WWF Superstars, Challenge, Spotlight programs.
Hardcore
"Rush Wickes" <ru...@south-side.org> wrote:
> Back before cable television became readily accessible, both of these
> programs were the vehicles for the WWF's television promotion efforts.
> It seems to me that Superstars was the 'headline' program while Challenge
> was a secondary program, similar to how Monday Night Raw is a better program
> than Sunday Night Heat. Was there really such a distinction between the
> two 1980's era programs. I'm wondering also whether Challenge was sold to
> stations for broadcast at a cheaper rate than Superstars.
>
> Spotlight must have been the cheapest of them all. It was just a
> second-rate recap show as I remember.
>
"Superstars" was originally "Championship Wrestling", while "Challenge" was
formerly "All Star Wrestling". The titles changed in 1986. As I recall, the
shows rarely both aired in the same market: Baltimore had "Championship" (on
which Gary Capetta was ring announcer) and Washington DC had "All Star" (Joe
McHugh announcer). (McHugh and Capetta switched places in the early '80s.)
The original title of "WWF Spotlight" was "Superstars of Wrestling"! It was
still a highlights show.
--Randy Brown
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Clint Johnson
would never truly know.
Superstars: Usually shown on Saturday Mornings in the late 80s (86-89) on
DC20 while shown on WRLF-FOX on sundays. The show usually was a bunch of
promos and superstars or midcarders beating up jobbers. Sometimes McMahon
would take a match from Saturday Nights Main Event and say "Here's a special
match from Saturday Night's Main event" or have a title match against a
jobber. Like Randy Savage vs. Virgil. Maybe the world Champ would cut a
promo. The rest of the show would either be interviews or interviews to set
up a local house show. Having DC 20 back in those days and a Virginan local
company that Fox bought back in 1988 would have it -- so sometimes you could
watch interviews for a Washington based house show or a richmond based house
show. Otherwise, there were just plain promos done by the wrestlers hosted
by either Mene Gene, Greg DeGeorge, or Sean Mooney. Normal hosts for program
were Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon until 1990, and Vince McMahon and Roddy
Piper for the rest of 1990. Savage, McMahon and Piper did it in 1991 -- not
sure about 1992-1996 since I stopped watching for a while. RAW was the
better show by 1994 anyways. Shown synacated on local networks DC 20, WRLH
and other networks. Fox took the market I guess around 1989 . . . . . moved
to USA in 1996 I think.
Challenge: Shown on Saturdays at noon on DC-5 [It was called I think for us
in VA FOX in Washington or something. I think fox owned them or bought them,
not sure. Anyone who lives in richmonds knows that cable 35 used to be
WRLH-Fox and 5 was DC-5 (I have called it DC20 too because there were too DC
channels Contiential cable had in the early 80s. Challenge wasn't as discrit
as superstars. Sometimes, a few weeks of tapings took place in one day and
you could notice Bobby Hennan and Gorrilla Monsoon (hosts) standing behind a
Saturday Night's Main event banner. Sometimes Challenge would show Challenge
matches or they would show off Saturday Night Main Event matches shown on
NBC. Usually it wouldn't be the main match (there was really no main event
on SNME) but one of the other ones. Monsoon and Henan would do the comentary
and pass it off as a different match. Even I could tell it wasn't different.
It should be noted no SNME match of key value was ever shown on challenge. I
don't think Challenge was shown in all markets like Superstars was and many
fans might not have seen NBC at 11:30 pm est -- I missed a few shows myself
in 1987. The normal hosts were Bobby Hennan and Gorilla Monsoon. Challenge
disappeared in 1992 I think, and Superstars became the primary show.
Challenge had the same thing as superstars - superstars or midcarders vs.
jobbers (NOT THE SAME AS THE SUPERSTARS MATCHES -- Challenge usually showed
their own promos not as good as Superstars -- only midcarders did promos on
Challenge. While the interviews for house shows were basically a copy from
the Superstars show -- including Sean Mooney or Criag DeGeorge hosting them.
Show ended as a wrestling show and became a highlight show in 1997.
WWF SPOTLIGHT: A ripoff of their own Prime Time wrestling. Shown in DC out
of my reach until about 1989. Basically a one hour show where two hosts take
a look at highlights or matches from the past week. Maybe one or two of the
poor matches from the past week's Prime Time Wrestling would be used and a
few challenge promos. Hosted by Vince McMahon, Vince McMahon and Miss
Elizabeth, Vince McMahon and Senasational Queen Sherri, and finally Sean
Mooney and Senasational Queen Sherri. Good program for the day if you didn't
have Challenge or Prime Time on your market, but otherwise it sucked.
WWF All American Wrestling: The grand-daddy show of Wrestling staring
American's favorite lush -- Mene Gene. Gene would be the host inside of the
control room and show matches from either superstars, challenge, Prime Time
jobber match recorded in MSG during the MSG shows that only New Yorkers saw
(and what they saw we never truly saw -- I saw for once saw Hulk Hogan
wrestle a match on Prime Time wrestling from a MSG show). Okerlund would
also put his stale humor into the show. The show ended shortly after
Okerlund left in 1993.
WWF Prime Time Wrestling: The best show the WWF had to offer in the 1980s.
The best of superstars, challenge, and MSG shows and funny moments with your
hosts. In 1985-1987 Gorrilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura hosted the show. The
show changed from 1987-1990 to Bobby Hennan and Gorillia Monsoon hosting and
some of those shows were classic. It was Bobby and Gorillia segments that
really cracked me up. One happened at Holloween where Gorillia Monsoon was
dressed as a Gorillia and it was Gorillia's voice -- but later on in the
show the Gorillia stops talking and near the end of the show the real
Gorillia shows up and Bobby Hennan is baffled and so was I. Another good
Prime time angle was Gorillia Monsoon quiting the show, but Bobby goes
searching for him and begs him to come back -- and he does. In 1989, Bobby
Hennan quits the show in a angle, where he takes the last 30 minutes of PTW
and hosts a TNT-type show (McMahon's Tuesday Night Titans). Roddy Piper
replaced Hennan as host for a few weeks, before Heenan decides to forget
about his show and crash feeds video for an episode of PTW and eventually
forces Piper off the set and retakes his spot as "host" of Prime Time. The
next week, Roddy Piper takes over Bobby Hennan's old set and hosts the show
via close-curcit tv. Piper leaves the show in Christmas 1989, when he
challenges Hennan to a triva quiz and if he lost he would have to dress as
Santa Klaus and be kind for a whole PTW episode. Piper had at this point
been beating up Henan every other week in some sketch and Piper was ordered
to cease or be fired. Piper's challenge was obeyed, but Hennan taunted Piper
from the Santa's outfit and Piper decided to beat him up and was fired. In
reality, I think Piper was going back to a movie or wrestling full time for
a while. The show had lost its edge by this point and Vince McMahon replaced
it in April 1990 with a new live auidence PTW. Like TNT -- McMahon would
host, with Henan and Lord Evil Hayes -- some of McMahon's most ricioudlous
outfits would be seen here. Some of the most stupid angles took place too --
the Pregeant woman that threatens to push her baby out (talk about
attitude...and this was 1990). We saw stupid angles with Paul Berrer
imbalming Alfred Hayes. We would see the debut of Ric Flair (good angle) and
Flair was classic on the PTW set. We see Hogan fans scrub toilets (Hogan
haters would love this) by Sgt. Slaughter. After this show really bomed,
McMahon returned as host for a square table discussion show. Heenan,
Perfect, Monsoon, Reverand Slick, Hillbilly Jim and others would guest-host
and talk about angles and fueds. Prime Time ended shortly before 1993 when
Raw debuted.
Monday Night Raw: For the first three years it would be pre-taped in weeks
advance, but it was a break through. You would finally see good midcarder
vs. miscarder matches and Superstar vs. Superstar -- some jobbers graced the
USA screen, but finally a one hour wrestling show and it was one night's
card (not live, however). Today Raw is War is live everyweek and the golden
age has begun.
WWF Mania: Saturday Morning Show on USA I think. I think Mania was Todd
Pettingills version of All American Wrestling -- as Todd would host from a
control room. He made me so sick in those days, I never watched the show.
WWF Livewire: Replacement for Mania. First hyped as a shoot program with
live callers -- but 90% of the calls were fake and the other 10% would be
modified. McMahon wasn't ready to be that smart in those days (and this was
late 1986).
WWF Shotgun Saturday Night: First not show on FOX market. Was a hardcore
type of show, kind of a pre-WWF attitude show with attitude written all over
it. The wrestlers would have matches in bar and grills. After five episodes,
this show and Superstars 1996 was basically the same show. Superstars became
a promo show showing highlights in 1997, and Shotgun continues to be a
midcarder show and jobber squash.
WWF Jacked: 1999 rename for Shotgun.
WWF Sunday Night Heat: Experiment in 1998. Show did so great it remainded.
Before Smackdown, it was considered the second best thing to Raw. In 1999,
it was a music video show for a few weeks after Smackdown -- but with that
not working, it became like Jacked -- a midcarder show.
WWF Smackdown: Experiment episode in April 1999 -- began in August/Sept
1999. Not as good as Raw, basically what Sunday Night Heat used to be.
McMahon might shock us any week and have a good title change now and then,
but otherwise its a two hour version of heat -- while heat as become Shotgun
and Shotgun/Jacked is more like Wrestling Challenge in the old days.
Jordanbrac
complains about today's wrestling shows, Nitro, RAW, Thunder, Smackdown, etc
because of the lack of wrestling. Well, in the "good old days" basically we
had squashes on TV where the sqaushees had barely enough time to mount an
offense. It was quite weird when I came back into wrestling and found
important matches being fought on a weekly basis instead of just on PPV's.
However, if you WANT reallygood wrestling oftentimes you wait 'till the
PPV...just like the old days. So it seems like we don't have much to complain
about.
BRACKS
Steve Jeremiah Williams-Soria Jeremy Soria
>Now there were the days. Sometimes bloopers could happen, but little Marks
>would never truly know.
You'd have to pay real close attention to find them. When they did, they were
kinda little gems there.
>Superstars: Usually shown on Saturday Mornings in the late 80s (86-89) on
>DC20 while shown on WRLF-FOX on sundays.
Which seems to indicate to me that you lived in the Richmond area. I was kinda
jealous of you guys that one of your local stations picked up Superstars. You
always got the house shows, and we never did. :)
In southeast Virginia, once Washington's WTTG (Fox 5) and WDCA (DC20) left
cable, the only station airing any syndicated WWF stuff was WJCB, now WPXV, a
RELIGIOUS station of all things! (In 1995 WPEN-LP got the rights to the
syndies for four years, and just this past September, WTVZ (once Fox, now WB)
carries the weekly syndie.)
>The show usually was a bunch of
>promos and superstars or midcarders beating up jobbers. Sometimes McMahon
>would take a match from Saturday Nights Main Event and say "Here's a special
>match from Saturday Night's Main event" or have a title match against a
>jobber. Like Randy Savage vs. Virgil. Maybe the world Champ would cut a
>promo.
I've attended my fair share of Superstars and Challenge tapings. These things
would begin at 7pm and they'd have a marathon session lasting all the way to
at least midnight. One time, because a couple wrestlers had to do their squash
matches again, the taping didn't end until 1:00am.
Raw, to a somewhat lesser extent, used to have marathon tapings as well when
they taped three weeks at one show.
>The rest of the show would either be interviews or interviews to set
>up a local house show. Having DC 20 back in those days and a Virginan local
>company that Fox bought back in 1988 would have it
WRLH was never a Fox O&O - it is now owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, who also
owns WTVZ down here. And they both air the WWF syndie. Coincidence?
>-- so sometimes you could
>watch interviews for a Washington based house show or a richmond based house
>show.
Each weekly syndicated show was custom-tailored for each market, depending on
when the WWF would come to town. As for us, until the WWF moved to WPEN and
they started doing house shows in late '97, we ALWAYS got the wrestler promos
and PPV plugs.
>Otherwise, there were just plain promos done by the wrestlers hosted
>by either Mene Gene, Greg DeGeorge, or Sean Mooney. Normal hosts for program
>were Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon until 1990, and Vince McMahon and Roddy
>Piper for the rest of 1990. Savage, McMahon and Piper did it in 1991 -- not
>sure about 1992-1996 since I stopped watching for a while.
Sometimes, depending on the week, the best part of the show was the show open,
heh. The "Filmreel" open from 1986-1989 ruled, while the "Warrior" open from
1990-1991 and the "Sci-Fi Channel Promo Music" open from 1994-1995 were cool
too.
>RAW was the better show by 1994 anyways. Shown synacated on local networks DC 20, WRLH
>and other networks. Fox took the market I guess around 1989 . . . . .
Key word is "syndicated" which means it didn't belong to any one network. The
majority of stations that carried the weekly syndies were Fox stations, but
some Big Three stations carried one (or both) weekly syndies - WIXT (ABC) in
Syracuse and KPNX (NBC) in Phoenix. To this day, KPNX (NBC) is the only Big
Three station in the top 50 US markets to carry the weekly WWF syndie.
>moved to USA in 1996 I think.
More appropriately, left syndication in 1996 for four months to get ready for
WWF Shotgun (Saturday Night). I only wish they had the money back then to use
the Motown tune "Shotgun" for its theme.
>Challenge: Shown on Saturdays at noon on DC-5 [It was called I think for us
>in VA FOX in Washington or something. I think fox owned them or bought them,
>not sure. Anyone who lives in richmonds knows that cable 35 used to be
>WRLH-Fox and 5 was DC-5 (I have called it DC20 too because there were too DC
>channels Contiential cable had in the early 80s.
It's "Fox 5" (an O&O) and "DC 20" (a Paramount station). Forget this "UPN20"
crap, WDCA is always DC20 to me.
For us Southeast Virginians, Challenge aired at 10pm (or 11:30pm) on WJCB
until WPEN took over the syndies in 1995.
>Challenge wasn't as discrit
>as superstars.
This was Gorilla and Bobby's show, except for those years when Tony Schiavone
was with the WWF, where it was Schiavone and (I think) Gorilla.
Think of Challenge as a lesser version of Superstars.
>WWF SPOTLIGHT: A ripoff of their own Prime Time wrestling. Shown in DC out
>of my reach until about 1989.
Spotlight aired until about 1996 when Superstars "went to USA". When they
weren't doing recaps, they mostly did matches that took place at Madison
Square Garden.
>WWF All American Wrestling: The grand-daddy show of Wrestling staring
>American's favorite lush -- Mene Gene.
For a long time, his partner in the control room was Hillbilly Jim. They did
highlights of the syndie shows and did the "WWF On Tour" package listing where
the WWF would be in the next two weeks.
>The show ended shortly after Okerlund left in 1993.
And became "WWF Action Zone" with Todd Pettingill and Dok Hendrix.
>WWF Prime Time Wrestling: The best show the WWF had to offer in the 1980s.
Before there was Raw, there was Prime Time Wrestling. Like Raw, it was a
Monday night tradition. Until 1990, it aired twice a week on USA - Mondays at
9pm ET, and late Wednesdays/early Thursdays at 2am ET.
(for a while in 1989 Roddy Piper appeared weekly on the show)
>Piper leaves the show in Christmas 1989, when he
>challenges Hennan to a triva quiz and if he lost he would have to dress as
>Santa Klaus and be kind for a whole PTW episode.
The deciding question: In what city did WrestleMania III take place?
Bobby Heenan confidently answers, "Detroit, Michigan." Piper says, "You are
absolutely... WRONG! It was PONTIAC, Michigan!"
>a while. The show had lost its edge by this point and Vince McMahon replaced
>it in April 1990 with a new live auidence PTW.
It was February 1991 when they went to the in-studio audience.
>Like TNT -- McMahon would
>host, with Henan and Lord Evil Hayes -- some of McMahon's most ricioudlous
>outfits would be seen here.
It was McMahon and Heenan (until they "threw" Jamieson off of the top of Titan
Tower - and the dramatic zoom-in on McMahon's face!), then it was Okerlund and
Heenan, Gorilla and Heenan, and finally it was Sean Mooney and Bobby Heenan.
>Some of the most stupid angles took place too --
>the Pregeant woman that threatens to push her baby out (talk about
>attitude...and this was 1990). We saw stupid angles with Paul Berrer
>imbalming Alfred Hayes.
Stupid, but hilarious.
Paul (about Alfred): We want him to look as natural as possible.
Bobby (chuckling): You shoulda come here fifteen years ago!
>We would see the debut of Ric Flair (good angle) and
>Flair was classic on the PTW set. We see Hogan fans scrub toilets (Hogan
>haters would love this) by Sgt. Slaughter.
Some of the stuff was just hilarious. Really, a guilty pleasure for WWFers in
1991.
>After this show really bomed,
>McMahon returned as host for a square table discussion show. Heenan,
>Perfect, Monsoon, Reverand Slick, Hillbilly Jim and others would guest-host
>and talk about angles and fueds. Prime Time ended shortly before 1993 when
>Raw debuted.
The last Prime Time Wrestling aired January 3, 1993.
>Monday Night Raw: For the first three years it would be pre-taped in weeks
>advance, but it was a break through.
Monday Night Raw, still the premiere wrestling show on cable today, was live
from the Manhattan Center for the first few months. Then they went about every
other week live, from places like the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, Bushkill
PA, and Watertown, NY.
>You would finally see good midcarder
>vs. miscarder matches and Superstar vs. Superstar -- some jobbers graced the
>USA screen, but finally a one hour wrestling show and it was one night's
>card (not live, however). Today Raw is War is live everyweek and the golden
>age has begun.
Raw was live every week at the beginning until they realized how expensive it
would be to do that - and remember, this was 1993. So they went to taping
three weeks of Raw at a time. They did this for a while until about 1997, when
they went every other week live (the live show on Monday, the taped show taped
the next day). When SmackDown! became a fixture on UPN, Raw went live every
week.
>WWF Mania: Saturday Morning Show on USA I think. I think Mania was Todd
>Pettingills version of All American Wrestling -- as Todd would host from a
>control room. He made me so sick in those days, I never watched the show.
Pettingill is from WPLJ-FM in New York, as part of the morning show there.
He's just as annoying on the radio now as he was on the television back then.
And considering that the show aired on Saturday mornings, it was just as well.
>WWF Shotgun Saturday Night: First not show on FOX market.
KPNX (NBC) aired it when it debuted in January 1997.
>Was a hardcore
>type of show, kind of a pre-WWF attitude show with attitude written all over
>it. The wrestlers would have matches in bar and grills. After five episodes,
>this show and Superstars 1996 was basically the same show. Superstars became
>a promo show showing highlights in 1997, and Shotgun continues to be a
>midcarder show and jobber squash.
It's the only bastion of wrestling left in the entire WWF.
>WWF Sunday Night Heat: Experiment in 1998. Show did so great it remainded.
>Before Smackdown, it was considered the second best thing to Raw. In 1999,
>it was a music video show for a few weeks after Smackdown -- but with that
>not working, it became like Jacked -- a midcarder show.
The cool thing about it is on PPV Sundays. They now do the one-hour pre-show.
>WWF Smackdown: Experiment episode in April 1999 -- began in August/Sept
>1999. Not as good as Raw, basically what Sunday Night Heat used to be.
>McMahon might shock us any week and have a good title change now and then,
>but otherwise its a two hour version of heat -- while heat as become Shotgun
>and Shotgun/Jacked is more like Wrestling Challenge in the old days.
SmackDown! is Raw for the broadcast network, for all intents and purposes.
- Jeremy If Atlanta is not "Loserville" anymore,
then how do you explain John Rocker?
--
jesoria75 (at) | "You treat me like a dog and you expect me | AUSTIN
mindspring (dot) com | to smile? You remind me of a JACKASS~!" - SCSA | 3:16
URL upon request |--------------------------------------------------------
---------------------' "Inhibitions? Leave 'em in the car. Go Baby Go!" - NTRA
Andre, Kerry, Eddie, Flyin' Brian, Gorilla Monsoon, Owen Hart ... Sigh ...
Hardcore
"Clint Johnson" <gna...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
<huge snip> Channel 5 in Washington D.C. is WTTG, which for years was
"MetroMedia 5". They took over the WWF show from Ch. 20 (then WDCA) which
had had "All Star" and "Championship" since the mid-Seventies.
Also note that D.C.'s former "Super TV" station, Ch. 50, also had a WWF show
in the late-80s as part of their seven-days-a-week wrestling lineup - one of
the few stations I know of that had TV from all the major federations: NWA,
AWA, USWA/World Class, the original UWF, GLOW and then POWW (ladies), and
WWF.
Finally: I remember trying like crazy to pick up Ch. 43 in Salisbury MD (I'm
in Baltimore), which for a brief time had Joe Pedicino's fantastic "Pro
Wrestling This Week". This was a highlights show that tried to include all
the major and middle promotions (he couldn't always get NWA and WWF). I
still have a few VERY snowy episodes on tape.
Don Del Grande
>Now there were the days. Sometimes bloopers could happen, but little Marks
>would never truly know.
>
>Superstars: Usually shown on Saturday Mornings in the late 80s (86-89) on
>DC20 while shown on WRLF-FOX on sundays. The show usually was a bunch of
>promos and superstars or midcarders beating up jobbers. Sometimes McMahon
>would take a match from Saturday Nights Main Event and say "Here's a special
>match from Saturday Night's Main event" or have a title match against a
>jobber. Like Randy Savage vs. Virgil. Maybe the world Champ would cut a
>promo. The rest of the show would either be interviews or interviews to set
>up a local house show. Having DC 20 back in those days and a Virginan local
>company that Fox bought back in 1988 would have it -- so sometimes you could
>watch interviews for a Washington based house show or a richmond based house
>show. Otherwise, there were just plain promos done by the wrestlers hosted
>by either Mene Gene, Greg DeGeorge, or Sean Mooney.
Didn't "Superstars" have an occasional "main event"-level match that wasn't
on SNME? I seem to remember Windham/Rotundo winning the tag belts from
Iron Shiek/Volkoff on "Superstars" without it being on NBC. (Did any belts
ever change on SNME, not including Andre beating Hogan on a prime-time
special?)
--------------------------------------------------
Don Del Grande, del_g...@netvista.net
Pardon me for asking, but in the 1980s, how often did matches in house
shows outside of New York have different endings in different cities?
"Hey, CNN just mentioned Ultimate Warrior pinned Andre in 30 seconds
somewhere in the midwest, just like he did here! Wait a minute..."
Hardcore
"Rush Wickes" <ru...@south-side.org> wrote:
>
Hulk Hogan had a
> title match against Cowboy Bob Orton on Superstars once as well.
>
Ah...remember in the 70s and 80s, when WWF "face" champions (Bruno, Backlund,
Hogan) RARELY appeared in matches on the syndicated shows, except to promote
angles - while the "heel" champs (Graham, Sheik) wrestled nearly every week?
Another note: Once, I got to see "WWF Championship" in NYC (this was between
'81 and '83) and I noticed that each house show promo included the notice
that it was a "commercial announcement" or "commercial in nature". We never
heard that in Baltimore/DC...did any other town have those blurbs? The only
thing like it we had was Schiavone's thingy at the end of the NWA's
"Worldwide" and "Mid-Atlantic" syndie shows: "...a presentation of the JCP
Sports Network; and has been furnished to this station for broadcast at this
time, in exchange for commercial consideration."
--Randy Brown
The Icon of Elkton Theatres
Metlhd3138
WWF Blast Off: recap show on WGN. Got a horrible 6am time slot and was
cancelled by the end of 97
Action Zone: debuted in 94 as a replacement for all american. Occasionally
showed original matches, but by 95
became a lackluster recap show showing squashes from challenge and superstars.
SuperAstros: WWF Lucha show on univision. Due to the wwf not promoting the show
it sadly died a quick death in 99 and ended its last few weeks as a recap show.
This is fun, if anyone wants to see a history of all the wcw tv shows, i may
post that .
Metlhd3138
Superstars of wrestling 86-early 90: McMahon/Jesse Ventura
late 90-early 91: McMahon/Piper/HTM (shows changes name to just superstars as
well)
Late 91:HTM gone, replaced with savage as a heel announcer until face turn in
spring 91
92: McMahon/Perfect
93-4:McMahon/Lawler
95-6: Dok Hendrix/McMahon
Wrestling challenge:
86: Monsoon/Jimmy hart
87-88: Monsoon/Heenan
89-early 90:Monsoon/Schivone
late 90-93:Monsoon/Heenan (mcmahon did one show when monsoon was sick, neidhart
was breifly there in 91)
94: Monsoon/Dibiase
95:Monsoon/Stan Lane
SNME:
85-Early 90: McMahon/Ventura
late 90:McMahon/Piper
91: McMahon/Savage
dont know about prime time,spotlight,or all american
RAW:
93: McMahon/Rob Bartlett/Heenan
Mid 93: Bartlett replaced with savage
94: McMahon/Savage
late 94:McMahon/HBK
95:McMahon/Lawler (hbk does guest apperances)
96:JR/Lawler/McMahon (occasionally)Michael Cole (occasionally)
97:JR/Lawler/McMahon (McMahon leaves after ss 97)
98-present: hr 1: Jr/Kevin Kelly
hr 2: Jr/lawler (cole replaces jr in late 98 early 99)
Dr.Perriwinkle
WWF 11 Alive was a Shotgun variation that aired on Paxon owned stations for a
few months.
WWF New York Aired on and Off from '97'-99 on WPXN, WPIX, and most recently,
WLNY. They originally wanted Paul E. to do the specialized commentary for the
show since the NWA/WCW Pro Wrestling New York show that aired on WPIX with his
commentary around '90-'91 did strong ratings. He wanted an ECW segment each
week if they gave him the commentary job, but whoever was in charge of this
stuff at Titan didn't comply.
WWF Shows have also had their renamed Canadian equivilents. Superstars was
Maple Leaf Wrestling, Challenge was Cavalcade, and Shotgun was Canadian
Superstars. This was done because there was some CRTC rule about Canada having
to air a show at the same time as it does in the U.S. or earlier, so WWF
presented the renamed shows as original shows to air them later.
Plus, there was the WWF TBS show, which aired stuff from the Syndie & USA
shows, but TBS got so many complaints that they forced the WWF to start doing
shows from the TBS Studio in March '85. McMahon sold the timeslot to Crockett
a month later.
Also, I don't think anyone mentioned that Action Zone started as Challenge with
one extra amin event before the Zone changed formats and became a highlight
show.
There was also WBF bodystars on USA, but I don't (want to) remember too much
about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"<BRyder> Cactusbix - I think you should have concensual sex with yourself."
-Said by Bob Ryder in the WCW Live Chat
"Got any toilet paper?" "Nope." "Got five ones for a five?"
James Fabiano
>Heres the commentary teams for all the main shows:
>Superstars of wrestling 86-early 90: McMahon/Jesse Ventura
>late 90-early 91: McMahon/Piper/HTM (shows changes name to just superstars as
>well)
>Late 91:HTM gone, replaced with savage as a heel announcer until face turn in
>spring 91
>92: McMahon/Perfect
>93-4:McMahon/Lawler
>95-6: Dok Hendrix/McMahon
Hey, what about the early days when Bruno Sammartino was with Vince and Jesse?
Don't remember HTM as an announcer in the early '90s, and I think Piper was
still on with Vince and Savage in 1991. Then Savage got "reinstated" and it
became Vince, Piper, and Perfect, then Piper left in 1992. In 1993, the team
was Vince, Lawler, and Savage, and I think it became just Vince and Lawler in
1994 sometime. Also, didn't Reo Rodgers, Stan Lane, and Johnny Polo figure
somewhere into the mix?
>Wrestling challenge:
>86: Monsoon/Jimmy hart
>87-88: Monsoon/Heenan
>89-early 90:Monsoon/Schivone
>late 90-93:Monsoon/Heenan (mcmahon did one show when monsoon was sick,
>neidhart
>was breifly there in 91)
>94: Monsoon/Dibiase
>95:Monsoon/Stan Lane
If memory serves me right (TM Iron Chef), wasn't the original Challenge team
Gorilla, Ernie Ladd, and Johnny Valiant? Also, I believe the team became JR
and Heenan in 1993, no?
I gotta respond to the other posts about the old syndies, great stuff.....
James Fabiano
HOME PAGE: http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/fabiano
MAYBE NEXT YEAR..... - http://rutgerswomen.com/images/128fan.jpg
Thank you Charles Schulz!
Dusty Springfield, Owen Hart, Jean Shepherd, Gene Rayburn, Joseph Heller,
sigh...
The High Flyer
around '93.
Michael
Big Mike
>There was also WBF bodystars on USA, but I don't (want to) remember too much
>about it.
>
especially the Tug of War between wrestlers and bodybulders...
====
My contribution to the SM community
http://www.pitaro.com/michael/emulate.html
=
Yes, but voices in your head don't count as legitimate sources. (Scott "Netcop"
Keith)
=
I can kick Grabbler Baki's ass!
=
The Cubs Fan
"Dr.Perriwinkle" <cact...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19991229101221...@ng-fk1.aol.com...
> More stuff that wasn't noted earlier:
>
> WWF 11 Alive was a Shotgun variation that aired on Paxon owned stations
for a
> few months.
>
> WWF New York Aired on and Off from '97'-99 on WPXN, WPIX, and most
recently,
> WLNY. They originally wanted Paul E. to do the specialized commentary for
the
> show since the NWA/WCW Pro Wrestling New York show that aired on WPIX with
his
> commentary around '90-'91 did strong ratings. He wanted an ECW segment
each
> week if they gave him the commentary job, but whoever was in charge of
this
> stuff at Titan didn't comply.
WWFNY's matches were Shotgun's, redubbed with local NY commentary. IIRC,
Vince Russo ended up as color commentator instead. AND REALLY SUCKED (as he
showed when he filled in for Jim Cornette on Shotgun SN a few times)
The Cubs Fan
"Rush Wickes" <ru...@south-side.org> wrote in message
news:84d71l$24i$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
> Metlhd3138 <metlh...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:19991228225552...@ng-bg1.aol.com...
>
> > SuperAstros: WWF Lucha show on univision. Due to the wwf not promoting
the
> show
> > it sadly died a quick death in 99 and ended its last few weeks as a
recap
> show.
It wasn't that quick, IMO. I want to say '9 months' but I'm not too sure.
>
> My understanding was that Superastros was scaled out in part due to the
> emergence of Smackdown. This made the weekly workload too heavy for the
> production crews, even by the standards of the WWF. Something had to go,
I
> never thought SuperAstros was all that interesting, the language barrier
> probably was only partly responsible for that.
The language barrier was one of the reasons all the guys (except Taka,
Funaki and Papi, who had been around before the show) got dropped as the
show then. I think the show itself was canceled as a time issue (6 hours of
tapings now) but there were plans initally to move some of the guys/fueds
over to Smackdown. But, the creative forces at the time (Russo! Ferrera!)
must have not thought they'd get over and they all got let go.
I personally liked Super Astros, despite the fact I've got (had) 2 years of
Spanish and remember little. It was totally different then any other Big 2
product in that we got tons of lucha, and a lot of it good. The .5 hour
format disgused the small (and often changing, besides the main charcters)
rosters, and as long as they gave them time, it was really worth it.
TCF
> --
> Rush Wickes -- remove the '-' to reply via e-mail
> http://www.southside.org/~rush/
>
>
The Real Meanie Babe
<nkh...@luc.edu> wrote:
^*^I personally liked Super Astros, despite the fact I've got (had) 2 years of
^*^Spanish and remember little. It was totally different then any other Big 2
^*^product in that we got tons of lucha, and a lot of it good. The .5 hour
^*^format disgused the small (and often changing, besides the main charcters)
^*^rosters, and as long as they gave them time, it was really worth it.
well, if you got SuperAstros, chances are you could catch the CMLL and
AAA shows on the same channel. I don't know if AAA airs anymore, but I
was watching CNLL last weekend. It's lucha, it's mixed in terms of
quality (I MUCH prefer AAA, they have women's matches and generally
younger/better performers) but enjoyable.
Check your local listings.
pixie
"You stink, Mr. Filthy." - Child to Doink the Clown
º¤ø http://www.locostuff.com ø¤º
http://www.onelist.com/community/PokemonObsessed
The Real Meanie Babe
<nkh...@luc.edu> wrote:
^*^WWFNY's matches were Shotgun's, redubbed with local NY commentary. IIRC,
^*^Vince Russo ended up as color commentator instead. AND REALLY SUCKED (as he
^*^showed when he filled in for Jim Cornette on Shotgun SN a few times)
Yup. I remember telling people in other states about it and no one
knew what WWFNY was. And that's exactly what it was. Russo has one of
the scariest voices on the face of the earth - and I was born and
raised in NY! That accent...ugggh. He also wasn't very entertaining.
I'm glad they decided to stop doing that and give us regular Shotgun
now. Or Metal or whatever the hell they call it. =)
pixie, "always likes the B team matches, always hated that NY accent"
Steve Jeremiah Williams-Soria (Jeremy Soria)
>
>"Rush Wickes" <ru...@south-side.org> wrote in message
>news:84d71l$24i$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
>> Metlhd3138 <metlh...@aol.com> wrote in message
>> news:19991228225552...@ng-bg1.aol.com...
>>
>> > SuperAstros: WWF Lucha show on univision. Due to the wwf not promoting
>the
>> show
>> > it sadly died a quick death in 99 and ended its last few weeks as a
>recap
>> show.
>
>It wasn't that quick, IMO. I want to say '9 months' but I'm not too sure.
Los SuperAstros on Univisión lasted exactly one year. It was, for all intents
and purposes, Lucha Libre Lite.
>I personally liked Super Astros, despite the fact I've got (had) 2 years of
>Spanish and remember little. It was totally different then any other Big 2
>product in that we got tons of lucha, and a lot of it good. The .5 hour
>format disgused the small (and often changing, besides the main charcters)
>rosters, and as long as they gave them time, it was really worth it.
SuperAstros was a good show. It was just buried in a Sunday morning timeslot -
12 Noon ET, which later became 11:30am ET.
- Jeremy Thanks for the rides, Gary Stevens.
Steve Jeremiah Williams-Soria (Jeremy Soria)
>well, if you got SuperAstros, chances are you could catch the CMLL and
>AAA shows on the same channel.
I don't know if you can; Univisión stations in the United States don't carry
any wrestling now to my knowledge. Those that live on the US/Mexican border
(San Diego, Yuma, El Paso, etc.) can fill in with more info.
For a long time, Telemundo aired a Spanish version of WWF Superstars. The
original announcers were Hector Alonzo and Pedro Morales. Later, when "the new
WWF Generation" rolled around in 1994, Ed Trucco and Carlos Carerra picked up
for the two. I believe they still do the Spanish commentary for Raw and the
PPVs to this very day.
Steve Jeremiah Williams-Soria (Jeremy Soria)
James Fabiano
late nights on Telemundo, WNJU 47) And Frenchy Martin's interview segment????
Metlhd3138
>any wrestling now to my knowledge.
They DO show an edited 1 hr version of nitro focusing on cruisers. I think its
on 7:00 pm on saturdays and repeats 3:00 pm on sundays.
Crumbley
Raw is War 9PM Mon. USA WWF
Nitro 8PM Mon. TNT WCW
Smackdown 8PM Thurs. MVC WWF
Thunder 8:05PM Thurs. TBS WCW
UCW 5PM Fri. DTV/MVCC UCW
ECW 8PM Fri. TNN ECW
Livewire 10AM Sat. USA WWF
Music City Wrestling 6PM Sat. WB MCW
Saturday Night 6:05PM Sat. TBS WCW
Violent Wrestling 10PM Sat. MVCC VCW
Jakked 11PM Sat. WB WWF
Hardcore TV Midnight Sat. WB ECW
Superstars 10AM USA WWF
Worldwide 10AM FOX WCW
Metal noon ABC WWF
Heat 7PM USA WWF
Breakdown
wwf:7 shows;9 hours
wcw:4 shows;7 hours
ecw:2 shows;2 hours
ucw:1 show;1 hour
mcw:1 show;1 hour
vcw:1 show;1 hour
Totals
16 shows;21 hours
Mike Horan
Metlhd3138 wrote in message
<19991228225552...@ng-bg1.aol.com>...
>Heres the shows you missed :
>WWF Blast Off: recap show on WGN. Got a horrible 6am time slot and was
>cancelled by the end of 97
I barely followed wrestling at all between about mid-'93 and late-'98, but
if the WWF ever aired on WGN in Chicago (if that's the station you're
referring to), 'GN did not promote it AT ALL.
The only time I can ever remember wrestling being on WGN (I'm 19 years old)
was around 1990, when they ran a WCW show (I forget which one) on Saturday
mornings for a brief time.
During my stupid young mark phase of 1989-'93, WWF Superstars and Challenge
always aired on WFLD, Fox-32 and WCW Pro Wrestling (sponsored by Three Q's
Import Parts) aired on WGBO-66, probably the lowest-rated commercial station
in Chicago. WWF Superstars usually ran at 11 on Saturday mornings, and
Challenge usually ran at 11 on Sundays, although I can remember that in the
fall/winter of 1990-91 both ran back to back on Sunday
mornings....Superstars at 8 am and Challenge at 9 am. I loved it.
No cable in my house at that time, so Saturday Night's Main Events on NBC
were a special occasion, and I'd always rush to the video store to rent PPVs
as soon as they came out. Hell, in those days you had to wait a month for
the video of the PPV or the latest WWF Magazine or PWI to come out to find
out everything that happened on a PPV...they would only give brief results
on Superstars or Challenge.
During the dark days of 1993, I think 'FLD booted Challenge to 4:15 am
Sundays or some ungodly hour like that. By New Year's Day 1995, WGBO went
Spanish and WCIU, a former Spanish station, changed to English programming
and took over WCW. I'm not sure of the history after that, but both feds'
syndicated shows now air on WCIU.
Ah yes, the good old days..
-Mike
hipc...@ccm.net
The Cubs Fan
"Mike Horan" <hipc...@ccm.net> wrote in message
news:3871...@news.ccm.net...
>
> Metlhd3138 wrote in message
> <19991228225552...@ng-bg1.aol.com>...
> >Heres the shows you missed :
> >WWF Blast Off: recap show on WGN. Got a horrible 6am time slot and was
> >cancelled by the end of 97
>
> I barely followed wrestling at all between about mid-'93 and late-'98, but
> if the WWF ever aired on WGN in Chicago (if that's the station you're
> referring to), 'GN did not promote it AT ALL.
>
> The only time I can ever remember wrestling being on WGN (I'm 19 years
old)
> was around 1990, when they ran a WCW show (I forget which one) on Saturday
> mornings for a brief time.
There was a weird deal with the WWF/WGN Blast Off show. Currently, do to
NBA and MLB restrictions, WGN can only show so many games nationwide, so
others are just shown in the Chicago area (with the other audiences getting
a movie or something). Blastoff was the oppisitie...it was shown every
where over WGN BUT Chicago.
Don't ask me why, but that's just the way it was.
TCF
andre grant
challenge. and by the way here in philly we got both but spotlight came
on late as hell