1993
WWF: 1993 was the coronation of the New Generation as the new status quo of the WWF. Despite the bad publicity, USA Network is open to the launch of Monday Night RAW in place of the highlight reel that was
Prime Time Wrestling and the combined effort of a number of hot talent on the scene, the WWF begins to regain their momentum as Bret Hart goes over a year as champion, Shawn Michaels almost goes a year as Intercontinental Champion before dropping the belt to Razor Ramon in September and on the tag side, the Steiner Brothers win the titles at WrestleMania IX, defeating Money Inc. and holding them until September, where they drop the Quebecers. While Bret was always rough on the charisma department, people bought into him as a clean, hard-working champion who didn't need steroids to get an edge in the competition and with so many fans disillusioned to the muscleheads, they began to embrace the Hitman. And while Shawn was something of a pain in Flair's ass backstage (he and Jannetty were party animals at the time and Shawn rankled heavily at the new drug policies, though not to the extent that Jannetty did. I won't say what Jannetty did to get himself fired, but it involved Flair's car, baby oil and a lot of Taco Bell...) he was clearly talented in his own right and was dripping charisma.
WCW: WCW, meanwhile, had gotten rid of Bill Watts and brought in Eric Bischoff. Bischoff did not have an auspicious start as he drummed out longtime announcer Jim Ross (who jumped ship to the WWF) but he managed to recover by keeping the WCW World Title on Vader for a whole year, pushing him hard as an unstoppable monster. This resulted in some great feuds against Sting and Davey Boy Smtih, but also a dud in the form of Lex Luger. Luger, who had been predicted a hero's welcome after his run in the WWF, was met with the haunting "steroids" chants that had driven Hogan to retirement. The crowd didn't give Luger an inch as a babyface and soon WCW had washed him out as well. Luger would retire by the end of the year.
Now, as I said, the feuds with Sting and Davey Boy were great. What wasn't was their builds. Remember the mini-movies? Oh yeah, those are back. There was the White Castle of Fear (Do they sell Sliders of Despair there?) and a movie where Sting and Davey Boy's boat almost got blown up by a midget in a shark suit (wat) and the Lex Express, a gigantic waste of time and money to hype up a match between Vader and Luger at Halloween Havoc. [1] In a positive, there was the Hollywood Blondes, the team of Brian Pillman and Steve Austin, who were fantastic throughout the year. [2] But you also had the decision for WCW to sever ties with the NWA and the maddening choice of almost Harlem Heat as the Posse, a gang of convicts led to the ring by Col. Rob Parker in
chains. [3]
And while there was the positive of Sting winning the title at Starrcade... well, shit, I have to talk about it, don't I? The thing everyone brings up about this year for WCW. So... during an England tour just before Starrcade, Arn Anderson and Sid Vicious got into an argument and Sid got a hold of Arn's grooming scissors. Sid had already had a bad reputation dating back from 1991 when and Pillman got in a similar altercation that had resulted in Vicious ready to attack Flyin' Brian with a squeegee. Everyone would rib Sid about it, but no one laughed after this. Sid had stabbed Arn twenty times with the scissors, taking four cuts himself... and one of the twenty stabs proved fatal. There was no getting around it, Sid was fired and would soon be on trial and Arn Anderson was dead. Starrcade 1993 began with a ten-bell salute to Arn and WWF, in a display of good faith, allowed Ric to be there to honor his fallen friend and to hand the WCW World title to Sting.
So... a bit of a rollercoaster for WCW.
ECW: Meanwhile, ECW had broken away from the NWA, becoming Extreme Championship Wrestling. And with it, Shane Douglas would take up a spot in the new ECW by beating Bruiser Brody for the World Title, ending his year-long reign. However, there's a good chance that thanks to the crowds he drew that Brody will be kept on as a major player in ECW and will reclaim the title in time.
USWA: Unfortunately, USWA suffered from some tragic news as February 1993 saw Kerry Von Erich commit suicide via gunshot. While he would leave his 25% ownership of USWA to Kevin, Kevin would also leave at the end of the year, leaving Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler in full control. Kevin has taken to the independent circuit, but many are certain it won't be for long.
WWC: In January 1993, Carlos Colon retired from professional wrestling, unable to shake off the dark cloud looming over him and the World Wrestling Council after the murder of Tony Atlas. By the end of WWC, with dwindling crowds, any television left canceled and without many major stars that weren't tainted by the events in 1988, the World Wrestling Council closes its doors. Not a victim of the WWF and the fall of the territory system, but instead of its own failings.
[1] In place of Lost in Cleveland, we got the Lex Express. Yay?
[2] And weren't broken up like OTL. At least not yet.
[3] Yes. This was almost a thing in OTL.
