3. Good God Almighty
Taking a break from WWE for a moment, and looking at a truly wonderful bit of improvisation from New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Special in San Francisco in 2018.
For a few years, the official English announce team for New Japan’s tv show on AXS TV had been good ol’ JR Jim Ross and Josh Barnett, a former MMA star and nobody to mess with.
During the show, during a match between Juice Robinson, another JR, and Jay White, a prick, White suplexed Juice into the guard rail which knocked the announce table backwards, into JR, who fell from his chair.
Josh Barnett then coolly responded, well ‘wow you done f**ked up now’, stood up from the announce table and went after Jay White who was soaking up nuclear heat.
It was a mad, electric little memory from the match, which was so effective and cool that some thought it was a work, though both and Barnett and JR insist it was an unplanned, real moment.
2. Till I Collapse
ECW is full of happy accidents. Its loose show structure, heavy reliance on crowdwork, and its rabidly loyal and loud fanbase created a whole bunch of unplanned moments that would define the beloved, anarchic promotion.
The “throw me a chair” debacle is a fondly remembered example, as well as moments like the Heatwave 1999 incident which saw Bubba Ray start a mini-riot with his heel crowd-baiting.
Gosh, those angry fans. Gosh. However, perhaps most emblematic of how alive classic ECW shows used to be, how fierce a connection they had with their fans, occasionally to the show’s detriment, would be the fans swarming the ring for a post-match dance party with Public Enemy at a show called Sunshine State Slaughter in 1995.
So many ECW fans got into the ring and jumped up jumped up and got down that the rings supports buckled and the whole thing collapsed. A perfect example of the sheer crushing love that ECW generated in its heyday.
1. Making The Man
Chris Jericho accidentally struck Rebecca Hickenbottom and made an amazing moment, Nia Jax accidentally struck Becky Lynch and made a megastar. Nothing about Becky Lynch’s rise to the top of women’s wrestling really went how it was supposed to.
Becky was supposed to turn heel at SummerSlam 2018 but got the loudest cheers of the night, the main event of WrestleMania 35 was supposed to be Charlotte vs. Ronda, but Becky got too popular to be ignored and originally Becky was supposed to wrestle and lose to Ronda at Survivor Series but Nia Jax punched her face open and the match was canceled at the last minute.
It ended up being a glorious accident. Not only did it mean that the Ronda/Becky match got pushed back allowing more hype to build, more trash-talking on Twitter, but that shot of Becky, defiant, sporting a very much broken face but still standing amongst her fans, triumphant.
It was more nakedly heroic and badass than any scripted WWE babyface underdog comeback spot or “lol my opponent’s poopy” promo could ever manage.
Sheer swagger and a career-best visual, born of one errant punch to the face. Sometimes wrestling’s just like that. The best-laid schemes of mice and the man, gang aft agley
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3 years ago by Adam Blampied
@AdamTheBlampied
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