10 Wrestling Finishes Performed On The Fly

After a rewarding twenty-five year career at or near the upper echelons of the business, Rick Martel had been working in commercial real estate for a couple of years in Canada. In 1997, he chose to make an in-ring comeback for another run at the top, this time at WCW He joined the company in late 1997 and almost immediately segued into a feud with Booker T for the World Television Championship in early 1998.

In great shape and highly motivated, Martel had won the title from Booker T at Nitro on February 16th, and was scheduled to defend it in the inevitable rematch at Superbrawl VIII on the 22nd. The idea was that the card would feature two TV title matches, with the winner of the first - Martel - taking on (Perry) Saturn later on that night.

However, in the first match Martel took a bad biel toss from the corner, his leg crashing into the ropes. WCW used an 18 foot ring, not a 20 foot ring like the one Martel was used to in the WWF - moreover, they used steel cable for their ring ropes. When Martel hit them, he fractured his leg and tore a ligament in his knee… and he was supposed to go over and then wrestle Saturn for another quarter of an hour.

Even if Booker and Martel improvised a finish with Martel going over, there was clearly no way that he could work another match and go over yet again to retain the title. The decision was made on the fly for Martel to drop the title to Booker and for Booker to defeat Saturn in the next match to retain going forward. There was just one problem… this was a major change to the plans, so all of this would need to be improvised.

Amazingly, Martel - tough, old school pro that he was - was able to wrestle a further five minutes before Booker took the pinfall victory. Many people watching at the time didn’t even realise he’d been hurt (let alone how bad it was), and he actually tweaked the cartilage in his knee further when taking a Harlem sidekick at the close.

Saturn came out of the crowd immediately the bell rang, and the next match was underway - fourteen minutes called entirely in the ring, with Booker picked to take Martel’s place as the man who’d be going over.

He’d hold the title for another two months, trading it back and forth with Chris Benoit. Martel, on the other hand, was sidelined for nearly five months. On his return match - against Booker’s brother Stevie Ray - he injured his neck while trying to protect the freshly healed right knee, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Rick Martel never wrestled a full match again.