Wrestling is a work. It's sports entertainment with predetermined results. It's a soap opera famously designed for late twentieth century male-identified fans of steroid-riddled beefcakes. It's silly. It, like all sports, is 90% garbage, 10% amazing. It's way better than fat old white guys wearing tacky clothes on a liesurely walk through manicured grass while occasionally hitting a ball with a stick, or that other ball with a stick sport where a bunch of steroid-riddled non-beefcakes stand around in the sun (or the moon if it's a night game) waiting for someone to hit the ball in their general direction so they can maybe catch it or something.

Look, it makes just as much sense as soccer or lacrosse or underwater foosball. When it's great, it's Ping Pong Parkour Great, and when it's bad, it's insufferable golf with sweatier men.

I've watched A Lot of it. First in the eighties. All of my friends were into wrestling during the Hogan-centric era. All of them. Kids would act out The Interviews, not even the matches, The Interviews during recess, probably realizing they were more likely to grow up into Gene Okerlund or Tony Schiavone than Bret Hart of The Ultimate Warrior.

In the 90s, I lived with a family who got really into The Rock, Steve Austin, and Rey Mysterio, and I got hooked back in for a couple of years.

Poetry slam took over most of my life in the 21st century, but I would hear people talk about certain names that I would remember, and I would go on Youtube or DailyMotion and seek out the match and see if it still had any emotional resonance. And sometimes it did.

I am going to Seriously Condense wrestling history into a few seasons. Each season will contain YEARS of storylines. Maybe that sucks some of the drama out when you don't have to wait a full year for a feud to peak and resolve, but I want this list to MOVE. It will be mostly WWE (which is the product I grew up on) and some WCW. And eventually ROH, Impact, and AEW (which didn't even exist when I came up with this idea).

The first season, Rock And Wrestling starts off with a Pilot Episode that doesn't really fit with the rest of the season but includes a bunch of famous matches from before I was born. Some of those matches are historically important, some of them just introduce characters who will come back much later but who you should probably see some of their Ancient Work.

I have edited all of these episodes together for my own personal use. I won't ever be sending these files out to people (because copyright is important) but a few of us meet every week on Discord and watch these reimagined episodes.

Pilot Episode: All-American Wrestling

Welcome to the weird and contagious word of watching wrestling. We begin with the end of The Longest Reigning Champion in Wrestling History’s second reign. Our story for this episode is the rise of Hulkamania as we first see the man Hulk stole his gimmick from, Superstar Billy Graham, win, defend, and then lose his title to a bland collegiate athlete. Said bland collegiate athlete will defend the title in a match with Jimmy Snuka, whose moves will inspire at least one entire generation of wrestlers, many of whom will claim to have seen this match in person. Then we get into a formulaic groove for the WWE where an evil foreigner will win or challenge for the title, only to be defeated by blond-bald headed, blue eyed, steroid dependent unreliable narrator, Hulk Hogan. This episode also features a Death Match, which is the same as a Street Fight, in that it’s more violent than a regular match, and it’s expected to be bloody. There’s also a match in a Steel Cage, where the ring is surrounded by chain link, and a Stretcher Match, where the only way to win is to incapacitate your opponent so badly that a team of medics can put him on a stretcher and take him to the back without him being able to get up and return to the ring. We also have our first match from Japan with Japanese commentary.

Remember what Bob Backlund looks like because he’ll be back next season as an unhinged, weirdo manager. Also, Pat Patterson will be back eventually as a backstage official and one of Vince McMahon’s stooges. Jerry Lawler will soon be one of WWE’s most famous commentators.

At the beginning of this episode, the WWE was known as the WWWF before evolving into the WWF but for consistency’s sake, I will always refer to it as the WWE.


1. Bruno Sammartino (WWE Champ) vs Superstar Billy Graham. 

2. Superstar Billy Graham (WWE Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in a Texas Death Match.  

3. Fabulous Moolah & Beverly Shade vs Kandy Malloy & Peggy Lee. 

4. Andre The Giant vs Hulk Hogan. 

5. Superstar Billy Graham (WWE Champ) vs Bob Backlund. 

6. Terry Funk vs Jerry Lawler in an Empty Arena Match. 

7.  Andre The Giant vs Killer Khan in a Mongolian Stretcher Match. 

8. Pat Patterson vs Sgt Slaughter in a Street Fight. 

9. Bob Backlund (WWE Champ) vs Jimmy Superfly Snuka in a Steel Cage Match. 

10. Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask. 

11. Bob Backlund (WWE Champ) vs The Iron Sheik. 
​
MAIN EVENT: THE IRON SHEIK (WWE CHAMP) vs HULK HOGAN.

Season 1, Episode 1: Starrcade (1983, 1984)

Before there was Wrestlemania, WWC aired the first-ever wrestling Pay-Per-View event, Starrcade: Flare For The Gold. It had wrasslin, pomp, circumstance (but not the song “Pomp and Circumstance…that’s Randy Savage’s entrance music in the WWE) and felt like An Event. I’ve edited it down to its best matches, and also included matches from the following year’s Starrcade: The Million Dollar Challenge.

Like referring to the WWWF and WWF as the WWE, which it eventually became, I’ll also be referring to all of the NWA and Jim Crockett Productions matches as WCW, since that what it was called when it went bankrupt.

The Hulk Hogan of the WCW is Ric Flair. Also blue-eyed and blonde (but more haired), his drug of choice was fame and cocaine, which made him a problematic person but a better wrestler and more dependable human being than Hulk Hogan. We start this episode with the end of the 1970’s superstar, Harley Race’s run as the company champ. Three amazing athletes: Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and Tully Blanchard will dominate matches in both WCW and WWE for the rest of the season.

Abdullah The Butcher is a violent, bloody wrestler who serves as an occasional featured performer in this season. He’s like WCW’s much creepier and unhinged Andre The Giant.

We get a fantastic dog collar match in this episode where two wrestlers are chained together by dog collars around their neck to keep them from running away from each other. This match features two wrestlers much more known for their time in WWE but their match here is probably each of their best and most impressive bouts in this Headcanon.

There’s no real theme to this episode, other than introducing some of the major players for the rest of this season and beyond.
​
1. Abdullah The Butcher vs Carlos Colon from Starrcade 1983. 

2. Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Greg The Hammer Valentine in a Dog Collar Match from Starrcade 1983. 

3. Brisco Brothers (WCW Tag Champs) vs Ricky Steamboat and Tully Blanchard from Starrcade 1983. 

4. Harley Race (WCW Champ) vs Ric Flair in a Steel Cage from Starrcade 1983. 

5. Wahoo McDaniel (WCW US Champ) vs Superstar Billy Graham from Starrcade 1984. 

​6. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes for 1 Million Dollars from Starrcade 1984. 
​
THE MAIN EVENT: RICKY STEAMBOAT vs TULLY BLANCHARD from STARRCADE 1984. 

Season 1, Episode 2: The Brawl That Began It All (1984, 1985)

Just before the Pay-Per-View era for WWE, they aired a series of specials on MTV to attract a young audience to their show. They pulled in stars like Cyndi Lauper, Ozzy Osborne, Alice Cooper, Mr T, and more to serve as managers or entourage. They also opened their events with famous musicians singing America The Beautiful. But in this episode, Mean Gene Okerlund, their intrepid announcer, does an a capella version of The Star Spangled Banner. It’s not quite on-par with Aretha Franklin’s performance in a few episodes.

I’ve included several womens matches in this episode not because they’re great but because WWE had a massive misogyny problem. I mean, it still does, but it was Really Really Bad in the 1980s. 

The worst part of this episode, though is a segment where Rowdy Roddy Piper assaults Jimmy Superfly Snuka. It’s an important moment in WWE wrestling, and I have included a match where Snuka, with the assistance of one of the Bloodline Ancestors, gets his revenge.

On a much lighter note, we see a living GI Joe character battle the foreign heel in a typical Rah-Rah-Rah America match. The founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling wins the WWE Martial Arts Championship, which was never again seen in American wrestling. Andre The Giant battles another giant, Big John Studd in a match where the only way to win is to slam your opponent, and the prize is $10,000.

While many of these matches are from Wrestlemania 1, we’re going to skip the horrible and boring main event, and replace it with both a one-on-one match between Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan, and also another Rah-Rah-Rah ’Murica match where The Soviet Union is represented by Nikolai Volkoff.

There’s some wonderful levity as Bobby The Brain Heenan and Jimmy Hart both serve as annoying and detestable managers who eventually get their come-uppance. Sometimes while wearing bright red briefs.

1. Sgt, Slaughter vs The Iron Sheik in a Boot Camp Match from the USA network, June 1984. 

2. Antonio Inoki vs Charlie Fulton from the WWE on MSG network, July 1984. 

3. Fabulous Moolah (WWE Womens Champ) vs Wendi Richter from The Brawl To End It All, 1984. 

4. Andre The Giant vs Big John Studd at Wrestlemania 1.

5. Wendi Richter (WWE Womens Champ) vs Lelani Kai at Wrestlemania 1.

6. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Roddy Piper from the WWE on MSG Network, February 1985. 

7. Wendi Richter (WWE Womens Champ) vs The Fabulous Moolah from Saturday Night’s Main Event #1.

8. Junkyard Dog vs Terry Funk from Saturday Night’s Main Event #3.

​9. Roddy Piper and Bob Orton vs Jimmy Snuka and The Tonga Kid (aka The Bloodline Ancestors) from the WWE on MSG Network.   
​      
MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs NIKOLAI VOLKOFF in a FLAG MATCH from SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT #2.

Season 1, Episode 3: Hard Times, 1985


This episode is named for one of the most famous promos of all time. While Ric Flair was always bragging about limousine riding, high flying excess, Dusty Rhodes talks about being a real person having to go through hard times but working through them to get to the good times. 

The mid-80s were Hard Times for WCW, there are certainly some matches worth watching but a lot of the shows featured screwy finishes and subpar wrestling and none of the stories were particularly engaging past the superficial Rich Dude vs Working Man angle or Wrestler Randomly Betrays Other Wrestler. This episode features talking heads behind news desks setting up stories and then breaking down the results.

One of the highlights of this episode is a couple of matches featuring Magnum TA, who was set to be the next big star (a role that ended up going to Sting) but was involved in a car accident that ended his in-ring career and turned him into a popular commentator for a few years. Here he battles Kamala (RIP), a regrettable racist stereotype character that wouldn’t fly today. James Arthur Harris, the man behind the face paint, did his best to turn this character into something worth remembering, and while he is now in the Hall Of Fame, his career is rough to watch through a non-racist lens. We also see Magnum in our first I Quit match, where the only way to win is to make your opponent either pass out or surrender.

1. Magnum TA vs Kamala at The Great American Bash 1985. 

2. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Nikita Koloff at Great American Bash 1985. 

3. Tully Blanchard (WCW TV Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in a Steel Cage at Great American Bash 1985. 

4. Abdullah The Butcher vs Manny Fernandez in a Mexican Death Match at Starrcade 1985. 

5. Magnum TA vs Tully Blanchard in an I Quit Steel Cage Match at Starrcade 1985. 

6. Minnesota Wrecking Crew (WCW National Tag Champs) vs Wahoo McDaniels and Billy Jack Hynes at Starrcade 1985. 

​7. The Koloff Brothers (WCW World Tag Champs) vs Rock & Roll Express at Starrcade 1985. 
​
MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs DUSTY RHODES at STARRCADE 1985. 

Season 1, Episode 4: The Matches For The Masses (1985)

Our first tournament-based episode is mostly taken from the 1985 Wrestling Classic. Wrestlemania 2 is mostly a clunker not worth watching. It’s much more fun to see Randy Savage battle the odds, trying to win a tournament that ends up not actually leading anywhere.

I peppered this card with a series of skits from the Halloween Episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event and give it a classic Rock & Wrestling Era ending after the silly but entertaining main event. The wrestling in this episode is the best so far, mostly thanks to Randy Savage, Dynamite Kid, and Ricky Steamboat. 

I was never a huge fan of Brutus Beefcake but his tag team with Greg Valentine was a blast to watch, and I might not have seen any of their matches if not for this project.

We also have the worst, darkest match of this season as Wendy Richter ends up on the losing end of The Original Screwjob because Vince McMahon never liked paying women large sums of money unless it was hush money to cover up his sexual assaults. 

Bonus entertainment: Ray Charles sings “America The Beautiful” to open the show with just a tad more prestige than having Gene Okerlund warble "The Star Spangled Banner".

1. Ricky Steamboat vs The British Bulldog (as Davey Boy Smith) from The Wrestling Classic.

2. Wendy Richter (WWE Womens Champ) vs The Fabulous Moolah (as The Spider) from the WWE on MSG Network.

3. Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat from The Wrestling Classic.

4. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Roddy Piper from The Wrestling Classic.

5. Randy Savage vs Dynamite Kid from The Wrestling Classic.

6. Ricky Steamboat vs Hercules from Wrestlemania 2.

7. Junkyard Dog vs Randy Savage from The Wrestling Classic.

8. The Dream Team (WWE Tag Champs) vs The British Bulldogs from Wrestlemania 2.

9. The Fabulous Moolah (WWE Womens Champ) vs Velvet McIntyre from Wrestlemania 2.

10. Jake Roberts vs Ricky Steamboat from The Big Event.

11. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Terry Funk from Saturday Night’s Main Event #4.

​12. The Dream Team (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Rougeaus from The Big Event.
​
MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs KING KONG BUNDY in a STEEL CAGE MATCH from WRESTLEMANIA 2.

Season 1, Episode 5: Skywalkers (1986)

There’s a lot to love in this weird little WCW episode. Legion Of Doom is in two amazing gimmick matches that we won’t ever see again: A Double Russian Chain Match where two sets of wrestlers are chained together for a bloody brawl, and a Scaffold Match where all four participants climb a tower and fight on a thin scaffold, the losers being whoever fall off.

We get our first quality time with Jim Cornette as a detestable manager in the aforementioned scaffold match where he gets an injury that he’s still justifiably complaining about over forty years later.

There’s also two Dusty Rhodes/Tully Blanchard matches. One in a steel cage. The other is a First Blood Match. They’re both amazing. 

It’s not often that I set a tag team match as The Main Event but this steel cage brawl is a tough one to follow up, so it gets the honors. Also, I wanted a tag team match to follow up the Scaffold Match, as the Scaffold Match is historically important with some wild happenings but, as a wrestling match, it's pretty limited due to being held on a friggen scaffold.

There’s a lovely anomaly match in this episode featuring a tag team called The Sheepherders. They’re a violent Australian tag team who had bloody tag team matches and were incredibly entertaining. In a few episodes, they show up in WWE as The Bushwhackers, a silly team of two guys who like to lick things and wrestle mostly in comedy matches for children. It’s a WEIRD evolution. While I haven’t included many Bushwhackers matches, they did show up enough that I wanted to take the opportunity to include at least one pre-WWE match where you get to see them really wrestle.

1. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Ron Garvin at NWA World Championship Wrestling 1985.

2. The Legion of Doom vs The Koloff Brothers in a Double Russian Chain Match at Great American Bash 1985.

3. Tully Blanchard (WCW TV Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in an Unsanctioned Cage Match at Great American Bash 1985.

4. The Fantastics (USW Tag Champs) vs The Bushwhackers (as The Sheepherders) at NWA Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Cup 1986.

5. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in a Steel Cage at NWA Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Cup 1986.

6. Big Boss Man (as Big Bubba) vs Ronnie Garvin in a Street Fight at Starrcade 1986.

7. Dusty Rhodes (WCW TV Champ) vs Tully Blanchard in a First Blood Match at Starrcade 1986.

​8. The Legion Of Doom vs The Midnight Express in a Scaffold Match at Starrcade 1986.
​
MAIN EVENT: ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs MINNESOTA WRECKING CREW in a STEEL CAGE MATCH at STARRCADE 1986.

Season 1, Episode 6: The Cream Of The Crop (1987)

Some of the best promos from the 1980s show up in this episode, which also features several returns to Piper’s Pit, Roddy Piper’s talk show, where we get the setup for this episode’s main event.

Everyone’s favorite giant from The Princess Bride turns into a villain so Hulk Hogan can have a "monster" opponent. The commentary teams can keep telling us that Andre has never been slammed, even though we not only saw him get slammed in our first episode, we saw him get slammed by Hulk Hogan!

We even get more Bloodline Ancestors as Sika and Haku start to show up.

Ricky Steamboat wrestles two fantastic matches in this episode but has a dud of a “dragon” in his Snakepit Match vs Jake Roberts and his snake, Damien.

Sensational Sherri debuts for us here. She is one of the most important managers of this season but before she had that role, she was an excellent womens champion who got almost no TV matches, so we sneak in a bout from a tour of France so we can get a sense of who she is as a wrestler before she becomes a wild, devious manager.

Bonus entertainment: Aretha Franklin opens up the episode with her rendition of “America The Beautiful”.

1. Sika vs Special Delivery Jones

2. 20 Man Battle Royal
Andre The Giant, Ax, B Brian Blair, Billy Jack Haynes, Blackjack Mulligan, Butch Reed, The Genius (as Leapin Larry Poffo), Haku, Hercules, Hillbilly Jim, Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Jim Brunzell, Koko B Ware, Nikolai Volkoff,  Paul Orndorff, Ron Bass, Sika, Smash from Saturday Night’s Main Event #10.

3. Ricky Steamboat vs Jake Roberts in a Snake Pit Match at Saturday Night’s Main Event #7.

4. The Hart Foundation (WWE Tag Champs) vs Tito Santana & Dan Spivey from Saturday Night’s Main Event #7.

5. Harley Race vs Junkyard Dog for WWE King Of The Ring title from Wrestlemania 3.

6. Randy Savage (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat from Wrestlemania 3.

6. Jake Roberts vs The Honky Tonk Man from Wrestlemania 3.

​7. Sensational Sherri (WWE Womens Champ) vs Velvet McIntyre from WWF on Canal+.
​
MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs ANDRE THE GIANT from WRESTLEMANIA 3.​​

Season 1, Episode 7: The Humble Rumble (1987, 1988)

Some super multi-person matches dominate this episode that features both the first ever Survivor Series and the first ever Royal Rumble.

The Survivor Series was a night where all of the matches featured teams of five wrestlers tagging in and out to get as many combinations of opponents as possible. This was used to cross stories together, settle feuds without singles matches, and even set up future feuds. There were two excellent matches during their first tournament in 1987.

In 1988, we got our first Royal Rumble. After this one, most would be 30-wrestler chaos machines where wrestlers draw numbers in a lottery. Two wrestlers start out in the ring, and a new person enters every two minutes. A wrestler is eliminated not by pinfall but by being thrown over the top rope. They are allowed to roll under the bottom rope, or sneak through the middle ropes but if they go over the top rope and their feet touch the ground, they’re out. This first-ever televised rumble had just twenty men, and didn’t include the story elements and beats that would be used in future bouts. It’s still fun to watch.

There’s also an absolutely killer tag team match where WWE invents a womens tag team title, straps it on to two of their undervalued women wrestlers and put them in the ring with the Japanese sensation that they dub The Jumping Bomb Angels who put on the best womens showing we’ll see until Bull Nakano shows up next season.

1. The Honky Tonkers vs The Savage Animals from the inaugural Survivor Series 1987.
Honky Tonk Man, Ron Bass, Harley Race, Hercules, and Danny Davis vs Randy Savage, Brutus Beefcake, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, and  Jim Duggan

2. Hulkamaniacs vs The Giants Of Wrestling from the inaugural Survivor Series 1987.
Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Paul Orndorff, and Ken Patera vs Andre The Giant, King Kong Bundy, Rick Rude, Butch Reed, and The One Man Gang.

3. Randy Savage vs Bret Hart from Saturday Night’s Main Event 13.

​4. The Glamour Girls (WWE Womens Tag Team Champs) vs Jumping Bomb Angels from the inaugural Royal Rumble 1998.
​
MAIN EVENT: THE INAUGURAL ROYAL RUMBLE 1988
B Brian Blair, Bret Hart, Boris Zhukov, Butch Reed, Danny Davis, Don Muraco, Dino Bravo, Harley Race, Hillbilly Jim, Jake Roberts, Jim Brunzell, Jim Duggan, Jim Neidhart, Junkyard Dog, Nikolai Volkoff, One Man Gang, Ron Bass, Sam Houston, Tito Santana, and Ultimate Warrior.

Season 1, Episode 8: War Games (1987)

Not to be outdone by the WWE, WCW ups the stakes of the Survivor Series concept by having their five-on-five match in a Steel Cage. Two wrestlers start out and every two minutes, a new member of a team enters until all ten men are in the ring. No one can be pinned or eliminated until everyone is in the cage and wrestling, and then it’s a free-for-all until someone is pinned or submits.

We also have our first trios match, which is just a tag team match with three people instead of two.
 
The Flair/Windham match is our first without commentary. There are going to be very few matches without commentary in this Headcanon as bouts have a whole different feel when they lack narration.

1. Legion Of Doom vs The Four Horsemen in a War Games Match from The Great American Bash 1987.
Legion Of Doom, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, and Paul Ellering vs Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Andersen, Tully Blanchard, and JJ Dillon

2. Eddie Gilbert, Larry Zbysko, and Rick Steiner vs Sting, Jimmy Garvin, and Michael Hayes from Starrcade 1987.

3. Lex Luger (WCW TV Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes from Starrcade 1987.

4. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Barry Windham on NWA World Wide Wrestling.

​5. Barry Windham (WCW Western States Champ) vs Larry Zbysko from the Western States Championship Tournament 1987.
​
MAIN EVENT: RONNIE GARVIN (WCW CHAMP) vs RIC FLAIR in a STEEL CAGE MATCH at MID-SOUTH WRESTLING.

.Season 1, Episode 9: The War To Settle The Score (1988)

For our first time, an Authority Figure pops up to further a story. WWE President Jack Tunney steps in after Hulk Hogan loses an insanely weird match to Andre The Giant, who then hands the title to Ted Dibiase. Tunney rules that none of them can claim the title and sets up a tournament to determine a new champion.

Demolition debuts as WWE’s answer to the Legion Of Doom from WCW.

We then travel to Europe again to get another womens match on the card and to see how dangerous Sensational Sherri can be.

This is also the era where Honky Tonk Man was the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion, a record that wasn’t broken until 2024. His matches aren’t great, so we won’t be seeing too many but you should get an idea for what kind of champ he was before his historic loss.


1. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Andre The Giant on The Main Event 1988.

2. Ted Dibiase vs Jim Duggan from Wrestlemania 4.

3. Honky Tonk Man (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Brutus Beefcake from Wrestlemania 4.

4. Randy Savage vs One Man Gang from Wrestlemania 4.

5. Strike Force (WWE Tag Champs) vs Demolition from Wrestlemania 4.

6. Randy Savage vs Ted Dibiase for the WWE Title from Wrestlemania 4.

7. Sensational Sherri (WWE Womens Champ) vs Rockin' Robin on Canal+.

​8. Rick Rude vs Koko B Ware from Saturday Night’s Main Event 16.
​
MAIN EVENT: RANDY SAVAGE (WWE CHAMP) vs ONE MAN GANG on SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT 16.

Season 1, Episode 10: Bunkhouse Stampede (1988)

A gimmick sandwich bookended by two great Ric Flair matches. He first takes on Hawk from Legion of Doom in a surprisingly good match considering Hawk is mainly known as a tag team wrestler, and then Flair main events against Sting for the first time.

The Bunkhouse Stampede is a fun stipulation where eight men enter a steel cage wearing regular clothes instead of wrestling gear, and are allowed weapons as they eliminate each other by either throwing a competitor over the top of the cage or through the cage door. The elimination style is dumb looking and convoluted but the violence and storytelling are fun.

​On the other hand, the Tower Of Doom is a mess. It’s a three-story steel cage where you have to fight from the top level down to the bottom and escape through the door. Different wrestlers are stationed on different levels. It’s chaos. I can think of three times the stipulation was used and two of them are some of The Worst Wrestling Matches Ever. This one isn’t bad, it’s just confusing.


1. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Hawk at Bunkhouse Stampede 1988.

2. Steel Cage Bunkhouse Stampede from Bunkhouse Stampede 1988.
Dusty Rhodes, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Barbarian, Warlord, Ivan Koloff, Animal, and Tully Blanchard

3. The Midnight Express (WCW Tag Team Champs) vs The Fantastics on World Wide Wrestling TV.

4. Tower Of Doom Match from Great American Bash 1988.
Legion Of Doom, Steve Williams, Ron and Jimmy Garvin vs Al Perez, Ivan Koloff, Kevin Sullivan, IRS,  and The Russian Assassin

5. Barry Windham (WCW US Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes from Great American Bash 1988.
​
MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs STING from CLASH OF CHAMPIONS.

Season 1, Episode 11: The Megapowers (1988)

Without question, the best and most popular storyline of the 1980s was the friendship and eventual betrayal of the two fan-favorite wrestlers in the WWE. It begins here as Randy Savage’s girlfriend/manager/valet runs to get Hulk Hogan when Randy is in trouble and the two wrestlers become The Megapowers. 

Their main feud in this episode sees them have multiple matches against members of Ted Dibiase’s Megabucks stable.

We also see the absurd fall of The Honky Tonk Man, the rise of The Ultimate Warrior, and Jake Roberts and Rick Rude have a fantastic rematch after their stinker of a battle at Wrestlemania 4.

The Survivor Series not only serves as an endpoint for the Megapowers/Megabucks feud, it also has one of the longest and most wrestler-filled Survivor Series match ever as, instead of ten men, ten tag teams battle it out in one ring.

Oh, and we learn that Andre The Giant is afraid of snakes, which is going to come up several times for the rest of the season.

1. Randy Savage (WWE Champ) vs Andre The Giant from Saturday Night’s Main Event 18.

2. Hulk Hogan vs Haku from Saturday Night’s Main Event 17.

3. Honky Tonk Man (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Jim Duggan on Wrestlefest 1988.

4. Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown on Wrestlefest 1988.

5. Jake Roberts vs Rick Rude from Saturday Night’s Main Event 17.

6. Honky Tonk Man (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Ultimate Warrior from SummerSlam 1988.

7. Demolition (WWE Tag Team Champs) vs The Hart Foundation from SummerSlam 1988.

8. Megapowers vs Megabucks from SummerSlam 1988.

9. Ten Team Tag Team Survivor Series Match from Survivor Series 1988.
The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, The Powers Of Pain, The Rockers, and The Young Stallions vs The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, Los Conquistadors, Demolition, and The Rougeaus

MAIN EVENT: SUPER MEGAPOWERS vs SUPER MEGABUCKS in a SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH from SURVIVOR SERIES 1988.
Hulk Hogan, Hercules, Hillbilly Jim, Koko B Ware, Randy Savage vs  Big Boss Man, Haku, One Man Gang, The Red Rooster, Ted Dibiase

Season 1, Episode 12: Chi-Town Rumble (1988)

There’s not too much to say about this episode. There are only five matches but they’re all solid and pretty long. 

The main event here is probably Lex Luger’s greatest match. We’ll certainly see him again for quite a few seasons but Flair brings out the absolute best in him in this Starrcade match from 1988.


1. The Brain Busters (as The Four Horsemen) (WCW Tag Champs) vs Sting & Nikita Koloff from Starrcade 1988.

2. Russian Assassins vs Junkyard Dog & Ivan Koloff from Starrcade 1988.

3. IRS (as Mike Rotunda) (WCW TV Champ) vs Rick Steiner with Kevin Sullivan in a Shark Cage from the Chi-Town Rumble.

4. Barry Windham (WCW US Champ) vs Bam Bam Bigelow from Starrcade 1988.
​
MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs LEX LUGER from STARRCADE 1988.

Season 1, Episode 13: The Affray Over The Valet (1988, 1989)

Part two of our Megapowers trilogy mostly focuses on the role Elizabeth unwittingly plays in their destruction.

Other highlights important events include The One Man Gang being rechristened as Akeem The African Dream in a weird, racist jab at Dusty Rhodes, a rare King of The Ring defense, our second Royal Rumble, and The Brain Busters showing up in the WWE just one episode after we saw them as The Four Horsemen in WCW.

Throughout this episodes are skits from Prime Time Wrestling, a long-running WWE show where Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon showed off their humorous (not quite funny but definitely humorous) relationship when they weren’t doing commentary with each other. It’s weird and oddly wholesome, and I felt it should be represented along with their evolution as an announce team.

1. Hulk Hogan vs The One Man Gang (as Akeem) from Saturday Night’s Main Event 19.

2. The Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Honky Tonk Man from Saturday Night’s Main Event 19.

2. Mr. Perfect vs Koko B Ware from Saturday Night’s Main Event 19.

3. Haku vs Harley Race for the WWE King of The Ring from Royal Rumble 1989.

​4. Royal Rumble Match from The Royal Rumble 1989.
Andre the Giant, Arn Anderson, Ax, Bad News Brown, The Barbarian, Big Boss Man, Big John Studd, Brutus Beefcake, Bushwhacker Butch, Bushwhacker Luke, Greg Valentine, Hercules, Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Koko B Ware, Marty Jannetty, Mr Perfect, One Man Gang, Randy Savage, Red Rooster, Rick Martel, Ron Bass, Ronnie Garvin, Shawn Michaels, Smash, Ted Dibiase, Tito Santana, Tully Banchard, Warlord

5. Brain Busters vs The Rockers on the WWE on MSG Network 1989.
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MAIN EVENT: THE MEGAPOWERS vs THE TWIN TOWERS from THE MAIN EVENT 2.

Season 1, Episode 14: Steamboat Ricky (1989)

While Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage put on the most popular 1980s storyline over in the WWE, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat put on three of the best rated and remembered matches of the decade. They had a fourth match that was merely excellent so it doesn’t get remembered as often.

While they’re all fairly long, I think they deserve to be watched all in one episode. To break it up, I’ve also included Paul Heyman’s arrival in WCW. He goes by Paul E Dangerously and he shows up with the team he dubs The Real Midnight Express, which includes one of The Midnight Express’s founding members. He challenges Jim Cornette’s Original Midnight Express to a match we’ll see here. While the tag team match is fantastic, I’m mainly including this for the interactions between Heyman and Cornette, both of whom will go on to be some of the most important and controversial people in wrestling history. Their controversies, though are rooted in relatable human flaws as opposed to the controversies around rapist-thug-and-contender-for-The-Worst-American-Who-Ever-Lived, Vince McMahon. As such, seeing them on screen is almost always fun, even when they’re being jerks.


1. Jim Cornette & The Midnight Express vs Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) & The Midnight Express on NWA television.

2. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat at the Chi-Town Rumble.

3. Sting (WCW TV Champ) vs Iron Sheik at Wrestlewar 1989.

4. Ricky Steamboat (WCW Champ) vs Ric Flair in a 2/3 Falls match at Clash of Champions 6.

​5. Jim Cornette & The Midnight Express vs Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) & The Midnight Express at Chi-Town Rumble.
​
MAIN EVENT: RICKY STEAMBOAT (WCW CHAMP) vs RIC FLAIR at WRESTLEWAR 1989.

Season 1, Episode 15: The Megapowers Explode

After the ending of the last WWE episode’s main event, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan are on a collision course for the title at Wrestlemania. Poor Miss Elizabeth is forced to either be neutral or choose between her long-term, emotionally abusive, boyfriend (in real life, she and Randy Savage had been married for years at this point) or the lazy, ego-maniacal steroid model who seemed much more interested in being around her than in helping his old tag team partner.

The rest of the episode features the incredibly talented tag team division of the late 80s, as well as our first glimpse of Owen Hart as The Blue Blazer.


1. Mr Perfect vs Owen Hart (as The Blue Blazer) at Wrestlemania 5.

2. The Twin Towers vs Rockers at Wrestlemania 5.

3. The Brain Busters vs Strike Force at Wrestlemania 5.

4. Jake Roberts vs Andre The Giant at Wrestlemania 5.

5. Demolition (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Brain Busters from Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.

6. Tito Santana & The Rockers vs Rick Martel & The Rougeaus from SummerSlam 1989.

7. Demolition (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Brain Busters from Saturday Night’s Main Event 22.

8. The Brain Busters (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Rockers from Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.

​5. Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Rick Rude at Wrestlemania 5.
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MAIN EVENT: RANDY SAVAGE (WWE CHAMP) vs HULK HOGAN at WRESTLEMANIA 5.

Season 1, Episode 16: Sensational Backlash (1989)

In modern WWE wrestling, Wrestlemania is followed by an event called Backlash that includes rematches from Wrestlemania, as well as matches that naturally evolved out of Wrestlemania’s events. While it didn’t exist in the 1980s or early 90s, this episode has the feel of one of those events. 

Randy Savage dumps his sweet, real-life wife as manager and hires the entertainingly weird and devious Sensational Sherri to replace her. This leads to a storyline, which we’ll be ignoring, where Savage teams up with “Zeus”, actor Tiny Lister, who stars as a villain in the Hulk Hogan movie, No Holds Barred. This led to a ton of bad matches, so we’re going to skip them entirely. Just be prepared that Zeus has a cameo in this episode that doesn’t go anywhere.

We’ll be following Hulk into another storyline that germinates here.

The Main Event for this episode is a ridiculous one without too much story behind it, which is a nice diversion as the end of this season gets more soap-opera-y.

1. Rick Rude (WWE Intercontinental Champion) vs Jim Duggan at Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.

2. Randy Savage vs Jim Neidhart at Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.

3. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs The Big Boss Man at Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.

4. Rick Rude (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs The Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam 1989.

5. The King’s Court vs The 4x4s in a Survivor Series Match at Survivor Series 1989.
Dino Bravo, Earthquake, Greg Valentine, and Randy Savage vs Bret Hart, Hercules, Jim Duggan, and Ronnie Garvin.

6. The Rockers vs The Rougeaus from WWE at Sky One, 1989.
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MAIN EVENT: THE RUDE BROOD VS RODDY’S ROWDIES IN A SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH AT SURVIVOR SERIES 1989.
Jacques Rougeau, Mr Perfect, Raymond Rougeau, and Rick Rude vs Bushwhacker Butch, Bushwhacker Luke, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper

Season 1, Episode 17: Glory Days (1989)

Spinning out of episode 15, the new crazy heel in WCW is Terry Funk. He is on a path to take out Ric Flair but he has to go through Ricky Steamboat first. And poor Ricky has to deal with the famously irrational and disloyal Lex Luger, the US Champ, instead of getting another shot at Flair’s belt.

Next season, WCW is going to have a ton of crossover with New Japan Pro Wrestling. We get our first taste here as The Great Muta comes to America hungry for his first WCW title. Sting is a great opponent for him here. These two will have occasional matches against each other way all the way to the 2020s when The Great Muta retires.

One of the worst types of gimmick match in wrestling history is the Tuxedo Match where two usually non-wrestlers put on formal wear and the only way to win is to strip it off the opponent. Every Tuxedo Match in history is bad but 1989’s Tuxedo Street Fight between Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) is the only one that is, at least, entertaining. Enjoy.


1. Ricky Steamboat vs Terry Funk from Clash Of Champions 7.

2. Sting (WCW TV Champ) vs Great Muta at Great American Bash 1989.

3. Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) vs Jim Cornette in a Tuxedo Street Fight at Great American Bash 1989.

4. Lex Luger (WCW US Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat at Great American Bash 1989.

5. Legion Of Doom vs The Bloodline Ancestors in a War Games Match at Great American Bash 1989.
Steve Williams, The Midnight Express, and The Legion Of Doom vs The Fabulous Freebirds and The Samoan SWAT Team

MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) VS TERRY FUNK at GREAT AMERICAN BASH 1989.

Season 1, Episode 18: Poetic Injustice (1989, 1990)

We begin to both wrap up some loose threads from this season, as well as set up the WWE Season Finale. The main story here is the rise of The Ultimate Warrior. He’s a terrible wrestler but an entertaining foil for Hulk Hogan. But not quite as entertaining as The Genius, who becomes the second Poffo brother (Randy Savage being the first) to defeat Terrible Terry Six Moves in a title match.

We had the Brain Busters crossover from WCW in the last couple of episodes. Dusty Rhodes does the same here. It’s a bit weird to see him go from Hard Times wrestler in classic wrestlers’ attire to the polka-dot bespeckled American Dream but he pulls it off, somehow.

The Main Event for this episode is a fantastic Royal Rumble filled with multiple stories. There is a continuity error in this episode as The Rumble definitely takes place before the Ultimate Maniacs match but the Rumble made for a better main event, so I switched them around.
 

1. Rick Martel vs Tito Santana in a Lumberjack Match at Saturday Night’s Main Event 23.

2. The Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Andre The Giant at Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.

3. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs The Genius at Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.

4. Dusty Rhodes vs The Big Boss Man at Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.

5, Randy Savage vs Jim Duggan at Saturday Night’s Main Event 25.

6. The Ultimate Maniacs vs Mr Perfect and The Genius at Saturday Night’s Main Event 25.

​7. The Rockers vs The Hart Foundation at Saturday Night’s Main Event 26.

​MAIN EVENT: ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH AT THE ROYAL RUMBLE 1990.
Andre The Giant, Ax, Bad News Brown, The Barbarian, Bret Hart, Dino Bravo, Dusty Rhodes, Earthquake, Haku, Hercules, The Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Jjmmy Snuka, Jim Neidhart, Koko B Ware, Marty Jannetty, Mr Perfect, One Man Gang (as Akeem), Randy Savage, The Red Rooster, Rick Martel, Rick Rude, Roddy Piper, Shawn Michaels, Smash, Ted Dibiase, Tito Santana, The Ultimate Warrior, and The Warlord

Season 1, Episode 19: Future Shock (1986, 1990)

This episode starts out with a bit of a flashback. Season 2 is going to have a shift as Ric Flair is replaced by Sting as the face of WCW, and The Ultimate Warrior will replace Hulk Hogan for a bit in WWE. Before their parallel rises to the top of their respective companies, Sting and The Ultimate Warrior were tag team partners. Here, we see the two of them as The Blade Runners taking on Ted Dibiase and Dr Death Steve Williams before we get back to 1989. 

We get another look at The Great Muta here in a fun tag match with a malfunctioning electrified steel cage. (There’s a small fire in the middle of the match) Also, The Skyscrapers tag team, managed by future WWE Authority Figure, Teddy Long, includes Mean Mark Callus who will show up in the WWE next season as The Undertaker. His greatest rival, Mick Foley, debuts here, too, as Cactus Jack.


1. The Blade Runners vs Ted Dibiase & Steve Williams from the UWF in 1986.

2. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) & Sting vs The Great Muta (WCW TV Champ) & Terry Funk in a Thunderdome Match at Halloween Havoc 1989.

3. Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack Manson) vs Norman The Lunatic at WrestleWar 1990.

4. The Rock & Roll Express vs The Midnight Express at WrestleWar 1990.

​5,. Legion of Doom vs  The Skyscrapers at WrestleWar 1990.

MAIN EVENT:  RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs STING at WRESTLEWAR 1990.

Season 1, Episode 20: Everybody’s Got A Price (1990)

Two stories weave in and out of this WWE Season finale, which serves as a last kiss from the 1980s. Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior keep crossing paths as the new monster in the WWE, Earthquake, and his partner, Dino Bravo, both go after the Intercontinental and WWE Championships. The other story is that Ted Dibiase has created a new title, The Million Dollar Championship and he and Jake Roberts go to war over the title, which will completely change not only Jake Roberts’s career trajectory but also that of The Big Boss Man and Virgil next season.

The source material for a few of these skits and episodes are the weekly television show, so they are of varying quality. 

As the seasons go on, I like to include a retiring wrestler in the main event of the final episode. I couldn’t really do that at the end of Season One. However, this is the last time we’ll see Andre The Giant in a wrestling ring, and he gets a great sendoff in this episode, despite the fact that he was in so much pain that he couldn’t wrestle for a couple of years before this match. We’ll see him a couple of times next season but he’ll be outside of the ring to further stories, rather than in the ring.


1. Ted Dibiase (Million Dollar Champion) vs Lee Peak on Superstars of Wrestling.

2. The Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Dino Bravo from The Main Event 3.

3. Ted Dibiase (Million Dollar Champion) vs Jake Roberts from the WWE at MSG Network.

4. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Dino Bravo from Superstars of Wrestling.

5. The Colossal Connection (WWE Tag Champs) vs Demolition at Wrestlemania 6.

6. Randy Savage & Sensational Sherri vs Dusty Rhodes & Sweet Sapphire at Wrestlemania 6.

7. The Rockers vs The Powers Of Pain from the WWE at MSG Network.

​8. Ted Dibiase (Million Dollar Champ) vs Jake Roberts at Wrestlemania 6.
​
WWE SEASON FINALE MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR (WWE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMP) at WRESTLEMANIA 6.

Season 1 of the Headcanon was pure Hulkamania in the WWE, and Flair For The Gold in WCW. The two blonde haired, blue-eyed strong men ran rampant over almost everyone .(Kudos to Andre The Giant, Randy Savage, Randy's Brother {The Genius}, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and Ronnie Garvin for getting some wins last season over wrestling’s Golden Geese.)

While Hulk Hogan pretended to be a good guy, even though he often cheated and was a sore loser, Ric Flair was always up front about being a jet flyin’, limousine ridin’, kiss stealin’, wheelin;’ and dealin’ son of a gun. And even though we saw both of them lose their titles at the end of last season, neither of them is going away anytime soon. They’re not even staying out of the title scene for long.

We begin this season with The Ultimate Warrior experiment in WWE. Captain Cocaine shakes the ropes for a while and faces some classic villains before he and the title break up and have more interesting stories. Sting gets screwed over, too, but like Flair and Hogan, he’ll be involved in gold belt hot potato.

While some of the mainstays from Season One continue to dominate the scene, the steroid-riddled promos about vitamins, warriors, maniacs, hard times, and Space Mountain, along with the A-B-C match formats where the hero used the same stale and unimpressive move to somehow annihilate his previously healthy opponents had to go.

It took time. Time and evolution (not Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista; although they eventually contributed). Technical wrestling improved, storylines became more complex, and more room was made at the top for a wider variety of heroes and heels with fewer career jobbers making their way on TV.

This season sees The Four Horseman Era continue in WCW while their undercard trains to be the future of the WWE. Meanwhile WWE becomes more than just the Hogan/Savage/Warrior show, as Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker make their presences known.

We also introduce Eastern Championship Wrestling, a territory in NWA (WCW was an NWA territory last season), which starts off as a WWE senior citizen circuit before morphing into the violent, bloody cult of Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling.

The middle of this season sees one of the three Gaping Creative Droughts that occurred in wrestling during my lifetime. And, yet, they still contain some spectacular matches. 

Sorbet Episode: A Not So Gentlewomens' Intermission (1986-1990)

Before we get back to WWE and WCW, and before we introduce ECW into the mix, another wrestling company deserves at least one episode in our chronology. The Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling inspired an incredible Netflix show, and had a decent, if often turbulent run on television over the course of four syndicated seasons. There are some amazing spots in this episode but there are no amazing matches. I doubt any reach above a two-and-a-half on the Meltzer star scale. But the characters are fun, and Rob Sturma described it as Wrestling Hee-Haw, which is an accurate description of the dad-joke sketches that absolutely saturated the show. I have kept that feel in this episode not because the jokes are good but because they're only slightly worse than some of the wrestling, so I felt like I should let this be an accurate experience of the TV show, if it were pay-per-v...sorry...premium live event length. Oh, and if you can't stomach terrible stereotypes, you're going to want to stay a million miles away from this, it is wildly 1980s offensive.


1. Salt & Pepper vs Sarah & Mabel.

2. Corporal Kelly & Attache vs The Southern Belles.

3. Colonel Ninotchka vs Little Feather.

4. Hollywood & Vine vs Mount Fuji.

5. Spanish Red & Jungle Woman vs The Cheerleaders.

6. Dementia vs Little Egypt.

7. Ivory (as Tina Ferrari), Ashley Cartier & Little Fuji vs Angel, Hollywood & Vine.

8. 20 Woman Battle Royal.
Palestina, Headhunter Mina, Headhunter Mika, Envy, Adore, Chainsaw, Spike, Attache, Hollywood, Vine, Colonel Ninotchka, Spanish Red, Mathilde The Hun, California Doll 1, California Doll 2, Little Feather, Ivory (as Tina Ferrari), Ashley Cartier, Little Fiji, Olympia, Mt Fuji, Scarlet The Southern Belle, Tara The Southern Belle

9. Attache vs Amy The Farmer's Daughter.

MAIN EVENT: IVORY (as TINA FERRARI) and ASHLEY CARTER vs HOLLYWOOD & VINE.

Season 2, Episode 1: Arrogance (1990)

While we bid adieu to Hulkamania running wild at the end of last season, it's not dead. The 80s wrestlers didn't just disappear as 1990 rolled in. So here we see the old guard start to wind down as slightly younger wrestlers like Mr Perfect, Texas Tornado (Kerry Von Erich from WCW), Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker all make their way to the top of the WWE wrestling cards. We also get a great buildup to a decent feud and terrible but amusing match as Rick Martel's fragrance takes on Jake Robert's vision.

Warrior’s WWE Championship run may be a tad underwhelming but while he was shaking the ropes with the big belt, Mr Perfect was putting on the matches of the year as he defended the workhorse belt, the WWE Intercontinental title. We’ll see him wrestle three times in this episode, each match a little different from the other. His third match involves the sub-feud where Bobby Heenan makes repeated jokes about The Big Boss Man’s mom.

1. Mr Perfect (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Tito Santana from Saturday Night’s Main Event 27.

2. Demolition (WWE Tag Team Champs) vs The Hart Foundation in a 2/3 Falls Match at 
SummerSlam 1990.

3. Mr. Perfect (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Texas Tornado at SummerSlam 1990.

4. Ultimate Warrior (WWE Champ) vs Rick Rude in a Steel Cage at SummerSlam 1990.

5. Million Dollar Team vs The Dream Team at Survivor Series 1990.
Ted Dibiase, Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, and The Undertaker vs Dusty Rhodes, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Koko B Ware

6. Mr Perfect (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Big Boss Man at The Main Event 4.

7. Visionaries vs Vipers at Survivor Series 1990.
Rick Martel, Hercules, Paul Roma, Warlord vs Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, Marty Jannetty, Shawn Michaels

MAIN EVENT: ULTIMATE WARRIOR (WWE CHAMP) vs TED DIBIASE at THE MAIN EVENT 4.

Season 2, Episode 2: Capitol Combat (1990)

Oh no. Between seasons, our hero of the new generation, Sting, got injured and Ric Flair ended up getting his belt back. This allows us with nice opportunity to mirror the end of last season as Sting is all healed up by the end of this episode and ready to retake the title from Flair.

The big story in this episode, though, is the debut of Vader who will spend this and next season absolutely destroying everyone in his path in WCW and WWE.

This is also one of the golden eras of WCW’s tag team division so be prepared for a ton of multi-wrestler matches.

1. The Fabulous Freebirds vs The Rock & Roll Express in a Strap Match at Capital Combat 1990.

2. The Steiner Brothers (WCW Tag Champs) vs Doom at Capital Combat 1990.

3. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Lex Luger in a Steel Cage at Capital Combat 1990.

4. Vader vs Tom Zenk at Great American Bash 1990.

5. Doom (WCW Tag Champs) vs Rock & Roll Express at The Great American Bash 1990.

MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs STING at THE GREAT AMERICAN BASH 1990.

203: American Nationalism Run Amuck, 1991

Much of this season is The New Generation (TM by WWE) trying to wrestle the main event scene from the 1980s superstars. That's fully on display here as Sgt Slaughter returns and the main event features Hogan hogging the spotlight again.

We're going to skip most of the Sgt Slaughter in the 90s eras as it was hugely cringey at the time and has only gotten worse in the intervening decades. Instead, we'll focus on Warrior's best ever feud, the one with Randy Savage.

The other feud we'll be focusing on for the next few episodes is Ted Dibiase vs Virgil, which is rooted in their tag team match with the father and son duo of Dusty and Rhodes and Goldust  (as Dustin Rhodes), who will both soon return to WCW.
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1. The Orient Express vs The Rockers at The Royal Rumble 1991.
​
2. The Ultimate Warrior (WWE Champ) vs Sgt Slaughter at The Royal Rumble 1991.

3. Mr Perfect vs Roddy Piper from WWE on MSG Network.

4. Ted Dibiase and Virgil vs Dusty Rhodes and Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes) at Royal Rumble 1991.
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MAIN EVENT: ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH 1991.
Bret Hart, Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine, Paul Roma, The Texas Tornado, Rick Martel, Saba Simba, Bushwhacker Butch, Jake Roberts, Hercules, Tito Santana, The Undertaker, Jimmy Snuka, The British Bulldog, Smash, Hawk, Shane Douglas, Animal , Crush , Jim Duggan, Earthquake, Mr. Perfect, Hulk Hogan , Haku , Jim Neidhart , Bushwhacker Luke, Brian Knobbs, The Warlord, Tugboat 

204: International Incidents, 1991

This is the first of our episodes that truly showcases Japanese wrestling in more than just a single match. I think if I’d seen this when I was younger, I might have been more of a WCW fan when I was growing up. There’s a great mix of athleticism and strong style that just didn’t show up in American wrestling until this point. Masa Saito, Jushin Thunder Liger, Masahairo Chono, and Tatsumi Fujinami all blew my mind when I saw them wrestle for the first time. It’s also nice to see that Itsuki Yamasaki of last season’s Jumping Bomb Angels is actually named here while the WWE commentary pretended they couldn’t pronounce their names or tell them apart.

This episode is also the only time we’ll see Rey Mysterio Sr, whose nephew will go on to be one of the most famous American wrestlers of all-time. Konnan will be remembered as a pretty decent manager.

The back half of this episode takes place in Japan, and it was a struggle to find a complete and solid version of the event that had English Commentary, so please forgive me if it’s not as crisp as the rest of the episode. I did include the Bam Bam Bigelow & Vader vs Doom match with its original Japanese commentary.

1. Miki Handa & Miss A vs Itsuki Yamasaki & Mami Kitamura at WrestleWar 1991.

2. Steiner Brothers vs Konnan & Rey Mysterio Sr at Starrcade 1990.

3. Stan Hansen (WCW US Champ) vs Lex Luger in a Texas Lariat Bout at Starrcade 1990.

4. Steiner Brothers vs Masa Saito & Great Muta at Starrcade 1990.

5. War Games Match at WrestleWar 1991.
Larry Zbysko and The Four Horsemen vs Brian Pillman, Sting, and The Steiner Brothers

6. Doom vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Vader at Starrcade in Tokyo.

5. Jushin Thunder Liger vs Akira Nogami at Starrcade in Tokyo.

6. Four Horseman vs Masa Saito & Masahiro Chono at Starrcade in Tokyo.

7. Barry Windham vs Brian Pillman in a Taped Wrist Match at SuperBrawl 1991.

8. Great Muta vs Sting at Starrcade in Tokyo.

MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs TATSUMI FUJINAKI (NJPW CHAMP) at STARRCADE IN TOKYO.

Season 2, Episode 5:  Blind Justice (1991)

This is a wild smorgasbord of a show featuring terrible gimmick matches that paid off long running feuds (the Blindfold Match), mediocre matches that are historically or storyline important (Undertaker vs Snuka and Virgil vs Ted Dibiase), some lesser-known bangers (Bret Hart vs Ted Dibiase and British Bulldog vs Berserker) and two classics rounding off the show. Perfect vs Hart was a rare passing of The Intercontinental torch moments that is nearly, well, perfect.

The career ending match is one of the best Ultimate Warrior matches, period. It’s also a weird event because the winner of the match was soon fired from the company, and the loser was back in the ring wrestling again a few months later. 

Jake Roberts get the saddest storyline here. After getting his eyesight back and having his revenge on Rick Martel, Earthquake enters the picture and they replay the Jake Roberts/Andre The Giant feud but with Earthquake taking it Much Further.

1. Legion Of Doom vs Orient Express from The Main Event 5.

2. Hart Foundation (WWE Tag Team Champs) vs Nasty Boys at Wrestlemania 7.

3. Jake Roberts vs Rick Martel in a Blindfold Match at Wrestlemania 7.

4. Undertaker vs Jimmy Snuka at Wrestlemania 7.

5. Ted Dibiase vs Virgil at Wrestlemania 7.

6. Jake Roberts vs Earthquake from WWE on MSG Network.

7. Main Event Battle Royal from Saturday Night’s Main Event 29.
The Barbarian, Big Boss Man, The British Bulldog, Earthquake, Greg Valentine, Haku, Hercules, Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Jimmy Snuka, Kato, Marty Jannetty, Mr Perfect, Paul Roma, Shawn Michaels, Tanaka. The Texas Tornado, Tugboat, The Warlord

8. Bret Hart vs Ted Dibiase from Saturday Night’s Main Event 29.

9. British Bulldog vs Berserker from UK Rampage 1991.

10. Mr Perfect (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Bret Hart from SummerSlam 1991.

MAIN EVENT: ULTIMATE WARRIOR vs RANDY SAVAGE in a CAREER ENDING  MATCH at WRESTLEMANIA 7.

Season 2, Episode 6: The Chamber Of Horrors (1991)

Another bizarre ensemble of matches. Fujinaki and Flair have their rematch from the last WCW Main Event, Ron Simmons almost becomes the first ever Black singles champion in WCW history (he gets there eventually but not in this episode). We see our first Russian Chain match since early last season. And we have the trainwreck-terrible-but-entertaining Chamber Of Horrors Match: a Steel Cage match where the object is to put one of your opponents in an electric chair and activate it.

This is truly a wild episode.

1. Steiner Brothers (WCW Tag Team Champs) vs Lex Luger & Sting at SuperBrawl 1991.
​
2. Arn Anderson (WCW TV Champ) vs Bobby Eaton at SuperBrawl 1991.

3. Tatsumi Fujinaki (NWA Champ) vs Ric Flair (WCW Champ) at SuperBrawl 1991.

4. Nikita Koloff vs Sting in a Russian Chain Match at Great American Bash 1991.

5. Lex Luger vs Barry Windham in a Steel Cage Match for the WCW Championship at Great American Bash 1991.

7. Chamber Of Horrors Match at Halloween Havoc 1991.
Sting, El Gigante, The Steiner Brothers vs Abdullah the Butcher, Scott Hall (as The Diamond Studd),  Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack), Vader

8. Steve Austin (WCW TV Champ) vs Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes) at Halloween Havoc 1991.

MAIN EVENT: LEX LUGER (WCW CHAMP) vs FAROOQ (as RON SIMMONS) in a 2/3  FALLS MATCH at HALLOWEEN HAVOC 1991.

Season 2, Episode 7: Match Made In Heaven (1991)

The majority of this episode is related to Randy Savage’s wedding to Miss Elizabeth (whom he had been married to in real life for several years). It’s a brief ceremony and then a reception where Jake Roberts and The Undertaker ruin everything, and we get our first glimpse of Psycho Sid in WWE.

Also, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! Ric Flair has jumped ship to the WWE, too, and he still has the WCW Championship with him! He and his manager, Bobby Heenan, appear to be gunning for Hulk Hogan, stooping to such shenanigans as helping The Undertaker in his first ever title match!

Plus, we reach the end of the Virgil/Dibiase feud, and Legion of Doom fulfills the prophecy by finally becoming WWE Tag Champs.

1. Bushwhackers vs Natural Disasters at SummerSlam 1991.

2. Ted Dibiase vs Virgil for the Million Dollar Championship at SummerSlam 1991.

3. Nasty Boys (WWE Tag Team Champs) vs Legion Of Doom at SummerSlam 1991.

4. Million Dollar Team vs Hitman Squad at Survivor Series 1991.
The Mountie, Ted Dibiase, Ric Flair, Warlord, vs Bret Hart, The British Bulldog, Roddy Piper, Virgil

5. Ric Flair vs Tito Santana from Battle Royal at Albert Hall.

MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs THE UNDERTAKER at SURVIVOR  SERIES 1991.

Season 2, Episode 8: Battle Bowl (1991, 1992)

It’s time for more fun with The Lethal Lottery where WCW creates tag teams at random for a tournament where the winners are thrown together in a two-ring Royal Rumble knockoff. This creates some fantastic ring combinations that you won’t see anywhere else such as Ricky Steamboat in the ring against Mick Foley.

We then go back to Tokyo for some more fantastic crossover bouts with New Japan Pro 
Wrestling. Trigger warning: japanese commentary.

Once again, the back half of the episode is from Japan and the video quality is not on-par with the first half of the episode.

1. Steve Austin & Rick Rude vs Van Hammer & Doink (as Big Josh) at Starrcade 1991.

2. Bill Kaamier & Jushin Thunder Liger vs DDP & Mike Graham at Starrcade 1991.

3. Ricky Steamboat & Todd Champion vs Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) & Buddy Lee Parker at Starrcade 1991.

4. Vader & Mr Hughes vs Rick Steiner & Adam Bomb (as The Nightstalker) at Starrcade 1991.

5. Battlebowl Battle Royal at Starrcade 1991.
Vader, Buff Bagwell, Jimmy Garvin, Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes), Bill Kazmaier, Jushin Thunder Liger, Steve Austin, Richard Morton, Todd Champion, Abdullah The Butcher, Firebreaker Chip, Thomas Rich, Ron Simmons, Ricky Steamboat, Mr Hughes, Scott Steiner, Lex Luger, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Sting

6. Enforcers vs Michionshi Ohara & Shiro Koshinaka at NJPW Super Warriors Tokyo Dome 1992.

7. Dusty Rhodes & Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes) vs Masa Saito & Kim Duk at NJPW Super Warriors Tokyo Dome 1992.

8. Lex Luger (WCW Champ) vs Masahiro Chono at NJPW Super Warriors Tokyo Dome 1992.

MAIN EVENT: STING & GREAT MUTA vs THE STEINER BROTHERS at NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING SUPER WARRIORS TOKYO DOME 1992.

Season 2, Episode 9:  Fair To Flair (1991, 1992)

Bobby Heenan has been on fire this season. The wrestlers he manages seem to always be in the title mixes, his now-cringey insult humor certified him as one of the all-time most irritating (but in a good way) announcers, and he is the person credited with bringing Ric Flair into the WWE. 

The announcer and Flair gigs intersect here as Heenan gives one of the best commentary 
performances of all time during the Royal Rumble match. It’s a tour de force that capitalizes on the energy we saw during his Big Boss Man feud.

The fallout from the last WWE episode’s title match creates two epic matches here. More 
importantly, after all he suffered in episode 207, Randy Savage unretires! He didn’t lose a step during those 30 seconds he was retired and has a fantastic feud with Jake Roberts here.

1. Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts at This Tuesday In Texas.

2. Ric Flair vs Texas Tornado at UK Rampage 1991.

3. Undertaker (WWE Champ) vs Hulk Hogan at This Tuesday In Texas.

4. New Hart Foundation vs New Orient Express from Royal Rumble 1992.

MAIN EVENT: ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH 1992.
The Barbarian, The Berzerker, Big Boss Man, The British Bulldog, Col. Mustafa, Greg Valentine, Haku, Hercules, Hulk Hogan, IRS, Jake Roberts, Jerry Sags, Jim Duggan, Jimmy Snuka, Nikolai Volkoff, Psycho Sid (as Sid Justice), Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Rick Martel, Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter, Shawn Michaels, Skinner, Smash (as Repo Man), Ted DiBiase, The Texas Tornado, Tito Santana, The Undertaker, Virgil, The Warlord

Season 2, Episode 10: The Dangerous Alliance (1992)

Again, this is kind of a gold buried under crap era for WCW, as it's slowly morphing from NWA to the official WCW. This episode, in particular, aligns with the earlier WWE matches from this season as 70s, 80s, and 90s stars are all represented pretty equally.

The Light Heavyweight title is given its first chance to shine here. It will soon become The Cruserweight Championship, the title that kept WCW interesting during the WWE Retiree Age that’s on the horizon.

We also see a villainous stable with wrestlers like Steve Austin and Rick Rude that are united by their manager. Yeup, they’re the early 1990s Paul Heyman guys, The Dangerous Alliance.

1. Jushin Thunder Liger (WCW Lightweight Champ) vs Brian Pillman at SuperBrawl 1992.

2. Barry Windham and Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes) vs Steve Austin and Larry Zbysko at SuperBrawl 1992.

3. Rick Rude (WCW US Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat at SuperBrawl 1992.

4. Lex Luger (WCW Champ) vs Sting at SuperBrawl 1992.

5. Brian Pillman (WCW Light Heavyweight Champ) vs Tom Zenk at WrestleWar 1992.

6. Tatsumi Fujinama and Takayuki Iizuka vs The Steiner Brothers at WrestleWar 1992. 

MAIN EVENT: STING’S SQUADRON vs THE DANGEROUS ALLIANCE in a WAR  GAMES MATCH at WRESTLEWAR 1992.
Sting, Barry Wyndham, Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes), Ricky Steamboat, Nikita Koloff vs Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn  Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbysko

Season 2, Episode 11: Damaged Goods (1992)

The tail end of the Randy Savage/Jake Roberts feud leads to a split where Jake Roberts goes off to battle his former co-conspirator, The Undertaker, and Randy Savage goes after the current champion: Ric Flair. Flair incites the feud through a series of promos where he claims to have been Miss Elizabeth’s first real boyfriend, whom he dumped just before she met Savage. It’s a wild angle.

We also get to see the continued rise of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who will be the faces of the company by the end of the season.

1. Jake Roberts vs Randy Savage at The Main Event 5.

2. Undertaker vs Bret Hart from WWE on MSG Network.

3. Shawn Michaels vs Tito Santana at Wrestlemania 8.

4. Jake Roberts vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania 8.

5. Roddy Piper (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 8.

6. Owen Hart vs Skinner at Wrestlemania 8.

7. British Bulldog vs IRS at UK Rampage 1992.

8. Bret Hart (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Rick Martel at UK Rampage 1992.

MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WWE CHAMP) vs RANDY SAVAGE at WRESTLEMANIA 8.

Season 2, Episode 12: Beach Blast (1992)

This is a little window of WCW that I never opened until creating this episode. It was a pretty bad time for the brand, as Ric Flair was absolutely ruling over at WWE and nobody at WCW, not even Sting, had quite the momentum of their WWE counterparts. So this show is all about fun.

Future Goth King of Wrestling in WCW, ECW, and TNA: Raven, wrestles as Scotty Flamingo. Sting and Mick Foley have a hardcore match well before it was fashionable, and Rick Rude takes on Ricky Steamboat.

The highlight though is the weird set of circumstances where Sting was supposed to get a 
rematch for the title with Vader but was injured during a Coal Miner’s Glove Match (where a heavy glove is put on a pole, and whoever gets it first can use it as a weapon) with Jake Roberts. 

Jake gets bitten in the face by his cobra but Sting is somehow so injured that he can’t have his rematch (it’s not explained what his injury is or how he got it) so he is replaced in the title match by Ron Simmons (the future Farooq from WWE) who becomes the first ever Black World Champion in wrestling history.

Interesting side note" Jake Roberts, who once wrestled so wasted that his match had to be 
canceled, and was also a part of the blindfold match with Rick Martel from a few episodes ago, claims the Coal Miner’s Glove Match was the worst thing he’s ever been a part of. I’m including it purely because it’s the only time I can remember Jake Roberts and Mick Foley sharing the screen.

1. Brian Pillman (WCW Light Heavyweight Champ) vs Raven (as Scotty Flamingo) at Beach Blast 1992.

2. Sting vs Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) in a Falls Count Anywhere Match at Beach Blast 1992.

3. Greg Valentine vs Buff Bagwell at Beach Blast 1992.

4. Sting (WCW Champ) vs Vader at Great American Bash 1992.

5. Rick Rude (WCW US Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat in an Iron Man Match at Beach Blast 1992.

6. Ricky Steamboat & Nikita Koloff vs Brian Pillman & Jushin Thunder Liger at Great American Bash 1992.

7. Sting vs Jake Roberts in a Coal Miner's Glove Match at Halloween Havoc 1992.

MAIN EVENT: VADER (WCW CHAMP) vs FAROOQ (as RON SIMMONS) from WCW  MAIN EVENT.

Season 2, Episode 13: Perfectly Savage (1993)

Randy Savage continues to be the highlight reel for the Old Guard as Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart creep into the main event scene. Here, he loses his partner Ultimate Warrior (probably fired again) and needs to find a new tag team partner to battle Ric Flair and Razor Ramon, so he chooses Flair’s corner man, Mr Perfect.

His decision to have Mr Perfect as a partner is a long road that takes place almost exclusively on Prime Time Wrestling. No longer a newsdesk show with Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan, Vince McMahon now chairs a discussion group with assorted wrestlers and managers. This episode features Bobby Heenan, Mr Perfect, Hillbilly Jim, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

The oddest part of this sequence is that Randy Savage is the champion in this episode until the main event where, suddenly, no one appears to be the champion. Savage lost the title to Flair during an unimpressive match, and then Flair lost the title to Bret Hart (who loses the Intercontinental Championship in this episode) in an untelevised House Show.

This is not the only time something like this happens with Bret Hart in the early 90s.

1. Randy Savage (WWE Champ) vs Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam 1992.

2. Bret Hart (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs British Bulldog at SummerSlam 1992.

3. Randy Savage (WWE Champ) vs Shawn Michaels at UK Rampage 1992.

4. British Bulldog (Intercontinental Champ) vs Shawn Michaels at Saturday Night’s Main Event 32.

MAIN EVENT: RANDY SAVAGE & MR PERFECT vs RIC FLAIR & RAZOR RAMON at  SURVIVOR SERIES 1992.

Season 2, Episode 14: Eastern Championship Wrestling (1993)

Our first ECW episode! Eastern Championship Wrestling is a small indie company in Philadelphia that changed wrestling forever. A ton of retired WWE wrestlers, a band of 
dissatisfied WCW wrestlers, future WCW and WWE wrestlers, and some homegrown talent, under the direction of Paul Heyman (sometimes still Paul E Dangerously) turned a crowded poolhall into a violent revolution in sports entertainment.

There are some impressive reconstructions that make ECW’s quality look as crisp and polished  as the WWE and WCW. I don’t like them. ECW episodes should look like they were produced with amateur lighting and recorded by someone in the audience with a cheap camera. So that’s what they’re going to look like in this Headcanon.

The audio in this has one very quiet match.

For the rest of this Headcanon, I’ve gone through and normalized all the audio. Unfortunately, I haven’t touched this file in several years, and I no longer have the sources, so I can’t fix it without spending many hours relocating sources, re-editing etc. Pretend this is just because of the general low quality of early ECW recordings (which it kind of is).

1. Jimmy Snuka (ECW TV Champ) vs JT Smith at Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular.

2. Terry Funk vs Eddie Gilbert in a Texas Chain Match at Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular.

3. Malia Hosaka vs Molly McShane at NWA Bloodfest 1993.

4. Jimmy Snuka (ECW TV Champ) vs Terry Funk in a Steel Cage Match from ECW Hardcore TV.

6. Sabu (ECW Champ) vs Taz at NWA Bloodfest 1993.

7. Taz vs Tommy Dreamer at NWA Bloodfest 1993.

MAIN EVENT: TERRY FUNK (ECW CHAMP) vs SHANE DOUGLAS vs SABU at THE NIGHT THE LINE WAS CROSSED.

Season 2, Episode 15: 1-2-3 Raw (1993)

We’ve been able to speed through the 80s and early 90s because both WCW and WWE were mainly pay-per-view focused companies where their weekly shows featured clips of pre-recorded matches, squash matches with local talent, and filler material. WWE had at least three weekly shows but they mainly featured the same content slightly reworked.

That all changed when Raw was introduced. A live or recently recorded show that usually 
included at least one match between two superstars. It changed the way they told stories, it changed the promos and skits from being manager-based to wrestler-based, and it flooded the industry with more content. It’s kind of amazing that it took nearly a decade before they duplicated this with Smackdown.

This first episode is carried by Bobby Heenan’s personality, and a couple of ongoing storylines involving Mr Perfect, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, and Marty Jannetty. But we also have the story that really revolutionized Raw: the introduction of XPac as The 1-2-3 Kid, a local talent jobber who quickly ascends to one of the main reasons people tuned in to the weekly show.

Oh, also, Bret Hart doesn’t have the title in this episode because he lost it in an absolutely 
unwatchable match at Wrestlemania 9 where he was cheated out of the title by Yokozuna, who was then immediately beaten by Hulk Hogan. There really isn’t a decent Hogan match during this era, so we’re just going to pretend he’s already gone.

1. Ric Flair vs Tito Santana from Raw.

2. Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon) vs XPac (as The Kid) from Raw.

3. Shawn Michaels (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Marty Jannetty from Raw.

4. Mr Perfect vs Ric Flair in Loser Leaves Town Match from Raw.

5. Bret Hart vs Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon) from Raw.

6. Shawn Michaels (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Marty Jannetty from Raw.
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7. Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon) vs XPac (as the 1-2-3 Kid) from Raw.

8. Bret Hart vs Mr Perfect at King Of The Ring 1993.

9. Ted Dibiase vs XPac (as The 1-2-3 Kid) from Raw.

​MAIN EVENT: BRET HART vs BAM BAM BIGELOW at KING OF THE RING 1993.

Season 2, Episode 16: Supershow (1993)

Back to WCW and back to Japan for a bit. Chono vs Muta is great, of course, but this is our only Headcanon glimpse at The Hellraisers, which was Legion of Doom with Animal switched out for Kensuke Sasaki, and the red shoulderpads switched out for green shoulderpads. They were equally as amazing as LoD.

We get a couple of Mick Foley matches here, one where he battles Paul Orndorff, who was a big star in the 80s but whose matches weren’t interesting enough to make Headcanon. Foley brings out a violent side of him here that I wish we had seen when Orndorff was battling Hulk Hogan.

Also, Ricky Steamboat continues to be one of the most entertaining wrestlers of all-time whether he’s in an underwatched classic with future William Regal, or if he’s under a hood, tagging with Tom Zenk to take on Steve Austin and Brian Pillman. 

The Vader/Foley match is NOT the one in Germany where Foley loses his ear but it is a gloriously violent match worthy of being our main event.

1. Mahariso Chono vs The Great Muta from Japan Supershow 1993.

2. The Hellraisers (NJPW Tag Champs) vs The Steiner Brothers from Japan Supershow 1993.

3. Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) vs Paul Orndorff in a Falls Count Anywhere Match at SuperBrawl 3.

4. Vader vs Sting in a Leather Strap Match at SuperBrawl 3.

5. Hollywood Blonds (WCW Tag Team Champs) vs Dos Hombres in a Steel Cage at Slamboree 1993.

6. The Superpowers vs Masters Of The Power Bomb at Beach Blast 1993.

7. Ricky Steamboat (WCW TV Champ) vs William Regal at Fall Brawl 1993.

MAIN EVENT: VADER (WCW CHAMP) vs MICK FOLEY (as CACTUS JACK) in a TEXAS DEATH MATCH at HALLOWEEN HAVOC 1993.

Season 2, Episode 17: Weaseling Out (1993)

This is a weird card. For starters, why would I have a main event where Crush, who only appears one other time, and it’s as the third member of Demolition, battles Tony Roy, who I couldn’t pick out of a police lineup? Well, it’s because during their match, Gorilla Monsoon makes a cameo and physically throws Bobby Heenan out of the WWE. I kind of wanted it to be the final moment of the season but the timing didn’t quite work out.

Much like the Brain Busters earlier, The Steiner Brothers take a brief leave of absence from WCW to absolutely batter the talent in the WWE tag team division. The human highlight reel of 1993, the 1-2-3 Kid also has a couple more excellent matches here. And while the Yokozuna title defense against The Undertaker can hardly be called good wrestling, it has an insane ending that needs to be seen.

1. Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon) vs Ted Dibiase at SummerSlam 1993.

2. The Steiner Brothers vs The Heavenly Bodies at SummerSlam 1993.

3. Bret Hart vs Doink at SummerSlam 1993.

4. Bret Hart vs Jerry Lawler at SummerSlam 1993. 

5. Bam Bam Bigelow & Headshrinkers vs Tatanka & Smoking Guns at SummerSlam 1993.

6. The Bad Guys vs The Worst Guys at Survivor Series 1993.
Marty Jannetty, Randy Savage, Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon), and X-Pac (as 1-2-3 Kid) vs Adam Bomb, IRS, Kevin Nash (as Diesel), and Ruck Martel

7. Yokozuna (WWE Champ) vs Undertaker in a Casket Match at Royal Rumble 1994. 

8. Shawn Michaels vs XPac (as The 1-2-3 Kid) from Raw.

​MAIN EVENT: CRUSH vs TONY ROY from RAW.

Season 2, Episode 18: Crossing The Line (1994)

ECW! ECW! Eastern Championship Wrestling comes to a quick and decisive end. It goes from the tiny territory within the NWA umbrella to its own entity, Extreme Championship Wrestling, shortly after the main event in this episode.

Mick Foley’s inclusion in the promotion created a ton of buzz but Shane Douglas’s speech at the end of this episode was an industry changer.

Foley’s match with Funk here is nowhere near on-par with their epic matches in Japan and WWE. In fact, you can barely see any of the action because of the poor camera work. But the closing moments of the match are iconic.

1. Jimmy Snuka vs Kevin Sullivan at When Worlds Collide 1994.

2. Peaches and Tommy Cairo vs Sandman and Woman in a Singapore Cane Match at When Worlds Collide 1994.

3. Sabu vs Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) at Hostile City Showdown 1994.

4. The Funk Brothers vs Public Enemy in a Barbed Wire Match at Heat Wave 1994.

5. Terry Funk vs Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) at Hardcore Heaven 1994.

MAIN EVENT: SHANE DOUGLAS vs TOO COLD SCORPIO for THE NWA  CHAMPIONSHIP from ECW HARDCORE TV.​

Season 2, Episode 19: Return Of The Flair (1994)

The Dirtiest Player In The Game returns home to spice things up for the final WCW episode of the season.

It was also tempting to push matches around so that Flair’s return was the beginning of Season 3 but another blonde guy from the WWE will have to take that place instead. It is nice to have our WCW season finale be a nostalgic reminder that Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat are two of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the business, particularly when they’re battling each other.

1. Vader (WCW Champ) vs Ric Flair in Title vs Career Match at Starrcade 1993.

2. Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes), Brian Pillman & Sting vs The Deadly Alliance in a Thundercage Match at SuperBrawl 4.

3. The Nasty Boys (WCW Tag Champs) vs Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack) & Max Payne in a Street Fight at Spring Stampede 1994.

4. Bunkhouse Buck vs Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes) at Spring Stampede 1994.

5. Vader vs Big Boss Man (as The Boss) at Spring Stampede 1994.

WCW SEASON FINALE MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs RICKY  STEAMBOAT at SPRING STAMPEDE 1994.

Season 2, Episode 20: King Of Harts (1994)

Wrestlemania 10 was pivotal for WWE. No more Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart was truly The Best There Was And The Best There Ever Will Be, especially in his feud with his exceptionally talented younger brother. Plus, The Clique [Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash (as Diesel), Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon), Xpac (as the 1-2-3 Kid), and Triple H] is at the top of the card for a good time, if not a long time. 

We get our first glimpse of Alundra Blayze vs Bull Nakano here, too. Expect to see them square off many times in many promotions next season.

Our Season Finale Main Event pits the two members of The Clique who will later move to WCW and help propel them to the #1 wrestling company, and then later propel them into bankruptcy, against each other.

1. Owen Hart vs Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 10.

2. Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon) (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Shawn Michaels in a Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 10.

3. Yokozuna (WWE Champ) vs Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 10.

4. Alundra Blayze (WWE Womens Champ) vs Lelani Kai at Wrestlemania 10.

5. Owen Hart vs XPac (as The 1-2-3 Kid) at King of the Ring 1994.

4. Bret Hart (WWE Champ) vs Kevin Nash (as Diesel) at King Of The Ring 1994.

5. Owen Hart vs Scott Hall (as Razor Ramon) at King of the Ring 1994.

6. Alundra Blayze (WWE Womens Champ) vs Bull Nakano at SummerSlam 1994.

SEASON FINALE MAIN EVENT: KEVIN NASH (as DIESEL) (WWE  INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMP) vs SCOTT HALL (as RAZOR RAMON) at SUMMERSLAM 1994.

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