10 Best Years To Be A WWE Fan
6. 1996
WCW might have taken total control of the North American wrestling scene in 1996, but the experimentation WWE were forced into as a result crafted a year that mixed the godawful excesses and incredible in-ring of the New Generation into a cocktail that margarita aficionado Stone Cold Steve Austin himself would be proud of.
And where better to start on this year than monitoring what happened to 'The Rattlesnake' over those transcendent 12 months? The Ringmaster was eliminated from the Royal Rumble by mistake and Stone Cold won the King Of The Ring because Triple H was being punished, but his promos teasing Bret Hart back to work after WWE failed to capitalise on his landscape-shifting coronation were the stuff of a legend in the making.
And all while another was working his a*se off to make his "boyhood dream" a reality. Shawn Michaels' 1996 run could and should be held up against any other industry purple patch and may still be the best.
He brought equal parts finesse, fury and f*cking magnificent professional wrestling back to the very top of the card, going hell for leather in feuds with Diesel, Davey Boy Smith, Vader, Mankind and Sycho Sid that were doomed to be remembered as classics that didn't draw. The contests couldn't convince audiences to switch over from the New World Order on the other side, but hold up exponentially better than yet another Hollywood Hulk Hogan promo ever could.