Much Love To The C And D Shows

Popular AEW YouTube shows Dark and Dark Elevation have recently been cancelled with the expectant announcement of a new AEW show debuting this summer.

AEW Dark and Dark Elevation were mainly used to showcase lower tier members of the roster, indy stars and upstarts. Both shows kind of had their own little angles, that occasionally would be resolved on Dynamite. Rewarding viewers of all three programs, but for the most part it was mindless straight to the point wrestling. It's cancellation and purpose, got me thinking me about old C and D level mostly syndicated programs we use to watch faithfully.

TNA Xplosion

During the 2000's/2010's years of TNA, XPlosion went through many formats. It was TNA's first weekly show and then gradually turned into TNA's secondary show which usually recapped Impact and PPV's, and also featured exclusive matches. It was mainly produced to air overseas and eventually be available on YouTube, and later Impact Plus and Twitch. It didn't really get much traffic and was cancelled in 2021, in favor of Behind The Impact on Axs. 

WCW Pro

WCW Pro had a long history dating back to the mid-80's as NWA's Pro Wrestling and eventually WCW Pro. It went through several formats, but it's most popular format is the hour long airing on TBS during the weekend. It's schedule fluctuated between Saturday and Sunday, but it was a staple for years. WCW Pro is known as one of WCW's famous Disney tapings shows.

Future stars such as Damon Striker (Edge), Terry Richards (Rhino) and Terra Ryzing (Triple H) made appearances early in their career on WCW Pro. WCW Pro was cancelled in the fall of 1998 after Thunder debuted.

WCW began as NWA Power Hour before Ted Turner took over. It was another TBS fixture that originally aired on Friday night's before moving to Saturday mornings. Power Hour did feature a few title changes, but in the grand scheme of thing's it was another timeslot filler for Cable TV that could easily be skipped and not miss a beat.

It was very similar to WCW Saturday Night  and as a result It was cancelled in 1994.

WCW Worldwide

WCW Worldwide was another WCW Disney (later Universal) syndicated show. It's lineage goes back to the 70's when Jim Crockett promotions was running the show. WorldWide as it is mostly known today debuted in 1992. Worldwide had some substance to it such as title changes, most notably Harlem Heat defeating the Nasty Boys to win the Tag Team Championships in '95. Scott Steiner beating Ricky Steamboat to win the TV title in the fall of '92. Rick Rude becoming the US Heavyweight Champion after defeating Dustin Rhodes, and several more.

Worldwide is also known for future stars such as David Heath (Gangrel), Robby V. (Rob Van Dam), Starla Saxton (Molly Holly), a fella named Damon Striker (Edge) appearing in matches. 

Worldwide also had a cool looking futuristic set in my opinion. It was cancelled in 2001 just as WCW was about to be sold to the WWF.

WCW Prime Wrestling

WCW Prime Wrestling was another Disney taping program that didn't even air on a Turner station, but rather Prime Sports Network. It debuted in 1995 and was real bottom of the barrel programming rarely featuring any stars of significance. Dusty Rhodes being a co-host is probably it's biggest claim to fame, and the show was cancelled a little over a year later in 1996.

WWF Shotgun Saturday Night

In 1997 the WWF debuted a new edgier program for Saturday nights, it was a precursor to what would become the attitude era. That show was Shotgun Saturday Night and initially it was filmed inside of nightclubs within the New York City area. The show's most famous moment was Marlena "flashing" The Sultan during a match against Goldust.

The nightclub aesthetic was soon dropped in favor of traditional matches airing that were taped before the previous weeks Raw. Shotgun Saturday Night ended in the summer of 1999.

WWF Superstars (Of Wrestling)

WWF Superstars (Superstars Of Wrestling) at one time was a B show, hell possibly a A show. Debuting in 1986, it was the top syndicated program in the WWF verse, and usually had follow up to angles that were happening on PrimeTime Wrestling and later Raw. Championships changed hands on Superstars, and even a legend like Razor Ramon made his debut for the WWF on an episode of Superstars.

Eventually Superstars morphed into a recap show, before being cancelled in 2001 almost a year after the WWF moved to TNN from the USA network. 

WWF Action Zone

WWF Action Zone debuted in the fall of 1994 on the USA network. The hour long program kept true to it's name. With it's debut episode featuring a match between Bret and Owen Hart as the main event. Most of the matches were quick squashes or fast paced to keep in line with the name of the show.

The show only ran until 1996 when it was cancelled in favor Superstars, which had just been removed from syndication.

WWF Jakked/Metal

When the WWF cancelled Shotgun Saturday Night in 1999, they decided to replace it with one show essentially but it give two different names. Here we have WWF Jakked and WWF Metal, depending on what market you were in or what time of the day the show aired...that was what title you got. In my area Jakked aired late Saturday Nights in the same timeslot as Shotgun.

The programs ran until 2002 when the WWF became the WWE and switched up some their programming. In their place was two similar shows named Bottom Line and AfterBurn.

WWE Velocity

                                          

Velocity debuted in 2002 on Spike TV, back when Viacom was giving the WWE anything they wanted to help build up the Spike network. It was taped before Smackdown and quickly became a easily skippable show, with a few matches sprinkled in with recaps of Smackdown. It became so skippable in fact that when the WWE moved programming back to the USA network. Velocity became a web exclusive show.

It didn't last long after that move, being cancelled in 2006.

I hope some of these shows bought back memories of a simpler time, and I'm sure some of them were just plain forgotten about. Either way until next time when I compile a random article, thanks for reading and stay safe.