My very casual wrestling fan friend decided to give the network a go because he thought it was a fantastic deal. He's usually too stubborn to listen to my suggestions, but faced with an overwhelming catalog, he's asked me for a playlist of match suggestions.

 

While he has good, highbrow taste outside of wrestling, within wrestling he's the quintessential casual fan that lived through the attitude era - Thinks every top WWE guy of the attitude era is a no questions legend, that ECW is the coolest, very resistant to anything old or southern and places no value on the legacy of Flair/WCW/Crockett (to my chagrin). Also, he would probably be very offended if I tried to explain this to him, but he's a complete sucker for a breathless spot fest.

 

My goals in making a playlist for him is compiling stuff that he will enjoy based on his outlook and stuff that will expand his outlook without being too hard for him to digest. The way I'm sneaking older WCW in to his diet is through guys that later did stuff in attitude WWF/ECW (Austin, Cactus, Funk, etc.) and Japanese guys (Muta, Liger) as the idea of Japanese wrestling intrigues him.

 

Stuff I've come up with so far:

 

Steve Austin vs. The Great Muta

Superbrawl 2 - Jushin Liger vs. Flyin Brian Pillman

Starrcade 1995 - Jushin Liger vs. Chris Benoit

Starrcade 1993 - Ric Flair vs Vader

Chi-Town Rumble 1989 - Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat

Great American Bash 1989 -Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk, I Quit Match

Heatwave 1998 - Jinsei Shinzaki and Hayabusa Vs. Sabu and Rob Van Dam

Starrcade 1983 - Roddy Piper vs Greg Valentine, Dog Coller Match

Additional info on my friend:

 

Does not watch the modern product (so extremely recent matches are all game, except for Over The Limit 2012 and Extreme Rules 2012).

 

Mostly just watched Raw and Nitro during the attitude era, so PPV matches that weren't HUGE deals from then are game

 

favorite wrestlers include: Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Benoit, Jericho, Austin, Rock, Shawn Michaels

 

Edit: and he owns or has seen the wwe dvds for Austin, Jericho, Guerrero and Benoit

He should watch Midnight Express vs Fantastics (Bash '88) and Midnight Express vs Rock & Roll Express (Wrestle War '90). The highspots are there and it may also change his tune on the Southern style stuff.

Flair/Funk at the Bash wasn't an I Quit match. That was Clash IX.

 

Also, if you're going to include Vader matches, I'd start with the 1992 Sting matches. Plus, I think it might be interesting to see how someone who knows Sting mainly from his Crow persona reacts to surfer Sting.

I would cut the Austin/Muta match. I think it will bore him. Muta mails it in. If he likes spot fests and is intrigued by the idea of Japanese wrestling, why not the Michinoku Pro 6-man tag from ECW Barely Legal?

I would cut the Austin/Muta match. I think it will bore him. Muta mails it in. If he likes spot fests and is intrigued by the idea of Japanese wrestling, why not the Michinoku Pro 6-man tag from ECW Barely Legal?

 

You're probably right. That was one I needed to watch myself and was taking on good faith. Perhaps too tidy of a solution but I think old Austin would work with him and I think he could be a big Muta fan as well. Ideas for solutions there?

 

I suspect classic Sting will be a hard sell for him - can remember him mentioning that Sting pre-crow looked very dumb.

 

Definitely going to put the Dangerous Alliance War Games match on there for him. I think he'd be pretty curious about the lineups and the wild violence should draw him in.

Watch the RAW segment where Vince McMahon reveals that Paul Heyman was in cohoots with The Shield with Brock Lesnar coming out & destroying Vince in the end.

 

That segment is really good, to me, about showing a lot of what pro-wrestling is all about. It explains the whole story, makes you feel like Brock is a fucking Godzilla Monster when he comes out & makes Vince go from seeming super powerful to being old & brittle. It's a really good attention grabbing 10 minutes or so.

 

Plus Heyman, The Shield & Brock are all still around, so it can be used as a gateway to all of the awesome Shield stuff.

Definitely need to get some Shield on there...so much of their great work has been on Raw and there's just been so much great stuff in general - Whats the consensus on their best (network available) matches so far?

The six-man from TLC was good. It's The Shield against Daniel Bryan, Ryback & Kane.

Check this thread.

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25269-top-100-wwe-matches-of-2013/

 

Everything on Raw, Smackdown or pay-per-view is on the network.

Oh yeah? I didn't realize they had full coverage of recent times Raw/Smackdown. How far back are they complete on smackdown and raw before it gets spotty?

They have everything from 2012 and 2013. They also have everything from 2014 that's over a month old, which is when they can add it without violating their television deals.

For Muta, you can add the Sting match from Bash '89, which is pretty awesome. I like Gary Hart's description of it being like 2 superheroes flying around.

 

Sting-Luger from Starrcade '89 is super underrated, a really good match with Sting at his most athletic right before the knee injury.

I'm not very familiar with Muta in WCW, so I can't recommend anything there. As far as wild violence goes how about the Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs the Nasty Boys from that same show?

Anything after 1989 has Muta dogging it in his WCW appearances. I think Steiners vs Nasty Boys from Halloween Havoc '90 is a good pick. Maybe the tag featuring the JWP wrestlers from Wrestle War '91. For full shows, I think Spring Stampede '94 and Slamboree '94 both have tons of variety and are worth checking out.

 

I keep thinking of matches that were on Clashes, sadly.

Regal vs Ultimo Dragon from SLamboree 97 is a lot of fun and action packed. It might really appeal to him and be outside the box of what he's used to.

That's a great pick. If he is a Benoit-Malenko type of guy, he might also enjoy the Regal vs. Badd matches form 1994 or Regal vs. Pillman.

A fun spotfest type of match he might like would be Sting/Lex vs. Steiners from Superbrawl

 

Bash match from 90 with Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys is another one to add.

From Wrestle War 1992 go with the last three matches:

- Brian Pillman vs. Z-Man

- Steiner Brothers vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka

- War Games (Sting, Koloff, Windham, Rhodes, & Steamboat vs. Zbyzszko, Arn Anderson, Austin, Eaton, & Rude)

 

I second Victory's comment about Steiners vs. Luger & Sting at SuperBrawl 1.

 

The War Games on Wrestle War '91 is another good one.

Can't go wrong with the TLC match from WMX7. If he like Angle/Benoit/Mysterio/Guerrero then he should check out the triple threat match featuring Angle/Benoit vs. Eddie/Chavo vs. Edge/Mysterio from Survivor Series 2002.

For full shows, I think Spring Stampede '94 and Slamboree '94 both have tons of variety and are worth checking out.

 

Absolutely. I have somewhat fond memories of those shows though I didn't watch them live (bought them on VHS a couple of years later) and enjoy them now as much as I did. Almost even more so now, now that WWE Network is showing the live feed as opposed to the Home Video edits.