10. Sting vs. Rick Rude (Clash Of The Champions XVII)
In November 1991, Rick Rude had just debuted with WCW a few months earlier and was quickly moving up the card towards the WCW world title. Rude was the leader of the best heel faction in professional wrestling, the Dangerous Alliance, managed by Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman). At Clash of the Champions, Sting was attacked from behind by his on-and-off again friend Lex Luger. Luger injured Sting's leg with a chop block, forcing him to go to the hospital at the beginning of the show. Eric Bischoff followed Sting to the hospital and was giving fans live updates on his condition. Meanwhile, Paul Heyman let everyone know that Sting needed to return in time for his US title match against Rude or else he would forfeit the belt. Sting manged to return to the arena via a stolen ambulance just in time for his match against Rick Rude. Sting did a great job selling the knee injury and it factored into the match 100% of the time. Too many times, wrestlers forget they have an injury and perform their moveset like normal but Sting sold the knee the entire time and let it effect his performance naturally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCfUsWLDrA0 Of course, Rude constantly went to the knee and even fell forward after getting punched by Sting, buckling his knee once again. Heyman jumped up on the apron and broke his mobile phone (which was a giant size in 1991) over Sting's head, allowing Rude to take out Sting's knee one final time and win the US title. It may not have been a five-star classic match but, as an angle and storyline, it was great stuff.
