10 Wrestling Matches That Shaped Vince McMahon’s Vision Of Sports Entertainment

10. Tommy Rich Vs. Buzz Sawyer - Georgia Championship Wrestling, October 23, 1983

Known as the Last Battle Of Atlanta, this brutal domed cage bout acted as the precursor to WWE’s Hell In A Cell stipulation - but the footage had been lost for so long that it became more myth than match, posthumously.

By 2016, it was thought to have been accidentally erased - until the WWE Network’s enterprising archive team stumbled across a library unassumingly titled “Omni Live Events”. Within it, they found one of the most innovative matches ever. Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer were the perfect opponents. Rich was the bleached blonde pretty boy, a man who could charm the fans with his preternatural selling pluck. Sawyer was an ugly wildman, as nasty as he was intense. The match literally bleeds through time to retain its status as a classic, one which WWE adopted and subverted to scintillating effect fifteen years later. Whereas the Last Battle Of Atlanta was enclosed by mesh to guarantee a conclusive finish, WWE literally broke away from the formula to create scope for debuting monsters and lunatic stunt shows.

The claret poured early in 1983 - the stipulation bayed for blood as much as Sawyer did - with Rich fighting from underneath in a masterclass of suspense and (eventual) release. When he unleashed that famed wild fire, against the odds, the Atlanta crowd were deafening in their catharsis.

The match distilled the essence of pro wrestling as much as it advanced it.