10 Best "Everything You Know Is A Lie" Moments In Wrestling
Busted wide open when nobody's even got a blade, these are wrestling's best ever rug-pulls.
When did you find out wrestling wasn't entirely on the up-and-up?
Was the myth blown wide open for you at school? By a friend who had a different hobby and wanted you to jump ship? At work, at a time in your life when you really should have known better?
It's a dreary question often asked of weary wrestling fans, because - and you'll know this because you're reading this - the answer doesn't really matter. The fix didn't stop you engaging with it, because that wasn't what ever drew you in in the first place. Not really, anyway. Your writer's Dad blew it up rather matter-of-factly to stop his 5-year-old attempting the Ultimate Warrior's gorilla press slam on Kev Cooper in the Filey Junior School playground, not that he couldn't easily counter anyway. Your writer probably went straight back to having his Warrior action figure throw the Hogan action figure around the house with it anyway.
It's not that wrestling fans don't like the feeling of the rug being pulled - it's just about making sure it's the right rug. Wrestling isn't real, which makes it all the more impressive when they manufacture this specific emotion...
10. The Rock Is The Corporate Champion
The best night of Vince Russo's creative career, Survivor Series 1998 found virtually every angle of significance in the company at the time - and it was November 1998 so that's f*cking loads - centred around one of the best and most ingenious twists in wrestling history.
Everything you knew wasn't just a lie, but a cruel knowing lie designed to break your heart because it attempted to destroy your hero. The Rock joining forces with a reunited Vince and Shane McMahon after all three ostensibly couldn't wait to kill each other days earlier was inspired. That understates it, in fact. Coming together with multiple common purposes and doing so in a way that could clearly be mapped back to earlier in the year when all of them were getting nowhere they needed to be with Stone Cold Steve Austin in the way was genuinely majestic wrestling story telling.
It's still astonishing now how many different boxes it ticked; The Montreal Screwjob once referenced when that seemed unthinkable, McMahon was so evil and desperate to screw Austin that he pulled Mick Foley into his cycle of abuse, Kane and The Undertaker spent months as unwilling and accidental henchmen until they tore each other apart and every one of The Big Boss Man's attempts to screw The Rock on the night were instead reframed as making sure he made the final.