8 Great Wrestling Matches (That Weren't Supposed To Happen)
In search of lost smiles.
Wrestling fans know best. By this point, it's a well-established cliché of the industry's fandom, and a regular shorthand opening many a list on the subject (see: here). Case in point: fantasy booking. When it comes to what should happen, either now, or down the line, a squadron of keyboard-tapping would-be pencils generally hold firm convictions that their fictional cards are 100% better than anything the honchos at any of the major promotions can come up with. Within this area, more often than not, they are right - in principle.
As any football fan knows however, the game ain't played in paper, and sometimes the best results are those which weren't sought. Were it not an overused favourite of embryonic authors the world over, 'serendipity' would be the perfect term to describe those bouts which were absolutely not on anybody's agenda until, suddenly, they were.
But for absences, accidents, or misplaced smiles, a handful of the industry's greatest ever matches would never have even entered the bookers' minds - fantasy or otherwise. It really isn't the best thing to get what you want all the time.
8. AJ Styles Vs. Finn Bálor (TLC 2017)
The whole world was all set for a sensationally dreadful Halloween horror at TLC 2017, which would have seen a Demonic Finn Bálor collide with Bray Wyatt dressed as a pumpkin. As wonderfully woeful as that contest promised be, an undisclosed fever serendipitously dislodged the pre-Fiend failure, and good gourd almighty did we get an upgrade in lieu.
For one night only - this back when the Brand Split's rules were vaguely relevant - AJ Styles was permitted to migrate from SmackDown as a replacement, generating a mouthwatering clash between two of the Bullet Club's former capocannonieri.
The pair weren't shy about leaning into their shared New Japan history - much to the inevitable chagrin, or more likely, profound bafflement, of their mutual employer. Fans absolutely lapped it up; instead of a spooky farce, they'd suddenly been handed a bona fide dream match between two of the industry's finest.