Wrestling in the 1980s was were the industry brought itself into a whole new stratosphere. No longer was it a shared industry where territories were only popular for each region, but rather went completely global. Many wrestlers had to adjust to the new direction of wrestling into a more theatrical and athletic level. If they didn’t they were going to be obsolete and only survive in the indies without television exposure. Wrestling became less of a kayfabe-sport and much more of a variety show where villains and heroes were clearly defined and engaging to watch. As Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr. took over the World Wrestling Wide Federation from his father Vincent James McMahon St., wrestling would never be the same. He made the old days of Bruno Sammartino’s reign in the northeast wrestling was through and Hulkamania capitalized it to a world wide scale. If it wasn’t for McMahon Jr.’s eagerness to be the biggest company in wrestling history, he wouldn’t be so competitive to Jim Crockett Promotions (which would later be WCW) from the south. Both companies were vicious with using their biggest starts to get the most television viewership and tickets sold. This made both companies to create so many innovations that is still being practiced to this very day. Things like traditional pay-per-views (Summerslam, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, Halloween Havoc), having the Superbowl of wrestling (Wrestlemania & Starrcade), and tell stories that was more more than just wrestling. It’s no wonder why people to this very day feel right at home when going back to wrestling in the 1980s. It’s was bigger than life, the characters were actually engaging, and the story they were all telling mattered much more than the workrates that only smartmarks cared for. Man, I wish there was another wrestling boom like in the 1980s. Wrestling now a days struggle in getting crowds interested and that’s because story is what matters, not spotfests. No wonder why everyone considers this era to be the Golden Age of Wrestling. Even though wrestling in the 1980s were all about Jim Crockette Promotions/WCW and WWWF/WWF, those two promotions made wrestling as it is big as it is today. The question is, what was the best night of wrestling during the Golden Age? Here are the best supercards, pay per views, and events from 1980 – 1989!

Number 10. – Survivor Series 1987

This show was only one word; intense! As the first ever Survivor Series and Vince McMahon’s direct competition with Jim Crockett’s Starrcade, that was a lot of effort thrown in to make a wild show. Not every pay per view needs to have a World title match, and the first ever Survivor Series proved it. Back when heels and babyfaces actually mattered, we always love to see which singles wrestlers would fair as a team. What Vince gave us was multiple 10 man tag team elimination matches that became Survivor Series tradition. There are only four matches on this card and they were all worthily long and fun. Okay so the women’s Survivor Series match was a complete dud, filled with botches and everything, but the other three were so suspenseful that the whole audience were on the edge of their seat while watching. Heck, there was even a 20-man tag team match with all the tag teams going at it in an elimination. But of course you have to remember WWF wouldn’t be able to make a newer pay per view if it weren’t for the rivalry between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. Holy crap, was their bout at Wrestlemania III so huge that they were worthy enough to get a second pay per view that year which was a rarity for any wrestling promotion. The fact that Hulk Hogan got eliminated so early on in the match made his other teammates (Don Muraco, Ken Patera, Paul Orndorff, and especially Bam Bam Bigelow) become stars when facing the monsterous heel team of Andre, Butch Reed, King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang and Rick Rude. This is why storytelling is important in wrestling because it’s the only way for use to suspend our disbelief and actually care about what’s going on and wanting our wrestler(s) of choice to win. Survivor Series had a hard time being a special event over the years because so many random wrestlers get mixed up as a team and can’t make anyone care. But I can honestly say that Team Hogan vs Team Andre were teams that we all actually cared about and other Survivor Series teams since them struggle to get audiences attached. 

• Main Event: André the Giant, Butch Reed, King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang and Rick Rude vs Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Hulk Hogan, Ken Patera and Paul Orndorff
• Best Match: André the Giant, Butch Reed, King Kong Bundy, One Man Gang and Rick Rude vs Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Hulk Hogan, Ken Patera and Paul Orndorff
• Underrated Match:Brutus Beefcake, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboatvs  Dangerous Danny Davis, Harley Race, Hercules, The Honky Tonk Man and Ron Bass
• Best Moment: Bam Bam Bigelow was the last survivor of Team Hogan and became the star of the night 

 

 

Number 9. – Starrcade 1986
The Sky Walkers

The Sky Walkers? There’s just too many Star Wars references in professional wrestling (I’m looking at you World Class Championship Wrestling & your “Star Wars” event). So what makes Starrcade 1986 worth going back to? How about adding more stipulation matches than all the previous Starrcades? Of course the “Sky Walkers” moniker came from the Road Warrior vs Midnight Express’s scaffold match (most famously where Jim Cornette broke his knees while falling). Whenever I get sick and tired of hearing Cornette trash talking people, I go back to that footage to take away earbleed from Corny’s endless rants. Other notable matches that’s worth watching again is Dusty Rhodes’s bout with Tully Blanchard in a First Blood match, a hair vs. hair match between Paul Jones and Jimmy Valiant, an Indian Strap Match between Wahoo McDaniel and Rick Rude, and NWA Tag Title Cage Match between Arn & Ole Anderson vs. Rock n’ Roll Express, and Ron Garvin vs Big Bubba Rodgers in a Street Fight. How do you not want to see any of these matches?! These gimmick matches is what makes a freakshow like wrestling so entertaining to watch. Of course out of all the Starrcade main events, this one was the weakest because Ric Flair defends his title… against Nikita Koloff? Out of all the matches that was stacked with must-see matches… the main event was weak and uneventful. No wonder why people forget that Nikita Koloff was once a main eventer in a big company’s biggest show. And the double disqualification finish made the experience even worse. This was the first event where the midcard was stacked with greatness but the main  event was lackluster before Hulk Hogan switched to WCW. As it stands, this is a big match event filled with glorious stipulations can entertain even the smartest-of-marks.

• Main Event: Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff
• Best Match: The Road Warriors vs Midnight Express – scaffold match
• Underrated Match: Big Bubba Rogers vs Ron Garvin
• Best Moment: Jim Cornette breaks his knees

 

Number 8. – Wrestlemania III

It’s hard to imagine that there was a time were Vince McMahon’s Wrestlemania once was seen a copycat of Jim Crockett’s Starrcade. Wrestlemania I & II were pretty weak compared to what Starrcade were all doing in the early to mid 1980s. It wasn’t until the the third Wrestlemania this series of event finally got out of that stigma. While the first Wrestlemanias were like spectacles trying to get as much attention with celebrity involvement, the third Wrestlemania was a pure wrestling where people already are familiar with these big names, there’s no need to the over-saturate celebrities any more, and it’s all about the wrestlers big enough to show the audience what it means to put a show! Wrestlemania 3 has set an American indoor sports attendance record of 93,173 and it wasn’t broken until the 2010 NBA All-Star Game at the New Cowboy Stadium.  The WWF deserved that record holder because they did grabbed a lot of people’s attention from mainstream media, there was so much likeness on these biggest-than-life characters, and the anticipation to see what happens next in WWF is so exciting. The Randy Savage and Steamboat match was the opening door to real in-ring work matches instead of the boring formula that we’ kept seeing in the old Wrestling matches before this one. It’s a match that clearly stole the show, but ultimately, everyone came to see Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant. Though the match was incredibly slow, that moment when Hogan body slammed Andre and finally defeated the undefeated Wrestler was the original Wrestlemania-moment that forever changed the face of wrestling. One thing I notice in this event is that the audience was not left disappointed, even when your favorites lost the match, somehow the babyfaces comes in from dissatisfactory and continue to assault the heels. It became a cliche throughout the card, but they were legit matches that really made everyone happy. Though it did bother me a lot to see the bad guys getting too much of a beating after a victory, it really felt like a real wrestling show. It brought a lot of emotions throughout the card and it didn’t slowed down the adrenaline that you can feel throughout the show. Though there are a lot of things that bothered me in Wrestlemania 3, it did deliver a true big wrestling show that the previous two wreslemanias tried to do. It left an impact and staple on the wrestling world that this will be remembered throughout the many years after.

• Main Event: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant
• Best Match: Rick Steamboat vs. Mach Man Randy Savage
• Underrated Match: Rowdy Roddy Piper vs Adrian Adonis
• Best Moment: Hogan bodyslamming Andre

 

Number 7.  –  Survivor Series 1988

Amazingly the WWF managed to top the near-perfect 1987 Survivor Series with an even Better show in 1988.  They crammed 50 wrestlers on the show and presented four huge elimination matches once again.  Because of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage being presented as co-faces of the company, each team this year had two captains instead of one.  From the opening contest pitting Team Warrior/Beefcake vs. Team Honky Tonk/Ron Bass to the surprisingly good Jake Roberts/Jim Duggan vs. Andre/Dino Bravo undercard match, to the dramatic MegaPowers vs. Twin Towers main event, this show was already quite memorable.  But what put this PPV over the top was the spectacular 10-team elimination match, with The Powers of Pain, the Hart Foundation, the British Bulldogs, the Rockers and the Young Stallions facing Demolition, the Brain Busters, the Rougeaus, the Bolsheviks and the Conquistadors.  This blazing 40-minute epic perfectly showcased the company’s amazing tag division and featured a double-turn, as Demolition and The Powers of Pain switched places to continue their feud.  Survivor Series 1988 is still the best edition of them all, in my opinion.  All four matches were loads of fun, and one of them was a true classic of the genre.  The show featured an absolutely stacked card that measured up brilliantly against the original. And unlike the first Survivor Series, 1988 doesn’t have a single bad match on the card out of these four, very long, matches. That’s something worth watching the whole event!

• Main Event: Hercules, Hillbilly Jim, Koko B. Ware, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage vs Akeem, Big Boss Man, Haku, The Red Rooster and Ted DiBiase
• Best Match: British Bulldogs, Hart Foundation, Powers of Pain, Rockers and Young Stallions vs. Bolsheviks, Brain Busters, WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition, Fabulous Rougeaus and Los Conquistadors
• Underrated Match: British Bulldogs, Hart Foundation, Powers of Pain, Rockers and Young Stallions vs. Bolsheviks, Brain Busters, WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition, Fabulous Rougeaus and Los Conquistadors
• Best Moment: Dino Bravo gets eliminated

 

Number 6. – Halloween Havoc 1989

It’s a very tough follow-up to make a show right after the best wrestling show of all time, Great American Bash ’89. I’m very happy to say that though it is not better than Great American Bash that year, Halloween Havoc wasn’t a repeat; it was a different kind of event. The first ever Halloween Havoc remains the best pay per view that focused a lot on Tag Team. That’s right! Do you even remember the time when Tag Team wrestling mattered? Even though this pay per view had some single matches (three of them), all of the matches give a different feel. Nearly everything that we seen in Great American Bash 89 had closure in Halloween Havoc. Remember the Skyscrapers (Psycho Sid & Dan Spivey) won the double ring Battle Royale? Now they face the Road Warrior it was the best big man tag team match of the whole show if not the decade! What about the Freebirds vs The Dynamic Dudes being such a fun and energetic tag match? Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed) having a thunderous clash with one another. And it’s interesting that the only big singles match was between Lex Luger and Brian Pillman for the US Championship. And for all those who says Lex Luger is overrated, should see how good this match was. It was a David vs Golliath match that’s fast-paced and energetic as ever. Your main event wasn’t even for the NWA Wold Championship but rather a tag team bout between Ric Flair teaming up with Sting to get their revenge with The Great Muta & Terry Funk in Thunderdome cage match. While WWF was stuck with the Blue cage, WCW was innovating with newer cage stipulations that goes beyond WarGames. The Tunderdome structure was the earliest example of a Hell in a Cell and all four men went absolutely insane in this main event. This is proof that you don’t have to have a World title match in every pay per view you book. Instead it’s supposed to be a series of big matches that people are willing to pay for. And I can’t imagine ordering Halloween Havoc 1989 and not get your money’s worth.

• Main Event: Ric Flair & Sting vs Terry Funk & The Great Muta
• Best Match: Lex Luger vs Brian Pillman
• Underrated Match: Road Warriors vs Skyscraper
• Best Moment: Sting Splashing Terry Funk in Ric Flair Figure Four Leg Lock, twice!

 

Number 5. – Wrestlemania V

What a difference a year makes from Macho Man Randy Savage winning the tournament at Wrestlemania IV as the hero and now defending his WWF title agaisnt Hulk Hogan as the supposed villian. There’s a reason why we keep using the term “Mega Power Explode” because it was a dream tag team that made an impact on all of us. The storyline of Savage jealous of Hogan & Ms. Elizabeth’s connection is what made Wrestlemania V worth watching. It’s sad that Wrestlemania V is looked as a one-match show when midcard had honestly a lot of surprise gems. The past Wrestlemanias had too many mid-cards that had nothing much to do but this one here was consistent with displaying good matches, but of course we dealt with the bad ones as well, but not as painful as you can remember. It sure as hell was a lot better than Wrestlemania 4, but it just didn’t have that 5 Star match quality like Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboad at Wrestlemania 3 which is the only flaw with Wrestlemania 5. The biggest strengths of this show was that the commentators  with Ventura and Monsoon were inevitably strong as they were very opinionated and it looked like these two were going to start fist fighting each other because their arguments back and forth was getting more and more intense. Let’s not forget that there were hilarious moments in this event like Bobby Heenan getting beat by the Red Rooster or Tito Santana got swerved by his own tag team partner Rick Martel and kept calling him a loser. Sure there were duds like Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant, Dino Bravo vs. Ronnie Garvin, but you can’t ignore truly great matches like Ultimate Warrrior vs Rick Rude for the IC title, The Hart Foundation vs. The Honky Tonk Man & Greg Valentine, Demolition vs. The Powers of Pain, The Twin Towers vs. The Rockers, and the opener with Hercules vs King Haku. Go back and watch all of those matches and see what good storytelling really is. Sure none of these matches were ever 5-star classics, but who cares about that star rating when you got a good list of matches and a great main event! This was where story lines in wrestling started getting better and because everyone was so invested in Macho Man vs. Hogan is what makes this show so great to come back to. A truly epic show to end the year-long Megapowers storyline. What makes Wrestlemania V so much fun is Vince McMahon actually utilizes all of his talent properly.

• Main Event: Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan
• Best Match: Ultimate Warrior vs Rick Rude
• Underrated Match: Demolition vs. The Powers of Pain
• Best Moment: Ultimate Warrior press slams Bobby Heenan

 

Number 4. – Starrcade 1985:
The Gathering

It’s interesting that Dusty Rhodes spent an entire year making this rivalry between himself and Ric Flair the most must-see wrestling bout in history. After the anti-climatic finale of last year’s Starrcade, the 1985 edition has been remembered as one of the most satisfying moment in professional wrestling. And I’m proud to say that the Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes main event wasn’t a one-match-show. This was an event that was held in two separate locations and switched back and forth between each match in real time. Wrestlemania 2 tried to rip-off Starrcade 1985 but it was too much to have three events at once and they had more than enough technical difficulties. The Gathering was superior because the rivaliries booked into Starrcade 1985 were blood feuds. Heat in each and every match in Starrcade 1985 felt was worst a top-notch competition and a best every bit as real as it gets. Go ahead an watch Magnum T.A. vs Tully Blanchard for the US Championship in their “I Quit” Cage match. You’re not going to find a rivalry as intense and as barbaric as that. And it doesn’t stop there! There’s a great cage match between Rock and Roll Express vs the Koloffs, Atlantis street fight between Midnight Epxress and Jimmy Valiants & Ronnie Garvin in drag, and the best Abdullah The Butcher match of all time when he faced Manny Fernandez in a Mexican Death match. Also what other Arm wrestling match in wrestling history was as suspenseful as Superstar Billy Graham and Barbarian? Vince McMahon could never made anyone believe an Arm wrestling match is legitimate but this moment in time felt so real. And let’s not forget that Ole & Arne Anderson whooped Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Haynes for the NWA Tag Championship. I find it hard-pressed to argue that any other Starrcade event is better than the one in 1985. This was a night that actually showed what great supercards are made of. It was wild, bloody, and suspenseful, as to how every promotion’s biggest show of the year should be. 

• Main Event: Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes
• Best Match: Magnum T. A. vs Tully Blanchard
• Underrated Match: Abdullah The Butcher vs. Manny Fernandez
• Best Moment: Magnum putting a wooden steak on Tully’s forehead and submit.

 

Number 3. – The Great American Bash 1987
July 4, July 18th, July 31st, 1987

Okay, so the third ever Great American Bash wasn’t a pay per view… but it was so good of a televised supercard that it should have been a pay per view. But here’s one tricky thing… The Great American Bash in 198 had three events with the same name (July 4th, 18th, 31st) and home video of Great American Bash ’87 is mixed up all of those dates. That also means a lot of matches that were in their in those events ever taken out and forever lost. Since we can’t go back in time, we have to settle with this home video of matches held in separate dates. So much footage got lost in time and are hard to find that weren’t in this home video package. America’s Independence Day couldn’t get a better Petriotic celebration than to have an one-of-a-kind wrestling supercard. Of course we can’t talk about this show without mentioning the first ever WarGames match; a double cage match with multi-tag teams going against each other in a brutal bout. No doubt, Dusty Rhodes is the greatest booker of his time and being inspired by the Beyond Thunderdome film push wrestling in further boundaries. The Four Horsemen were among the most love ’em or hate ’em wrestling faction of this era and there was no better selection of opponents to take them on in this hellacious structure than Dusty Rhodes, The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal), Nikita Koloff, and Paul Ellering July 4th & July 18th. The first one sets the tone on how we approach a gimmick match that is as high budgetted and brutal as this. The fact that we had 2 WarGames in the same month is not often seen. For such a specticle, that match was one of the earliest 5-star rated match that reached that score rating and it’s still very fun to watch first two WarGames games today. Just because this home video package contains two WarGames matches doens’t mean you should negelect the rest that’s being offered. There were surprisingly good matches like Barry Windham vs Rick Steiner, Nikita Koloff vs Lex Luger in a cage match for the US title, Dr. Death Steve Williams vs Dick Murdock in a Texas Death match, A Barbed-Wire Ladder match between Dusty Rhodes & Tully Blanchard, and a cage Match between Ric Flair & Jimmy Garvin, or the dream match between Rock n’ Roll Express vs. Midnight Express. I would have loved to see other matches that didn’t make it in the video package like Sting vs Thunderfoot, Road Warrior Animal vs Arn Anderson, and so many more. But since we got a collection of Great American Bash in 87 that only shown the best matches, I have to be satisfied with what we got.

• Main Event: The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk), Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, and Paul Ellering vs The Four Horsemen – War Games
• Best Match: The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk), Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, and Paul Ellering vs The Four Horsemen – War Games
• Underrated Match:The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express vs. The Midnight Express
• Best Moment: We got two WarGames matches

 

Number 2.  –  Clash of Champions I

Competition between WWF & Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW was fierce in the 1980s. Similiar to how Vince McMahon made a pay per view to rival against Starrcade with Survivor Series 1987, the same thing was done when Wrestlemania IV was held and JCP responded with Clash of Champions… and it was free television. Woohoo!! The first Clash of the Champions was the best possible show that the promotion could have put on at that moment in time.  It’s a great show top to bottom where every match is either great in the ring or a short bout that effectively moves a storyline forward. The show is best known for the main event, which sees Ric Flair and Sting battle to a 45-minute time limit draw in their first really high-profile match with each other.  They had better matches later, and the historical perception that Sting became an instant superstar isn’t really accurate, but it’s still an amazing, magical moment that helped propel Sting toward the top babyface spot in WCW. Besides, what other match that had a time-limit draw that was as good as that match? Other classics like The Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics for the United States Tag Team Titles is a departure from their usual state-of-the-art tag team wrestling, instead being more of a wild brawl with bodies and tables flying everywhere.  If you enjoy this, then make sure to check out their lone PPV match at Great American Bash ’88. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard vs. Lex Luger and Barry Windham for the World Tag Team Titles is every bit as good as the Midnights-Fantastics match despite being more of a traditional tag team match.  These two teams had amazing chemistry, and I wish they got to have more matches, but the tag team feud was over pretty quickly with the rematch (you’ll see why).  Check out the finish, too; it’s one of the loudest you’ll ever hear. Mike Rotunda vs. Jimmy Garvin and the barbed wire match featuring Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors vs. Ivan Koloff and the Powers of Pain are both fun, short matches that keep the story going.  In the latter match, watch for the replay of The Barbarian kicking Animal’s hockey mask off his face.  It’s nasty looking. However I can’t still get over how wonderful Sting vs Ric Flair was. Those two were made for each other and that match made Sting a made-man just like Macho Man Randy Savage became the next big face after Wrestlemania IV. Not many time-limit draws has ever elavated a star more than it did for Sting and it’s one of the most effective finishes that left fans believing in him. The match builds and builds and you forget that the match is 45 minutes long. That’s how great the match was. Clash of Champions I was a VERY special night of professional wrestling. Most of all, Clash of Champions I going against Wrestlemania IV worked! There were another nine years and 34 more Clash of Champions shows, but they never topped the first one. This even was perfectly booked and there was not a single moment wasted in the first ever Clash of Champions. 

• Main Event: Ric Flair vs Sting
• Best Match: Ric Flair vs Sting / The Midnight Express vs The Fantastics
• Underrated Match: Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs. Barry Windham & Lex Luger
• Best Moment: The bell rung for the time limit draw and Ric Flair won

 

Number 1. – The Great American Bash 1989

This show is everything the exemplifies why I love professional wrestling. I may grown out of the hobby multiple times, but Great American Bash 89 is what makes me enjoy the sport. This historic moment is about making all of your matches nonstop fun! WCW in 1989 was the best year in the company (only 1996 coming in a close second) because the roster was jam packed and were providing the best matches on American soil. We just got done with the Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair feud and we thought that the company wouldn’t get better than that, but load and behold their next show delivered a show with NO bad matches on the card. Imagine in the Royal Rumble, a Hell in a Cell PPV, and Wrestlemania combined into one. It felt like every match on The Great American Bash 1989 could have been a main event for any other promotion. Your opening match was a Two-Ring King of the Hill Battle Royal and that anticlimatic ending was so genious that it’s almost priceless. I mean the last two were an actual tag team, why not split the reward money 50/50. And you know what, all of the participants in that glorious Battle Royal pulled double duty that night. How hilarious was it to even see Jim Cornette strip Paul Heyman out of his tuxedo or Kevin Sullivan and Mike Rotunda (IRS in WWF) getting buried by the Steiner Bros? I still laugh at those moments because they know that humiliating these big-time heels is what we all wanted to see. And for the rest of these matches, I couldn’t rate it any lower than a four out of five. Sting vs Great Muta is one of Sting’s best matches of all time, Lex Luger vs Steamboat was a wild bout, and the dream match between Ric Flair and Terry Funk is one of the best main events and aperfect way to close the show. But the match that stole the show was the WarGames match between The Fabulous Freebirds and Fatu and Samu vs “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, The Midnight Express, and the fucking Road Warriors! All hell broke lose within that double ring cage match. You see, it’s not only great to see WCW having a massive roster, but utilize all of them to their fullest potential. Every one of these big names in The Great American Bash 1989 went non-stop with each other and it makes me wonder, why can’t there be another night of wrestling like this? The 1980s have been argued to the golden age for professional wrestling but The Great American Bash 1989 holds up to be the perfect show. There are so much laughs, drama and excitement that saying you’re missing out is an understatement; it’s required viewing for all those interested in wrestling. All of the participants that were booked to be here on this night should be proud that they were part of the best wrestling show of all time! This is what all wrestling shows should be; wild, fast-paced, varied with every match, and entertaining.

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