10 Terrible Iterations Of Legendary Gimmick Matches

In the late 1990s, hardcore wrestling was taking the world by storm. Having been introduced by ECW and then popularised by the WWE, clearly WCW thought it was their turn to get in on the action.

And in a similar strategy to the “bigger and better” approach they adopted with World War 3, they really went all-out on this one. Although the results remained largely the same.

The Junkyard Invitational was a multi-man hardcore match held in - you guessed it - a junkyard, in which anyone was entitled to turn up and the only way to win was by managing to escape the fenced perimeter.

The resultant scenes saw cars tipped over amidst raging fires and intermittent explosions, as well as a whole host of unidentified foreign objects incorporated into the mix. And while the helicopter camera shots were a novel touch, again this one suffered from being so disjointed that it was hard to even know what was happening in the match. Plus, it all went down in the darkness of night.

Even the commentary team suggested they just sit back and take in the action rather than attempt to actually call it.

After almost 14 minutes of sheer confusion, it was Finlay who would emerge the victor, climbing the fence after another explosion had blocked the path of his remaining opponents.

On top of all that, this match also caused a lot of legit injuries. Which is, you know, the precise opposite of the very notion upon which professional wrestling is built.