I'd go pre 1996 in a heart beat. I've always been a hardcore fan . 1996 though was the year that cemented my love for wrestling. With that said I relate way more to pre 1996.

My initial instinct was to say after 1996, because I wouldn't want to miss the Monday Night Wars, ECW, etc. However, after thinking about it some more, a lot of my childhood is rooted in what happened before 1996, and so much cool stuff happened then too - and there's so much more, pre-'96, that I still haven't seen. I went into this thinking I'd pick post-'96, but pre-'96 wins by a hair for me.

Post, sure 1970-1996 has the quality but post has all of the future! Weird question

Sorry for dragging this up a month later but part of what I'm getting at is - do you have faith that you would get more enjoyment from everything going forward than you would from what's gone before?

 

I get as much enjoyment from rewatching/re-evaluating wrestling as I do from the live experience (I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard around here)

I would probably say pre-1996. I'm a month shy of 27 and most of my real time favorite wrestling moments happened post-1997, but I think I actually enjoy re-watching a lot of stuff from the 80's more than the stuff I grew up with. I've also only seen a little bit of Japan but I know how great AJPW was pre-1996 and Japan in general in the 80's.

Make it '92 and I'm going '92-present. Yeah, I'm going to just selectively pick my own birth year as the start point.

Before 1996 is such a easy choice because you had wrestling greats like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Demolition, LOD, Razor, Diesel, Jake Roberts, Mr. Perfect & many more which ive always felt the guys who continued to wrestle after 96 didnt perform the same way they did back then.

Thought I'd bump this in light of some 'good old days' grumbling on the GWE pages. Would love contributions from newer members - almost 2 years ago I started this, wow!

There's no way in hell I could choose anything other than post 1996, how can I decide to rule out all future matches, especially when much of the stuff considered the absolute best is stuff I've already seen.

If I had to choose between watching stuff pre 2016 or 2016 onward I would choose 2016 onward.

Post-1996 without a pause.

 

I'd shed a tear for Stan Hansen, and maybe a dozen other non-Stan matches, but other than that I'd be perfectly happy. My childhood wrestling, all of my favourite stuff and the entire future. Easy choice.

I can't be friends with anyone who picks "after".

Well maybe this has been proved wrong, I like Jimmy and El McKell.

 

I can't be friends with anyone who picks "after".

Well maybe this has been proved wrong, I like Jimmy and El McKell.

 

Yeah, figured the board had changed a little since this thread started.

 

For me, it's a much more closely contested race than it was two years ago, but pre-96 still has it.

There's no way in hell I could choose anything other than post 1996, how can I decide to rule out all future matches, especially when much of the stuff considered the absolute best is stuff I've already seen.

If I had to choose between watching stuff pre 2016 or 2016 onward I would choose 2016 onward.

That's optimism!

 

 

I can't be friends with anyone who picks "after".

 

Well maybe this has been proved wrong, I like Jimmy and El McKell.

Yeah, figured the board had changed a little since this thread started.

 

For me, it's a much more closely contested race than it was two years ago, but pre-96 still has it.

The GWE has been good for bringing fans who probably wouldn't usually talk to each other together. And for bringing us out of our enclaves a bit in terms of what we watch.

 

That said, I am very much looking forward to retreating back to that enclave next month.

If I choose pre-1996 does that mean I have access to every piece of footage in recorded history up until that point? If I choose 1996-onward, does that mean I can see every match that will ever be wrestled or only up until I die? How does climate change affect all this?

Watching a John Cena match after all this will feel like a whole bag of cookies after being a good girl and eating my vegetables for months.

 

Not that I don't like vegetables. I've really learned to love them lately. But still...chocolate is chocolate.

 

That's almost not even a metaphor, there really is a scary parallel in my life between learning to enjoy vegetables and learning to enjoy different styles of wrestling.

 

EDIT: OK OJ posted and now this makes no sense.

Without even thinking about it, before. I watched the Monday Night Wars as they were peaking in '97 and '98, but specifically when it comes to WCW stuff I'm more eager to watch it from the early 90's right up until Hogan signed with them.

Before, easily. Non-contest. Japan's best period is more or less 1990-95. And I would give up "Flair in the 80's" and "Mid South in the 80's" the last of all things in American wrestling. I also tend to enjoy a good percentage of things I've seen from the 70's.

 

My problem with the 1996 and beyond isn't so much a lack of quality as it is there being no sign of a few key things, like say an American competitor to WWE which still seems as unlikely as ever for the next decade, as well as Japan being a really diminished (if still sometimes interesting) commodity at this point with no real indication that will change either. Sure, you get the future, but the business on the whole has changed into a far more corporate environment that appears to be less of the wild west it once was, so I have my doubts how radically interesting (in some way the past doesn't already offer) forthcoming new directions will be in the next decade. The most interesting thing to happen to wrestling in recent years has probably been Lucha Underground at least presenting a genuinely different model, but I don't really like it enough to overturn mountains of known quality commodities.

 

But, I've always been someone far more interested in "what's good" than "what's new", so no surprises here.

My favorite feuds happened in or after 1996. My favorite matches have been in the last 16 years. Easy pick for me: post.

'I've always been someone far more interested in "what's good" than "what's new" '

 

Eloquently put. Seconded.

 

I can't be friends with anyone who picks "after".

Well maybe this has been proved wrong, I like Jimmy and El McKell.

 

You shouldn't, Ted DiBiase isn't in my 100 greatest wrestlers ever.

Ted is still bubbling away on the bubble for me.

Considering the fact that pre is all that I watch, this is a pretty easy choice for me.

This is, actually, harder for me than it might first appear. I don't care for the Attitude Era at all, and I adore late eighties WCW but... I don't think I can, in good conscience, say that I'd prefer a world without Wrestlemania 13.

I love Bret Hart too much.

With hesitation... after 1996.

No! No, I take it back!

Without a doubt def going pre 96, as much as I enjoy the attitude era and past for me it wasent real wrestling, I loved the Hogan era and all the cool characters they had like Jake, Demo, LOD, Rude, Ted, Andre, Superfly, Razor, Rockers and on the other side you had The Horsemen running things so yeah ill pick that era any day.