152-530: Forbidden Door or The Forbidden Door may refer to: The Forbidden Door , professional wrestling term referring to working agreement between promotions AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door , professional wrestling joint events: Forbidden Door (2022) Forbidden Door (2023) Forbidden Door (2024) Forbidden Door (2025) The Forbidden Door , 2009 Indonesian film See also [ edit ] Door of No Return (disambiguation) Topics referred to by
304-473: A world heavyweight championship , calling it the only real world title left in professional wrestling. When recalling this event years later, Paul Heyman stated the following: The National Wrestling Alliance was old-school when old-school wasn't hip anymore. We wanted to set our mark, we wanted to breakaway from the pack, we wanted to let the world know that we weren't just some independent promotion. With this event, Eastern Championship Wrestling seceded from
456-501: A "PG-13" level of sex appeal. Although the formula had been popular during the MTV -fueled "rock n' Wrestling" era of the 1980s, fans in the 1990s began to gravitate towards more morally ambiguous characters, wrestlers whose personas were more grounded in reality, and metafiction storylines that acknowledged their awareness of backstage politics via the use of the Internet. With the introduction of
608-588: A 45-minute draw. The NWA repeated the practice again the following year, with a Clash coinciding with WWF's WrestleMania V . Although the main event of the Clash saw NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ricky Steamboat defeat Flair in a best-of-three-falls match that lasted for almost an hour, ratings and attendance for the event fell well below expectations compared to WrestleMania V. Thus, the practice of conflicting major events would cease for six years. By 1988, Crockett's acquisition spree had severely drained his coffers. As
760-519: A big blow off match, which people loved. The WWF broke its way into mainstream entertainment and regularly brought in celebrities for events. The "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" was a period of cooperation and cross-promotion between the WWF and elements of the music industry. The WWF attracting a degree of mainstream attention with Cyndi Lauper joining in 1984 and WWF personalities appeared in her music videos. Hogan gained mainstream popularity for appearing in
912-497: A bitch has got this coming! Let him go! I'm going to kill that son of a bitch! Get out of the fucking way!", with none of the profanity censored. The angle polarized fans and shocked the USA Network, which was not accustomed to airing a program with the profanity and level of violence presented in the vignettes. Although the WWF (and Pillman himself) were forced to issue apologies to avoid Raw being canceled for breach of contract,
1064-423: A bitter event-scheduling war broke out between McMahon and Jim Crockett, Jr. , the owner of JCP. Throughout the 1980s, Crockett had steadily bought out other NWA-affiliated promotions in an attempt to make his organization a national one similar to the WWF. As a result, the term "NWA" became virtually synonymous with JCP. On Thanksgiving night 1987, McMahon's WWF aired Survivor Series on pay-per-view (PPV) against
1216-523: A brief revival in popularity. The main event, a heavily promoted ironman match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart , lasted for more than an hour. In April 1996, two of the WWF's top performers, Kevin Nash (Diesel) and Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), signed contracts with WCW. Prior to their departure, the men had been part of The Kliq , a tight-knit affiliation of wrestlers in the WWF whose backstage influence allowed them to wield an enormous amount of power over
1368-640: A close, real-life friendship that would afford Hogan a degree of influence over the day-to-day operations of the company. WCW's first major pay-per-view event since Hogan's hiring, Bash at the Beach , saw Hogan defeat Ric Flair for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The match was a reworking of a long-teased but never realized feud between the men while they were still working for the WWF: An intended main event match between them at WrestleMania VIII
1520-494: A hiring binge in the early and middle part of the decade, which had been aimed at acquiring large portions of the WWF's talent roster. Behind the scenes, executives who had longed to see WCW removed from the Turner organization were eventually able to see that desire come to fruition after Turner Broadcasting 's merger with Time Warner and their merger with America Online (AOL). With Turner no longer in control, corporate executives of
1672-534: A loose confederation was formed between independent wrestling companies. This was known as the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In the late 1940s to 1950s, the NWA chose Lou Thesz to unify the various world championships into a single "World Heavyweight" title. Thesz's task was not easy, as some promoters, reluctant to lose face, went so far as to shoot title matches to keep their own champions popular with
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#17328595229281824-495: A more aggressive stance in his capacity as vice president. He declared open war on the WWF and aggressively recruited high-profile former WWF wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage , using Turner's funds. Because of their high profiles, Hogan and Savage were able to demand – and get – several concessions not usually allowed to wrestlers at the time. Notably, the men negotiated total creative control over their characters, in addition to multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts at
1976-552: A more athletically skilled wrestler, enabling the office to negotiate wrestler contracts tremendously in its favor. By the late 1950s, professional wrestling had lost its high ratings, and producers, realizing that they had overexposed it, soon dropped most wrestling shows from their lineups. The remaining televised wrestling promoters had small, local syndicated shows, which network producers placed as late-night and Saturday and/or Sunday morning/afternoon fillers rather than signature programming. Promoters used localized television as
2128-431: A neutral/ babyface position and Heenan unashamedly cheering on the heels . The chemistry between Monsoon and Heenan made this show popular with fans for many years despite the fact it was not considered one of the WWF's "primary" shows for most of its history, and many other wrestling programs attempted to copy this formula, with varying degrees of success. During a span of five months between November 1987 and March 1988,
2280-426: A new challenge. In contrast to professional wrestling of the time, which was marketed more towards families, Eastern Championship Wrestling was geared more toward adults and fans who craved a more athletic and violent wrestling product. Its eventual successor, Extreme Championship Wrestling, aimed its product at males between 18 and 35, breaking a few taboos in professional wrestling such as blading . Heyman saw ECW as
2432-458: A new market and establish a new persona, since fans there already knew who they were. Meanwhile, McMahon took advantage of this phenomenon by purchasing promotions all over the continent, in order to produce a widely popular nationwide television program and make the WWF the only viewing choice. To counter the NWA's primary supercard , Starrcade , the WWF created its flagship show, WrestleMania , available on 135 closed-circuit networks . The show
2584-613: A reported record attendance of 93,173 people, is widely considered to be the pinnacle of the period. The episode of The Main Event I is the highest rated professional wrestling television show to date, with a 15.2 rating and 33 million viewers. Both had a main event featuring Hulk Hogan battling André the Giant for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship . Following WrestleMania III, the WWF added to its franchise and created both
2736-531: A reputation for training some of the best wrestlers of the era, including Gotch, known as one of America's first sports superstars. Gotch, regarded as "peerless" at his peak, was the first to actually claim the world's undisputed heavyweight championship by beating all contenders in North America and Europe. He became the world's champion by beating European wrestling champion Georg Hackenschmidt , both in 1908 and 1911, seen by modern wrestling historians as two of
2888-544: A result of the appeal of television. Wrestling fit naturally with television because it was easy to understand, had drama, comedy and colorful characters, and was inexpensive for production. From 1948 to 1955, each of the three major television networks broadcast wrestling shows; the largest supporter being the DuMont Television Network . Gorgeous George became one of the biggest stars during this period, gaining media attention for his outrageous character, which
3040-632: A result, he was forced to sell his company to Turner, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, who wanted to retain the steady, strong ratings of the JCP wrestling programs. Turner named the company World Championship Wrestling (WCW) after the flagship television show; it remained affiliated with the NWA until 1993. As 1993 began, PTW was struggling in the ratings and was canceled by USA Network. The show that succeeded it, Monday Night Raw , changed how wrestling on cable television would be presented. The WWF decided that it should use its cable time as
3192-509: A result. This made it impossible for the Trio to retrieve it. They responded by calling the Munn-Zbyszko match illegitimate, and reinstated Munn as champion, but quickly had him drop it to Lewis. This left two champions, Ed Lewis and Joe Stecher, who were regarded as the dominant wrestlers of the period. Stecher and Lewis agreed to a unification match years later, in 1928, when Stecher gave in and lost
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#17328595229283344-480: A revival of Pro Wrestling USA. In 1988, the struggling World Class Wrestling Association (formerly known as World Class Championship Wrestling until it withdrew from the NWA in 1986) and Continental Wrestling Federation (known as Continental Championship Wrestling until it was bought out in 1988) would also take part in this alliance, which agreed to unify the WCWA and AWA Heavyweight Titles at Superclash III. Superclash III
3496-512: A second office in their old Dallas headquarters. To fight the WWF's control of the industry, JCP took the NWA's pay-per-view names and used its best talent to draw ratings. Crockett was unable to beat McMahon, who took big bites out of Jim Crockett Promotions by successfully airing the 1987 Survivor Series and 1988 Royal Rumble on the same nights as Starrcade 1987 and the 1988 Bunkhouse Stampede PPV cards. This left him with no viable option other than selling out to media mogul Ted Turner , who renamed
3648-429: A short presented before WrestleMania XII , which killed off all the characters. WrestleMania XII also began a brief turning point for the WWF, after which Raw would overtake Nitro for two consecutive months. The event saw the return of 1980s fan favorite "Rowdy" Roddy Piper , who made a face turn to fight Goldust . Another 1980s fan favorite returning that evening was The Ultimate Warrior , who would go on to enjoy
3800-454: A showcase for original matches and storylines that would serve as the major build-up to the quarterly pay-per-view broadcasts. The original Raw broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. The Raw formula was very different than that of Prime Time Wrestling : instead of taped matches, with studio voice overs and taped chat, Raw
3952-500: A small live, in-studio audience, as were most professional wrestling television shows of the period. They featured wrestling matches, plus melodramatic monologues and inter-character confrontations, similar to the programming offered by other territories, including the Northeast -based WWF. GCW's show, which aired on Saturday evenings, was complemented by a Sunday evening edition. Jim Barnett , Jack and Gerald Brisco had major stakes in
4104-435: A star for his cocky persona, his many catchphrases and attractive charisma; Mankind gained popularity for enduring extreme pain, performing dangerous stunts renowned among the industry today; the stable D-Generation X was famous for its adult themes and established star, The Undertaker , added to his fame because of his hardcore matches most notably with Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley , his gimmick which many consider to be
4256-415: A successful acting career, while Mick Foley published a New York Times -bestselling autobiography; Stone Cold Steve Austin quickly became the company's most popular star and its flagship performer, and would be featured in mainstream media all over the U.S., from Nash Bridges to Dilbert . The heightened profiles of WWF wrestlers helped to draw the attention of both new and casual wrestling fans to
4408-589: A talk show segment on its programming called A Flair for the Gold . At Slamboree 1993 , WCW reunited the Four Horsemen with Flair, Arn Anderson and Paul Roma . Ole Anderson was part of the group as an advisor but made only one appearance on A Flair for the Gold . A Flair for Gold would eventually play host to one of the most infamous incidents of 1990s wrestling: On a live Clash of the Champions XXIV building up
4560-553: A time when many top wrestlers were only receiving around $ 1 million a year. Bischoff's concessions to Hogan and Savage would set a precedent for WCW's hiring process that would prove problematic in later years: As Bischoff began to aggressively pursue rival talent for jobs with WCW, performers—aware of the deals Hogan and Savage had been given—began to demand similar contracts, ultimately causing wrestlers' salaries to soar out of control. Concurrent with Hogan's arrival in WCW, he and Bischoff formed
4712-448: A time, allowing long-term angles and feuds to develop. This was the key to their success; they were able to keep wrestlers from their competition, and were able to have regular wrestling cards. Their business succeeded quickly, gaining popularity for its freshness and unique approach to wrestling; a traveling stable of wrestlers. The Trio gained great popularity nationwide during their best years, roughly 1920 to 1925, when they performed in
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4864-435: A weapon for eliminating the competition by purchasing airtime from rival territories, effectively putting them out of business. The NWA was the most dominant wrestling body in the 1950s, and a large number of wrestling promotions had been under its leadership. Many promoters, however, viewed it as a crooked tyrant, holding back innovative changes in the sport. It was during this time that several promoters found reason to leave
5016-660: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Professional wrestling in the United States#The Forbidden Door Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling in the United States , through the advent of television in the 1950s, and cable in the 1980s, began appearing in powerful media outlets, reaching never before seen numbers of viewers. It became an international phenomenon with
5168-464: The Attitude Era , a period in which the WWF used the term "WWF Attitude" to describe its programming from November 9, 1997 to May 6, 2002. The rating war was part of a larger overall struggle between the WWF and WCW, originating in personal animosity between respective owners Vince McMahon and Ted Turner . The rivalry steadily escalated throughout the 1990s to include the use of cutthroat tactics and
5320-473: The Disney/MGM Studios which would become known as the " Disney tapings ". The Disney tapings would ultimately prove disastrous to the company's reputation, largely due to WCW's underestimation of growing internet culture: because the events were recorded weeks, and sometimes months, in advance, fans in attendance had time to disseminate the results not only to wrestling magazines but also online. Seating at
5472-706: The Fall Brawl pay-per-view, WCW decided to introduce a "mystery partner" for the babyfaces, a masked man known as The Shockmaster . The Shockmaster was supposed to crash through a fake wall and intimidate the heels. However, he tripped through the wall, fell on live television and briefly knocked off his helmet. The incident would be talked about for years to come in the burgeoning internet wrestling culture, and, along with WWF's Gobbledy Gooker , "Shockmaster" became wrestling parlance for an exceptionally poorly executed idea. That same year, WCW began taping matches months in advance for syndicated programming like WCW WorldWide at
5624-559: The Fingerpoke of Doom – effectively killed WCW's credibility in the eyes of many fans, and the company was never able to recreate the initial level of popularity that it had enjoyed in the middle of the decade. Simultaneously, WCW experienced financial woes due to the amount of money it had promised wrestlers in their contracts in the early and mid 1990s. The company was ultimately unable to sustain itself while paying wrestlers their contracted salaries, and it went up for sale. The war ended with
5776-531: The Monday Night Wars , was an era of mainstream televised American professional wrestling , from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, in which the World Wrestling Federation 's (WWF; now WWE) Monday Night Raw (later Raw Is War ) and World Championship Wrestling 's (WCW) Monday Nitro were broadcast opposite each other in a battle for Nielsen ratings each week. It largely overlapped with
5928-555: The New World Order (nWo). Hogan's statements, which broke with his earlier face persona, inspired enough vitriol in the audience that they began to pelt the ring with debris: a wayward beer bottle broke Okerlund's nose, and one fan jumped the security railing and attempted to attack Hogan. The following evening on Nitro, most of WCW's top stars gave faux indignant interviews, expressing their feelings of betrayal and disappointment with Hogan's actions. The ensuing storyline, in which
6080-715: The Survivor Series , to counter-programming against Starrcade directly on PPV, and the Royal Rumble , to counter-programming against the Bunkhouse Stampede originally on the USA cable networks before transitioning to pay-per-view in subsequent years. The NWA responded by creating Clash of the Champions I on TBS to compete against WrestleMania IV . Wrestling promotions across the United States feared being forced into bankruptcy by
6232-739: The Third Golden Age of the mid-1990s–early 2000s by the likes of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin , The Rock , and Triple H . Professional wrestling, in the sense of traveling performers paid for mass entertainment in staged matches, began in the post- Civil War period in the late 1860s and 1870s. During this time, wrestlers were often athletes with amateur wrestling experience who competed at traveling carnivals with carnies working as their promoters and bookers. Grand circuses included wrestling exhibitions, quickly enhancing them through colorful costumes and fictional biographies for entertainment, disregarding their competitive nature. Wrestling exhibits during
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6384-432: The "hardcore style" in other wrestling promotions, namely WWF and WCW. In 1997, the WWF gained momentum with the start of the Attitude Era . McMahon recast himself as the evil boss, known authoritatively as "Mr. McMahon". While an interesting character, it was McMahon's realistic feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin who had proven to be a huge money making draw for the company and become the company's most popular wrestler at
6536-428: The 1950s, both locally and nationally, reaching a larger fanbase than ever before. This was a time of enormous growth for professional wrestling, as rising demand and national expansion made it a much more popular and lucrative form of entertainment than in decades previous. This was called a "Golden Age" for the wrestling industry. It was also a time of great change in both the character and professionalism of wrestlers as
6688-457: The 1970s, local stations were often retransmitted to new markets as superstations . When Atlanta television station WTCG (later WTBS, then WPCH) became a superstation in the late 1970s, Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), an NWA member which aired on the station, reached a national audience. GCW's television show, hosted by Gordon Solie , was recorded in one of WTBS's studios at 1050 Techwood Drive in downtown Atlanta . Shows were taped before
6840-748: The AWA, Gagne had built the company off of technical wrestling. Hogan left in 1983, irreparably damaging the AWA. In spite of all this, the NWA as a unit was still on top, and gained huge dominance through Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), becoming the first nationally broadcast wrestling program on cable television in 1979. It aired on the TBS network. By 1981, GCW became the most watched show on cable television. The 1980s represented professional wrestling's greatest period of televised entertainment, reaching widespread popularity among American youth, as well as producing some of its most spectacular characters. In comparison to
6992-635: The American public because of widespread doubt of its legitimacy and status as a competitive sport. Wrestlers during the time recount it as largely faked by the 1880s. It also waned due to Gotch's retirement in 1913, and no new wrestling superstar emerging to captivate the audience's attention. Following the retirement of Frank Gotch, professional wrestling—except in the Midwest where legitimate wrestlers such as Michigan's "Poison Ivy" took on all comers at State Fairs—was losing popularity fast. Media attention focused on
7144-506: The Curtain Call incident by insinuating that Hall's departure from the WWF had been a ruse and that he was, in fact, staging an "invasion" of WCW on behalf of the WWF. Two weeks later, a second WWF defector, Kevin Nash (who had wrestled as Diesel), appeared on Nitro . Hall and Nash were dubbed " The Outsiders ", and would show up unexpectedly during Nitro broadcasts, usually jumping wrestlers backstage, distracting wrestlers by standing in
7296-449: The Eastern territory, acquiring fans from the highly exposed big cities. The Trio was dealt a severe blow by Stanislaus Zbyszko , when he beat the rookie Wayne Munn for their world heavyweight championship, against the original booking. Munn, who had been recruited to wrestling and pushed to the level of champion in only a few months, was the Trio's new star and main attraction. Zbyszko
7448-625: The Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center , a New York City theater, and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved highly successful. However, the weekly live schedule became a financial drain on the WWF, and the company began taping shows; sometimes up to a month's worth of shows were taped at a time. In the same year as the premiere of Raw , WCW promoted former commentator and American Wrestling Association (AWA) announcer/sales associate Eric Bischoff to
7600-545: The Kliq's influence within the company, the WWF's official stance was that they could not match WCW's contract offer. On May 19, 1996, in their last WWF match before leaving for WCW, Nash and Hall were involved in a highly publicized incident at Madison Square Garden dubbed "The Curtain Call", in which four members of The Kliq (Nash, Hall, Michaels, Helmsley) broke character in the ring after their match to say goodbye to Nash and Hall (Waltman
7752-463: The NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling. The revamped promotion's unorthodox style and controversial storylines made it popular among fans in the 18- to 35-year-old male demographic. It showcased many different styles of professional wrestling, popularizing hardcore wrestling matches as well as lucha libre and Japanese wrestling styles. ECW was promoted as counterculture and a grittier alternative to multimillion-dollar organizations such as
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#17328595229287904-444: The NWA could only manage to have a few of its stars at one show at a time, so as to promote the product in every territory. After the WWF gained huge dominance with Wrestlemania, Crockett responded to the success of the WWF and successfully acquired time slots on TBS, and would continue to buy out NWA promotions between 1985 and 1987 as well. The advent of nationwide television also weakened the system. Wrestlers could no longer travel to
8056-552: The NWA's Starrcade , which Crockett marketed as the NWA's answer to WrestleMania . However, many cable companies could only offer one live PPV event at a time. The WWF then threatened that any cable company that chose not to carry Survivor Series would not carry any WWF PPV events sixty days before and twenty-one days after the show. Therefore, the WWF PPV was cleared 10–1 over Starrcade, as only three cable companies opted to remain loyal to their contract with Crockett. After this incident,
8208-410: The NWA. ECW adapted a hardcore style of wrestling, and it exposed the audience to levels of violence rarely seen in wrestling. The unorthodox style of moves, controversial storylines, and intense bloodthirst of ECW made it immensely popular among many wrestling fans in the 18-to-25-year-old demographic. Its intense fanbase, albeit a small constituency, reached near-cultism in the late 1990s and inspired
8360-465: The PPV industry warned McMahon not to schedule PPV events simultaneously with the NWA again. However, McMahon was still not willing to fully cooperate with Crockett. On January 24, 1988, another scheduling conflict took place between the WWF and NWA: the NWA presented the Bunkhouse Stampede on PPV, while WWF aired the Royal Rumble for free on the USA Network. Later that year, with WWF's WrestleMania IV around
8512-435: The U.S. However, the WWF's show on WTBS was a ratings disaster, as GCW fans, disliking the cartoonish characters and storylines of the WWF, simply stopped watching. Two weeks after Black Saturday, WTBS debuted the show of a successor promotion to GCW created by holdout shareholders, Championship Wrestling from Georgia , albeit on early Saturday mornings. Moreover, despite originally promising to produce original programming for
8664-533: The United States, in the First Golden Age of professional wrestling in the 1940s–1960s, Gorgeous George gained mainstream popularity, followed in the Second Golden Age in the 1980s–early 1990s by Hulk Hogan , André the Giant , "Macho Man" Randy Savage , Ric Flair , "Rowdy" Roddy Piper , Ultimate Warrior , Sting , Dusty Rhodes , Bret "The Hitman" Hart , Shawn Michaels , and The Undertaker , and in
8816-709: The WTBS time slot in Atlanta, McMahon chose instead to provide only a clip show for WTBS, featuring highlights from other WWF programming as well as matches from house shows at Madison Square Garden , Boston Garden and other major arenas. This format would eventually be the cornerstone of the WWF Prime Time Wrestling ( PTW ) program. In May 1985, McMahon sold the WTBS time slot to another Southern -based and NWA-affiliated wrestling company, Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), under heavy pressure from station owner Ted Turner , who
8968-706: The WWF Women's Championship belt on the December 18, 1995, edition of Nitro and insulted her former employers before throwing the belt in the garbage. Raw and Nitro traded wins in the "Monday Night War" early on, but WWE has conceded that by December 1995 "WCW had the advantage over WWE in the storied Monday Night War." Nitro began airing a weekly segment entitled Where the Big Boys Play! composed of stock footage of matches featuring current WWF wrestlers who had started their careers as jobbers in WCW, all of which ended in
9120-543: The WWF World Heavyweight Title, Gorilla Monsoon famously proclaimed "Hulkamania is here." Around this time, faces and heels became a generally more obvious and important part of wrestling. 'Gimmicks' were more popular, and it widely became a popular sport again. Wrestling was generally seen more as a form of fun and entertainment, however, than an official sport. It was more about building up face/heel feuds such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper /Hulk Hogan and going into
9272-469: The WWF agreeing to drop the suit in exchange for the right to bid on WCW properties should they ever come up for liquidation. Raw , and the WWF in general, was considered to be at a creative nadir before Nitro started. Into the early 1990s, the WWF had continued the creative formula that had given the company success in the 1980s: clear-cut face vs. heel storylines, colorful wrestlers with themed gimmicks, and alluring female valets who nonetheless maintained
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#17328595229289424-686: The WWF and WCW. Monday Nitro premiered on September 4, 1995 as an hour-long weekly show, and Bischoff was instrumental in the launching of the show. During their mid-1995 meeting, Turner asked Bischoff how WCW could compete with the WWF. Bischoff, not expecting Turner to comply, said that the only way would be a prime-time slot on a weekday night, possibly up against the WWF's flagship show Monday Night Raw . Surprisingly for Bischoff, Turner granted him one live hour on TNT every Monday night, which specifically overlapped with Raw . This format expanded to two live hours in May 1996 and later three. Bischoff himself
9576-565: The WWF debuted a second cable show, also on USA, called Tuesday Night Titans ( TNT ), a late-night talk show spoof hosted by WWF owner Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes . While still running steadily, Barnett and the Briscos sold their entire stock in GCW (including the television deal) to McMahon, and on July 14, 1984 (otherwise known as " Black Saturday "), the WWF took over GCW. With this move, McMahon controlled all nationally televised wrestling in
9728-584: The WWF wrestler suffering a humiliating loss. Bischoff also began to give away the results of Raw matches on Nitro , as Raw was usually taped a week prior to airing. These moves prompted retaliatory tactics by the WWF; in January 1996, Raw began airing skits before and after commercial breaks entitled Billionaire Ted's Wrasslin' Warroom , depicting parodies of Ted Turner ("Billionaire Ted"), Hulk Hogan ("The Huckster"), "Macho Man" Randy Savage ("The Nacho Man"), and "Mean" Gene Okerlund ("Scheme Gene"). While
9880-598: The WWF, as well as ECW's original owner Paul Heyman jumping over to the WWF to become a commentator and on-screen personality. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship, known as the "World Championship" during its time in the WWF, was eventually unified with the WWF Championship when Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the same night at Vengeance . Monday Night War Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s The Monday Night War or
10032-407: The WWF. Many top WCW stars such as Kevin Nash , Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan missed out on the invasion angle due to them having guaranteed contracts with WCW's parent company, AOL Time Warner . Top WCW talent like Ric Flair and the nWo never came back to the WWF until the invasion angle was over. Despite this, the invasion angle still saw the likes of Booker T and ECW's Rob Van Dam compete in
10184-436: The WWF. They began to unify and conglomerate under more centralized leadership rather than continue independently. Competing promotions aired better talent and attempted to regain their audiences. In late 1987, Continental Wrestling Association wrestler and co-promoter Jerry Lawler had also joined the AWA, and helped establish a relationship between the AWA and CWA, which was formally an NWA territory, that would be somewhat of
10336-655: The amount by 2000. ECW was by this point in dire financial straits and Heyman filed for bankruptcy on April 4, 2001. WCW continued to lose more money and finally folded on March 23, 2001, with McMahon buying out the promotion, after more than 15 years of business. This marked the end of the Monday Night War. During 2001, the WWF aired the Invasion angle , which eventually saw the WCW World Heavyweight Championship as well as other WCW belts be contested in
10488-500: The auspices of Eric Bischoff , WCW introduced a new, complex metastory involving the defection of multiple wrestlers to a rival organization called the New World Order (nWo). McMahon's controversial treatment of Bret Hart in an incident known as the Montreal Screwjob immediately precipitated Hart's departure from the WWF to WCW, alienating a large segment of the WWF's fanbase at the same time WCW came to employ virtually all of
10640-459: The camera. Professional wrestlers themselves began to change. As popularity grew during the mid-1950s, many more wrestlers joined the ranks of the business, and the number of professional wrestlers grew to over 2,000, far more than ever before. Many new wrestlers began fresh without notions of athletic sportsmanship that was popular in competitive arenas, however; they began with dreams of becoming televised superstars. This proved especially true as
10792-437: The combined AOL Time Warner sold WCW's assets. Despite efforts to salvage the company, it was ultimately sold to McMahon, ending the Monday Night War. In retrospect, wrestling commentators have come to see the Monday Night War as a golden age of professional wrestling, along with the 1940s–1950s and 1980s booms, with the competition between the WWF and WCW bringing out their best quality product both in terms of creativity and
10944-402: The company from 1987 to 1992, when it was still affiliated with the NWA, before joining the WWF the following year. WCW's coup of obtaining Luger was significant for several reasons. Because Nitro was live at the time, premiering major stars on the show would signal to the fans the amount of excitement the broadcasts would contain. Secondly, Luger had just come off a successful run in the WWF and
11096-459: The company to his partner, Tod Gordon , who renamed the promotion Eastern Championship Wrestling. When Eastern Championship Wrestling was founded, it was a member of the NWA, and "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert was its head booker. After a falling-out with Gordon, Gilbert was replaced in September 1993 by Paul Heyman (known on television as Paul E. Dangerously), who had just left WCW and was looking for
11248-490: The company went out of business. NWA President Bob Geigel also withdrew from the NWA by December 1987, and attempted to revive his Heart of America Sports Attractions as a national promotion known as World Wrestling Alliance, but would go out of business by 1989. After WrestleMania III, Crockett also acquired the Universal Wrestling Federation—which broke from the NWA in 1986—and would also establish
11400-444: The company's programming. In the late 1990s, WCW's ratings began to suffer as fans grew tired of the nWo storyline, which many viewers perceived as having been allowed to go on for too long. Fans also responded negatively to several gimmicks intended to reinvigorate interest in the promotion, including the introduction of actor David Arquette as WCW World Heavyweight Champion. The company was able to briefly reinvigorate itself after
11552-450: The corner, Crockett decided to use McMahon's own tactics against him, developing his own PPV-caliber event and airing it for free on WTBS opposite WrestleMania. The result was the Clash of the Champions I . On March 27, 1988 – the same night as WrestleMania IV – the first Clash of the Champions aired. This show made Sting a star after he wrestled NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair to
11704-476: The decision was made to fire Sid. Sid's departure resulted in a further problem for the company: As he had been scheduled to defeat Big Van Vader for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade 1993 , several weeks worth of Disney Tapings had been filmed with Sid as the champion, with the intention not to air it until the following year. Sid's departure from the company meant that hours worth of footage had suddenly become worthless. In 1994, Bischoff took
11856-432: The declining support of media outlets during the 1960s and 1970s, professional wrestling, notably the emerging World Wrestling Federation (WWF; abridged from WWWF in 1979), received great exposure through its reappearance on network television. The WWF expanded nationally through the acquisition of talent from competing promotions and, because it was the only company to air televised wrestling nationally, became synonymous with
12008-407: The defections of employees between the two promotions. Throughout the war, the WWF and WCW would both adopt different concepts and narrative techniques. Meanwhile, both companies would establish both formal and informal partnerships with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), with ECW performers either appearing on WWF and WCW shows while still under contract, or outright leaving ECW to work for one of
12160-476: The direction of the company. The group, composed of Nash, Hall, Shawn Michaels , Hunter Hearst Helmsley (later known as Triple H) and Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid), often used their influence to advance one another's careers, and in some instances harm or ruin the careers of performers who displeased them. Accounts varied as to the reason for Nash and Hall's departure: Whereas wrestling analysts speculated that their contracts had been allowed to expire in order to break
12312-408: The early 1990s, McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE) and Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW) – and, as a result, their programming – became a venue through which the business feud could continue, with each company working to drive the other out of business. WCW dominated the ratings through much of the mid-1990s, as Turner's financial resources allowed the company to purchase
12464-406: The ensuing discussion of the incident in the fan community generated the most attention the WWF had received since the beginning of the Monday Night War. This prompted the WWF creative team to begin looking into the idea of more adult-oriented storylines and characters and mimicking WCW's metafiction elements. On February 3, 1997, Monday Night Raw changed to a two-hour format. In an attempt to break
12616-462: The entranceways of arenas or walking around in the audience. A week later, they announced the forthcoming appearance of a mysterious third member of their group. At Bash at the Beach , Hall and Nash were scheduled to team with their mystery partner against Lex Luger, Randy Savage, and Sting. At the onset of the match, Hall and Nash came out without a third man, telling Okerlund that he was "in the building", but that they did not need him yet. Shortly into
12768-546: The established wrestling stars then in competition. Throughout the late 1990s, the WWF began to rise in popularity after it rebranded itself as a more adult-themed, sexualized and violent product, a period in the company's history now referred to as the Attitude Era . The shift in programming helped lead the company to achieve mainstream success similar to the 1980s professional wrestling boom . Concurrently, many WWF performers became crossover successes: during this period The Rock would become very popular and then would embark on
12920-409: The events was also partially contingent upon wearing merchandise promoting different wrestlers, and audience members being made to respond on-cue to particular in-ring events. This was regarded as a major breach of kayfabe at the time and ultimately led to WCW's departure from the NWA in September 1993. By the end of the year, WCW decided to once again base the promotion around Ric Flair. The decision
13072-569: The expansion of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Throughout the 1990s, professional wrestling achieved highs in both viewers and financial success during a time of fierce competition among competing promotions , such as WWF, World Championship Wrestling , and Extreme Championship Wrestling . The nature of professional wrestling changed dramatically to better fit television, enhancing character traits and storylines. Television also helped many wrestlers break into mainstream media, becoming influential celebrities and icons of popular culture . In
13224-560: The fans. The first pro wrestling studio television show was taped on December 18, 1942, at WRBG-TV in Schenectady, New York , at a time when few Americans owned television sets. The earliest successful recurring wrestling program was Hollywood Wrestling in Los Angeles , which debuted on KTLA in 1947 and was syndicated in numerous U.S. cities by 1952. From the advent of television , professional wrestling matches began to be aired during
13376-447: The film Rocky III , reaching to an even greater level of celebrity. In 1985, Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling , an animated television series starring the character of Hogan, expanded Hogan's young fanbase. Meanwhile, the NWA's renowned and highly successful territory system was slowly dying, with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) becoming the center of the entire NWA. While the WWF had their major stars at almost all of their shows,
13528-427: The first of the more comic book-like characters known to professional wrestling today was Antonino Rocca . Comparatively weak in wrestling ability, his marketable personality and barefoot acrobatics attracted fans and made him a national superstar, especially popular among Italian and Hispanic fans. The New York Wrestling office used him to revive the promotion on television, and found him far easier to exploit than
13680-437: The first wrestling show to air prime time since 1955. ESPN also began airing professional wrestling for the first time, first airing Pro Wrestling USA shows—which were created as an alliance between the NWA and AWA in 1984, in an effort to counter the national success the WWF was gaining—and later AWA shows, after Pro Wrestling USA fell apart by 1986. The WWF also became an international success too. WrestleMania III , with
13832-451: The formation of the heel stable, the New World Order . They helped WCW gain the upper hand when they became the most powerful group in professional wrestling. WCW also came up with more legitimate, edgy storylines and characters over the WWF's cartoon style. While the WWF and WCW rivalry was brewing a third promotion was growing in prominence. NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling renamed itself " Extreme Championship Wrestling " (ECW) and left
13984-528: The greatest in the history of professional wrestling and because of his overall dominance in the period in which he helped to put over new talent like Kane and win three world championships in this era. Through the collective success of these characters, the company had finally refocused itself in the 18–25 demographic. By the start of 1999, both shows were consistently getting ratings of 5.0 or higher, and over ten million people tuned in to Raw and Nitro every week. Wrestling continued to grow, as wrestlers made
14136-461: The help of a group of friends should Austin appear. At the end of the evening, the final vignette depicted Austin breaking into Pillman's home, prompting Pillman to pull a gun on Austin , and the feed being "interrupted" in the ensuing chaos, with Vince McMahon (serving as a commentator) stating that he had been informed of "a couple explosions". When the feed resumed, Austin was shown being dragged out of Pillman's house as Pillman screamed, "That son of
14288-426: The illegitimacy of wrestling instead of its athleticism, and without a superstar like Gotch, no major personality reached a wide fanbase. In response, three professional wrestlers, Ed Lewis , Billy Sandow , and Toots Mondt , joined to form their own promotion in the 1920s, modifying their in-ring product to attract fans. The three were referred to as the "Gold Dust Trio" due to their financial success. Their promotion
14440-434: The impact of television was not well planned for during this period. Promotional spots , which are now used as pre-match rants by wrestlers to warm up the crowds, were often used for simple greetings and welcomes to the local crowds, missing in-ring personality boosts and character skits during this period. No one would discuss promos before shooting them, and promoters usually would not spend time helping wrestlers in front of
14592-442: The industry during the years of 1996 to 1998. The WWF was forced to change itself to overcome its competition, remodeling itself with added bloodshed, violence, and more profane, sexually lewd characters. This new "Attitude Era" quickly dominated the style and nature of wrestling to become far more teen-oriented than ever before, and made the WWF regain its status as wrestling's top company. The image of WCW changed when Eric Bischoff
14744-445: The industry, monopolizing the industry and the fanbase. The WWF's owner Vince McMahon revolutionized the sport by coining the term " sports entertainment " to describe his on-screen product, admitting to its fakery as well as enhancing its appeal to children. The WWF became the most colorful and well-known wrestling brand to children because of its child-oriented characters, soap opera dramaticism and cartoon-like personas. Most notable
14896-603: The interest in money-making among the three groups, wrestling became a business-oriented entertainment venue, distinguishing itself further and further from its authentic amateur wrestling background. Wrestling performers were arranged in a pyramid hierarchy of fame and money, based strictly on athletic talent. The lowest were the journeymen, young performers with promise and some skill, but who relied mainly on showmanship to gain fans. The actual wrestlers, called "shooters" because of their ability to " shoot ", or fight real matches competitively, were more successful and less common. At
15048-403: The internet. The incident marked one of the first times that pro wrestlers had so flagrantly broken character in front of an audience, and forced both the WWF and WCW to begin acknowledging fans' growing awareness of the backstage happenings of their respective companies. The Curtain Call would go on to influence the narrative course both companies took by encouraging WCW, and later the WWF, to blur
15200-512: The introduction of Bill Goldberg (known monymously as Goldberg), who was presented as an unbeatable force who won matches within a matter of minutes or even seconds. Goldberg quickly rose to stardom within the organization and became a crossover star similar to the WWF's performers, with appearances in commercials and music videos. However, a controversial backstage decision to end his winning streak, followed quickly by an anticlimactic match involving Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan – now known as
15352-420: The late 19th century were also shown across the United States in countless "athletic shows" (or "at shows"), where experienced wrestlers offered open challenges to the audience. It was at these shows, often done for high-stakes gambling purposes, that the nature of the sport changed through the competing interests of three groups of people: the impresarios , the carnies, and the barnstormers . Impresarios were
15504-754: The lead promotion with Gagne winning the World Heavyweight Championship of Omaha . After unsuccessfully lobbying for a title match with the NWA Champion, however, Gagne broke away from the NWA in 1960, renaming his promotion the American Wrestling Association, and making it the dominant organization of the 1960s. Named the AWA World Heavyweight Champion soon after, Gagne was the top wrestler, and engaged in many feuds with heel wrestlers, most notably Nick Bockwinkel , and
15656-474: The lines of fantasy and reality in wrestling, incorporating wrestlers' real names and details of their lives into their character's stories. On the Memorial Day 1996 edition of Nitro , Scott Hall interrupted a match and, apparently out of character, challenged the wrestlers of WCW to a fight against him and unnamed companions. Though Hall was employed by WCW, the storyline took advantage of fans' knowledge of
15808-451: The mainstream media. From November 1998, the momentum was in the WWF's favor for the remainder of the War, with Raw dominating Nitro in the ratings. WCW continued its decline as their main eventers were in their 40s or pushing 40 and younger talent were never given the chance to be elevated to main event status. Their attempts at improving failed to turn the ratings tide, with Raw getting double
15960-424: The majority of wrestling was still competitive, and it was immensely popular. In fact, wrestling's popularity was second only to baseball from 1900 to the early 1920s, launching trading cards and competitive wrestling programs in colleges, high schools, and athletic clubs, legacies that have endured to the present day. Wrestling's popularity experienced a dramatic tailspin in 1915 to 1920, becoming distanced from
16112-451: The managers who chose how a wrestler could gain fame and interest among the fans, creating personas and improvising matches to make them more interesting. Carnies, who traveled and wrestled at these events, used tricks to protect their money and reputations during competitions, devising little-known and often dangerous wrestling moves, called "hooks". Hooks are illegal in conventional amateur wrestling, but have high rates of success against even
16264-556: The match, a Stinger Splash resulted in Luger being crushed behind Nash and being taken away on a stretcher, turning the match into The Outsiders vs. Sting and Savage. Hall and Nash were in control of the match when Hulk Hogan came to the ring. After standing off with them, he attacked Savage, showing himself to be the Outsiders' mysterious third man and thus turning heel. In a post-match interview, Hogan christened his alliance with Hall and Nash as
16416-409: The material involving Hogan and Savage usually poked fun at their old ages, the skits aimed at Turner were decidedly more inflammatory in nature and contained material that could have been considered slanderous . Although Turner himself reportedly found the sketches amusing, the sketches stopped airing on the USA Network at the request of network president Kay Koplovitz , and were ended permanently in
16568-428: The momentum of Nitro , WWF entered into a cross-promotional agreement with ECW. Raw commentator Jerry Lawler insulted and "challenged" ECW on the show's February 17 episode, and in the weeks to come, several ECW wrestlers appeared on Raw in a story arc similar to the nWo storyline playing out in WCW, with the WWF pursuing the "renegade" ECW. On March 10, 1997, Raw was officially renamed Raw Is War in reference to
16720-424: The most athletic and experienced of competitors, essentially removing rules from professional wrestling. In addition, some spectators capable of beating the carnies roamed the country to compete in open challenges, setting side bets to make money. The barnstormers competed as traveling wrestlers did and often cooperated with the carnies to stage the matches, providing enormous profits for both sides in betting. Through
16872-459: The most significant matches in wrestling history. The popularity of wrestling during the early 20th century was highest in the Midwest , where ethnic European communities, many of them German , Polish , Czech , Hungarian , Greek, and Scandinavian in ancestry, continued to carry on fighting styles practiced in their home nations. At this time, during the late 19th century, and early 20th century,
17024-432: The nWo waged a campaign of anarchy against WCW, blurred the lines between reality and scripted entertainment, a unique presentation that acknowledged fans' growing awareness of backstage wrestling politics and kayfabe . WCW and the nWo continued to grow in popularity, and for the next 84 consecutive weeks Nitro beat Raw in the ratings. At the outset of the storyline, the WWF filed a lawsuit against WCW, alleging that WCW
17176-637: The nWo, the June 10, 1996, episode of Raw would be the last rating victory for the WWF for nearly two years. On the November 4, 1996, episode of Raw , the WWF aired a storyline involving Stone Cold Steve Austin and Brian Pillman , two former friends who were feuding with each other. In a series of vignettes broadcast from Pillman's real-life home in Newport, Kentucky , Pillman – supposedly debilitated following an attack by Austin – vowed to protect himself and his wife with
17328-564: The organization, managing to find niches in the United States. The most prominent of these were the American Wrestling Association (AWA), which became the most popular wrestling promotion during the 1960s, and the New York-based World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), renamed WWF in 1979. As a top wrestler in the 1950s, Verne Gagne formed his own promotion in the NWA in 1957, which soon became
17480-528: The organization, while Ole Anderson was head booker and was in charge of operations. In 1982, in order to appear less regional in scope, the television show was renamed World Championship Wrestling , a name Barnett had used for promoting shows in Australia in the 1970s. In 1983, the WWF started its own cable show called WWF All American Wrestling , airing Sunday mornings on the USA Network . Later that year,
17632-453: The other two companies. While WCW was the dominant promotion for much of the mid-1990s, a variety of factors coalesced to turn the tide in the WWF's favor at the end of the decade, including a radical rebranding of their formerly family-friendly product into highly sexualized and violent shows geared towards older teens and adults. WCW ultimately ran into financial difficulties as a result of the amount of money they had promised wrestlers during
17784-806: The performances of their wrestlers. The Monday Night War largely sprang from a rivalry between WWF owner Vince McMahon and WCW owner Ted Turner , dating back to an incident in the 1980s known as Black Saturday , when McMahon acquired a monopoly on all nationally televised wrestling broadcasts by purchasing a stake in Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), whose flagship show aired on WTBS , Turner's own superstation based in Atlanta , Georgia . Turner, displeased with McMahon's handling of programming on his network, pressured McMahon into selling his time slot to Jim Crockett Promotions , another wrestling promotion. As wrestling began to grow in popularity in
17936-757: The position of Executive Vice President. During Bischoff's first year at the top of WCW, bookers Ole Anderson and Dusty Rhodes concocted cartoonish, unbelievable and poorly built-up storylines that were poorly received by fans, such as "Lost in Cleveland," a storyline in which Cactus Jack developed amnesia and disappeared in Cleveland , Ohio ; the White Castle of Fear, a match between Sting and Vader themed around B movies meant to promote SuperBrawl III ; and tongue-in-cheek, short beach-party movies used as promotional videos for Beach Blast . Anderson and Rhodes' booking style
18088-471: The product began to lose athletic talent, relying on blood and acrobatic performance. Wrestling's competitiveness was degraded by television, a fact regarded by many in the business as a natural effect of television over competition. The New York wrestling office (an early precursor that would eventually evolve into what is now WWE ) soon became dominant. It refused to use competitive wrestlers, and instead focused on attracting televised entertainment. Perhaps
18240-407: The product from athletics to performance. His legacy was the enormous change in wrestling personas he inspired. Before him, wrestlers imitated "ethnic terrors" ( Nazis , Arabs , etc.), but his success birthed a more individualistic and narcissistic form of character. He was also among the first to use entrance music. Television changed the on-screen product in many other ways as well. Originally,
18392-680: The professional wrestling equivalent to the grunge music movement of the early 1990s, and focused on taking the company in a new direction. In 1994, Jim Crockett Jr. 's non-compete agreement with Turner, to whom he had sold in 1988, expired and he decided to start promoting with the NWA again. Crockett went to Gordon and asked him to hold a tournament for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship , in ECW's home city of Philadelphia on August 27, 1994. NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo alleged that Crockett and Gordon were attempting to monopolize
18544-475: The promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and continued to challenge McMahon's monopoly of the industry. Turner promised a more athletic approach to the product, making Ric Flair the promotion's marquee wrestler and giving young stars big storylines and championship opportunities. During the mid-1990s, the faltering WWF was being hindered by competing brands and nagging legal troubles. The largest troubles came from WCW, which competed for fans and dominated
18696-399: The sale of WCW's assets by its parent company, AOL Time Warner , to the WWF. Television had been a significant part of professional wrestling presentation in the United States for decades, but after the 1950s it had been relegated to local stations as the national networks ceased airing it. Many local programmers turned to professional wrestling as a means to fill out their schedules, as it
18848-425: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Forbidden Door . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Forbidden_Door&oldid=1242350614 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
19000-543: The services of numerous high-profile WWF performers, including Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage . The company also drew casual fans' attention by filming events at popular tourist venues such as Disney's Hollywood Studios , and reached out to Mexican and Japanese wrestling fans through its cruiserweight division, which featured wrestlers from a diverse array of ethnic and racial backgrounds competing in matches featuring styles of wrestling popular in Latin America and Asia. Under
19152-430: The time that made the company finally dominate its competition. This was probably among the best of McMahon's storylines, and it came at a time when Bischoff was losing his vigor in WCW's affairs. The WWF gained infamy for its more sexually explicit, profane, and violent characters. Austin was the top superstar in the company, portraying a foul mouthed beer swilling anti-hero who regularly defied his boss; The Rock became
19304-676: The title to Lewis. By this time, the Zbyszko double-cross had already caused irreparable damage, detracting from the Trio's dominance over the wrestling industry. In addition, the build-up of Munn followed by such a humiliating loss had devalued his title and credibility as a major wrestling superstar permanently. In March 1887, Evan Lewis defeated Joe Acton for the American Catch-as-Catch-Can championship in Chicago. Soon, every wrestling promotion had created its own championship , which
19456-463: The title, and stated Crockett did not have the NWA board's approval, which resulted in Coralluzzo personally overseeing the tournament. Gordon took offense at Coralluzzo for his power plays and began contemplating a plan to secede ECW from the NWA in a controversial and public manner that would attract attention to ECW and insult the NWA organization. Gordon and Heyman planned to have Shane Douglas , who
19608-445: The top were the elites, or the hookers, named for their ability to use arcane wrestling hooks to inflict damage and serious injury on the competition without much effort. Wrestlers considered themselves among a select group, and often kept the fact that their sport was commonly faked—to an extent—in high secrecy. They used a jargon of their own (often shared with carnies) to communicate so the audience would not understand them, including
19760-402: The word " kayfabe ". During the late 19th century-early 20th century, wrestling was dominated by Martin "Farmer" Burns and his pupil, Frank Gotch . Burns was renowned as a competitive wrestler, who, despite never weighing more than 160 pounds during his wrestling career, fought over 6,000 wrestlers (at a time when most were competitive contests) and lost fewer than 10 of them. He also gained
19912-601: Was a "bad risk" and had the tendency to not appear at shows he was scheduled to wrestle at. Douglas ultimately decided to go through with Gordon and Heyman's plan, inspired by his father's motto of "doing right by the people that do right by you". He threw down the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, stating that he did not want to be champion of a "dead promotion". He then raised the Eastern Championship Wrestling title and declared it to be
20064-552: Was a huge success with Hogan, who won in the main event, going on to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated . After the swimsuit issue, it was the magazine's best seller, and following WrestleMania, four WWF programs were among the ten most watched shows on cable television. Professional wrestling began to become mainstream, thanks, in large part, to the appeal of Hulkamania among children. Large television networks also took wrestling into their weekly programming, including Saturday Night's Main Event , premiering on NBC in 1985,
20216-486: Was a show shot to a live audience, with storylines unfolding as they happened. The first episode featured Sean Mooney reporting from the streets of New York City and interviews by Bobby Heenan, Yokozuna defeating Koko B. Ware , The Steiner Brothers defeating The Executioners; WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defeating Max Moon ; and The Undertaker defeating Damien Demento . The show also featured an interview with Razor Ramon . Raw originated from
20368-419: Was appointed Executive Vice President of WCW in late 1993. He signed former WWF stars and departed from their focus on in-ring action in favor of the WWF's approach. The WWF began to suffer immediately and started building new stars. The Monday Night War began in 1995, when WCW started Monday Nitro , a show that ran directly against Monday Night Raw . While starting fairly even, the war escalated in 1996 with
20520-481: Was changed to Hogan vs. Sid and Flair vs Savage, and the rivalry was never realized. Bischoff's attempt to deliver a "dream match" never produced by the WWF paid off, and the PPV drew a disproportionately high buy rate by the company's standards. Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) had its origins in 1991 as the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance, owned by Joel Goodhart. In 1992, Goodhart sold his share of
20672-459: Was considered each company's pride and glory. As promotions were attempting to become nationally renowned, acquiring rival championships marked victory. In the 1930s and 1940s, small wrestling promotions had fierce competition with each other, often stealing talents and "invading" enemy companies to win over fans. With inter-promotional matches occurring nationwide, the promotions were vying for dominance. In 1948, wrestling reached new heights after
20824-626: Was described as flamboyant and charismatic. Already popular among wrestling fans, he became renowned after comedian Bob Hope noticed his performance in the Hollywood Legion Stadium in 1945 and 1946, and began to use him for jokes on his radio station. The publicity brought many people into wrestling events, bringing his stardom to a high point where promoters and television stations alike were paying generously for his performances. Gorgeous George's impact on wrestling has been interpreted in many ways, demonstrating how fast television changed
20976-399: Was generally in line with the lighthearted, morally uncomplicated narrative that had been popular in 1980s wrestling, but which was generally looked upon with growing disdain by younger wrestling fans. In February 1993, longtime NWA stalwart Ric Flair returned to WCW after an eighteen-month WWF tenure, but since Flair was constrained by a no-compete clause from his WWF contract, WCW gave him
21128-552: Was illegally representing the nWo as a WWF affiliate and that Hall's persona was too close to his "Razor Ramon" character (itself a parody of Al Pacino 's character in Scarface ), to which the WWF retained the rights. WCW countered that in June, Hall and Nash had emphatically stated on-camera that they were no longer WWF employees, and that Hall's current persona was, in fact, a reworking of his previous WCW character, The Diamond Studd. The lawsuit dragged on for several years, culminating in
21280-408: Was in drug rehab and did not appear at the event). Michaels and Hall were playing babyface characters, while Nash and Helmsley were playing heel characters, and the four of them embracing saw an explicit breaking of kayfabe . Though the incident was not televised, it was nonetheless recorded by fans who had smuggled cameras and camcorders into the event, and photos and videos were widely disseminated on
21432-446: Was initially the host; he handled the second hour along with Bobby Heenan and former NFL football player Steve "Mongo" McMichael , with Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko hosting the first. Other co-hosts included Mike Tenay (usually for matches involving cruiserweights or international stars), Scott Hudson, and Mark Madden . The initial broadcast of Nitro also featured the return of Lex Luger to WCW. Luger had worked for
21584-527: Was largely made out of necessity: The company had intended to place heavy emphasis on Sid Vicious , but he was involved in a legitimate altercation with fellow wrestler Arn Anderson while on tour in England . A heated argument between the men escalated into a physical altercation, which culminated in them stabbing one another with a pair of scissors. Because Sid's attack on Anderson was more violent, and because of Arn Anderson's close relationship with Ole Anderson,
21736-530: Was no longer the top promotion after the WWWF rejoined the NWA. The AWA reached new heights, however, after powerhouse wrestler Hulk Hogan gained nationwide attention from starring in Rocky III , and became a solid fan favorite. Despite Hogan being the AWA's top draw, Gagne would not let him be champion, believing technical wrestlers, like Gagne and Nick Bockwinkel, should be the focus of a wrestling company. Since founding
21888-590: Was not a success, however, and the second Pro Wrestling USA alliance soon fell apart. CWA co-promoter Jerry Jarrett then bought out the WCWA and renamed the unified company as the United States Wrestling Association (USWA). Jerry Lawler also took his AWA Title to Jarrett's promotion, and the belt was renamed as the USWA Heavyweight Title. The AWA was able to create a new belt, but the end of 1990, company profits had dwindled so badly that
22040-563: Was one of the company's top stars. In fact, he had been in line to get the WWF World Heavyweight Championship (he had had several previous title matches), and worked a WWF house show the night before. Since nobody but Bischoff and Luger's good friend Sting knew that Luger would return to WCW, the shock value generated by his appearance was great. Thirdly, Luger's defection created speculation among fans as to which other big-name stars would "jump ship". Notably, Luger would be followed by former WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze , who appeared with
22192-454: Was relatively inexpensive to produce but drew high ratings. This reinforced the then-accepted organization of professional wrestling, which were consisted of a patchwork of territorial promotions aimed at – and broadcast to – local audiences, without a centralized, national promotion, though most territories were members of a common sanctioning body of championship titles , the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). As cable television arose in
22344-494: Was scheduled to face 2 Cold Scorpio in the tournament finals, throw down the NWA World Heavyweight Championship upon winning it as an act of defiance. Heyman pitched the plan to Douglas, noting that the only negative would be that NWA traditionalists would just see them as traitors to tradition. Additionally, there was animosity between Douglas and Coralluzzo, who had publicly criticized Douglas and advised NWA-affiliated bookers not to schedule him for shows, as he believed Douglas
22496-403: Was supposed to lose to Munn, but refused to follow along, beating Munn so decisively and thoroughly that the referee awarded him the title to prevent a riot. In addition, Zbyszko quickly dropped the title to Joe Stecher , a rival of Ed Lewis, making the situation worse for the Trio. Stecher, although an able booker, was afraid of losing his championship, refusing to wrestle many contenders as
22648-409: Was the AWA's top draw until his retirement in 1981. Bruno Sammartino carried the WWWF during the 1960s and 1970s. His brawling, power moves, and personal charisma helped him become the most popular American wrestler during this time period. During the period when MSG was the WWWF's primary arena, Sammartino headlined more Garden cards than any other wrestler (211), including 187 sellouts. The AWA
22800-572: Was the first to use time-limit matches, "flashy" new holds, and signature maneuvers. They also popularized tag team wrestling, introducing new tactics such as distracting the referee, to make the matches more exciting. The Trio's lasting legacy, and perhaps their greatest innovation within professional wrestling, was the use of a regular group of wrestlers for a packaged show. Rather than paying traveling wrestlers to perform on certain dates and combining wrestlers in match-ups when they were available, they decided to keep wrestlers for months and years at
22952-503: Was the muscular Hulk Hogan, who marked the 1980s with his "all-American" persona. His sheer size, colorful attire, charisma and extravagance made his main events into excellent ratings draws. By January 1984, Hogan's legions of fans and his dominant role in the industry was termed "Hulkamania". Hogan sold-out arenas all across the United States and earned the WWF millions of dollars, making it the number one entity in all of professional wrestling; moments after Hogan defeated The Iron Sheik for
23104-410: Was unhappy with the declining ratings. This set up a rivalry between McMahon and Turner that would continue for sixteen years. That same year, PTW replaced TNT on USA Network, which expanded to two hours the format of the WWF's WTBS program. The most-remembered Prime Time format featured Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon introducing taped matches and analyzing them afterward, with Monsoon taking
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