10 Great Wrestling Matches (That Ruined Everything)
8. Shawn Michaels Vs. Ric Flair - WWE WrestleMania XXIV
Certain story beats only work within the context of the character dynamic.
At WrestleMania XXIV, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair worked a classic match that was unique in its charged emotional heft. If Ric Flair lost, that was it. His legendary career was over. It wasn't, of course - Flair was always going to gig himself daft in TNA - but within the parameters of the fiction, Michaels was conflicted. Deep into the match, as Shawn motioned to hit Sweet Chin Music, he faltered. The weight of retiring an icon hung over him in that moment.
It was a unique match structure, an unforgettable one, and it was really the sort of story that only works once and when the most glittering legacy in the game is at stake. In a wrestling match, you are meant to hurt or at least out-grapple your opponent. You're not meant to stand there and stare at the violence your hands have delivered. It isn't a meditation on the nature of man. Does a Premier League striker stop in front of an open goal and ponder the future of the working class stadium staff if their opposition is relegated as a result?
No. They kiss the badge, and then they sign for another team in the summer.
Regrettably, several subsequent NXT matches (produced by Shawn Michaels) were marred by this device, and the brand itself descended into abject parody before it was killed off.
The "Why am I so violent?" era is now the "Why can't I get my poor poor d*ck wet?" era.