Last week, I was looking through a stack of old wrestling magazines which brought back a lot of memories from the days when pro wrestling was new to me. It was the height of the Monday Night Wars, and it was a wonderful time to be a fan of sports entertainment. Competition was key back then.

While the Monday Night Wars seemed to be a recurring pain in Mister McMahon's backside, it made for some exciting Monday nights, with both companies trying to outdo each other.

Oddly enough, it seemed like Mister McMahon was trying to outdo some of his own wrestlers, too. In September of 1999, Ken Shamrock was a pro wrestler instead of one of UFC's original stars. A photo in "Raw Magazine" that month shows Kenny with some admirable abs. In the same issue is a picture of a shirtless Mister McMahon with abs as admirable as those of the World's Most Dangerous Man. It looked like Mister McMahon had PhotoShopped his head onto Shamrock's body. Then, as now, it was a bizarre sight.

I had also saved a February 16, 1997, issue of The Huntsville Times, which had a rather lengthy article about an upcoming WWE house show. During the Monday Night Wars, both WCW and WWE came to Huntsville often. WWE comes here now only once in a blue moon--another casualty of circumstances, consolidation, and lack of genuine competition.  (Different "brands" do not constitute real  competition.) 

Anyway, the author pointed out that thanks to Hulk Hogan being featured in "Rocky III" and WWE's association with Cyndy Lauper and MTV in the '80's, the Raw brand had taken off, fueled by a new generation of wrestling fans.

Then along came Ted Turner who lusted after a ratings-grabber for his TNT network, and what he grabbed was a chunk for WWE's talent for his own Monday night wrestling show. Turner's money talked and he managed to lure away such WWE staples as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Miss Elizabeth, Ted DiBiase, Jeff Jarrett, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

As the ratings battle raged on, WWE coaxed away Van Vader, Ron Simmons, Dustin Rhodes, and Marc Mero. Lucky for WWE, Mero brought along his wife, Sable.

The Times article went on to discuss the bidding wars, Billionaire Ted, and how WWE was endeavoring to hang onto its veterans. McMahon was quoted as saying, "We cannot match checkbooks."

Back and forth it went until WCW came up with a gimmick that lit an absolute rocket under the promotion--the New World Order. The NWO was comprised of two former WWE stars, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. As the Outsiders, they were the instigators of a faction that would go on to wreak havoc and rock the wrestling world. At least for a while. Like many other things, the NWO eventually played itself out and lost its edge.

WCW soon began to lag behind and finally became insignificant as far as "competition" was concerned. It was probably with a great deal of pleasure and a lot of irony that McMahon found he could, indeed, match checkbooks with Ted Turner a few years later.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I'll admit I enjoyed the Monday Night Wars era of wrestling immensely. But that was then and this is now. But one thing is still the same. Shawn Michaels coming out to "Sexy Boy" can still take me right back to those good old days.

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Thanks for reading and see ya next week.