I'm going to keep trying to revive the Back in the Day topic with a topic I think is quite interesting. Superstars and Challenge were usually used to advance angles back when Primetime Wrestling was around (and was a studio hosted show), and featured some classic angles. Instead of doing that myself, I'll leave it others to mention some to get discussion going. However, I will name a couple...


1. Jake Roberts on the Funeral Parlor in February 1992. The Undertaker completes his face turn, causing Roberts to lock 'Takers hand in the coffin, DDT Paul Bearer, and blast the Undertaker with rougly 40 steel chair blows.

2. Bret Hart vs. The Mountie (Winter 1991-92) - The Mountie wants his match to be for the Intercontinental Title, but Hart refuses, and calls him a jailbird. Jimmy Hart then proceeds to dump a bucket of water on Bret, and the Mountie comes from behind and electrocutes him with his cattle prod. It sounds cheesy now, but back then that seemed quite serious.

Those rule. And I love Superstars.

My personal fav is probably from 91-92, right in the middle of Heenan's constant hype of the 'Real World's Champion' making his way to WWF. Well, this was Ric Flair's WWF debut (supposedly) and the announce team was Savage (recently "retired"), Roddy Piper (really only around in a managerial/announcing role), and as always, Vince McMahon. They were positioned similiar to the RAW set now, off to the side of the entrance ramp, which was not-so-ramplike at the time. Well, on Flair's way to the ring to take on...geez, I think it was Jim Powers, something like that...he looks over and locks eyes with Piper, who has been constantly trashing him since Heenan starting hyping him.

Flair walks up to the announce booth, behind Piper and starts talking trash. Piper does nothing at first, and then Flair smacks him in the back of the head, sending his headset flying. Flair eventually KO's Piper with the NWA Title, and Piper and Flair scuffle on the ground as pandemonium ensues. Savage can't lay a finger on anyone, cause he is on probation, trying to get re-instated, and Vince is constantly trying to calm the situation down. Everyone goes off of headset, trying to pull them apart, when Piper just wildly swings a chair, trying to hit Flair and instead nails Vince acrossed the back with it.

In all my markdom I am astonished. Not only did the old fart announcer dude just get nailed by a chair by a wrestler, but it wasn't even a regular old steel chair. The industrial strength OAK CHAIR~~~ was out in full force. Vince does a stretcher job as Savage and Piper look on worried. So Flair loses his first match, because he never even got to the ring.

...Maybe it was Mark Thomas. Dammit, can't remember. Anyway, this was an AWESOME segment.

I love everything from this whole Era. If anyone has any of this on tape, I'll so buy it from you. I know Jon McAdam sells these segments, but his prices are a bit high. I might just do it anyway.

I think that moment is on the Ric Flair DVD.

Here are a few memorable moments from Superstars from me.....

-When Ric Flair showed up for the first time wearing the NWA Title belt. I don't know how many people here were actually wrestling fans in 1991 when he came in, but I remember that being the BIGGEST ORDEAL EVER. One of the best angles of all time in my opinion.

-The Superstars episode that began with Gene Okerlund announcing Bret Hart as the new WWF Champion.

-Everything they did to further the Macho Man/Jake Roberts feud, that stuff was gold.

-Hogan getting destroyed by Earthquake on the Brother Love Show.

-TONS of Piper's Pit's.

Not to get off topic of my own topic, but Mcadam is a rip off. $19 for a tape of stuff that you can probably find from other people for cheaper and in better VQ, and he sometimes sends the wrong tapes.

Back to the topic...

I think the last truly big moment on "Superstars" was the Bret Hart/Bob Backlund match for the World Title on (I believe) July 30th, 1994. Hart wins, so Backlund snaps and busts out the Chicken-wing for the first time in over a decade, and thus begins his heel turn.

When I first started watching about a decade ago, I probably watched more of Superstars than Raw - because it was on at noon on the weekends and I had more fun watching it. Of course by now, it was mostly midcarders that the WWF wasn't sure what to do with versus some unknown jobber.

I don't recall the dates or even the opponents, but some of my favourite matches was

Yokozuna vs. three jobbers in a handicap match (Dec. of '95, I think). The match ended when Yokozuna stacked the three jobbers and won the match with the Bonzai drop.

And of course, Skip vs. Barry Horowitz.

And a fun match was also: Owen Hart vs. Fatu (as the rapper gimmick).

None of the matches were terrific, but there were memorable.

Like the time Barry Horowitz defeated Owen Hart. Owen Hart defeated Horowitz with the sharshooter, but didn't release the sharpshooter, for the referee reversed the decision.

This was around the same time when Harvey Whippleman went around evaluating the referees and stood by ringside with a clipboard taking notes. He would get random airtime, but it something different to see.

Fatu wasn't a rapper... he was Making a Difference. :P

Touche.

Also, technically Skip and Horowitz match happend on the Action Zone on the USA Network, which wasn't free T.V. (cable), while Superstars and Challenge were broadcasted on FOX and other local afiliates.

Action Zone and Superstars mix together to me.

Want to hear something sad? I still remember the song to Superstars. Well, the one in '96. I forgot the earlier ones.

...You suck. The earlier themes were the best. Hell, I miss the El Generico themes for WWF PPV's and Events. I still ocassionally hum the Summerslam theme in m head (1990-94 version).

Are you fuckin serious? Maybe it is time I finally picked that thing up. Is it worth it?

If you're a big fan of Flair, it's definitely worth it.

Matches (and most of the build up for each) include...

vs. Harley Race (Starrcade '83)
vs. Dusty Rhodes (Starrcade '85)
vs. Barry Windham (the 40 minute TLD Match from NWA TV)
vs. Ricky Steamboat (Clash VI & WrestleWar?)
vs. Terry Funk (Clash IX)
1992 Rumble Match
vs. Sting (Clash XXVII)

Also bonus matches include his debut at MSG... from 1976 vs. Pete Sanchez, and the Triple H match from 5/19/03 (the Flair post-match tribute included).

Curious, did Shotgun Saturday Night air on cable where you guys are? It was on Fox when it first started in NH.

I can honestly say I never watched that show. Not when I was drunk. Not when I was bored. Not when I was high. Never.

It started on syndication where I live.

We never got Shotgun until around September '98 at 3 a.m. when it was squash matches and the "big main event." The only time I remember it was (I think) Too Much vs. The DOA vs. The Oddities.

We got Shotgun on the local station, about three weeks after it premiered. It was right around Wrestlemania time (March 97), and I remember turning it on, then sitting in the other room on the computer..just walking in to see if any ECW guys were turning up. But it was mostly garbage like Crush and Savio Vega vs. the Headbangers. Oh yeah, and Sid with his big S-I-D sparklers. Match I remember the most was a 20 man battle royal from about July 97. The Patriot won it by backdropping the Sultan over the top.

They also had "Sunny Undressed" over the summer. Completely worthless segments with Sunny rolling around on a giant bed with silk sheets and talking gossip. For instance, she talked about how the Sultan was after "that cutey pie Rocky Maivia's Intercontinental belt". About this time, it mostly became a "highlights from RAW" show. Then it was mostly Jim Ross gushing about the feature match which usually featured "Good ol' Bradshaw".

Watched it over at my brother's place one night and Brian Pillman did a run-in. My brother said, "holy shit, it's SAMMY HAGAR!". Last time I remember watching it was in early 98. They had the "Apocalypse" tag team (the re-tooled Sniper and Recon) and Tom Brandi saving Sable. I remember Jim Ross asking Corny about Brandi's "chances of being an impact player here in the WWF". Corny sold it like crazy and said the chances were "very good!"

The first couple of shows were decent, but it went down hill from there.

It was supposed to be a show for people who had nothing to do and the occasional big match... that concept died rather fast when the roster was pretty fucking slim.

At first they made it like it was going to be an rehash of the old SNME's. Then after a while they realized that they couldn't pull a decent rating..........then it all turned to jobber matches and then into a recap show.

There was a good E&C vs. Droz and Albert on an episode of Shotgun during the summer of 98.

Are you sure it wasn't the summer of '99? Albert didn't debut until after WM XV, and Christian debuted at Breakdown as a heel against Edge (for about 4 weeks). ;)

I stumbled onto some old taped Shotguns from 98/99. On them include some fun stuff with the J.O.B. Squad, Kae En Tai, the Brood, Meat, Chaz, and others.