10 MORE Wrestling Matches That Became Inadvertently Infamous
7. Tommy Rich Vs Buzz Sawyer (Georgia Championship Wrestling, 23 October 1983)
Almost irreconcilable in execution based on second and third hand reports of a match so bloody and violent that only the live crowd and television viewers caught at the time, Tommy Rich and Buzz Sawyer's Hell In A Cell prototype some 24 years before Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker literally burst out of the gate with their introduction of the gimmick.
'HBK' was wise to the concept having been a huge fan of Georgia Championship Wrestling and the match itself from the time it originally came to pass. Speaking to WWE.com years later around the marketing to have the contest at long last restored on the WWE Network, he noted, "We had that big blue steel cage that was brutal. It hurt so bad. It was tight up against the ring. I remembered years ago, Buzz Sawyer and Tommy Rich in The Omni, they had a top on the cage. I remember suggesting that."
The footage of the clash was long thought lost until it was discovered amongst unkempt WCW footage still being ordered and organised for upload by WWE's crack staff. It's release brought to life in-context brutality many had for decades only been able to imagine.