1984: The Year Wrestling Got Its Groove Back
- Violent People Radio #73: Mike White’s Nacho Libre - November 6, 2025
- Violent People Radio #72: Hellraiser: Bloodthinners - October 30, 2025
- The Year Wrestling Got Its Groove Back: January 15-21, 1984 - October 27, 2025
I’ve never been one for wrestling watch projects. Sure, I’ll participate in the Violent People 100, for beyond the obvious reasons, but that is different. That is a list focused on the present with dozens of others along for the ride. I’ve not done much in the way of solo projects. Closest being THE DECADE IN INDIE, which ultimately I quit. Who knows though, now that I’ve looked at the page, it doesn’t feel like that isn’t something I could come back to.
Multitudes of reasons for not coming back to that. Getting older, less time for writing, but a not so small part being more and more Good Writers entering the space. Folks who could really spin a yarn on a given match. Growing up on 411mania reviews, the way I wrote about matches didn’t quite match up where things were going.
I no longer care. That brings us here. With this project my initial goal is to cover 1984 wrestling week by week. To be clear, I’m covering the wrestling, not the TV product or angles. That has to do with how I’m tackling this, where the footage most accessible to me right now are matches, not full shows or TV episodes. I’m already not as big into the promos and angles so that is whatever. We are playing hard and fast with the rules though so if there is series of matches that are hitting, I might dig deeper into the well and see if the promos and angles are hitting. Or I won’t, who cares.
The other caveat here is that not all weeks will be created equal. Some might be 1,500+ words, some might be 500 or less. Some will include full match reviews, some will include snippets. It is a blog series, not the same as a review series where I might feel more inclined.
Lets wrap this up and answer the question on everyone’s mind “Why 1984?”. I knew I wanted to do this type of project, covering a full year, since it is out of my wheelhouse so wanted to break myself out of my typical business. I toyed with a few different years. The easy one would have been 1992, the year I was born, a number of “classic” matches across the globe along the way. Another was 1980, a nice round number. Steph already covered that which didn’t make that something I couldn’t touch of course but it didn’t feel as pressing.
Ultimately landed on 1984 because Hogan winning the WWF belt which gets us on a specific track for wrestling history. Plus you have the NJPW gauntlet which is all-time great match, and I never dug into all the build. It seemed like as good a reason as any to tap in. There is an added bonus where I get to say “rest in piss” more now to Terrance.
Thanks for joining me on this journey. Fingers crossed it doesn’t suck. Fingers crossed again that I stick with it.
