Obviously PPV isn't really a thing anymore, not really. But it used to be a big deal when it comes to wrestling. Let's talk about it. Your first PPV experiences and all that. I'll start.

I got into wrestling during the Attitude Era like a typical 90s kid. The hype for Summerslam 98 HIGHWAY TO HELL was unreal to me. I wanted it so bad. Dad wouldn't budge, but that was enough to get my whole family hooked and he ordered us Survivor Series 98 DEADLY GAMES. And we watched every PPV from that day until WMX8 when my Dad said fuck this shit. I gotta say after a year of ordering them they all kind of blended together and didn't feel special.

My friend at the time didn't have a Dad that liked burning money so he didn't get them. Instead he would turn it to the channel and listen to the PPV in scrambled vision ala 90s porn.

So yeah what was your first PPV?

Wrestlemania III. My cool middle aged mailman neighbor ordered it and my family watched it on tape a day or two later.

From Wrestlemania III to Wrestlemania VII this was how it went. Sometimes I'd watch pay per views live along with my dad and brother at this neighbor's house. Other times we'd get the tape from our neighbor a day or two later.

Then I only watched 2 PPVs from Wrestlemania VII through Summerslam 95. Saw both Summerslam 93 and Survivor Series 93 on tape a day or two after they aired with a bunch of friends.

From Summerslam 95 to Backlash 99 it was a matter of scrambling together enough money and convincing various sets of parents to let my friends and I order shows. I'd say we were about 70% successful. If not, there was always Scramblevision. Or if I could get there, a trip to my cousin's house since he had one of those illegal pay per view boxes. This was easily the most fun time. It was predominately WWF shows. But we also ordered some ECW shows from November To Remember 97-Guilty As Charged 99 and even a handful of WCW shows from Fall Brawl 95 to the WOAT Uncensored 96.

From Backlash 99 to Judgment Day 2000 I typically watched PPVs for free at my cousin's- WWF and ECW. The lone exception being Wrestlemania 16, which I watched at a girl friend's house in an honest to goodness Wrestlemania party with like 20 people/half my coworkers.

King of the Ring 2000 through Survivor Series 2003 I watched PPVs with a completely different group of friends at various houses. Including another girl's house! Her place was actually our regular PPV destination for about the first year of this stretch. 

In 2003 I watched about 2 out of every 3 weekly TNA pay per views at Bryan the Dragonball Z fan's place. 

Ordered Wrestlemania 20, Backlash 2004, and NWA Hard Times(!) alone at home.

Saw Wrestlemania 21, One Night Stand 2: Electric Boogaloo, Vengeance 2006, Royal Rumble 2007, and Wrestlemania 23 at a sports bar. Saw Wrestlemania 30 at a completely different sports bar.

From about Survivor Series 2007-Wrestlemania 25 I'd watch the choicest matches on Youtube the next day.

In 2011 I watched a few around Wrestlemania season on glitchy Justin.tv streams.

That about covers it.

First PPV was Armageddon 2000. Off the back of the hype for a six-man Hell in A Cell.

Second PPV was WrestleMania X-Seven. Will probably never be surpassed in terms of experience or quality.

Third PPV was WrestleMania X8. Aside from Rock/Hogan and the pleasant surprise of Flair/Taker, it was confirmation about nothing surpassing WMX7.

Fourth PPV was SummerSlam 2002. Gave WMX7 a really, really good run for the money in terms of quality and experience. In hindsight, I might actually take it over WMX7.

2003 started a spree...

Fifth PPV was Royal Rumble 2003. Even though Brock won the Rumble, the highlight was Benoit/Angle. Mindblowing. HHH/Steiner was a lowlight highlight and mindblowing for exact opposite reasons.

Sixth PPV was WrestleMania XIX. Good but felt long. Good but not great. Felt like By The Way to WMX7's Californication (and WMX8's One Hot Minute).

Seventh PPV was Vengeance 2003. For a brand exclusive PPV, not bad IMO.

Eighth PPV was SummerSlam 2003. It was pretty meh, but hey... my first Elimination Chamber AND the first time I've ever marked out for Goldberg.

Ninth PPV was Royal Rumble 2004.

Tenth PPV was WrestleMania XX. Great show even if I abso-fucking-lutely HATED not getting my Benoit/Lesnar blowoff. Thought Lesnar/Goldberg I was hilarious and exactly what WWE deserved for not giving us Lesnar/Benoit. Mostly quit watching immediately after.

Pretty sure 11th PPV was the 2008 Royal Rumble. First PPV watched w/ Wife. And then 12th was WrestleMania XXIV. Started a yearly tradition of us ordering Rumbles and Manias that lasted until WM27. Then another break until WMXXX. Then back to the Rumble/Mania tradition. Until the Network took over.

I think I made some work friends in late 04 so we went to a sports bar and watched them until mid 05 when they stopped carrying them and I don't care about football enough to want to be there. I remember getting in an argument with some casuals over the choice of JBL as champion over "real stars" like Booker and RVD. Good times.

Apr 30, 2020 0:16:28 GMT @ness said:

I think I made some work friends in late 04 so we went to a sports bar and watched them until mid 05 when they stopped carrying them and I don't care about football enough to want to be there. I remember getting in an argument with some casuals over the choice of JBL as champion over "real stars" like Booker and RVD. Good times.

Best sports bar moments were the place being split 50/50 right down the middle and losing their collective mind over Angle/Michaels at WM 21 and grown men being completely invested in Cena/Michaels at WM 23 with HBK garnering approximately 100% support. People were genuinely pissed when Cena won. Myself included lol. Good times. 

Bash at the Beach 96 was the 1st I ever rented. It was all about the 3rd man.

I saw a lot of old PPVs thanks to my local video rental place. It's where I finally saw Summerslam 98. Obviously thanks to the network, piracy and youtube that isn't as special but it was a big deal going to see the wrestling section and for whatever reason the old 80s tapes had larger boxes.

Apr 30, 2020 0:46:21 GMT @ness said:

I saw a lot of old PPVs thanks to my local video rental place. It's where I finally saw Summerslam 98. Obviously thanks to the network, piracy and youtube that isn't as special but it was a big deal going to see the wrestling section and for whatever reason the old 80s tapes had larger boxes.

Oh man. We did a Tape Rental thread once. It was glorious pwcom.proboards.com/thread/1004/tape-rental-thread

I went for the long post but then thought a sort of year by year thing would be more fun and concise.

1987: Wrestlemania III my first which we ordered at home

Survivor Series 1987-King Of The Ring 1993ish: Viewed on tape via the son of my school bus driver and another mutual friend. Most of the 1988-1993 WCW PPV"s were viewed this way as well.

Summerslam 1993-Summerslam 1994: Via my cousin for WWF through his PPV, WCW became VHS rentals around this time.

Summerslam 1994-Bash At The Beach 1995: VHS rentals for everything.

Fall Bawl 1995-November 2 Remember 1999: Mostly VHS tape purchases/rentals, on holidays and special occasions purchase through my cousin since he got into things outside the WWF around this time.

Purchased Wrestlemania 17-20 and 25 at home. Viewed Wrestlemania 29,30,31,32 at Galaxy Cinemas.

I rented a lot of PPVs on tape, but the first show I actually saw on PPV was WCW Superbrawl 2000. It was entirely by accident, I just flicked it onto the PPV channel hoping to see some old promo packages when I caught the replay of WCW Superbrawl 2000. I was well and truly off the product by then, but I couldn't say no to a free PPV and I just let it run in the background.

Technically I didn't order it, but I did get my cousin to lend me his tape (or DVD recording? Somehow he had all on one media platform) of Wrestlemania XX either the evening of or a day after the show. That was my most anticipated PPV and after following the rollercoaster on GameFAQs after chucking a sick day. I feel guilty about it, but Wrestlemania XX meant a lot to me and it's the one PPV I actually bought on DVD. The show definitely ran too long and had it's share of disappointments. Everybody talks about Goldberg/Lesnar, but the Undertaker's appearance was a major letdown as well. At least the show ended on a high note.

However my first proper PPV experience where I sat down, ordered the show and watched the entire thing live in my lounge room was Wrestlemania XXII. I had just finished reading both of Foley's autobiographies so his return was a big hook and since the show fell around school holidays it just seemed like all the stars had aligned. I enjoyed the show, it didn't quite hit the highs of XX, but it just had a little bit of everything. The only disappointment I had was Cena/HHH main eventing over Rey/Orton/Angle. The RR challenger should always be in the main event - Wrestlemania XI be damned.

The next set of school holidays happen to line up perfectly with ECW One Night Stand II which was another huge draw. I regretted not being able to order the first One Night Stand and with Foley back on the card, I was all in for Edge/Foley follow-up. I enjoyed the show just as much, if not more than Wrestlemania XXII. The Hardcore Six Way match was one of the craziest things I'd ever seen in a WWE ring, I enjoyed the tag match between FBI/Tajiri and Crazy and RVD got his moment. The only real disappointment of the show was Sabu/Rey which had a horrible finish. As somebody who had only discovered Sabu in the past year, I was still blown away by his matches and just how far he'd push himself. To end the match on such a spot was such a cop out.

I enjoyed the show so much, I threw all my faith into ECW December to Dismember. Sure, the show didn't have a card, but didn't ECW cards change all the time anyways? I was convinced ECW was less about the matches and more about a show and putting together genuine surprises. The show started off on a high note with the Hardyz/MNM having a really good tag team match. I thought surely if that was the first match, the rest of the card would be amazing. It wasn't and the show was so bad that Heyman came out and basically apologised before the main event which turned out to be the biggest travesty of the night. That show really turned me off wrestling for awhile and I would only catch bits and pieces here and there. Like how Umaga suddenly became awesome, how HHH tore his quad again and somebody finally won the Rumble from #30 and everybody wanted to see Taker/HBK in a proper match.

Wrestlemania XXIII happened to fall around my birthday party and since I had a bunch of layabouts, we decided to order the show just for something different. I had no expectations going into the show, but from the opening match everybody got into it and like Baker's sports bar, we were on the edge of our seat for HBK/Cena. It was a case of a show delivering on the night and it's the best PPV I ordered.

Then I went through a massive PPV phase where I ordered Armaggeddon 2007, Royal Rumble 2008, No Way Out 2008, Wrestlemania XXIV, Night of Champions 2008, SummerSlam 2008, Unforgiven 2008, Royal Rumble 2009, No Way Out 2009 and Wrestlemania XXV. I finally had time to watch those shows and to actually experience LIVE wrestling was such a thrill after years of waiting days or even months to see certain shows. The shows themselves were actually pretty good too, up until XXV which dropped the ball hard on everything bar HBK/Taker.

And that's basically it, I'll still make time for shows mainly the Royal Rumble since it usually falls on Australia Day and it's the one show lapsed fans can get into which is mostly my crew from high school.

I don't quite remember the first because I was really young, but my dad worked with a guy named Sid who had an illegal cable box that would unscramble the scrambled pay per view channel and he'd tape them for me. He'd leave it in the mailbox on Monday morning, I'd put it in my backpack and my dad would drive me to school in a different town (divorced parents, spent weekends with dad) and my entire Monday in school would TORTURE as I knew the tape was sitting in my backpack and I could not wait to go home and watch it, see what happened!

By 1991, my dad saved up to get the same scrambler (I think it was several hundred dollars in 1991, my dad didn't make a lot of money), and then we had free pay per views until 1997 when cable switched to fiber optics and the old scramblers stopped working (the old man would get a new scrambler Jan/Feb 1998, which I only remember because of tapin SuperBrawl, but not being able to watch/tape Starrcade '97 and Souled Out in the months prior, which I really wanted to watch).

So I think Wrestlemania 7 was the first pay per view I saw live. Every other one before that was tape delay via Sid. I was fortunate to watch most of the pay per views in those days, taped a lot of them too. Started watching WCW Pay Per Views War Gamess 1991 because I had to see what the fuck War Games was, the coolest name in wrestling history. I didn't tape a lot of WCW pay per views because blank tapes were somewhat expensive and I only had an allowance for income, but I did tape SuperBrawl 2 for some reason, which was accidentally a good choice because SuperBrawl 2 fucking ruled. I taped Wrestlemanaia 7-12 minus WMX because I was lucky enough to be there. Didn't tape WM13 because this was the 1997 scrambler blackout, but would triumphantly return to tape 14-17. I had sporadic Royal Rumbles (1991, not 1992 because I was at a birthday party, 1994, 1996), I had Survivor Series 1990 on tape, which I watched a lot, and did not know The Gobbeldy Gooker was known as one of the worst things of all time, I thought he was a cool turkey doing fun sommersaults in the ring, a loveable bird.

The first ECW Pay Per View I got to watch (and tape) was Wrestlepalooza '98. The first few ECW pay per views were banned in New York, having been swallowed up by the early UFC ban on pay per view from the mid-90s. ECW had done such a great job marketing themselves as more violent than WWF/WCW that the PPV providers were like, "So is it Ultimate Fighting and not wrestling?" They were fucking idiots, obviously, but ECW wore that as a slight badge of honor even while obviously preferring to have the ability to be aired everywhere especially their home away from home in New York. So the first four pay per views didn't air here (Barely Legal, Hardcore Heaven, November to Remember, Living Dangerously) as two of those names alone probably did not help its cause, but by Wrestlepalooza '98 in May, ECW finally made its debut to New York pay per view and this was a huge occasion for me. The pay per view kind of sucked, but THE BOYS were on PPV it didn't matter. "The next one will be better," I optimistically though, and it was, Heatwave '98, one of the best PPVs ECW would ever do.

I guess I'm just going on about stuff I taped, but that a huge part of my childhood. Taping stuff. Acquiring a collection. It was like part of my identity. Not just wrestling, just having cool shit on tape. It's hard to explain, you had to be there, but wrestling and wrestling pay per views were a huge part of two halves of childhood, rock and wrestling appealing to my truly boyhood years, then Monday Night Wars/ECW appealing to my teenage self who wanted more of an edge in his wrestling. Good times.

While I had seen a bunch on video tape (thanks Blockbuster and my other video rental stores), the first I saw live was ECW November to Remember 1998, since it was airing live on my PPV provider for free, for some reason. I'm glad, since it was the thing that sealed my interest in wrestling, and I would go on to become a big ECW mark.😂

The first PPV I can remember my dad buying was WWF No Mercy 1999. He bought it as a birthday gift for me (since it was airing on my birthday). I really don't remember much about the event off hand, but the one thing that I remember the most about it was the Hardy Boyz vs Edge & Christian in a ladder match. It caught my attention instantly, because I never seen people be that innovative with ladders in a match the way they were being used. I can remember Chyna vs. Jarrett, while not the best, but just being a fun little brawl, and Jeff jumping to WCW the next night. I also remember the entrance set used that night would eventually become the Raw entrance set.

YO 🤯! MY FIRST AT HOME PPV ORDER WAS ARMAGEDDON ALSO! I did it behind my parents back, because I was a rebel and they were pissed when they got the bill. I, too, was pissed after Chris Jericho won. I was like 'WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY?!'

But my cousin had illegal PPV, black box and before that I would always go there to watch PPVs. First one I saw live was Bulldog/HBK Main Event where Bulldog won, but then he didn't because his shoulders were down too. Can't remember the name of the PPV, but I remember thinking to myself what an idiot Bulldog was for squandering that opportunity.

And @ness, I loved static porn. Sometimes the static would freeze up in a place where a whole breast was exposed in my view for a good 5-10 seconds of straight bouncing action.

May 1, 2020 13:56:22 GMT KING KID said:

YO 🤯! MY FIRST AT HOME PPV ORDER WAS ARMAGEDDON ALSO! I did it behind my parents back, because I was a rebel and they were pissed when they got the bill. I, too, was pissed after Chris Jericho won. I was like 'WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY?!'

But my cousin had illegal PPV, black box and before that I would always go there to watch PPVs. First one I saw live was Bulldog/HBK Main Event where Bulldog won, but then he didn't because his shoulders were down too. Can't remember the name of the PPV, but I remember thinking to myself what an idiot Bulldog was for squandering that opportunity.

And @ness, I loved static porn. Sometimes the static would freeze up in a place where a whole breast was exposed in my view for a good 5-10 seconds of straight bouncing action.

Remember the barrel tower!?!

May 1, 2020 14:24:58 GMT 🤯 said:

May 1, 2020 13:56:22 GMT KING KID said:

YO 🤯 ! MY FIRST AT HOME PPV ORDER WAS ARMAGEDDON ALSO! I did it behind my parents back, because I was a rebel and they were pissed when they got the bill. I, too, was pissed after Chris Jericho won. I was like 'WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY?!'

But my cousin had illegal PPV, black box and before that I would always go there to watch PPVs. First one I saw live was Bulldog/HBK Main Event where Bulldog won, but then he didn't because his shoulders were down too. Can't remember the name of the PPV, but I remember thinking to myself what an idiot Bulldog was for squandering that opportunity.

And @ness , I loved static porn. Sometimes the static would freeze up in a place where a whole breast was exposed in my view for a good 5-10 seconds of straight bouncing action.

Remember the barrel tower!?!

No idea what you are talking about.

May 1, 2020 14:58:01 GMT KING KID said:

May 1, 2020 14:24:58 GMT 🤯 said:

Remember the barrel tower!?!

No idea what you are talking about.

That's how Y2J beat Kane, you forgetful fuck! Last man standing. Y2J toppled a tower of weirdly welded-together barrels over onto Kane to keep him down for the ten-count. Ultimate payback for the cup of coffee!

Wait is Kid getting it mixed up with Vengeance 2001 where Jericho beat The Rock and Stone Cold in the same night.

May 1, 2020 16:35:56 GMT Big Pete said:

Wait is Kid getting it mixed up with Vengeance 2001 where Jericho beat The Rock and Stone Cold in the same night.

I'd be more upset about Kane jobbing in the LMS to Y2J still.

I’ve only ordered a couple PPVs myself. I think the first one I ordered was Wrestlemania 17. I ordered the first ECW One Night Stand PPV too.

I had a friend that ordered most of the PPVs and we would always go to his house. He would order them and anyone that wanted to come watch had to give him $5. He and I met in 9th grade and bonded over wrestling, and up until I met him I don’t think I had ever seen a PPV. Pretty sure the first one I watched at his house was the 1999 Royal Rumble.

I have a very, very vague recollection of SummerSlam 1999, but the first event I truly remember watching was the 2000 Rumble. The world title street fight started my love affair with wrestling.

I too remember the Armageddon Hell in a Cell. Was 10 at the time, and I was ridiculously excited. To 10 year old me, the sawdust truck bump was phoney even then.

For most of the 90s, from first memories until turning 10, most wrestling I watched was late Hulkamania era WWF PPVs on VHS on a loop. I don't think I watched any of the PPVs between Mania X and Mania XIV in full on tape back in the day.

PPVs here were free, as in no additional fee, providing that you had the subscription package Sky Sports. We had Sky Sports at different points and I have a vague memory (I was 5) of my mother letting me and my brother stay up to watch WrestleMania IX live and us being so excited at Hogan winning the title. In looking back, it feels like a shared experience that resulted in my life-long love of wrestling and why it wasn't just another thing that you fleetingly enjoy as a kid.

I wanted to check if that even seems like it could be a legit memory.



Start time was 15:45 local time, so that would've been 23:45 here and the show ran until 02:30. Yeah, that checks out as being allowed for a one-off special occasion.

We got Sky Sports for good right when the Attitude Era exploded and everyone started watching wrestling. PPVs were in the middle of the night for us, 01:00-04:00, so I would record them to VHS and wake up early to quickly fast forward to the outcome of the big matches as I had to know what had happened and could lord having the knowledge over my friends. It was not that long ago that I finally got rid of all my old VHS recordings from 98-01.

The next PPV that I actually watched live after Mania IX was Mania XV. I remember sneaking downstairs to watch and it was actually shown 02:00-05:00 here because that night was daylight savings so the clock went from 00:59 to 02:00. I just checked to see when the Eastern time daylight savings change in 1999 was, to get us back to the standard +5, and it was on April 4th. Interestingly, I now know that you guys go from 01:59 to 03:00.

Just checked and in 1993, the daylight savings got us back into the +8 standard with Pacific time on April 4th, the day of Mania IX. Otherwise, I feel like we probably would not have been allowed to watch it live.

May 2, 2020 22:27:31 GMT Todd said:

I have a very, very vague recollection of SummerSlam 1999, but the first event I truly remember watching was the 2000 Rumble. The world title street fight started my love affair with wrestling.

2000 Rumble was such a big deal to many because it was shown on Channel 4, who had just gotten some of the PPVs in a new deal, so kids who didn't have Sky Sports could watch it. But we did have to put up with adverts. I remember staying over at my friends and attempting to stay up, but we both fell asleep during the show and then when we woke up early in the morning went straight to the Street Fight to watch it and the Rumble.

Apparently they were shocked at the thumbtacks and Mae's fake tits, which is why from then on they aired the PPVs on a slight delay and with edits.

From memory, I want to say they had Royal Rumble 2000, Backlash 2000, Fully Loaded 2000, Armageddon 2000, Rumble 2001, Backlash 2001, Invasion 2001 and Vengeance 2001. Makes sense, as that's the Jan, Feb, July and Dec PPVs each year.

My favourite live PPV watching memory was Hogan/Rock at Mania X8. The whole PPV was a disappointment to me, after how great Mania X-Seven had been, but I found myself at 14 years old, in front of the TV in the middle of the night, acting out all the poses along with Hogan like I was 5 years old again. In a way, it was the climax of what had started at Mania IX and a certain era of my fandom.

I can't pinpoint a time in my life when I started liking wrestling. The earliest memory of actually seeing or hearing about anything specifically wrestling related was at school, when I overheard about a conversation about one of Shane McMahon's matches where he jumped off the Titan Tron. It was the match against Big Show which, from a google search, puts us at April 2001. Right after Wrestlemania X7.

Somehow I started collecting wrestling tapes around that time. I would have been 12-13 years old. My collection included Wrestlemania X7, Wrestlemania 2000, Fully Loaded 2000, Invasion 2001 and Rebellion 2001 (broadcast in the UK). I'm sure there are others, but I forget. I also had a compilation VHS of The Rock. Random assortment of promos and matches. Can't remember the title. Rock was my guy since the first time I saw him. I had a poster of him in my bedroom which lasted a surprisingly long time.

As to the first PPV I watched, I couldn't tell you. One of the above.

A few years later I started recording Wrestlemanias because they aired on some Sky channel. Wrestlemania 21, 22 and 23 all sat among my collection for a while. Not sure why I didn't record any other shows. Either they didn't air, or I didn't care.

I don't believe I have watched a single American PPV live. It would be in the early hours for me, and I neither cared enough nor was rebellious enough to stay up and try to catch them as they aired.

May 3, 2020 15:01:49 GMT Strobe said:

2000 Rumble was such a big deal to many because it was shown on Channel 4, who had just gotten some of the PPVs in a new deal, so kids who didn't have Sky Sports could watch it. But we did have to put up with adverts. I remember staying over at my friends and attempting to stay up, but we both fell asleep during the show and then when we woke up early in the morning went straight to the Street Fight to watch it and the Rumble.

Apparently they were shocked at the thumbtacks and Mae's fake tits, which is why from then on they aired the PPVs on a slight delay and with edits.

Royal Rumble 2000 was at Madison Square Garden, and I have memories of reading that MSG was furious with WWF that night too. Some due to the content, but a lot due to the fans themselves, which was pretty much a Howard Stern audience at this point yelling at women in the crowd to show their tits. MSG was like, "Do we really need to keep working with the WWF?" They of course eventually answered, yes. I only bring this up because it's kind of amazing that this one show almost fucked up two MAJOR business relationships for the WWF, their UK pay per view distribution, AND their home building that they had a 50+ partnership with. The same show did this! It's gotta be way easier being a PG rated company, even though the content sucks. 

May 3, 2020 15:55:26 GMT Emperor said:

Rebellion 2001 (broadcast in the UK)

This is something I forgot to mention. The UK PPVs that actually were PPVs here on top of the Sky Sports subscription that no one I knew ever bought because nothing would ever happen on them because they weren't aired in the States.

I can't recall seeing a WWE in full until maybe WWF Vengeance in 2001 - the unification of the WWF & WCW Titles. And even then, it was some time in 2002. 

Prior to that, I had seen a number of WCW circa 2000 PPVs, I had pirated from the local video store on VHS. New Blood Rising stands out. 

And then, my actual first ' order ' was the first NWATNA PPV to air on Main Event in Australia. 

PPV were never something I considered, with the majority of them airing on Monday in Australia. I was either in school or later working.

First PPV (& wrestling) I watched was Summerslam 2001 with my cousin.
One of my relatives had dodgy cable, so they got all PPVs and every channel so they would tape PPVs on VHS.

So he gave me No Mercy 2001 on tape then starting from WMX8 they would send me the tape in the mail every month. My parents moved to Cobar by then which is in the middle of nowhere hence the mailing.

So watching the tape it’s all good...Scott Hall & Austin are about to go at it...

Then BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE comes on and I never saw the end of WMX8 until years later. Glad I didn’t miss one of the best matches of all time in anything.

Then in 2003 WWE and Austar/Foxtel had some issues with fees (other Aussie’s on here probably know the deal more than I) and stopped airing PPV’s and Smackdown so you could only watch Raw.

Late 2003 they started showing PPV’s again and by Survivor Series my parents got cable (legitimately :lol:) and I had a party for everyone to come over and watch it. Just before this I’d go over to many neighbours house so I could watch TNA and thought the X Division style was the coolest thing ever at the time.

Austar used to have an early bird price where if you rang up and booked it over the phone about a week before. My parents just asked me what I wanted for my birthday each year and I just said to get the PPV every month.

Once i was old enough to pay for PPV’s myself I was a bit more selective :lol:. I fell out of my interest for a bit until I started training and made friends that were also fans so we’d start watching them all together at my place.

WWE Network was a godsend when it came out, I got a VPN to get it early and even paying for that it worked out cheaper than ordering a PPV by far.

PPV were never something I considered, with the majority of them airing on Monday in Australia. I was either in school or later working.

One thing I love about working in the evening

Then in 2003 WWE and Austar/Foxtel had some issues with fees (other Aussie’s on here probably know the deal more than I) and stopped airing PPV’s and Smackdown so you could only watch Raw.

From July 25 2002 - August 2nd 2003 Australia missed every SmackDown and PPV. The only way to catch Wrestlemania was in the theatres.

It's why Fox started promoting NWA-TNA as a replacement.

I seem to remember SmackDown returning with the September 18th edition (Brock/Angle Iron Man) but that may have been the first show that actually stayed with me.

May 15, 2020 12:34:20 GMT Big Pete said:

Then in 2003 WWE and Austar/Foxtel had some issues with fees (other Aussie’s on here probably know the deal more than I) and stopped airing PPV’s and Smackdown so you could only watch Raw.

From July 25 2002 - August 2nd 2003 Australia missed every SmackDown and PPV. The only way to catch Wrestlemania was in the theatres.

It's why Fox started promoting NWA-TNA as a replacement.

I seem to remember SmackDown returning with the September 18th edition (Brock/Angle Iron Man) but that may have been the first show that actually stayed with me.

Has to have been from 2003 as I have all the post WMX8 PPVs from 2002 still on tape from Austar with the mainevent logo.

www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/9l8gqy/australian_fans_remember_when_their_was_no_wwe/

May 15, 2020 12:48:47 GMT System said:

May 15, 2020 12:34:20 GMT Big Pete said:

From July 25 2002 - August 2nd 2003 Australia missed every SmackDown and PPV. The only way to catch Wrestlemania was in the theatres.

It's why Fox started promoting NWA-TNA as a replacement.

I seem to remember SmackDown returning with the September 18th edition (Brock/Angle Iron Man) but that may have been the first show that actually stayed with me.

Has to have been from 2003 as I have all the post WMX8 PPVs from 2002 still on tape from Austar with the mainevent logo.

www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/9l8gqy/australian_fans_remember_when_their_was_no_wwe/

You're right about PPVs, SmackDown definitely didn't see out the year, although I could be misremembering the July 25 2002 date. That may have just been the last show I saw and it was taken off the air not long after.

Apparently Main Event didn't air WWF PPVs until the year 2000. I'll have to fact check that, but at the same time I could believe it. I know the first WCW PPV was Superbrawl 1997.

From July 25 2002 - August 2nd 2003 Australia missed every SmackDown and PPV. The only way to catch Wrestlemania was in the theatres.

www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/new-wwe-tv-schedule.46380/

Suggests it went off the air at the end of September.

So what I think has happened is I've mixed up the last episode I saw with the last episode that aired. I presume news had broken and since I didn't have Fox 8 on my Pay TV provider I just mixed the two up.

It's strange how memories can work like that.

So I presume the last SmackDown episode was the 26/9/02 episode which was the No DQ match between Eddie/Edge.

Reading through some of these threads, it appears that Raw was supposed to be taken off the television once it's deal ran out in September 2003, but they sorted it out.

For a time, delayed episodes of NWA TNA ran in SmackDown's place which I don't recall.

May 15, 2020 12:55:13 GMT Big Pete said:

May 15, 2020 12:48:47 GMT System said:

Has to have been from 2003 as I have all the post WMX8 PPVs from 2002 still on tape from Austar with the mainevent logo.

www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/9l8gqy/australian_fans_remember_when_their_was_no_wwe/

Apparently Main Event didn't air WWF PPVs until the year 2000. I'll have to fact check that, but at the same time I could believe it. 

I'd believe that. I don't know about anyone else in Australia, but it didn't feel like wrestling really hit us hard until 1999. Foxtel sure didn't promote it as one of it's lead shows until Raw's eventual move to Fox 8 from Fox Sports, and Smackdown, if I remember had a Friday or Saturday night timeslot during 2001. 

The best thing about the Smackdown / Foxtel dispute was, they started showing the weekly TNA PPV's for free. The worst thing was, Smackdown was awesome at that point in time.