10 Terrible Wrestlers With One Incredible Match
Disco Inferno finds his perfect dance partner, Eva Marie almost wins big, and Sid rules the world!
An awesome wrestler can't do it by themselves.
It was often said that peak Ric Flair could get something great out of a broomstick, and every generation's peak performer has often been tasked with fighting foes with about as much movement, but they still need the body on the other side of the canvas to help them produce their works of art.
"Terrible" might also feel something of a slight on the named stars too, but the titular incredible match makes a fool of your no-bump-taking writer. These men and women were once part of something special enough that it would be spoken about years or even decades later. Who did yours truly ever beat?
In some ways, efforts such as the ones below are what make wrestling an art form at all. In the contests covered, limitations are masterfully obscured by those determined to put forth the best possible emulation of a competitive clash for the paying customers. Masters of the dark arts waving magic wands around less-than-ideal magicians assistants but still generating that all-important emotional investment from the crowd.
No, an awesome wrestler can't do it by themselves. But a bad wrestler typically can't do it at all. And yet, together...
10. Sid (Vs Shawn Michaels, WWE Survivor Series 1996)
Sid had more okay matches than his sometimes-rancid reputation suggests.
Over quite literally beyond belief in 1996, Sycho Sid had hot contests against Camp Cornette and Bret Hart even if they weren't catch-as-catch-can classics, there's a buried treasure with Diesel at In Your House 2 that most people sleep on, and Chris Benoit's WCW World Championship bout with the big man is a choice effort understandably lost to the former's final acts.
But there can only be one true Sid classic. And it took place in front of the most receptive audience he'd ever worked in front of.
The Madison Square Garden regulars were as buzzing to see the big man as they were livid with Shawn Michaels at the tail end of his "Boyhood Dream" WWE Championship run, and the rippling emotions only heightened the drama in an all-time performance from 'HBK' at his 1990s peak.
Michaels flatly refusing to acknowledge the size disparity paired magnificently with Sid's indifference to his range, not least when a finish called for the Champion to be pulled back down to earth to look after his injured mentor Jose Lothario. In attacking the elder statesman, Sid and circumvented Michaels' heart and gone for his very soul. From bell-to-ultra-dramatic-final-bell, the Arkansas giant was never was as imposing again.