The Best And Worst Of 1991

Late 1991 was when I really got into wrestling, I had watched wrestling previously but this was when I got hooked. The key moment being the Jake/Savage feud, epic. For an error of not a lot of shocking TV moment, the snake biting Randy Savage was intense. Still one of my top feuds of all-time. Other bright spots for me would have to be the first 5 star match (in my opinion that I saw) Mr. Perfect vs Bret Hart at Summer Slam, that was a great wrestling match and story - I would have to go with this for match of the year. Runner-up for match of the year for me would be Macho King vs Warrior at WM7 (Warrior's greatest match, and maybe Savage's considering the opponent), another great match and story - one of the best ever told at WrestleMania. For gimmick matches, the blindfold match at Mania was well done by two masters of psychology. I also really liked the Virgil turn at the rumble, one of the biggest pops I remember hearing at the time. I also liked their feud which carried on throughout 1991, nice to see the title change hands for a change. The 1991 Royal Rumble is also one of my favorite PPVs of all-time (a Rumble match of all-time), loved the Warrior/Savage feud here, the Rockers/Orient Express match was a clinic in tag team wrestling. As mentioned before, the DiBiase/Virgil/Piper angle that began here was great too. I liked the Rumble but the ending wasn't great, but the run up to the last two was very tremendous. I didn't start watching WCW until the end of 1991 so I missed a lot of the early stuff, though the Sting/Rude and Sting/Vader feuds were great. WCW had a lot of great young talent at this time, and a lot of these guys would become big reasons for the wrestling boom during the Monday Night Wars. Other good things, Mr. Perfect getting a good run as IC champion, really showing his abilities against all comers at that time. Flair and Sid coming over to the WWF, loved Flair's feud with Piper and Savage.

As for things I didn't care for (the worst), I didn't mind the Iraqi sympathizer angle but I agree it could have ended at WM7 which would have opened up Warrior and Hogan to wrestle Jake and Taker at Summer Slam (setting up both feuds going further). Since Warrior was already feuding with Jake and Taker during the summer, Hogan could have been brought in to help out Warrior. I was a huge Warrior fan, so him getting fired at the Summer Slam kind of sucked (though, I think Vince is not telling the whole truth about being held up at the PPV, I saw a thing on Youtube years back that the letter he sent to Vince about wanting as much money as Hogan or he wasn't going to wrestle at the PPV was sent a month or so in advance of the Summer Slam PPV - I believe this information was revealed in one of the trials he had with Vince. Though, with Warrior leaving, we did get the Savage/Jake feud. I agree that I wish Power and Glory would have beaten the Hart's for the tag titles and dropped them to LOD at Summer Slam (I don't have anything against the Nasty Boys but I liked Power and Glory more, plus they were there longer), with that being said, I really liked the Hart/Nasty match at WM7 - the Nasty Boy took some good bumps. I didn't mind the Hart Foundation getting split up, even though they are my Favorite Tag Team of All-time, it was time, and it gave us Bret in singles competition (which was one of the few reasons I continued to watch during the New Generation Era). Mr. Perfect having to retire was bad too, the second greatest IC champion of all-time (behind Savage, of course), what a great wrestler. At the end of 91 we started to see the Rockers breaking up, which I didn't really like at this time because they were a great tag team and could have been used in 1992 (considering a lot of teams were no longer in the company, Harts, Demolition, Power & Glory, and LOD coming and going, the New Foundation who I would have liked to have seen more of). I think they could have had a Tag Title run in 1992 then broken them up at the end of 1992 after losing the titles to Money Inc. Never really got behind the Nasty Boys or Natural Disasters as baby face teams.

All-in-all a mix of good and bad.

Best
Six man and intercontinental match at Summerslam 91
Colonel Mustafa - loved him for some reason.
Power & Glory. Wish they’d had a better run of things but still really enjoyable
The Rockers splitting storyline.
Beverly Brothers - as with P&G wish they’d done better
Ric Flair
The opening match of Survivor Series.
Rockers v Orient Express RR 91

All in all a pretty great year.

Worst
The continued downfall of Demolition. No big pay off against the Road Warriors.
Mr Perfect “retiring”
Jameson - worst character ever

Probably a lot I’ve missed, both good and bad but always thought it was a great year in wrestling

As mentioned, this was definitely the highlight of the year for me, such a great feud - only bad thing is we didn't get a WrestleMania match out of it. Heel Jake was great, I heard that he and Bret were supposed to work together sometime in 1992 had he not quit, such a shame, I would have liked to have seen that - two great psychologists of wrestling.

WWF

Best

All four main WWF PPV events that year were solid, I have no complaints for any of them

The Tuesday In Texas PPV was a nicely added bonus for us that year

The complete shock of seeing Earthquake squash Jake's 'snake'

The singles push of Bret Hart to the IC Title and the match he had with Mr. Perfect

The LOD's road to the Tag Titles, and the reign as Tag Champions

Randy Savage telling Elizabeth he loved her, and then asking her to marry him

Jake Roberts heel turn

The Cobra biting Randy Savage's arm

Sid Justice debuting

Ric Flair debuting

Bobby Heenan carrying the NWA/WCW World Title on WWF TV

The Virgil/Ted DiBiase story/feud

"You want the finger..?? Here... here's the finger!" - The Mountie at SummerSlam (definitely pre attitude era with that!)

The Undertaker's big WWE Title win for the first time

Roddy Piper hitting Vince McMahon in the back with a wooden folding chair by accident during a fight with Ric Flair at the end of Superstars


Worst

Sgt. Slaughter being WWF Champion

Ultimate Warrior holding up Vince for money and then getting fired

Mr. Perfect injuring his back prior to SummerSlam and having to retire for a year because of it

That's all I can really think of for the worst.


WCW

Best

Steiners vs. Luger/Sting at Super Brawl 1

Bobby Eaton vs. Arn Anderson feud for the TV Title from January - June

Steve Austin's WCW debut and TV Title win over Eaton

Lex Luger finally winning the WCW Title

Barry Windham face turn

Nikita Koloff returning and making an impact

Battle Bowl/Lethal Lottery at Starrcade

The baby face turn for Ron Simmons

Rick Rude's debut at WCW

Paul E. Dangerously creating the Dangerous Alliance

Ricky Steamboat return to WCW

Dusty and Dustin Rhodes return to WCW


Worst

Ric Flair leaving WCW

Lex Luger not beating Flair to win the WCW Title

Lex Luger turning heel after winning the WCW Title

Arn Anderson not being in the War Games match

Nikita Koloff/Lex Luger feud never actually having a start or finish to it

Barry Windham breaking his hand

The Hardliners injuring Scott Steiner's bicep

This, all of it.

Completely forgot about the two highlighted, those were great moments.

One moment I forgot to add on my worst list, no Macho King in the Royal Rumble Match. I would have liked to have seen him in the final three with Hogan and Quake, then have Warrior come from the back with a bunch of WWF officials trying to hold him back and chase Macho King from the match.

They did something like this, Savage was being interview by Sean Mooney after costing Warrior the title, then you hear banging on the door and Sherri and Savage run out of the room. But I think it would have been better if Savage entered the rumble (and was one of the last guys in) only to have Warrior come out and chase Savage from the ring costing him the match. I really liked the 1991 rumble match, but the ending was kind of dull, this would have made it more exciting - to me at least.