Being a shameless self promoter, when asked by King Bingus if I could write a companion piece to his top 10 moments of Raw, I of course jumped at the chance. So I'm stepping away from the Suicida Appraisal articles to tell you dear reader about some of the moments in wrestling that will love long in my memory. I suppose I'd better prepare you for some "left-field" entries but this is my list, and you'll have plenty of time to tell me I've got my head up my backside after you've read it, okay? Good, so without further ado, in no particular order, my top ten moments of wrestling.
10. Who's next?
For everything WCW did wrong, one thing that no-one can argue that it didn't get wrong was the rise of Bill Goldberg, the former Atlanta Falcon turned one man wrecking crew. Goldberg's legendary winning streak was a thing of beauty, and a genuine highlight of Monday Nitro as Bill marched down to the ring, breathing fire and murdered his opponent with insane power moves. This put him on a collision course with Hollywood Hogan, leader of the nWo and the man who held the World Heavyweight Championship in a chokehold. The setting for this showdown was in Atlanta itself, both Goldberg's home town & WCW's base of operations, and in front of a sold out crowd of very vocal fans, arguably the biggest match in WCW history would take place. The stage was set earlier in the night as Goldberg defended his United States championship against Scott Hall, thus earning a match with Hogan in the main event. Being honest, the mechanics of the match are pretty standard, given Goldberg's limited ability and well, Hogan, what makes this special to me is the atmosphere, this whole deal feels like a very special occasion and everyone involved played their role to perfection, even the much maligned WCW commentary team, the crowd too are salivating at the prospect of their hometown hero defeating the wicked Hogan, even going so far as to cheer the opening bell, which is very rare nowadays. This was the peak of WCW and while it's easy to remember the Russo booked lunacy that would characterise WCW's latter days, it's this point that I choose to remember when thinking of WCW.
9. "The British Bulldog's gonna win, whether he wants to or not"
I've not attended a lot of wrestling shows in my time, but I did get to attend SummerSlam 92 at Wembley Stadium. Headlined by an Intercontinental Championship between real life brother-in-laws Bret "Hitman" Hart & The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith. This match was just magical, building and building to a wonderful crescendo which resulted in Davey Boy raising the then prestigious Intercontinental strap in front of 83,000 cheering fans, and I was part of that throng. The roar as Bret's shoulders were counted down was deafening & still sends chills down my spine some 20 years later.
8. All that glitters...
This is going to be a toughie. I was a huge fan of Chris Benoit. His crisp in ring work & no nonsense demeanour captured my attention from the word go & single handedly got me back into wrestling when he was in WCW. I was ecstatic when I heard news that he'd raised the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 20 in Madison Square Garden no less. The match itself is beyond great, but the moment that stands out to me is the post match, where Chris is joined by Eddie Guerrero, then WWE champion, and the two who suffered such hardship in WCW, and travelled the world electrifying audiences everywhere they went stood tall, each holding the top two belts in WWE. It seemed to me that they'd finally gotten their just rewards, and on the grandest possible stage no less. Later events would conspire to forever spoil this moment, but at the time I'm not ashamed to admit I had a tear in my eye as they were showered with confetti & the adulation of the crowd.
7. "But who's side is he on?"
This is going to be obvious, but Hulk Hogan's heel turn at WCW's 1996 Bash at the Beach PPV was something else. Going in, WCW had done a great job in building the "invasion" of Scott Hall & Kevin Nash as a legitimate threat to WCW. Don't forget just months before the two could be seen plying their trade on WWF television as Razor Ramon & Diesel and with the backstage happenings of wrestling still being something of a mystery this looked to all intents & purposes like the WWF had sent these two to attack WCW. A lawsuit from Titan Towers nerfed the intimation that the WWF was involved but the denouement of the mystery of Hall & Nash's mystery partner was more than satisfactory. Hulk Hogan, THE babyface turned his back on the Red & Yellow, the 3 demandments and Hulkamania to align himself with the invaders & begin a campaign of terror throughout WCW. The post angle promo Hogan cuts with Mean Gene Okerlund is something else. Completely stripping himself of 15 years of Hulkamania in one fell swoop as fans hurl trash into the ring. Even if he does get the name wrong (new World organisation indeed), the segment has lost very little of it's power over the years. Credit must also go to Tony Schiavone's powerful utterance of "Hulk Hogan you can go to hell" just as the screen fades to black. The ultimate heel turn? Just maybe...
6. Not exactly Gotch/Hackenschmit is it?
DDT pro wrestling from Japan has a "Unique" approach to wrestling. The company has some amazing performers such as Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi among it's roster, but it's a match for the company's hardcore title that I want to include here. Fought under 24/7 rules the title can be held by anyone & anything that pins the current champion. It's these rules that led to the title being held by a ladder. No that's not a typo, a ladder pinned a wrestler to the floor for a 3 count and was awarded the belt. It's the manner in which the ladder lost the belt that interests me the most though as the ladder came up against a terrifying foe in a tiny dachshund puppy, which managed to pin the ladder and take its title. If all of that sounds like a particularly lucid cheese dream go & find the footage for yourself, but be warned thats the tip of the iceberg of the weirdness in DDT though.
5. It beats a signed picture I suppose....
It's not all 5 star matches & dogs beating ladders you know, I do love those moments when it all goes terribly wrong. And when L.A. Park took a tumble into the fans in AAA he connected with the fans in a way they'd probably like to forget. While in the midst of the crowd during some outside shenanigans Park suddenly found his mask being pulled at by an elderly man in the crowd. The former La Parka responded in a less than appropriate way by punching the man square in the face, causing me & I imagine everyone watching to do the following things in precisely this order: 1. Wince 2. Laugh so hard they risk giving themselves a heart attack & 3. Feel terrible at the fact you've just laughed at an old man getting potatoed by Lucha Royalty. For shame.
4. Here comes a new Challenger!!
It's not all wrestling for me, I'm also a big videogame nerd, it's how I make my living day to day so I can be here writing this for you to read. Occasionally my two pastimes crossover, usually because of the latest wrestling videogame, but sometimes they cross over in surprising ways....
Earlier on I spoke of DDT pro wrestling & it's wacky excesses and it's here that this moment takes place. During a match involving Kenny Omega and Yoshihiko (a blow up doll with a surprisingly good match record), Omega manages to perform a picture (pixel?) perfect version of Zangief's Final Atomic Buster consisting of two rolling German suplexes followed by the dreaded SPINNING PILEDRIVER! It's incredibly esoteric on my part to include this but dear god when that video was forwarded to me from that moment on I was a Kenny Omega mark (and I don't mind being called that, the guy is simply amazing in the ring).
3. A comedy of errors
TNA Lockdown 2007 contains without question my favourite "bad match" The "electrified" cage match between LAX & Team 3D is an insult to the audience and I love it. It's SOOOO awful it's perversely entertaining. From the comedic attempts to convince us Homicide is being electrocuted by flickering the arena lights and playing a stock sound effect over the PA to the crowd becoming increasingly vocal in their displeasure to Brother (now Bully) Ray having to scream the F word at Hector Guerrero because he's taking too long to pass him a table. This is a match to be watched through your fingers it's so bad, its cringeworthy and awesome because of it.
2. Gimmie a F***kin' mic!
God bless Scott Steiner. Stick a microphone near him and you've got the potential for gold. Whether he's aware of it or not, Steiner is comedy personified on the mic. His infamous "odds" promo is testament to that. I could go on but it's best to give you a perfect example of Steiner-phonics.
"You see, I come from a highly educated university"
It's like poetry.
1. "I'm sorry...I love you"
I cried. I've no shame in admitting that. Ric Flair's WWE retirement story was something truly special. Wrestlemania 24 was a great show overall, but one match shines brighter than all the others. Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels: Career threatening match. The whole thing was magical but at the end of the match, as both men worked their collective asses off the stage was set for my greatest match finish of all time. As Flair struggled to his feet, Michaels was in position to deliver the killing blow to perhaps the greatest career in wrestling history and then....then he mutters those immortal words "I'm sorry, I love you" before pulling the trigger & drilling "The Nature Boy" with the sweet chin music to seal the deal. This was the power that wrestling can have as an artform distilled into one beautiful moment. Two warriors, so full of hate for each other at the beginning watching it all melt away as the match wore on, as the realisation dawned on Michaels that he could throw the bout & allow Flair to continue his career but that would disrespect the man Ric Flair and it would be better to let him go down fighting. Subsequent years may have watered down this moment, but for me this is my greatest moment in wrestling, and still brings a tear to my eye as I picture a beaten Flair struggle to his feet to a standing ovation from the crowd, soaking in the adulation of 30 years of fans.
Thank you Ric & Shawn.
So that's it, my personal favourite moments of the artform we call professional wrestling. Sometimes wacky, sometimes in poor taste, sometimes awful but sometimes, just sometimes the greatest show on Earth. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank @KingBingus for letting me do a run in on his site and also to take the opportunity to plug my own work as part of #4CR where you can find great podcasts, live radio shows and articles including my own weekly article The Suicida Appraisal where I examine the strengths, weaknesses & possible future for a chosen performer each week. All of this can be found at www.4crwrestling.com . Of course of you've any comments on what you've read you can find me on twitter @BunnySuicida for any agreements/disagreements/telling Bingus he's a fool for letting a hack like me loose on his site, but until then folks remember: Have fun with Wrestling, because that's what it's there for.
Martin Dixon.
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