Hey Scott,
I have just one question. What are your favorite title reigns of all-time? It can be any championship, and doesn't have to fit any criteria other than you just enjoying it. Thanks!
The Midnight Express as tag champs in 1986, just for the awesome spectacle of them squashing the fuck out of guys on the weekly TV show, plus some great matches with the RNR.
Randy Savage's first WWF title run.
Bret Hart's "fighting champion" title run in 94.
Honky Tonk Man!
Demolition's first run as tag champs.
Mikey Whipwreck's TV title reign.
I will add:
ReplyDeleteEdge & Christian tag titles 1st run which I guess would be from WM16-sometime in the summer. That's where they developed their reeking with awesomeness persona's, and they were a ton of fun. For the benefit of those with flash photography.... (boy that's a catchphrase that would need to be updated if ever brought back)
John Morrison & The Miz WWE tag champions. I watched ECW every Tuesday just to see them. Their feud with Tommy Dreamer & Colin Delaney is one of my favorite things from modern WWE.
Triple H 3rd WWF championship run, from when he beat Big Show till he lost it to The Rock at Backlash. Might have been short but it was an epic star-making championship run. It was career defining as at that point it was not certain that he'd stick around the main event permanently, but that title reign certainly convinced the entire audience.
Chris Jericho WCW cruiserwight champion. You all know what I'm talking about.
Trish Stratus' heel run as women's champion (2nd run as heel champion if you want to be technical). She beat Lita at Elimination Chamber, and continued her amazing constant taunting of her. Squashed Hemme like a bug at mania, unfortunately went out with injury while champion...BUT they didn't strip her of the title, she came back as a face, and went on to have the Mickie James feud; dropping it to Mickie and making her.
Honky Tonk Man.
ReplyDeleteJBL's WWE Title run.
CM Punks current WWE Title reign.
Crash Holly's 18th reign as Hardcore Champion...
I really enjoyed Bret's first IC title reign. Every week he was on TV defending against guys like Haku, Barbarian, Warlord, IRS, etc., and they were ALWAYS great matches, the likes I had never seen before as a ten-year-old.
ReplyDeleteFor guilty pleasures, I have to say the reign(s) of the Rock N' Sock Connection. Loved their promos together, especially the one where Mankind is asked by Michael Cole, "What do you think...?" and he interrupts and screams, "It doesn't matter what I think!"
Classic.
Savages's first run was awesome
ReplyDeleteTriple H - Jan 2000 - April 2000 was short yet classic.
Bret Hart in '94 seems like he was the CM Punk of today where despite being champion, he never got to main event a PPV after WMX, which was weird because at least the focal point in today's WWE is John Cena, whereas in 94, Bret Hart was the face of the company.
ReplyDeleteI guess Scott LOVED the WWF in 1988.
ReplyDeleteRandy Savage's first WWF title run. Honky Tonk Man!Demolition's first run as tag champs.(All of them were champions simultaneously from WM4-Summer Slam 88).
Some of my favorite title reigns are:
ReplyDeleteSteve Austin's first and second WWF title reign in 98
Randy Savage's first WWF title reign (3/27/88-4/2/89)
Demolition's first WWF tag team title reign
HHH's 3rd WWF title reign (1/3/00-4/30/00)
The Rock's 2nd WWF IC title reign (12/8/97-8/30/98)
that's a very interesting point.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember that WWF commercial thing they used to always play where some kid is backstage as Bret's about to hit the ring, and he yells "BREEEEEEEET" go get 'em champ?
The Midnight Express (Eaton/Lane) with the U.S. tag titles.
ReplyDeleteNikita Koloff's run with the U.S. title
Pretty much any of Flair's runs with the World title in the NWA.
Raven's run with the ECW World title.
Samoa Joe's run with the X Division title.
Savage's run with the IC title.
I would be remiss not to mention Mr.Perfect's 2 IC Title runs.
ReplyDeleteI remember that!
ReplyDeleteI also remember when baseball went on strike and they did this really schmaltzy baseball-tinged commercial with a sad kid in a baseball diamond who is saved by playing catch with Randy Savage. Because the WWF never went on strike.
Randy Savage's first run as WWF champ really made me think. Man, that guy worked his ASS off as champ that year, with hard matches for his entire run.
ReplyDeleteThe best all-around five-tool wrestler of all time!
MX is the greatest tag team of all time.
ReplyDeleteRVD tv title reign.
ReplyDeleteEddy's heel crusierweight title run
Jerichos crusierweight title run
Punks 2nd WHC run
Taker in 97
Every Macho Man WCW title reign
"Mikey Whipwreck's TV title reign."
ReplyDeleteReally Scott? I seem to recall you saying this went nowhere in the Rise and Fall of ECW review and that his tag title reign with Cactus Jack was much funnier.
the Demo's 1st reign definitely deserves the praise..
ReplyDeletecan't forget that Barry ("The Winner") Horowitz title run in Global..
and as a note, Classics On Demand just started airing episodes of WWWF Championship Wrestling, starting in April 1977.. it basically started exactly when Graham wins the World title, and serves as a history course of what that reign was like, not just for him, but how as an era things were changing.. definitely a highlight on a channel full of them..
Agreed, I love the MX. However, I don't really remember them being world tag champs very long.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Bret's first. Such a surprise to turn on Superstars and see him as WWF champion, and then he defended against EVERYBODY. It was kind of a "hard work pays off" kind of affirmation to see him as champion, even though I knew wrestling was predetermined by then.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really sad is that the main events of KOTR and Summerslam 94 were absolutely horrible negative-star affairs, and Bret's matches at those shows were really good.
ReplyDeletePerfect and Bret's IC title runs we're just epic to me as a kid, they both seemed to carry the belts with so much prestige.
ReplyDeleteAlso -- Lex Lugers US title run and Steve Ausin's and Arn Anderson's big runs with the TV title.
Maybe not a great run match wise, but Hogan's 96/97 run was about the most sensible long reign sice his first WWF title run and made big bucks.
I'm pretty sure Bret's "Fighting Champion" reign was his first in '92-'93, not the second run in '94.
ReplyDeleteGlad you mentioned Taker's 97 reign. My buddy and I were huge UT fans at the time and nearly lost our shit when he was announced as the challenger to Sid at WM13 and ended up winning.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to choose, Austin's first WWF Title reign. I'm lumping the whole March - Sept period together, but I know he lost it to Kane at KOTR for a day.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm going to get snickers for this, but I was a big Diesel fan during what is now considered to be one of the least favorite and profitable world title reigns in the company. Don't judge me too harshly - I was 12-13 years old at the time. My first wrestling show I attended live was headlined by Diesel vs. Double J.
I know he didn't wanted to do jobs, but Shawn Michaels first World Title reign produced pretty good to classic matches: Diesel, Bulldog x 2, Mankind ad even his match with Sid was pretty good two. Undertaker had an underrated 2nd World Title reign: had 4 good matches from Mankind, Stone Cold, Vader and Bret Hart.
ReplyDeleteTaker's second reign is underrated, and I do feel that reign was his best.
ReplyDeleteYeah Shawn's first title reign is pretty mind blowing.
ReplyDeleteMentioning Honky Tonk Man is revisionist thinking. Nobody loved the Honky Tonk Man's I-C title reign while it was ongoing.
ReplyDeleteI know it's not popular opinion, but I was always a fan of Warrior's IC Title Runs. While his WWF Title run was kind of a disappointment, he had some decent matches as IC Champ with Rude, Haku, Andre, Savage and others. I think he definitely did his best work as IC Champ and the yellow strap looked awesome.
ReplyDeleteSurprised I didn't see anyone mention Hogan's 83-88 run. So much classic stuff happened during this run that really defined the WWF and wrestling in general in the 80s. His win over Iron Shiek, the Orndorff feud, Piper, Andre at Mania 3, the 85 feud with Savage, Bundy, I love love love watching Hogan during this era.
He only had a cup of coffee with the belt, but as a kid one of my favorite runs was Piper with the IC belt. Piper was always one of my guys and his win at the Rumble is one of my favorite moments ever. I don't remember a whole lot of him with the belt outside of an awesome match he had with Savage on Coliseum video and of course the Mania 8 match with Bret, but I loved it nonetheless.
Speaking of IC Title runs, Savage's IC Title reign has to be mentioned. His matches with Tito were great. He had a couple awesome matches with Bruno. The Steamboat feud was of course legendary. He had a match or two with Hogan if I recall correctly. I'm not a big fan of the George Steele feud, but it was definitely memorable and left an impression on me as a kid. Savage really cemented himself as one of the best in the world during this run and it was obvious he was on his way to the top.
Christian's IC Title run in 2003/2004 (can't remember exactly when) was great as well. This was right after he cut his hair and the Rock endorsed him as the new people's champ. He was so entertaining back then.
Finally, Mike Awesome's ECW Title run was so great. I don't see a lot of people talk about Awesome, but I love the guy and his matches with Tanaka are some of my favorites of all time. I could watch Awesome smash a chair on Tanaka's head and throw Spike Dudley around all day.
Cena's second run as WWE champion, from September 2006 to October 2007. It was the longest reign we'd seen in ages, he fought a wide variety of opponents and had good matches with everyone from Umaga to Rated RKO to Bobby Lashley to even the freaking Great Khali. It was a damn shame that reign had to be ended due to injury, rather than in the ring.
ReplyDeleteAJ as General Manager
ReplyDeleteShe's no Hornswaggle, but she's okay.
ReplyDeleteHogan's 2003 reign was da bomb.
ReplyDeletewhat are the five tools? Charisma, Look, Workrate... Mic Skills? What's the other one?
ReplyDeleteHHH's 3rd WWF title reign (1/3/00-4/30/00) was spectacular television. The feud with Cactus Jack, The McMahon-Helmsley era at it's best and Rock's chase for the title made for great TV.
ReplyDeleteBodacious Bart was a bad ass.
ReplyDeleteRight on about Hogan's 84-88 run. I suppose no one mentioned it because it seemed so obvious a pick. That or some people were older at the time (unlike us stupid kiddies!) and Hogan was their John Cena.
ReplyDeleteBlow job.
ReplyDeleteLots of good choices there!
ReplyDeletePiper winning is definitely one of my all-time favorite title wins too, although I wish we would have got more title defenses on TV. Wait, he had a match as IC champion with Savage? Wasn't that earlier on?
The only non-jobber matches I can recall Piper having during his reign was the Mountie rematch on Saturday Night's Main Event and a really good little match with Shawn Michaels on the March to WrestleMania 8 special. Anybody remember any others?
Bombastic Bob.
ReplyDeleteLuther Reigns. Definitely my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really define thwm as much as just borrow the term from baseball. But...let's say mainstream appeal as Mach was pretty well-known outside of wrestling.
ReplyDeleteman you are nuts Crash's 20th was way better
ReplyDeleteHHH 3rd WWE title reign (early 2000).... just brilliant TV for the next few months and top quality matches.
ReplyDeleteAustin 4th reign (2001 heel turn).... Just LOVED the evolution of his character from straight up badass to paranoid chicken shit but still super dangerous redneck. Plus the matches with Angle, Jericho and Benoit were top notch. For as badly as booked people can claim the Stone Cold heel turn was... it was entertaining as hell.
I loved Ric Flairs reign in '99 as the president with the lil' naitch by his side. Awesome promos too.
ReplyDelete"hey kid you shut your mouth before I take your mother and make her a woman WOOOO!"
I can't ever endorse JBL's title reign, yes he was entertaining, but we got an entire year of shit matches with him on top of Smackdown. I can't think of one good match he had as champion, and as a main eventer in general, the only good match I remember is the I Quit match with Cena.
ReplyDeleteAlso, one of his matches featured Eddie frog splashing Taker five times, and Taker just gets up and no sells it. Fuck that.
loved that commercial. But yeah he defended against EVERYBODY in that run...Virgil, Fatu, Papa Shango, Kid, etc...
ReplyDelete