10 Wrestling Pay Per View Concepts That Didn't Catch On

Heroes Of Wrestling must have seemed like an amazing idea at the time.

It was 1999, and wrestling was hotter than ever. With the WWF in the ascendency and WCW on the decline, a promoter named Bill Stone thought he’d cash in on the soaring market and wrestling’s longstanding obsession with nostalgia. His vision was to collect dozens of wrestling stars from the 1980s and early 1990s then book them against each other in a series of dream matches, with quarterly shows planned if Heroes Of Wrestling hit an initial target of 40,000 buys.

Unfortunately for Stone, what transpired was the consensus worst wrestling event of all time. The show fell 11,000 short of its target buyrate, and was dogged by bad production values, worse commentary, and calamitous matches. Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik vs. The Bushwhackers was a legitimate minus five star match, Yokozuna was so huge he could barely walk to the ring, and Jake Roberts showed-up blackout drunk, cut an incomprehensible promo, and disgraced himself during the main event.

The concept was shelved immediately, but perhaps it was inevitable. Nostalgia only goes so far, and sometimes, the stars of the past are best kept in their respective eras. The vast majority of Heroes’ performers were years removed from their prime, and only 2 Cold Scorpio and Julio Fantastico looked anything like their old selves.

It’s a show that every wrestling fan should go out of their way to watch once in their lifetime, but as a concept, Heroes Of Wrestling was a beautiful disaster.