Favorite moments in wrestling

[Loss]

I think the sort of thing that makes performing worthwhile for the wrestlers, aside from the money, is the ability get inside the heads of a wide audience and connect with them. It's not important if they're loved or hated, but rather that they're finding a way to connect with you on a one-on-one basis. These are the moments that when you think about your time watching wrestling, you look back on them and they have a special place in your memories. For me, it has to be Ric Flair's return to WCW on September 14, 1998, on Nitro. I bring this up because the other thread sort of morphed into this and I wanted to make a topic for this. Flair had been sidelined for months, and his own company was doing everything in their power to destroy him. Fans had been chanting for him strongly for months, and Flair's return saw him so moved he was actually in tears and the reception he got from the Greenville crowd is almost unlike anything I've ever experienced watching wrestling. I think this is my absolute favorite moment as a fan. The guy who was my favorite wrestler for over a decade had spent so much of his career doing everything to make people hate him, and Flair was always so much more comfortable playing the heel. Those close to him say it's because reactions like this embarrass him and he can't focus. It's easily the best moment in Nitro history, and possibly the best moment for me in wrestling history. What would your *moments* be?

[Guest Hunter's Torn Quad]

Mick Foley winning the WWF Title for the first time.

 

Watching the video package for Rock v Austin at WM X7 right before the main event. It was the last time I watched something from the WWF/E that I got the feeling that I was watching something really special.

 

Ric Flair's verbal tirade against Vince McMahon on Smackdown to set up their match at the 2002 Rumble.

 

Doug Basham and Danny Davies reuniting at the Davis Arena after Doug lost a Loser Leaves Town match.

 

Chris Benoit winning the World Title at WM XX, as well as he and Eddie Guerrero embracing.

[Guest Some Guy]

Honestly, "the boyhood dream has come true...for Shawn Michaels" has a special place for me because I was such a huge mark for him at the time.

 

"Tell me a lie" nearly brought a tear to my eye in Feb. 97.

 

::ducks rotten fruit::

 

I marked out hard for Hogan/Rock at WM 18 as well.

 

Austin/HBK WM 14 was an internal conflict. I had been on the Stone COld bandwagon since KotR 96 and a card carrying member of the Kliq (not litterally) since 11/95 when I started watching wrestling again.

 

I'm so jaded that it takes nostalgia to give me chills these days.

[Marty]

Off the top of my head...

 

- Ric Flair's return to Nitro in September 1998

 

- The end of WrestleMania XX, with Benoit and Guerrero standing tall

 

- Mick Foley winning the WWF title for the first time

 

- The Hart Foundation defeating Team USA at Canadian Stampede

[Mad Dog]

Rick Steiner beating Mike Rotunda at Starcade 88 for the Television title.

 

Warrior just standing on Savage to end his career at Wrestlemania VII

 

Chris Jericho's WWF debut.

 

Owen Hart kicking Bret Hart in the leg after losing to the Quebecers at Royal Rumble 94.

 

Jannetty going through the Barber Shop Window.

 

Beefcake and Piper shaving Adrian Adonis' head at WMIII.

 

Ric Flair's "I'm fired" speech from 98.

[Loss]

Oh, and on an international scale, I marked hard when Mayumi Ozaki got the winning fall for her team at Thunderqueen.

[MyOwnSummer]

ECW reunites.

[Coffey]

ECW reunites.

I came into the thread to say this also.

[sek69]

Heyman's rant at Vince during the Invasion was as classic as well.

[Coffey]

Another favorite moment of mine, that is often overlooked, is the handshake and hug between Tommy Dreamer and Raven. It took place right after Dreamer won the title from Taz (whom won it from Mike Awesome) and then Tommy immediately lost it to Justin Credible.

 

I also marked out for the ECW return of the Sandman.

 

I think that the Randy Savage and Elizabeth reuniting moment from Wrestlemania 7 takes the cake though.

[Guest Mac]

My favourite moment from the childhood super mark days was Michaels winning the title for the first time at Mania 12.

 

In recent memory i'd have to go for Austin Aries defeating Samoa Joe to win the ROH title.

[Loss]

Guys, instead of just listing the moments, can we get some explanations to add to the discussion? Thanks.

[goodhelmet]

I'll elaborate in a little while after I get back from the post office...

 

Mick Foley walking out after the No Way Out 2000 Hell IN A Cell

 

Ricky Steamboat winning the IC Title at WM3

 

Adrian Adonis getting his haircut at WM3

 

British Bulldogs winning the tag belts at WM2

 

Flair's Nitro finale speech

 

nWo parodies the Horsemen

 

Chris Jericho's introduction of the cruiser battle royale.

[Guest Hunter's Torn Quad]

Rather than explain myself why the Doug Basham-Danny Davis reunion was so tremendous, I'll reprint what Bryan Alvarez wrote about the whole deal.

 

The August 2nd Ohio Valley Wrestling TV show (www.ovwrestling.com) should be studied by every wrestling fan, wrestling writer and wrestler in this business today, plus anyone aspiring to be any of the above. It was the perfect show when it came to building up a match, delivering on it, tying up several storylines (some of which spanned years), turning a hated heel babyface and getting over the loser of a match bigger than if he'd actually won. There was real emotion, including people crying, something you almost never see in pro-wrestling these days. And there has been no other television show anywhere in the world in at least the last year that has been as good.

 

The storyline actually began several years earlier when Doug Basham returned to OVW under a mask as the Machine. Basham was the first student of his uncle, OVW owner "Nightmare" Danny Davis (and I get asked this question a lot, so I'll quickly answer no, he's not the same Danny Davis that refereed in the WWF) ten years ago. He wrestled early on in OVW, then left the business for awhile to focus on his job at a Ford factory in the area. When he unmasked shortly after his return, he'd been gone long enough that almost nobody remembered who he was. As a heel, he formed the Revolution group and began feuding on-air with Davis. The feud had many twists and turns, including a storyline where Machine briefly ended up with partial ownership of the company. Davis also cut some great babyface promos during that period which should also be studied by guys today.

 

Danny Holly started training in November of 1998, and within six months had become OVW Heavyweight Champion as the Damaja. He worked as a babyface for a long time before finally turning heel and joining up with the Revolution in early 2002. He cut a promo after his turn explaining that he'd been listening to the fans, Jim Comette and his pals Nick Dinsmore and Rob Conway for years, and it had gotten him nowhere. Now, he said, he was putting his faith in Basham.

 

The two teamed on OVW TV for almost a year before they began the split. It started when both decided they wanted to be the leader of the Revolution. When Dinsmore won the title, Damaja and Basham made a deal. They would both try to beat Dinsmore for the belt, and then whomever won it would give the other a title shot, and the winner of that match would be declared sole leader of the Revolution. Basham got the belt first. Shortly before the two of them were to have their decision match, Conway turned heel and joined the group, and he ended up being special referee. He was heavily biased towards Machine, who ended up winning after a shot with a loaded glove. Damaja, irate, quit the group and turned babyface. His rise was actually similar to a guy like Steve Austin, who the fans had been wanting to cheer for a long time before his turn. For the last three months, the two had been feuding on TV over the belt.

 

A few months back, the two of them were at Smackdown together to do dark matches, and someone came up with the idea of having them form a team called the Basham Brothers. Of course, this totally screwed up the OVW storylines. Well, it should have. Comette came up with a brilliant storyline to salvage everything where he basically just told the truth. During an interview on OVW TV a week after they first teamed on Smackdown, Damaja said that he'd been called by Tom Pritchard and told they had an opening for him in WWE. When he got to Smackdown, Johnny Ace (who has never been on OVW TV but is acknowledged as a top heel) came up and said they had a TV match for him against Rikishi and Spanky. Damaja said he wanted to know who his partner was, and Ace said it would be Basham. Damaja said he told Ace that he was fine with Doug professionally, because he was a great athlete, but personally he wanted to beat his ass. Ace told him that if he didn't like it, he could go home. Cornette then read a letter supposedly from Ace which said that if Damaja did not do as he was asked, he would be considered in breach of contract and would be unable to wrestle anywhere in the world throughout the duration of his deal. Damaja said his theory was that Basham did this on purpose to get under his skin. He said he'd take the "stupid-ass name and the stupid-ass gimmick" in WWE, but here in Louisville, he was going to do everything in his power to take Doug out. That way, he figured, if Doug got hurt, they wouldn't have to team on Smackdown anymore. Problem solved.

 

Last week on TV, Cornette came out with Damaja and said he had a very important match to announce. He said next week, Machine would defend the OVW Title against Damaja in a very special bout. There would be no DQ?s and no count outs. To prevent outside interference from the Revolution, Johnny Spade would be handcuffed to ref Ray Ramsey, Nikita to Jillian Hall, Mark Magnus to Johnny Jeter and Rob Conway to Nick Dinsmore. To make sure nobody from the back ran out, Matt Morgan would be blocking the entranceway. And, Cornette said, most importantly, the winner would have to leave OVW for ever. He hammered home the point and made it one hundred percent clear that there was going to be a winner, someone was going to lose decisively, and that person would leave Ohio Valley Wrestling for good. No coming back under a mask, he added, no returning with a new name, nothing, they were gone. Damaja said he was doing this for one reason, and that was to answer the question of who the better man was. He said he'd been wondering, the fans had been wondering, and next week, everyone was going to find out.

 

Basham came out and told Damaja to shut up. He asked if he knew what it was like to be made promises by your own family, to be promised to be the franchise and the biggest star in OVW, and have those promises be broken. "I do," he lamented. He said he'd worked his ass off for ten years to prove he was the best, and for years people had been trying to run him out of the company. He said two years ago, he created the Revolution and it became the premiere group in OVW. Damaja said that was true, but when he joined, they took it to another level. He said the only reason it crumbled was because of Basham's ego. Basham told him to shut up and listen. He said next week, Damaja had to realize what was at stake in this match. He said the loser was going to leave OVW, and if Danny lost, he was going to lose everything, his name, his identity and his hometown fans. There would be no coming back. "When I beat you next week," he said, "there will be no more Damaja in OVW. There will just be Danny Basham in WWE." Doug added that he'd be damned if he'd let someone take ten years of his life away from him. Damaja said next week, if he won, the fans, Davis and Cornette would never have to worry about Doug again, and he'd be damned if he was going to let anyone run him out of OVW, his hometown of Louisville (actually, his real hometown is Seymour, IN), and kill off the "Damaja" name. He said next week, it was the two of them, one-on-one, the winner stayed the loser left forever. As noted last week, this was the best promo of the year when it comes to building up a match. No comedy, no cornball humor, just two guys talking about a wrestling match, how important that match was to both of them, and why the fans should care enough about it to pay to see it.

 

The August 2nd show opened with a prelim match, Tank Tolin & Chris Cage beating Disciples of Synn via DQ when an injured Nova got involved. Afterwards, Cornette hyped up the main event and they aired a video package which highlighted the history of the two talked about earlier. This was so well done and made the match seem so important that by the time it was over, I had more interest in seeing this match than probably any WWE-promoted match of the year with the possible exception of Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels at Badd Blood (which actually had nothing to do with WWE's build, that was because of hype I'd created in my own head). They followed this up with another video package set to "My Way", which was the WrestleMania theme a few years back. Ironically, the hype was such that this seemed like a WrestleMania-calibre match, and that's really saying something given the fact that OVW is, in reality, a small regional Indy promotion. And when it was over, all I could think was that most of the folks working in WWE right now have NO idea what they've got with these two.

 

Pre-match comments aired with both guys in their respective locker rooms. Damaja was in with Dinsmore, Jillian, Morgan and Jeter, who all wished him luck. Jillian even gave him a kiss on his cheek. Basham, in with Nikita, Spade, Conway and Magnus, said if this ended up being Damaja's night, thank you. It was a very subtle beginning of his babyface turn. He then added that if this was his night, they'd all better be ready to party like there was no tomorrow.

 

The Revolution and the good guys came out next, got handcuffed, and were put in chairs in the front row. Damaja and Basham came out, then announcer Dean Hill got into the ring to do formal pre-match introductions. When he was finished, head referee Robert Brisco gave final instructions over the house mic. "Gentleman," he said, "as you know this match is one fall to a finish and there must be a winner. The Ohio Valley Wrestling heavyweight title is on the line, and the loser of this match will leave Ohio Valley Wrestling. Now go to your comers, and when the bell rings, I want you to protect yourselves at all times, and may the best man win." I cannot accentuate enough how important these ceremonies are in getting over championships as something important that fans should care about. Wrestling belts may be fake, and wrestling champions haven't really "won" anything, but the belts must be portrayed on TV as if they're the most important thing in the world if they're going to be used as ticket-selling props.

 

The bell rang and they stared each other down. The technical wrestling ended quickly and they brawled outside the ring. Loud "DAMAJA!" chants. Damaja waylaid him with a garbage can, and it wasn't one of those aluminium ones, it was made of hard plastic. Basham got the heat with his leg lariat finisher and beat him all around ringside. Great counters from all their previous matches. Damaja made a huge comeback and the folks went crazy. He hit his brain damaj finisher (short powerbomb), but Machine kicked out. Basham cut him off and hit his finisher, the diving headbutt, but Damaja kicked out. Ref took a bump. Doug hit him with a low blow and hit his other finisher, the double underhook gourdbuster, but Damaja kicked out when a second ref hit the ring. They went up top for a superplex, but Damaja gave him a low blow and hit a second rope brain damaja. Both refs hit the ring and simultaneously counted three as the place came totally unglued. People were standing and screaming and cheering. The bout itself went just over 15 minutes.

After a commercial break, Cornette interviewed Damaja by the announcers' table. He helped the babyface turn by stating that Basham was not only the most talented, but also the toughest wrestler he'd ever fought in his life. But tonight, he said, he was the better man, and he proved to everyone that this was his house, and that the Damaja name would never die. He finished up saying that it felt damn good to be champion again.

 

Dean interviewed Basham in mid-ring. Loud "DOUG!" chants. He cut an emotional promo saying he'd fought for two years, banging his head against the wall, and never thought it would be over. Conway stepped up and said don't worry, they'd find a lawyer and get everything all handled. Machine said no, they lost, tonight Damaja proved to be the better man and the Revolution was finished. Conway said he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He then said he'd given this same speech to Jackie that you're either with the Revolution or you're against them. All the bad guys jumped Machine and stomped a mudhole in him. It was three-on-one, and unlike in WWE where nobody gets over, Doug did not make the one-man comeback and clear the ring. Damaja finally had to make the save with a baseball bat. He helped Doug to his feet, acknowledged him with a nod, then walked off leaving him all alone in the ring. "HE WENT OUT LIKE A TRUE CHAMPION!'  Cornette screamed on commentary. Comette is a genius, because not only did he turn Machine babyface on the way out, but he also closed out a storyline that spanned all the way to Smackdown with Machine and Damaja now having a reason to team up and be friends.

 

Just as the show was about to end, one more person walked to the ring, Machine's uncle Danny Davis. Machine extended his hand. Davis looked around for a while as the fans chanted "BASHAM!" Then he shook Doug's hand and they hugged. It was so cool to see a multi-year storyline closed out the right way, with a happy ending that the people watching would never, ever forget. A few girls in the front row held up ?Thank you for the memories, Doug" signs as they cried. Show went off the air with Davis holding up Machine's hand as Doug wiped tears from his eyes. He went out probably tied as the biggest babyface in the company after losing a belt clean in the middle of the ring. There are so many guys in wrestling today that could learn so much from that fact alone.

 

This was a pro-wrestling masterpiece.

[Guest Some Guy]

Heyman's rant at Vince during the Invasion was as classic as well.

I saw the one from Boston at a SD! taping where DDP kidnapped Debra and Austin hit Vince with the guitar. It got edited way down for TV but the original promo was amazing. It was obvious that Heymen meant nearly everthing he said.

[Guest treble]

Bob Backlund turning heel after getting beaten by Bret Hart on Superstars always sticks out. I think, mostly, because I only got Superstars when I was growing up (Raw wasn't available in Canada until a few years later and I didn't have PPV capabalities), so I never got to see 2 'real' wrestlers have a 'real' match for the WWF title, so that was a treat in itself.

 

I don't really remember anything about the match, just Backlund putting Bret in the chickenwing after the match (he may have shook his hand before, I don't really remember), and him just staring at his hand.

 

That, and Ludvig Borga pinning Tatanka with one finger to end his undefeated streak, are about the only 2 moments I can remember from when I was a kid (wrestling wise).

[Ray]

There are just far, far too many great moments to list, but here's a few:

 

- Roddy Piper holding the ring bell over a bloody Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 8.

 

Would he or wouldn't he? Just an amazingly dramatic moment, built to brilliantly by the story they told of Bret wanting to prove something and Piper becoming more and more frustrated and edging closer and closer to a heel turn.

 

- Misawa rising out of the corner in 6/3/94.

- Misawa realizing he's alone at the end 12/6/96.

 

Two perfect examples of how great Misawa was in his role. Just insanely POWERFUL moments.

 

- Kawada finally beating Misawa in 6/9/95.

 

That one's obvious. ;-)

 

- Steve Austin in the sharpshooter at Wrestlemania 13.

 

The defining, career-making moment of one of my favorite wrestlers. Might be the most dramatic finish ever done in a WWF ring, for me, at least.

 

- Austin's heel turn at Wrestlemania X7.

 

Austin's heel turn might've failed in terms of ratings, but man was the actual turn a thing of beauty. Austin is driven to madness by Rock surviving everything Austin can throw at him. In the end he just SNAPS an murders The Rock with the chair.

 

- Chris Benoit making Triple H submit at Wrestlemania XX.

 

My favorite wrestler getting a clean win over my least favorite wrestler in a World Title match in the main-event of the biggest show in years...and having the crowd behind him 100%. What more do you need? Great as that moment was, managed to take it to an even higher level by bringing Eddy out.

 

- Kawada handing the Triple Crown to Kojima after losing on 2/16/05.

 

I don't even like Kojima all that much, but I honestly got a bit choked up during this. That Kawada left his beloved All-Japan shortly after makes it all the more poignant.

[goodhelmet]

Resurrecting the dead thread here...

 

After watching 12 hours of old NWA on TBS, you really start to feel sorry for the Mulkeys. There must be a dozen matches where they were someone's bitch. Then, the Gladiators show up and the Mulkeys win the only match of their career and the crowd goes batshit (all 40 of them) and the Mulkeys are in disbelief. I saw this when it happened and it still put a smile on my face nearly 20 years later.

[Loss]

Makes you wonder if Dusty could have done more to briefly capitalize on Mulkeymania.

[goodhelmet]

I don't know man. I wouldn't pay to see the Mulkeys. Maybe... maybe a Mikey Whipwreck scenario but they got the win and we remember them for it. If they won more than once, it wouldn't be as special.

[Loss]

I know, it wouldn't last, but for a few months, I wish they could have done something. That was pretty much the last you saw of them. NWA fans got really into it and started bringing out Mulkeymania signs and they were getting big pops for it. It's similar to what the WWF did with the 1-2-3 Kid in 1993.

[Guest SweetMama Scaat]

-The whole 30 minute savage/warrior/elizabeth segment from WM VII:Superstars and Stripes forever.

 

-Bob Backlund losing his damn mind, turning heel and putting Bret Hart in the crossface chickenwing.

 

-Bad News Brown turning on Bret Hart during the battle royal at WM IV:The one the world is watching.

 

-Magnum TA stabbing Tully Blanchard with the wooden spike: Starrcade '85:The gathering

 

-Kurt Angle singing his HBK parody song "Sexy Kurt" on Smackdown!

 

-When the Nation of Domination was around and Ken Shamrock had the Rock in the anklelock, Farrooq comes to the ring to help Rocky then jus ups and decides not too and leaves.