When I was little, my Grandmother would let me stay up late on Saturday and watch Big Time Wrestling from the world famous Sportatrium in Dalls.

Nothing beats late 90s and early 00s WWF.



Only The Rock and Austin could get crowds this loud.

Jack and Jerry Brisco vs Terry and Dory Funk.

Harley Race.

Dusty Rhodes

Andre

Some tough customers

All out wrestling wars frequently broke out between my brother and myself.

Dad would too often break up these epic brawls before I could cement yet another "world championship belt".

Any answer that doesn't include Mick Foley is wrong.

Yup.  Even then it was lame.

Poll fail.

Needs:

x.  None of the Above.

whenever BRUNO SAMMARTINO wrassled.

1984-1993

Yes. I watched wrestling before WWF became WWE. Oh, and before that I used to watch it in B & W along with Roller Derby! "Whoa Nelly!!!"

The road warriors
The sheepherders
The British bulldog
The Russians with crusher cruchev and Nikita kolai

NWA 1980's

Ivan & Nikita the Russian Bear & Krusher Kruschev
Road Warrior Animal
Jim Crockett and Midnight Express
Dusty Rhodes and Manny Fernandez
JYD
Baron Von Rasche and his iron claw
Don Kernodle
Ric Flair
Rock & Roll Express (gay)
Magnum T.A..
Ricky Steamboat
Sting
Lex Luger
Wahoo McDaniel

I kinda remember that place! But pretty sure where I ran into them was more of a bar/nightclub in the Westshore area called Green Iguana...30 years ago, though, so I could be completely wrong. I mostly went to the Rock-it Club on Dale Mabry back in those days.

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1986 I think
The Coliseum at Richfield Ohio
Hulk vs Andre
What a great show!

1980's WWF

Late 90s nwo. Had a look much fun playing 4 player on nintendo 64 with my buddies. Also loved the 80s-90s, especially the Ultimate Warrior.

The lady doth protest too much.

I liked the 80's era with Hogan, flair, Piper, and Andre The Giant but I really enjoyed the mid to late 90's.

You pretty much nailed it. While wrestling from the mid 80s through the mid 90s was good, the shit that happened in 1996 simply took things to a different level. The nWo takeover of WCW was genius. For the first time, the "heels" were more popular than the "good guys". It changed everything and brought in many new viewers, as well as former fans who wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It led to the "Monday Night Wars" which pushed the level of the writing and creativity to its absolute peak. Both WCW and WWF were killing it through the late 90s. Everyone from children to adults could be heard discussing what happened on Raw or Nitro the following day. It took wrestling to the mainstream. Then ECW came along and added even more extreme stuff to the mix, which carried over into the WWF and WCW. Professional wrestling was at its absolute peak in popularity in that stretch of time.

Unfortunately, when WCW went away and the WWF was the only show in town, the quality of the writing went to shit, as did the creativity. They now owned the market and were in the drivers seat. So they didn't have to push things to the next level to compete in ratings any longer. So the product became dull, stale and uninteresting. And people stopped watching it. All of the icons and superstars of the 80s and 90s starting to retire didn't help matters. Their replacements largely sucked. Wrestling will probably never again experience a 5 or 6 year run of success like we saw starting in 1996, or even come close. Hell, today's product can't even come close to competing with the 1980s or earlier time period.

The main thing I remember from occasionally watching wrestling as a kid was Lance Russel and Dave Brown doing commentary (Dave Brown was from my hometown).  

OPNI. Monday night wars/ attitude era ftw.

Bruno Samartino
Bono Backlund
George the Animal Steel
The Iron Sheik
Sergeant Slaughter
Rex and King, the Moon Dogs
Gorilla Monsoon
Chief Jay Strongbow
And the incomparable Andre the Giant

Not even close.  Best wrestling was '82 - '89.  Period.
NWA and its final decent into WCW.

Flair...the Horsemen...the Russians....Road Warriors....Rock & Roll/Midnight Express...no question.

Charlotte NC through Atlanta GA was king, brothas.

Voted 1990 - 2010 since that's period I grew up in.

Georgia Championship Wrestling with Gordon Solie FTMFW.

Absolutely



For sure.  I remember all the music stars on MTV trash talking one of the bad guys, was it Rowdy Roddy Piper ?

1970-90 WWF - Andre the Giant, Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Mr. Fuji, Greg The Hammer Valentine, Ivan Putski, Sgt. Slaughter & The Iron Sheik, Big John Studd, Hulk Hogan...If I’d had WWE to watch as a kid I probably would have watched candlepin bowling instead.

You are correct. Part of what happened after WWF bought WCW, the downward spiral, was their own fault. You still had big stars from WCW but Vince never used them right and would not put them over his own people. Think of the popularity of Goldberg, Steiner or DDP. First two couldn’t get over HHH and they used DDP to stalk Takers wife(didn’t she actually beat him in a match?).

Also I think certain wrestlers had contracts with Turner that made things a little funky.

But yeah they caught lightning in a bottle with a few guys, unfortunately they didn’t last long(Rock/Stone Cold), and then you had Guerrero dying and what happened with Benoit. Owen dying in the ring, Bret Harts career ending. Things started to add up.

This, without question!