10 Great Matches That Inadvertently Ruined Wrestling

Legend has it that Randy Savage faxed pages upon pages of sequences to a mystified and put out Ricky Steamboat, more accustomed to gauging crowd reaction and crafting his matches using that barometer, ahead of their famous match at WrestleMania III.

That premeditated match was a classic - at least by the standards of 1987. The athleticism, pace and purity of wrestling form was antithetical to anything the WWF promoted at the time, which in truth has likely enhanced its mythical reputation among modern fans, many of whom consider it the best match in history.

Irrespective of how great it actually was, on its own merits, its unfortunate influence cannot be denied. Savage's quest for perfection ultimately resulted in mundanity, insofar as his successors go. In a micromanaged WWE landscape, every match you see on television and pay-per-view is mapped out, move for move, in advance, creating an environment of standardised predictability. Most everybody in WWE pulls off a dive in 2017. Most every dive acts as a segue to a commercial break. Rinse and repeat.

The rote learning process has become so entrenched that the majority of modern performers are not permitted, much less capable, of using their initiative to rescue themselves from disaster, creating a Randy Orton Vs. Sheamus-shaped paradox of tedium.