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By Wade Keller, Torch editor

BBL editorial
Headline: Twenty years of big stories, big personalities
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Originally Published: December 1, 2007
PWTorch Newsletter #1000

In the PWTorch Forum, threads had been started asking about the biggest stories of the Torch years and the biggest stories the Torch has broken over the years. Let's look at a few lists.

As for the biggest single-event stories of the past 20 years (as opposed to a multi-year story like the Monday Night Wars, Ric Flair's career, the collective trend of early deaths in wrestling, etc.), I'd rank the Benoit Murder-Murder-Suicide no. 1. I just can't justify even considering any single story bigger. It consisted of a top worker who had headlined WrestleMania a few years earlier dying under the most gruesome of circumstances, taking his family with him, and prompting a media storm unlike any other that dominated cable news for weeks and stayed on the mainstream media radar for months, and ultimately prompted Congressional intervention.

The second biggest single-event story would be the WWF buyout of WCW. More precisely, though, I'd say the bigger aspect of that story was the cancellation by Time-Warner of WCW programming on TNT and TBS. That decision, a result of the collapse of the credibility and viability of the Fusient Media Ventures buyout of WCW (led by Eric Bischoff), paved the way for the WWF to buy WCW's remaining assets.

The third biggest story would be the Vince McMahon steroid trial in Uniondale, N.Y. in 1994. That three-week trial included fascinating testimony by big names ranging from Ultimate Warrior to Rick Rude to Hulk Hogan himself. The not-guilty verdict by the jury averted consequences that would have changed the very direction of the industry in a way that might have dwarfed the demise of ECW and WCW within a few month span. Had Vince McMahon gone to prison, there's no guarantee the WWF would have survived. That would have left a huge gap, which WCW may or may not have effectively filled.

Number four is the death of Owen Hart. Happening (off-camera) on live PPV in the manner it did was as shocking as it was heartbreaking.

Number five is the Bret Hart Double-cross at the 1997 Survivor Series. Although historically, compared to tragedies and seismic business shifts since, it seems rather pedestrian (someone lost a match he thought he'd win), the personalities involved, the dynamics leading up to it, the fallout from the betrayal, and the fact that a documentary captured so much of it made it a top five single-event story.

As for big picture stories we've covered over the course of months or years, there are so many, it's difficult to rank them, but no. 1 would almost have to be the WWF's emergence as the last remaining full-time national promotion (at least for a few years, before TNA grew over the last five years to qualify as such). The journey was long and complex, with bumps and near-misses and grand successes, but McMahon achieved a goal of his that dates back to the pre-WrestleMania expansion years.

The no. 2 big picture story would be the Monday Night War era, which encompasses the NWO, Steve Austin, and The Rock emerging as top stars, Hulk Hogan turning heel, record cable ratings viewership in a head-to-head competitive atmosphere, a huge winning streak, and an unprecedented subsequent collapse.

The no. 3 big picture story is......

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