10 Most Re-Watched Wrestling Moments Of All Time
2. Ping!
The Austin Vs. McMahon programme was arguably the most important and most lucrative in all of modern wrestling. On the evidence of this angle, the perfect distillation of its brilliance, it was also the most entertaining.
His ankle shattered by the Undertaker and Kane in late '98, McMahon was consigned to a hospital bed, at which Mankind attempted to nurse him back to health in a fabulous, unwelcome Patch Adams bit. The setup to the subsequent seminal slapstick punchline was crucial to its success.
"Every time you've tested it, you've found that it's normal. Every. Single. Time," McMahon sneered to the nurse, his patience visibly drained. He was down. That was the perfect time for Austin to kick him.
"I'll take it from here, nurse," he said with a disarming breeze, hiding in plain sight - before launching rapid-fire fists in the vicinity of McMahon's face. Vince's agonised selling here was perfect. And then, the "ping"; Austin cracked McMahon over the head with a bedpan so hard that the noise echoed into hearts everywhere.
Much like the great Simpsons football-to-groin sound effect, this can't be explained. It just possesses a wonderfully simple, juvenile quality - the very essence of humour.