10 Best TV Wrestling Matches Ever
3. Bret Hart Vs. 123 Kid - WWF Monday Night RAW, July 11, 1994
A match that wasn't going to sell a pay-per-view - an all-babyface dynamic has to be massive to work, and the 123 Kid was much too slight for the paying fanbase to take him seriously enough in the role of PPV WWF Title challenger - the experimental format of early Monday Night RAW was its perfect home.
Bret Hart, genius of the craft, sold them on it within seconds.
The Kid leveraged Hart's weight and took him down with an arm drag. Hart put Kid over with a single facial expression and tilt of the head, as if to say "He's better than I thought" - a message that doubled, magnificently, as "He's better than you thought" - before re-engaging with a very tentative lock-up. The detail was tremendous here. It took an age for those hands to connect. Kid was dealing with pre-match nerves; Hart, suddenly confronted with this game-changing proposition, intra-match nerves. The theme of respect was beautifully realised even in the spaces between moves.
Hart's nerves settled into a seethe when the Kid kipped up immediately from an early body slam. Hart was powerful - this was a fail-safe strategy - but the Kid was both skilled and resilient. Hart, deserted by his technique, had to alter his demeanour, and smashed the Kid in the face with a series of bruising European uppercuts after the Kid's explosiveness had to be contained beyond, only slightly, the pre-match code of conduct.
It evolved into a spectacular but substantive match of shifting character dynamics - a layered and deeply influential TV masterclass that informs to this day Cody's TNT Championship open challenge.