Storylines
Territory Era
The regional scene before national expansion — Memphis, World Class, Georgia, the AWA, and the pre-Hulkamania WWF.
Golden Era
The national boom of the 1980s and early '90s — Hulkamania, Saturday night specials, and the last great NWA years.
Hulk Hogan vs. Macho Man Randy Savage (Oct 1987 – Apr 1989)
The partnership between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage collapsed at WrestleMania V in one of the WWF's most carefully built storylines, driven by jealousy over Miss Elizabeth and the WWF Championship.
Hulk Hogan · Randy Savage · Miss Elizabeth
Rick The Model Martel vs. Jake The Snake Roberts (Oct 1990 – Mar 1991)
Rick Martel blinded Jake Roberts with his Arrogance cologne on live television, setting up a six-month feud that culminated in one of the most polarizing gimmick matches in WrestleMania history: the Blindfold Match at WrestleMania VII.
Jake Roberts · Rick Martel
Superfly Jimmy Snuka vs. The Magnificent Don Muraco (Jun 1983 – Dec 1983)
Jimmy Snuka lost the steel cage match to Don Muraco at Madison Square Garden in October 1983, then climbed to the top of the cage and launched a Superfly Splash that changed professional wrestling, inspiring a generation of performers.
Jimmy Snuka · Don Muraco
Hulk Hogan vs. André the Giant (Jan 1987 – Aug 1988)
André the Giant turned on his friend Hulk Hogan and challenged him for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania III, the biggest match of the 1980s wrestling boom.
Hulk Hogan · André the Giant · Bobby Heenan
Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Ricky The Dragon Steamboat (Nov 1986 – Oct 1987)
Randy Savage crushed Ricky Steamboat's throat with a ring bell. The revenge match, planned move by move on a legal pad, stole WrestleMania III. Steamboat's reward lasted 64 days.
Randy Savage · Ricky Steamboat · Miss Elizabeth · George Steele
Macho Man Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior (Nov 1990 – Aug 1991)
Randy Savage put his career on the line against the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII and lost. Then Miss Elizabeth came over the rail and gave the story its real ending.
Randy Savage · Ultimate Warrior · Sensational Sherri · Miss Elizabeth
Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Jake The Snake Roberts (Aug 1991 – Feb 1992)
Jake Roberts crashed Randy Savage's wedding reception with a cobra in a gift box, had the real thing bite him on live TV, and slapped Miss Elizabeth. The feud drew death threats, upset Elizabeth's real family, and ended before its WrestleMania payoff.
Randy Savage · Jake Roberts · Miss Elizabeth · The Undertaker
Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Superfly Jimmy Snuka (Mar 1984 – Mar 1985)
Roddy Piper smashed a coconut over Jimmy Snuka's head on Piper's Pit in 1984, launching the WWF's hottest grudge of the year, making Piper the promotion's top heel, and setting the table for the main event of the first WrestleMania.
Roddy Piper · Jimmy Snuka
Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik (Dec 1983 – Jan 1984)
The Iron Sheik held the WWF Championship for less than a month as a transitional flag-waving heel before Hulk Hogan escaped the camel clutch at Madison Square Garden to win the title, launching Hulkamania and, by both men's later account, surviving a $100,000 bribe to break Hogan's leg instead.
Hulk Hogan · The Iron Sheik
Jake The Snake Roberts vs. The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase (Mar 1989 – Apr 1990)
Ted DiBiase, unable to buy or win the WWF Championship, unveiled his own self-sanctioned Million Dollar Championship and spent a year defending it against Jake Roberts, a program built around a kayfabe neck injury, a stolen belt zipped into a bag with a live python, and Big Boss Man's famous face-turning refusal to be bought, before DiBiase kept the belt on a count-out at WrestleMania VI.
Jake Roberts · Ted DiBiase
Rick The Model Martel vs. Tito Santana (Apr 1989 – Nov 1990)
Rick Martel walked out on tag partner Tito Santana mid-match at WrestleMania V after an accidental forearm, ending Strike Force and launching Martel's Model gimmick, and the two spent the next year and a half trading wins on TV, at a King of the Ring final, and at Survivor Series before Martel closed the rivalry with a clean Boston crab submission.
Rick Martel · Tito Santana
Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig vs. The Texas Tornado Kerry Von Erich (Aug 1990 – Feb 1991)
A parasailing accident cost Brutus Beefcake his SummerSlam 1990 title shot, and the spot went instead to Kerry Von Erich, wrestling on a secret prosthetic foot and privately telling friends he wanted to die, who beat Mr. Perfect for the WWF Intercontinental Championship anyway.
Kerry Von Erich · Curt Hennig
Hulk Hogan vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper (Jun 1984 – Mar 1985)
Roddy Piper's contempt for the WWF's new MTV-driven Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection escalated from talk-show insults into an assault on Cyndi Lauper, pulling in champion Hulk Hogan and building to the first WrestleMania, a closed-circuit gamble Vince McMahon nearly went bankrupt staging.
Hulk Hogan · Roddy Piper
Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior (Jan 1990 – Aug 1991)
Hulk Hogan handed the Ultimate Warrior the WWF Championship in the biggest torch-pass of the boom era at WrestleMania VI, then privately asked Vince McMahon if he could turn heel and take it right back.
Hulk Hogan · Ultimate Warrior · Mr. Perfect
Nature Boy Ric Flair vs. Ricky The Dragon Steamboat (Jan 1989 – May 1989)
Steamboat's surprise return from a year away sparked a three-match series for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, at Chi-Town Rumble, Clash of the Champions VI, and WrestleWar, that Dave Meltzer rated five stars three times over and is still routinely called the best in-ring trilogy in wrestling history.
Ric Flair · Ricky Steamboat · Terry Funk · Eddie Gilbert
New Generation
1993–1996 — smaller champions, leaner years, and the WWF rebuilding around Bret, Shawn, and the Undertaker.
Attitude Era
1997–2001 — the Monday Night Wars, Austin vs. McMahon, and wrestling's hottest, messiest period.
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon (Sep 1997 – Jul 1999)
A boss-versus-employee rivalry born out of Steve Austin's real neck injury and Vince McMahon's new on-screen villainy, escalating from a single Stone Cold Stunner into a year and a half of Corporation ambushes, rigged tournaments, and stipulation matches that defined the Attitude Era and turned around the WWF's fortunes against WCW.
Steve Austin · Vince McMahon
The New World Order vs. WCW (May 1996 – Dec 1996)
Scott Hall's shock walk-in from the crowd on Nitro, Kevin Nash's arrival two weeks later, and Hulk Hogan's heel turn at Bash at the Beach launched an invasion angle built on real WWF contract jumps, turning WCW's Monday night ratings around and igniting the New World Order's first chaotic year against the promotion it claimed to be taking over.
Hulk Hogan · Kevin Nash · Scott Hall · Randy Savage · Sting · Lex Luger
Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan (Sep 1996 – Feb 1998)
Eighteen months of Sting silently stalking the New World Order from the rafters built to Starrcade 1997's WCW World Heavyweight Championship match, a finish so botched by conflicting instructions and Hollywood Hogan's last-minute creative control that the title had to be vacated and settled two months later at SuperBrawl VIII.
Sting · Hulk Hogan · Randy Savage · Bret Hart · Lex Luger · Kevin Nash
Ruthless Aggression
2002–2008 — the brand split, the class of 2002, and the last era before wrestling went PG.