10 Great Matches When Wrestlers Stopped Giving A Damn

10. The Rock Vs. The Hurricane - RAW 10/03/03

The Rock Hurricane
WWE.com

One of the reasons The Rock proved so popular was that he was incapable of not working hard. Okay, he was also the most charismatic man of an entire generation, aesthetically perfect, irritatingly talented and absolutely electric, but the whole ‘working really hard all the time’ thing didn’t hurt. It meant that he still managed to produce greatness, even when he had no real interest in doing so.

A seemingly innocuous RAW match against The Hurricane might well be the best example of this. The two men went one-on-one in March 2003, as WWE was entering a new era. The Rock was more Hollywood than squared circle at this point, and the days of fighting for space at the top of the card were long gone. This was Dwayne Johnson having fun in the ring, doing what he wanted, bugger the consequences.

The two had a fabulous match. The Hurricane was (and is) one of the most underrated in-ring performers of the era, and The Rock played the perfect cocky big-man, underestimating his opponent and coming ever closer to desperation with every passing moment. Sure, the finish was WWE at its most eye-rolling (distracted by rival’s theme music), but this was seriously good pro wrestling. Even when he had stopped caring, The Rock was one of the best.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.