In the late 90s and early 00s there were several wrestling TV shows you may have missed. Some were must-see but aired locally or regionally.
Other shows weren’t worth watching but were easily accessible. Then you had the shows you had to get the tapes to catch them.
It was a period where almost every company managed to produce TV. I mean chopping up a monthly show into weekly TV is the go-to in most cases.
Let’s look at five wrestling TV shows that aired during this time that you probably missed out on—or fortunately avoided.
Stampede Wrestling TV
The Harts’ Stampede Wrestling promotion was the Canadian promotion that got a lot of love from fans. This is because Stampede was a star factory.
Looking at the 90s and 00s, the number of talents who either reached the uppercard and main event in different companies is astonishing. It just created superstars.
After McMahon wooed Jack Tunney to WWE and essentially took over the Canadian territories, you just had the indies and attempts to bring back Stampede and Lutte.
One of those attempts was Stampede Wrestling 2000 headed up by Bruce and Ross Hart. It featured stars such as Tyson Kidd, Teddy Hart, Natalya, and Davey Boy Smith Jr.
The show was aired on The Wrestling Channel in England and episodes can be found on YouTube.
OVW TV
In the early 2000s, OVW TV was a show that could be hard to catch. The tape trade allowed many fans to catch the early WWE system days of Cena, Orton, and Batista.
Later in the 2000s, episodes would be available on Ohio Valley Wrestling’s website. This was still a time of bright talent in the company, so you saw plenty of quality bouts.
Actually, Ohio Valley Wrestling was always a consistent promotion even as a WWE developmental territory and with Cornette and Davis dealing with Johnny Ace.
ROH High Impact TV
Most fans will know of the Ring of Honor show that airs on Sinclair stations. Some might even remember ROH on HD Net and how it lacked accessibility.
Something that lacked even more accessibility was ROH High Impact TV. This show aired locally and usually ran for about an hour. Ultimately, it ran for a few episodes.
In the early 2000s, it was hard to catch unless you were going to pay $15 per tape for three shows from RF Video.
To quote Meatloaf “But, I won’t do that.”
WCW World Wide
This was actually a pretty solid B-show in the earlier 90s but by the late 90s, it was a Saturday morning B-show that came on after cartoons and before SEC football.
By 1999, it was a recap show that featured some opening card matches. It was the only WCW show I’d skip—and I’d stay up for WCW Pro on ABC at 2AM.
NWA Wildside
The NWA Wildside monthly shows were truly wild. There was some flashy flying, brawls, and technical wrestling. It was one of two meccas of the southern indies.
For those wondering, the other was IPW Hardcore in Florida. OMEGA wasn’t regularly active at this time and was pretty much the original mecca in the South.
As for the NWA Wildside TV show, you got most of the flashier matches and great promos from the managers. There was something else here as well.
You got a look at basically what could’ve been WCW’s future and what became TNA’s future. AJ Styles and R-Truth had an incredible feud on Wildside TV.
Abyss, James Storm, Air Paris, David Young, Jason Cross—plenty of Impact Wrestling O.Gs went through NWA Wildside first.
Fortunately, you can catch a bunch of those episodes on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en4NOUpxeXQ
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