10 Greatest Wrestling Squash Matches Ever

3. Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena – SummerSlam 2014

Oh man, this match. Some fans really hate Suplex City, believing that on his worst day, Brock just turns up, performs the same exact match as he has on countless occasions – German suplex, German suplex, hope spot, counter finisher into an F5, home in time to try it out a brand new fashion look, maybe cowboy boots and a three-piece suit, maybe a f**king fedora.

What an odd volcano you are, Mr. Lesnar. And sure, there have been some bad times, but holy hell the birth of suplex city was a sheer, unexpected, industry-shifting joy.

Lesnar squashed John Cena in the main event of Summerslam 2014, just ate his lunch, made him a brand new lunch to say sorry, then ate that lunch too.

Cena hadn’t been dominated like that since that episode of Total Divas that I saw in a dream one time.

Fans LOVED it, and Brock briefly became the best thing in wrestling, and suplex city was a meta-gaming wrestling cheat code that somehow gave a brand new type of hyper-entertaining exhibition squash match. The best kind of surprise.

---

2. Mr. Brodie Lee vs. Cody – AEW Dynamite (August 22, 2020)

Man founds his own wrestling promotion, man becomes tentpole figure for said promotion, books himself to become champion, goes on an undefeated run, only to bring in an outside monster to mercilessly squash him.

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because Cody has explicitly stated in interviews that for his match against the late great Brodie Lee on the August 22, 2020, episode of Dynamite, he was trying to exactly recreate Vader vs. Inoki.

I just wish this had had a proper crowd. Oh man I wish there had been a proper crowd.

Cody gets a few punches in and then… nothing. Brodie Lee shuts him down, and just BATTERS him, smashing him inside out with a lariat, purposefully not hooking the leg, and becoming TNT champion in a bonafide squash.

Exceptional booking, fantastic promo after the match, a star-cementing turn that took all our expectations and ripped them apart in all the best ways.

Brodie Lee will always have this night, and the only thing that keeps it from the top spot is the cruel lack of crowd, because as we’ll see, sometimes the right squash can send the crowd insane.

---

1. Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar

Goldberg, the Da Vinci of squash matches. No other wrestler has squash matches built so deeply and irreplaceable into their entire deal than Big Bill.

In the late nineties, Goldie became one of the biggest stars on the planet through a magic formula or pyro, violence and going NNNGH with your face.

His squash against La Parka is a huge amount of fun, eating a chairshot to the head before La Parka does a spooky scary TikTok dance and then eats shit, his match and after match shenanigans with Dolph Ziggler at Summerslam 2019 was hugely entertaining, but it’s this match, of course, it’s this match.

Survivor Series 2016, after beating Taker’s Streak, squashing Cena, after dominating EVERYONE, Goldberg turned up, did a silly face, and squashed Lesnar silly. A shove, two spears, a jackhammer and Pandemonium ensued.

Goldberg’s first match back, Brock’s run of dominance, it’s was so shocking that it briefly broke my and every other wrestling fan’s brain.

Sure it may have led to bad things like Goldberg squashing Kevin Owens and The Fiend, but good god damn, at Survivor Series that night it was a beautiful moment of everyone coming together to rant and rave about pro wrestling still having the power to shock us to the core.

To make sure you stay updated with all the latest wrestling news, add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover feed and follow us on Twitter!

• squash
• Adam Blampied
• Goldberg
• wwe

Share this article with friends