THIS Was WWE's Most Creative Year Ever

The WWF went ballistic with match type experimentation. Very few of these new genres were successful, or repeated, but the volume of invention underscores the sheer extent of the Fed's starving, transparent ambition. 1997 was a superior year, in terms of match quality and intricate, gripping episodic storytelling, but 1996 saw the WWF flex its creative muscles and windmill punch its way through the cobwebs of what had come before. Irrespective of whether or not those blows connected, there was an enemy to fight; the rising WCW, which had compounded the WWF's disastrous post-Hulk Hogan malaise by weaponising him against them.

Great wrestling promotions now struggle to create new match concepts - the upcoming Casino Ladder match at AEW Double Or Nothing promises to be exceptional, but it's a mere Royal Rumble/Money In The Bank hybrid. The WWF in 1996 either innovated - or brought to Vince Jr.'s WWF for the first time - no less than eight "new" match concepts across its 12 pay-per-view events. Some were horrendous; the 'Crybaby' match between Razor Ramon and 123 Kid at In Your House: Rage In The Cage was well-worked, because of course it was, but the post-match scene in which Razor "diapered" the Kid appealed solely to Vince McMahon when the WWF sorely needed to appeal to a wider audience. Some weren't innovations at all, but rather incredibly desperate attempts to sex up your garden variety no disqualification match (Final Curtain, Armageddon Rules).

But others, like the Boiler Room and Hollywood Backlot Brawls, saw the WWF literally expand the scope of its physical action and experiment with pre-taped proto-cinematic form and adult-specific content, respectively.

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