10 Awesome Wrestling Spots That Were Totally Improvised
Making it up as they go along...
Wrestling isn't real.
The hazards are, as an entire generation were informed by Don't Try This At Home PSAs at the height of the Attitude Era, but the results are pre-determined and all the major moments within a match should theoretically be in the minds of the wrestlers as they magically craft their jaw-dropping spectacle for the masses.
It isn't real, but nor is it as fake. It utilises the physicality of real sports, but captures the excitement of live theatre - there are no reshoots in front of a crowd if things go wrong, and even repetition of a spot risks throwing away the story being told for the good of that single beat.
It's when wrestlers are forced to improvise that things could go badly wrong, or because they already have. Kurt Angle called for Brock Lesnar to hit a final F5 at WrestleMania XIX when 'The Beast's lights were way, way out after a botched shooting star press. He had to clamber aboard a concussed monster's shoulders in the hope that Lesnar would remember what the f*ck he was supposed to do in that moment. It wasn't awesome in the traditional sense, but it was quite the feat nonetheless.
Angle was as good as anybody in this spot, which certainly helped his credibility a year later...
10. He Hurt Kurt
As awkward as it was (literally) gripping, the shoot showdown between Tough Enough competitor and Mixed Martial Arts amateur Daniel Puder and Kurt Angle almost ended in disaster for the Olympian when the trainee very nearly broke his arm in an open challenge.
The storyline called for Angle the bully heel to roughhouse the candidates, but Puder's unexpected skillset left the Hall Of Famer in all sorts of bother before the two rolled into enough of a pinning combination for the referees to count three.
Angle looked incensed as he squared up to Puder in the aftermath, with few fans fortunately catching how close he was to capitulation. It was barely his improvisation - he moved just enough for the officials to count the fall and save his skin. SmackDown was taped, but losing face (and an arm) in this manner would have required a total axing of the segment.
Puder's cared were marked from this point, despite what were clearly just his best efforts.