What is (IYO) the best & the worst major wrestling promotion in pro wrestling history & why?

The best promotion is WWE for its success, but it doesn't mean it did good things to get there. I believe thats what the Dragon was trying to say. Back then, in the territories day, all the wrestling promoters got together sworeing they will never broadcast wrestling on television in order to keep their promotions alive. But lets remember that Vince McMahon Sr. kept this deal, but when his son, Vince Jr. took over. He broke that rule. He started airing wrestling on TV. This eventually started putting wrestling as entertainment, and most of the wrestlers from the territories jumped ship in order to be famous on TV. So in a way, Vince McMahon actually stole talent, which drove the others out of business. So thats the bad part. However, this is the stuff that made WWE the best wrestling promotion yet. The fact that it was WWE that put wrestling in the main stream. Hulk Hogan, the guy that signed with WWE was the wrestler that help put it on the main stream. So if it wasn't for WWE airing on TV, wrestling would not be as big as it was today. Thats, in my opinion, is very important and enough to make it the best wrestling promotions. If anything wrestling promotion knew how to....well.... promote wrestling, it would be WWE. Now. I'm not gonna get into wrestler, as there is a lot of good wrestlers that weren't in WWF as well. I mean, if I could name any, Andre The Giant, Hulk Hogan, and Buddy Rogers. (These are wrestlers that help WWE reach fame). Other accomplishment? As much as I hate to say it, WWE help women make a name. (Not now, of course, but back then) Whether it was Chyna, Sensational Sherri, or the Fabulous Moolah, they help bring women into wrestling. Its when WWE sold out and did the attitude era, that women's wrestling became a joke, Chyna being the only exception as she made it possible for a women to compete with the likes of men.

I mean, if I had a choice to pick wrestling promotions base on talent, NWA was the way to go as it had Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes. etc. But it just didn't have as great an impact on the history of pro-wrestling, which is why I gave it to WWE.

Now, for the worse, this is just a personal opinion, as in, I just hate it. Its CHIKARA and Juggalo Championship wrestling. And I've considered everything, from Mexico and Japan, Europe, and the US. but I hate those two the most. Both are basically jokes. You've probably heard of CHIKARA. Its bascially a parody of WWE. Now you think WWE is full of lame jokes, CHIKARA is 10x worst. Does anyone remember Colin Delaniny on ECW. He was actually the Cena and Orton of CHIKARA. Litterally. He dominated and did their same moves. As much as I admire them havign fun, I find it really hard to take seriously and I just don't like it. Now, for the Juggalo Championship wrestling, you've probably never heard of it. Okay, remember the Insane Clown Posse from WWF? Well, after WWF, they started their own wrestling promotion. Seriously, if you don't know what a Juggalo is, look it up. People say TNA is home of the wrestling rejects, I disagree, JCW is. The best way I can describe it is, ECW without Paul Heymen and real wrestling talent, which just means crude humor and wrestling. Once again, its is just too much of a joke for me to enjoy.

P.S. I starred because the question was good. Not because you told me.

I have watched bits of companys like WWE, TNA, ROH, Old WWF, CZW, AWA, Chickara, Dragon Gate, AAA and even the WWWF. I'd say firstly the worst wrestling promotion in history is CZW. Firstly pretty much all of their matches are just garbage wrestling and wrestlers taking stupid risks just to get satifaction from the crowd. That isn't wrestling! It is just painful to watch and some of the weapons they can use are way too deadly like all sorts of breakable lights and such. I hate this company and even readin about some of the excessive violence is just too much. Most of the wrestlers cannot wrestle very well and just seem to want to hurt their body and this does NOT make for good TV. The company has been going a decent length but I really cannot get into it and it takes 'hardcore' WAY TOO FAR. I would hope you call it major because it isn't really indys because it is quite well known. If you haven't watched CZW watch it only if you are a super, garbage wrestling fan otherwise you may get disgusted like myself at the product.

The best major wrestling promotion is the old WWF in the 80's. They used the talent that they had well and some people actually believed wrestling wasn't scripted in those days. The moves used were simple but they had names like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, The Hart Foundation and many other great singles wrestlers and tag teams. Wrestlemania 3 was also the most attended wrestling event in the Northen Hemisphere with over 90,000 fans attracted to the event. The company catered to a wide audience and there didn't need to be hardcore violence and such to make great matches. The storylines could be silly or realistic and the fans would be excited for very simple moves.

IMO the best wrestling promotion has to be WCW. WCW revolutionized wrestling. If it wasn't for WCW then there might have not been Attitude or ECW. Why Attitude? Simply because of the Monday Night Wars. WCW took lead in ratings when Hall and Nash left the WWF and joined up with Hogan to become the nWo probably the greatest stable in the history of pro wrestling. WCW did something that no other wrestling promotion would think of doing and that's turning the biggest baby-face in pro wrestling history a heel. Also in the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD Paul Heyman said that he hated WCW so much that ECW was the complete polar opposite of WCW. So indirectly WCW did have a hand in the success and completion of ECW because WCW was the founding ground of ECW but they were polar opposites. Also the list of wrestlers who worked for WCW is amazing. Sting, Luger, Nash, Hall, Hogan, Flair, Savage, Konnan, Mysterio, Jericho, Benoit, Malenko, Goldberg. They had a huge pool of superstars that could've become the savior of WCW. People say that WWE is amazing at making new stars which is true but WCW is great at making new stars too its just that they didn't try to make too many new stars. I mean when Hogan became Hollywood that was a complete different transition and WCW did a really great job making a new Hogan. Another great example is Bill Goldberg. Another thing that WCW did was bring wrestlers from Japan and Mexico to mainstream status. ECW was already having luchadores fight but that did reach out to many people as when they wrestled in WCW. So I think because of their rich history as part of the NWA, their struggle to become the WCW of the mid 90s and their talent pool WCW is the best wrestling promotion in history.

Now as for the worst right now I'd have to go with TNA. TNA has some great talent don't get me wrong but they are not doing anything to stand out amongst the other great wrestling promotions. I mean ECW was hardcore, WCW was traditional wrestling, WWF was gimmicks and attitude. TNA needs to do something to stand out. They were doing great but now bringing back some old timers is not the best idea. Do they get mainstream attention now? Somewhat yes but they need to make their own stars like the Pope or AJ Styles they need to keep making new stars like that and not depend on the old guys too much. So IMO TNA is the worst wrestling promotion simply because I think that when they got mainstream they kinda lost some of their swagger and by mainstream I mean when they gained the older generation wrestlers who take away the spotlight from the up and coming new stars.

The best promotion in pro wrestling history has to be the WWE hands down. Even from the beginning where they were buying up the territories to try and put a promotion together, it was the ultimate success story and if it hadn’t been for them, pro wrestling wouldn’t be what it is today. As far as the promotion goes, they keep revitalizing the WWE to make it fresh and appeal to audiences. In the 80’s you had the Rock-N-Wrestling Era. In the 90’s there was the Attitude Era, and now you have the PG Era. (Even though people don’t care for the PG Era as much, it fits in with today’s society and the fact that everybody is so politically correct.) Superstar wise, they still have the most recognizable characters. Yes, TNA has Hogan, but considering Cena is the most requested Make A Wish celebrity and other superstars are crossing over into movies, television, reality TV, etc., they’re not just the dumb athletes that they were once considered to be. On a promotional aspect, they’re all over the place. They’re on the covers of magazine, doing radio & TV interviews. The WWE has partnered with other companies to promote events (like with 7-11 to have the WWE cups in honor of SummerSlam). Despite what people think, the WWE isn’t just some trailer trash promotion anymore for rednecks who have nothing better to do but watch rassling. They’re a bonafide publicly traded company on the NYSE.

The worst promotion in pro wrestling history has to be WCW. The only thing that they had going for them was Ted Turner’s deep pockets. Aside from the financial aspect, nobody there seemed to know what it took to run a wrestling promotion and keep it successful. Considering the fact that they had all the financial backing that they could have dreamed for, it should have been much more successful than it was. Sure, they had immediate success with the NWO and people tuned in to see what they were going to do, but just like with any other promotion, that got to be old and people started getting sick of the same old gimmick week after week. Watching towards the end of WCW, you could see that even the superstars there didn’t put their hearts into what they were doing and just going through the motions. After that, it wasn’t hard to see why they were destroyed and the WWE was the only major promotion left standing in the end.

Best: Wrestling Society X and WWE .

Its not around anymore, but look at some Wrestling Society X matches on youtube . These guys had some real talent, and some really good matches . Look at the match between Matt Sydal and Jack Evans . One of the best high flying matches .

And as for WWE, it explains its self . Of course they need to push their real talent, but besides that they put on a good show . Not as good as 8 years ago, but what the hey .

Tna is just awful . They are followers of WWE . They take the WWE Superstars, they use the WWE Storylines, I mean look at Jay Lethal . A fake Randy Savage . And Abyss is a fake Masked Kane . They got the Original ECW Arena with the straight ramp and the square ring . They suck . Evan though they push their wrestlers better, TNA can't do their own thing .

The BEST major promotion, in my opinion, was Georgia Championship Wrestling (before they merged with Mid-South to become WCW. That was a desperation move for survival because Vince McMahon was killing promotions right and left). GCW was the largest "territorial" promotion in the U.S. at one point, for several years. It was the flagship of Jim Crockett's territory and featured all of the big-name NWA stars of the time, at some point or another, along with some stars who had wrestled in the AWA and the WWWF. It was also the first promotion to get a national TV deal (with Ted Turner's TBS cable channel). It had a "big time" feel because of the major stars and also because of the "voice" of GCW, Gordon Solie, universally agreed as the best wrestling commentator in history.

GCW's "glory days" were headlined by two of the most charismatic performers in history. The consummate heel Ric Flair and his counterpart (and enemy) the awesome Dusty Rhodes. This feud encompassed the whole territory as Rhodes brought in help from all over in his war with Flair and the Four Horsemen.

GCW was home to three of the greatest tag teams of all-time: The Road Warriors, The Rock & Roll Express, and The Midnight Express.

Magnum T.A., Tommy Rich, and Nikita Koloff became national stars in GCW. Other alumni of GCW include Stan Hansen, Ted Dibiase Senior, The Freebirds, Barry Windham, Paul Orndorff, Wahoo McDaniel, and Roddy Piper.

We also saw former NWA World Champs Harley Race, Jack Brisco, Dory Jr and Terry Funk in GCW from time to time.

Jim Crockett was the first wrestling promoter to do a PPV show. It was called Starrcade and the first one was main-evented by Harley Race and Ric Flair in a cage match for the NWA World Title.

GCW featured good ol' fashioned southern pro wrestling at it's best. The major feuds are legendary: Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes, The Midnight Express vs The Rock & Roll Express, Nikita Koloff vs Magnum T.A., Ted Dibiase Sr vs The Freebirds (specifically Terry Gordy), The Road Warriors vs The Midnight Express, Magnum T.A. vs Tully Blanchard, Dusty and Magnum vs the Four Horsemen, Ivan & Nikita Koloff vs The Rock & Roll Express, and more.

The WORST major promotion, in my opinion, was the WWF simply because Vince McMahon Junior turned wrestling into a cartoon show. The wrestlers themselves were very talented and gave us some great matches, but Vince turned them into cartoon characters he could put on any kind of merchandise to sell. He featured comic book super-heroes like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and G.I. Joe Sgt Slaughter, and comic book super-villains like King Kong Bundy, Earthquake, and The Million Dollar Man, and put them in "epic" comic book feuds. Vince took the seriousness out of wrestling and gave us a very campy cartoon show.

Vince took that gaudy cartoon show on the road, and using every dirty trick in the book, killed promotion after promotion until only the WWF was left, forcing wrestling fans nation-wide to watch the WWF or nothing. GCW and Mid-South merged to become WCW, and managed to survive Vince's deadly march across North America. WWF and WCW, two VERY different types of promotions. Vince wanted to stamp out WCW to complete his monopoly of the wrestling business in North America, and this led to the Monday Night Wars.

The WWF is the worst major promotion in history because Vince turned wrestling into a very campy, very gaudy, cartoon show, then killed the wrestling business to force every wrestling fan to watch HIS shows or nothing.

The worst promotion in histroy is supposedly; WWF Attitude era in the late 90s. The best is suppose to be WWE which scored 63.62. Hope this helps.

Best: WCW

Worst; XPW

Best : WWE

Worst: TNA