10 Most Berserk WWE Matches Ever
The Fast & The Furious.
Whether or not the fabled 'WWE Style' is just that - a fable - is debatable.
Pace is key. The "Big WWE Match", historically speaking, is slow (or at least starts out slowly). WrestleMania 33's Triple H vs. Seth Rollins typified it. The lines between face and heel were clearly marked. The space between moves was treated with as much as reverence than the moves themselves, creating scope for either prime psychology or borderline tedium, taste depending. The camera lingered on Rollins' agonised face with an almost voyeuristic zeal. He crumpled into a heap in the face of Trips' systematic assault. His comebacks were telegraphed with gutsy body language - before Trips cut them off right at the cusp to galvanise the crowd into roaring for their new babyface phoenix.
At least, that was the intention; they were silent for long stretches. The evidence for this failure was circumstantial - the sun was out, the card was bloated - but the crowd reaction indicted Trips' annual 'Mania body language festival as behind the times.
Times are changing. The rise of the indy set has sped up WWE matches on the whole, for better or worse. But even in years gone by, there were exceptions to the first gear rule...
10. 41-Man Battle Royal - SmackDown (14 October 2011)
Alan Partridge: I've probably got more friends than you've got cows.
Peter Baxendale-Thomas: I've got 100 cows.
Alan Partridge: I've got 104 friends.
This ironic joke of pathetic oneupmanship was parroted, unironically, by WWE in 2011 - who in a fit of "FIRST!" booked a 41-Man Battle Royal purely to eclipse that year's 40-Man Royal Rumble as the biggest match in the history of the company. The mass of bodies was indistinguishable enough before the realisation hit that so many of them were FCW CAWs. The lunatic commentary of Michael Cole, Booker T and Josh Matthews added to the sensory assault. Cole was in full dialled-up heel mode; Booker T discovered alliteration; Josh Matthews added to the widespread confusion by getting nigh-on every wrestler's name wrong. There were so many bodies in there that Dolph Ziggler almost suffered a concussion when Primo bounced on his head en route to the floor.
The words "It's the largest battle royal in WWE history!" were uttered at least twice per minute. There were almost as many stupidly overblown eliminations, as one low card outlier after another attempted to steal the limelight. Drew McIntyre in particular almost broke his ankles attempting a sort of cartwheel bump.
As desperate as it was furious as it was a meaningless blur, a more apt visual metaphor for WWE in 2011 you will not find.