7 Awesome Wrestling Matches (That The Critics Hated)

7. WarGames - WCW Fall Brawl 1994

"It was a good match by normal standards but nowhere close to previous War Games," wrote Meltzer.

That much was true; divorced from its mythical house show roots and manifested, bloody WrestleWar brilliance, blood didn't fall at Fall Brawl as a result of the company's new, corporate policy. But, on its own merits - and looking back is a luxury Meltzer obviously did not have - this was a barnstormer, the entrepreneurial creativity of which should have seen it celebrated as an enforced and excellent departure from the bloodbaths of old.

Years before Adam Col et al. modernised its in-ring mode, Dustin Rhodes in his guise as The Natural flew at Arn Anderson from all angles before trapping him between rings and sending him head-first into the crevice. He then flew over two sets of ropes to deliver a flying shoulder tackle, and, in another inventive use of his environment, used the roof to add punch to a kick. Arn being Arn - amazing - he sold all this is as if barely surviving a drunken bar fight. Even the costuming was a new and inventive means of putting over the old wartime spirit of teams in the trenches; Dusty Rhodes, brilliantly, decked himself out in the neon silly string threads of his Nasty Boys partners, growing out a mini-mullet for the occasion.

Terry Funk was awesome value, reaching so far to get into the mix that he came a cropper between the rings with his boot flying. He disappeared under both entirely when Jerry Sags pile-drove him into into oblivion.

WarGames did die a dismal death - but not on 28 September 1994.