10 Wrestling Matches We Didn’t Know Changed EVERYTHING
How a forgotten Goldust vs Starrdust B-PPV match has ended up changed the wrestling landscape.
Usually, the shifting trajectory of professional wrestling can be traced to a single match because that match promises change. The very idea is to make change happen.
The big, World Championship win is framed as the pinnacle of achievement, and often the genesis of a new era. Bret Hart's maiden 1992 reign gradually shifted the WWF away from magnetic if basic hoss battles powered by megastars; with the mainstream bubble burst, only the real wrestling fans remained. Bret Hart was the wrestler for the wrestling fan: an astute choice to lead what would be subsequently marketed as the New Generation.
'Stone Cold' Steve Austin captured the WWF Heavyweight Championship from Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV in front of a roaring crowd adorned in those iconic 'Austin 3:16' black tees. In doing so, he was framed as the undisputed, super-over top star of the emerging Attitude Era. That match was designed to convey the idea of change, and the design was meticulous. Vince McMahon refused to crown Austin prematurely, willingly allowing Montreal to happen rather than present Austin's huge moment as a rushed political necessity.
The landscape also changes by accident.
That famous design, and the character itself, may not have exploded the industry, had he not made an impression in the mind of his boss - and on the whipped back of a 1996 opponent...
10. Triple H Vs. Buck Zumhofe - WWF Wrestling Challenge, April 25, 1995
At the time, this was thoroughly unremarkable New Generation undercard fare: beyond the electric, quietly revolutionary in-ring main event style, the WWF, deprived of star power, experimented with super-gimmicks divorced from reality.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley was one of many: a blue blood aristocrat character, he debuted, in a bizarre spot of trivia, opposite abhorrent, incestuous paedophile Buck Zumhofe. Helmsley entered the ring with his nose stuck firmly in the air, almost reaching the ceiling, before taking Zumfofe down with a few basic grappling holds. Flooring Zumfofe with a few European uppercuts, Helmsley unleashed a spinning back heel kick, but connected with the knee, betraying the snooty ring general pitch. After some clumsy Irish whip counters, Helmsley won with the quickly-abandoned Ace Crusher.
He stole that one from John 'Johnny Ace' Laurinaitis.
He also stole his position, years and years later, as the Head of Talent Relations and developmental head honcho after a controversial and epic main event career driven, in no small part, by his romantic association with Stephanie McMahon. The raw talent, who struggled to project himself as superior, was said to have brought "civility" to the World Wrestling Federation.
In reality, he altered the very complexion of it, onscreen and off.
Fittingly, the most divisive pro wrestling figure ever epitomised that legacy by both dominating a sterile and often boring main event scene and creating WWE's most critically-acclaimed in-ring product ever.