Wrestling Headcanon Season 1: Rock & Wrestling

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.

Season One:
Rock & Wrestling

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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.​​

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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.

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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.

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.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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.
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MAIN EVENT: RICKY STEAMBOAT (WCW CHAMP) vs RIC FLAIR at WRESTLEWAR 1989.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.
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WWE SEASON FINALE MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR (WWE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMP) at WRESTLEMANIA 6.