10 Genius Wrestling Decisions Made Up On The Fly
Outstanding grapplers like Shawn Michaels and CM Punk not only stealing the show, but saving it too.
Improvising promos and calling matches on the fly has led to some monumental moments in pro wrestling.
It’s how we ended up with such famous lines as Ric Flair’s "With a tear in my eye” and Chris Jericho’s "A little bit of the bubbly!", and legendary spots like Kurt Angle relentlessly belly-to-belly suplexing Shane McMahon threw pexiglass until it broke.
WWE in particular has received its fair share of criticism over the years for overly scripting promos and telegraphing finishes, and not giving its Superstars the freedom they desperately want to get over. But sometimes, the superstars come up against moments where they have to call spots on the fly, and ultimately sink or swim on live TV in front of thousands of fans in attendance, when catastrophic circumstances happen in matches.
If you ever want to know how great a wrestler truly is, look to see how well they do under pressure. With it being far too much for some, and crumbling under the stress of it all. But grapplers like these are so good at what they do they can ad-lib when necessary and turn the whole match/angle around for the better...
10. The Kabuki Warriors Vs. Becky Lynch And Charlotte Flair (TLC 2019)
Kairi Sane suffered a devastating concussion in her match at TLC, when she teamed with Asuka to defend their Women's Tag Team Championship against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in the headline attraction of the show.
Somewhere in the match Sane got hurt, and it was evident to most watching in spots with Charlotte where she could barely stand when taking a spear and a powerbomb. With WWE’s rigid safety protocol with concussions, it’s a wonder WWE didn’t immediately take Sane out of the match.
But as soon as Becky realised Kairi was hurt, ‘The Man’ did everything she could to protect her for the rest of the match. Most notably in fan footage from the event showing Becky shrewdly rolling Kairi under the ring to prevent her from getting any more hurt than she already was.
Becky was the one who took control of the match as it was turning chaotic and disorganised, proving to everyone why exactly she was the female face of the company. Becky communicated with Asuka after hitting a Bexpolder on her that they quickly need a new finish to the match, with Kairi out of action. And that’s how we got the rushed but excellent finish of Asuka solely pulling Becky off the ladder with a rope (wrapped around it), picking up the win and keeping the titles for her and Kairi.