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Wrestling BOOM period

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:24:37 No.18396341 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>18396374 >>18396378 >>18396383 >>18396812

Put the following reasons in order from high to lowest significance for the Boom period in wrestling during the 90s

>Hogan becoming a heel
>Vince McMahon becoming a heel personality
>Austin 3:16 promo
>Montreal Screwjob
>Goldberg Streak
>Invasion of WWE stars into WCW pretending to be part of WWE
>Sting's new character and other new gimmicks
>Wrestlers jumping promotions and giving scathing promos on their former job
>Bra and Panties matches/Nitro girls/Ho train and other half naked girls
>ECW or those wrestlers jumping ship and appearing in WWE/WCW
>Wildcard (something I left out) OPTIONAL

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:29:58 No.18396374 Report

Quoted By: >>18396378 >>18396399 >>18396409

>>18396341
Ah, a stroll through the wild, lawless jungle of 90s wrestling—where the tights were loud, the promos louder, and kayfabe was hanging on by a thread. Ranking the biggest catalysts of the Boom Period (aka the Attitude Era and Monday Night Wars) is no easy feat, but let's crank this up like it's Monday night and the pyro's exploding.

Here’s your list, ordered from highest to lowest significance for the 90s Boom:

---

1. Hogan Becoming a Heel (nWo Formation)

This shattered everything fans thought they knew. It kickstarted the nWo angle and launched WCW into uncharted ratings territory. Hogan turning heel in '96 at Bash at the Beach was a cultural shockwave, arguably the inflection point that birthed the Monday Night Wars in earnest.

---

2. Invasion of WWE Stars into WCW (Hall & Nash)

Before Hogan's heel turn, this was the hook. Hall and Nash showing up unannounced, pretending they were still WWF guys? Brilliant. It blurred reality and fiction, and made WCW must-see TV. The "Outsiders" gimmick was red-hot and made fans believe again, even if they weren’t sure what they were believing.

---

3. Austin 3:16 Promo

This wasn’t just a mic drop moment—it was a nuclear explosion. Austin’s promo at King of the Ring '96 created an anti-hero for a generation sick of superheroes. It laid the foundation for the Attitude Era and put WWF back in the fight.

---

4. Vince McMahon Becoming a Heel Personality

Once Vince embraced being Mr. McMahon, the Austin vs. Boss feud became Shakespeare with steel chairs. It turned the WWF into a blue-collar fantasyland where the everyman could stunner his boss. Massive, enduring impact.

---

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:30:30 No.18396378 Report

Quoted By: >>18396383 >>18396399 >>18396409

>>18396374
>>18396341
5. Montreal Screwjob

Was it a shoot? A work? A work-shoot? Whatever it was, it turned Vince heel, ended Bret’s WWF run, and changed backstage politics forever. Not as ratings-driven as the others, but huge in shaping character arcs and future storylines.

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6. Goldberg's Streak

WCW needed a homegrown star, and they got one. Goldberg was lightning in a bottle—a monster push done right (for a while). His streak added legitimacy to WCW and gave fans a reason to watch beyond the nWo soap opera.

---

7. Wrestlers Jumping Promotions and Cutting Promos on Their Former Employer

This gave the Monday Night Wars that unpredictable, “anything can happen” energy. From Rick Rude showing up on Raw and Nitro on the same night, to Madusa trashing the WWF Women’s title—it fed the chaos. But it wasn’t the fuel starting the fire, just more gasoline on it.

---

8. Sting’s New Character and Other Gimmick Overhauls

Crow Sting was cool. Reinventing gimmicks worked for many (Undertaker, Goldust, even Kane debuting). But these were more supporting players in the ratings war—not the main event reasons people tuned in.

---

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:31:03 No.18396383 Report

Quoted By: >>18396399

>>18396378
>>18396341
9. ECW Talent Appearing in WWF/WCW

ECW was like the punk band every mainstream act eventually copies. The influence was real (RVD, Taz, Raven), and it gave WWF and WCW some edge, but ECW itself didn't move the Nielsen needle much until the cross-pollination started.

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10. Bra and Panties Matches/Nitro Girls/Ho Train

Yes, sex sold. It drew eyeballs. But this wasn’t what made people loyal fans or sparked record-breaking ratings. It was more frosting than cake. And let’s be honest—Sable's handprint bikini got more attention than entire cruiserweight matches, but it wasn’t why the boom boomed.

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Wildcard: Competition Itself

If we had to add one more that underpinned everything, it’s this:

> The Monday Night Wars themselves.
Two mega-companies battling in real-time every Monday. It forced innovation. It demanded weekly surprises. Without competition, none of the above would've had the same heat. That pressure cooker made diamonds.
---

Let me know if you want this in chart or infographic form, or if we should redo this for the Ruthless Aggression era next!

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:33:50 No.18396399 Report

Quoted By:

>>18396374
>>18396378
>>18396383
Disgusting AI slop.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:34:51 No.18396409 Report

Quoted By:

>>18396374
>>18396378
That's hilarious. Saying the screwjob at A PPV wasn't ratings driven, yet crediting Austin with something that NO ONE cared about it until years later. Nuclear explosion LOL sure.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:40:42 No.18396447 Report

Quoted By:

Society was just ready for it. Great bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit made it cool to a tough white guy. Jerry Springer normalized a lot of the wild things people were doing but no one wanted to talk about. People were also a lot more open minded to the paranormal, like I knew people who said they were related to witches or vampires or thought the x files was based off of real events. People could also not be solely defined by the media they consumed so there was less of stigma to pro wrestling and a lot of people still thought it was real, especially amongst those who didn’t watch. Like college educated people thought that maybe the storylines were fake the title fights has to be shoots.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:46:59 No.18396499 Report

Quoted By:

The 90's weren't a boom, they were the dead cat bounce of the 80's. It just seems like a boom because Vince and WCW consolidated more and more (often aging) talent. The total inability to create new stars except by sheer dumb luck is proof of this.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 02:53:18 No.18396522 Report

Quoted By: >>18396560

I'm someone who was actually around at the time and I still don't understand what brought people in/back. The early to mid 90s was overall bleak as fuck, the boom honestly felt like it came out of nowhere.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 03:01:00 No.18396560 Report

Quoted By: >>18396620

>>18396522
It's was Hogan, dumbass. Pretty fucking simple

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 03:13:29 No.18396620 Report

Quoted By: >>18396637

>>18396560
And for WWF? Who no longer had Hogan and was doing four weeks worth of tapings in auditoriums at a time, dumbass. I hate you faggot cocksuckers who have no idea what you're talking about.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 03:16:15 No.18396637 Report

Quoted By:

>>18396620
What are you trying to say retard? WWF lost and continued to lose until WCW ran out of gas.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 183843274923432.png, 148KiB, 400x500

Anonymous Wed 30 Jul 2025 03:48:51 No.18396812 Report

Quoted By:

>>18396341
>grit, edginess, and attitude were in high demand at the time
>fun characters and storytelling
>sex
>ECW existing
>brutal WCW vs WWF rivalry
>Bischoff seeing a faction storyline in Japan and getting the idea for the NWO
>Hogan turning heel
>WCW raping WWF
>a panicked Vince looking for a new direction and finding it in ECW
>Austin 3:16
>Rocky Maivia becoming The Rock
>Crow Sting
>Goldberg
>wrestlers aggressively jumping ship from one company to another
I think that covers it. Pig unrelated.

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