10 Classic Wrestling Rivalries With ONE THING MISSING
Load up the "My Way" video packages (but leave out that one thing we didn't quite get around to...)
When wrestling pulls off anything close to perfection, there's very little conversation about just how difficult that actually is.
Fantasy booking is fun and easy because it's merely an act of pairing your favourite wrestlers together, taking the time to find what binds then breaks them, and imagining the match going exactly as you specifically would want it to in your head. As wrestling has historically highlighted, real life isn't anywhere near as easy as all of that.
You've got to have the platform, the story and the promotional nous just for starters. And the show doesn't happen without the people falling on their backs for your money. It's not easy to have the stars align, figuratively and literally. There's the small matter of the wrestlers actually being willing to do what's been asked of them. Work with people they may not like or particularly rate or trust. Then if they do, if they'll follow and perform what's been laid out to specification.
There aren't many Rock/Austin WrestleMania trilogies, and even that's cursed by the WrestleMania X-Seven dropping the boom period on the stack of dimes it used to call a neck. Plenty came within touching distance of it, with only one thing being just out of reach...
10. Bret Hart Vs Steve Austin - A Definitive Singles Payoff
Was WrestleMania 13's Submission Match between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin the most important and significant contest in WWE history?
Yes, it was. But if you were so inclined, you could probably make just as cogent a case for their first pay-per-view bout at Survivor Series 1996. That was Hart's return, 'The Rattlesnake's coming out party, both men's storyline raisons d'etre as they embarked on rivalries and runs that reshaped their lives and careers forever, and an absolute killer match to boot.
After the 'Show Of Shows' bloodbath changed everything though, they were hardly ever together again one-on-one. In Your House: Revenge Of The 'Taker the following month and the iconic Monday Night Raw No Holds Barred matches ended by disqualification and No Contest respectively, and Austin was shifted over to Owen Hart after the youngest sibling pinned him the classic Canadian Stampede multi-man main event.
They'd have certainly come back around to one another (Hart envisaged a WrestleMania XIV rematch to launch Austin as Champion) had 'The Excellence Of Execution' still been around, but he wasn't and they didn't.