Monday Night Wars from a fans perspective.

2019 is bringing us one of the greatest times to be a wrestling fan. For the majority of my life there has been the WWE and their monopoly on the industry by hoarding talent. (I promise this won’t be a series of pages bashing the WWE but facts are facts). Throughout the last 35 years there has been a king at the top and all the peasants down below. However, over the last few years the peasants have risen to challenge the mighty king and we as fans are the ones reaping the rewards.

Growing up, one of the greatest parts of being a child was rushing home from school to watch Verne Gagne’s All Star wrestling on ESPN. The AWA sucked me in with the Midnight Rockers, Midnight Express, Curt Hennig, Bob Orton, Hulk Hogan and the list goes on. From 1981 to about 1985 that is were you would find me on weekday afternoons, but then something magical happened. While flipping through the channels sometime in 1985 I came across this crazy person who was captivating and kept me glued to my TV. Ric Flair made me an instant fan of WCW and from that moment I was hooked on two promotions they both had a similar product and the NWA brought me added enjoyment from the Four Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Taylor and Rick Rude. In Early 87 my mom, who knew I was a big wrestling fan, surprised me with a pay per view, Wrestlemania 3.

While I had never watch the WWF I was immediately captivated by the pageantry and bigger than life personalities. Plus I started seeing some familiar names that left my original love, the AWA. This started a three year run of what I have always considered the first wrestling boom.

Fast forward 30 years and we are now entering another wrestling boom with the rise over the last few years of NJPW, Impact and ROH plus the NWA returning to prominence. Big news this January with a new promotion, AEW, getting it’s start and so many independent and international promotions available through streaming services.  This got me thinking of the time I rediscovered wrestling and what it has meant to me over the years.

I'm going to re-experience one of the most pivotal moments in the history of wrestling. The Monday night wars and the promotions available through that time, These moments have been discussed beyond all recognition of the wrestling promotions that we all grew to love. It has been discussed from the creative side, the wrestlers side, the financial side, the tv rating side, the experts side and so many other ways. However, I have never seen it discussed from the fans side. WWF, ECW, and WCW were three main players that revolutionized the wrestling business and gave us one of the greatest couple of years to be fans.

I am going to watch each of the big three promotions week by weeks and give you a fans perspective on what I see. This is not going to be another insider adaptation with interviews and hidden information. This is just going to be through the eyes of a fan and how I saw this beautiful disaster unfolding. I haven't decided how far I am going to watch, especially since I considered the end of WCW and ECW when Tazz and the Radicals all jumped to WWE. I am going to cover all the shows from Scott Hall’s first appearance on Nitro through the first appearance of the Radicalz on Raw. Every Nitro, Raw, Thunder, Smackdown, ECW weekly show and pay per view match through that time will be covered. And for those of you that remember the time, I will be doing my breakdown of these shows in the old internet match results style.

I plan on putting a star rating next to each match, interview, segment and the full show review. I also want to keep a running total of the winners of the week so we can see from a fans perspective who was the true winner of the Monday night wars. Since these rating are going to be done by a fan and not any type of insider, it is very important to understand the star ratings. These ratings are mainly subjective to the viewer. My personal ratings are based on match quality, in ring story, entertainment factor, backstory, and after match shenanigans. Taking all those factors into consideration is how I determine whether what I just watched is an instant classic or would have been better left on the creative table and will never be discussed again. That being said here are the rankings

5 Star – Instant classic, will go down as one of the best matches of all time and will be remembered and talked about for years.

4.5 Star – Match or moment of the year candidate

4 Star – An amazing match or moment that will definitely leave a lasting impression

3.5 Star – a great match or moment

3 Star – A good match or moment

2.5 Star – An average match or moment

2 Star – A below average match or moment

1.5 Star – A decent match or moment

1 Star – A borderline bad match or moment, may have a high spot or two but all in all terrible

.5 Star – a terrible waste of time

0 Star – unwatchable match or moment that I advise never to look at or talk about again.

Please follow this blog and check back often. My goal is to watch all three promotions and all their main shows and pay per views while breaking down my feelings on what I just saw. I plain on posting something once a week about what I have watched, that being said.. I watch a lot of wrestling, I am a father and I have a full time job. I will do as much as I can but please keep in mind,  this is from the eyes of a fan. 

Make sure you check out our show, Kingdom of Honor, for the latest in wrestling talk every Monday night on Lords of Pain Radio and find our archived shows with a lot of never before heard content on our Patreon page here. Also please leave a comment with your thoughts below or send your feedback to us directly at Kingdomofhonor123@gmail.com