Mid-Tier Match Reviews

Rob Van Dam is one of the most interesting pro wrestlers to make it big in the business. He spent many years cultivating a martial arts-inspired style and had a fairly unique look for most of his career. Many fans loved his personality as a laidback stoner. But if there was one word that really encapsulated him it would be “unorthodox”. RVD couldn’t really be pigeonholed into any specific category or typecasting, which helped elevate him in the eyes of many fans. While I’m not the biggest fan of his personally I’ve seen quite a few of his most notable matches and I thought I’d share a random collection with all of you here.

Rob Van Dam vs. Abyss – Monster’s Ball – TNA Bound For Glory 2010

The Story: Two months earlier Abyss and Fortune attacked RVD and his fellow ECW alumni after RVD defeated Abyss in a Stairway to Janice match (“Janice” being the name for Abyss’s nail-covered 2×4, which is a clear reference to Cactus Jack’s “Barbie” gimmick).

The Match: RVD rushes Abyss and takes him down repeatedly with kick variations. He lands a Van Daminator but Abyss rolls to ringside so he lands a crossbody to the floor. He introduces a barbed wire table into the ring but suddenly Abyss trips him on a charge. Abyss attempts both a Chokeslam and a scoop slam onto said table, fails, and gets thrown face-first onto it with a bulldog. RVD attempts Rolling Thunder onto a still-prone Abyss but the monster dodges causing RVD to hit the wires back-first. Abyss sets up a table platform ringside and cracks RVD’s head with a garbage can. He sets up another barbed wire table in platform position and then we get a punch exchange. Abyss suplexes RVD over the top rope and he ends up near the first table. Abyss clotheslines RVD back into the ring but RVD fights back and hits an over-the-rope Rolling Thunder through the table, breaking it in the process.

RVD ducks a chair-shot and hits a chair-assisted spinkick. He teases a Van Terminator but Abyss throws the chair at his head, sending him through the barbed wire table. Abyss sets up the first barbed wire table and attempts to throw RVD into it but RVD counters. RVD improvises a successful Van Terminator using that table and attempts a Five-Star Frog Splash but misses. Abyss finds “Janice” but RVD throws the chair at him. RVD grabs the nail-covered 2×4 instead and smashes Abyss with it. He follows with a successful frog splash to get the win and his revenge.

Winner after 13:00: Rob Van Dam

You can watch the full match here.

Review: A solid hardcore match with RVD stuck trying to take down someone much bigger than himself. It was a bit slow and setup-heavy but they made up for this with heavy narrative and drama around the biggest hardcore spots and particularly “Janice”. It was a bit underwhelming, though, with the barbed wire coming across as a bit fake and lacking in impact. If they were going for gruesome then this match failed to hit those higher notes. Most of the craziness built towards RVD getting his hands on Janice which, despite making story sense, didn’t have that much emotional satisfaction. All in all, there’s nothing outwardly bad about this but in terms of a big blow-off this left a bit to be desired.

Final Rating: **3/4

WWF Hardcore Championship Match: Rob Van Dam [c] vs. The Undertaker – Vengeance 2001

The Story: This took place during Undertaker’s heel “Big Evil” run where he was bitter for being disrespected by management and thus took his frustrations out on younger and smaller wrestlers around him.

The Match: ‘Taker shoves RVD into a corner but RVD retaliates with kicks. A big boot gets ‘Taker a one-count but RVD retaliates with a senton for two. RVD lands a wheel kick for two and applies a headlock but ‘Taker crotches him on the top rope and boots him to ringside. RVD blocks a shot into the post and clotheslines ‘Taker into the stands. He attempts to use the barricade as a springboard but ‘Taker hits first with a right hand. They brawl among the fans and ‘Taker uses a fan’s Mexico flag to choke his challenger. Flag spots are always appreciated. RVD hits back with a quebrada for two but ‘Taker sends him into a piece of barricade hard. That piece falls onto RVD so ‘Taker stands on it to choke him. ‘Taker grabs a chair but RVD sprays him with fire extinguisher chemical first. He smashes ‘Taker with a garbage can and then climbs some stairs onto an entryway. RVD dives from like ten feet up onto ‘Taker and they crash onto what looks like a pile of wood – for a two-count.

They fight onto part of the stage and RVD lands a spinning leg drop following a garbage can lid shot for another two-count. ‘Taker hits back with punches and launches RVD head-first into a metal frame. RVD escapes a Last Ride but ‘Taker clotheslines him back down. He blocks a chair-shot and lands Rolling Thunder for two. A chair-assisted kick to the face gets RVD another near-fall. RVD misses a Van Daminator which allows ‘Taker to smash him with the chair. RVD escapes a Tombstone and attempts another Van Daminator. ‘Taker dodges it and Chokeslams RVD off the stage through two tables setup below for an easy three-count and the title.

Winner and NEW WWF Hardcore Champion after 11:08: The Undertaker

You can watch the full match here.

Review: A good brawl with a few wild spots and lots of throwing hands and feet. RVD played the hits while Undertaker did a great job as the remorseless villain for him to overcome, alas to no avail. In a vacuum this was okay but against the larger backdrop of the Invasion Storyline it was another example of questionable booking. Of the five members of Team Alliance at the much-hyped Survivor Series winner-take-all match, only two were actual WCW/ECW wrestlers and one of them was RVD – and here he was losing to WWF’s most institutional figure in the middle of the card. I get they were trying to elevate him to the IC title level but there could’ve been another way for RVD to not follow suit like other Alliance wrestlers and get thoroughly browbeaten at a time when the promotions was in such dire need of fresh faces in higher positions.

Final Rating: **3/4

Extreme Rules Match: Rob Van Dam vs. Hardcore Holly – WWECW #16, September 26, 2006

The Story: After spending many years in mostly undercard situations, Holly debuted for ECW a month earlier and aligned with the now-villainous Paul Heyman in his pursuit to create a new ECW from the one fans remembered. Meanwhile, RVD was positioned as the franchise player for ECW, at least for the moment, as resurrecting the brand/promotion was his idea in the first place. Given that association, it was rightfully expected that RVD would defend ECW against any who sought to change it, hence this Extreme Rules match pitting an ECW original against a WWE veteran.

The Match: They start with basic knock-downs and stiff shots. RVD lands a big side kick and poses for the crowd but Holly drags him to ringside. RVD quickly takes over, drapes Holly on the barricade, and hits a spinkick/leg drop from the apron. He sets up a table but Holly cuts him off, leading to some generic brawling. They trade corner shots in the ring until Holly gets a boot up. Holly with a chinlock. Since there are no ropebreaks, RVD has to use the ropes to lift himself up, only for Holly to clothesline him. RVD tries fighting out but Holly lands a back elbow. Holly rakes the eyes but RVD fights back and sends Holly onto the apron. Holly teases a suplex to the table. They struggle back-and-forth, but Holly wins the exchange. Both men crash through the table – and Holly suffers a NASTY gash in his back.

We come back from commercial and the camera zooms in on Holly’s deep, open wound. Holly doesn’t care, though, and continues like nothing happened. Holly opens a chair and drops RVD onto the back of it throat-first for two. Holly puts a chair on RVD’s head and lands a second-rope leg drop but takes massive recoil damage. He covers but only gets two. Holly teases a suplex onto the chair but RVD reverses and lands his own. They slug it out and RVD begins a comeback and lands a monkey flip and a diving side kick. RVD follows with a chair-assisted dropkick in a corner followed by a chair-assisted Rolling Thunder. RVD attempts another monkey flip. Holly counters with a powerbomb onto the chair for two. RVD blocks a turnbuckle smash and attempts a chair-assisted Five-Star Frog Splash. He dives but Holly throws the chair at him as he’s in midair for another near-fall. RVD blocks an Alabamaslam and dropkicks the chair into Holly’s face. The frog splash connects and despite taking serious recoil damage RVD manages to cover Holly and secure the three-count.

Winner after 17:42: Rob Van Dam

You can watch part one here and part two here.

Post-match, RVD bails to ringside to celebrate while doctors attend to Holly. They cover his torso in thick bandages and medical gauze and the audience gives him a standing ovation.

Review: This started off slow and somewhat boring but turned around significantly after the superplex. Sadly it took a very real and very painful injury for this match to kick into high gear; without it I don’t think this match would’ve been as interesting. Still, Holly made the most out of a terrible situation, fought through considerable pain like a boss, and added a ton of much-needed emotion into proceedings. They traded heavy bombs and crazy high-spots afterwards, escalating in risk and impact with each passing one. Eventually, RVD’s tenacity brought him the three-count but Holly was the star of the match. If you love wild weapons-based craziness then you’ll be satisfied with this, especially since it took place before WWE became too sanitized and had to stop any blood from being shown on TV.

Final Rating: ***1/2

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Chris Benoit [c] vs. Rob Van Dam – SummerSlam 2002

The Story: RVD lost the Intercontinental title to Benoit about two months earlier on an episode of RAW. Benoit then took the title with him to SmackDown after being drafted which infuriated then-RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff. Determined to get the title back, Bischoff declared “open season” on Benoit and mandated he defend the title against as many RAW wrestlers as possible despite being on SmackDown. RVD took advantage of Bischoff’s enthusiastic pursuit of the title to defeat Jeff Hardy for a #1 Contender’s spot, which in turn made this into a true battle of the brands on SummerSlam’s undercard.

The Match: RVD scores first blood with some stiff kicks to the chest. Benoit catches his leg on subsequent kicks, takes him down, and works a headlock. RVD escapes and bounces out of the opposite corner with a crossbody for a one-count and hits a spinkick. They duck attacks from each other until Benoit folds RVD in half with a German Suplex. Benoit follows with a short-arm clothesline and a pendulum backbreaker, getting a two-count from each. Benoit gets another near-fall from a snap suplex and works RVD’s left shoulder. RVD fights out and gets another two-count from a small package. He gets two from a backslide and launches Benoit overhead with a monkey flip but Benoit knocks him down. RVD boots out of a corner and attempts the Split-Legged Moonsault but Benoit gets his knees up. Benoit hits a diving head-butt but RVD gets up first, lands a spin leg drop, and misses his Five-Star Frog Splash. Benoit applies the Crippler Crossface. RVD gets a ropebreak and blocks a corner charge, only for Benoit to shove him from the post to the floor. He collides with the barricade weakened-arm-first.

Benoit drives RVD shoulder-first into a post and then lands a standing shoulderbreaker. RVD channels Kobashi and tries fighting out of a double-arm stretch but fails and Benoit turns it into a cross-arm sleeper hold. But then RVD pulls off a clever reversal only for Benoit to power out. RVD lands a sudden heel trip and charges to the ropes. Benoit dodges a Moonsault Splash and locks in another Crossface. RVD elbows out so Benoit rolls into a cradle for a close two-count. Benoit drives RVD’s arm into another post and lands a bridging arm-trap Northern Lights Suplex. Rather than pin, Benoit keeps floating over to tighten the hold on the bad arm until he wrestles into yet another Crossface. RVD reaches out with his free hand. Benoit floats over to block him and transitions into a Dragon Sleeper. RVD reverses this into his own Crossface but Benoit easily fights out and dropkicks his face. RVD blocks another corner attack and hits a jumping side kick for two. A counter wheel kick/Rolling Thunder combo gets another near-fall. RVD hits a corner shoulder thrust and another big kick but Benoit kicks out. Benoit counters a monkey flip attempt and crotches RVD on the top rope. He attempts an Avalanche Backdrop but RVD counters with a midair press. RVD bounces onto the top turnbuckle and does the midair-position-change Five-Star Frog Splash. One, two, three! RVD wins the title!

Winner and NEW WWE Intercontinental Champion after 16:30: Rob Van Dam

You can watch the full match here.

Review:  A great match that suffered a bit due to a clash in styles. Benoit dominated for the most part and worked RVD over strategically and methodically, only for RVD to make a sudden comeback. Benoit once again showed something drastically different from everyone else on the roster as he worked RVD’s arm over cleverly. Meanwhile, RVD stayed in his lane for the most part but pulled out a few surprises by trying to reverse Benoit’s holds and use some of his techniques against him. RVD, meanwhile, didn’t have to hit back in equal force to get ahead; he simply survived an extensive beatdown, had a few false comebacks, and eventually found his opportunity to use Benoit’s momentum against him and destroy him with his spectacular finisher. Although the crowd wasn’t as into this as you’d expect, as a midcard display of wrestling know-how this is as good as it gets.

Final Rating: ***3/4

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Dan Kroffat [c] vs. Rob Van Dam – June 9, 1995

The Story: So here’s a bit of a footnote/trivia situation with RVD wrestling for AJPW’s junior title against one half of the Can-Am Express. All Japan’s junior division isn’t as well-known stateside since most of the English-language coverage and industry attention focused on New Japan’s instead. This stands to reason as Baba put significantly more attention on the heavyweight main-events in keeping with his core idea of wrestling as big bodies clashing dramatically. To that end, AJPW’s juniors were mostly there to fill the card or generate some energy out of the audience while still saving the biggest pops and moves for the headlining position. Though these wrestlers were technically sound, they were never given the same opportunities as NJPW’s when it came to breaking barriers, pushing the envelope, or stealing the show. Though in this particular case there was nothing either Kroffat or RVD could do to steal the show on this night since it included the unquestioned single-greatest tag team match of all time.

The Match: RVD’s wrestling in a nondescript black singlet here. Some basic lock-ups and chain wrestling start things off. RVD blocks a punch with a headlock and keeps it in until Kroffat powers him into the ropes. RVD counters an Irish whip with a split-legged arm drag and a second-rope springboard crossbody for a one-count. RVD works a headlock until a counter sequences ensues and ends with a hook kick from Kroffat. RVD flips out of a hiptoss and goes for a monkey flip out of a corner. Kroffat lands on his feet but turns around to see RVD flipping him the bird. After a respectful handshake RVD applies another deep headlock which leads to more countering so Kroffat pulls RVD’s ponytail to get an unfair advantage. Another quick reversal sequence ends with a sunset flip for two. Kroffat attempts a corner counter out of yet another headlock but RVD pulls him back by his leg and locks in a surfboard stretch. Kroffat bails to and stalls at ringside so RVD kicks him from behind to send Kroffat into the barricade, almost wiping out a photographer in the process.

RVD lands a snap suplex on the ringside mats and a senton from the ring to the floor and then covers for two. Kroffat counters the neck headlock with a snap Backdrop Suplex. Despite RVD’s resistance, Kroffat suplexes his challenger to the floor and then hits a gourdbuster at ringside. Back in the ring Kroffat works the ribs and applies a back stretch using RVD’s ponytail once again. A second-rope senton gets two. RVD escapes a chinlock and dumps Kroffat to the floor. RVD lands a running flip senton, fires up, and lands a diving side kick/standing moonsault splash combo. That gets two, as does RVD’s float-over suplex. Kroffat counters a corner whip with a DDT for a near-fall. RVD resists a Tiger Driver so Kroffat knees his head. RVD counters a dive with a capture suplex for a near-fall. Slingshot leg drop. Two-count. RVD lands a front slam and goes for a dive but Kroffat kicks his knee, only for RVD to kick back HARD. He lands another slam followed by the split-legged Moonsault for two. Kroffat collapses midway through a corner whip so RVD covers for yet another near-fall. RVD follows with some sort of powerbomb-lift side slam and goes to the top rope. A 450 Splash misses. RVD counters another Tiger Driver with a backslide for two and then blocks Kroffat’s follow-up spinkick with a takedown. RVD charges off the ropes but Kroffat demolishes him with a Lariat that would make Stan Hansen proud. One, two, kick-out. Kroffat with a Senton Bomb. Another kick-out. Tiger Driver. RVD survives. Kroffat lands an Avalanche Inverted DDT which is enough to secure the three-count.

Winner and STILL AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion after 17:10: Dan Kroffat

You can watch the match here for the YouTube version or here if you want the full uncensored version, which includes an extra three seconds of the Japanese commentator saying “FAKKYUU” to describe Van Dam flipping the bird.

Review: That was definitely a sleeper hit and quite possibly the best singles match of RVD’s career. It was almost like an early ROH-style match with fast-paced and back-and-forth action, different styles of wrestling, and a mix of emotion and pure sportsmanship. Seeing RVD showcase solid fundamentals and technique outside of his ECW wheelhouse was a welcome surprise and Kroffat did an excellent job of being the clever heel who cheated and riled the challenger up by using shortcuts. Van Dam credited Kroffat for teaching him how to pace and structure a match with this being the result. The crowd was largely silent at the start but by the end they had come alive. The wrestlers earned the fan’s praise and respect by building, teasing, and countering enough to leave even skeptics satisfied. An absolute must-see for any fan of Rob Van Dam’s.

Final Rating: ****1/2

Thanks for reading.

Kane is one of my favorite wrestlers ever but let’s face it: he was never going to top any greatest workhorse list. That’s by design: as a supernatural monster, Kane was never meant to be an in-ring marvel. Rather, his purpose has long been to tell stories, squash jobbers, punish anyone who defied the authority figure du jour, and menace anyone who crosses his path. For twenty-something years he has been, for the most part, very good at his job. Even if he rarely won as much gold as his fans hoped he would, Kane found job stability by being loyal and willing to work with whatever material he was given. So with that, let’s look at a series of random Kane matches to see how well they hold up.

You know how there’s this industry expression about great wrestlers being able to have entertaining matches with a broomstick? Well leave it to Kota Ibushi to interpret that concept in the weirdest way imaginable and show that some ideas are best left to theory and not practice.

The Story

DDT Pro-Wrestling, f.k.a. Dramatic Dream Team, started off as Japan’s version of WWE. They promoted a more entertainment-driven product with big cards featuring a mix of everything from high-flying lucharesu to hardcore matches involving bottle rockets and everything in between. They also took WWE’s slapstick Hardcore Division to its most extreme with gimmicks and ideas that likely wouldn’t ever fly in North America. YOSHIHIKO was one such a gimmick by virtue of being an inflatable sex doll. Yet this doll’s matches aren’t meant to be lewd or lascivious; those sorts of segments are usually saved for characters like Danshoku Dino. According to Kenny Omega, since YOSHIHIKO could take more punishment than any person, its opponents could do whatever they want. This led to levels of brutality that made audiences feel sorry for it, as though it was a real person.

Ibushi, though, had different ideas. He cut his teeth in DDT and made a name for himself as one of the most fearless, reckless madmen pro wrestling had ever seen. If there was some experiment worth trying he was game. He didn’t mind diving off of random objects; having matches in random, unconventional places; or being dropped on his neck. In fact, he wrote about his appreciation for head spikes in a 2015 NJPW book titled Kota Ibushi Strongest Edition, stating,

“I loved the dangerous neck-drop moves in “Four Heavenly Kings Pro Wrestling,” and before long, I found myself focusing on that angle during matches.  I was completely obsessed with the angle of falling on the neck.  And rather than thinking, “I want to drop someone at that angle,” I thought, “If I can be dropped at that angle and properly take the move, I might be one step closer to being the strongest.” – Kota Ibushi

And so the formula was turned on its head. Rather than have YOSHIHIKO become a literal crash test dummy and get thrown around with techniques unable to be performed on living opponents, this match would see Ibushi test his own body’s limits against, well, basically himself.

The Match

This took place on March 21, 2015, at a show called DDT Saitama Slam Special. A “shadow” carries YOSHIHIKO to the ring and places it in a corner. Ibushi approaches that corner, “locks up” with the doll, and gets a clean break. They trade headlocks with YOSHIHIKO’s lasting quite a bit longer. Ibushi gets a break and switches to a Greco-Roman knuckle lock. YOSHIHIKO wins with an overhead double-wrist suplex. The shadow comes back in to do an Irish whip but Ibushi hits first with a dropkick to the floor followed by a Triangle Moonsault.

YOSHIHIKO resists a chinlock and then “collapses” off another Irish whip. Ibushi applies a high-angle Boston Crab but YOSHIHIKO “gets a ropebreak” so Ibushi applies a Figure-Four Leglock. The doll reverses this on Ibushi and counters a vertical suplex with its own. Then it dives out of the ring as the shadow throws it onto Ibushi like a weapon. Back in the ring YOSHIHIKO lands what looks like a triple-rotation headscissor. Ibushi resists a German Suplex but YOSHIHIKO persists and lands a high-angle Backdrop. In other words, Ibushi spikes himself on his own head. Not done with the craziness, this is followed by a piledriver and a two-count. Ibushi escapes a Dragon Suplex and a kick exchange ensues with both sides going down. Ibushi’s up first and lands a giant swing but the doll reverses a cradle pin for two. Ibushi counters a headscissor with what can only be described as a backwards powerbomb which couldn’t be done on a real person since, well, humans have spines. This leads to a type of camel clutch which the doll reverses with a flipping powerbomb for two.

A silly “strike exchange” follows and this leads to the match’s most infamous spot: the so-called Infinite Destroyer, nine Canadian Destroyers in a row, which get another two-count. YOSHIHIKO follows with a head-spiking Dragon Suplex variant for another near-fall but Ibushi hits back with a clumsy lariat. Ibushi lands a Last Ride Powerbomb and goes to the top rope but the doll, with the shadow’s help, cuts him off. Ibushi counters into a diving Razor’s Edge and follows with a top-rope springboard overhead German for two. A Phoenix Splash is enough for Ibushi to secure the pinfall and retain his title.

Winner and STILL KO-D Openweight Champion after 18:56: Kota Ibushi

You can watch the full match here.

Review

If you’re a purist or someone who takes wrestling seriously then this will give you an aneurysm. It was one of the most ridiculous things ever seen in wrestling. It was so absurd it made Stadium Stampede look like Flair/Steamboat in comparison. I get what they were going for trying to be as innovative as possible, yet this was a bit too dumb. Despite being somewhat visually impressive, Ibushi bumping around and dropping himself on his head for what was likely half-decent pay doesn’t sound like a smart thing to do, even by wrestling standards. But even if you like these absurd and boundary-pushing ideas, Ibushi went about this match all wrong. If the intent was for people to, as Omega described, sympathize with YOSHIHIKO, then the match failed to portray that narrative. It was a rudderless display of wild techniques and Ibushi showcasing his bumping abilities, which emphasized YOSHIHIKO’s uselessness rather than create any dramatic hook. If Ibushi’s goal was to showcase his toughness and flexibility then he could’ve achieved those same ends with any human opponent. Here, his movements came across as scattered and, save for a few admittedly unique ideas, unimpressive. Ibushi copying or emulating the Four Heavenly Kings wasn’t exciting on its own, especially since he largely missed the crux of what made them so good, that being the balance between motion and stillness and not the pure head drops themselves. It also didn’t help that YOSHIHIKO technically had support from the shadow which lessened the broomstick argument and further added to the general sense of “WTF am I watching” that coated the entire match.

Final Rating: *1/2

I watched this match so that you don’t have to if you hadn’t already. Although it was serviceable as something to kill time, it was very much deserving of the criticism it got and has little value beyond seeing Ibushi do a serviceable job of making light entertainment out of something so absurd. Ibushi’s attempt at bringing that broomstick expression to life was admirable yet it was drowned out by the silliness of the situation. As such, your mileage on this match will vary depending on whether you’re willing to put in maximum effort suspending disbelief and accepting the most absurd thing imaginable as Ibushi “wrestled” an inanimate object. While it’s a step up from the even more ridiculous invisible wrestler gimmick found all over various local indy federations, this was still way too silly and is best reserved for when you REALLY want to turn your brain off.

Thanks for reading.

This is a match I’ve wanted to write about for a while because it’s such an interesting case study in booking complexity. It was a match born out of necessity rather than organic need. It was an example of trying to satisfy multiple and at times competing priorities during a period marked by a frantic need to improve business as much as possible. It showed just how hard it is to please everyone and no matter what decision a wrestling booker makes someone is going to be unhappy. Granted, most of us know these things already but it’s refreshing to see these ideals applied outside of the English-speaking world as well. And since NOAH was once an adored promotion atop the world and Jun Akiyama was once considered a future ace, it’s interesting to see where things went wrong for them both.

So for this review I figured I’d venture outside of my usual wheelhouse and look at a company that I’ve never seen before: IWA Mid-South. With many of today’s wrestlers having started their careers on the American independent scene it’s interesting to see what many of them went through before becoming stars, champions, and in some cases, legends. Samoa Joe is one such a wrestler. He had an amazing year back in 2005, having taken part in three of the best matches you will ever see in a four-month time span. Digging deeper into his career I came across this match which a lot of people liked back then and still like now. So I watched it and…time hasn’t been all that kind to it.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the Sharknado of professional wrestling.

Before there was John Cena versus Bray Wyatt in the Firefly Funhouse, before there was the Swamp Fight between the Wyatt Family and Braun Strowman, before the Boneyard match, there was The Final Deletion the poster child for 21st century “cinematic matches”. And man was it weird. It was far from the first cinematic match; that honor goes to Antonio Inoki versus Masa Saito in their 1987 Genryu-jima Island Death Match and I’ve been trying to find footage of that match to see how well it holds up but so far the only places hosting that match are dubious-looking adult sites. So while I continue searching I figured I’d look at this somewhat famous “match” that didn’t just save Matt Hardy’s career but it turned into one of the most famous unexpected success stories from the past decade.

With 2025 being John Cena’s final year as a wrestler it makes sense to revisit big moments in his career. I’ve already covered his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21, one of his more infamous matches with Randy Orton from 2007, and some of his more famous matches from later in his career like his first match with The Rock and his match with Mark Henry. From all of this it’s safe to say that nostalgia tends to color our memories of past experiences since much of Cena’s career was…MID. He wasn’t an outright bad performer but he was very much a step down for a very long time. It took him over a decade to become consistently good as a wrestler. His first genuinely great match was against Umaga in 2007 and that was because he had both an experienced Samoan doing much of the heavy lifting and the entire WWE machine working hard to conceal his shortcomings. But not even the all-powerful WWE machine could protect Cena when he was literally in enemy territory in front of an audience that wouldn’t ever consider giving him the benefit of the doubt, as this match demonstrated.

The Story

Rob Van Dam won the Money In The Bank briefcase at WrestleMania 22. Then on May 22nd he became the first person to announce his cash-in ahead of time: that he’d cash it in at ECW One Night Stand. This was part of a larger project to revive ECW as a third brand in ECW following the overwhelming success of the previous One Night Stand show in 2005.

On one hand WWE attempted to add as much authenticity to this resurrected ECW as possible: the show would emanate from the Hammerstein Ballroom, the most famous venue in ECW history. Many ECW originals like Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, and Sabu (RIP) would appear in segments attacking Cena and other RAW wrestlers. The show even featured ECW’s old color scheme and overall aesthetic, and who better to represent ECW going forward than RVD, arguably the brand’s most famous wrestler and the one outsider to survive the ill-fated Invasion storyline largely unscathed?

On the other hand putting all of these elements of old ECW were mere distractions to keep the focus away from the power behind the throne. Even with Paul Heyman serving as on-air authority figure and to some degree a creative consultant, this was WWECW, a.k.a. Vince McMahon-approved ECW, which meant that this brand would never achieve more than challenger/third brand status as it wouldn’t be allowed to question the “supremacy” of the main roster brands.

With this in mind, there was still an element of doubt circling this match. Few people expected Cena to lose the WWE Championship since he was well on his way to becoming an institutional figure in the company. And yet it didn’t make sense for RVD to lose in this big match and in the process bury himself, ECW, and the MITB gimmick. So with that many people came to the venue hoping for RVD to win, but could he do it, or would this all be one big swerve from WWE higher-ups just to kick a dead body one last time out of spite?

Back when I reviewed the unintentional comedic masterpiece that was Shawn Michaels versus Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam 2005 it underlined an important point about wrestlers as performers. One of the reasons Michaels is so celebrated these days is because he was dynamic: he could fit into almost any setting and make it work, whether it was serious or being funny. There have also been other guys who have tried to be both serious and funny like Kurt Angle, The Rock, Steve Autin, John Cena, and many others. Well now let’s look another guy who might fit into that mold in Kenny Omega.

Even though Omega has made a career out of competing in (mostly) serious matches, the man does have a funny side…that is, if you like his particular brand of comedy or weirdness. For the longest time he wrestled in an intentionally douchey way and carried himself like this over-the-top cartoon character. And yet he also managed to balance this weird behaviour with a seriousness in the ring and plenty of widely-praised performances. By 2017 he had shown plenty of seriousness, and yet the urge to be silly was too much for him to overcome, as seen with this unbelievable display of wrestling lunacy.

The Story

I’m assuming that most of you know who Kenny Omega is but might not know all that much about his opponent so here’s the QRD on him. Toru Yano is an accomplished Greco-Roman wrestler who won several regional and national-level titles in Japan. But instead of making a gimmick out of that, Yano became the pro-wrestling version of an internet troll. He does silly slapstick, cheats, and relies on over-the-top shenanigans to win. And he is very, VERY, good at his job: despite being positioned as an opening act or an undercarder for most of his career Yano also has a reputation as a spoiler, winning big upsets here and there when people least expect it. This makes him an important person in the G1 Climax: in a tournament in which advancing to the finals can come down to the tiniest difference in who got points how, nobody wants to lose and especially not to Yano.

As a result, a match with Yano can mean the difference between advancing and not so everyone needs to beat him as quickly as possible. So when Omega, a favorite to win his block following his incredible rise to superstardom beginning in the previous year’s tournament, faced down Yano he had to try and win as quickly as he could…or did he? Would Omega try and put Yano down decisively, or would the urge to engage in comedic nonsense compel him to entertain Yano’s wild ideas?

Well, here we are, the eve of WrestleMania. The long-awaited biggest two-night affair of the year in professional wrestling. Like most of you I’m excited to see what’s going to happen given how much effort has been put into making this show as big as last year’s show if not bigger. But there’s one match that I’m personally not looking forward to all that much because it involves someone that, in my opinion, isn’t worth the spot: Jey Uso.

I’m going to get this out of the way now: I don’t like either of the Usos and never have. Yes, they’ve been around forever and they had a great match two years ago at WrestleMania 39. But I’ve never seen anything special about them. They move and hit like bigger versions of the Young Bucks and their greatest success came from them being in Roman Reigns’ orbit for so many years. And in my opinion Jey Uso the character isn’t even “over”; his entrance and his catchphrase are over. He’s like the wrestling version of a musical artist that’s all look and marketing but once you actually put a mic in front of him you realize that he’s artificial and autotuned to shit.

Then again, his opponent tonight could be so much better. I might be the only person in the world that wants GUNTHER to win tonight but that’s in all likelihood not going to happen. I don’t doubt GUNTHER will carry Jey to a good match and Jey is at least experienced enough to play the hits and get the biggest pops here and there. But once WrestleMania ends and Jey Uso moves past GUNTHER, how will he actually fare as a champion? Well maybe on way to answer that question is to see how well he did against the one person who knows him best, that being his twin brother.

So despite my own personal apathy towards these two men, I’m going into this match with a blank slate. With that, let’s see if their match from last year’s WrestleMania was really that bad or not…

On paper a singles match between John Cena and Mark Henry might look like a complete wash. After all neither man was ever known for setting the world on fire in terms of quality matches, especially in 2013 when WWE was firmly in its own self-contained universe and any notion of other styles was immediately swept under the rug. But sometimes all it takes is one spark, one surprise, to change everything. And that’s exactly what happened with Mark Henry.

These days Mark Henry is known for a handful of specific things: his Hall of Pain gimmick, his ludicrous strength (which, all things considered, wasn’t used to its fullest when he was in his prime), and his epic, 5-Star retirement speech. You know, the one with the salmon jacket that had everyone getting all teary-eyed, only for him to swerve everyone with one of the best-executed swerves in modern times? That one.

In the years that followed that speech has taken on a life of its own. Henry’s fellow legends have praised it for how captivating and believable it was. Henry alleges that he got a phone call from Hulk Hogan who said that was the only time someone in the business actually got him. Even Henry’s salmon-colored jacket has become a talking point among nostalgic fans. But at the end of the day this was still a promo to setup a match. And if the promo was so outstanding, surely the match it led to was just as good, right? Right?

Mitsuharu Misawa is a pro wrestling legend. Even if his name might not be as well-known as, say, Hulk Hogan or The Rock, he still left an undeniable impact on the wrestling business. An entire generation of wrestlers were inspired by his wrestling style and with it helped create the American wrestling indies of the 2000s and 2010s. But even the most inspirational and influential wrestlers can have underwhelming performances and Misawa is no exception. Though his matches with the likes of Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Jun Akiyama, and others are still some of the best and most timeless matches still available for free on the internet, he wasn’t able to have such tremendous matches with every opponent imaginable. Such was the case when Misawa took on a newcomer to All Japan after years of strictly enforced isolationism and the end result was…meh.

When people talk about Shawn Michaels and his status as a genuine GOAT contender, they often do so based on Michaels’ more serious and dramatic matches and stories. But the guy was also pretty damn good at making people laugh too. And there was at least one occasion where making people laugh wasn’t even his main intention.

Almost two decades ago Shawn Michaels had one of the funniest matches in WWE history. It wasn’t a typical WWE-style comedy match (thankfully) because no one besides Michaels himself knew what was going to go down here. The result was something truly special for its time, and while it was FAR from any kind of in-ring classic, it added another feather to Michaels’ cap nonetheless.

When people look back at Brock Lesnar’s storied career there’s a clear distinction between his two runs. Though his more recent one has been more successful for him, his career, and his wallet, it was his first run from 2002-2004 that not only put him on the map but also gave the fans more of their money’s worth. Lesnar’s matches with Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker, and others, during that first run produced not just the best work of Lesnar’s career, but some of the best matches in WWE history, and this was with a guy who was still fairly new and inexperienced. Come 2012 and his second run, though, Lesnar has taken a different turn.

While he has smartened up and protected himself to the point of being formulaic in the ring, his actual matches have, at times, left a lot to be desired. This match serves as a great example of that: it had nothing going for it for the first ten minutes and then it had a shocking ending that caused a huge stir backstage and online. But was it really any good?

From time to time I like to review weird matches to see how well they hold up. It’s one thing to review so-called classics to see if they’ve withstood the test of time; it’s another thing to revisit odd and obscure matches that are better suited to random wrestling-related trivia and see if they were any good as well. And few matches have such an overwhelming “random trivia” air about them on paper as the singles match between The Miz and Jerry Lawler.

These two men couldn’t’ve come from more opposite sides even if they lived at the North and South Poles, respectively. Lawler was an unofficial wrestling GOD among his peers and successors, so much so that criticizing him or saying anything bad about him was discouraged or seen to be in poor taste. On the opposite side of things was The Miz, an “actor” turned wrestler who, in my opinion, deserves some kind of documentary/HBO special about his life and accomplishments considering how he entered this business from such a different background, had so much hate from the beginning that most people wrote him off as dead on arrival, and yet is still thriving over twenty years after his formal professional debut.

Two men who have achieved wider respect for two similar yet different reasons: one for being an exemplary pioneer of American wrestling, the other for surviving in a cut-throat industry hostile to outsiders WAY longer than anyone ever expected. And when these two men clashed it was an…interesting…situation, to be sure.

These days many people react to guys like John Cena and The Rock with overwhelming happiness and hype. Those same people must have either short memories or selective ones because those overwhelmingly positive reactions don’t take into account just how…artificial…things were when these guys first faced off.

When Cena and Rock had their big feud at WrestleMania XXVIII it was promoted as a once-in-a-lifetime happening on par with Rock versus Hogan from WrestleMania X8. But truth be told, while the match was hyped as the greatest thing since sliced bread when, in actuality, the final product was nowhere close to living up to that marketing.

As a result, this match makes for an interesting case study. It’s a terrific example of what happens when complacency and pattern leads to false promises. I’ve noted before that WWE, when unchallenged, had this mentality to deliver less than optimal matches after receiving the fans’ money. This match serves as a prime example of that, and a reminder of what the company could possibly fall back to if they get too comfortable in their dominance in the market.

When people talk about the best performers in WWE history Shawn Michaels’ name is one of the first to come up. His Hall of Fame career is filled with great moments and matches, many of which get replayed from time to time to this very day. And up until recently, included in those replays was a big moment when he had a match with Vince McMahon. But given recent events it’s unlikely that we’ll be hearing of this match anytime soon.

That’s somewhat unfortunate because this is an…interesting…match to say the least. It’s a fine little case study in watching WWE scramble to create a WrestleMania-worthy match after their initial plans fell apart due to an unexpected tragedy. Few people expected this match to be any good; spectacular yes but nothing worth crowing about. But if there was one person still in WWE at the time that could live up to the old “broomstick” argument it was Shawn Michaels. So let’s see if the closest thing to him wrestling an actual broomstick does indeed hold up after almost two full decades.

Concluding our trinity of infamous Roman Reigns WrestleMania main events we have his last before the entire world turned upside down. Which is sort of fitting because the Roman Reigns from before the pandemic and the one that returning after it began were worlds apart from one another.

Despite being arguably the biggest wrestling star of the past ten years, Reigns had one of the bumpiest roads to the top in recent memory. Much of this wasn’t entirely his fault: as his most recent run has proven he is more than capable as a draw and has actually become a babyface with most of the wrestling world despite being portrayed as a heel. Indeed, it was the material he was given with at first that made him into such a reviled wrestler; and since those passionate and vocal opponents of his knew they couldn’t target or affect Vince McMahon directly, they opted to try and tarnish his next handpicked creation in any way they could.

And so, Reigns main-evented four consecutive WrestleManias and in all of them he was met with significantly more boos than cheers. Yet each match was different: his first in 2015 was largely positive thanks to arguably the biggest surprise in WrestleMania history. His 2016 appearance was more slow than it was outright bad, thanks to it bookending the longest and most exhausting WrestleMania of all time. His third was a damning indictment of his lack of skill and his opponent being clearly unfit to wrestle. But after all of those ups and downs, how did Reigns fare once things came full circle and he found himself facing Brock Lesnar once again?

I never thought I’d ever type these words, but even wrestling legends like Kenta Kobashi and Vader can have underwhelming matches.

Though both men are widely hailed as two of the best to ever do it, their chemistry together doesn’t compare to how they fared with others. Kobashi in particular is kind of like a 1990s/2000s version of Kenny Omega or Will Ospreay: a guy who has/had a reputation of being able to have an exciting match that exceeds expectations with a broom and while asleep. That reputation followed him into the main-event scene in Japan, where the pressure to live up to the hype was at its highest. And it seems like on this occasion that pressure got to him and while he put on a good match, it was far from the great match everyone had come to expect of him.

WrestleMania 32 is still considered one of the worst entries in the event’s illustrious history. It stands as a terrific example of a company treating its audience as cash cows and not as actual people to be entertained. It started the trend of painfully long Big Four PLEs, a trend that would continue unabated until the COVID Pandemic. It featured some of the weirdest booking decisions imaginable, including a few that even the youngest or most casual of viewers would question. And it concluded with a main-event that only one person really wanted.

Triple H and Roman Reigns were put in the unenviable task of closing the show in front of a tired, annoyed, and in some cases frustrated live audience. Dave Meltzer accurately described the sentiment going into the main-event as “fruit after its expiration date”. Say what you want about the guy, from time to time his analyses do, in fact, hit the mark. This match did indeed leave a bad taste in many people’s mouths, to the point that many people left the show either disappointed or outright mad. But were they mad because the whole show was, top to bottom, long and filled with questionable storyline conclusions? Or was the main-event really as bad as the live audience, spoiled by what happened the night before at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, claimed it to be?