When was the WWF the worst off?

[JoeDirt]

When, during the tough times the WWF went through in the mid 1990's, do you think was the bottom of the barrel? When did things look the most bleak as far as being driven out of business by WCW? When were they closest (if ever) to folding? When was business the worst?

[Jingus]

Wrestlemania 13. Except for That One Match it was a godawful failure on just about every level it could be: bad wrestling, bad booking, and superstar egos getting in the way of maybe drawing money.

[Guest LooneyTune]

From the Spring of 1996 through Srping of 1997. You had some pretty badly booked PPVs, an anorexic roster, non-drawing main event matches, and horrible decisions.

[tominator89]

When they lost the F.

[Guest bigm350]

I'd say during Michael's first run with the belt. To his credit, he had some good to great matches, but he was a ratings killer.

[spman]

I think King Mable was the absolute rock bottom for the company, everything after that just kept going up. Even now while we're on a decline, we still haven't reached a King Mabel level of bad yet.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Actually, you can credit that to Diesels run as World Champion (drawing less than 1,000 people per show, horrible buyrates, crappy angles, WCW-1991 levels of low attendance for PPV's). Mabel was just a really stupid decision. Mabels push was ridiculous, but it could've been far, far worse.

[Some Guy]

It was Diesel's run. He was virtually unopposed during his reign. WCW wasn't doing much besides the Hogan/Savage show and Nitro didn't come around until the last few months of his reign. He was a business killer. 95 was a horribe year, save a few matches (HBK/Razor ladder match 2, Bret/Diesel 3, HBK/Jarrett, and a few others) there wasn't a single great PPV that year and only Survivor Series came close to good.

 

HBK did OK with the belt but had no opponents people wanted to see until Vader came around and business went up a little bit. Plus it was during his reign that nWo caught fire in WCW.

[MikeJordan23]

When Hogan first left (1992) they were really in the shitter...

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

1992 was fantastic quality wise with Bret and Shawn emerging in the Mid-card, Flair and Savage kicking ass on the main events. The Tag Scene was on it's last legs but not dead just yet with Natural Diasters, Money Inc, LOD, Nastys. The PPV's were top notch...

 

Royal Rumble had a *** tag opener, a genuine moment with Piper winning the IC title and the greatest rumble ever.

 

WM had 2 **** matches, a meaningful main event(at the time) along with a suprise return from Warrior. Shawn kick starting his singles run.

 

Summerslam had a ****1/2 main event, a ***3/4 world title match with that excellent buildup with Flair and Perfect. Under-rated HBK/Martel in a rare display of heel/heel working the right way.

 

Survivor Series had a ****1/4 champion vs champion match, an amazing dueling promo from Perfect/Savage(TURKEYS!) and Flair/Ramon.

 

That was just the ppv, Bret emerged to the WWF Title and the quality was there throughout.

 

WCW was having some great stuff that year with the amazing focus on LONG tag team matches, The Dangerous Alliance/Sting's Squadron stuff. Rude and Steamboat were on a roll, Austin was rising. Mick Foley as Cactus Jack was emerging.

 

Fantastic workrate year for WCW and WWF in 1992.

 

The Worst? All of 1995. Both in WCW and WWE. Aside from some good-great matches; everything was just apathetic in both companies until WCW woke up around September with Nitro's debut. WWE did that around November/December of 1995 as well.

[Guest LooneyTune]

The great workrate in 1992 didn't save WWF from being a financial flop that year.

[Gary Floyd]

The great workrate in 1992 didn't save WWF from being a financial flop that year.

'95 wasn't exactly a financial barnburner either, as I remember

[Guest LooneyTune]

Basically every year from 1992-1996 can be considered... 1995 was far worse I think, but 1992 wasn't really too great financially either.

[BHK]

1995 is, in financial terms, the worst year of business WWE is ever done.

[Kahran Ramsus]

Rock bottom was the In Your House show in October 1995 main evented by Bulldog/Diesel and featuring the infamous Michaels/Douglas/Razor title switch. It never got worse than that show in terms of drawing interest, even if they did draw worst buyrates in a couple of the December PPVs.

[Gary Floyd]

If anything, I would say that they hit rock bottom with the "Billionaire Ted" skits. Sure, they started out funny, but turned cold really quick. Plus, it made Vince look like a pussy who was afraid of competition.

[1234-5678]

I remember being totally disgusted when an out of shape Hogan won the belt at Wrestlemania 9. I don't think I watched again at all until after he turned heel.