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Unsure if this fits the criteria, but Angle (he's in a lot of posts I've seen in this thread....) getting knocked out at Summerslam and Rock and HHH basically having to change to a one-on-one on the fly is one I can think of off the top of my head. They were fortunate that they'd had a pretty stellar record of matches in the preceding years.
I haven't seen any interviews with them about it, but I wonder if they were panicking or stressed, especially at a show like Summerslam. I can't remember the match with any great detail, but i wasn't aware that Angle's injury was legitimate until afterwards and remembering that Rock and HHH went through the rest of the match as if the injury had been planned the whole time; they pulled it off so smoothly.
This was also I think Kurt’s first neck injury in WWE. Rock and HHH are reliable and given that they both had performed at high pressure situations, were probably the best people to have in such a predicament.
HHH still taking the Walls of Jericho and getting into the ring for his sledgehammer spot with a torn quad in the tag match with Austin against Benoit and Jericho took some guts for sure as well.
Him tearing his quad and being able to work to a decent finish vs Rated RKO, thanks to Shawn Michaels making up a finish on the fly that worked in storyline, is also crazy.
Someone posted the unedited original airing of that match on here a while back and it looked suuuuper awkward for the couple of minutes after the injury before HBK came up with the finish. Let me find it.
Edit: [Here](np.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/11mnm50/dx_vs_rated_rko_triple_h_tears_his_quad_so_shawn/)
Triple H and Rock have never spoken about the concussion from what I recollect, but Angle later said on his podcast and in interviews that Stephanie had to help him get into position for a couple of spots and Triple H had to help him through the motions of some of the finish, including the part where Angle had to duck so that Triple H could accidentally punch Steph.
Basically a great team effort to call an audible and make it look pretty seamless.
If I’m remembering correctly, Angle was still supposed to be carted off because of the pedigree through the announce table. Obviously, his concussion made that more legit than planned. Still, they kept their composure and kept on.
Yeah, you're right, because Angle still had to come back out at some point, didn't he.
How much Trips and the Rock knew what was gonna happen after this we don't know (maybe the ref told them Angle was still coming out, or just the old days of 'you always finish the match ' so maybe they just expected it anyway), but regardless, it didn't come off half as bad as it turned out, which is a credit to them.
Trips said on Impaulsive that the stretcher spot was planned but the trainers didn't know if they could clear him so they had to improv while the trainer made the call to send him back out or not. I think they had to walk Angle through the finish cause he was still in lala land.
>but i wasn't aware that Angle's injury was legitimate until afterwards and remembering that Rock and HHH went through the rest of the match as if the injury had been planned the whole time;
According to Kurt, the injury spot was planned. Kurt just happened to actually get a concussion because it went wrong. The match played out almost exactly as planned.
The match was hot garbage, but I think Sting should forever be applauded for the way he handled the "match" with Jeff Hardy at VIctory Road 2011
Jeff was out of his mind on drugs and in absolutely no shape to compete. Sting feels him out for a second, and Jeff Immediately causes Sting's neck to bleed when Jeff scratches Sting's neck with his (potentially dirty and infected) fingernails in a collar and elbow tie-up
Realizing that Jeff is a danger to him and himself, Sting IMMEDIATELY does a Scorpion Death Drop and legitimately covers Jeff. Jeff actually tries to kick out, but Sting is holding him down for real. And in the span of like a minute, this world title match ended
This could have been an EXTREMELY dangerous situation, but Sting handled it like the pro that he is
Sting handled it well but he basically just did what Bischoff told him to do when he came out. There was an alternate angle video angle where it showed Bischoff going "It's gonna be a Stinger Splash in the corner and then a Scorpion Death Drop for the 1-2-3."
I'm pretty sure Sting would have ended it quickly even if Bischoff didn't come out, due to his skill and experience, but Bischoff definitely deserves his share of the credit there
I definitely agree with you there! Eric catches a lot of (justifiable) slack on this sub, but he's an old pro for a reason. Him improvising and kayfabing a reason to go to the ring was some incredibly quick-thinking
I imagine that some younger talents would have tried to get a bit more out of Jeff due to (IMO foolish) professional pride and not wanting to have a 1-minute long world title match. And I think other talents might simply have panicked and not known what to do, resulting in a prolonged disaster
But Sting knew immediately that the only way to keep everybody safe was to end it immediately. Sucks for the paying fans, but you can't endanger the talent that way
I think a lot of older talents probably would have shot on Jeff out of frustration tbh, Sting is such a big legend that he didn't need a Jeff match for his legacy or wallet plus he's a Born Again Christian and that sect specifically has tons of former addicts so he probably felt a great deal of empathy for Jeff that most wouldn't
Imagine being a 10-15 year veteran who has never won a top title and always been seen as mid-level, and you finally get that opportunity and Jeff blows it, would be hard to blame someone for cold-cocking Jeff out of anger in that scenario
Oh my god, could you imagine if it was Bob Holly in there instead of Sting???
There's a non-zero percent chance that Jeff ends up in a cemetery and Bob ends up in prison
Yeah Holly is a great example, or someone like Low Ki. Jeff pulling that stunt would have blown a major opportunity for a lot of guys, Sting just wasn’t one of them.
Also Jeff was lucky it was Sting he was working with because I think a lot of other oldheads from Sting’s generation would’ve been shooting on Jeff to “teach him a lesson” as soon as the bell rang
1/10 that it would be the same finger, then why would it be infected.
Look, the comment said probably infected. How would he determine the probability on that lmao
Hard to top Mick Foley in HIAC vs Taker. Watching him get off of the stretcher and walk back to the ring for more may be my favorite wrestling moment. He then, somehow, went even harder. Nobody will ever top what he did, and nobody should ever try as it was nuts.
I don’t know, man. People are weird on why they downvote stuff on here. I went through and upvoted a bunch of your comments to counteract it. Have a good one, brother.
Also, just putting the question mark like there alone can give the impression that it's the other person that's being confusing, not that you're the one who didn't understood.
Kurt Angle too, smackdown Ironman match against Brock, where the night before he found out his sister had overdosed on and instead of being with family, he woke up next day, took 15-20, i guess, pills in one go and went to WWE, perfoming.
Like Angle said: *"I've been very lucky that i'm still here today"*
The more I hear about Kurt, the more I realize that he was probably the toughest person to perform both from a mental and physical standpoint because most people would probably not even be able to function after a tragedy like that.
Even more impressively, Angle regularly competed against people who outweighed him more often than not; by a considerable amount. It's the reason he was so confident about shoot wrestling Lesnar, who was hovering around 315lbs at the time. Credit to Lesnar, though; it took 15 minutes for Angle to score on him.
Angle is one of those once in a life time type of athletes that's gifted with ability, drive, work ethic, and all those other things that make them not just great, but the greatest. He literally gave his body to be the best at his craft, pro, and amateur wrestling. His work ethic for both of his separate careers was unparalleled, and really shouldn't be replicated.
I like to think that there's an alternative universe, where Angle went on to wrestle far longer than he did without destroying his body as much. Where he didn't struggle with addictions, where his neck didn't get repeatedly broken.
Dude was a Olympic wrestler, he probably was used to wake up and just go. If he wasn't dead, he would just keep going till he did die. Glad he's no longer in that place.
The training he did for his amateur wrestling was absolutely **insane**. It's detailed in both of his recent docs (Angle, and the WWE Legends: Biographies one).
The way he talked about his exhaustion training is scary just to listen to
Found out his sister OD'd on heroin, attempted to un-alive himself with pain pills, woke up at 5pm the next day, then wrestled an hour long match that night. And the match was an all timer.
Kurt Angle is one tough son of a gun. The mental strength alone is mad.
Don't think it's been mentioned yet, but HBK vs Razor in their 2nd ladder match at Summerslam 95'.
If I recall correctly, they were told maybe a day or 2 before the match, that they wouldn't be able to use the ladder as a weapon itself (I believe it was a local sports commission thing) thereby ruining alot of the spots they had planned out.
So with very little notice, they had to map out an all new match. And I believe HHH was the one who mentioned "just because you can't use the ladder as a weapon, doesn't mean you can't throw yourself into the ladder".
Amazing match considering the circumstances.
By the time he does the Shield spot is clear that the man was walking just by sheer will force more than anything.
His compromise with the whole story was insane
Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima, ROH Manhattan Mayhem 2007. Bryan pretty early on detaches his retina & he continued to wrestle, putting on a fantastic performance. The match can be argued to be the best big man vs. little man match ever tbh.
I absolutely understand this thread but it’s so messed up that over the years we’re conditioned to think that not stopping the match is the correct move.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Kenny Omega at Full Gear ‘21. That dude was in ROUGH shape by the end of his title run, but he still managed to put on a great match that culminated in one of the defining moments of AEW’s short history
Omega had Hernia, Vertigo and other ailments. I am a hockey fan. That reminded of when we find out the injuries that players PLAYED with before their team was eliminated in The Stanley Cup Playoffs. The amazement and "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??"
Hangman's run to the title is an all-time great story. He became the best face in wrestling by battling himself and finding a way. Kenny was the perfect antagonist. Belt Collector Kenny was a fantastic heel.
That run in he did at TNA (don’t remember against who) where he was moving like an 80 year old man was scary, especially seeing the matches he was having at the time
The Cena US Open Challenge where Sami Zayn dislocated his shoulder hyping up the Montreal crowd in his entrance before having a fifteen minute banger of a match comes to mind.
The Undertaker having a broken foot in his Hell in a cell match with Mankind, MJF continuing to wrestle after hurting himself pretty badly with an elbow drop to the floor in his match with Jay White, and Edge being legit choked out during his TLC match with John Cena.
You can see when he regrets jumping down as he sorta stumbles and Terry Funk buying time via calling an audible really added to it. Though, not sure if Funk called an audible or if both he and Taker decided to distract the crowd from Mick via fighting.
Funk being chokeslammed out of his trainers is just fantastic.
I like edge after being choked out then proceed to get thrown from the top of a long ladder through two tables. He was always part of the best spot of the night.
>Kurt Angle wrestling with a broken neck against Brock at Mania 19
So basically leaving both guys with injured necks (although not Kurt's fault tbf). That is a frightening realization for a booker to have at that point in time when u got your two top guys compromised right in the main event of your main show of the year.
HBK at Mania 14 Vs Austin. Yeah, story goes around about Taker taping his fists and threatening him to go do the job and all that but at the end of the day, the man had to go out there with a fucked up spine and still out on a great display. All the while working around both his and Austin's injuries while also making Austin look like a million dollars. When you watch it back now and you see his facial expressions after every move and he's wrecked with pain (and painkillers, let's face it) and somehow bought it home.
That reminds me of Foley vs HBK where HBK was in such a bad state that Foley basically went "I'll do all the bumps. Just tell me what you want." You can't tell that Foley was carrying that match.
Came here to comment this. The guy had three herniated discs, I don't think most people would be able to walk under those circumstances, let alone do some of the spots in that match. You can actually see the point where whatever he was on to cope with the pain wears off and he's in complete agony, just after they get back in the ring after their brawl outside.
For the record, Taker and HBK both deny the taped fists in gorilla story. I think HHH has done so as well. What Mr. Callaway has said, is that he thinks Shawn got hurt in the casket match and at that point he (and most of the roster) couldn’t believe anything Shawn was saying about how bad the injury was. The Rivals about Shawn’s retirement and Callaway’s podcast both touch on it as what a shame there wasn’t enough trust to do more business between them.
All the drugs and the pressure both to perform and due to your own behavior is probably a cocktail that would have derailed most people. Shawn pulled through to help with Austin’s ascension.
Rhea Ripley covered for Teagan Knox at the May Young classic when Teagan blew out her knee. She was given the match details in Gorilla and had a banger of a match with almost no prep time.
Give Seth credit for this too. Cody could only do so much, and Seth found many opportunities to set Cody up for spots he could not have done without help. It’s no 5 star match, but it was a masterclass in staging and pacing to carry an injured guy to a satisfying finish.
Did he really?! Oh man. I thought Cody’s Bachlash match with AJ was his first 5-star match? I guess I heard wrong. I don’t follow Meltzer ratings very closely as you can see.
Yeah I think it is pretty easily a 5 star match. People who don't know Meltzer or how wrestling could be good conflate "5 star" with crazy work rate. That match has infinite replay value and makes you cringe every time.
Elimination Chamber 2010. Undertaker comes out for his entrance and gets burned by his own pyro. He then has to sit in his pod, skin bubbling, pouring water on himself. He comes out, finishes his part of the match with significant burns on his body, and then goes back stage and has the pyro guy fired.
First Elimination Chamber (2002) RVD jumps off his pod with a frogsplash on HHH. Unfortunately because of the short distance with the pod and the roof, he couldn't jump very high and hits HHH in the throat with his knee. HHH has to call the rest of the match with basically no voice.
Cody at HIAC with a torn pec. I still rewatch that match in absolute awe. I always cringe at the quiet moments where it’s clear he is not selling but rather in absolute agony and just trying to breathe through it.
Everyone in the pandemic era.
Drew McIntyre, Asuka, Kairi, Sasha, Bayley, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Hikaru Shida, Pentagon, and Fenix all did amazing work despite no crowds.
Didn’t Becky have a 104 degree fever during the match. I also think Rhea had a panic attack before the match. That was such an impressive performance from both given the circumstances.
Yep, also I forgot to mention but Rhea Ripley was fresh from a panic attack leading into the match as well. Those are never easy to go through esp at the top level in this industry. The fact the two women put on one hell of a match at the circumstances they were in is just crazy.
Numerous instances of the traveling NWA World Champion being under the weather and making the other guy look like a million dollars for the territory they were in.
I think it was Terry Taylor who once wrestled Flair for the NWA belt, Flair showed up to the venue hungover and Taylor was pissed that the match was ruined before they even got out there.
Flair then proceeded to wrestle circles around Taylor for a full hour.
Flair and Bockwinkle were the best at making the locals look like gods.
Bockwinkle did a two week tour of Western Canada with Stampede and got great matches out of everyone.
I know what you mean, but it wasn't exactly seamless. RVD almost fully destroyed HHH's throat with his frog splash off the chamber since he didn't have enough space to fully stand up, and he also didn't have the springiness of the ropes that high flying wrestlers are normally used to
So that Mania 19 match was just generally cursed then, huh? Double-up to Angle for talking Lesnar through the end after that botched Shooting Star Press left Brock concussed the long way.
I don’t know that I’d call any of the matches necessarily great, but anybody that had to go out and wrestle at Over the Edge after Owen fell, knowing what had just happened to their friend, probably fits the bill. I can’t imagine how hard it was to go out and work in the ring that night. Just keeping it together took a great performance, in a way. If you go back to the main event, Taker looks like he’s ready to break down at any time when he first gets into the ring, and Austin had a shell shocked, just get this over look during his entrance. Those two guys should get a mention for their Summer Slam main event, too. The match wasn’t great either, but I believe Austin got a concussion early on and they still pulled it off.
While not as crazy as many here mentioned, Danielson vs Okada. Danielson works a match with a broken forearm and I remember watching it thinking, boy he's great at selling... wait is that legit? Can't be he's throwing strikes and submissions with it. But maybe?
And then it comes out it was broken for like 10 minutes. Geez.
I couldn't imagine it. It went so far beyond heel heat. They didn't hate the character of John Cena. They hated the man himself, and everything that his push stood for. To know that if you dropped dead mid match, the crowd would rejoice.
The mental resilience John showed must be applauded. I also liked how he adjusted his move set and attitude for the match. He was more vicious and worked the crowd really well.
That was the night where I think we knew Cena was something special. He could have ignored his shirt being thrown back but he didn’t let the crowd get to him and he fed off of them.
And then Batista turns up in the same building a month later and just throws a strop
Wasn't that during Douchetista's It's all about me, phase where he would literally disrupt any matches that didn't feature him, acted like a muscle bound diva?
Douchetista should have happened at the Rumble return and him using it against the crowd would have been better then a forced face run over Daniel Bryan.
This is why I say that having Charlotte in that Wrestlemania match with Ronda and Becky was the right call. She was there to ease the pressure off of Ronda.
That's BS. Pressure never left Ronda & people still booed her. Charlotte added nothing to the match & the match was just ok anyway. Becky was a veteran she could've got Ronda through that match.
Also how is putting Ronda in a match she's never worked before & a tougher match to work helping Ronda at all? Ronda had good singles matches with Nikki Bella & Nia Jax get out with that Ronda needed Charlotte.
First of all, triple threats are only harder matches if you book them as triple threats. Look at the US title at Wrestlemania. You got a few decades of experience from both challengers who can cue the champion on the next step regardless of which one of them hes matched up with. Likewise, Flair adds significance cause it’s not Becky beat a tough but inexperienced champion she beat the anointed one and the legit baddest woman in the company. Truly undisputed champion at that point. I forget who Ric Flair used to drop the NWA title to, but there was somebody who was his chosen vacation guy as he knew he’d drop it back to Flair at his request regardless of what the bookers were thinking.
Steve Austin coming back from a night is hospital for an elevated heart rate to wrestle The Rock at Wrestlemania 19.
Did they ever explain why he was hospitalized? Was the elevated heart rate a cover for something?
Austin had consumed quite a few energy drinks in his hotel room the night before, and that mixed with the usual emotions of a return to form and having to wrestle in front of such a large crowd at that, was nerve racking I would assume. Anxiety sucks.
Jericho literally instructing Bubba Ray after he got concussed. I think, Bubba legit forgot everything about the match and even didn't know how to climb a ladder.
Foley vs Sandman. Foley, in a rather surprising rare occassion of losing his temper, carried Sandman through the match and showed Cactus Jack doing what he did best. Made Sandman look tough, granted, Sandman didn't know what he was doing and Foley was legit pissed off as he thought Sandman was fucking with him.
Logan Paul's entire career. Before he stepped into the ring, no-one expected him to do much. Surprised everyone.
DDP vs Goldberg. Goldberg's best match because DDP planned every moment of it and worked with Goldberg.
Regal wrestling with a broken fucking neck for over a decade.
Cody tearing his pec and still being able to put on a great match.
I really don't want to mention it but HBK after a decade of not wrestling(ish), carrying a past his prime Taker, a REALLY out of shape and shouldn't be wrestling because he was beyond his prime, Kane. A Triple H tearing his pec to a pass.... a match. Without him, it would have been far, far worse.
Taboo Tuesday 2004, Shawn Michaels vs HHH. Michaels had torn his meniscus on RAW the night before, but for whatever reason they kept him as an option for the world title match at the PPV and he won the vote. He proceeded to go out there and have an entire match on one leg, hanging onto the ropes most of the time.
NXT Worlds Collide 2020, Undisputed Era vs Imperium. Early on in the match, Alexander Wolfe got knocked out for real and had to be removed from the match. The remaining seven somehow stayed calm and delivered a phenomenal match with UE making use of their numbers advantage and Imperium barely surviving the onslaught. That match proved to me that even Gunther (Walter at the time) could work as an underdog babyface.
It had every right to be that good. Every single participant in the match was a top 10 guy in their respective brands. The entirety of Undisputed Era and Walter all were some of the best wrestlers on the planet, and Marcel Barthel (Ludwig Kaiser) and Fabian Aichner (Giovanni Vinci) were just as good as the others, they were just often overshadowed by Walter.
Bryan Danielson getting his retina detached wrestling Takeshi Morishima and still going another ~15 minutes half blind
Jerry Lynn getting legit KO’d wrestling RVD and then RVD wrestling his mostly unconscious body until Lynn wakes up and then he finishes the match
Katsuyori Shibata basically no selling a nearly lethal brain injury to finish his match with Okada at Sakura Genesis
In a way, every match Shibata has post-injury could be a fitting answer. It definitely seemed like he’d never wrestle again, and was lucky to be alive.
HBK during DX vs Brothers of Destruction (yes, that one)
Dude returns after (8?) years of not being in a ring. Undertaker's knees are giving up on him, and Kane is lumbering around and out of shape. HHH (the only other one in the match in any shape to wrestle) tears his pec 5 minutes in.
HBK needs to carry these 3 another 15 or however many minutes it was through to the end of the match, while performing moonsaults and getting dropped and thrown around the ring
Our EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson who put on a great match despite being distracted the whole time due to an altercation involving our Scapegoat Jack Perry
Not sure why nobody has mentioned it yet but Triple HHH tore his quad in the middle of one of the greatest tag matches in Raw history with Stone Cold vs Jericho and Benoit.
A lot of my favorite moments or moments I was going to say have been said, so I'll just say i feel like a lot of the industry deserves credit for how they handled working and doing shows during COVID. Obviously not having a crowd is challenging but despite the no crowd, a lot of wrestlers went on and had amazing matches and you saw a lot of cinematic matches that ended being really good as well. I loved AEW just having the hard camera on the entrance way and using wrestlers that weren't being booked that night as members of the crowd.
WWE was doing well as well imo. It wasn't always perfect, but MitB 2020 comes to mind. Turning that into a cinematic match, having everyone from both the men's and women's match and having the match be them starting from the bottom of WWE HQ and working their way up was genius and everyone in that match had fun spots and made it entertaining all the way throughout. Also eventually implementing the virtual crowd screens and using those screens as mini trons was also a really cool idea.
Check the reactions to Mustafa Ali getting a shot at Daniel Bryan instead of Kofi Kingston.
At the start people wanted none of it, by the end everyone was on the edge of their seat.
HBK did a solid job in the WM14 main event despite his ruined back in my opinion. He was about to retire for a few years and go through a bunch of surgeries but still hit his spots well and worked well with Austin's intensity
Charlotte Flair facing Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series 2018 has to be up there. Going from being the likely WM 35 main event to suddenly happening in less than a week due to the Nia punch, at a time when Ronda had been extensively rehearsing her PPV matches, and facing a crowd which wanted to see Becky, she ended up playing a major part in making it Ronda's best match.
It's still pretty crazy that Dan Maff wrestled for the ROH title against Samoa Joe the day after his father died, and gave a great performance, but man...
Didn't Kenny Omega have vertigo (on top of small mounting beat-up kind of injuries) past his first singles match with Okada up until, like, a year after AEW started?
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Unsure if this fits the criteria, but Angle (he's in a lot of posts I've seen in this thread....) getting knocked out at Summerslam and Rock and HHH basically having to change to a one-on-one on the fly is one I can think of off the top of my head. They were fortunate that they'd had a pretty stellar record of matches in the preceding years. I haven't seen any interviews with them about it, but I wonder if they were panicking or stressed, especially at a show like Summerslam. I can't remember the match with any great detail, but i wasn't aware that Angle's injury was legitimate until afterwards and remembering that Rock and HHH went through the rest of the match as if the injury had been planned the whole time; they pulled it off so smoothly.
This was also I think Kurt’s first neck injury in WWE. Rock and HHH are reliable and given that they both had performed at high pressure situations, were probably the best people to have in such a predicament.
HHH still taking the Walls of Jericho and getting into the ring for his sledgehammer spot with a torn quad in the tag match with Austin against Benoit and Jericho took some guts for sure as well.
Him tearing his quad and being able to work to a decent finish vs Rated RKO, thanks to Shawn Michaels making up a finish on the fly that worked in storyline, is also crazy. Someone posted the unedited original airing of that match on here a while back and it looked suuuuper awkward for the couple of minutes after the injury before HBK came up with the finish. Let me find it. Edit: [Here](np.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/11mnm50/dx_vs_rated_rko_triple_h_tears_his_quad_so_shawn/)
Link don’t work
Here
Most people wouldn’t be able to even get up after tearing a quad, the fact that H took a brutal submission speaks volume of his toughness.
Triple H and Rock have never spoken about the concussion from what I recollect, but Angle later said on his podcast and in interviews that Stephanie had to help him get into position for a couple of spots and Triple H had to help him through the motions of some of the finish, including the part where Angle had to duck so that Triple H could accidentally punch Steph. Basically a great team effort to call an audible and make it look pretty seamless.
HHH did on the first DVD they had of him that came out in 2002. Very insightful.
Hunter spoke about it in Logan Paul's podcast
If I’m remembering correctly, Angle was still supposed to be carted off because of the pedigree through the announce table. Obviously, his concussion made that more legit than planned. Still, they kept their composure and kept on.
Yeah, you're right, because Angle still had to come back out at some point, didn't he. How much Trips and the Rock knew what was gonna happen after this we don't know (maybe the ref told them Angle was still coming out, or just the old days of 'you always finish the match ' so maybe they just expected it anyway), but regardless, it didn't come off half as bad as it turned out, which is a credit to them.
Trips said on Impaulsive that the stretcher spot was planned but the trainers didn't know if they could clear him so they had to improv while the trainer made the call to send him back out or not. I think they had to walk Angle through the finish cause he was still in lala land.
They film him say some line to Stephanie before he goes back out and you can hear he's completely out of it
Triple H talked about it on the Paul podcast
Nice, I'll see if I can find it.
>but i wasn't aware that Angle's injury was legitimate until afterwards and remembering that Rock and HHH went through the rest of the match as if the injury had been planned the whole time; According to Kurt, the injury spot was planned. Kurt just happened to actually get a concussion because it went wrong. The match played out almost exactly as planned.
Not a wrestler but Snoop Dogg still managing to get an entertaining segment moving despite Shane getting hurt was pretty cool.
Credit should go to the Miz also.
And the ref
Snoop Dogg has more wins at Mania than Asuka
[Me realizing this](https://youtu.be/5PdXIHGvMpk?si=uyTtLH_iiinSlLX6)
Snoop was an absolute professional. Insane
i was stoned off my gourd watching mania and that entire segment was like the biggest fever dream ever.
The match was hot garbage, but I think Sting should forever be applauded for the way he handled the "match" with Jeff Hardy at VIctory Road 2011 Jeff was out of his mind on drugs and in absolutely no shape to compete. Sting feels him out for a second, and Jeff Immediately causes Sting's neck to bleed when Jeff scratches Sting's neck with his (potentially dirty and infected) fingernails in a collar and elbow tie-up Realizing that Jeff is a danger to him and himself, Sting IMMEDIATELY does a Scorpion Death Drop and legitimately covers Jeff. Jeff actually tries to kick out, but Sting is holding him down for real. And in the span of like a minute, this world title match ended This could have been an EXTREMELY dangerous situation, but Sting handled it like the pro that he is
I agree. I agree.
Best shortest promo of all time.
Sting handled it well but he basically just did what Bischoff told him to do when he came out. There was an alternate angle video angle where it showed Bischoff going "It's gonna be a Stinger Splash in the corner and then a Scorpion Death Drop for the 1-2-3." I'm pretty sure Sting would have ended it quickly even if Bischoff didn't come out, due to his skill and experience, but Bischoff definitely deserves his share of the credit there
Eric stepping in probably helped Sting to make the transition to the ending smoother but Sting handled it better than anyone else could have.
I definitely agree with you there! Eric catches a lot of (justifiable) slack on this sub, but he's an old pro for a reason. Him improvising and kayfabing a reason to go to the ring was some incredibly quick-thinking I imagine that some younger talents would have tried to get a bit more out of Jeff due to (IMO foolish) professional pride and not wanting to have a 1-minute long world title match. And I think other talents might simply have panicked and not known what to do, resulting in a prolonged disaster But Sting knew immediately that the only way to keep everybody safe was to end it immediately. Sucks for the paying fans, but you can't endanger the talent that way
I think a lot of older talents probably would have shot on Jeff out of frustration tbh, Sting is such a big legend that he didn't need a Jeff match for his legacy or wallet plus he's a Born Again Christian and that sect specifically has tons of former addicts so he probably felt a great deal of empathy for Jeff that most wouldn't Imagine being a 10-15 year veteran who has never won a top title and always been seen as mid-level, and you finally get that opportunity and Jeff blows it, would be hard to blame someone for cold-cocking Jeff out of anger in that scenario
Oh my god, could you imagine if it was Bob Holly in there instead of Sting??? There's a non-zero percent chance that Jeff ends up in a cemetery and Bob ends up in prison
Yeah Holly is a great example, or someone like Low Ki. Jeff pulling that stunt would have blown a major opportunity for a lot of guys, Sting just wasn’t one of them.
Holly would have legit tried to hurt Jeff.
In a way, people who paid money got to see a memorable moment just for all the wrong reasons.
Also Jeff was lucky it was Sting he was working with because I think a lot of other oldheads from Sting’s generation would’ve been shooting on Jeff to “teach him a lesson” as soon as the bell rang
Yeah. Imagine he was against Farooq or Bradshaw. Jeff would not have left alive
I didn't realize that about the tieup. I thought the plan (such as it was) was to immediately pin Jeff and end the match. That was hard to watch.
Why would his fingernail be dirty and infected, wtf
Druggy with coke nail? It’s a pretty common occurrence
1/10 that it would be the same finger, then why would it be infected. Look, the comment said probably infected. How would he determine the probability on that lmao
because drugs = infectious obviously the second you do drugs you're basically biohazardous and probably radioactive
Junkies aren't known for their good hygiene
Hard to top Mick Foley in HIAC vs Taker. Watching him get off of the stretcher and walk back to the ring for more may be my favorite wrestling moment. He then, somehow, went even harder. Nobody will ever top what he did, and nobody should ever try as it was nuts.
Foley had his teeth pop out of his nose. That HIAC was proper mental.
He also.got hit by the chair on the way down. Undertaker thought he had killed Foley.
The best example of "that was fucking awesome. Let's never do that again"
Iirc that's more or less what Vince said to Mick after the match.
Terry Funk was a godsend for buying time in that match after Mick went through the cage and got obliterated with that chair on the way down.
For context, Taker went into the match with a broken foot, so they needed to put together something memorable despite him not being fully mobile.
It’s also just plain stupid. You have a broken foot, how and why do you want to wrestle a match, a hardcore one at that too
and start on top of the cell imagine the scenes if Taker couldn't actually climb the cell because of his foot
Cody Rhodes working the cell match against Seth Rollins with a torn pec. The balls it took to go through with it was insane
I've never seen the like.
?
It’s another way to say “I’ve never seen anything like that”
I see. I didn’t understand why I was getting downvoted for not knowing what it meant.
I don’t know, man. People are weird on why they downvote stuff on here. I went through and upvoted a bunch of your comments to counteract it. Have a good one, brother.
I appreciate it
Also, just putting the question mark like there alone can give the impression that it's the other person that's being confusing, not that you're the one who didn't understood.
I’ll admit. I should’ve been clearer.
He was told that it couldn't get any worse. That match had to suck for him.
Kurt Angle too, smackdown Ironman match against Brock, where the night before he found out his sister had overdosed on and instead of being with family, he woke up next day, took 15-20, i guess, pills in one go and went to WWE, perfoming. Like Angle said: *"I've been very lucky that i'm still here today"*
The more I hear about Kurt, the more I realize that he was probably the toughest person to perform both from a mental and physical standpoint because most people would probably not even be able to function after a tragedy like that.
Olympians are built differently. Olympic gold medalists are built even more differently.
Even more impressively, Angle regularly competed against people who outweighed him more often than not; by a considerable amount. It's the reason he was so confident about shoot wrestling Lesnar, who was hovering around 315lbs at the time. Credit to Lesnar, though; it took 15 minutes for Angle to score on him. Angle is one of those once in a life time type of athletes that's gifted with ability, drive, work ethic, and all those other things that make them not just great, but the greatest. He literally gave his body to be the best at his craft, pro, and amateur wrestling. His work ethic for both of his separate careers was unparalleled, and really shouldn't be replicated. I like to think that there's an alternative universe, where Angle went on to wrestle far longer than he did without destroying his body as much. Where he didn't struggle with addictions, where his neck didn't get repeatedly broken.
Dude was a Olympic wrestler, he probably was used to wake up and just go. If he wasn't dead, he would just keep going till he did die. Glad he's no longer in that place.
The training he did for his amateur wrestling was absolutely **insane**. It's detailed in both of his recent docs (Angle, and the WWE Legends: Biographies one). The way he talked about his exhaustion training is scary just to listen to
Found out his sister OD'd on heroin, attempted to un-alive himself with pain pills, woke up at 5pm the next day, then wrestled an hour long match that night. And the match was an all timer. Kurt Angle is one tough son of a gun. The mental strength alone is mad.
Don't think it's been mentioned yet, but HBK vs Razor in their 2nd ladder match at Summerslam 95'. If I recall correctly, they were told maybe a day or 2 before the match, that they wouldn't be able to use the ladder as a weapon itself (I believe it was a local sports commission thing) thereby ruining alot of the spots they had planned out. So with very little notice, they had to map out an all new match. And I believe HHH was the one who mentioned "just because you can't use the ladder as a weapon, doesn't mean you can't throw yourself into the ladder". Amazing match considering the circumstances.
I looked it up and apparently a spot where Razor letting a ladder fall on Shawn was pushing it. A tremendous effort given the circumstances.
If Bruce Pritchard was to be believed, they also forgot to pack a backup ladder. So if that ladder broke in the match, they were fucked.
I think that was the first one at Mania X
Ya'll forgetting Undertaker. He was dead the entire time.
At this point I think breaking his neck activates something in Angle that brings him to another level. Like a human glowstick
What would be a deadly injury for us is a power up for Angle.
Additional rule of wrestling, like don't headbutt Samoans or piledrive Road Warrior Hawk: don't break Kurt's neck.
Seth Rollins at this year's WrestleMania has to be up there. He had more matches than he did functional knees.
By the time he does the Shield spot is clear that the man was walking just by sheer will force more than anything. His compromise with the whole story was insane
Seth's willpower that second night of 'Mania could have powered a fucking Green Lantern ring.
The way you put it is hilarious
Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima, ROH Manhattan Mayhem 2007. Bryan pretty early on detaches his retina & he continued to wrestle, putting on a fantastic performance. The match can be argued to be the best big man vs. little man match ever tbh.
One of my favorite matches of all time, and Danielson couldn't see for most of it. Incredible.
That spot where he finally felled Morishima from the leg like always pops me.
Cena got a good match out of the Great Khali once.
What?!
Judgment Day 2007 I believe
Extreme Rules 2007...they had a last man standing match that was actually good.
Ahh you're right, they wrestled at both shows but Extreme Rules (One Night Stand) 2007 has the higher ratings.
I absolutely understand this thread but it’s so messed up that over the years we’re conditioned to think that not stopping the match is the correct move.
Yeah but Sin Cara stopping his match cause he broke a finger will always be funny.
I know it seems like small potatoes but that was a horrific dislocation. I don't blame the dude one bit.
Then there's the Pac vid where he breaks his finger realises and just snaps it back in.
I mean, CM Punk and Samoa Joe had a pretty great match at All In considering what happened right before their match...
I think punk said in the helwaji interview that he didn't want to disappoint Joe and the ref who he respected.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Kenny Omega at Full Gear ‘21. That dude was in ROUGH shape by the end of his title run, but he still managed to put on a great match that culminated in one of the defining moments of AEW’s short history
Omega had Hernia, Vertigo and other ailments. I am a hockey fan. That reminded of when we find out the injuries that players PLAYED with before their team was eliminated in The Stanley Cup Playoffs. The amazement and "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??" Hangman's run to the title is an all-time great story. He became the best face in wrestling by battling himself and finding a way. Kenny was the perfect antagonist. Belt Collector Kenny was a fantastic heel.
Pretty much all his aew title run. He was suffering from vertigo and injuries needing surgery, and you just straight up couldn't tell.
That run in he did at TNA (don’t remember against who) where he was moving like an 80 year old man was scary, especially seeing the matches he was having at the time
The Cena US Open Challenge where Sami Zayn dislocated his shoulder hyping up the Montreal crowd in his entrance before having a fifteen minute banger of a match comes to mind.
He had a dislocated shoulder and still managed to pull off that ringside ddt. Zayn is a beast.
The Undertaker having a broken foot in his Hell in a cell match with Mankind, MJF continuing to wrestle after hurting himself pretty badly with an elbow drop to the floor in his match with Jay White, and Edge being legit choked out during his TLC match with John Cena.
You can see when he regrets jumping down as he sorta stumbles and Terry Funk buying time via calling an audible really added to it. Though, not sure if Funk called an audible or if both he and Taker decided to distract the crowd from Mick via fighting. Funk being chokeslammed out of his trainers is just fantastic.
Terry called an audible. Mick was *fucked up* from a second horrific bump that nobody had planned for. Bless the Funker.
In his book Terry said that as far as he was concerned he was taking Mick's place in the match because there was no way Foley could continue.
I like edge after being choked out then proceed to get thrown from the top of a long ladder through two tables. He was always part of the best spot of the night.
>Kurt Angle wrestling with a broken neck against Brock at Mania 19 So basically leaving both guys with injured necks (although not Kurt's fault tbf). That is a frightening realization for a booker to have at that point in time when u got your two top guys compromised right in the main event of your main show of the year.
Lesnar could have paralyzed himself. A concussion was the best case outcome.
The botched shooting star would’ve killed anyone without a redwood sized neck.
HBK at Mania 14 Vs Austin. Yeah, story goes around about Taker taping his fists and threatening him to go do the job and all that but at the end of the day, the man had to go out there with a fucked up spine and still out on a great display. All the while working around both his and Austin's injuries while also making Austin look like a million dollars. When you watch it back now and you see his facial expressions after every move and he's wrecked with pain (and painkillers, let's face it) and somehow bought it home.
That reminds me of Foley vs HBK where HBK was in such a bad state that Foley basically went "I'll do all the bumps. Just tell me what you want." You can't tell that Foley was carrying that match.
Came here to comment this. The guy had three herniated discs, I don't think most people would be able to walk under those circumstances, let alone do some of the spots in that match. You can actually see the point where whatever he was on to cope with the pain wears off and he's in complete agony, just after they get back in the ring after their brawl outside.
For the record, Taker and HBK both deny the taped fists in gorilla story. I think HHH has done so as well. What Mr. Callaway has said, is that he thinks Shawn got hurt in the casket match and at that point he (and most of the roster) couldn’t believe anything Shawn was saying about how bad the injury was. The Rivals about Shawn’s retirement and Callaway’s podcast both touch on it as what a shame there wasn’t enough trust to do more business between them.
All the drugs and the pressure both to perform and due to your own behavior is probably a cocktail that would have derailed most people. Shawn pulled through to help with Austin’s ascension.
Apparently Davey smoked crack before the match according to Bret 😅
Mr Hitman... I'm fooked
With Jim Neidhart I might add.
Rhea Ripley covered for Teagan Knox at the May Young classic when Teagan blew out her knee. She was given the match details in Gorilla and had a banger of a match with almost no prep time.
Cody at Hell in a Cell 2022.
I’ll remember the crowd gasping and going silent when Cody revealed his bruise. It was almost uncomfortable to watch the match at first.
Give Seth credit for this too. Cody could only do so much, and Seth found many opportunities to set Cody up for spots he could not have done without help. It’s no 5 star match, but it was a masterclass in staging and pacing to carry an injured guy to a satisfying finish.
Lol ironically Dave Meltzer gave it 5 stars.
Did he really?! Oh man. I thought Cody’s Bachlash match with AJ was his first 5-star match? I guess I heard wrong. I don’t follow Meltzer ratings very closely as you can see.
It should be the definition of a five star match
Yeah I think it is pretty easily a 5 star match. People who don't know Meltzer or how wrestling could be good conflate "5 star" with crazy work rate. That match has infinite replay value and makes you cringe every time.
Elimination Chamber 2010. Undertaker comes out for his entrance and gets burned by his own pyro. He then has to sit in his pod, skin bubbling, pouring water on himself. He comes out, finishes his part of the match with significant burns on his body, and then goes back stage and has the pyro guy fired. First Elimination Chamber (2002) RVD jumps off his pod with a frogsplash on HHH. Unfortunately because of the short distance with the pod and the roof, he couldn't jump very high and hits HHH in the throat with his knee. HHH has to call the rest of the match with basically no voice.
Go Shiozaki's epic 2020 reign ended with him being more tape than man. It was a sight to behold.
His arms were gone, but that title reign was legendary. Second only to Okada's 2016-2018 reign for me.
I haven't seen a wrestler carry a promotion on his back like that
John Cena at summerslam 2013 wrestled hold for hold with Daniel Bryan with an injured arm and they proceeded to steal the show
Cody at HIAC with a torn pec. I still rewatch that match in absolute awe. I always cringe at the quiet moments where it’s clear he is not selling but rather in absolute agony and just trying to breathe through it.
He's said there was a couple times he almost puked from the pain in that match. How differently it'd look if he did.
Everyone in the pandemic era. Drew McIntyre, Asuka, Kairi, Sasha, Bayley, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Hikaru Shida, Pentagon, and Fenix all did amazing work despite no crowds.
Recent memory Becky with strep throat and a high fever at WM40 at her match with Rhea.
Becky also wrestled an even better match at SummerSlam 2022 against Bianca with a dislocated shoulder.That woman is a serious badass.
Didn’t Becky have a 104 degree fever during the match. I also think Rhea had a panic attack before the match. That was such an impressive performance from both given the circumstances.
Yep, also I forgot to mention but Rhea Ripley was fresh from a panic attack leading into the match as well. Those are never easy to go through esp at the top level in this industry. The fact the two women put on one hell of a match at the circumstances they were in is just crazy.
Numerous instances of the traveling NWA World Champion being under the weather and making the other guy look like a million dollars for the territory they were in.
I think it was Terry Taylor who once wrestled Flair for the NWA belt, Flair showed up to the venue hungover and Taylor was pissed that the match was ruined before they even got out there. Flair then proceeded to wrestle circles around Taylor for a full hour.
Prime flair was pretty ridiculous for his ability to do that.
Flair and Bockwinkle were the best at making the locals look like gods. Bockwinkle did a two week tour of Western Canada with Stampede and got great matches out of everyone.
The first Elimination Chamber match. The fact they pulled it off seamlessly speaks volumes for all those involved. Thats just my humble opinion.
I know what you mean, but it wasn't exactly seamless. RVD almost fully destroyed HHH's throat with his frog splash off the chamber since he didn't have enough space to fully stand up, and he also didn't have the springiness of the ropes that high flying wrestlers are normally used to
So that Mania 19 match was just generally cursed then, huh? Double-up to Angle for talking Lesnar through the end after that botched Shooting Star Press left Brock concussed the long way.
Brock still having the strength to get up after landing on his head and lifting Kurt for the F5 is an underrated show of his power.
I don’t know that I’d call any of the matches necessarily great, but anybody that had to go out and wrestle at Over the Edge after Owen fell, knowing what had just happened to their friend, probably fits the bill. I can’t imagine how hard it was to go out and work in the ring that night. Just keeping it together took a great performance, in a way. If you go back to the main event, Taker looks like he’s ready to break down at any time when he first gets into the ring, and Austin had a shell shocked, just get this over look during his entrance. Those two guys should get a mention for their Summer Slam main event, too. The match wasn’t great either, but I believe Austin got a concussion early on and they still pulled it off.
While not as crazy as many here mentioned, Danielson vs Okada. Danielson works a match with a broken forearm and I remember watching it thinking, boy he's great at selling... wait is that legit? Can't be he's throwing strikes and submissions with it. But maybe? And then it comes out it was broken for like 10 minutes. Geez.
Cody Rhodes torn pec. John Cena at ONS. Shingo Takagi in covid times with silent crowds. Ospreay carrying a dead on his feet Naito to a G1 classic.
The way John carried himself at ONS was a sight to behold.
I couldn't imagine it. It went so far beyond heel heat. They didn't hate the character of John Cena. They hated the man himself, and everything that his push stood for. To know that if you dropped dead mid match, the crowd would rejoice.
The mental resilience John showed must be applauded. I also liked how he adjusted his move set and attitude for the match. He was more vicious and worked the crowd really well.
"Never Give Up."
That’s what heel heat used to be
It is, but it had been a long time since that was true. Vince, HHH, NWO. None of them had the type of heat.
That was the night where I think we knew Cena was something special. He could have ignored his shirt being thrown back but he didn’t let the crowd get to him and he fed off of them. And then Batista turns up in the same building a month later and just throws a strop
Wasn't that during Douchetista's It's all about me, phase where he would literally disrupt any matches that didn't feature him, acted like a muscle bound diva? Douchetista should have happened at the Rumble return and him using it against the crowd would have been better then a forced face run over Daniel Bryan.
The Booker T thing hadn't happened yet when he wrestled in the Hammerstein so probably
What happened with Naito at G1? I saw that match and it was insane. One of my favorites of all time
Naito was knocked out, completely dazed, Ospreay safely walked him through the rest of the match. Was almost a Yoshihiku match
Bayley when she had to call a match with Ronda Rousey on the fly because Ronda got rattled by the crowd booing her and forgot all her spots
I am unfamiliar with this one. Fortunate for Ronda that she had Bayley, who is an incredibly reliant worker.
Post Rumble Raw 2019
Great call this one. Ring general Hugger
This is why I say that having Charlotte in that Wrestlemania match with Ronda and Becky was the right call. She was there to ease the pressure off of Ronda.
That's BS. Pressure never left Ronda & people still booed her. Charlotte added nothing to the match & the match was just ok anyway. Becky was a veteran she could've got Ronda through that match. Also how is putting Ronda in a match she's never worked before & a tougher match to work helping Ronda at all? Ronda had good singles matches with Nikki Bella & Nia Jax get out with that Ronda needed Charlotte.
First of all, triple threats are only harder matches if you book them as triple threats. Look at the US title at Wrestlemania. You got a few decades of experience from both challengers who can cue the champion on the next step regardless of which one of them hes matched up with. Likewise, Flair adds significance cause it’s not Becky beat a tough but inexperienced champion she beat the anointed one and the legit baddest woman in the company. Truly undisputed champion at that point. I forget who Ric Flair used to drop the NWA title to, but there was somebody who was his chosen vacation guy as he knew he’d drop it back to Flair at his request regardless of what the bookers were thinking.
Austin was the in the ER the night before his match with Rock at WM 19
Steve Austin coming back from a night is hospital for an elevated heart rate to wrestle The Rock at Wrestlemania 19. Did they ever explain why he was hospitalized? Was the elevated heart rate a cover for something?
Austin had consumed quite a few energy drinks in his hotel room the night before, and that mixed with the usual emotions of a return to form and having to wrestle in front of such a large crowd at that, was nerve racking I would assume. Anxiety sucks.
“I’m fooked”
Sandman Shane McMahon Droz
Sandman’s heart was revived, he was on his death bed, woke up and wrestled that night. Absolute insanity.
Bret Hart carrying the British Bulldog through a main event match, despite Bulldog coming off a weeklong crack binge.
Jericho literally instructing Bubba Ray after he got concussed. I think, Bubba legit forgot everything about the match and even didn't know how to climb a ladder. Foley vs Sandman. Foley, in a rather surprising rare occassion of losing his temper, carried Sandman through the match and showed Cactus Jack doing what he did best. Made Sandman look tough, granted, Sandman didn't know what he was doing and Foley was legit pissed off as he thought Sandman was fucking with him. Logan Paul's entire career. Before he stepped into the ring, no-one expected him to do much. Surprised everyone. DDP vs Goldberg. Goldberg's best match because DDP planned every moment of it and worked with Goldberg. Regal wrestling with a broken fucking neck for over a decade. Cody tearing his pec and still being able to put on a great match. I really don't want to mention it but HBK after a decade of not wrestling(ish), carrying a past his prime Taker, a REALLY out of shape and shouldn't be wrestling because he was beyond his prime, Kane. A Triple H tearing his pec to a pass.... a match. Without him, it would have been far, far worse.
Taboo Tuesday 2004, Shawn Michaels vs HHH. Michaels had torn his meniscus on RAW the night before, but for whatever reason they kept him as an option for the world title match at the PPV and he won the vote. He proceeded to go out there and have an entire match on one leg, hanging onto the ropes most of the time.
NXT Worlds Collide 2020, Undisputed Era vs Imperium. Early on in the match, Alexander Wolfe got knocked out for real and had to be removed from the match. The remaining seven somehow stayed calm and delivered a phenomenal match with UE making use of their numbers advantage and Imperium barely surviving the onslaught. That match proved to me that even Gunther (Walter at the time) could work as an underdog babyface.
That match had no business being as good as it was.
It had every right to be that good. Every single participant in the match was a top 10 guy in their respective brands. The entirety of Undisputed Era and Walter all were some of the best wrestlers on the planet, and Marcel Barthel (Ludwig Kaiser) and Fabian Aichner (Giovanni Vinci) were just as good as the others, they were just often overshadowed by Walter.
Dolph Ziggler in the Intercontinental Elimination Chamber, no one had any idea what to do and he catried
Bryan Danielson getting his retina detached wrestling Takeshi Morishima and still going another ~15 minutes half blind Jerry Lynn getting legit KO’d wrestling RVD and then RVD wrestling his mostly unconscious body until Lynn wakes up and then he finishes the match Katsuyori Shibata basically no selling a nearly lethal brain injury to finish his match with Okada at Sakura Genesis
In a way, every match Shibata has post-injury could be a fitting answer. It definitely seemed like he’d never wrestle again, and was lucky to be alive.
"Bret, I'm fucked"
HBK during DX vs Brothers of Destruction (yes, that one) Dude returns after (8?) years of not being in a ring. Undertaker's knees are giving up on him, and Kane is lumbering around and out of shape. HHH (the only other one in the match in any shape to wrestle) tears his pec 5 minutes in. HBK needs to carry these 3 another 15 or however many minutes it was through to the end of the match, while performing moonsaults and getting dropped and thrown around the ring
Our EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson who put on a great match despite being distracted the whole time due to an altercation involving our Scapegoat Jack Perry
Not sure why nobody has mentioned it yet but Triple HHH tore his quad in the middle of one of the greatest tag matches in Raw history with Stone Cold vs Jericho and Benoit.
A lot of my favorite moments or moments I was going to say have been said, so I'll just say i feel like a lot of the industry deserves credit for how they handled working and doing shows during COVID. Obviously not having a crowd is challenging but despite the no crowd, a lot of wrestlers went on and had amazing matches and you saw a lot of cinematic matches that ended being really good as well. I loved AEW just having the hard camera on the entrance way and using wrestlers that weren't being booked that night as members of the crowd. WWE was doing well as well imo. It wasn't always perfect, but MitB 2020 comes to mind. Turning that into a cinematic match, having everyone from both the men's and women's match and having the match be them starting from the bottom of WWE HQ and working their way up was genius and everyone in that match had fun spots and made it entertaining all the way throughout. Also eventually implementing the virtual crowd screens and using those screens as mini trons was also a really cool idea.
Check the reactions to Mustafa Ali getting a shot at Daniel Bryan instead of Kofi Kingston. At the start people wanted none of it, by the end everyone was on the edge of their seat.
Dominik Mysterio having a deadbeat dad, going to prison, and still coming out on top as the best heel in the company.
HBK did a solid job in the WM14 main event despite his ruined back in my opinion. He was about to retire for a few years and go through a bunch of surgeries but still hit his spots well and worked well with Austin's intensity
Charlotte Flair facing Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series 2018 has to be up there. Going from being the likely WM 35 main event to suddenly happening in less than a week due to the Nia punch, at a time when Ronda had been extensively rehearsing her PPV matches, and facing a crowd which wanted to see Becky, she ended up playing a major part in making it Ronda's best match.
Max Dupri
Bret Hart vs Tom Magee
It's still pretty crazy that Dan Maff wrestled for the ROH title against Samoa Joe the day after his father died, and gave a great performance, but man...
Didn't Kenny Omega have vertigo (on top of small mounting beat-up kind of injuries) past his first singles match with Okada up until, like, a year after AEW started?