people's choice, however, man, did we have

all the fun with these because if you collected them all and lined them up on your shelf they

would be all themed it looked great the cost argument does come into the frame again because

one of these costs more than the current price of the wwe network so oh how times have changed

you also had to wait months for these sometimes years it was a genuinely painful process as you

were a kid as well there wasn't much internet which we will talk about later but sometimes it

meant you didn't know what had happened. Just sat there like an idiot, hoping Lex Luger won the

Rumble. We should all be ashamed. 6. Tape trading If you did want to see wrestling from places far, far away, you had to start tape trading

I mean who has the time Even when Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer newsletter is said to see what was happening in Japan he would have to have a system like this set up and closer to home it was the same with something like ECW I think that a reason why it had this cult following Trying to see it was like dealing drugs You just didn have an endless library on

demand back then, which was another reason the WWF could dominate. They had the best TV deal

Mick Foley has also talked about how his IWA King of the Deathmatch Wars became a collector's dream

and think of this, once it was gone, it was gone. No one was mass producing these, which is why it's

important to save such footage, it cannot be lost to the passages of time. Number five, pre-booking

the TV. Because yeah, there was no DVR or magic live recording back during the 90s, so if you

weren't going to use a VHS, you had to make sure the TV was free. It was even more crazy over here

in the UK, as while Raw aired on a Monday, we didn't get to see it until Friday night. Kind of

worked as you'd invite your friends around to start the weekend, but imagine that today, it ain't gonna

fly. The other issue, of course, was what if somebody wanted to watch something else? Given

you were likely a kid, no way you're telling your parents tough luck. You just had to miss the

wrestling. It's why we really should appreciate the on-demand world we now live in. It's just

made everything so much easier, and there's a lot less arguing. Number four, seeing WWE live once a

few years at best. So this is another British-focused entry, but we count two. The reason I say that

is because during the 90s, it didn't really feel like we counted for much. Because while today

Hey, WWE love coming over to our shores. This was not the case 30 years ago

as Vince McMahon mostly kept an eye on his American operation. SummerSlam 1992 only happened at Wembley because US business wasn't all that great

and that's why it sold the place out. The World Wrestling Federation in our backyard

That's a huge deal. Any other shows were few and far between, which is why that Royal Albert Hall event is talked about so much

It was just such a novelty, whereas now at the very least WWE will be this way a few times a year

And good, this should be the way across the globe. Number three, ECW

So we kind of touched upon this earlier but ECW was something you had to see at the time Context is so important because if you were used to the WWF or WCW seeing extreme championship wrestling go bonkers blew your mind Who were these people

and how the flub were they getting away with this? It was everything that the more corporate

companies weren't, and it created an environment where you had to check it out just to have your

own take on it. Then you would see how far they would push the envelope and insane. It became

tape trading gold, especially in the early days, and it's likely why it still has a following today

You had to put in all the effort to see ECW, and that stayed with you

A lot of it has aged nowadays and become commonplace for wrestling, but that's why you needed to be there

Paul Heyman really did change the game. Number two, the rise of the internet

In many ways, the popularity of the internet is what sent wrestling to the next level

Look how many people today care more about the backstage drama than what's happening on the actual screen

When it really kicked off in the 90s, though, sports entertainment was right there along with it

Although, my gosh, When you learned about these websites with spoilers, you better have some time on your hands

The connection speed was painful. It took forever. And I challenge you right now to go a day without reading about the industry at large

It's almost impossible. You would definitely be more happy doing that if you did have to deal with this back in the 90s, though

Some people say that WWF-8OL webpage is still loading. Number one, it's much better now

Because it just is. We've laid out a lot of reasons why, but it deserves saying again

A huge step forward to all of this is the in-ring work across the board, because you can pick any wrestling show and within five minutes

you're probably going to see an amazing match. The bar has been set so high

This wasn't what was happening in the 90s, because with the WWF especially, a lot of it was nothing

Yep, people would just stand around. Now this was fine because it was expected and the schedule was way harder

but don't forget most of the TV had the likes of Mantar, Duke the Dumpster Drozzy and the Dungeon of Doom

It's just so hokey. Thankfully, towards the end of the decade, the WWF realized this as we shifted into the Attitude Era

Even then though, it's not like the overall match quality was through the roof

So yeah, never forget this, today we really are spoiled