Which era?

Question
Hi Dave.  I was wondering if you could go back in time and watch any wrestling promotion over an extended period of time, which promotion would it be, and during what time period?

I would love to go back and watch WWE during the beginning of the Hulkamania years.

Kevin

Answer
Hi Kevin.  Thanks for the question.

That is a tough question, and I think I would have to pick two promotions.

The first one is the AWA, and I guess the time period would be pretty much it's entire existence, save for the final few years when it was on it's way to going out of business.

I am from Minnesota, which is where the AWA was based.  It's the first wrestling I saw on TV, starting in the early 1980's. I remember growing up the AWA would be shown at 11am Sunday morning.  Well, I had to go to church at 10am, and I would always be watching the clock, and would get mad when church ran long.  Luckily, I only lived about a block from the church, so I would always race home to watch it.  

The AWA was regarded as one of the promotions in the country, and several future WWE stars, including Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and Curt Hennig worked there before Vince McMahon went national and started buying out the top talent.

The second promotion would be World Class Championship Wrestling, and time period would from the early 1980's up until the Von Erich run started to fade away.  I only got World Class on TV for a short time, and it was well after the Von Erich was over.

However, ESPN used to show reruns of World Class shows, and that is where I became hooked on it.  The thing that always stood out to me was how passionate the fans were.  You could just see on TV how they bought into everything, almost like they didn't know it was all scripted.

The time period when the Von Erichs were at their peak was some of the best wrestling programming I have seen.  

I could definitely see you wanting to see WWE during the beginning of the Hulkamania.  I was able to see it from the beginning.  It would be fun to go back and watch it again, especially knowing a lot of the behind the scenes stories that happened.

Thanks again for the question. Let me know if you have anything else.

Have a great night!

Dave