Top Ten WWE Hardcore Matches

2 – The Rock vs Mankind – Royal Rumble 1999

Jeez, Mick’s been in the wars, hasn’t he?

Following his legendary championship victory over The Rock on Raw, WWE Champion – the one that made thousands of wrestling fans across the world change the channel from WCW and never change back – Mick Foley (playing his Mankind character), put his championship on the line against the ‘Great One’ in an I Quit match at the Royal Rumble.

This match is beyond brutal; Foley jumped off ladders, fell through tables with electrical equipment on them, and, in perhaps the most infamous moment of the match, took numerous unprotected chair shots to his head after Rock handcuffed his hands behind his back.

In the excellent wrestling documentary, Beyond The Mat, Foley explains that his wife and children were left traumatized after watching this match from ringside and, to be honest, it’s not hard to see why. This match and his families reaction to it are largely the reason why Mick stepped back his hardcore antics in his later years.

One of the most brutal bouts to ever take place in a WWE ring, this is yet another example of a match being both violent and well-crafted, as it helped to further the excellent Rock-Mankind story that dominated the build-up to WrestleMania XV.

 

1 – Triple H vs Cactus Jack – Royal Rumble 2000

Of course, it’s Mick again. Who else could it have been?

The brilliantly-built feud between WWE Champion, Triple H, and his challenger, Mick Foley, reached its pinnacle during this Street Fight at Madison Square Garden in 2000.

Desperate to overcome the bully heel, Foley resurrected his old Cactus Jack persona; a violent, deranged fighter with even less regard for his own wellbeing than Foley’s other two characters.

The two men went to war over the WWE title and what a war it was. There were weapons, high spots, brawling in the crowd and all around the arena. Broken tables, broken chairs and broken bodies littered New York’s most famous garden, as ‘The Game’ narrowly escaped with his title following a Pedigree to Foley on a pile of thumbtacks. And that wasn’t even the most violent spot of the match.

Whilst some prefer the pair’s Hell in a Cell match one month later at No Way Out, this has got to be the highlight of the Triple H-Mick Foley feud of 1999/2000 for me. It is an unholy hardcore match with both men portraying their storyline grievances with the other perfectly. It’s also an incredibly innovative match – exactly what you’d expect from two of wrestling’s greatest minds.

A classic match from a classic Pay-Per-View, Triple H vs Cactus Jack at Royal Rumble 2000 should be on every wrestling fan’s bucket list. It’s not just one of the best hardcore matches of all time, it may well be one of the best matches of all time.

• wrestlemania 22
• royal rumble 2000
• street fight
• king of the ring 2001
• Bubba Ray
• the dudley boyz
• Shane McMahon's Craziest Matches
• d-von dudley
• Shane McMahon
• The Hardy Boyz
• Hell In A Cell
• johnny gargano
• I Quit
• kane
• Kurt Angle
• Jeff Hardy
• Broken Matt Hardy
• Mankind
• Matt Hardy
• Mick Foley
• nxt takeover chicago ii
• king of the ring
• tomasso ciampa
• Triple H
• wrestlemania x-seven
• nxt takeover
• bubba ray dudley
• raven
• Extreme Rules
• TLC
• extreme rules 2018
• hardcore championship
• Big Show
• Cactus Jack
• The Rock
• shawn michaels
• Edge
• The Undertaker
• Royal Rumble
• nxt

Share this article with friends