10 Times Wrestling Made You Lose Your Goddamn Mind
4. THE Dragon Gate Six-Man
At ROH Supercard of Honor 2006, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito defeated CIMA, Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi in a legendary trios match.
To reiterate: this took place 16 years - over a decade and a half - ago. The professional wrestling landscape was different then. Mainstream puro was on its a*se, and WWE was only halfway worthwhile at the main event level above the cookie-cutter gimmickry of the promoted developmental prospects. ROH was the best promotion of the era, boasting as much technical artistry as big match drama. Still, there was a nagging sense that wrestling had peaked five years prior.
This match rewrote the in-ring language of a stagnant scene, eliciting the same adrenalised feeling that the WCW cruisers had in the next evolution of the form. The addition of bodies with which to make super-dramatic saves and avoid pesky selling; the gear shift to hypersonic speed; the staunch refusal to ever stop: the action was relentless, spectacular and breathless. A monumental feat of cardio and creativity - it was the sort of match that asked fans to tell it to f*ck off, it was impressive - the fans in Chicago Ridge futilely cried "Please don't stop" when they sensed the finishing coming.
The pro wrestling landscape is very different now, and that is because this cult sensation of a match shaped it.