Childhood shows

[hulksmash87]

As a kid what was your favorite wrestling show? I was a young kid in the early 90s and mine was wcw Saturday night from 91-94 use to watch it with my grandma. I’ve thought about rewatching it but I think it would tarnish my memories because I know some of it wasn’t the best quality but it’s great memories to have. I’d have to give an honorable mention to the uswa studio show I use to watch at her house after school.

[4real]

The shows I remember seeing in the U.K. as a kid were WCW Worldwide on ITV around 92 or so. As for WWF I didn’t really watch the weekly shows until around 94 when my Grandad got Sky and recorded Superstars & Raw for me. Until then I pretty much relied on VHS tapes like Wrestlemania 8 & KOTR 93 which I played to death as a child.

[Jaws the Shark]

The first wrestling I ever saw was also WCW Worldwide on ITV, a bit later though, probably around 1995 towards the end of its run in the afternoon slot. I then had a break from wrestling until the infamous Channel 5 version of Worldwide came on air in summer 1999. And despite the phenomenally shit quality of just about every aspect of that show, I watched every one until the Invasion started. And when Sunday Night Heat started on Channel 4 in early 2000 I watched that too, and all of the WWF content on Sky One when we got cable around this time too.

I wonder if any British fans here also remember two series that went out in 1999/2000, UWA Wrestling Rampage on L!VE TV, and the Transatlantic Wrestling Challenge on ITV2 (having previously been broadcast on some ITV regional franchises). Again, both awful, but I watched every episode of the latter at the time.

I have a strange affection for all of these programmes, even the terrible ones. Life was easy and wrestling at the time was so thrilling and on the pulse of pop culture, and it felt as important as anything else on television. The wrestling I've watched since has been "better" but hasn't had that lustre and sparkle that even those terrible shows had.

[Pushed to the Moon]

Before I was allowed to record Raw I used to watch the recap shows Livewire and Blast Off in the mid 90s hosted by our good friend Todd Pettingil. I don't remember what the WCW show was called in the early 90s but that was also a fave.

[XIII]

World Class and Global on ESPN after school and the WWF/WCW jobber squash weekend shows were all my favorites.

There’s something so satisfying about watching the Warlord ragdoll some pasty skinny fat dude with the Full Nelson.

[DSR]

Raw and Superstars in the early 90s, plus I would go to the local video store and rent the SummerSlams and WrestleManias from before my time.

[timelimitdraw]

I'll always have a soft spot for the episodes of Raw from the Manhattan Center during its first year. That was my first year as a fan and that version of Raw had an energy to it that was lost once the Manhattan Center stopped being their primary location. It took another three years or so before they started to get that level of energy back on Raw in arenas.

[Psicofreak667]

WCW Worldwide. As a kid whose parents were anti-TV and refused to get cable, it was my only option. And even then it was cancelled because baseball ran long half the time.

[Ultimo Gallos]

The weekly Mid South show,that became the weekly UWF show later on. Thankfully we got a VCR early on ,so the rare Saturday night that I wasn't home as a kid I would record them to Betamax tapes.

Besides that every week I made sure to watch.

Weekly Memphis,Weekly CWF,the one JCP syndicated show we got,WCCW,GLOW and the three syndicated WWF shows.

Then according to what year it was I got Continental and GCCW.

[Ozman]

My first favorite wrestling show was World Class Championship Wrestling back in 1984-early 85. By mid to late 1985-86, my favorite wrestling show was WWF Championship Wrestling, which became WWF Superstars Of Wrestling by the fall of 86.

[mattyy]

the velocity/confidential power hour was my jam as a kid. going to my grandparent's house, staying up til 1 in the morning watching those shows, followed by pokemon stadium...


damn those were the days.

[Deleted]

I have to go a bit outside the box and say Smoky Mountain Wrestling here. Of course I grew up on WWF and WCW in the late '80s/early '90s, but I missed out on the territories.

I only got to see SMW when I was visiting my grandparents, so that alone made it seem like something special. It was so small-time (comparatively speaking) and local that it felt more like "my" show than the big two did. Seeing it live in a small town armory felt much more intimate than seeing WWF/WCW in arenas. Of course, I was ecstatic when they started doing the WWF crossovers.

I remember a fan sitting next to me telling me the Heavenly Bodies were going to be on WWF, and my ten year-old self thought he was full of crap.

[James Fabiano]

I watched ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. If it promoted itself as pro wrestling, I was there as a kid, pretty much.

The obvious...the syndie WWF shows (Superstars/Challenge/Spotlight...previously Championship/All Star/Superstars of course) and JCP with World Championship Wrestling (morning, Saturday, and Sunday Editions...later to be Superbouts, WCW, and Main Event of course) on weekends. GLOW in the afternoon.

Prime Time, which I think alternated between being on Mondays and Thursdays time to time. All-American on Sundays.

The Garden shows whenever the MSG Network aired them.

AWA on weekday afternoons on ESPN. Think this shared/alternated with the Legends of WCCW.

The SPANISH version of Superstars on WNJU.


Other shows? Colon's shows were seen on WXTV (other Spanish channel). Worldwide I got on CTN, a local Jersey cable network. Think new WCCW shows were on MSG too. Pro Wrestling This Week on WPIX. Crockett version of UWF on the same. Learning the Ropes (yes...) on WNYW. POWW late nights, also on MSG.

As it's wrestling's cousin, I will add that I also loved roller derby....there was RollerGames of course (which took over GLOW's afternoon spot) but I REALLY liked the IRSL/Rollermania, which I think was seen mornings on ESPN.

[fw91]

Live wire is how I mainly stayed up to date with Attitude Era

[Laces]

I was a WWF kid in the late 90s so I'd watch Raw on Mondays and Heat on Sundays and Smackdown when it started. BUT During commercials on Raw you'd flip over to TNT and watch Nitro and I watched Thunder on Thursdays

[BlackoutCreature]

As a kid I used to love staying up late and watching Prime Time Wrestling.

[koreycaskets]

As an 80s child my fav was Saturday Nights Main Event. Getting to stay up to watch wrestling as a youngster into the early hours of the morning ruled!

Of course I had no clue it was taped weeks in advanced. Great memories of it.

[Gravedigger's Biscuits]

SmackDown on Sky One, Saturday mornings. I also liked WWF Metal for some reason.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

I had the live broadcast versions of Survivor Series 1990 and WrestleMania on VHS and watched those along with my Disney and Dr. Seuss tapes. There was also a local video store where I could rent tapes of shows from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

[chronocross]

For me it was SNME, I'd get so amped up whenever I would see a quick ad for it during the week on NBC.

Our father would set the VCR to tape it and we would watch it over and over the next day.