10 Infamous Wrestling Matches That Took Place Outside The Ring
Who needs a ring when you have a parking lot, boiler room, or concession stand?
What is one major component of a professional wrestling match? If you said "ring", you'd normally be correct but, for the purposes of this list, you're dead wrong.
How can you have a professional wrestling match without a wrestling ring? It's a valid question and poses a difficult answer, but the individuals that will be discussed in this article were creative enough to get it done. In some cases, maybe they shouldn't have, but they did anyway.
From Mick Foley to Terry Funk, several superstars made a career out of their out-of-bounds style which would later come to be called "hardcore". But not every wrestler that competed in a match outside the ring was known for their reckless abandon. Some of the performers that appeared in these matches are among the greatest technical wrestlers of all-time, but could take it to the streets when they wanted to.
The 10 matches about to be discussed are unique in that the ring was not used very often, if at all, in these famous contests. Some of these matches may have technically concluded in the ring, or saw the ring used for a few, brief moments, but overall, these bouts were made memorable because the ring wasn't integral as most of the action took place outside of it
To call these matches memorable isn't to say they were all 5-star classics, but
for their unique nature, fans remember these battles.
10. Roddy Piper Vs. Goldust - Hollywood Backlot Brawl (WrestleMania XII)
WrestleMania XII's Hollywood Backlot Brawl was a non-title street fight in the parking lot of the Anaheim Pond arena that took place between the Interim WWF President at the time, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and the Intercontinental Champion, Goldust.
This original match was internally scheduled as Goldust vs. Razor Ramon in a Miami Street Fight, but with Scott Hall giving WWE his notice weeks before WrestleMania, the promotion decided to change course. According to Hall, he was suspended for a drug test that was six weeks old and then WWE inserted the Hot Rod into Razor's WrestleMania role.
The match is a memorable WrestleMania moment but it was actually taped days before the live event on March 31st, 1996. In what was a very physical contest with several stiff shots (mostly delivered by Piper to Goldust), the contest lasted throughout the event. Perhaps the most remembered scene came was the footage of Piper supposedly chasing Goldust on California's 405 freeway in a white Ford Bronco, an obvious reference to the infamous OJ Simpson chase from a timely 2 years prior.
Despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of the Bronco footage, the match was very physical and serious in nature until the end, when Goldust was stripped to reveal he was wearing woman's lingerie under his wrestling attire.
This would be Piper's last PPV appearance for WWE before signing with WCW later in the year and, in addition to his WrestleMania payoff, Piper also got to keep the Ford Bronco.