Why Monday for the "flagship" show?

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Just something I wondered about, despite wrestling's connection with Saturday morning (where most older causual fans remeber watching wrestling "back in the old days) and both WCW and WWF's forays in Saturday night programing (SNME, WCW Saturday Night (the flagship before Nitro) I can understand why a weekday night would be selected

 

But then, the target audience isn't exactly "supposed" to be doing the same things more "older" demographics do on weekends (going out on Friday/Sat night, hence why TV networks basically either give up programing or have "family" themed programing)

 

Or did Vince and USA want to cut into MNF's ratings? Figuring that most of the "target audience" would be home watching football anyway why not give them wrestling?

 

Steve

[Tony149 0]

Interesting question. My feeling is Vince thought wres-- err, Sports Entertainment needed something that would give it what MNF has done for the NFL -- a major event on a weeknight. He probably figured Monday was the perfect choice since it did wonders for football and could get a ratings boost coming off a PPV.

[Guest drdrainoscott]

While I don't know the answer to the question, Tuesday night had been the night that WWF was on during the boom in the 80's with Tuesday Night Titans. That show, as most already know, was basically an attempt to copy the Johnny Carson show, in that it was more a variety show than a wrestling show. Once the ratings for TNT began to fall, Prime Time Wrestling was created and moved to Monday Nights. Even still, I don't think it was ever considered the flagship show (I believe Superstars on Saturdays held this distinction) until the switchover to Raw in 1993.

[Internet Warfare 0]

Was RAW really considered the flagship as soon as is debuted? Looking back at the first couple of months of the show not much was actually happened. Sure there were some angles, but it was mostly jobber matches. Superstars still had the big stuff.

 

William Shatner on Raw was the turning point I think...

[Guest drdrainoscott]

I completly disagree. Raw started in Jan 93, and on the second episode was the Flair/Hennig Loser Leaves Town match. Also, the show featured the return of Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake, as well as the Shawn Michaels/Marty Jannetty IC Title match. Superstar's never had any of these first rate matches or angles once Raw started.

[Steviekick 0]

As soon as Raw started, it became the flagship WWF program. That's where everything happened and the weekend syndicated shows slowly began their descent into suckiness.

 

That is one of the reasons why I was a bigger fan of WCW during the Pre-Raw period. WCW Saturday Night was always running angles and such while the WWF weekend shows were just the parade of jobbers.

[spman 0]

It was just a natural transition. Prime Time Wrestling was the big show first, then as replaced by RAW which became the main program, with Superstars being the equvilent of Smackdown. They also had Wrestling Challane and All American Wrestling which were like Heat and Velocity, and WWF Mania which was a clip show.

[Guest drdrainoscott]

I think you got your timelines a bit confused. First of all, one could make the argument that All-American Wrestling was the flagship show before Raw came about, but I would contend that AAW was overtaken by Superstars by 1990 for that distinction. The Wrestling Challenge was more or less the same matches shown on Superstars and AAW. Mania didn't even come around until about 1994, when it replaced Challenge. Once Raw started though, Superstars became more like Heat is today, with secondary matches and no real angle progression. The only thing that I can actually remember happening on Superstars after Raw started was King of the Ring qualifiers and the occasional debut of new wrestlers.

[yankovic fan 0]

Well all I ever got to watch before Mania was created was AAW and Primetime because Superstars didn't come on until 1:30 am here. So in my personal views at the time I considered both shows to be of equal importance.

[spman 0]

No,Mania debuted in 1993 alongside RAW. It was an all clip show with unfunny comedy skits with Todd Pettingail in between. Wrestlign Challange stil aired in some markets as late as 1995, and actually did occaisionally feature intereting developments. For example in 1994, Challange was hosted by Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny Polo, and the to made a bet that if The Quebecers didn't win at Wrestlemania 10, Polo would shave off his mustache. Of course htye lost, and he DID shave it off. I Believe Challange aired over here on the netwrok that eventually amny years later became PAX TV.

[deancoles 0]

Even after Raw started there were still some interesting things on Superstars such as the Borga/Tatanka match,Diesel winning the IC Title and Backlund Turning on Bret Hart, it was in 95 that all the angles stopped.I have the 1993 Year In Review Tape and the Doink attack on Crush was on Superstars but that might have been after the debut of Raw.

[Guest drdrainoscott]

Just out of curiosity, why would a Ludwig Borga vs. Tatanka match be interesting? Was that when Tatanka's winning streak ended?

 

Thinking about the Backlund angle and Diesel's win, I guess Superstars did have some importance for a while after Raw began. While I don't really remember that much from that time period, I do remember that much of the Tag Title Tournament in 1996 was held on Superstars, as well as Leif Cassidy's heel turn. Plus, they had that awesome theme song until 96, so the show couldn't have been that bad.

[Guest Fook]

Just out of curiosity, why would a Ludwig Borga vs. Tatanka match be interesting? Was that when Tatanka's winning streak ended?

Yes. Borga destroyed him and pinned him with one finger.

[spman 0]

Superstars was a great show, and I was sad to see it end it's 17 year run in 2000, even if it had been nothing but a clip show since moving to USA in 1997.

[Jericholic82 0]

In Ny superstars and challenge came on on fox at Sat and sun at 12:pm I used to watch the cartoons then wait for noon. superstars and challenge usually had different matches taped at the same venue, mostly squashes (but I only got into wrestling by watching survivor series 90 so I started superstars and challenge in early 91) prime time was cool cuz it had heenan and monsoon in the studio, later other hosts like sean mooney mr perfect hillbilly jim,etc and it showed some matches that werent shown on the syndicated shows, mostly house show matches but it was cool. Ric Flair's historic WWF debut interview took place in the studio on primetime (its on the flair dvd) msg network in ny also would show the msg house shows often (including both of the ones i went to) and also showed wwf spotlight I think. i didnt watch raw much early cuz it was on a school night and cuz we only had cable in the living room. i relied on mania to show clips of raw so i could follow along. wcw sat night was THE SHOW until nitro started in sep 95. I enjoyed the wcw show more cuz it had more competitive matches and big angles. also on sunday nights they had wcw main event and also wcw pro was on early sat i think, wcw worldwide came on at like 1 in the morning in NY

 

ah I miss the old days

[Slickster 0]

Actually, WWE Superstars is still airing in Europe.

[DokDoyle 0]

When The syndicated Superstars ended...Didn't it not show any matches but was a best of with Vince and Mr. Perfect in studio? Then it started on USA the next week, which meant that Canada was SOL, since we didn't get USA

[cawthon777 0]

For example in 1994, Challange was hosted by Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny Polo, and the to made a bet that if The Quebecers didn't win at Wrestlemania 10, Polo would shave off his mustache. Of course htye lost, and he DID shave it off.

That bet was part of All American, IIRC. And the match they were referring to was the Headshrinkers vs. Quebecars from the pre-KOTR TV special (Countdown to the Crowning? ... something like that).

 

Just to be clear, WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge were always taped in two different venues, usually one day after each other. Each taping ran probably around the 5 hour mark in order to get in the 3-4 weeks of squashes / feature matches, the matches for Prime Time, the matches for home video, and the main events.

 

I think Superstars was the bigger show but I think that had to do with the number of markets it played in. I moved around a lot as a kid and NEVER was in an area where I could get Challenge.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

Just out of curiosity, why would a Ludwig Borga vs. Tatanka match be interesting? Was that when Tatanka's winning streak ended?

 

Thinking about the Backlund angle and Diesel's win, I guess Superstars did have some importance for a while after Raw began. While I don't really remember that much from that time period, I do remember that much of the Tag Title Tournament in 1996 was held on Superstars, as well as Leif Cassidy's heel turn. Plus, they had that awesome theme song until 96, so the show couldn't have been that bad.

Minor Note: It's LudVig. Not Ludwig.

 

 

Back on topic: Monday Night was the flag-ship show from 1993-on.

 

Although Primetime Wrestling featured more feature matches than any other show, angles really weren't developed on it, but only to recap etc.

 

Superstars had become the B-Show officially by the time Raw started, and Challenge became the lesser.

 

Feature Matches (superstar vs. superstar) still occured quite often on the weekend shows, but nothing really had any significant importance besides the 2 or 3 occasions mentioned above.

 

 

From what I remember with WWF TV..

Monday Night Raw & Mania debuted the Week of Jan. 9-11, 1993

Superstars of Wrestling (i.e. new matches) ended in early 1997 I think

Challenge I remember seeing in 1996

All-American Wrestling converted into The Action Zone in September 1994

The Action Zone became the 2nd Mania about a year later.

Superstars slot went to LiveWire.

Superstars became a highlight show on Sundays.

And of course Smackdown made its full-time debut in the last week of August 1999.

 

 

All the while, Raw was the #1 show in every category. Ratings, matches, angles, importance etc. etc.

[cawthon777 0]

Challenge I remember seeing in 1996

The final Challenge taping took place on July 26, 95 in St. Louis.