Your Favourite Episode of Wrestling Television
 

So, for this week's podcast, we're looking to talk about classic episodes of wrestling television, and would like your suggestions for your personal favourite individual episode of wrestling TV you've ever seen.

It can be from any company at any point in time, but we're looking for your pick for the particular episode, what you thought made it great as an entire show, and why it stands out to you so much over all the others. Whether it's great matches, great angles, a dynamic energy or personal nostalgia, what makes it your favourite?

As always, the best contributions will be read and discussed on the show, and you'll be credited accordingly - so what's your pick?

EDIT - Our show on Favourite Episodes of Wrestling Television, featuring many of your contributions is now online and available to listen to at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean....V_Episodes.mp3

Honestly, it is so hard to remember the episodes of my youth and I don't have the network (it is not as awesome in Canada and much more irritating to access) so I can't go back and refresh my memory. I can only random segments and knowing that these segments were indicative of a show I loved.

As far as smoking hot shows, they would have to be during the Mcmahon-Helmsley regime. It's crazy to think how absolutely amazing these two were in early-mid 2000. I guess wrestling always has the tendency to give you too much of a good thing.

The two epsiodes which come mind are either the RAW where Jericho dusty finished and "won" the world title or when Taka Michinoku faced off against HHH for the title and honest to god had everybody thinking for one second hook line and sinker that Taka would win the world heavyweight championship.

I just remember how interactive the shows were in that time. It honestly felt like they really had their finger on the pulse during late 1999 until maybe 80% of the way through til 2000. HHH in those 2 episodes of RAW understood exactly how to make the guys around him look amazing while also maintaining his Cerebral Assassin persona. Everyone involved in a segment or match seemed to be excited and it really bled off of the television.

I remember particularly when Jericho beat HHH for the entire rest of the show it gave off the feeling that anything could happen, and every single performer it seemed as though they had their own special relationship with the fans.

Chris Crespi RIP

I also have a terrible memory for specific shows, but one that "came to mind" was the episode where ECW joined the Invasion angle and the Alliance was formed....

I just remember that the episode "took you for a ride" with ECW showing up, Paul Heyman giving a sick promo..... WWF and WCW being all "Oh damn, we have to join to fight these guys now" only for WCW to go "Ha ha, we were actually together the whole time" at the end of the show.

Any episode of the attitude really; but post attitude era....

I really liked the Episode of Raw which saw Kurt Angle face Shelton Benjamin in an amazing match which also had the ending of Cena beating Y2J causing him to be fired only for Kurt to show up and demolish Cena.

Also really liked 2 episodes of Confidential, one which went into the Montreal Screw Job and the other which went into Stone Cold walking out.

For me it has to be when Hall and Nash showed up on Nitro for the first time. It has been said to death, but it was hard to know what was a work and what wasn't then, for the most part. I was a WWF/E fan my whole life at that point and didn't really like WCW. Seeing "Razor Ramon and Diesel" show up really blew my mind at the time.

The way they just interrupted a match and started talking shit made it feel very authentic and it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn't. That, for me, was one of the biggest OMG TV moments in wrasslin television, Maggel!

As I was a Cena fan at the time, Cena getting drafted to Raw stands out. Didn't watch a lot of WWF and watched WCW more. Can't name specific episodes but was totally in to Sting/Vampiro feud as a kid. Mostly remember Eric on commentary making everything seem like a big deal. Remember watching the last episode of Nitro. First wrestling memory was seeing Vader on an episode of Raw, don't know who he wrestled but just knew the big guy in the mask was cool.

Some old ass WCW Staruday Night when I first saw Johnny B. Badd.

Loved that, it was two apparently drunk guys doing Polish commentary and they just made shit up as they went. Remember they'd call him Johnny Tutti Frutti. Good times.

Never saw the episode where Hall/Nash showed up, but I remember a bunch of cool nWo-related episodes of Nitro.... I couldn't give you any specifics at all, though....

I remember liking some Hart Foundation-related episodes in 1997 or whenever that was, but again, I couldn't give you any specifics.

So, I guess I like episodes that deal with big stables.

1) HBK and The Corporation completely owns X-Pac and DX. This wasn't just one episode, but it spanned over a few episodes. It was during the time when Shawn Michaels turned heel and joined the Corporation (i.e. nailing X-Pac with the chair). On the next Raw, X-Pac called out Commissioner HBK and HBK completely and utterly destroyed X-Pac on the mic. A week or so later, DX came out to mock the Corporation, but The Rock had the last laugh when him and HBK completely owned Triple H and DX.

2) This was around 2004, but the RAW where Triple H and Chris Benoit had an Iron Man match while the other hour was devoted to a Battle Royale (which Orton won).

3) Jericho's 'phantom' world title victory over Hunter in 2000.

4) Late 1998 - Undertaker and Kane were scheduled to face The Rock, Ken Shamrock, and Mankind in a 2-3 handicapped match. The match was funny to me because Rock, Shamrock, and Foley kept beating the crap out of each other (they were feuding at the time), and Taker/Kane just sort of stood their scratching their heads.

5) The last episode of RAW before Summerslam 1998. Summerslam 1998 was one of the greatest PPV's of all-time in my opinion (only slightly below Wrestlemania 17 in my opinion.....that's how much I hold it in high regard). the 'Highway to Hell' hype that year was off the charts and each and every one of those feuds were captivating. Everything from Nation punking out Chyna, to Kane being in 'cahoots' with Taker, to Shamrock/Owen Hart's borderline gay promo's, etc., etc. The Raw before Summerslam 98' *really* did a tremendous job in hyping what was already shaping up to be a phenomenal PPV.

For WCW, the Nitro episode of Hall's debut. Was very surprised at Razor Ramon suddenly showing up in WCW and felt something huge was going to happen soon which it did with Nash's debut a while later and the formation of the nWo.

For WWF/WWE, toss up between Foley winning the title and Chris Jericho's debut. Both were really amazing moments. If I remember correctly, didn't see the part of WCW Nitro where Bischoff gave away the results since I was watching RAW the whole time which made Foley's title win even more special in the end.

Also the Raw where Jeff Hardy got a WWE title shot against the Undertaker in a ladder match. Might have still been the Undiputed WWE championship then but I remember so bad wanting Jeff to win that match.

watch the nitro jan 4 1999 finger poke of doom ep see who is on the show and who is wrestling today.

March 30, 1998, the RAW after WM14. Show was money from beginning to end.

I have a few.

- Crucifying Stone cold episode of RAW
- Stone Cold pissed off on Sunday Night Heat (forget why), and keeps coming out and keeps hitting everyone with the stunner during their match

Speaking of Heat... I loved the episode where Kaientai hosted from WWF New York and fought ninjas throughout the episode....

The 3/22/04 episode of Raw (the 2004 Draft Lottery) was really, really fun.

For starters, they'd kept Raw and SmackDown almost entirely separate for 2 years, so it actually felt like a big deal that guys were going to be changing shows. Bischoff and Heyman each had 6 draft picks and made them throughout the show. What I liked though is that they picked a mix of big names, midcarders, and even non-wrestlers so you really had no idea what to expect.

The best moment was of course Triple H going to SmackDown, which made the TPWW thread explode when it happened. Obviously they traded him right back to Raw a day later but still a cool moment. Edge also returned as a surprise draft pick, Shelton Benjamin went to Raw where he ended up becoming a big deal, Rhyno got drafted to Raw which was cool because it was his hometown and it looked like he'd be treated as someone important, hell Teddy Long got drafted to SmackDown which gave rise to him being GM for 300 years.

Oh and the show ended with a massive brawl between both rosters which looked like an episode of Wild and Crazy Kids gone horribly wrong. Great stuff.

2 "sentimental" choices as well:

7/6/98 Nitro: Goldberg wins the WCW World Heavyweight Title over Hogan. This often gets cited as a screw up by WCW by not having it on PPV. But Goldberg was my favorite as a kid and I was very much in my infant stages as a wrestling fan, so I loved this moment. One of my first true mark outs that made me fall in love with the business.

12/10/07 Raw: 15th Anniversary Show. Just a total nostalgia show really but I was there live so it was absurdly fun seeing all of these former names coming out. The battle royal was the best part. Lost my shit when Steve Blackman's theme hit.

Raw after Mania where Brock returned and attacked Cena.... the hot crowd made the show.....

This one.

That bit where Heyman gets up from commentary and just says 'feel this moment, feel this moment for the rest of your life' or something just as the viewer figures out exactly what is happening is just perfect.

I want to thank everybody for the contributions, we got to read many of them on the show, which is now available at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean....V_Episodes.mp3

Join us for our show on Favourite Episodes of Wrestling Television, as we reflect on some amazing programming, looking at what made the shows special and examine what sticks in people's minds. Taking your nominations, we talk WWF Raw with Austin Vs. McMahon, the Austin/Hart Streetfight, the WWF Draft, THAT 10-Man tag, The Alliance angle, Jericho Vs. HHH, WCW Nitro with the Russo/Bischoff merger, Goldberg Vs. Hogan, the nWo backstage at Disney, the Fingerpoke of Doom, Mid South Wrestling with Flair Vs. DiBiase, Saturday Night's Main Event with the Mega Powers Exploding, and many many more excellent candidates. A fun show this week, check it out!

Lol every time I thought of a show that I enjoyed when I was younger ended up sucking when I'd go revisit it. I remember LOVING the Goldberg title win over Hogan in Atlanta on Nitro but after looking back...yeah

One episode I remember liking was one of the first smackdowns of 2000. When Triple H and Stephanie were punishing DX for failing to get rid of the Rock on the Raw before, and there being a lottery to see who would face Triple H for the WWE Title, which was won by Rikishi. I just found it to be a fun episode from top to bottom.

Also remember the False Finish of Rikishi hitting the Banzai Drop on HHH and thinking how did Triple H kick out of that.

Great work as usual :y:

Raw 1000. Worked nostalgia AND current storylines perfectly. The OH Shit moment of Punk turning Heel on the end was cherry on top.

Also pretty much any Raw between No Way Out and Wrestlemania 17.

Personally I didn't feel like Punk's heel turn was all that big of a moment because he had only been face for a little over a year. The only true OH SHIT heel turn in the business anymore is Cena and it's been dissected ad nauseum why that will never happen.

Yeah Punk's heel turn was just a good angle but not a HOLY SHIT moment.

I can't think of any raw after 1000 that was good.