May 15, 2020 13:26:32 GMT NATH45 said:

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

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. 

The PPV announcement was from an official Foxtel release, so I'd presume that has to be correct.

I'm trying to make sense of why I wasn't watching those NWA-TNA shows. There must have been a pregnant pause between SmackDown going off the air and TNA taking it's place, so I wasn't made aware of it and it isn't like now where you can just IQ or Stream a show. I don't think we had a menu guide back then, you just had to flick it on a channel and pick what was actually being aired.

Do you have any idea of when Raw moved to Fox 8? I feel it had to have still been airing on FoxSports in early 2003 before making the shift by the end of the year? I could even see Raw being brought over around the same time as SmackDown's return just to crystalise the new deal.

I'm going down the rabbit hole deep here. Apparently there was an episode of Raw where they cut out an entire main event segment and aired a golf documentary instead. This wasn't an uncommon occurence either, sometimes entire episodes would be lost. :lol: I vaguely remember stuff like this happening all the time.

May 15, 2020 13:43:29 GMT Big Pete said:

May 15, 2020 13:26:32 GMT NATH45 said:

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. 

The PPV announcement was from an official Foxtel release, so I'd presume that has to be correct.

I'm trying to make sense of why I wasn't watching those NWA-TNA shows. There must have been a pregnant pause between SmackDown going off the air and TNA taking it's place, so I wasn't made aware of it and it isn't like now where you can just IQ or Stream a show. I don't think we had a menu guide back then, you just had to flick it on a channel and pick what was actually being aired.

Do you have any idea of when Raw moved to Fox 8? I feel it had to have still been airing on FoxSports in early 2003 before making the shift by the end of the year? I could even see Raw being brought over around the same time as SmackDown's return just to crystalise the new deal.

I'm going down the rabbit hole deep here. Apparently there was an episode of Raw where they cut out an entire main event segment and aired a golf documentary instead. This wasn't an uncommon occurence either, sometimes entire episodes would be lost. I vaguely remember stuff like this happening all the time.

I think you're right on Raw coming to Fox 8 with Smackdown in 2003. I still see video clips from after 2001 with the Fox Sports logo in the corner. 

We had a menu-guide back then, I'm not sure why you wouldn't. I also remember NWATNA being advertised as coming to Fox 8, as numerous people I knew wrote it off early for looking amateur. Foxtel even put a disclaimer out, claiming Smackdown's " Season " was over. 

I remember a lot of technical problems in the early 2000s - the show would end early or never return from a commercial, or Foxtel didn't get the feed from the US, so they would show random shows instead. Foxtel used to edit a lot of the shows, and remove lengthy rest holds in matches to save time, or under-card matches or interviews would disappear, etc. I remember different people on an Aussie forum would complain to Foxtel, and get the usual Fuck Off response. 

May 15, 2020 13:43:29 GMT Big Pete said:

May 15, 2020 13:26:32 GMT NATH45 said:

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. 

The PPV announcement was from an official Foxtel release, so I'd presume that has to be correct.

I'm trying to make sense of why I wasn't watching those NWA-TNA shows. There must have been a pregnant pause between SmackDown going off the air and TNA taking it's place, so I wasn't made aware of it and it isn't like now where you can just IQ or Stream a show. I don't think we had a menu guide back then, you just had to flick it on a channel and pick what was actually being aired.

Do you have any idea of when Raw moved to Fox 8? I feel it had to have still been airing on FoxSports in early 2003 before making the shift by the end of the year? I could even see Raw being brought over around the same time as SmackDown's return just to crystalise the new deal.

I'm going down the rabbit hole deep here. Apparently there was an episode of Raw where they cut out an entire main event segment and aired a golf documentary instead. This wasn't an uncommon occurence either, sometimes entire episodes would be lost. :lol: I vaguely remember stuff like this happening all the time.

WWE.com have officially announced the move of RAW from Fox Sports to Fox8. The move will mean RAW will be screened over 3 days old, instead of a same day delay on Tuesday's.

RAW will screen every Friday Night at 8pm (EST) starting Friday October 3rd, then screen every Friday Night after that with a replay over the weekend.

End of report.

www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/raw-changes-foxtel-channels.83004/

I remember how cool it was when it moved from Friday to Wednesday and I only had to wait just one day (Raw is on Tuesday our time). Now it’s live and I barely watch it :lol: The weekend replays bring me back to when I was a super fan and I’d even bother to watch Heat and Velocity.

Such a nostalgic thread.

We had a menu-guide back then, I'm not sure why you wouldn't.

It may have just been our set-up, we stuck with the old school Optus box for nearly an entire decade.

I remember how cool it was when it moved from Friday to Wednesday and I only had to wait just one day (Raw is on Tuesday our time). Now it’s live and I barely watch it :lol: The weekend replays bring me back to when I was a super fan and I’d even bother to watch Heat and Velocity.

Didn't it start off on Wednesday nights before shifting to Wednesday afternoons?

There is just something so Australian about watching wrestling at lunchtime on a Saturday and Sunday. That was the old Barnett timeslot and it just fit our culture so well. That was usually the time I would watch the shows as well and if there wasn't any Rugby League on I'd usually just let it play in the background. That must have lasted awhile because I remember watching Vintage Collection when Mean Gene was mentoring an extremely green Renee Young.

May 15, 2020 15:17:13 GMT Big Pete said:

We had a menu-guide back then, I'm not sure why you wouldn't.

It may have just been our set-up, we stuck with the old school Optus box for nearly an entire decade.

I remember how cool it was when it moved from Friday to Wednesday and I only had to wait just one day (Raw is on Tuesday our time). Now it’s live and I barely watch it :lol: The weekend replays bring me back to when I was a super fan and I’d even bother to watch Heat and Velocity.

Didn't it start off on Wednesday nights before shifting to Wednesday afternoons?

There is just something so Australian about watching wrestling at lunchtime on a Saturday and Sunday. That was the old Barnett timeslot and it just fit our culture so well. That was usually the time I would watch the shows as well and if there wasn't any Rugby League on I'd usually just let it play in the background. That must have lasted awhile because I remember watching Vintage Collection when Mean Gene was mentoring an extremely green Renee Young.

Yeah from memory it went from 8:30 Wednesday to then 3:30 Wednesday so I would always miss the very start when I got home from school

System Big Pete I remember RAW being shown on a Wednesday morning in 2000.

I was in Year 11 at the time, at my school Year 11 used to have Wednesday’s off to “ study at home “ I obviously used to watch Wrestling.

Can anyone remember when Nitro was on?

Before we had cable, I used to scan the TV guide weekly and highlight the awfully late night random time slots Nitro got on free to air. Usually 6 months old at this point. Similarly with WWF Superstars. Which originally had a prime time slot on Saturday night in 98/99 on Channel Ten.

System Big Pete I remember RAW being shown on a Wednesday morning in 2000.

I was in Year 11 at the time, at my school Year 11 used to have Wednesday’s off to “ study at home “ I obviously used to watch Wrestling.

That sounds about right, one of the first episodes I caught was in the build up to SummerSlam '99. I have no idea which day it was, just that it was around late morning. Any memory of Raw being a week behind the USA during it's Fox days?

Can anyone remember when Nitro was on?

9pm on a Saturday Night. Cartoon Network would switch over to Turner Network Television (later Turner Classic Movies) and air that week's edition of Nitro and a truncated vintage episode from 1995-97.

TCM lost the rights in 2001, which C7 Sports picked up and started airing Nitro and Thunder during the week. I believe the timeslot changed, the final edition aired on a Tuesday night, only hours after it's US broadcast.

I'm still curious about the scene during the early to mid 90s before Foxtel, Austar and Optus launched. There had to be a scene because there used to be large collections of late 80s - mid 90s PPVs. At least that's my experience in Brisbane, maybe the handful of Civic Videos were the sole exception?

That’s right Big Pete, the first thing I watched when we got Foxtel was a best of Nitro episode. Impeccable timing.

I remember people having massive satellite dishes in their yards in the early 90s, so I’d imagine anyone interested in wrestling could tune into an international broadcast.

We were all aware of wrestling as kids, Hogan, Savage, Undertaker, Warrior.. Golden era stuff, WCW included. So I’d imagine there must have been some sort of presence on television outside of hiring VHS tapes.

I do remember Nine’s Wide World of Sports showing pre-Nitro era WCW shows during the mid 90s. My first real memory of seeing a full show was Summer 1995, it was Sting v Flair in the main event naturally.

I feel like this has turned into the Australian version of when Baker-man and I reminisce about old terrestrial channels emanating from Washington DC.

May 16, 2020 12:23:38 GMT 🤯 said:

I feel like this has turned into the Australian version of when Baker -man and I reminisce about old terrestrial channels emanating from Washington DC.

:lol:

I find this discussion fascinating. I've listened to so many podcasts about how each wrestler grew up watching Stampede, WCCW, New Generation era wrestling, it's interesting to hear exactly how it was for us Australian fans.

There used to be a podcast dedicated to interviewing Australian wrestlers in the early 2010s. They actually had Billie Kay (Jessie McKay) and Peyton Royce (KC Cassidy) on and they had a very similar experience as us where they came across it in a video shop and then it was apart of their after-school ritual. It didn't matter who they had on, it was always the same story about the video shop and then coming across the show and taping episodes. The slightly older wrestlers would talk about the Monday Night Wars era while the youngins would talk about the McMahon-Helmsly/Ruthless Aggression era stuff.

Australians have always had a fascination with International sports. It started with the EPL but over the decades it's grown to include the NBA (especially when the NBL was kicking off) and recently the NFL has really picked up in popularity. It's still not entirely mainstream, but there's definitely an audience for it.

Big Pete there were a couple of big forums throughout the early 2000s, that if anything helped introduce new wrestling to an otherwise isolated Aussie population. wrestling.net.au and it’s book-leg brother The Asylum.

May 16, 2020 22:08:50 GMT NATH45 said:

Big Pete there were a couple of big forums throughout the early 2000s, that if anything helped introduce new wrestling to an otherwise isolated Aussie population. wrestling.net.au and it’s book-leg brother The Asylum.

Are you talking about independant wrestling?

I'm not familiar with any of those sites, but back then internet time was precious so from 1999-mid 01 I stuck with the news sites and didn't explore the message boards till the second half of 01. Even then it was the PW board on GameFAQs and of course PW.

May 17, 2020 6:01:52 GMT Big Pete said:

May 16, 2020 22:08:50 GMT NATH45 said:

Big Pete there were a couple of big forums throughout the early 2000s, that if anything helped introduce new wrestling to an otherwise isolated Aussie population. wrestling.net.au and it’s book-leg brother The Asylum.

Are you talking about independant wrestling?

I'm not familiar with any of those sites, but back then internet time was precious so from 1999-mid 01 I stuck with the news sites and didn't explore the message boards till the second half of 01. Even then it was the PW board on GameFAQs and of course PW.

Everything. Independent stuff, notably ROH. Local Australian stuff. Japanese stuff was a very niche topic.

wrestling.net.au had a news site as it’s main page.

A number of local wrestlers were on it. As was Hart family trained ECW/WWF jobber Jason Helton. A music promoter who worked with Chris Jericho in Oz - Y2J made a guest appearance once on the forum - a picture with the promoter, holding a sign calling one of the other members a poof on his birthday. Rumour has it Tenille was also on it.

I got banned several times.

May 17, 2020 7:10:26 GMT NATH45 said:

May 17, 2020 6:01:52 GMT Big Pete said:

Are you talking about independant wrestling?

I'm not familiar with any of those sites, but back then internet time was precious so from 1999-mid 01 I stuck with the news sites and didn't explore the message boards till the second half of 01. Even then it was the PW board on GameFAQs and of course PW.

Everything. Independent stuff, notably ROH. Local Australian stuff. Japanese stuff was a very niche topic.

wrestling.net.au had a news site as it’s main page.

A number of local wrestlers were on it. As was Hart family trained ECW/WWF jobber Jason Helton. A music promoter who worked with Chris Jericho in Oz - Y2J made a guest appearance once on the forum - a picture with the promoter, holding a sign calling one of the other members a poof on his birthday. Rumour has it Tenille was also on it.

I got banned several times.

He came to a few of the training classes and would go on 20 minute tangents and keep interrupting the trainer with nonsensical bullshit :lol:

May 17, 2020 9:45:55 GMT System said:

May 17, 2020 7:10:26 GMT NATH45 said:

Everything. Independent stuff, notably ROH. Local Australian stuff. Japanese stuff was a very niche topic.

wrestling.net.au had a news site as it’s main page.

A number of local wrestlers were on it. As was Hart family trained ECW/WWF jobber Jason Helton. A music promoter who worked with Chris Jericho in Oz - Y2J made a guest appearance once on the forum - a picture with the promoter, holding a sign calling one of the other members a poof on his birthday. Rumour has it Tenille was also on it.

I got banned several times.

He came to a few of the training classes and would go on 20 minute tangents and keep interrupting the trainer with nonsensical bullshit

His appearances on the forums, were much the same. He had some grudge against Heyman and Taz from the ECW days. 

Do you remember the Pay Per View style event that was put on sometime in the early 2000s? A whole bunch of Aussie promotions got together to produce a large event for maybe, Fox Sports. It was awful and was never replicated. In fact, up until now, I had completely forgot about it. 

And for a brief moment there, an Aussie promotion had a weekly show on Aurora Television. 

May 17, 2020 11:22:42 GMT NATH45 said:

May 17, 2020 9:45:55 GMT System said:

He came to a few of the training classes and would go on 20 minute tangents and keep interrupting the trainer with nonsensical bullshit

His appearances on the forums, were much the same. He had some grudge against Heyman and Taz from the ECW days. 

Do you remember the Pay Per View style event that was put on sometime in the early 2000s? A whole bunch of Aussie promotions got together to produce a large event for maybe, Fox Sports. It was awful and was never replicated. In fact, up until now, I had completely forgot about it. 

And for a brief moment there, an Aussie promotion had a weekly show on Aurora Television. 

I don’t know about the 2000 show I didn’t watch until 01.

Both IWA and later AWF had shows on Aurora. I was a trainee at the time and one of the other trainees wrote a 1 Star review of the show while having all the wrestlers on the show on social media...they weren’t impressed :lol:

May 17, 2020 12:03:02 GMT System said:

May 17, 2020 11:22:42 GMT NATH45 said:

His appearances on the forums, were much the same. He had some grudge against Heyman and Taz from the ECW days. 

Do you remember the Pay Per View style event that was put on sometime in the early 2000s? A whole bunch of Aussie promotions got together to produce a large event for maybe, Fox Sports. It was awful and was never replicated. In fact, up until now, I had completely forgot about it. 

And for a brief moment there, an Aussie promotion had a weekly show on Aurora Television. 

I don’t know about the 2000 show I didn’t watch until 01.

Both IWA and later AWF had shows on Aurora. I was a trainee at the time and one of the other trainees wrote a 1 Star review of the show while having all the wrestlers on the show on social media...they weren’t impressed

Those Aurora shows were horrible. 

This Aussie PPV style show was maybe 2003-2006.. it was botchamania levels of shit. 

Jason Helton. Wow. There's a name I never would have thought of again in my life if I hadn't seen it here. I had no idea Taz's victim was a Hart trainee. Going by Cagematch data, it looks like he's been living in Australia for the past 20 years.

I used to lurk on WNA. Didn't Rove have an account on there?

I remember that Aussie super show as well, it was definitely on Fox Sports. For some reason the only guy I remember on it was "The Real Deal" Steve O'Neal, probably because he had a catchy name. Googling him turns up a self uploaded highlight video including footage from said show - but literally no other mention of him on the entire internet apparently!

I only ever ordered a few PPVs because my parents were reluctant to shell out any more than they were already paying for Foxtel. I got Wrestlemania 18, 21 and 22 as (early) birthday presents, and also Unforgiven 2008 because of Trish's retirement match.

May 19, 2020 1:57:22 GMT @admin said:

I used to lurk on WNA. Didn't Rove have an account on there?

I remember that Aussie super show as well, it was definitely on Fox Sports. For some reason the only guy I remember on it was "The Real Deal" Steve O'Neal, probably because he had a catchy name. Googling him turns up a self uploaded highlight video including footage from said show - but literally no other mention of him on the entire internet apparently!

I only ever ordered a few PPVs because my parents were reluctant to shell out any more than they were already paying for Foxtel. I got Wrestlemania 18, 21 and 22 as (early) birthday presents, and also Unforgiven 2008 because of Trish's retirement match.

Rove! There's a blast-from-the-past name. Maybe we can Bloody Mary some other R-named old users while we're at it. Rove, Rani, Roo... Where are you!?

May 19, 2020 12:03:52 GMT 🤯 said:

May 19, 2020 1:57:22 GMT @admin said:

I used to lurk on WNA. Didn't Rove have an account on there?

I remember that Aussie super show as well, it was definitely on Fox Sports. For some reason the only guy I remember on it was "The Real Deal" Steve O'Neal, probably because he had a catchy name. Googling him turns up a self uploaded highlight video including footage from said show - but literally no other mention of him on the entire internet apparently!

I only ever ordered a few PPVs because my parents were reluctant to shell out any more than they were already paying for Foxtel. I got Wrestlemania 18, 21 and 22 as (early) birthday presents, and also Unforgiven 2008 because of Trish's retirement match.

Rove! There's a blast-from-the-past name. Maybe we can Bloody Mary some other R-named old users while we're at it. Rove, Rani, Roo... Where are you!?

Rustybrooks reporting for duty.

May 19, 2020 12:03:52 GMT 🤯 said:

Rove! There's a blast-from-the-past name. Maybe we can Bloody Mary some other R-named old users while we're at it. Rove, Rani, Roo... Where are you!?

I was actually talking about Aussie former talk show host Rove McManus who some of you rasslin nerds might know for his brief involvement in WWA back in the early 2000s.

🤯 said:

Rove! There's a blast-from-the-past name. Maybe we can Bloody Mary some other R-named old users while we're at it. Rove, Rani, Roo... Where are you!?

May 19, 2020 23:42:27 GMT @admin said:

May 19, 2020 12:03:52 GMT 🤯 said:

I was actually talking about Aussie former talk show host Rove McManus who some of you rasslin nerds might know for his brief involvement in WWA back in the early 2000s.

Hooray! I was right the entire time. I was so disappointed when 🤯 brought up Rove the PW poster, whoever that is. I'm just going to assume PW Rove is PI's A Fairy Tale. 

Did any of you Aussie's ever watch WWA? Was it big there? I ordered one of their PPVs. Iirc it featured Joe E. Legend vs. Mike Sanders, a Sabu/Saturn/Simon Diamond 3 Way, Jarrett, Lex, Sting, and Nathan Jones. 

Huge soft spot for WWA, as they're the only place other than ECW that booked Sabu well.

(From what I've seen, which was only like 3 or 4 shows)

May 20, 2020 0:00:52 GMT Baker said:

May 19, 2020 23:42:27 GMT @admin said:

I was actually talking about Aussie former talk show host Rove McManus who some of you rasslin nerds might know for his brief involvement in WWA back in the early 2000s.

Hooray! I was right the entire time. I was so disappointed when 🤯 brought up Rove the PW poster, whoever that is. I'm just going to assume PW Rove is PI's A Fairy Tale. 

Did any of you Aussie's ever watch WWA? Was it big there? I ordered one of their PPVs. Iirc it featured Joe E. Legend vs. Mike Sanders, a Sabu/Saturn/Simon Diamond 3 Way, Jarrett, Lex, Sting, and Nathan Jones. 

I watched most of their shows, my relatives and myself enjoyed it but that’s all I ever heard anyone talk about until recent years. I found two of their DVDs somewhere random (Merch stand maybe?), I had to buy them! :lol:

Kilgore Agreed! I loved his cage match with Devon Storm (aka Crowbar)

Didn't Big Pippa Pump swing through WWA as well?

May 20, 2020 0:55:33 GMT 🤯 said:

Didn't Big Pippa Pump swing through WWA as well?

Yep. WWA was my first introduction to a few WCW/ECW guys that weren’t in the Invasion.

May 20, 2020 0:59:34 GMT System said:

May 20, 2020 0:55:33 GMT 🤯 said:

Didn't Big Pippa Pump swing through WWA as well?

Yep. WWA was my first introduction to a few WCW/ECW guys that weren’t in the Invasion.

I feel like I remember reading WWA results online back in the day, and thinking: if they have guys like Sting, Lex, Big Poppa Pump, Sabu, etc. then WHY THE FUCK are they pushing Road Dogg and Brian Christopher so hard!? Then pretty much the same thing happened all over again with early days NWA-TNA results.

May 20, 2020 1:05:56 GMT 🤯 said:

May 20, 2020 0:59:34 GMT System said:

Yep. WWA was my first introduction to a few WCW/ECW guys that weren’t in the Invasion.

I feel like I remember reading WWA results online back in the day, and thinking: if they have guys like Sting, Lex, Big Poppa Pump, Sabu, etc. then WHY THE FUCK are they pushing Road Dogg and Brian Christopher so hard!? Then pretty much the same thing happened all over again with early days NWA-TNA results.

Oh you didn’t know??