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Post: #885248
PT: #1/57
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What live events can you remember attending during the Monday Night Wars era?
The first couple of these I'll mostly copy-paste from another thread since they fit THIS timeframe...
The first house show I ever went to was the night Sid returned for the last time (replacing Ultimate Warrior in the 6-man tags) - 6/29/96 at Joe Louis in Detroit. My brother ended up getting a pair of Shawn Michaels sunglasses, while I got a pair of Bret sunglasses, both of which we each still have.
I also went to the house show the night before Montreal (11/8/97). This was also in Detroit, only in Cobo Hall rather than Joe Louis. The other thing I remember from this is that my aunt came along for this one, and she was a CRAZY Bret fan. Never mind how anti-American he was in 1997, she was still a mega-fan of his. You'd probably think she was absolutely nuts if you'd have heard her cheering that night.
There's at least one other WWF house show that I know I went to with my family, but I don't remember exactly when it would have been...probably other than it'd be between those two.
I can remember going to at least two WCW shows as well. One was a house show, the other was a Nitro. I think both of these were in Saginaw, at the Civic Center (now the Dow Event Center).
The house show was...I'd have to guess somewhere around November 96. I think this was where I bought a Four Horseman shirt.
The Nitro - what I remember most about this is, there were these guys there who weren't far from where we were sitting, who had their heads done up clown-style (may or may not have been Doink-style, I don't remember), and they had a sign saying "HOGAN STUFFS HIS TIGHTS".  Hogan himself responded with a crotch chop in their/our direction when the NWO came out for whatever segment. I think this is where I bought a DDP shirt, but the crotch chop makes me think this Nitro was either March or April 98. For some reason that time is what sticks in my head as far as the Nitro that I went to.
All of these were real cool experiences to go to.
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Member
Post: #885291
PT: #2/57
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I was at the Capitol Combat PPV at the D.C. Armory. That show was promoted as the joining of forces of super goodguys Sting and Robocop. The tshirts and posters all featured Sting and Robocop.. But Sting got legit hurt and did not wrestle, and neither did Robocop. Those tshirts must be collectors items
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Post: #885351
PT: #3/57
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At this time, I had a full time job living at home with my dad, so I went to just about every one in the Twin Cities. I'm talking 2000-2003 era. The only one I missed was Summer Slam '99. I did see the Raw where Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin were a tag team against La Resistance with Jesse Ventura as their manager. Brock did the shooting star press and everybody went crazy. I went to a house show in St. Paul where he wrestled as a single(this stuff was long before he debuted officially) and he was pretty bad. I imagine he had been taught "WWF Style" in between the two because when he tagged with Benjamin(the night Hugh Morris did a run in-i have a picture somewhere of him waiting by a door for his cue) he was awesome. But at the St. Paul show he was just another guy on the card that no one knew. Pretty disappointing, actually. I was telling friends that weren't at the Raw that they wouldn't believe how good this guy is. And they thought I was just bsing them.
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Post: #885354
PT: #4/57
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WCW Monday Nitro, the Ice Palace, Tampa, FL, October 13, 1997. This was the show with all the Stings coming out at the end, though I had left before that happened.
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Replies: 30
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Post: #885385
PT: #5/57
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Unfortunately I live in Australia so I never got to see any. WCW did come to Australia in 2000 but the show in my city got cancelled due to low sales. I was absolutely crushed. Broke my little heart that I never got to see Nash wrestle.
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Super Mod
Post: #885404
PT: #6/57
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Geez it seemed like every few months I was catching either a WWF or WCW show. Either PPV or house shows. If it was a house show it's pretty likely I've got a handheld of it.
In fact the first time WCW came to Seattle since 1989 they ran a show in Seattle and Spokane Washington was in September of 1997. Both shows were pretty stacked, and went both nights and recorded the shows with a camcorder.
The opener each night was Eddy Guerrero versus Dean Malenko. Both were excellent matches. And the crowds were hot!
Hall and Nash came out using the Fugees for ring music.
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Replies: 600
Member
Post: #885428
PT: #7/57
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I always wonder why WWF and WCW dropped their european tours to a minimum after 1995, even though both became really popular.
Where WWF did 3 tours through germany in 1993 alone, they did 1 in the years between 1997 and 1999 and WCW did 3 tours through germany between November 1993 and September 1994 but only 3 times afterwards, in 1996, 1997 and 2000.
So there weren't a lot of chances to see them during the War.
For WCW i was at the nWo vs. WCW Take Over Tour 1997 in Frankfurt and at the Millenium Final PPV (one of the few decent things WCW made in 2000, altough having Alex Wright in 3 matches was complete overkill) in 2000.
For WWF it was the Full Metal Tour in late 1995 in Vienna, 1996 in Munich (WWF Champions Tour) and the Capital Carnage PPV in London in 1998 which, just like all those UK PPVs was pretty dreadful.
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Member
Post: #885465
PT: #8/57
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I went to a Raw once, March 23, 1998 here in Tucson. The only thing I really remember is the advancement of the Austin/Michaels angle, Mike Tyson was there to hype up that year's WM, and someone did an incredibly lame spot where a guy caught on fire. I left somewhat disappointed, but that could be because I had papered seats.
I never made it to a Nitro. This will always be one of my life's greatest laments. Nitro never ran Tucson, but they ran Phoenix twice, IIRC. Once was when it was still good, and once was after Russo got his hands on it. This was a very difficult time in my life, and unfortunately for me even a 110-mile trip and finding cash for a ticket was out of reach for me back then.
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| I hate sports entertainment but I love wrestling. Hence, I don't watch the business any more. :(
I envy those who lived in a territory. I grew up in Tucson, AZ. My "territory" was being a WWF "C" town.
I believe the business fell on its ass in the early 90's because WCW started to copy WWF when it really should have been the other way around.
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Super Mod
Post: #885480
PT: #9/57
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This message was edited by Matt Farmer on September 05th, 2016 19:55 GMT
Quoted from: ShadowAngel, September 05th, 2016 12:58 GMTI always wonder why WWF and WCW dropped their european tours to a minimum after 1995, even though both became really popular.
Where WWF did 3 tours through germany in 1993 alone, they did 1 in the years between 1997 and 1999 and WCW did 3 tours through germany between November 1993 and September 1994 but only 3 times afterwards, in 1996, 1997 and 2000.
So there weren't a lot of chances to see them during the War.
For WCW i was at the nWo vs. WCW Take Over Tour 1997 in Frankfurt and at the Millenium Final PPV (one of the few decent things WCW made in 2000, altough having Alex Wright in 3 matches was complete overkill) in 2000.
For WWF it was the Full Metal Tour in late 1995 in Vienna, 1996 in Munich (WWF Champions Tour) and the Capital Carnage PPV in London in 1998 which, just like all those UK PPVs was pretty dreadful.
It was simple economics. For WWF post 1998 when domestic house show business was exploding it didn't make financial sense to uproot and take a two week tour in the UK when 75% of your domestic house shows were selling out. And with the increase of ticket prices domestically a sellout in the US or Canada was nearly as large as one in London.
The reason why Vince decided to increase the number of tours in the early 90's was simple. Domestic house shows were in the tank while business was really strong in the UK and Europe.
I do think it would have been wise for Vince to take a "B" show with some mid-level and maybe one top guy on tours of Europe. Those late 90's WWF house shows were so stacked they would often have 4 ways on top. They could have easily done similar business splitting them up. But business domestically was on fire they felt there was no need to do so.
As for WCW, even at their peak they never understood how to completely profit off of their success. But when your company went from grossing $30 million to $300 million it takes time to catch up with your growth. Something WCW was never able to do. They did not have an entire department dedicated to touring like Vince had. Sure they had great local promoters but very little support from the company.
When WCW did go to Europe or Australia they were usually "sold shows."
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Post: #885723
PT: #10/57
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One of the shows that stick out was a Nitro Thunder taping in 2000. I was in the 7th row, and Norm Coleman was there. It was when he was running for Mayor of St. Paul. At the start of Nitro and Thunder, he would walk down with his entourage to the front row, and then leave right after. I have no idea why. He wasn't shown on television from what I recall. He was really nice though, and posed for a picture with me.
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Topics: 604
Replies: 13659
Member
Post: #885728
PT: #11/57
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Other than the first Nitro at Mall of America, I attended a Saturday Night Taping and a Thunder taping in La Crosse, WI. Not sure of exact timeframe, thinking around 2000 or so.
The Saturday Night taping is when Barry Darsow was doing the golfer gimmick. My wife and brother and I managed to get backstage in catering. I mentioned doing this for a few WWF tapings in the 80's as well. We enjoyed a nice meal(chicken was really good) and enjoyed watching the wrestlers interact with one another. Eventually I think Mr Perfect was onto us, as we heard him at the next table with Hugh Morrus refer to us as "marks", so we left soon after.
The Thunder taping was the one where Macho Man injured Evan Karagias. Reason I remember this is we were in catering again that time, and Kevin Nash called Karagias over and said "The good news is....you're not pregnant!!!!! The bad news is, you have got Macho Man tonight!" Again, we enjoyed a nice meal while we could and noticed Rick Steiner at the next table just leaning forward and staring at us!!!!!!  Very surreal and scary. We left shortly after lol.
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Post: #885782
PT: #14/57
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LOL, I should have said "Excuse Me? We are SMARKS, not marks!" I wonder what would have happened lol!
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Replies: 9549
Member
Post: #888317
PT: #15/57
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I went to a WWF house show here in Tampa a couple of
weeks before the untimely death of Owen Hart. April of '99.
The card was a sellout at the Sundome and the place just popped for every match. From the prelims to the main event. I think Owen and Jarrett were in a tag match in the 2nd bout of the night and like I said, the crowd popped for everyone.
I was just amazed at how the WWF had gone from the mid 80's peak to the crappy early 90's and now the cards were even beyond the highs of the 80's...if anything...the main event of Austin vs. The Bossman was anti climactic as the crowd was just tired of cheering by that point.
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