10 Wrestlers Who Ruined Gimmick Matches For Everybody Else

3. The Rock - Empty Arena Match

Hell Cell Mick Foley Undertaker Mankind WWE
WWE

As a concept, the idea of an Empty Arena Match goes back to 1981 and Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk in Memphis. Most famously, however, this gimmick was utilised as Mankind challenged The Rock for the WWF Championship at the 1999 Halftime Heat special.

The match itself saw Mick Foley defeat The Great One to become WWF Champion for the second time, yet it was The Rock who stole the show and effectively killed the Empty Arena gimmick from being used again in the future.

There may have been one or two attempts to deliver an Empty Arena Match in the years since 1999, but it would be impossible for anybody to possibly top what Rocky delivered against Foley.

Considering that the very nature of an Empty Arena battle means that there’s no crowd noise, it takes a special kind of performer to make the most of this unusual surrounding and embrace it. Luckily, The Rock is one of the most special performers that the business has ever seen.

Foley and The Brahma Bull delivered a ridiculously entertaining match that clocked in at 17 minutes, and The Rock in particular made it an unenviable job to ever even contemplate trying to top this 1999 Empty Arena bout due to his sheer charisma and trash-talking.

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