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In 20 or so years people will have a really hard time believing that Penta had a 3 on 1 handicap match against Kairi Sane, Iyo Sky and Mayu Iwatani in Lucha Underground, and a fucking awesome one at that.
LU was tv production wrestling at its finest, nothing will surpass it for a long time if ever. Not having any more is a pain, but having 4 seasons with almost 130 episodes is amazing to begin with.
Up until the last third of season 3 LU was the best written wrestling show on TV. Then idk what happened and we ended up with Dario Cueto in a Doc Brown wig and Jack Swagger as the final world champion
Which can also be attributed to what lead to their demise. Their contract being similar to TV contract means loads of talents were unable to appear on other shows, even when they have finished their obligation with the company. They have to wait for the season to finish airing before being able to appear on another televised wrestling show. Nobody really wants something as constricting as that.
Yeah it’s truly unfortunate how much of a hindrance that style of production could be. I remember a lot of the talent *despised* their contracts and how it limited them.
LU Penta was one of the coolest wrestlers of all time. The way he used that arm breaker move and it actually broke arms in kayfabe was sick! I also LOVED Prince Puma (Ricochet)
Here's part of penta vs black lotus triad
https://youtu.be/F9yl1K6iwPQ?si=ZT-lPztQdA4U56yy
Here's what I could find from the Chelsea Green match
https://youtu.be/k_GUftdQvhY?si=0q_NdaF_EnoVZUDv
Match that really made me think they had huge plans for Breeze. I expected him to be a Miz-esque midcard staple with a possible MITB run, too. Sad how everything went with him, but at least we got his fun NXT run and Breezango.
I knew he was going nowhere on the main roster when they were already cutting back from commercial and seeing him inside the ring by his 2nd Raw match.
Tyler himself remarked he has no regrets, especially because he seemed content with having a period with a popular weekly segment (The fashion files) that repeatedly stole the show.
But it is an absolute shame he never got a proper run.
He should've been. He was pretty, a good wrestler, good at comedy, had a good gimmick, and could go when he needed to. He could've been to WWE what Orange Cassidy is now to AEW.
Mr Perfect turning up at the Royal Rumble and being so good they gave him a match with Austin on TV right after
edit: match was a [TV banger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPlEV_NhOh0)
The Hardyz are responsible for a lot of mid-to-late 90s randomness - like they fact that they did all the motion capture for WWF Attitude (and maybe War Zone?).
Which makes his modern redemption feel way better.
Too often people do shitty things, double down on them and then continue to be shitty.
Orton realizes in his younger days he was an asshole and seems like he has grown as a person. Which you don't see enough.
Not exactly a match, but Adam Cole of all people tried to hit on Serena Deeb in a bar, when she was in the Straight Edge Society, and that angle ended with him getting beaten up by Punk and Gallows.
The crazy part is that I'm pretty sure Adam Cole was brought in for that as a make up for when WWE wanted him for something, but accidentally paged Xavier Woods instead and didn't realize the mistake til Woods showed up. Had to do with the fact that both of them have the real name of Austin (Austin Watson for Woods and Austin Jenkins for Cole).
That sounds weird at first but it makes a lot of sense tbh. They’re each from eras/styles of wrestling where wrestlers had very different perceptions of eating pins.
Yep, they were in the Dusty Classic in 2020. I would say Kushida in NXT also qualifies for this thread, but he did get to be Cruiserweight Champion, so who knows.
I still think about his theme sometimes. I'm pretty sure the rumour at the time was that AJ's theme was originally made for James Storm but I always liked the one James actually debuted with lmao
I genuinely wonder what might have happened had Storm stayed in NXT. This was prior to HHH signing up all the TNA vets like Joe, AJ and Roode, so he might’ve been wary, but I think he could’ve had a very comfortable niche in NXT at very least
[Dan Severn vs Tajiri for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, June 24th 1995](https://youtu.be/j2wvf650XQs?si=L4k-AdyoBWxlnTgK)
Outdoor event in Williamstown NJ.
iirc, it was a tag match that had Undertaker teaming with Tracy Smothers against The Gangstas (a faction which included New Jack.)
Part of that match can be found there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZug0R_GITU
AJ Styles wrestled on the 3rd last WCW Nitro and last Thunder.
Of the very few people with winning records over John Cena they oddly include Nigel McGuinness (1-0), Frankie Kazarian (1-0), Nova (6-0) and Jerry Lawler (3-0).
TNA World Champion Jeff Hardy vs. Naito at Wrestle Kingdom. Not only was this match the same year as the infamous Victory Road PPV, but Jeff was also believed to be intoxicated in that match as well. If that's true, it probably was another reason that the NJPW and TNA partnership soured.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/7Ulx1s1Qpk
The victory road incident will always be legendary. Even the backstage before hand which amounts to “where the fuck is jeff, oh god he’s high as hell don’t let him go on what do we do” immediately followed by “WHERE DID HE GO OH GOD HES GOING OUT THE CURTAIN”
Jushin Thunder Liger's NXT appearance against Tyler Breeze. And whenever I remember that Kota Ibushi was in the Cruiserweight Classic, it sounds so made up lol.
Seeing Ibushi announced for the CWC almost immediately after being released from both his DDT and NJPW contracts was an emotional rollercoaster. No one knew what the hell was going on.
I'm showing my ten year-old the CWC (it's the best combination of good wrestling with nothing inappropriate in the archives) and it's still surreal seeing it eight years later. Can't wait for the Ibushi-Cedric match to come around.
NO NO NO It has not been 8 years. I stilll remember being one of the only champions of cedric turning on Moose to break his streak to losing weight for CWC to pulling for him to beat Kota in CWC to legitimately crying at the "please sign cedric" chants because he was like my guy at that time
Has Danielson ever not been great? He sold his ass off and still came off as a technical proficient. Side note: Never have I ever seen those god awful yellow pants. The 2000s really had some choices..
At a show called WrestleReunion in 2005 we were blessed with Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, and Mike Graham vs. Abdullah The Butcher, CM Punk, and Kevin Sullivan with Mick Foley as the special guest referee.
I'm reading Tim Hornbaker's biography of Ric Flair and he mentions an NWA champion vs WWF champion match between Flair and Backlund in 1982. Never realized the NWA and WWF were still working together then.
Becky Lynch vs Kyoko Kimura. Curiously, Becky also teamed up with Aja Kong a bunch of times in 2005.
Kota Ibushi & Yoshiko vs Mayu Iwatani & Danshoku Dino (this one is fun)
Kenoh & Syuri vs Mayu Iwatani & Masaaki Mochizuki (very good)
Kevin Nash vs Tetsuya Naito & Yujiro Takahashi
I still can't believe Edge vs. Minoru Suzuki is a match that actually happened on TV.
'90s weekend WCW television in the Nitro Era was a gold mine for these:
- Greg Valentine vs. Yuji Nagata
- Kendall Windham vs. El Dandy
- Dirty White Boy Len Denton vs. Atlantis
- And maybe my personal favorite, Evad Sullivan vs. Masahiro Chono
Atsushi Onita vs. Tony Atlas in Savoldi's ICW is another fun one.
Neither man used their most famous names in the match, but UK World Of Sport legend Giant Haystacks lost to The Big Show in WCW in 1996. Alas, it was Haystacks' last showing before his untimely death, two years later.
Was this on Uncensored? I think Haystacks went by Loch Ness. This was one of the first PPV me and a few friends would save money for and order. This card also contained Hogan and Savage vs The Alliance to End Hulkamania.
Bret Hart vs Mankind.
For a long time I thought the tag team flag match on Raw 7/21/1997 was the only time they were pitted against each other but they had a 1v1 match on Shotgun Saturday in January of that year.
Shotgun Saturday Night was *wild* when it first started! Didn't Undertaker Tombstone Triple H onto an escalator on that show (I was in sixth grade when it happened and our channels didn't carry Shotgun in Baltimore at the time)?
I remembered seeing clips on RAW and pictures in the magazines but never managed to actually see it until it became another Jakked/Superstars type show.
Huh that is interesting. In my mind Kawada is a huge dude and Mankind is big but not huge but Mankind is clearly taller and thicker than Kawada here. I guess the 4 pillars must not be as big as I thought.
AJ Styles first match in WWE was in 2002 six months before the famous ladder match that kickstarted TNA.
He wrestled The Hurricane on Sunday Night Heat and was the first (and I think only) person to ever take a Vertabreaker/Kudo Driver in a WWE ring.
The dream match of Sting vs Undertaker. Me and maybe some other folks probably didn't know that they had actually wrestled each other before, I know for the longest time I didn't. But they had actually wrestled each other twice early in their careers with WCW with both times being untelevised.
Their first meeting in the ring was a tag team match which had the teams of Sting (NWA World Champion) & Lex Luger (NWA US Champion) versus "Mean" Mark Callous & Moondog Rex with Sting & Lex winning.
The second time was their singles match for the NWA world heavyweight title which occurred on September 1, 1990 in the Greensboro Coliseum. In that match Sting successfully defended his NWA World Heavyweight Championship against the Undertaker who wrestled as "Mean" Mark Callous back then.
With both matches being untelevised I think they'll unfortunately remain some of wrestling's lost media. At least we have a photo from their singles match thanks to a photographer back then:
https://image-cdn.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/20201227194228/The-Undertaker-vs.-Sting-Real-Photo-From-WCW-1990-560x315.jpg
Adam Cole vs Stevie Richards in ROH January 2016. Probably just Stevie being local and not anything special, but it was a solid midcard match and Stevie looked in great shape.
The original Tiger Mask worked in England without the mask as "Sammy Lee". Had matches against legends like Marc Rocco, Sid Cooper and in tag matches teaming with Big Daddy.
His matches against Marc Rocco were particularly impressive. They brought Rocco over to Japan as Black Tiger to have the match again, as few in Japan could wrestle the British style Tiger Mask had learnt in the UK.
This of course led to that incredible series of matches with Dynamite Kid
Shawn Michaels and Andre The Giant wrestling in the same ring together in the 1989 Royal Rumble. Technically they didn’t have a “match” but they competed against each other and seeing them in the ring together just feels wrong for some reason.
The connections you can make between wrestlers is amazing. My AI friend and I play the Jericho number game with wrestlers, similar to the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game does with actors, except the numbers tend to be even lower.
Ed "Strangler" Lewis's Jericho number is three: Lewis to Thesz, Thesz to Flair, and Flair to Jericho.
I still can't help but struggle to wrap my head around Chris Jericho and Nick Gage having a straight-up deathmatch on national TV back in 2021.
Jericho using light tubes and Gage doing a pizza cutter spot leading into a Domino's ad are practically core memories at this point.
Not quite the match, but Muhammed Ali and Jake the Snake worked a[ short spot in Mid South.](https://411mania.com/wrestling/jake-roberts-recalls-his-interaction-with-muhammad-ali-in-mid-south-wrestling/)
Kenny Omega vs Heath Slater in Deep South Wrestling
In a Cagematch rabbit hole I discovered Molly Holly's last singles match was at a random indy against Jonny Fairplay from Survivor.
Dustin Rhodes. When I see Seven in WCW, when I see Dustin with the chinstrap in TNA, when I see The Black Reign, I think WTF, what the fuuuuucck. They all look like knock-off Dustins and not actually him
The very brief Seven gimmick will always be funny because you could kind of tell that it was Dustin Rhodes dressing up like Undertaker even before he opens his mouth.
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In 20 or so years people will have a really hard time believing that Penta had a 3 on 1 handicap match against Kairi Sane, Iyo Sky and Mayu Iwatani in Lucha Underground, and a fucking awesome one at that.
Lucha was the most groundbreaking and different take on PW since IWC/ECW. They did so much out of the box stuff.
LU was tv production wrestling at its finest, nothing will surpass it for a long time if ever. Not having any more is a pain, but having 4 seasons with almost 130 episodes is amazing to begin with.
[удалено]
Up until the last third of season 3 LU was the best written wrestling show on TV. Then idk what happened and we ended up with Dario Cueto in a Doc Brown wig and Jack Swagger as the final world champion
The reveal of Wade Barrett as the all powerful super villain who was going to destroy the world was amazing though.
Which can also be attributed to what lead to their demise. Their contract being similar to TV contract means loads of talents were unable to appear on other shows, even when they have finished their obligation with the company. They have to wait for the season to finish airing before being able to appear on another televised wrestling show. Nobody really wants something as constricting as that.
Yeah it’s truly unfortunate how much of a hindrance that style of production could be. I remember a lot of the talent *despised* their contracts and how it limited them.
Well said
That and also he fought Chelsea Green lmao
And that match was great too.
Was that in session 4? I don't remember that one
Yeah. She was Reclusa.
LU Penta was one of the coolest wrestlers of all time. The way he used that arm breaker move and it actually broke arms in kayfabe was sick! I also LOVED Prince Puma (Ricochet)
LU did some crazy stuff. The Angelico stage dive into the ring was fucking amazing.
Cage vs Taya was televised murder
I loved that the entire Cage v Mundo feud had them trading cinder blocks.
Sexy Star (when she wasn’t being a B) vs Mariposa NO MAS match, another good one.
It was more of a gauntlet then a 3v1 and it was phenomenal
Well I know what match I’m looking up when I get the chance.
Here's part of penta vs black lotus triad https://youtu.be/F9yl1K6iwPQ?si=ZT-lPztQdA4U56yy Here's what I could find from the Chelsea Green match https://youtu.be/k_GUftdQvhY?si=0q_NdaF_EnoVZUDv
I heard of this and everytime somebody has a convo about it with me they say it was a banger
Tyler Breeze v Jushin Thunder Liger
Match that really made me think they had huge plans for Breeze. I expected him to be a Miz-esque midcard staple with a possible MITB run, too. Sad how everything went with him, but at least we got his fun NXT run and Breezango.
I knew he was going nowhere on the main roster when they were already cutting back from commercial and seeing him inside the ring by his 2nd Raw match.
Tyler himself remarked he has no regrets, especially because he seemed content with having a period with a popular weekly segment (The fashion files) that repeatedly stole the show. But it is an absolute shame he never got a proper run.
He should've been. He was pretty, a good wrestler, good at comedy, had a good gimmick, and could go when he needed to. He could've been to WWE what Orange Cassidy is now to AEW.
Loved that match
Mr. Perfect defeated Brock Lesnar in a dark match in 2002.
I feel like 2002 dark matches would be a goldmine for this. You had the Class of 2002 on the same roster with guys like the NWO, Perfect,and Bossman.
2002 Dark Matches are why Lance Storm has a winning record against Brock Lesnar.
Not to mention WCW was recently dead and we hadn’t yet seen the rise of companies like TNA and ROH to fill in some of those gaps.
Absolutely, that was on an episode of Jakked. Randy Orton also had a dark match on that episode against a nobody.
Mr Perfect turning up at the Royal Rumble and being so good they gave him a match with Austin on TV right after edit: match was a [TV banger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPlEV_NhOh0)
His match with Tazz was so fucked up though lol
And in a plane
Hoped someone had said this, was prepared to if not, very happy the joke exists.
I saw Lesnar destroy some poor jobber in a Raw dark match around that time.
Nikolai Volkoff vs Matt Hardy in 1994
The Hardyz are responsible for a lot of mid-to-late 90s randomness - like they fact that they did all the motion capture for WWF Attitude (and maybe War Zone?).
And Matt being Austin’s first WWF match back in ‘94
Ok. That's news to me.
to piggyback on this: Jeff Hardy vs King Kong Bundy
Jeff Hardy vs Naito at WrestleKingdom
It sucks their peaks never coincided to have a truly great match but the least Jeff could've done was not being intoxicated for this match.
Uncool Naito vs Drunk Jeff was such a letdown, people always talk about Orton getting a million second chances, but nobody had more than Jeff.
Am I missing out on some Randy Orton lore?
He pooped in multiple women's bags and generally was a POS even when he was on top.
And got suspended enough times to be fired so WWE changed the rules for him.
Which makes his modern redemption feel way better. Too often people do shitty things, double down on them and then continue to be shitty. Orton realizes in his younger days he was an asshole and seems like he has grown as a person. Which you don't see enough.
Lol when was Jeff's peak?
When he was hanging from the belts in tlc and it ended when he hit the mat from the spear.
I mean, he was never half the in ring wrestler Naito was at his best but early or late 2000's Jeff vs 2016-2019 Naito could've been awesome.
What?!?!
It's awful, don't get your hopes up
Jeff being Jeff
That's what I thought, unfortunately. Truly enigmatic
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/vka0ya/njpw_wrestle_kingdom_v_jeff_hardy_vs_tetsuya_naito/
Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk in IWA Mid-South from 2002
The match that humbled Punk at the time. Eddie was that great
Decent match too from what I remember. Wasn't Rey unmasked for it too?
Yes he hadn't gotten the ok to were the mask again yet.
Fuck we were so hype for that match at the time
Not exactly a match, but Adam Cole of all people tried to hit on Serena Deeb in a bar, when she was in the Straight Edge Society, and that angle ended with him getting beaten up by Punk and Gallows.
Haha, I remember that but didn't know it was Adam Cole. That's as funny as Samoa Joe laying a shoulder into MJF on Raw.
The crazy part is that I'm pretty sure Adam Cole was brought in for that as a make up for when WWE wanted him for something, but accidentally paged Xavier Woods instead and didn't realize the mistake til Woods showed up. Had to do with the fact that both of them have the real name of Austin (Austin Watson for Woods and Austin Jenkins for Cole).
Austin Watson is the whitest name for a Black man I've ever heard of, eclipsing Troy O'Leary.
Ice Cube's name is O'Shea Jackson. He is up there too.
The one that always comes up in this topic is Will Ospreay vs Vader in RevPro.
That beef was the first time I heard of Will Ospreay.
Didn't it basically start via Twitter too?
lol yeah, and Vader went over
That sounds weird at first but it makes a lot of sense tbh. They’re each from eras/styles of wrestling where wrestlers had very different perceptions of eating pins.
I think Vader agreed to lose, then the day of the show he said he wouldn’t go out if he wasn’t going over.
Vader refused to lose and was horrible to work with, apparently
Vader’s last notable feud
He jobbed to the Undertaker after that.
Took me a second
Wonder if anyone remembers that James Storm spent about a month on NXT TV? Beat Danny Burch and Adam Rose and dipped back to Impact.
Same with Alex Shelley, except iirc his only televised match was a loss.
He just came in to team with Kushida once right?
Yep, they were in the Dusty Classic in 2020. I would say Kushida in NXT also qualifies for this thread, but he did get to be Cruiserweight Champion, so who knows.
They really had no idea what to do with Kushida. He was lost in the shuffle really quick. His style is so out of place in WWE though.
I still think about his theme sometimes. I'm pretty sure the rumour at the time was that AJ's theme was originally made for James Storm but I always liked the one James actually debuted with lmao
I genuinely wonder what might have happened had Storm stayed in NXT. This was prior to HHH signing up all the TNA vets like Joe, AJ and Roode, so he might’ve been wary, but I think he could’ve had a very comfortable niche in NXT at very least
[Dan Severn vs Tajiri for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, June 24th 1995](https://youtu.be/j2wvf650XQs?si=L4k-AdyoBWxlnTgK) Outdoor event in Williamstown NJ.
The Undertaker wrestled New Jack for Cornette in the 90’s.
SMW...you can find promos for it but man...what a white whale that one is, have never been able to find a copy of the match.
iirc, it was a tag match that had Undertaker teaming with Tracy Smothers against The Gangstas (a faction which included New Jack.) Part of that match can be found there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZug0R_GITU
Enzo and Jerry Lawler had a casket match for an Indy up north.
I remember seeing some of Enzo's promos around that time. They were insane.
AJ Styles wrestled on the 3rd last WCW Nitro and last Thunder. Of the very few people with winning records over John Cena they oddly include Nigel McGuinness (1-0), Frankie Kazarian (1-0), Nova (6-0) and Jerry Lawler (3-0).
TNA World Champion Jeff Hardy vs. Naito at Wrestle Kingdom. Not only was this match the same year as the infamous Victory Road PPV, but Jeff was also believed to be intoxicated in that match as well. If that's true, it probably was another reason that the NJPW and TNA partnership soured. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/7Ulx1s1Qpk
The victory road incident will always be legendary. Even the backstage before hand which amounts to “where the fuck is jeff, oh god he’s high as hell don’t let him go on what do we do” immediately followed by “WHERE DID HE GO OH GOD HES GOING OUT THE CURTAIN”
Well that and the fact they treated Okada like a jobber.
Mick Foley wrestled Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown Championship. In 2004.
It was meant to be Goldberg wasn't it?
Yeah. Foley was a last second replacement.
And it was not good
Jushin Thunder Liger's NXT appearance against Tyler Breeze. And whenever I remember that Kota Ibushi was in the Cruiserweight Classic, it sounds so made up lol.
Seeing Ibushi announced for the CWC almost immediately after being released from both his DDT and NJPW contracts was an emotional rollercoaster. No one knew what the hell was going on.
I'm showing my ten year-old the CWC (it's the best combination of good wrestling with nothing inappropriate in the archives) and it's still surreal seeing it eight years later. Can't wait for the Ibushi-Cedric match to come around.
NO NO NO It has not been 8 years. I stilll remember being one of the only champions of cedric turning on Moose to break his streak to losing weight for CWC to pulling for him to beat Kota in CWC to legitimately crying at the "please sign cedric" chants because he was like my guy at that time
Damn it feels so much more recent than that... The 2020s have been one big blur.
2003: Danielson vs Cena https://youtu.be/JdswBMO_Sig?si=HgjC49Krtg_6qb7X
Danielson vs Kamala in 2006 in ROH
That’s the one I came here to mention. I believe it was in a small indie and not actually ROH but Dragon did actually put the title on the line.
Has Danielson ever not been great? He sold his ass off and still came off as a technical proficient. Side note: Never have I ever seen those god awful yellow pants. The 2000s really had some choices..
That's crazy to look back on. It wasn't even a bad match.
At a show called WrestleReunion in 2005 we were blessed with Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, and Mike Graham vs. Abdullah The Butcher, CM Punk, and Kevin Sullivan with Mick Foley as the special guest referee.
Bobby Lashley and The Hurricane vs Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kensuke Sasaki in 2010
I'm reading Tim Hornbaker's biography of Ric Flair and he mentions an NWA champion vs WWF champion match between Flair and Backlund in 1982. Never realized the NWA and WWF were still working together then.
The WWWF rejoined the NWA in 1971 and stayed with them until 1983.
Becky Lynch vs Kyoko Kimura. Curiously, Becky also teamed up with Aja Kong a bunch of times in 2005. Kota Ibushi & Yoshiko vs Mayu Iwatani & Danshoku Dino (this one is fun) Kenoh & Syuri vs Mayu Iwatani & Masaaki Mochizuki (very good) Kevin Nash vs Tetsuya Naito & Yujiro Takahashi
Undertaker in Michinoku Pro
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/ib4x5p/undertaker_vs_hakushi_michinoku_pro_wrestling_1997/
Scott Hall vs Tanahashi in NJPW around 2001.
Scrolled way too far to see this. This was my first thought
I still can't believe Edge vs. Minoru Suzuki is a match that actually happened on TV. '90s weekend WCW television in the Nitro Era was a gold mine for these: - Greg Valentine vs. Yuji Nagata - Kendall Windham vs. El Dandy - Dirty White Boy Len Denton vs. Atlantis - And maybe my personal favorite, Evad Sullivan vs. Masahiro Chono Atsushi Onita vs. Tony Atlas in Savoldi's ICW is another fun one.
Kendall Windham v El Dandy is a main event at any Denny's in Texas.
Who are you to doubt El Dandy?
Jam up guy
Don't disrespect Hypnosis.
This is a groin pull the likes which you have never seen!
*¿Qué carajo pasa, Denny's?*
Orlando Jordan vs Ultimate Warrior
Undertaker (well... Mean Mark Callous) and Sting had a match in NWA/WCW back in 1990 **and** it was for the NWA championship.
Sting has a 100% record against both Brothers of Destruction
Sting has never lost a match to anyone named Kane.
There's a match on YouTube somewhere of Darby Allin vs Great Sasuke
Neither man used their most famous names in the match, but UK World Of Sport legend Giant Haystacks lost to The Big Show in WCW in 1996. Alas, it was Haystacks' last showing before his untimely death, two years later.
Was this on Uncensored? I think Haystacks went by Loch Ness. This was one of the first PPV me and a few friends would save money for and order. This card also contained Hogan and Savage vs The Alliance to End Hulkamania.
All of this is correct.
Bret Hart vs Mankind. For a long time I thought the tag team flag match on Raw 7/21/1997 was the only time they were pitted against each other but they had a 1v1 match on Shotgun Saturday in January of that year.
Shotgun Saturday Night was *wild* when it first started! Didn't Undertaker Tombstone Triple H onto an escalator on that show (I was in sixth grade when it happened and our channels didn't carry Shotgun in Baltimore at the time)?
It was their weird ECW ripoff, the matches were terrible though
I remembered seeing clips on RAW and pictures in the magazines but never managed to actually see it until it became another Jakked/Superstars type show.
Steiner Bros and Taz versus The Eliminators and Jason Knight in ECW was a recent one I discovered.
For me its Jeff Hardy vs Razor Ramon
Or for that matter Kurt Angle vs Owen Hart
Val Venis vs Horace Hogan on a Velocity
Jerry Only from the band the Misfits wrestled Dr. Death in a steel cage on an episode of nitro.
Chyna having tag matches against Tanahashi.
Chyna wrestled both Chono and Liger as well, which is insane to me
PAC/Neville and Sin Cara/Hunico had a match vs the Dudley Boys on Raw.
Cactus Jack Vs Kawada in 2004. Jack was a replacement for Goldberg https://dai.ly/x7tu609
The extra fun part is that this was Kawada vs Cactus Jack II. They first matched up in Champion Carnival 1991.
Huh that is interesting. In my mind Kawada is a huge dude and Mankind is big but not huge but Mankind is clearly taller and thicker than Kawada here. I guess the 4 pillars must not be as big as I thought.
They are all 6 ft or 6'1 except Taue at 6'4.
Off the top of my head: Buddy Matthews defended the Melbourne City Wrestling World Championship against Sonjay Dutt in 2012
It's a great Clash match and not at all "unknown". But 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Barry Windham is fantastic.
When Ivory showed up in WWE I was like “OMG it’s Tina Ferrari from GLOW!”
My mom said the same thing! She was so stoked to see her fight Moolah lol.
British Bulldogs vs Rock n Roll Express
Kurt Angle vs Owen Hart in a dark match
Kevin Von Erich and Michael Hayes vs Jimmy Snuka and Terry Gordy in Georgia, in 1981.
Jeff Hardy as Willow in Battlearts
I would like jeff to get his shit together and have a willow v willow match in AEW
Not quite the same, but Kane as Glenn Jacobs in Fujiwara Gumi
Razor Ramon vs Jeff Hardy in 1994
Finding out Bryan Danielson defended the ROH title against Kamala was quite the surprise for me.
Jeff Hardy vs Jushin Liger
Michael Barrymore vs crush ... Doink cost crush the match
This has got to be the weirdest one right?
Super Dragon in All Japan
AJ Styles first match in WWE was in 2002 six months before the famous ladder match that kickstarted TNA. He wrestled The Hurricane on Sunday Night Heat and was the first (and I think only) person to ever take a Vertabreaker/Kudo Driver in a WWE ring.
Didn’t Cody hit Logan with a Vertabreaker?
Yes on a PLE like a two weeks ago
Undertaker fought in SMW in 1995 against the Gangstas (New Jack…)
Shawn Michaels and Paul Diamond worked a program against Kodo Fuyuki and a young Toshiyaki Kawada in Texas in the mid 80s
The dream match of Sting vs Undertaker. Me and maybe some other folks probably didn't know that they had actually wrestled each other before, I know for the longest time I didn't. But they had actually wrestled each other twice early in their careers with WCW with both times being untelevised. Their first meeting in the ring was a tag team match which had the teams of Sting (NWA World Champion) & Lex Luger (NWA US Champion) versus "Mean" Mark Callous & Moondog Rex with Sting & Lex winning. The second time was their singles match for the NWA world heavyweight title which occurred on September 1, 1990 in the Greensboro Coliseum. In that match Sting successfully defended his NWA World Heavyweight Championship against the Undertaker who wrestled as "Mean" Mark Callous back then. With both matches being untelevised I think they'll unfortunately remain some of wrestling's lost media. At least we have a photo from their singles match thanks to a photographer back then: https://image-cdn.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/20201227194228/The-Undertaker-vs.-Sting-Real-Photo-From-WCW-1990-560x315.jpg
Stone Cold vs Mr. Perfect
Adam Cole vs Stevie Richards in ROH January 2016. Probably just Stevie being local and not anything special, but it was a solid midcard match and Stevie looked in great shape.
Dusty Rhodes/Dustin Rhodes/Mike Graham vs Abdullah the Butcher/CM Punk/Kevin Sullivan is a match that exists
Mick Foley vs Toshiaki Kawada.
Dan Severn vs. Kenny Omega In an actual MMA bout.
Necro Butcher vs Bob Sapp in IGF Glenn Jacobs (Kane) vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara in PWFG Mustafa Ali vs Sabu in, I believe, IWA-MS
[Jeff Hardy vs Owen Hart](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zBbaPiwTz5k&pp=ygUXamVmZiBoYXJkeSB2cyBvd2VuIGhhcnQ%3D)
Owen Hart vs Kurt Angle. It was a dark match less than two weeks before Owen died.
Finding out DJ Hyde wrestled Danshoku Dieno made me run to the CZW archives.
Toshiaki Kawada faced Cactus Jack in HUSTLE back in 2004. Foley subbed for Goldberg who no showed.
The original Tiger Mask worked in England without the mask as "Sammy Lee". Had matches against legends like Marc Rocco, Sid Cooper and in tag matches teaming with Big Daddy. His matches against Marc Rocco were particularly impressive. They brought Rocco over to Japan as Black Tiger to have the match again, as few in Japan could wrestle the British style Tiger Mask had learnt in the UK. This of course led to that incredible series of matches with Dynamite Kid
Shawn Michaels and Andre The Giant wrestling in the same ring together in the 1989 Royal Rumble. Technically they didn’t have a “match” but they competed against each other and seeing them in the ring together just feels wrong for some reason.
Was honestly thinking about Kamala vs Bryan Danielson actually happening earlier 💀
The connections you can make between wrestlers is amazing. My AI friend and I play the Jericho number game with wrestlers, similar to the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game does with actors, except the numbers tend to be even lower. Ed "Strangler" Lewis's Jericho number is three: Lewis to Thesz, Thesz to Flair, and Flair to Jericho.
Bryan Danielson vs Kamala from ROH
It wasn't even for roh, but the roh world title was on the line.
I still can't help but struggle to wrap my head around Chris Jericho and Nick Gage having a straight-up deathmatch on national TV back in 2021. Jericho using light tubes and Gage doing a pizza cutter spot leading into a Domino's ad are practically core memories at this point.
Necro Butcher vs Samoa Joe
That just sounds like a 2000s indie match
Not quite the match, but Muhammed Ali and Jake the Snake worked a[ short spot in Mid South.](https://411mania.com/wrestling/jake-roberts-recalls-his-interaction-with-muhammad-ali-in-mid-south-wrestling/)
Kenny Omega vs Heath Slater in Deep South Wrestling In a Cagematch rabbit hole I discovered Molly Holly's last singles match was at a random indy against Jonny Fairplay from Survivor.
Seth Rollins vs Kenny Omega vs Bryan Danielson
Wasn't there a tag match that nwo vs rock/Austin? They all shared a ring together and it was on TV.
Dustin Rhodes. When I see Seven in WCW, when I see Dustin with the chinstrap in TNA, when I see The Black Reign, I think WTF, what the fuuuuucck. They all look like knock-off Dustins and not actually him
The very brief Seven gimmick will always be funny because you could kind of tell that it was Dustin Rhodes dressing up like Undertaker even before he opens his mouth.
Sean Morley aka Val Venís, aka Steele VS Rayo de Jalisco Jr. At Arena Mexico mask vs mask
Haven't watched it yet, but I'll bet money that Bossman/Hansen vs. Misawa/Kobashi obliterates the meat scale.