10 Random Acts Of Wrestling Violence You Totally Forgot About
Hiding the hatred.
Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa's brawl around the Performance Center was designed in making deeply-implanted memories in the minds of those that saw it.
The cute implications of this place that fostered them both no longer being big enough for them aside, this was an exercise in establishing grand visuals in place of where the elegant story used to be. The tale is one that can still be told with fantastic video packages loaded with all the callbacks and moments of visceral symmetry, but this particular chapter required the barbells and whistles of a smashed up Performance Center to get the message across. The pair have seen and done everything together at this point, so much so that what was once the biggest angle in NXT no longer feels like it could justifiably main event.
This is the legends tour stage of the #DIY epic - a celebratory lap with some greatest hits thrown in under the veneer of a blood feud that simply has to finally end. The violence was required, but it'll at least be remembered. Unlike these absolutely horrific scenes...
10. Shawn Michaels Is Well Hung
Set to the bright colours of the New Generation, the No Holds Barred match between Diesel and Shawn Michaels remains a timeless triumph because of the violent contradiction the violence was to just about everything else happening in the organisation.
Champion Michaels had gone full white meat babyface in the run-up to his WrestleMania victory over Bret Hart in a match that was clinical pro wrestling to an over-thought fault. The clumsy chaos and danger of his first pay-per-view title defence (and last clash with best buddy Kevin Nash) was a noble reminder that the new WWE Champion also just happened to be the best all-rounder in the world. Problem was, so much happened that some of it has been lost to time.
Michaels covered in the debris of a broken table was epic in scale, whilst the use of Mad Dog Vachon's prosthetic foot was equally as wild in execution, but give the looping gif above some earnest attention. Hands free for the big visual, Michaels allows his mate to briefly attempt to dislodge head from neck in one of the only hanging spots in WWE history. 'HBK' seems to face a choice between choking or decapitation, such was the unflinching brutality of this still-underrated classic.