10 Great Wrestling Matches Hidden On Terrible Pay Per Views
Thank Christ we don't have to buy DVDs these days.
In years gone by, scouring the sports racks of HMV was a tortuous experience.
It was payday. Rent hadn't yet dented your overdraft. You fancied an instant wrestling fix, so you headed to the local high street. There, you were confronted by an almost appalling selection, as limited as it was bizarre. Unsold copies of December To Dismember seemed to occupy an entire shelf. Cyber Sunday 2008 was good - but it wasn't better than five after-work pints. You settled on Survivor Series 2007, loudly ruing the moment you remembered the constrictive stipulation in the Randy Orton Vs. Shawn Michaels semi-final bout.
Luckily, with the advent of the WWE Network, great and dire cards alike are but a button press away. I can't recall exactly the cost - WWE neglects to mention it every half hour - but it's a very reasonable deal.
With a few hours - and, mercifully, a fast forward button - at your disposal, one no longer needs to sit through In Your House's dismal Diesel Vs. Sid main event as a matter of principle...
10. Kurt Angle Vs. Rikishi Vs. The Rock Vs. Steve Austin Vs. Triple H Vs. The Undertaker - WWF Armageddon 2000
Armageddon 2000 was the dictionary definition of a one match show.
"Hidden" might be a stretch, given that that this deliriously entertaining six-man Cell offering was the heavily-hyped main event, but the rest of it was so dire that it certainly warrants inclusion here. The WWF's roster of 2000 was massively talented, but its leading men were cast in limited roles throughout the card. Chris Benoit was saddled with Billy Gunn. Chris Jericho's feud with Kane lived down to its inauspicious beginnings, which saw Jericho accidentally spill coffee over the Big Red Machine.
It was a one-match show - but what a match it was. An ultra-violent whirlwind, strategy is as absent as restraint. It's rough around the edges - there's so much going on that the cameramen betray realism at times, forgetting to avoid the men stationed to ready themselves for pinfall break-ups - but almost endearingly so.
Attitude Era crowds were famously hot, but here, the cacophony somehow stands out among the wreckage. Fans are besides themselves in conflicted emotion, so unsure of who to root for that they change their minds as often as the six super-over stars trade the advantage. Wilfully free of psychology, it nonetheless managed to factor in some glorious trademark 2000-era storytelling. McMahon, who did not want his six biggest stars maimed in a match ordered by Commissioner Mick Foley, attempts to tear down the Cell altogether. This of course enables all six participants to brawl around the staging area, so frantically that it affords the legendary Jim Ross the opportunity to throw a procession of iconic conniption fits.
Bloody, breathless, brilliant: It was the (best of the) Attitude Era, embodied.